book xviii. ch. ii. 3.)

[516:4] See Appendix D. [516:5] See the Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 100. [516:6] According to Dio Cassius, Plutarch, Strabo and others, there existed, in the time of Herod, among the Roman Syrian heathens, a wide-spread and deep sympathy for a "_Crucified King of the Jews_." This was the youngest son of Aristobul, the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43 B. C., we find this young man--_Antigonus_--in Palestine claiming the crown, his cause having been declared just by Julius Cæsar. Allied with the Parthians, he maintained himself in his royal position for six years against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after a heroic life and reign, he fell in the hands of this Roman. "_Antony now gave the kingdom to a certain Herod, and, having stretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged him, a thing never done before to any other king by the Romans, he put him to death._" (Dio Cassius, book xlix. p. 405.) The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this extraordinary occurrence, and the manner they did it, show that it was considered one of Mark Antony's worst crimes: and that the sympathy with the "Crucified King" was wide-spread and profound. (See The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 106.) Some writers think that there is a connection between this and the Gospel story; that they, in a certain measure, put Jesus in the place of Antigonus, just as they put Herod in the place of Kansa. (See Chapter XVIII.) [517:1] Canon Farrar thinks that Josephus' silence on the subject of Jesus and Christianity, was as deliberate as it was dishonest. (See his Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 63.) [518:1] Many examples might be cited to confirm this view, but the case of _Joseph Smith_, in our own time and country, will suffice. The Mormons regard him very much as Christians regard Jesus; as the Mohammedans do Mohammed; or as the Buddhists do Buddha. A coarse sort of religious feeling and fervor appears to have been in Smith's nature. He seems, from all accounts, to have been cracked on theology, as so many zealots have been, and cracked to such an extent that his early acquaintances regarded him as a downright fanatic. The common view that he was an impostor is not sustained by what is known of him. He was, in all probability, of unbalanced mind, a monomaniac, as most prophets have been; but there is no reason to think that he did not believe in himself, and substantially in what he taught. He has declared that, when he was about fifteen, he began to reflect on the importance of being prepared for a future state. He went from one church to another without finding anything to satisfy the hunger of his soul, consequently, he retired into himself; he sought solitude; he spent hours and days in meditation and prayer, after the true manner of all accredited saints, and was soon repaid by the visits of angels. One of these came to him when he was but eighteen years old, and the house in which he was seemed filled with consuming fire. The presence--he styles it a personage--had a pace like lightning, and proclaimed himself to be an angel of the Lord. He vouchsafed to Smith a vast deal of highly important information of a celestial order. He told him that his (Smith's) prayers had been heard, and his sins forgiven; that the covenant which the Almighty had made with the old Jews was to be fulfilled; that the introductory work for the second coming of Christ was now to begin; that the hour for the preaching of the gospel in its purity to all peoples was at hand, and that Smith was to be an instrument in the hands of God, to further the divine purpose in the new dispensation. The celestial stranger also furnished him with a sketch of the origin, progress, laws and civilization of the American aboriginals, and declared that the blessing of heaven had finally been withdrawn from them. To Smith was communicated the momentous circumstance that certain plates containing an abridgment of the records of the aboriginals and ancient prophets, who had lived on this continent, were hidden in a hill near Palmyra. The prophet was counseled to go there and look at them, and did so. Not being holy enough to possess them as yet, he passed some months in spiritual probation, after which the records were put into his keeping. These had been prepared, it is claimed, by a prophet called Mormon, who had been ordained by God for the purpose, and to conceal them until he should produce them for the benefit of the faithful, and unite them with the Bible for the achievement of his will. They form the celebrated Book of Mormon--whence the name Mormon--and are esteemed by the Latter-Day Saints as of equal authority with the Old and New Testaments, and as an indispensable supplement thereto, because they include God's disclosures to the Mormon world. These precious records were sealed up and deposited A. D. 420 in the place where Smith had viewed them by the direction of the angel. The records were, it is held, in the reformed Egyptian tongue, and Smith translated them through the inspiration of the angel, and one Oliver Cowdrey wrote down the translation as reported by the God-possessed Joseph. This translation was published in 1830, and its divine origin was attested by a dozen persons--all relatives and friends of Smith. Only these have ever pretended to see the original plates, which have already become traditional. The plates have been frequently called for by skeptics, but all in vain. Naturally, warm controversy arose concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and disbelievers have asserted that they have indubitable evidence that it is, with the exception of various unlettered interpolations, principally borrowed from a queer, rhapsodical romance written by an eccentric ex-clergyman named Solomon Spalding. Smith and his disciples were ridiculed and socially persecuted; but they seemed to be ardently earnest, and continued to preach their creed, which was to the effect that the millennium was at hand; that our aboriginals were to be converted, and that the New Jerusalem--the last residence and home of the saints--was to be near the centre of this continent. The Vermont prophet, later on, was repeatedly mobbed, even shot at. His narrow escapes were construed as interpositions of divine providence, but he displayed perfect coolness and intrepidity through all his trials. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was first established in the spring of 1830 at Manchester, N. Y.; but it awoke such fierce opposition, particularly from the orthodox, many of them preachers, that Smith and his associates deemed it prudent to move farther west. They established themselves at Kirtland, O., and won there many converts. Hostility to them still continued, and grew so fierce that the body transferred itself to Missouri, and next to Illinois, settling in the latter state near the village of Commerce, which was renamed Nauvoo. The Governor and Legislature of Illinois favored the Mormons, but the anti-Mormons made war on them in every way, and the custom of "sealing wives," which is yet mysterious to the Gentiles, caused serious outbreaks, and resulted in the incarceration of the prophet and his brother Hiram at Carthage. Fearing that the two might be released by the authorities, a band of ruffians broke into the jail, in the summer of 1844, and murdered them in cold blood. This was most fortunate for the memory of Smith and for his doctrines. It placed him in the light of a holy martyr, and lent to them a dignity and vitality they had never before enjoyed. [520:1] When we speak of Jesus being _crucified_, we do not intend to convey the idea that he was put to death on a cross of the _form_ adopted by Christians. This cross was the symbol of _life_ and _immortality_ among our heathen ancestors (see Chapter XXXIII.), and in adopting _Pagan religious symbols_, and baptizing them anew, the Christians took this along with others. The crucifixion was not a symbol of the _earliest_ church; no trace of it can be found in the Catacombs. Some of the earliest that did appear, however, are similar to figures No. 42 and No. 43, above, which represent two of the modes in which the Romans crucified their slaves and criminals. (See Chapter XX., on the Crucifixion of Jesus.) [520:2] According to the Matthew and Mark narrators, Jesus' head was _anointed_ while sitting at table in the house of Simon the leper. Now, this practice was common among the kings of Israel. It was the sign and symbol of royalty. The word "_Messiah_" signifies the "Anointed One," and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed. (See The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 42.) [521:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. ch. iv. 1. [522:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. chap. iii. 2. [522:2] "From the death of Herod, 4 B. C., to the death of Bar-Cochba, 132 A. D., no less than _fifty_ different enthusiasts set up as the Messiah, and obtained more or less following." (John W. Chadwick.) [522:3] "There was, at _this time_, a prevalent expectation that some remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea. The Jews were anxiously looking for the coming of the MESSIAH. This personage, they supposed, would be a _temporal prince_, and they were expecting that he would deliver them from Roman bondage." (Albert Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 7.) "The central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the Rabbis, was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer--the MESSIAH. . . . The national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this one theme, _that any bold spirit rising in revolt against the Roman power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should be he who would redeem Israel_." (Geikie: The Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 79.) [522:4] "The penalty of _crucifixion_, according to Roman law and custom, was inflicted on slaves, and in the provinces _on rebels only_." (The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 96.) [522:5] Judas, the _Gaulonite_ or _Galilean_, as Josephus calls him, declared, when Cyrenius came to tax the Jewish people, that "this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery," and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty. He therefore prevailed upon his countrymen to revolt. (See Josephus: Antiq., b. xviii. ch. i. 1, and Wars of the Jews, b. ii. ch. viii. 1.) [523:1] The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 30. [523:2] "That the High Council did accuse Jesus, I suppose no one will doubt; and since they could neither wish or expect the Roman Governor to make himself judge of _their sacred law_, it becomes certain that their accusation was _purely political_, and took such a form as this: 'He has accepted tumultuous shouts that he is the legitimate and predicted _King of Israel_, and in this character has ridden into Jerusalem with the forms of state understood to be _royal_ and _sacred_; with what purpose, we ask, if not to overturn _our_ institutions, and _your_ dominion?' If Jesus spoke, at the crisis which Matthew represents, the virulent speech attributed to him (Matt. xxiii.), we may well believe that this gave a new incentive to the rulers; for it is such as no government in Europe would overlook or forgive: _but they are not likely to have expected Pilate to care for any conduct which might be called an ecclesiastical broil_. The assumption of _royalty_ was clearly the point of their attack. Even the mildest man among them may have thought his conduct dangerous and needing repression." (Francis W. Newman, "What is Christianity without Christ?") _According to the Synoptic Gospels_, Jesus was completely innocent of the charge which has sometimes been brought against him, _that he wished to be considered as a God come down to earth_. His enemies certainly would not have failed to make such a pretension the basis and the continual theme of their accusations, if it had been possible to do so. _The two grounds upon which he was brought before the Sanhedrim were, first, the bold words he was supposed to have spoken about the temple; and, secondly and chiefly, the fact that he claimed to be the Messiah_, i. e., "_The King of the Jews_." (Albert Réville: "The Doctrine of the Dogma of the Deity of Jesus," p. 7.) [523:3] See The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 30. [524:1] See _note_ 4, p. 522. [524:2] See Matt. xx. 19. [524:3] John xviii. 31, 32. [524:4] That is, the crucifixion story _as related in the Gospels_. See _note_ 1, p. 520. [524:5] Matthew xxvii. 24, 25. [525:1] Commentators, in endeavoring to get over this difficulty, say that, "it _may_ come from the look or form of the spot itself, bald, round, and skull-like, and therefore a mound or hillock," but, if it means "_the place of bare skulls_," no such construction as the above can be put to the word. [526:1] The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 109-111. [527:1] O. B. Frothingham: The Cradle of the Christ, p. 11. The reader is referred to "Judaism: Its Doctrines and Precepts," by Dr. Isaac M. Wise. Printed at the office of the "American Israelite," Cincinnati, Ohio. [527:2] If Jesus, instead of giving himself up quietly, had _resisted_ against being arrested, there certainly would have been bloodshed, as there was on many other similar occasions. [528:1] If what is recorded In the Gospels on the subject was true, no historian of that day could fail to have noticed it, but instead of this there is _nothing_. [528:2] See Matthew, xxvii. 