clear philological testimony that the serpent-race of India in early times obtained a foothold in New Zealand. This will be further brought out below. Again, as to the Buddhist missionaries, they were noted for their enterprise and travels for their faith. They carried their faith, doctrines, and symbols to the extreme east, north, and south of the great continent of Asia; over seas, deserts, and extended barriers of eternal snow, and all through to the extreme west of Europe. Is it improbable that, whether with the serpent-race from India, or in Phœnician vessels, they arrived in New Zealand? The association of the Buddhist cross with Phœnician letters on inscriptions in the west is a fact.

“These observations will serve to clear up the following remarks on the figures transmitted by you :—First, I may say that the figures strike me as divisible into pre-Christian, Indian, symbolic, and later native. The pre-Christian are generally the hieroglyphics, while most of the drawings of men with marine monsters appear to be later native. This may be a mere supposition, but you have other circumstances to decide this point. Secondly, figures 2, 6, 13, 21, 21A, and, perhaps, 24, constitute, along with, very probably, 15, 16, 18, one group–the Trinity symbol–and are pre-Christian. I can only briefly explain here this symbol. It may suffice to state that spirit, matter, and organised life, as the result of the action of the first on the second, are supposed to form the pan-theo-cosmical (if I may coin such a word) nature or universe of the ancient religious creed of India, and which was carried by the Buddhist missionaries over the world. The symbol of this cardinal and esoteric doctrine of religion was three circles near each other, and, in my opinion, also two joined circles, crossed with the zig-zag figure (supposed by some to be also a Masonic symbol) usually called the ‘spectacle ornament,' the crossing zig-zag figure representing probably spirit. We find these symbols alike on great Buddhist temples in India, on the Bhilsa ‘topes,' on the standing stone in Aberdeen, and on the Dingwall stone in North Britain. The figures composing the symbol are either plain or ornamented, and disposed in various ways. The variations are remarkable, and give a clue, as I believe, to the true signification of figures 2, 6, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, and 21A. In all these, the three parts are distinctly made out, especially in figures of 2, 6, 21, 21A. In my opinion, figures 13, 15, 16, 18 are similar to the ‘spectacle ornament' of North Britain. Figure 14 may be a representation of the same symbol, or of a Buddhist temple, the form of which figures in North Britain, explaining unmistakably the zig-zag line, and the sacred nature of the Trinity symbol.

“I make no observations on fig. 17, of which there are several similar representations in other parts of the world. Figs. 4, 9, 22, and perhaps 24, also have counterparts elsewhere. The Buddhist cross (and Phœnician