51-53. [529:1] See Matt. xiv. 15-22: Mark, iv. 1-3, and xi. 14; and Luke, vii. 26-37. [529:2] See Mark, xvi. 16. [529:3] This fact has at last been admitted by the most orthodox among the Christians. The Rev. George Matheson, D. D., Minister of the Parish of Innellan, and a member of the Scotch Kirk, speaking of the precept uttered by Confucius, five hundred years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth ("Whatsoever ye would not that others should do unto you, do not ye unto them"), says: "That Confucius is the _author_ of this precept is undisputed, _and therefore it is indisputable that Christianity has incorporated an article of Chinese morality_. It has appeared to some as if this were to the disparagement of Christianity--as if the originality of its Divine Founder were impaired by consenting to borrow a precept from a heathen source. _But in what sense does Christianity set up the claim of moral originality?_ When we speak of the religion of Christ as having introduced into the world a purer life and a surer guide to conduct, what do we mean? Do we mean to suggest that Christianity has, _for the first time_, revealed to the world the existence of a set of self-sacrificing precepts--that here, _for the first time_, man has learned that he ought to be meek, merciful, humble, forgiving, sorrowful for sin, peaceable, and pure in heart? The proof of such a statement would destroy Christianity itself, for an _absolute original code of precepts_ would be equivalent to a foreign language. _The glory of Christian morality is that it is_ NOT ORIGINAL--that its words appeal to something which _already exists within the human heart_, and on that account have a meaning to the human ear: _no new revelation can be made except through the medium of an old one_. When we attribute originality to the ethics of the Gospel, we do so on the ground, _not that it has given new precepts_, but that it has given us a new impulse to obey the moral instincts of the soul. Christianity itself claims on the field of morals this originality, _and this alone_--'A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another." (St. Giles Lectures, Second Series: The Faiths of the World. Religion of China, by the Rev. George Matheson, D. D., Minister of the Parish of Innellan. Wm. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh, 1882.) APPENDIX. APPENDIX A. Among the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and some of the Indian tribes of North and South America, were found fragments of the _Eden Myth_. The Mexicans said that the primeval mother was made out of a _man's bone_, and that she was the mother of _twins_.[533:1] The Cherokees supposed that heavenly beings _came down_ and made the world, after which they made a man and woman of _clay_.[533:2] The intention of the creators was that men should live always. But the Sun, when he passed over, told them that there was not land enough, and that people had better die. At length, _the daughter of the Sun_ was bitten by a _Snake_, and died. The Sun, however--whom they worshiped as a god--consented that human beings might live always. He intrusted to their care a _box_, charging them that they should not open it. However, impelled by curiosity, they opened it, contrary to the injunction of the Sun, and the _spirit_ it contained escaped, _and then the fate of all men was decided, that they must die_.[533:3] The inhabitants of the New World had a legend of a _Deluge_, which destroyed the human race, excepting a few who were saved in a boat, which landed on a _mountain_.[533:4] They also related that _birds_ were sent out of the ark, for the purpose of ascertaining if the flood was abating.[533:5] The ancient Mexicans had the legend of the _confusion of tongues_, and related the whole story as to how the gods destroyed the tower which mankind was building so as to reach unto heaven.[533:6] The Mexicans, and several of the Indian tribes of North America, believe in the doctrine of _Metempsychosis_, or the transmigration of souls from one body into another.[533:7] This, as we have already seen,[533:8] was universally believed in the Old World. The legend of _the man being swallowed by a fish_, and, after a three days' sojourn in his belly, coming out safe and sound, was found among the Mexicans and Peruvians.[534:1] The ancient Mexicans, and some Indian tribes, practiced _Circumcision_, which was common among all Eastern nations of the Old World.[534:2] They also had a legend to the effect that one of their holy persons commanded _the sun to stand still_.[534:3] This, as we have already seen,[534:4] was a familiar legend among the inhabitants of the Old World. The ancient Mexicans were _fire-worshipers_; so were the ancient Peruvians. They kept a fire continually burning on an altar, just as the fire-worshipers of the Old World were in the habit of doing.[534:5] They were also _Sun-worshipers_, and had "temples of the Sun."[534:6] The _Tortoise-myth_ was found in the New World.[534:7] Now, in the Old World, the Tortoise-myth belongs especially to _India_, and the idea is developed there in a variety of forms. The tortoise that holds the world is called in Sanscrit Kura-mraja, "King of the Tortoises," and many Hindoos believe to this day that the world rests on its back. "The striking analogy between the Tortoise-myth of North America and India," says Mr. Tyler, "is by no means a matter of new observation; it was indeed remarked upon by Father Lafitau nearly a century and a half ago. Three great features of the Asiatic stories are found among the North American Indians, in the fullest and clearest development. The earth is supported on the back of a huge floating tortoise, the tortoise sinks under the water and causes a deluge, and the tortoise is conceived as being itself the earth, floating upon the face of the deep."[534:8] We have also found among them the belief in an Incarnate God born of a virgin;[534:9] the One God worshiped in the form of a Trinity;[534:10] the crucified _Black_ god;[534:11] the descent into hell;[534:12] the resurrection and ascension into heaven,[534:13] all of which is to be found in the oldest Asiatic religions. We also found monastic habits--friars and nuns.[534:14] The Mexicans denominated their high-places, sacred houses, or "_Houses of God_." The corresponding sacred structures of the Hindoos are called "_God's House_."[535:1] Many nations of the _East_ entertained the notion that there were _nine heavens_, and so did the ancient Mexicans.[535:2] There are few things connected with the ancient mythology of _America_ more certain than that there existed in that country before its discovery by Columbus, extreme veneration for the _Serpent_.[535:3] Now, the Serpent was venerated and worshiped throughout the East.[535:4] The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, and many of the Indian tribes, believed the Sun and Moon not only to be brother and sister, but man and wife; so, likewise, among many nations of the Old World was this belief prevalent.[535:5] The belief in were-wolves, or man-wolves, man-tigers, man-hyenas, and the like, which was almost universal among the nations of Europe, Asia and Africa, was also found to be the case among South American tribes.[535:6] The idea of calling the earth "mother," was common among the inhabitants of both the Old and New Worlds.[535:7] In the mythology of Finns, Lapps, and Esths, Earth-Mother is a divinely honored personage. It appears in China, where _Heaven_ and _Earth_ are called in the _Shuking_--one of their sacred books--"Father and Mother of all things." Among the native races of _America_ the Earth-Mother is one of the great personages of mythology. The Peruvians worshiped her as _Mama-Phacha_, or Earth-Mother. The Caribs, when there was an earthquake, said it was their mother-earth dancing, and signifying to them to dance and make merry likewise, which they accordingly did.[535:8] It is well-known that the natives of Africa, when there is an eclipse of the sun or moon, believe that it is being devoured by some great monster, and that they, in order to frighten and drive it away, beat drums and make noises in other ways. So, too, the rude Moguls make a clamor of rough music to drive the attacking Arachs (Râhu) from Sun or Moon.[535:9] The Chinese, when there is an eclipse of the Sun or Moon, proceed to encounter the ominous monster with gongs and bells.[535:10] The ancient Romans flung firebrands into the air, and blew trumpets, and clanged brazen pots and pans.[535:11] Even as late as the seventeenth century, the Irish or Welsh, during eclipses, ran about beating kettles and pans.[536:1] Among the native races of America was to be found the same superstition. The Indians would raise a frightful howl, and shoot arrows into the sky to drive the monsters off.[536:2] The Caribs, thinking that the demon Maboya, hater of all light, was seeking to devour the Sun and Moon, would dance and howl in concert all night long to scare him away. The Peruvians, imagining such an evil spirit in the shape of a monstrous beast, raised the like frightful din when the Moon was eclipsed, shouting, sounding musical instruments, and beating the dogs to join their howl to the hideous chorus.[536:3] The starry band that lies like a road across the sky, known as the _milky way_, is called by the Basutos (a South African tribe of savages), "The Way of the Gods;" the Ojis (another African tribe of savages), say it is the "Way of Spirits," which souls go up to heaven by. North American tribes know it as "the Path of the Master of Life," the "Path of Spirits," "the Road of Souls," where they travel to the land beyond the grave.[536:4] It is almost a general belief among the inhabitants of Africa, and was so among the inhabitants of Europe and Asia, that monkeys were once men and women, and that they can even now really speak, but judiciously hold their tongues, lest they should be made to work. This idea was found as a serious matter of belief, in Central and South America.[536:5] "The Bridge of the Dead," which is one of the marked myths of the Old World, was found in the New.[536:6] It is well known that the natives of South America told the Spaniards that inland there was to be found a fountain, the waters of which turned old men back into youths, and how Juan Ponce de Leon fitted out two caravels, and went to seek for this "Fountain of Youth." Now, the "Fountain of Youth" is known to the mythology of India.[536:7] The myth of foot-prints stamped into the rocks by gods or mighty men, is to be found among the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, Buddhists, Moslems, and Christians, have adopted it as relics each from their own point of view, and _Mexican_ eyes could discern in the solid rock at Tlanepantla the mark of hand and foot left by the mighty Quetzalcoatle.[536:8] The Incas, in order to preserve purity of race, married their own sisters, as did the Kings of Persia, and other Oriental nations.[537:1] The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to _Egypt_; the burning of the wives of the deceased Incas reveals _India_; the singularly patriarchical character of the whole Peruvian policy is like that of _China_ in the olden time; while the system of espionage, of tranquillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in which their whole social frame was cast, bring before us _Japan_--as it was a very few years ago. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese in the entire cultus of Peru as described by all writers.[537:2] The dress and costume of the Mexicans, and their sandals, resemble the apparel and sandals worn in early ages in the East.[537:3] Mexican priests were represented with a Serpent twined around their heads, so were Oriental kings.[537:4] The Mexicans had the head of a rhinoceros among their paintings,[537:5] and also the head of an elephant on the body of a man.[537:6] Now, these animals were unknown in America, but well known in Asia; and what is more striking still is the fact that the man with the elephant's head is none other than the Ganesa of India; the God of Wisdom. Humboldt, who copied a Mexican painting of a man with an elephant's head, remarks that "it presents some remarkable and apparently _not accidental_ resemblances with the Hindoo Ganesa." The horse and the ass, although natives of America,[537:7] became extinct on the Western Continent in an early period of the earth's history, yet the Mexicans had, among their hieroglyphics, representations of both these animals, which show that it must have been seen in the old world by the author of the hieroglyph. When the Mexicans saw the horses which the Spaniards brought over, they were greatly astonished, and when they saw the Spaniards on horseback, they imagined man and horse to be _one_. Certain of the temples of _India_ abound with sculptural representations of the symbols of _Phallic Worship_. Turning now to the temples of _Central America_, which in many respects exhibit a strict correspondence with those in India, _we find precisely the same symbols, separate and in combination_.[537:8] We have seen that many of the religious conceptions of _America_ are identical with those of the _Old World_, and that they are embodied or symbolized under the same or cognate forms; and it is confidently asserted that a comparison and analysis of her primitive systems, in connection with those of other parts of the globe, philosophically conducted, would establish the grand fact, that in ALL their leading elements, and in many of their details, they are essentially the same.[538:1] The _architecture_ of many of the most ancient buildings in South America resembles the Asiatic. Around Lake Titicaca are massive monuments, which speak of a very ancient and civilized nation.[538:2] E. Spence Hardy, says: "The ancient edifices of Chi Chen, in Central America, bear a striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of the domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the trees growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry here and there, the style of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the base, are so exactly similar to what I had seen at Anurádhapura, _that when my eye first fell upon the engravings of these remarkable ruins, I supposed that they were presented in illustration of the dágobas of Ceylon_."[538:3] E. G. Squire, speaking of this, says: "The Bud'hist temples of Southern India, and of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, as described to us by the learned members of the Asiatic Society, and the numerous writers on the religion and antiquities of the Hindoos, correspond, with great exactness, in all their essential and in many of their minor features, with those of _Central America_."[538:4] Structures of a _pyramidal_ style, which are common in India, were also discovered in Mexico. The pyramid tower of Cholula was one of these.[538:5] Sir R. Kir Porter writes as follows: "What striking analogies exist between the monuments of the old continents and those of the Toltecs, who, arriving on Mexican soil, built several of these colossal structures, truncated pyramids, divided by layers, like the temple of Belus at Babylon. _Whence did they take the model of these edifices? Were they of the Mongolian race? Did they descend from a common stock with the Chinese, the Hiong-nu, and the Japanese?_"[538:6] The similarity in _features_ of the Asiatic and the American race is very striking. Alexander de Humboldt, speaking of this, says: "There are striking contrasts between the Mongol and American races."[538:7] "Over a million and a half of square leagues, from the Terra del Fuego islands to the River St. Lawrence and Behring's Straits, we are struck at the first glance with the general resemblance in the features of the inhabitants. _We think we perceive that they all descended from the same stock_, notwithstanding the enormous diversity of language which separates them from one another."[538:8] "This analogy is particularly evident in the color of the skin and hair, in the defective beard, high cheek-bones, and in the direction of the eyes."[539:1] Dr. Morton says: "In reflecting on the aboriginal races of America, we are at once met by the striking fact, that their physical characters are wholly independent of all climatic or known physical influences. Notwithstanding their immense geographical distribution, embracing every variety of climate, it is acknowledged by all travellers, that there is among this people a prevailing type, around which all the tribes--north, south, east and west--cluster, though varying within prescribed limits. With trifling exceptions, all our American Indians bear to each other some degree of family resemblance, quite as strong, for example, as that seen at the present day among full-blooded Jews."[539:2] James Orton, the traveler, was also struck with the likeness of the American Indians to the Chinese, including the flatted nose. Speaking of the Zaparos of the Napo River, he says: "The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese, having a middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly, and a broad, flat nose."[539:3] Oscar Paschel says: "The obliquely-set eyes and prominent cheek-bones of the inhabitants of Veragua were noticed by Monitz Wagner, and according to his description, out of four Bayano Indians from Darien, three had thoroughly Mongolian features, including the flatted nose." In 1866, an officer of the Sharpshooter, the first English man-of-war which entered the Paraná River in Brazil, remarks in almost the same words of the Indians of that district, that their features vividly reminded him of the Chinese. Burton describes the Brazilian natives at the falls of Cachauhy as having thick, round Kalmuck heads, flat Mongol faces, wide, very prominent cheek bones, oblique and sometimes narrow-slit Chinese eyes, and slight mustaches. Another traveler, J. J. Von Tschudi, declares in so many words that he has seen Chinese whom at the first glance he mistook for Botocudos, and that since then he has been convinced that the American race ought not to be separated from the Mongolian. His predecessor, St. Hilaire, noticed narrow, obliquely-set eyes and broad noses among the Malali of Brazil. Reinhold Hensel says of the Coroados, that their features are of Mongoloid type, due especially to the prominence of the cheek-bones, but that the oblique position of the eyes is not perceptible. Yet the oblique opening of the eye, which forms a good though not an essential characteristic of the Mongolian nations, is said to be characteristic of all the Guarani tribes in Brazil. Even in the extreme south, among the Hiullitches of Patagonia, King saw a great many with obliquely set eyes. Those writers who separate the Americans as a peculiar race fail to give distinctive characters, common to them all, which distinguish them from the Asiatic Mongols. All the tribes have stiff, long hair, cylindrical in section. The beard and hair of the body is always scanty or totally absent. The color of the skin varies considerably, as might be expected in a district of 110° of latitude; it ranges from a light South European darkness of complexion among the Botocudos, of the deepest dye among the Aymara, or to copper red in the Sonor tribes. But no one has tried to draw limits between races on account of these shades of color, especially as they are of every conceivable gradation.[540:1] Charles G. Leland says: "The Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race formed originally, according to all external organic tokens, as well as the elements of their language, but one people, closely allied with the Esquimaux, the _Skräling_, or dwarf of the Norseman, and the races of the New World. This is the irrefutable result to which all the more recent inquiries in anatomy and physiology, as well as comparative philology and history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbors dwelling on the other side of Behring's Straits. They have the four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large angular eye-cavities, and a retreating forehead. The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California."[540:2] "It is very certain that thousands of American Indians, especially those of small stature or of dwarfish tribes, bear a most extraordinary likeness to Mongols."[540:3] John D. Baldwin, in his "_Ancient America_," says: "I find myself more and more inclined to believe that the wild Indians of the North came originally from _Asia_, where the race to which they belong seems still represented by the _Koraks_ and _Cookchees_, found in that part of Asia which extends to Behring's Straits."[540:4] Hon. Charles D. Poston, late commissioner of the United States of America in Asia, in a work entitled, "_The Parsees_," speaking of an incident which took place "beyond the Great Wall," says: "A Mongolian came riding up on a little black pony, followed by a servant on a camel, rocking like a windmill. He stopped a moment to exchange pantomimic salutations. He was full of electricity, and alive with motion; the blood was warm in his veins, and the fire was bright in his eye. I could have sworn that he was an _Apache;_ every action, motion and look reminded me of my old enemies and neighbors in _Arizona_. They are the true descendants of the nomadic Tartars of Asia and preserve every instinct of the race. He shook hands friendlily but timidly, keeping all the time in motion like an Apache."[540:5] That the continents of Asia and America were at one time joined together by an isthmus, at the place where the channel of Behring's straits is now found, is a well known fact. That the severance of Asia from America was, geologically speaking, very recent, is shown by the fact that not only the straits, but the sea which bears the name of Behring, is extraordinarily shallow, so much so, indeed, that whalers lie at anchor in the middle of it.[541:1] This is evidently the manner in which America was peopled.[541:2] During the _Champlain_ period in the earth's history the climate of the northern portion of the American continent, instead of being frigid, and the country covered with sheets of ice, was more like the climate of the Middle States of the present day. Tropical animals went North, and during the Terrace period--which followed the Champlain--the climate changed to frigid, and many of these tropical animals were frozen in the ice, and some of their remains were discovered centuries after. It was probably during the time when the climate in those northern regions was warm, that the aborigines crossed over, and even if they did not do so at that time, we must not be startled at the idea that Asiatic tribes crossed over from Asia to America, when the country was covered with ice. There have been nations who lived in a state of nudity among ice-fields, and, even at the present day, a naked nation of fishermen still exist in Terra del Fuego, where the glaciers stretch down to the sea, and even into it.[541:3] Chas. Darwin, during his voyage round the world in H. M. S. Beagle, was particularly struck with the hardiness of the Fuegians, who go in a state of nudity, or almost entirely so. He says: "Among these central tribes the men generally have an otter-skin, or some small scrap, about as large as a pocket-handkerchief, to cover their nakedness, which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins."[541:4] One day while going on shore near Wollaston Island, Mr. Darwin's party pulled alongside a canoe which contained six Fuegians, who were, he says, "quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down her body. In another harbor not far distant, a woman, who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day alongside the vessel, and remained there out of mere curiosity, whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom, and on the skin of her naked baby!"[542:1] This was during the winter season. A few pages farther on Mr. Darwin says that on the night of the 22d December, a small family of Fuegians--who were living in a cove near the quarters--"soon joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed, and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm; yet these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our great surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a scorching. They seemed, however, very well pleased, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen's songs; but the manner in which they were invariably a little behind was quite ludicrous."[542:2] The Asiatics who first crossed over to the American continent were evidently in a very barbarous stage, although they may have known how to produce fire, and use bows and arrows.[542:3] The tribe who inhabited Mexico at the time it was discovered by the Spaniards was not the first to settle there; they had driven out a people, and had taken the country from them.[542:4] That Mexico was visited by Orientals, who brought and planted their religion there, in a comparatively recent period, is very probable. Mr. Chas. G. Leland, who has made this subject a special study, says: "While the proofs of the existence or residence of Orientals in America are extremely vague and uncertain, and while they are supported only by coincidences, the antecedent probability of their having come hither, or having been able to come, is stronger than the Norse discovery of the New World, or even than that of Columbus himself would appear to be. Let the reader take a map of the Northern Pacific; let him ascertain for himself the fact that from Kamtschatka, which was well known to the old Chinese, to Alaska the journey is far less arduous than from China proper, and it will be seen that there was in all probability intercourse of some kind between the continents. In early times the Chinese were bold and skillful navigators, to whom the chain of the Aleutian Islands would have been simply like stepping-stones over a shallow brook to a child. For it is a well ascertained fact, that a sailor in an open boat might cross from Asia to America by the Aleutian Islands in summer-time, and hardly ever be out of sight of land, and this in a part of the sea generally abounding in fish, as is proved by the fishermen who inhabit many of these islands, on which fresh water is always to be found."[543:1] Colonel Barclay Kennon, formerly of the U. S. North Pacific surveying expedition, says: "From the result of the most accurate scientific observation, it is evident that the voyage from China to America can be made without being out of sight of land more than a few hours at any one time. To a landsman, unfamiliar with long voyages, the mere idea of being 'alone on the wide, wide sea,' with nothing but water visible, even for an hour, conveys a strange sense of desolation, of daring, and of adventure. But in truth it is regarded as a mere trifle, not only by regular seafaring men, but even by the rudest races in all parts of the world; and I have no doubt that from the remotest ages, and on all shores, fishermen in open boats, canoes, or even coracles, guided simply by the stars and currents, have not hesitated to go far out of sight of land. At the present day, natives of many of the South Pacific Islands undertake, without a compass, and successfully, long voyages which astonish even a regular Jack-tar, who is not often astonished at anything. If this can be done by savages, it hardly seems possible that the Asiatic-American voyage was not successfully performed by people of advanced scientific culture, who had, it is generally believed, the compass, and who from an early age were proficient in astronomy."[543:2] Prof. Max Müller, it would seem, entertains similar ideas to our own, expressed as follows: "In their (the American Indians') languages, as well as in their religions, traces may possibly still be found, before it is too late, _of pre-historic migrations of men from the primitive Asiatic to the American Continent, either across the stepping-stones of the Aleutic bridge in the North, or lower South, by drifting with favorable winds from island to island, till the hardy canoe was landed or wrecked on the American coast, never to return again to the Asiatic home from which it had started_."[543:3] It is very evident then, that the religion and mythology of the Old and New Worlds, have, in part, at least, a common origin. Lord Kingsborough informs us that the Spanish historians of the 16th century were not disposed to admit that America had ever been colonized from the West, "chiefly on account of the state in which religion was found in the new continent."[543:4] And Mr. Tylor says: "Among the mass of Central American traditions . . . there occur certain passages in the story of an early emigration of the Quiché race, which have much the appearance of vague and broken stories derived in some way from high Northern latitudes."[543:5] Mr. McCulloh, in his "Researches," observes that: "In analyzing many parts of their (the ancient Americans') institutions, especially those belonging to their cosmogonal history, their religious superstitions, and astronomical computations, we have, in these abstract matters, found abundant proof to assert that there has been formerly a connection between the people of the two continents. Their communications, however, have taken place at a very remote period of time; for those matters in which they more decidedly coincide, are undoubtedly those which belong to the earliest history of mankind." It is unquestionably from _India_ that we have derived, partly through the Persians and other nations, most of our metaphysical and theological doctrines, as well as our nursery tales. Who then can deny that these same doctrines and legends have been handed down by oral tradition to the chief of the Indian tribes, and in this way have been preserved, although perhaps in an obscure and imperfect manner, in some instances at least, until the present day? The facts which we have before us, with many others like them which are to be had, point with the greatest likelihood to a common fatherland, the cradle of all nations, from which they came, taking these traditions with them. FOOTNOTES: [533:1] Baring-Gould's Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 46. [533:2] Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 67. [533:3] Ibid. Here we see the parallel to the _Grecian_ fable of Epimetheus and Pandora. [533:4] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 203. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 27. [533:5] Ibid. [533:6] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 204. [533:7] See Chapter V. [533:8] See Ibid. and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration." [534:1] See Chapter XI. [534:2] See Chapter X. [534:3] See Chapter XI. [534:4] Ibid. [534:5] See Early Hist. Mankind, p. 252; Squire's Serpent Symbol; and Prescott: Con. Peru. [534:6] See Ibid., and the Andes and the Amazon, p. 454. [534:7] See Early Hist. Mankind, p. 842. [534:8] Ibid. [534:9] See Chapter XII. [534:10] See Chapter XXV. [534:11] See Chapter XX. Mr. Prescott, speaking of the Pyramid of Cholula, in his Mexican History, says: "On the summit stood a sumptuous temple, in which was the image of the mystic deity (_Quetzalcoatle_), with _ebon_ features, unlike the fair complexion which he bore upon earth." And Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie says (in Cities of the Ancient World, p. 180): "From the woolly texture of the hair, I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of India, the Fuhi of China, the Sommonacom of the Siamese, the Xaha of the Japanese, and the Quetzalcoatle of the Mexicans, the same, and indeed an African, or rather Nubian, origin." [534:12] See Chapter XXII. [534:13] See Chapter XXIII. [534:14] See Chapter XXVI. [535:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 77. [535:2] Ibid. p. 109. [535:3] See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [535:4] See Ibid. [535:5] See Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 361, and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [535:6] Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 280, and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [535:7] Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 294, and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [535:8] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. pp. 295, 296. [535:9] Ibid. p. 300. [535:10] Ibid. [535:11] Ibid. p. 301. [536:1] Tylor; Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 101. [536:2] Ibid. p. 291. [536:3] Ibid. [536:4] Ibid. p. 234. [536:5] Ibid. p. 240 and 243. [536:6] Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 357 and 361. [536:7] Ibid. p. 361. The legend of the "Elixir of Life" of the Western World, was well-known in _China_. (Buckley: Cities of the Ancient World, p. 167.) [536:8] Ibid. p. 118, and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [537:1] Fusang, p. 56. [537:2] Ibid. p. 55. [537:3] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 181. [537:4] Ibid., and Squire's Serpent Symbol. [537:5] Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 180. [537:6] Early Hist. Mankind, p. 311. [537:7] The traveler, James Orton, found fossil bones of an extinct species of the horse, the mastodon, and other animals, near Punin, in South America, all of which had passed away before the arrival of the human species. This native American horse was succeeded, in after ages, by the countless herds descended from a few introduced with the Spanish colonists. (See the Andes and the Amazon, pp. 154, 155.) [537:8] Serpent Symbol, p. 47. [538:1] Serpent Symbol, p. 193. [538:2] The Andes and the Amazon, p. 454. [538:3] Eastern Monachism, p. 222. [538:4] Serpent Symbol, p. 43. [538:5] See Ibid. [538:6] Travels in Persia, vol. ii. p. 284. [538:7] New Spain, vol. i. p. 136. [538:8] Ibid. p. 141. [539:1] New Spain, vol. i. p. 153. [539:2] Types of Mankind, p. 275. [539:3] The Andes and the Amazon, p. 170. [540:1] Paschel: Races of Man, pp. 402-404. [540:2] Fusang, p. 7. [540:3] Ibid. 118. [540:4] Quoted in Ibid. [540:5] Quoted In Ibid. p. 94. [541:1] Paschel: Races of Man, pp. 400, 401. [541:2] To those who may think that the Old World might have been peopled from the new, we refer to Oscar Paschel's "Races of Man," p. 32. The author, in speaking on this subject, says: "There at one time existed a great continent, to which belonged Madagascar and perhaps portions of Eastern Africa, the Maldives and Laccadives, and also the Island of Ceylon, which was never attached to India, perhaps even the island of Celebes in the far East, which possesses a perplexing fauna, with semi-African features." On this continent, which was situated in the now Indian Ocean, must we look for the _cradle of humanity_. [541:3] Paschal: Races of Man, p. 31. [541:4] Darwin's Journal, p. 213. [542:1] Darwin's Journal, p. 213. [542:2] Ibid. pp. 220, 221. [542:3] This is seen from the fact that they did not know the use of iron. Had they known the use of this metal, they would surely have gone to work and dug into their mountains, which are abundantly filled with ore, and made use of it. [542:4] The Aztecs were preceded by the Toltecs, Chichimecks, and the Nahualtecs. (Humboldt's New Spain, p. 133, vol. i.) "The races of barbarians which successively followed each other from the north to the south always murdered, hunted down, and subdued the previous inhabitants, and formed in course of time a new social and political life upon the ruins of the old system, to be again destroyed and renewed in a few centuries, by a new invasion of barbarians. The later native conquerors in the New World can, of course, no more be considered in the light of original inhabitants than the present races of men in the Old World." [543:1] Fusang, p. 56. [543:2] Quoted in Fusang, p. 71. [543:3] Science of Religion, p. 121. [543:4] Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 161. [543:5] Early Hist. Mankind, p. 307. APPENDIX B. Commencing at the farthest East we shall find the ancient religion of _China_ the same as that which was universal in all quarters of the globe, viz., an adoration of the Sun, Moon, Stars and elements.[544:1] That the Chinese religion was in one respect the same as that of India, is seen from the fact that they named successive days for the same seven planets that the Hindoos did.[544:2] The ancient books of the Chinese show that astronomy was not only understood by them at a very early period, but that it formed an important branch of state policy, and the basis of public ceremonies. Eclipses are accurately recorded which occurred twenty centuries before Jesus; and the Confucian books refer continually to observations of the heavenly bodies and the rectification of the calendar. The ancient Chinese astronomers seem to have known precisely the excess of the solar year beyond 365 days. The _religion_ of China, under the emperors who preceded the first dynasty, is an enigma. The notices in the only authentic works, the _King_, are on this point scanty, vague, and obscure. It is difficult to separate what is spoken with reference to the science of _astronomy_ from that which may relate to _religion_, properly so called. The terms of reverence and respect, with which the _heavenly bodies_ are spoken of in the _Shoo-King_, seem to warrant the inference that those terms have more than a mere astronomical meaning, _and that the ancient religion_ of _China partook_ of _star-worship, one of the oldest heresies in the world_.[545:1] In _India_ the Sun, Moon, Stars and the powers of Nature were worshiped and personified, and each quality, mental and physical, had its emblem, which the Brahmans taught the ignorant to regard as realities, till the Pantheon became crowded. "Our Aryan ancestors learned to look up to the sky, the Sun, and the dawn, and there to see the presence of a living power, half-revealed, and half-hidden from their senses, those senses which were always postulating something beyond what they could grasp. They went further still. In the bright sky they perceived an _Illuminator_, in the all-encircling firmament an _Embracer_, in the roar of the thunder or in the voice of the storm they felt the presence of a _Shouter_ and of furious _Strikers_, and out of the rain they created an _Indra_, or giver of rain."[545:2] Prof. Monier Williams, speaking of "the hymns of the _Veda_," says: "To what deities, it will be asked, were the prayers and hymns of these collections addressed? The answer is: They worshiped _those physical forces_ before which _all nations_, if guided solely by the light of nature, have in the early period of their life, instinctively bowed down, and before which even the most civilized and enlightened have always been compelled to bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration."[545:3] The following sublime description of _Night_ is an extract from the _Vedas_, made by Sir William Jones: "Night approaches, illumined with stars and planets, and, looking on all sides with numberless eyes, overpowers all meaner lights. The immortal goddess pervades the firmament, covering the low valleys and shrubs, the lofty mountains and trees, but soon she disturbs the gloom with celestial effulgence. Advancing with brightness, at length she recalls her sister _Morning_; and the nightly shade gradually melts away. May she at this time be propitious! She, in whose early watch we may calmly recline in our mansions, as birds repose upon the trees. Mankind now sleep in their towns; now herds and flocks peacefully slumber, and the winged creatures, swift falcons, and vultures. O Night! avert from us the she-wolf and the wolf; and, oh! suffer us to pass thee in soothing rest! Oh, morn! remove in due time this black, yet visible overwhelming darkness, which at present enfolds me, as thou enablest me to remove the cloud of their dells. _Daughter of Heaven_, I approach thee with praise, as the cow approaches her milker; accept, O Night! not the hymn only, but the oblation of thy suppliant, who prays that his foes may be subdued." Some of the principal gods of the Hindoo Pantheon are, Dyaus (the Sky), Indra (the Rain-giver), Sûrya (the Sun), the Maruts (Winds), Aditi, (the Dawn), Parvati (the Earth),[546:1] and Siva, her consort. The worship of the SUN is expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names. One of the principal of these is _Crishna_. The following is a prayer addressed to him: "Be auspicious to my lay, O Chrishna, thou only God of the seven heavens, who swayest the universe through the immensity of space and matter. O universal and resplendent Sun! Thou mighty governor of the heavens; thou sovereign regulator of the connected whole; thou sole and universal deity of mankind; thou gracious and Supreme Spirit; my noblest and most happy inspiration is thy praise and glory. Thy power I will praise, for thou art my sovereign Lord, whose bright image continually forces itself on my attention, eager imagination. Thou art the Being to whom heroes pray in perils of war; nor are their supplications vain, when thus they pray; whether it be when thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when in thy meridian splendor, or when thou majestically descendest in the West." Crishna is made to say: "I am the light in the Sun and Moon, far, far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that's radiant, and the light of lights."[546:2] In the _Maha-bharata_, Crishna, who having become the son of Aditi (the Dawn), is called _Vishnu_, another name for the Sun.[546:3] The demon _Putana_ assaults the child Crishna, which identifies him with Hercules, the Sun-god of the Greeks.[546:4] In his Solar character he must again be the slayer of the Dragon or Black-snake _Kulnika_, the "Old Serpent" with the thousand heads.[546:5] Crishna's amours with the maidens makes him like Indra, Phoibus, Hercules, Samson, Alpheios, Paris and other Sun-gods. This is the hot and fiery Sun greeting the moon and the dew, or the Sun with his brides the _Stars_.[546:6] Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, observes: "Although all the Hindu deities partake more or less remotely of the nature and character of Surya, or the SUN, and all more or less directly radiate from, or merge in, him, yet no one is, I think, so intimately identified with him as Vishnu; whether considered in his own person, or _in the character of his most glorious Avatara of_ CRISHNA." The ancient religion of EGYPT, like that of Hindostan, was founded on astronomy, and eminently metaphysical in its character. The Egyptian priests were far advanced in the science of astronomy. They made astronomy their peculiar study. They knew the figure of the earth, and how to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. From very ancient time, they had observed the order and movement of the stars, and recorded them with the utmost care. Ramses the Great, generally called Sesostris, is supposed to have reigned one thousand five hundred years before the Christian era, about coeval with Moses, or a century later. In the tomb of this monarch was found a large massive circle of wrought gold, divided into three hundred and sixty-five degrees, and each division marked the rising and setting of the stars for each day.[547:1] This fact proves how early they were advanced in astronomy. In their great theories of mutual dependence between all things in the universe was included a belief in some mysterious relation between the Spirits of the Stars and human souls, so that the destiny of mortals was regulated by the motions of the heavenly bodies. This was the origin of the famous system of Astrology. From the conjunction of planets at the hour of birth, they prophesied what would be the temperament of an infant, what life he would live, and what death he would die. Diodorus, who wrote in the century preceding Christ Jesus, says: "They frequently foretell with the greatest accuracy what is about to happen to mankind; showing the failure or abundance of crops, and the epidemic diseases about to befall men or cattle. Earthquakes, deluges, rising of comets, and all those phenomena, the knowledge of which appears impossible to common comprehensions, they foresee by means of their long continued observation." P. Le Page Renouf, who is probably the best authority on the religion of ancient Egypt which can be produced, says, in his Hibbert Lectures:[547:2] "The Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered nearly twenty years ago by Prof. Max Müller, have, I trust, made us fully understand how, among the _Indo-European_ races, the names of the _Sun_, of _Sunrise_ and _Sunset_, and of other such phenomena, come to be talked of and considered as _personages_, of whom wondrous legends have been told. _Egyptian_ mythology not merely admits, but imperatively _demands, the same explanation_. And this becomes the more evident when we consider the question how these mythical personages came to be invested with the attributes of divinity by men who, like the Egyptians, had so lively a sense of the divine." Kenrick, in his "History of Egypt," says: "We have abundant evidence that the Egyptian theology had its origin in the personification of the powers of nature, under male and female attributes, and that this conception took a sensible form, such as the mental state of the people required, by the identification of these powers with the elements and the heavenly bodies, fire, earth, water, the sun and moon, and the Nile. Such appears _everywhere_ to be the origin of the objective form of polytheism; and it is equally evident among the nations most closely allied to the Egyptians by position and general character--the Phenicians, the Babylonians, and in remote connection, the Indians on the one side and the Greeks on the other." The gods and goddesses of the ancient PERSIANS were also personifications of the Sun, Moon, Stars, the elements, &c. _Ormuzd_, "The King of Light," was god of the _Firmament_, and the "Principle of Goodness" and of Truth. He was called "The Eternal Source of Sunshine and Light," "The Centre of all that exists," "The First-born of the Eternal One," "The Creator," "The Sovereign Intelligence," "The All-seeing," "The Just Judge." He was described as "sitting on the throne of the good and the perfect, in regions of pure light," crowned with rays, and with a ring on his finger--a circle being an emblem of infinity; sometimes as a venerable, majestic man, seated on a Bull, their emblem of creation. "_Mithras the Mediator_" was the god-Sun. Their most splendid ceremonials were in honor of Mithras. They kept his birth-day, with many rejoicings, on the twenty-fifth of December, when the Sun perceptibly begins to return northward, after his long winter journey; and they had another festival in his honor, at the vernal equinox. Perhaps no religious festival was ever more splendid than the "_Annual Salutation of Mithras_," during which _forty days_ were set apart for thanksgiving and sacrifice. The procession to salute the god was formed long before the rising of the Sun. The High Priest was followed by a long train of the Magi, in spotless white robes, chanting hymns, and carrying the sacred fire on silver censers. Then came three hundred and sixty-five youths in scarlet, to represent the days of the year and the color of fire. These were followed by the Chariot of the Sun, empty, decorated with garlands, and drawn by superb _white horses_ harnessed with pure gold. Then came a white horse of magnificent size, his forehead blazing with gems, in honor of Mithras. Close behind him rode the king, in a chariot of ivory inlaid with gold, followed by his royal kindred in embroidered garments, and a long train of nobles riding on camels richly caparisoned. This gorgeous retinue, facing the East, slowly ascended Mount Orontes. Arrived at the summit, the High Priest assumed his tiara wreathed with myrtle, and hailed the first rays of the rising Sun with incense and prayer. The other Magi gradually joined him in singing hymns to Ormuzd, the source of all blessing, by whom the radiant Mithras had been sent to gladden the earth and preserve the principle of life. Finally, they all joined in one universal chorus of praise, while king, princes and nobles, prostrated themselves before the orb of day. The HEBREWS worshiped the Sun, Moon, Stars, and "all the host of heaven."[549:1] _El-Shaddai_ was one of the names given to the god Sun. Parkhurst, in his "Hebrew Lexicon," says, "_El_ was the very name the heathens gave to their god _Sol_, their Lord or Ruler of the hosts of heaven." _El_, which means "the strong one in heaven"--the Sun, was invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic nations, before there were Babylonians in Babylon, Phenicians in Sydon and Tyrus, before there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem.[549:2] The Sun was worshiped by the Hebrews under the names of Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, &c.; the Moon was Ashtoreth, the "Queen of Heaven."[549:3] The gods of the ancient GREEKS and ROMANS were the same as the gods of the Indian epic poems. We have, for example: Zeupiter (Jupiter), corresponding to Dyaus-pitar (the Heaven-father), Juno, corresponding to Parvati (the Mother Goddess), and Apollo, corresponding to Crishna (the Sun, the Saviour).[549:4] Another name for the Sun among those people was _Bacchus_. An Orphic verse, referring to the Sun, says, "he is called Dionysos (a name of Bacchus) because he is carried with a circular motion through the immensely extended heavens."[549:5] Dr. Prichard, in his "Analysis of Egyptian Mythology,"[549:6] speaking of the ancient Greeks and Romans, says: "That the worship of the _powers of nature_, mitigated, indeed, and embellished, constituted the foundation of the Greek and Roman religion, will not be disputed by any person who surveys the fables of the Olympian Gods with a more penetrating eye than that of a mere antiquarian." M. De Coulanges, speaking of them, says: "The _Sun_, which gives fecundity; the _Earth_, which nourishes; the _Clouds_, by turns beneficent and destructive,--_such were the different powers of which they could make gods_. But from each one of these elements thousands of gods were created; because the same physical agent, _viewed under different aspects_, received from men different names. The Sun, for example, was called in one place _Hercules_ (the glorious); in another, _Phoebus_ (the shining); and still again, _Apollo_ (he who drives away night or evil); one called him _Hyperion_ (the elevated being); another, _Alexicacos_ (the beneficent); and in the course of time groups of men, who had given these various names to the brilliant luminary, _no longer saw that they had the same god_."[549:7] Richard Payne Knight says: "The primitive religion of the _Greeks_, like that of all other nations not enlightened by _Revelation_, appears to have been _elementary_, and to have consisted in an indistinct worship of the SUN, the MOON, the STARS, the EARTH, and the WATERS, or rather, the spirits supposed to preside over these bodies, and to direct their motions, and regulate their modes of existence. Every river, spring or mountain had its local genius, or peculiar deity; and as men naturally endeavored to obtain the favor of their gods by such means as they feel best adapted to win their own, the first worship consisted in offering to them certain portions of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time, the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightnings and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had passions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence."[550:1] When the Grecian astronomers first declared that the Sun was not a person, but a huge hot ball, instantly an outcry arose against them. They were called "_blaspheming atheists_," and from that time to the present, when any new discovery is made which seems to take away from man his god, the cry of "_Atheist_" is instantly raised. If we turn from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and take a look still farther West and North, we shall find that the gods of all the TEUTONIC nations were the same as we have seen elsewhere. They had Odin or Woden--from whom we have our _Wednesday_--the Al-fader (the Sky), Frigga, the Mother Goddess (the Earth), "Baldur the Good," and Thor--from whom we have our Thursday (personifications of the Sun), besides innumerable other _genii_, among them Freyja--from whom we have our Friday--and as she was the "Goddess of Love," we eat _fish_ on that day.[550:2] The gods of the ancient inhabitants of what are now called the "British Islands" were identically the same. The _Sun_-god worshiped by the Ancient Druids was called _Hu_, _Beli_, _Budd_ and _Buddu-gre_.[550:3] The same worship which we have found in the Old World, from the farthest East to the remotest West, may also be traced in AMERICA, from its simplest or least clearly defined form, among the roving hunters and squalid Esquimaux of the North, through every intermediate stage of development, to the imposing systems of Mexico and Peru, where it took a form nearly corresponding that which it at one time sustained on the banks of the Ganges, and on the plains of Assyria.[550:4] Father Acosta, speaking of the Mexicans, says: "Next to Viracocha, or their Supreme God, that which most commonly they have, and do adore, is the _Sun_; and after, those things which are most remarkable in the celestial or elementary nature, as the Moon, Stars, Sea, and Land. "Whoso shall merely look into it, shall find this manner which the Devil hath used to deceive the Indians, to be the same wherewith he hath deceived the Greeks and Romans, and other ancient Gentiles, giving them to understand that these notable creatures, the Sun, Moon, Stars, and elements, had power or authority to do good or harm to men."[551:1] We see, then, that the gods and heroes of antiquity were originally personifications of certain elements of Nature, and that the legends of adventures ascribed to them are merely mythical forms of describing the phenomena of these elements. These legends relating to the elements of Nature, whether they had reference to the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, or a certain natural phenomenon, became, in the course of time, to be regarded as accounts of men of a high order, who had once inhabited the earth. Sanctuaries and temples were erected to these heroes, their bones were searched for, and when found--which was always the case--were regarded as a great source of strength to the town that possessed them; all relics of their stay on earth were hallowed, and a form of worship was specially adapted to them. The idea that heavenly luminaries were inhabited by spirits, of a nature intermediate between God and men, first led mortals to address prayers to the orbs over which they were supposed to preside. In order to supplicate these deities, when Sun, Moon, and Stars were not visible, _they made images of them_, which the priests consecrated with many ceremonies. Then they pronounced solemn invocations to draw down the spirits into the statues provided for their reception. By this process it was supposed that a mysterious connection was established between the spirit and the image, so that prayers addressed to one were thenceforth heard by the other. This was probably the origin of image worship everywhere. The _motive_ of this worship was the same among all nations of antiquity, _i. e._, _fear_. They supposed that these deities were irritated by the sins of men, but, at the same time, were merciful, and capable of being appeased by prayer and repentance; for this reason men offered to these deities sacrifices and prayers. How natural that such should have been the case, for, as Abbé Dubois observes: "To the rude, untutored eye, the 'Host of Heaven,' clothed in that calm beauty which distinguishes an Oriental night, might well appear to be instinct with some divine principle, endowed with consciousness, and the power to influence, from its throne of unchanging splendor on high, the fortunes of transitory mortals." FOOTNOTES: [544:1] "All Paganism is at bottom _a worship of nature_ in some form or other, and in all Pagan religions the deepest and most awe-inspiring attribute of _nature_ was its power of reproduction." (Encyclo. Brit., art. "Christianity.") [544:2] In Montfaucon's L'Antiquité Expliquée (vol. i.), may be seen a representation of the seven planets _personified_. It was by such personifications that the real objects worshiped became unknown. At first the real Sun, Moon, Stars, &c., would be worshiped, but as soon as man personified them, other terms would be introduced, and peculiar rites appropriated to each, so that in time they came to be considered as so many different deities. [545:1] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 14, 49 and 50. [545:2] Max Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 298. [545:3] Indian Wisdom, p. 10. [546:1] The emblem of Parvati, the "Mother Goddess," was the YONI, and that of her consort Siva, the LINGHAM. [546:2] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213. [546:3] See Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. pp. 105 and 130. [546:4] Ibid. p. 135. [546:5] Ibid. p. 137. [546:6] See Ibid. p. 88, and Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 63. [547:1] "According to Champollion, the tomb of Ramses V. at Thebes, contains tables of the constellations and of their influence (on human beings) for every hour of every month of the year." (Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 456.) [547:2] P. 118. [549:1] See Chapter XI. [549:2] Müller: The Science of Relig., p. 190. [549:3] See Chapter XI. [549:4] See Indian Wisdom, p. 426. [549:5] Taylor's Mysteries, p. 163. [549:6] Page 239. [549:7] The Ancient City, p. 162. [550:1] Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 1. [550:2] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Though spoken of in Northern mythology as distinct, Frigga and Freyja are _originally_ ONE. [550:3] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 116. [550:4] See Squire's Serpent Symbol. [551:1] Acosta: vol. ii. pp. 303-305. APPENDIX C. All the chief stories that we know so well are to be found in all times, and in almost all countries. _Cinderella_, for one, is told in the language of every country in Europe, and the same legend is found in the fanciful tales related by the Greek poets; and still further back, it appears in very ancient Hindoo legends. So, again, does _Beauty and the Beast_; so does our familiar tale of _Jack, the Giant-Killer_; so also do a great number of other fairy stories, each being told in different countries and in different periods, with so much likeness as to show that all the versions came from the same source, and yet with enough difference to show that none of the versions are directly copied from each other. "Indeed, when we compare the myths and legends of one country with another, and of one period with another, we find out how they have come to be so much alike, and yet in some things so different. We see that there must have been _one origin_ for all these stories, that they must have been invented by _one people_, that this people must have been afterwards divided, and that each part or division of it must have brought into its new home the legends once common to them all, and must have shaped and altered these according to the kind of place in which they came to live; those of the North being sterner and more terrible, those of the South softer and fuller of light and color, and adorned with touches of more delicate fancy." And this, indeed, is really the case. All the chief stories and legends are alike, because they were first made by _one people_; and all the nations in which they are now told in one form or another tell them because they are all descended from this one common stock, the _Aryan_. From researches made by Prof. Max Müller, the Rev. George W. Cox, and others, in England and Germany, in the science of _Comparative Mythology_, we begin to see something of these ancient forefathers of ours; to understand what kind of people they were, and to find that _our fairy stories_ are really made out of _their religion_. The mind of the Aryan peoples in their ancient home was full of imagination. They never ceased to wonder at what they saw and heard in the sky and upon the earth. Their language was highly figurative, and so the things which struck them with wonder, and which they could not explain, were described under forms and names which were familiar to them. "Thus, the thunder was to them the bellowing of a mighty beast, or the rolling of a great chariot. In the lightning they saw a brilliant serpent, or a spear shot across the sky, or a great fish darting swiftly through the sea of cloud. The clouds were heavenly cows, who shed milk upon the earth and refreshed it; or they were webs woven by heavenly women who drew water from the fountains on high and poured it down as rain." Analogies which are but fancy to us, were realities to these men of past ages. They could see in the waterspout a huge serpent who elevated himself out of the ocean and reached his head to the skies. They could feel, in the pangs of hunger, a live creature gnawing within their bodies, and they heard the voices of the hill-dwarfs answering in the echo. The _Sun_, the first object which struck them with wonder, was, to them, the child of Night; the Dawn came before he was born, and died as he rose in the heavens. He strangled the serpents of the night; he went forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and like a giant, to run his course.[553:1] He had to do battle with clouds and storms.[553:2] Sometimes his light grew dim under their gloomy veil, and the children of men shuddered at the wrath of the hidden Sun.[553:3] Sometimes his ray broke forth, only, after brief splendor, to sink beneath a deeper darkness; sometimes he burst forth at the end of his course, trampling on the clouds which had dimmed his brilliancy, and bathing his pathway with blood.[553:4] Sometimes, beneath mountains of clouds and vapors, he plunged into the leaden sea.[553:5] Sometimes he looked benignly on the face of his mother or his bride who came to greet him at his journey's end.[553:6] Sometimes he was the lord of heaven and of light, irresistible in his divine strength; sometimes he toiled for others, not for himself, in a hard, unwilling servitude.[553:7] His light and heat might give light and destroy it.[553:8] His chariot might scorch the regions over which it passed, his flaming fire might burn up all who dared to look with prying eyes into his dazzling treasure-house.[553:9] He might be the child destined to slay his parents, or to be united at the last in an unspeakable peace, to the bright Dawn who for a brief space had gladdened his path in the morning.[553:10] He might be the friend of the children of men, and the remorseless foe of those powers of darkness who had stolen away his bride.[553:11] He might be a warrior whose eye strikes terror into his enemies, or a wise chieftain skilled in deep and hidden knowledge.[554:1] Sometimes he might appear as a glorious being doomed to an early death, which no power could avert or delay.[554:2] Sometimes grievous hardships and desperate conflicts might be followed by a long season of serene repose.[554:3] Wherever he went, men might welcome him in love, or shrink from him in fear and anguish.[554:4] He would have many brides in many lands, and his offspring would assume aspects beautiful, strange or horrible.[554:5] His course might be brilliant and beneficent; or gloomy, sullen, and capricious.[554:6] As compelled to toil for others, he would be said to fight in quarrels not his own; or he might for a time withhold the aid of an arm which no enemy could withstand.[554:7] He might be the destroyer of all whom he loved, he might slay the Dawn with his kindling rays, he might scorch the Fruits, who were his children; he might woo the deep blue sky, the bride of heaven itself, and an inevitable doom might bind his limbs on the blazing wheel for ever and ever.[554:8] Nor in this crowd of phrases, all of which have borne their part in the formation of mythology, is there one which could not be used naturally by ourselves to describe the phenomena of the outward world, and there is scarcely one, perhaps, which has not been used by our own poets. There is a beauty in them, which can never grow old or lose its charm. Poets of all ages recur to them instinctively in times of the deepest grief or the greatest joy; but, in the words of Professor Max Müller, "it is impossible to enter fully into the thoughts and feelings which passed through the minds of the early poets when they formed names for that far East from whence even the early Dawn, the Sun, the Day, their own life seemed to spring. A new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes of the Dawn reached them like greetings wafted across the golden threshold of the sky from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the clouds, beyond the dawn, beyond the immortal sea which brought us hither! The Dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the Sun to pass in triumph; and while those gates were open, their eyes and their minds strove, in their childish way, to pierce beyond the limits of this finite world. That silent aspect wakened in the human mind the conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine; and the names of the Dawn became naturally the names of higher powers.[554:9] "This imagery of the Aryans was applied by them to all they saw in the sky. Sometimes, as we have said, the clouds were cows; they were also dragons, which sought to slay the Sun; or great ships floating across the sky, and casting anchor upon earth; or rocks, or mountains, or deep caverns, in which evil deities hid the golden light. Then, also, they were shaped by fancy into animals of various kinds--the bear, the wolf, the dog, the ox; and into giant birds, and into monsters which were both bird and beast. "The winds, again, in their fancy, were the companions or ministers of India, the sky-god. The spirits of the winds gathered into their host the souls of the dead--thus giving birth to the Scandinavian and Teutonic legend of the Wild Horseman, who rides at midnight through the stormy sky, with his long train of dead behind him, and his weird hounds before.[555:1] The Ribhus, or Arbhus, again, were the sunbeams or the lightning, who forged the armor of the gods, and made their thunderbolts, and turned old people young, and restored out of the hides alone the slaughtered cow on which the gods had feasted."[555:2] Aryan myths, then, were no more than poetic fancies about light and darkness, cloud and rain, night and day, storm and wind; and when they moved westward and southward, _the Aryan race brought these legends with it_; and out of these were shaped by degrees innumerable gods and demons of the Hindoos, the devs and jinns of the Persians; the great gods, the minor deities, and nymphs, and fauns, and satyrs of Greek mythology and poetry; the stormy divinities, the giants, and trolls of the cold and rugged North; the dwarfs of the German forests; the elves who dance merrily in the moonlight of an English summer; and the "good people" who play mischievous tricks upon stray peasants among the Irish hills. _Almost all, indeed, that we have of a legendary kind comes to us from our Aryan forefathers_--sometimes scarcely changed, sometimes so altered that we have to puzzle out the links between the old and the new; but all these myths and traditions, and old-world stories, when we come to know the meaning of them, take us back to the time when the Aryan race dwelt together in the high lands of central Asia, and they all mean the same things--that is, the relation between the Sun and the earth, the succession of night and day, of winter and summer, of storm and calm, of cloud and tempest, and golden sunshine, and bright blue sky. And this is the source from which we get our fairy stories, and tales of gods and heroes; for underneath all of them there are the same fanciful meanings, only changed and altered in the way of putting them by the lapse of ages of time, by the circumstances of different countries, and by the fancy of those who kept the wonderful tales alive without knowing what they meant. Thousands of years ago, the Aryan people began their march out of their old country in mid-Asia. From the remains of their language, and the likeness of their legends to those among other nations, we know that ages and ages ago their country grew too small for them, so they were obliged to move away from it. Some of them turned southward into India and Persia, and some of them went westward into Europe--the time, perhaps, when the land of Europe stretched from the borders of Asia to the islands of Great Britain, and when there was no sea between them and the main land. How they made their long and toilsome march we know not. But, as Kingsley writes of such a movement of an ancient tribe, so we may fancy these old Aryans marching westward--"the tall, bare-limbed men, with stone axes on their shoulders and horn bows at their backs, with herds of gray cattle, guarded by huge lap-eared mastiffs, with shaggy white horses, heavy-horned sheep, and silky goats, moving always westward through the boundless steppes, whither or why we know not, but that the Al-Father had sent them forth. And behind us (he makes them say) the rosy snow-peaks died into ghastly gray, lower and lower, as every evening came; and before us the plains spread infinite, with gleaming salt-lakes, and ever fresh tribes of gaudy flowers. Behind us, dark lines of living beings streamed down the mountain slopes; around us, dark lines crawled along the plains--all westward, westward ever. Who could stand against us? We met the wild asses on the steppe, and tamed them, and made them our slaves. We slew the bison herds, and swam broad rivers on their skins. The python snake lay across our path; the wolves and wild dogs snarled at us out of their coverts; we slew them and went on. Strange giant tribes met us, and eagle visaged hordes, fierce and foolish; we smote them, hip and thigh, and went on, westward ever."[556:1] And so they went on, straight toward the West, or, as they turned North and South, and thus overspread new lands, _they brought with them their old ways of thought and forms of belief_, and the stories in which these had taken form; _and on these were built up the gods and heroes_, and all wonder-working creatures and things, and the poetical fables and fancies which have come down to us, and which still linger in our customs and our fairy tales; bright and sunny and many-colored in the warm regions of the South, sterner and wilder and rougher in the North, more homelike in the middle and western countries; but always alike in their main features, and always having the same meaning when we come to dig it out, and these forms and their meaning being the same in the lands of the West Aryans as in those still peopled by the Aryans of the East. The story of _Cinderella_ is one of the many fairy tales which help us to find out their meaning, and take us straight back to the far-off land where fairy legends began, and to the people who made them. This well-known fairy tale has been found among the myths of our Aryan ancestors, and from this we know that it is the story of the _Sun_ and the _Dawn_. Cinderella, gray and dark and dull, is all neglected when she is away from the Sun, obscured by the envious clouds, her sisters, and by her step-mother, the Night. So she is Aurora, the Dawn, and the Fairy Prince is the Morning Sun, ever pursuing her, to claim her for his bride. This is the legend as it is found in the ancient Hindoo books; and this explains at once the _source_ and the _meaning_ of the fairy tale.[557:1] Another tale which helps us in our task is that of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, who is really one of the very oldest and most widely known characters in wonder-land. Now, who is this wonderful little fellow? He is none other than the hero who, in all countries and ages, fights with monsters and overcomes them; like Indra, the ancient Hindoo Sun-god, whose thunderbolts slew the demons of drought in the far East; or Perseus, who, in Greek story, delivers the maiden from the sea-monster; or Odysseus, who tricks the giant Polyphemus, and causes him to throw himself into the sea; or Thor, whose hammer beats down the frost giants of the North. "The gifts bestowed upon Jack are found in Tartar stories, Hindoo tales, in German legends, and in the fables of Scandinavia." Still another is that of _Little Red Riding-Hood_. The story of Little Red Riding Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap, as she is called in the German tales, also comes from the same source, and (as we have seen in Chapter IX.), refers to the _Sun_ and _Night_. "One of the fancies in the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, to prevent him from shining upon the earth, and filling it with brightness and life and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-god, killed the dragon. Now, this is the meaning of Little Red Riding-Hood, as it is told in our nursery tales. Little Red Riding-Hood is the Evening _Sun_, which is always described as red or golden; the old grandmother is the _Earth_, to whom the rays of the Sun bring warmth and comfort. The wolf--which is a well-known figure for the _Clouds_ and blackness of _Night_ (in Teutonic mythology)[558:1]--is the dragon in another form. First, he devours the grandmother; that is, he wraps the earth in thick clouds, which the Evening Sun is not strong enough to pierce through. Then, with the darkness of Night, he swallows up the Evening Sun itself, and all is dark and desolate. Then, as in the German tale, the night-thunder and the storm winds are represented by the loud snoring of the wolf; and then the huntsman, the _Morning Sun_, comes in all his strength and majesty, and chases away the night clouds and kills the wolf, and revives old grandmother Earth and Little Red Riding Hood to life again." Nor is it in these stories alone that we can trace the ancient Hindoo legends, and the Sun-myth. There is, as Mr. Bunce observes in his "Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning," scarcely a tale of Greek or Roman mythology, no legend of Teutonic or Celtic or Scandinavian growth, no great romance of what we call the middle ages, no fairy story taken down from the lips of ancient folk, and dressed for us in modern shape and tongue, that we do not find, in some form or another, in these Eastern poems, _which are composed of allegorical tales of gods and heroes_. When, in the Vedic hymns, Kephalos, Prokris, Hermes, Daphne, Zeus, Ouranos, stand forth as simple names for the Sun, the Dew, the Wind, the Dawn, the Heaven and the Sky, each recognized as such, yet each endowed with the most perfect consciousness, we feel that the great riddle of mythology is solved, and that we no longer lack the key which shall disclose its most hidden treasures. When we hear the people saying, "Our friend the Sun is dead. Will he rise? Will the Dawn come back again?" we see the death of Hercules, and the weary waiting while Leto struggles with the birth of Phoibos. When on the return of day we hear the cry-- "Rise! our life, our spirit has come back, the darkness is gone, the light draws near!" --we are carried at once to the Homeric hymn, and we hear the joyous shout of all the gods when Phoibos springs to life and light on Delos.[558:2] That the peasant folk-lore of modern Europe still displays episodes of nature-myth, may be seen in the following story of _Vassalissa, the Beautiful_. Vassalissa's stepmother and two sisters, plotting against her life, send her to get a light at the house of _Bàba Yagà_, the witch, and her journey contains the following history of the _Day_, told, as Mr. Tylor says, in truest mythic fashion: "Vassalissa goes and wanders, wanders in the forest. She goes, and she shudders. Suddenly before her bounds a rider, he himself white, and clad in white, and the trappings white. _And Day began to dawn._ She goes farther, when a second rider bounds forth, himself red, clad in red, and on a red horse. _The Sun began to rise._ She goes on all day, and towards evening arrives at the witch's house. Suddenly there comes again a rider, himself black, clad in all black, and on a black horse; he bounded to the gates of the _Bàba Yagà_, and disappeared _as if he had sunk through the earth_. _Night fell._ After this, when Vassalissa asks the witch, 'Who was the white rider?' she answered, 'That is my clear _Day_;' 'Who was the red rider?' 'That is my red _Sun_;' 'Who was the black rider?' 'That is my black _Night_. They are all my trusty friends.'"[559:1] We have another illustration of allegorical mythology in the Grecian story of Hephæstos splitting open with his axe the head of Zeus, and Athene springing from it, full armed; for we perceive behind this savage imagery Zeus as the bright _Sky_, his forehead the _East_, Hephæstos as the young, not yet risen _Sun_, and Athene as the _Dawn_, the daughter of the Sky, stepping forth from the fountain-head of light,--with eyes like an owl, pure as a virgin; the golden; lighting up the tops of the mountains, and her own glorious Parthenon in her own favorite town of Athens; whirling the shafts of light; the genial warmth of the morning; the foremost champion in the battle between night and day; in full armor, in her panoply of light, driving away the darkness of night, and awakening men to a bright life, to bright thoughts, to bright endeavors.[559:2] Another story of the same sort is that of Kronos. Every one is familiar with the story of Kronos, who devoured his own children. Now, Kronos is a mere creation from the older and misunderstood epithet Kronides or Kronion, the ancient of days. When these days or time had come to be regarded as a person the myth would certainly follow that he devoured his own children, as Time is the devourer of the Dawns.[559:3] Saturn, who devours his own children, is the same power whom the Greeks called Kronos (Time), which may truly be said to destroy whatever it has brought into existence. The idea of a _Heaven_, the "Elysian fields," is also born of the sky. The "_Elysian plain_" is far away in the _West_, where the sun goes down beyond the bonds of the earth, when Eos gladdens the close of day as she sheds her violet tints over the sky. The "Abodes of the Blessed" are golden islands sailing in a sea of blue,--_the burnished clouds floating in the pure ether_. Grief and sorrow cannot approach them; plague and sickness cannot touch them. The blissful company gathered together in that far _Western land_ inherits a tearless eternity. Of the other details in the picture the greater number would be suggested directly by these images drawn from the phenomena of sunset and twilight. What spot or stain can be seen on the deep blue ocean in which the "Islands of the Blessed" repose forever? What unseemly forms can mar the beauty of that golden home, lighted by the radiance of a _Sun_ which can never set? Who then but the pure in heart, the truthful and the generous, can be suffered to tread the violet fields? And how shall they be tested save by judges who can weigh the thoughts and the interests of the heart? Thus every soul, as it drew near that joyous land, was brought before the august tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aiakos; and they whose faith was in truth a quickening power, might draw from the ordeals those golden lessons which Plato has put into the mouth of Socrates, and some unknown persons into the mouths of Buddha and Jesus. The belief of earlier ages pictured to itself the meetings in that blissful land, the forgiveness of old wrongs, and the reconciliation of deadly feuds,[560:1] just as the belief of the present day pictures these things to itself. The story of a _War in Heaven_, which was known to all nations of antiquity, is allegorical, and refers to the battle between light and darkness, sunshine and storm cloud.[560:2] As examples of the prevalence of the legend relating to the struggle between the co-ordinate powers of good and evil, light and darkness, the Sun and the clouds, we have that of Phoibos and Python, Indra and Vritra, Sigurd and Fafuir, Achilleus and Paris, Oidipous and the Sphinx, Ormuzd and Ahriman, and from the character of the struggle between Indra and Vritra, and again between Ormuzd and Ahriman, we infer that a myth, purely _physical_, in the land of the Five Streams, assumed a moral and spiritual meaning in Persia, and the fight between the co-ordinate powers of good and evil, _gave birth to the dualism which from that time to the present has exercised so mighty an influence through the East and West_. The Apocalypse exhibits Satan with the physical attributes of Ahriman; he is called the "dragon," the "old serpent," who fights against God and his angels. The _Vedic myth_, transformed and exaggerated in the Iranian books, _finds its way through this channel_ into Christianity. The idea thus introduced was that of the struggle between Satan and Michael, which ended in the overthrow of the former, and the casting forth of all his hosts out of heaven, but it coincides too nearly with a myth spread in countries held by all the Aryan nations to avoid further modification. Local tradition substituted St. George or St. Theodore for Jupiter, Apollo, Hercules, or Perseus. It is under this disguise that the Vedic myth has come down to our own times, and has still its festivals and its monuments. Art has consecrated it in a thousand ways. St. Michael, lance in hand, treading on the dragon, is an image as familiar now as, _thirty centuries ago_, that of Indra treading under foot the demon Vritra could possibly have been to the Hindoo.[561:1] The very ancient doctrine of a TRINITY, three gods in one, can be explained, rationally, by allegory only. We have seen that the Sun, in early times, was believed to be the _Creator_, and became the first object of adoration. After some time it would be observed that this powerful and beneficent agent, the solar fire, was the most potent _Destroyer_, and hence would arise the first idea of a Creator and Destroyer united in the same person. But much time would not elapse before it must have been observed, that the destruction caused by this powerful being was destruction only in appearance, that destruction was only reproduction in another form--_regeneration_; that if he appeared sometimes to destroy, he constantly repaired the injury which he seemed to occasion--and that, without his light and heat, everything would dwindle away into a cold, inert, unprolific mass. Thus, at once, in the same being, became concentrated, the creating, the preserving, and the destroying powers--the latter of the three being at the same time both the _Destroyer_ and _Regenerator_. Hence, by a very natural and obvious train of reasoning, arose the _Creator_, the _Preserver_, and the _Destroyer_--in India _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_; in Persia _Oromasdes_, _Mithra_, and _Arimanius_; in Egypt _Osiris_, _Horus_, and _Typhon_: in each case THREE PERSONS AND ONE GOD. And thus undoubtedly arose the TRIMURTI, or the celebrated Trinity. Traces of a similar refinement may be found in the Greek mythology, in the Orphic _Phanes_, _Ericapeus_ and _Metis_, who were all identified with the _Sun_, and yet embraced in the first person, _Phanes_, or Protogones, the Creator and Generator.[562:1] The invocation to the Sun, in the Mysteries, according to Macrobius, was as follows: "O all-ruling _Sun_! _Spirit_ of the world! _Power_ of the world! _Light_ of the world!"[562:2] We have seen in Chap. XXXV, that the _Peruvian_ Triad was represented by three statues, called, respectively, "Apuinti, Churiinti, and Intihoaoque," which is, "Lord and Father _Sun_; Son _Sun_; and Air or Spirit, Brother _Sun_."[562:3] Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," says: "The peculiar mode in which the Hindoos identify their _three great gods_ with the _solar orb_, is a curious specimen of the physical refinements of ancient mythology. At night, in the west, the Sun is _Vishnu_; he is _Brahma_ in the east and in the morning; and from noon to evening he is _Siva_."[562:4] Mr. Moor, in his "Hindu Pantheon," says: "Most, if not all, of the gods of the Hindoo Pantheon will, on close investigation, resolve themselves into the _three powers_ (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva), and those powers into _one Deity_, Brahm, _typified by the Sun_."[562:5] Mr. Squire, in his "Serpent Symbol," observes: "It is highly probable that the triple divinity of the Hindoos was originally no more than a personification of the _Sun_, whom they called _Three-bodied_, in the triple capacity of _producing_ forms by his general _heat_, _preserving_ them by his _light_, or _destroying_ them by the counteracting force of his _igneous_ matter. _Brahmá_, the _Creator_, was indicated by the _heat of the Sun_; _Vishnu_, the _Preserver_, by the _light of the Sun_, and _Siva_, the _Reproducer_, by the _orb of the Sun_. In the morning the Sun was _Brahma_, at noon _Vishnu_, at evening _Siva_."[562:6] "He is at once," says Mr. Cox, in speaking of the Sun, "the 'Comforter' and 'Healer,' the 'Saviour' and 'Destroyer,' who can slay and make alive at will, and from whose piercing glance no secret can be kept hid."[562:7] Sir William Jones was also of the opinion that the whole Triad of the Hindoos were identical with the Sun, expressed under the mythical term O. M. The idea of a _Tri-murti_, or triple personification, was developed gradually, and as it grew, received numerous accretions. It was first dimly shadowed forth and vaguely expressed in the _Rig-Veda_, where a triad of principal gods, _Agni_, _Indra_, and _Surya_ is recognized. And these three gods are _One_, the SUN.[562:8] We see then that the religious myths of antiquity and the fireside legends of ancient and modern times, have a common root in the mental habits of primeval humanity, and that they are the earliest recorded utterances of men concerning the visible phenomena of the world into which they were born. At first, thoroughly understood, the _meaning_ in time became unknown. How stories originally told of the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, &c., became believed in as facts, is plainly illustrated in the following story told by Mrs. Jameson in her "History of Our Lord in Art:" "I once tried to explain," says she, "to a good old woman, the meaning of the word _parable_, and that the story of the _Prodigal Son_ was not a fact; she was scandalized--she was quite sure that Jesus would never have told anything to his disciples that was not true. Thus she settled the matter in her own mind, and I thought it best to leave it there undisturbed." Prof. Max Müller, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms of Aryan religion and mythology in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and Germany," clearly illustrates how such legends are transformed from intelligible into unintelligible myths. He says: "In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original conception of divine powers, to misunderstand the many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, and at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told originally of the _Sun_, or the _Dawn_, or the _Storms_, were turned into legends or fables too marvelous to be believed of common mortals. This process can be watched in India, in Greece, and in Germany. The same story, or nearly the same, is told of gods, of heroes, and of men. The divine myth became an heroic legend, and the heroic legend fades away into a nursery tale. Our nursery tales have well been called the modern _patois_ of the ancient mythology of the Aryan race."[563:1] In the words of this learned author, "we never lose, we always gain, when we discover the most ancient intention of sacred traditions, instead of being satisfied with their later aspect, and their modern misinterpretations." FOOTNOTES: [553:1] This picture would give us the story of Hercules, who strangled the serpent in his cradle, and who, in after years, in the form of a giant, ran his course. [553:2] This would give us St. George killing the Dragon. [553:3] This would give us the story of the monster who attempted to devour the Sun, and whom the "untutored savage" tried to frighten away by making loud cries. [553:4] This would give us the story of Samson, whose strength was renewed at the end of his career, and who slew the Philistines--who had dimmed his brilliance--and bathed his path with blood. [553:5] This would give us the story of Oannes or Dagon, who, beneath the clouds of the evening sky, plunged into the sea. [553:6] This would give us the story of Hercules and his bride Iôle, or that of Christ Jesus and his mother Mary, who were at their side at the end of their career. [553:7] This would give us the story of the labors of Hercules. [553:8] This is the Sun as _Seva_. [553:9] Here again we have the Sun as Siva the _Destroyer_. [553:10] Here we have Apollo, Achilleus, Bellerophon and Odysseus. [553:11] This would give us the story of Samson, who was "the friend of the children of men, and the remorseless foe of those powers of darkness" (the Philistines), who had stolen away his bride. (See Judges, ch. xv.) [554:1] This would give us the stories of _Thor_, the mighty warrior, the terror of his enemies, and those of Cadmus, Romulus or Odin, the wise chieftains, who founded nations, and taught their people knowledge. [554:2] This would give us the story of Christ Jesus, and other Angel-Messiahs; Saviours of men. [554:3] This would give us the stories of spellbound maidens, who sleep for years. [554:4] This is Hercules and his counterparts. [554:5] This again is Hercules. [554:6] This would depend upon whether his light was obscured by clouds, or not. [554:7] This again is Hercules. [554:8] This is Apollo, Siva and Ixion. [554:9] Rev. G. W. Cox. [555:1] Who has not heard it said that the howling or whining of a dog forebodes death? [555:2] Bunce: Fairy Tales, Origin and Meaning. [556:1] Quoted by Bunce: Fairy Tales. [557:1] See Bunce: Fairy Tales, p. 34. [558:1] "The _Sun_," said _Gaugler_, "speeds at such a rate as if _she_ feared that some one was pursuing her for her destruction." "And well she may," replied _Har_, "for he that seeks her is not far behind, and she has no way to escape but to run before him." "And who is he," asked _Gaugler_, "that causes her this anxiety?" "It is the _Wolf_ Sköll," answered _Har_, "who pursues the Sun, and it is he that she fears, for he shall one day overtake and devour her." (Scandinavian _Prose Edda_. See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 407). This Wolf is, as we have said, a personification of _Night_ and _Clouds_, we therefore have the almost universal practice among savage nations of making noises at the time of eclipses, to frighten away the monsters who would otherwise devour the Sun. [558:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 103. [559:1] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 308. [559:2] Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 65. [559:3] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 1. [560:1] As the hand of Hector is clasped in the hand of the hero who slew him. There, as the story ran, the lovely Helen "pardoned and purified," became the bride of the short-lived, yet long-suffering Achilleus, even as Iole comforted the dying Hercules on earth, and Hebe became his solace in Olympus. But what is the meeting of Helen and Achilleus, of Iole and Hebe and Hercules, but the return of the violet tints to greet the Sun in the _West_, which had greeted him in the East in the morning? The idea was purely physical, yet it suggested the thoughts of trial, atonement, and purification; and it is unnecessary to say that the human mind, having advanced thus far, must make its way still farther. (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 822.) [560:2] The black storm-cloud, with the flames of lightning issuing from it, was the original of the dragon with tongues of fire. Even as late as A. D. 1600, a German writer would illustrate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth. (Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 342.) [561:1] M. Bréal, and G. W. Cox. [562:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 59. [562:2] Ibid. [562:3] Ibid. p. 181. [562:4] Book iv. ch. i. in Anac., vol. i. p. 137. [562:5] P. 6. [562:6] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 33. [562:7] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 33. [562:8] Williams' Hinduism, p. 88. [563:1] Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 260. APPENDIX D. We maintain that not so much as one single passage purporting to be written, _as history_, within the first hundred years of the Christian era, can be produced to show the existence _at_ or before that time of such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ, or of such a set of men as could be accounted his disciples or followers. Those who would be likely to refer to Jesus or his disciples, but who have not done so, wrote about: A. D. 40 Philo.[564:1] 40 Josephus. 79 C. Plinius Second, the Elder.[564:2] } 69 L. Ann. Seneca. } Philosophers. 79 Diogenes Laertius. } 79 Pausanias. } Geographers. 79 Pompon Mela. } 79 Q. Curtius Ruf. } 79 Luc. Flor. } 110 Cornel Tacitus. } Historians. 123 Appianus. } 140 Justinus. } 141 Ælianus. } Out of this number it has been claimed that one (Josephus) spoke of Jesus, and another (Tacitus) of the Christians. Of the former it is almost needless to speak, as that has been given up by Christian divines many years ago. However, for the sake of those who still cling to it we shall state the following: Dr. Lardner, who wrote about A. D. 1760, says: