Fishes Flowers and Fire - 9781440069857

CLASSIIC
RE.PRIINT
SIERIIES
FISHES, FLOWERS, AND FIRE

As Elemenes and Deities inthe Phallic Faiths &
Worshlp of the Ancient Religions ofGreece,
Babylon, Rome" India
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ISBN 9781440069857
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FISHES, FLOvVE S, AND FIRE

\VORS IP.

I

I
AS
ELEMENTS
l~
AND
THE
DEITIES
OF
nm
RELIGIONS
OF
ANCIENT
WITH
ILLUSTRATIVE
MYTHS
AND
LEGENDS.
PRIVATELY
PRINTED.
A.
READER,
ORAl\"GE
STREET,
RED
Lrox
SQt·ARE,
LONDON.
PREFAG
TlIE
fifth, ~n further the first
nolwme
now
in
the 'rea ers
hands
forms
the
and, for Series
the present,
II
he concludin,q
portion to iSS1J.e in
of the "Phallic
it was
/0
end necessary matters
explication
of certain
set forth
book on this peculiar dealt Round and with Sex
subj ct. Wor hip and generally, Stones, has of

W~
lfaving latrceia, Fishes, well the
OpldoTrees ,
Towers Fire,
Holed
Flowers, and
the [/10und
been )J1'etty Appendix, the subject that the with
covered,
urith. the except 'on
which future is now
demands
may 1)ossibl1 call forth,
complete. volume will
It
is confide tly
expected
present
matter,
be jound
a number
interesting
those which and
have preceded contains to,
it , it opens up enti1·ely new

oj curious traditions not
before alluded

I
vni.
ClIAPTF.R
<":OXTEXTS.
Y.
(FIlm)
,............................................
Story of the Fire-god and his Secret-Growth of Fire Worship -Fire an essential in Hindoo Worsllip-The Chaldeans-Thc Persians-The IIebrews-Firc in Hindu Ceremonies-Dlltics of Hindu Life-Tho Serpent and Pirc-e Phnllo-Pythic Solar Shrines -Fire and Phallic Worship-Leaping through fire-Fire·treading in Scotland-c-Fire-leupinp in Russia-Tho Medes as Firo Worshippers-The Sabines-Fire and the Ancient Christians-'l'he Roman Church and Fire-The Jews-Templo of Vesta-.F'irc Worship in Ireland-Phallo-fire-worship of the Greeks and Romans.
ClTAPTEH
VI.
(FIRE)
Fi re W orsh ipin the States of the M cdi terra nean -S pec ill] sacredness of the Public City-fire of Greece and Rome-The Sacred F'ire of Tlachtga-Ceylon Fire Worship-e-The Parsees-iPersian Monument.s-e-I m piety of Cambyses-Cingn.lese Terms, Sansorit, Welsh, &c.-The Yule Log- Fire Worship in England-> Fire of BeItane-Druidical Fires-May-day Fires-November Fires in J rel and - Between two Fires-Scotland-The Summer Solstice-fire Ceremonies-e- W orsh i p of Baal ill Ireland -St. John's Day-Bonfires-Decree of Council of Constantinople.
CHAPTER
VII.
(FIRE)
_...............
Paradise Lost and Moloch-The God of the Ammonites-The slaughter of Children by Pire, notices in the Scriptures-Fire Ceremonies and Moloch-Sncred Fire of tho Phcenicians-The Carfhaginians - Custom of Oziese - Sardinian Customs and Moloch-s-T'ha Cuthites-Persian Fire Worship-Honse-fires of Greece and Home-Sacred Books of the East-Laws of Manu-> The lUg Veda und Hymns to Agni, the God of Fire-Vesta, Worship of-The Mngi=-Zoroaster.
I
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
OHAPTER I
AND
FIRE.
Frequent oeew'renee of the Fish S1 mbol-Fish HeraldryEarliest DeL'ices-Fish Devices in ch» rchee and other public buildings-The Gatacombs-Ichthuslish Devices in Glastonbury A obey, &c.-The Book Fish-G sgow Fish Arms-'l'he Fish and Ring Story of Scotland-So man and the Fish and Ring-'l'he Hermit's Fish Pond of -'t. Areot's-The Sacred Perch-'l'he DolJ;hineptune. E\V, if any, symbols are of su h frequent occurrence among the relics of bygone ag s as that of the fish. \Vhether we look upon the monuments f Babylon and Nineveh, upon the walls of the Roman Cat, combs where the early Christians sousrht it refuse from tl e fury of their Fa-ryan o 0 0 persecutors, or amongst the heraldic evices adopted by our ancestors as coats of arms in camp ratively modern times, the fish is ever prominent. \Vith re ard to the latter, it is certainly remarkable to what an xtent it prevails, and several writers on Heraldry (particul rrly ::\10u1e) have given us very full accounts and graphic illustrations of its use. Nor is it one kind of fish only we fi d thus employed, which might perhaps be associated with some special myth or tradition-the dolphin, the herring, th salmon, tbe trout, the pike, the barbel, the roach, the sale, he turbot, the flounder, the haddock, the cod, the hake, the ling, the whiting, the mullet, the grayling and others have all been pressed into the same service, and even the differe t modes of taking fish by the spear~ the net, or the h ok, are found in the armorial ensigns of the lords of manor deriving revenue from the produce of the fishery, "The bo ts," says Moule, "employed in the same service, which w re at the command of the sovereign in time of war, and fo rued the original navy of Britain, distinguish the ensigns of he maritime lords, and the corporate bodies to whom the j risdiction of the ports was entrusted." B

I
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
A:s'D FIRE
WORSHIP.
It is 11 t unlikely that the vast numbers of fishes and their crrcat -ariety llIay have had much to do with their emplo;ulf'ut in this connection; some years ago the Dritish l\Iuseu m COl tained fifteen hundred different species, while the museum III Paris-one unusually rich in spocimans of this part of th animal kiugdom-s-possessed as Ulany as five thousand, a number which has steadily gone on increasing. "As the sy bol of a name, al most all tish have been used In II eraldry and in many instances fish have been assumed in arms in reference to the produce of the estate, gIVIng to the qua nt device a twofold interest. They are borne uprigh t and xtended, and w hen feeding arc term eel devouring; Allumr', wh n their eyes are bright, and Parne when their mouths are pen." * "The e rliest known device of fish, the zodiacal SIgn, is cmulemat cal of the fishery of the Nile, commencing in the month of February, about the time when the sun enters Pisces, which is the best season for fishing, according to Pliny Modern travellers rei ate that the walls of the temple of enderah are literally covered with magnificent sculpture an painting. The figures representing the ~odiac are on the ceiling of the portico, and arc engraved in the great w rk on Egypt published by order of the French Government. The signs of the Zodiac were frequently sculptured 0 the exterior of ancient churches, presenting :I. sort of r ral calendar for the labours of the field each month in tll year, which was of practical use.
'"\ hen in the Zodiac the fish wheel round, 'I' ey loose the floods and irrigate the ground.'
of
, 0
directions old Tusser

the coast,
to the
says:
husbandman
for the
j,
month
man, ride, Lent
stuff provide
with
another
couplet
in encouragement
of the
fisherman,
, The land doth will, the sea doth wish, Spare sometimes flush, and feed off fish.'
"The Z diacal signs also appear as an ornament on nntique vase, coins, pavements, &c., and are paintcd in IJl·ight colour 011 the inside of several mummy cases now in the British M useuru. A man u scri pt in the Cottonian Library show the sign Pisces having a connecting line from the tail of ach fish." '* .. Monle's Heraldry.
ES,
FLO"\YERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
On mallY c urches and other buildings both in England and on the cont nent the same device is found. The porch of the Virgin . t Xotre Dame at Paris has a number of compartments re resenting the zodiacal signs and the labours of the different months. The doorway of the church of St. J\fargaret, York, is similarly adorned, as is one of the porches of Merton Call ge, Oxford. The western doorway of IfRey Church, said to be one of the most beautiful specimens of Anglo-N orman architecture in England, bears the sign of the fishes. In Canterb 1'Y Cathedral also is a pavement of large stones, somewha rudely inlaid, bearing figures of the zodiacal signs in circular compartments. The fishes are attached by a line passing rom mouth to mouth. Tn tbe Ro ian Catacombs the fish is frequently found amongst the co utless inscriptions with which the walls are crowded. Maitl nd describes it as there found as a symbol expressive of t.li name of Christ, and remarkable as affording a combinati n of everything desirable in a tessera, or mystic sign. T 10 Greek for fish, tXOls, contains the initials of I )]O'O'V'), X P to' 0') Gwv Yto') "S,(J)TT} p: Jes us CIJL'ist, SOil of God, the Saviou j a sentence which had been adopted from the sibylline ve ses. Moreover the phonetic sign of this word, the actu I fish, was an emblem whose meaning was entirely conceale from the uuinitiated : an important point with those who were surrounded by foes ready to ridicule and blaspheme hatever of Christianity they could detect. N or did the ap ropriateness of the symbol stop here. " The fish," observed Tertulliau, "seems a fit em blem of Him whose spiritual hildren arc, like the offspring of fishes, born in the water a baptism." * "On walls, as well as tombstones, we find the Fish, Phccnix, Anchor Ship, Olive and Palm, all of which are sacred to the ad of Fertility or the procreative energies. The fish, we a e told, was adopted by those Christians because of the al habetieal rebus-the Greek word I. K. 'I'h, U. S. containing the i itial letters of the words forming this title in Greek, 'Jesu Christ, Son of Gael, Saviour;' but Ikthus was a holy na e in Egypt and the East, long ere Greece had adopted he varied faiths, and long before the good
'*
faitland's
Church in the Catacombs.
}'ISlIES,
FLOWEHS,
AXD
lHE
wonsmr.
Nazarene had preached his holy gospel in the wilds of Judea, The 1-:1 ebrew for fish is g, Dag or De-ag, which some think may have sprung from the Sansei-it De-De v, and Ag or Ab, and be allied to t 1P, solar Ak, and Aqua, water, Dagan was the fish-god ( lheiin) of the Philistines, and spelling Dug backwards as wa so common and natural, seeing some peoples read from righ to left, and others from left to right, we get Gad, the g ad one, that is God 01' Goddess of Day, as in I'sa. l xv, 11, where, in connection with Meni the moon, we rend: 'Ye are they that prepare a table for Gad, and that furnish the offering unto Melli;' which Bagster's Comprehensive Hi Ie admits to be stars or such objects. Dag, says Cnlrnet, ignifies Preserver, and so Saviour, which has many ancient connections with fish and water, as we see ill the case of agon, St. Augustine snid of Christ: 'He is the grent Fisl that lives in the midst of the waters;' so no wonder' tli rt Lchthus, a fish, should become a holy term, and applied to Christ's representative, who in token wears a Poitrine a his higher officers wear what is called a mitre or tur an like a fish's mouth. Christ, being a. ] Iebrew, of cou rs received the title Tkthus from his Greek followers, just he got L H.S.-the monogra.m of Daccluis-c-Eroui those wlho forsook that god to follow Cln-istianity. There is n thing sacred about such matters. Tch or Ik, or Ak =Ab, at once Our Father and water; and in Lndin the fish is he gael of the water, and so we have Deo-ab, from which m 1y come Deg-an 01' Dagon. Th e G reeks, of cou rse, used Titus or theus, and so Lk-theus OL' God-Ik; at any rate Cln-istiu 15 have made Jk-thus a veritable God, and wnter its el ment a yel'y holy thing. The most ancient Koltie tongues oem to identify the two, fOL' water in Gaelic is Ui8!Je, be water of life being \Vi!';gc (whiskey), and It fish Iasg, or in old Trish, Iskn. 01' Isch», which is an Eastern term for Jesus, If V or Fthe digRm ilia-is here admissible, then \... ani ve \'ery near e out' own word Fish. Perhaps V slmoo, Vicnu 01' Fishnoo, is responsible here, for he is til first who rises out of the water, and from a lisli ; and from his first incaruat.ion to his last, lie is always connect d with both," * " Fish" says M oule, (' have of en bccn made the vehicle
• Forlong.

I
FISHES,
FLOWE
S, AND FIRE
'YORSIIIP.
of religious instruction, and for this purpose all the fine arts have been put in requisitio. Amongst many pictures by the first masters in which the finny tribe are introduced, that of Saint Anthony, of Pad a, preaching to the fish, may be mentioned. This fine pict re, by Sal vator Rosa, is in the collection at A lthorp II ouse in N orthamptonshire; the sermon itself is given in Addison' Travels in Italy. "On the conventual eal of Glastonbury Abbey are represented the figures 0 Saint Dunstan between Saint Patrick and Saint Benignu j each has his emblem beneath his feet j the last has arty of fish: perhaps, adds the historian of the abbey, also preached to them, as Saint Anthony did. "A fish furnishing University of Cambridge with a religious feast was the f) casion of a tract, entitled 'Vox Piscis j or, the Book-fish;' containing three treatises which were found inside a cod fish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer Eve, 1676. Th s fish is said to have been taken in Lynn deeps, and after nding a book within it, the fish was carried by the bedel t the vice-chancellor; and coming as it did at the couunenc uien t, the very time when good learning and good cheer w re most expected, it was quaintly remarked, that this sea gu st had brought his book and his carcass to furnish both. In the arms of the city of Glasgow, and in those of the ancient see, \1. SILl on with a ring in its mouth is said to record a miracle of St. Kentigern, the founder of the see and the first bi hop of Glasgow. On the reverse of Bishop Wisharb's seal i 1 the reign of Edward IL, this supposed allusion to the egendary story of St. Kentigern appears for the first time. Some of the early b shops of Glasgow displayed the figure of a salmon, either on the sides of or below the shield of arms on their se Is, a circumstance which may be accounted for, without ref rence to a miracle, as depicting the produce of the Clyde. The revenue of the church of Glasgow at the Reforma ion included one hundred and sixty-eight salmon arising from the franchise or fishing III that ri vel'. James Cameron, Lord Privy Seal to King James I. of Scotland and bishop of lasgow in 1462, bore on his episcopal seal the figure 0 St. Kentigern in a tabernacle,
I{
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
ASD
FIRE
WORSHIP.
below
salmon
which are I is paternal arms, three bars, having a with a ring in its mouth on either side of the shield, which is surmounte by tho mitre. The ring is, perhaps, a. type of the ar nulnr money, then current among the Britons. "It is curious to note how the emblem of the same fish has continued to enter into the composition of the Glasgow arms and hose of the ecclesiastical establishment. "Tho diocese of Glasgow was erected into an archbishopric ill 1491, with Galloway, Argyll and the Isles as suffragans. Jame Deaton, archbishop of Glasgow and abbot of Dumferm ine, the uncle of Cardinal Beaton, died primate of ScotIan in 1539. Many muniticent marks of his public spirit a d piety long resisted time, and remained after the cathedral ceremonies had been deserted for the plain offices of the kirk of Scotland. n On the wall of the Episcopal Palace or Castle of Glasgow were scul tured the arms of Beaton-azure, a fess between three mn cles, or, quartered with Balfour, argent, on a chevron sabl and otter's head erased of the first, and below th e shi Id, a sal mon wi th a ring in its mouth, as represented on he seals of his predecessors. " Another A r hbishop Beaton re-founded the Scotch College at Paris It 1603, where, as a monument to his memory, arc his rms, surmounted by thc episcopal hat, and beneath the s rield the fish and ring, the emblem of the see of Glasg 'Y. In more recent times .. rchbishop A Cairncross, in 168·, bore the arms of the see impaled with his pate mal coat. "The arms of the city of Glasgow are those of the former see, argent 011 a mount a trec with ;t bird on It branch to the de ter, and a bell pendent on the sinister side, the stem of a tree surmounted by a salmon in fess ha ving in its ruou h a gold ring." * Dr. Dibclin s; ys, "The legend of the 'Fish and the Ring,' is extant it well nigh eyery chap-book in Scotland; old Spotswood is ,1lI011g the earliest historians who garnished lip the dish from the Latin monastic legends, and Messrs. Smi th, 1\1 c.Lellau nd Cleland, ha ve not fail eel to quote his words. They repol t of St. Kentigern, tha.t a lady of good
'" Moulu's Jf eraldry.
FISH
S, FLOWERS,
AND FIRF.
,'WRSHIP.
.. ,
place in the cou try having lost her ring as she crossed the river Clyde, nd her husband waxing jealous, as if she had bestowed the same on one of her lovers, she did mean herself unto Kentjgern, entreating his help for the safety of her honour; and that he, going to the river after he had used his devotion, willed one who was making to fish, to bring the first t at he caught, which was done. In the mouth of this fisl he found the ring, and sending it to the lady, she was the eby freed of her husband's suspicion. The credit of this I elieve upon the reporters j but however it be, the see and ity of Glasgow do both of them bear in their arms a fish with a ring in its mouth even to this Moulo rema ks that" the classical tale of Polycrates, related by Hero otus a thousand years before tbe time of St. Kentigern, is perhaps the earliest version of the fish and ring, which has often been repeated with variations. The ring, Herod tus says was an emerald set in gold and beautifully engra ed, the work of Theodorus the Samian j and this very I' ng, Pliny relates, WfLS preserved in the Temple of Conca d at Rome, to which it was given by the Emperor Augustus. The device of the fish is engraved in 1\1. Claude Parad u's "Het'vicfLl Devices" as an emblem of uninterrupted pro pcrity." "1£ we turn to chapter xxxviii. of )'Iaholllet's Koran, we find the story of the fish and the ring in another form. The note upon he words->-' We placed on his throne a counterfeit body,' says: 'The most received €'xposition of this paRsage is a ken from the following Tal mu dic ffLble: Solomon, having taken Sidon, and slain the king of that city, brought aw y his daughter .Jerada, who became his favourite j and be sause she ceased not to lament her father's loss, he ordered he devils to make all image of him for her consolation: which being done, and placed in her cham bel', she an 1 her maids worshipped it morning and evening, accordin to their custom. At length Solomon being informed 0 this idola.try, which was practised under his roof by his VIZIer, Asaf, he broke the image, and having chastised he woman went out into the desert, where he wept and made supplications to God; who did not think fit,
""Northern Tour.
day."
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
A~D
FIRE
WOHSHIP.
however, to let his negligence Prl.SSwithout some correction. It " as S loman's v custom, while he washed himself, to entrust his signet, on which his kingdom depended, with a concubin of his named Amina : one day, therefore, when she had U e ring in her custody, a. devil named Sakhar came to h r in the shape of Solomon, and received the riug from ier ; by virtue of which he became possessed of the kingdo u, and S<:Lton the throne in the shape which he had bo rowed, makiug what alterations in the law he pleased. 'olomon, m the mean time, being changed in his outwar nppea.ra.nce and known to none of his subjects, was oblige to wander about and 'Leg alms for his subsistence; ti 1 at length, after the space of forty (hys, which was the ti ne the image had been worshipped in his house, the devil fl W <:LWft,Y and threw the signet into the sea ; the signet was immediately swallowed by a fish, which being taken and givcn to Solomon, he found the ring in its belly, and having by this means recovered the kingdom, took Sakh: r, and, tying n grcat stone to his neck, threw him iut.o the lake of Tibcrias." One 0 the windows of St. Neat's ell urch, Carll wall, contains tll history of that saint known as the pious sacristan of G laston ury Abbey, "perlmps/' SfLyS Moule "the only instance of the legend of a local saint so represented, and one of the most splendid specimens of stained glass in the kingdom. he hermit's fish-pond, now remaining in the vall ey near his eli, afforded materinls for one of the legendary tales now represented in the window. In this pool there were three fish es, of wit ich N eot had di vine permission to take on every clay, with an assurn.nce that the supply should nev r be diminished. Being afflicted with rt severe Indisposition, his disciple ll:1.,l'ius one day caught two fishes, and huvin boiled one and broiled the other, placed them before hi m 'Wlmt hast thou done l' exclaimed Neat j 'la, the favour of God deserts us: go instantly and restore these fishes to the water.' \Vhile Bnrius was absent Neat pros· t.rutorl hi Hi. elf ill earnest prayer, till he returned with the intelligence that thc fishes were disporting in the pool. Barius again went and took only one fish, of which Neat had no sooner tast d than he was restored to perfect health."*
'" Gorhum. Hist, S. Neots.
FISHES,
FLQ'inmS,
AX}) FIRE
WORSHIP.
species of perch, common in the Mediterranean, is of a iilliant scarlet colour, but with a ve1'Y strong spinal fin, ai d, from the resemblance of this spine to a razor, it is named le barbver, This fish is held sacred among the divers for marine productions, and when caught by a hook, it is i rstan tly relieved by the rest of the shoal cutting the line 0 the angler with their sharp spines. II 'he dolphin, as ~L most peculiarly sacred fish, was called Philan hropist by the ancients, and said to delight in music. It saved the great bard Arion when be threw himself into the ::\ editerranean on his way to Corinth, which event is said t have happened in the seventh century B.C., or about the ti ne the story of Jonah arose. The Greeks placed the dol phil in their Zodiac. Burckhardt sn.ys in his travels in Nubia, that no one is permitted to throw a lance at or injure a dolphin in the Red Sea j and the same rule IS enfored alllong most of the Greek islands. " eptuue, the male sea-god of Rome, was identical with Poscid n of Creece, and his temples and festivals were in th e C tnpUS Martius, Poseidon was a brothel' of J upiter ani! luto, and a mighty representative god-man of the waters and of what the sea symbolised j his was the teeming womb of fertility, and therefore woman. His hosts are dol phil s and innumerable sea-nymphs and monsters. His chariot are yoked with horses, which he is said to have create and taught men to HlIwage. His symbol is the phallic trident, 01' rather the Trisool, or 'giver of life' of Siva, hich can cleave rocks, produce water, and shake heaven and earth. The Nephthus of Egypt was the goddess of the coasts of the Hed Sea and the wife of the wicked serpen deity Typhon. The Dolphin as a highly emblematic fish of en stands for Neptune h iui self, although it probably first r se in importance from a mere punning on the words delphis a dolphin, and delphus the womb, and occasionally the p denda. Delphax was also a young pig which was occasio ally oflered to Juno j Delphi was goddess Earth: symbol c chasm, and Delphinius was her Apollo, a.nd from delphi springs the name Delphin or Dauphin, the eldest .son of the King of France." *
4-
Rivers of Life.
eRA P'l'ER Tlie A ncient Sac ,Pillh and the Jew yod at j_YimJ'oud of Dayon at Azo A bst i n-:nce front -s-Paradiee Lost Christian Symbo Ponds-A ncient
II.
ed Filih~l"'illh Diet and its supposed Effects-'Fhe !Jod Krodo-Oanes-Dagon-Tlte Pish· Klioreabod=-Fish. TVol'li/tip in Syria-Temple us-The Dagon of the Bible-s-Adramelech-s' isit Pood- Ancient Clutracter of Fish 1Vor liltiP 'Phs Irish demi-god Phin-The Fish as a -idea 'involred in Fish lVofsMp-IIoly Fish aiedoniasi Objections to Fish-Other anti-fisheat-tug N ations-Ishtar.
rernru ks t.lia t "the fish selected for honour amongst thc ancient was neither fiat, globular, nor cylindrical; it was morc or less oval, and terminated ill a. forked tai l, In shape it wa like the almond, 01' the 'concha) with the , nates.' Its ope 1 mouth resembles the 'as uteri,' still called 'os tincre,' or te rch's mouth. Ancient priests ru:e represented as clothed with Iish, the head being the mitre. 'I'he fish's head as a mitr still adorns the heads of Romish bishops. The fish was sa red to Venus, and was a favourite esculent among the luxurious Romans. The fish was Ill) emblem of fecundity. Tile ord nun, however, in the Hebrew, signifies to sprout, to }J'I. t forth, as well as fish. / and thus the fish symbolises the male principle in an active state. The creat.u re had It ve t'y strong sym bol ic connection with tho worship of .A pi rod ite, and the Romanists still eat it on that day of the veek called Dies Veneris, Venus' Day."
N:\1 AN
"A t the PI' sent time there ure certain fish \V hieh arc to give greatly increased virile pO\ver to those who eat them. I h \'8 (proceeds Inman) indistinct recollection of a. similur fl~c hn.villg been recorded in Athenreus, who quotes Thcoph ra: ttl s as Ii is au thori ty. Th e passage is to the effect, that n. liet on a certain fish enabled an Iridian prInce to show one hundred proofs of his manhood in a single day. The same writer mentions goat's flesh as having something of til ~ S1LlllC effect. The Assyrian Oannes was represented as II. man-fish, awl the Capricorn or goat with fish tail, in til e Zodiac, is said to ha ve been au emblem of hi Ill.
supposed
FISHES
FLOWERS,
AND FIRE
1yonSIIIP.
11
"The fish was also associated with Isis, who, like Venus, represented the fe ale element in creation. It was likewise a sacred emblem a ongst the Buddhists. "Since writing the above, I have ascertained that eating fish for supper, 01 Friday night, is It Jewish custom or institution. As an angst that nation fecundity is a blessing specially promised y the Omnipotent, so it is thought proper to use human me llS for ensuring the blessing on the day set apart by the ilmighty. The Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday, nd three meals are to be taken during the day, which ar supposed to have a powerful aphrodisiac operation. The i gredients are meat and fish, garlic and pepper; and the articular fish selected, so far as I can learn, is the skate that which in the Isle of Mall is still supposed to be a owerful satyriou. The meal is repeated twice on a Saturd y. Mons, Lajard bears testimony to the extent of this cus am in the following passage, though he does not directly c ssociate it with the fish, except' that the latter are often se 11 on coins, with the other attributes of Venus. After spec king of the probable origin of the cult, he says-' In out" ays, indeed, the Druses of Lebanon, in their secret vespers offer' a, true worship to the sexual parts of the female, and pay their devotions every Friday nightthat is to say, th day which is consecrated to Venus; the day in which, on is side, the l\:f ussul man finds in the code of Mahomet, the (au LIe obligation to go to the mosque and to perform the con ugal duty.' "* "In 1492, Be e mentions that 'a God Krodo is worshipped in the H a tz, having his feet on a fish, It wheel in one hand and a pa 1 of water in the other-clearly a Vishnoo or Fishnoo solar d ity carrying the solar 01' lunar disk, and the ark or w 01u 1 of fertility. These fish-gods, as Mr. Baring Gould stat s in the case of the American Kox-Kox or 'I'eokipaktli, i.e. fish-god, much resemble the Old Testament Noah, for K x, encountered a flood and rescued himself in a cypress t -un k (a true phallic symbol), and peopled the world with wi e and intelligent beings.' His full title mixes him up wi h the 'flesh-god' idea of Hebrews and others, North Am rican Indians relate that they too followed
*" Ancient
Faiths,
vol. i.
13
FISHES,
FLmYERS,
AXD FIRE
WORSIIIP.
<
a fish-man or demi-god from Asia; he was only man from the breasts upward, below he was a fish, or, ndeed, two fish , for each leg was a separate fish." * "It is said Oanes was a man-headed fish, the earliest Hermes or :,'\essenger of God to Kaldia. I erosus says he ate not, yet taught all the arts of geometr , and the harvesting and storing of fruits and seeds. Ever night he retired to the sea (the Female and Holy Spiri), and after him came Messiahs. Helladius called him 0 s, but says he had the feet of a man, and sprang from a m ndane egg. He had a fish's skin, and Higgins says he first taught astrology in Kaldia, The mother of Oanes was war hipped as Venus Atergatcs, 'the good spirit,' and Oanes imself possibly signifies the 'first-born of the Yoni,' the Pro ogonos of Sankuniathon. The Japanese represent their I essiah emcrging like Vishuoo from a fish, and as such ca 1 him Kan-On or Can-on, nnd his temple, Onius, ancl ma e his spirit repose on twelve cushions, just as they do n the case of Fo or Boodhu, showing clearly the solar sign ficance of the whole. So we see a close connection betwe n the Kaldian O-AN or Oanes the Hebrew AON, which in Koptie is the 'Enlightcncr,' and the Egyptian ON. In A morik, Oan and Oanic, and in Irish, U AN is a lamb, c nd in Hebrew Jonas signifies the gentle one, a 'Hevea er' or word from God, and a dove, so that the sum of the whole points to the Sanscrit Y oni. "Pan, Jove's senior brother, used to be called 'a w ha1elike fish,' and he entangled Typhon in his nets and caught him, and yet who so unlike a fish in character as the goat-footed god. "So Boodhu is called Day-Po or Fishpo ; Yishnoo ppears in the first Avatar as a fish, for be is Vicco, F coo or Fish-co, as Christ is Iscli« in Ireland, which is the Welsh Fisclca, J n all lands, fish have proved the saviours 0 many men, and uuiong the fish, the dolphin, as the del hus or womh. She who has dedicated her life to her God \'8 call a nun, and this with Hebrews is a fish, and th Yoni. Fish and birds were called in Asyrian N anu-Ttsurn, yet rio fish spoken of in opposition to a bird was Kha and a bird Kln«. Isis was a brooding bird, yet is generally see 1 with
01'
Rivers
of Life.
FISHES,
FLO'YERS,
•.\_~D FIRE
WORSI IP.
13
a fish on her head. The fish was the first to swallow up the genitals of Osiris, when Typhon caused him to be cut up into pieces and thrown away. "Eating fish was considered to induce v nery even more than beef or garlic, and SheIliitic races r commended 01' ordered such repasts on Frig's Day, or night their Sabbath or Sabbath Eve. Among the Druses of Syria, Layard assures us such matters are still carefully attended to on Venus' or Frig's Eve, adding that 'in secret vespe -s ' these pious persons 'offer a true worship to the sexua parts of the female.' JJ * Oannes and Dag-on (the fish On) are identical. According to an ancient table preserved by Bel' sus, a creature half man and half fish came out of th. t part of the Erythrrean Sea, which borders upon Babyl Ilia, where he taught men the arts of life, to construct c tics, to found temples, to compile laws, and, in short, inst ueted them in all things that tend to soften manuel'S and humanize their lives j and, he adds, that a representative f this animal Oannes was preserved in his day. A figure f him sporting in the waves, and apparently blessing a fleet of vessels, was discovered in a marine piece of sculpture b M. Botta, ill the excavations of Khorsabad. "At Nimroud, a gigantic wm.ge was by Mr. Layard, representing him with the fish's hear as a cap and the body of the fish depending over his sho lders, his legs those of a. man, his left hand holding a l'chly decorated bag, and his right hand upraised as if n the act of presenting the mystic Assyrian fir-cone." (ar~ng Gould's ,iJIyths of the ,JJfiddle Ages,) Mr. Layard, in his interesting work " and its Remains," thus alludes to this·-" I must not omit to allude to the tradition preserved by Berosus, which appears to attribute to a foreign nation, arriving by sea, he introduction at some remote period of civilization and certain arts into Babylonia. According to the historian, thor appeared out of the Ervthrrean or Persian Gulf, an animal endowed with reason, cailed Oaunes, Its body was like t rat of a fish; but under the head of tbe fish was that 0 a man, and added to its tail W8['e 'women's feet. Its 'oice, too, was
I(
.. Riv. Life, Forlong.
FISHES,
FI.OWrmS,
AiiD
FIRE
\\" RSIIIP.
human, and it spoke an articulate Ian uage. During the day it instructed the Chaldreans in lett rs and in all arts and sciences, teaching them to build tel pIes j but at llight it plunged again into the sea. Five suel monsters appeared at different epochs ill Babylonia, and we e called 'Annedoti' (coming out of, or proceeding from). T Ie first was named the Musnrus Oannes, and the last Oda on. Their images, he adds, were preserved in Cha.ldrca even to this day. (This hagmcnt of Bcl'oSUS is preserved b Apollodorus, See Cory's Fragments.) 'In a bas-relief from Korsabad r presenting a na val eugagement, or the seige of a city or the sea coast, we have the god nearly as described by Be ·osus. To the body of a man as far as the waist, is joine the tail of a fish. The three-horned cap, surmounted by th flower in the form of a flour-de-lis, as \VOI'll by the winged figures of the basreliefs, marks the sacred character, The right hand is raised a<; in the representations of the winged deity in the circle. This figure is in the sca amongst fish nd marine animals. Oil Assyrian cylinders and germs tI e same symbolical figure is very frequently found, even mo e closely resern bling in its form the description of Berosus, numerous instances of which are giyen in Lajard's large ,v rk on the \Vorship of Venus. "This Fish Worship extended to S ria, and appe[1J"s to have been more prevalent in that coun ory than in Assyria. The Dagon of the Philistines of Ashdad evidently resembled the figure on the Assyr-ian sculptures al d cylinders. \Vhen it fell before the n.rk, the head and both the palms of his hands were cut oft' upon the thresl old j only the fishy part of Dagon was left to him. (1. S muel, v. 4; see the margi nnl reading.) The same idol is en tioned in Judges xvi. The meaning of the word in Tebrew is 'a fish." Although the image, like that of the ssyrians, appea.rs to have been originally male j at a later period, it became female in Syria, as we learn from Lu inn (de Deft Syria), and Diodorus Siculus, who describes he idol at Ascalon with the face of a woman and body f It fish. (Lib. ii.) All icthyolutry, connected with Dercet or Atergates, was perhaps confounded with the worship of Dagon." *"
* Nineveh,
&(J.
FISHES,
FLOWEH~,
A~D
FIRE
'YORSIJIP.
15
"In Azotus, or Asdotus, a renowned city of the hilistines, there was 11 celebrated temple of Dagon in whic 1 the inhabitants kept the ark of the covenant, in presen e of the idols. And when they arose early in the morninjr, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground befor the ark of the Lord, and the head of D1tgon and both he palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold j and rah dagon nischar aghhju, that is, as H. D. Cimchi explains it, only the form of a fish was left to him. (T Samuel, v. 4.) For Dag and Dagah are words interpreted to mean fish, whence he was called Dagon. The sacred cripbu res, in Hebrews, bestow on him the masculine gender, . nd Sf) do the authors of the Greek version. Philo 13iblius says of Dagon, that he is a fruiterer and the son of C Ius, and thus thinks he should be called, because he tirst iscovered fruit. For Dagon in Hebrew is translated hy t 1C Creek word Siton, which means fruit. He is also said t be the inventor of the plough, therefore 'vas named .eus the plougher, as if he were ,T upiter, t.he president of agr culture. "Ptolemus says that Ceres was ca.lled Sit alIlong the Syracusans, from the same Greek word Sito, But he is mistaken; for, while he derives it from Da.go (which means fruit), he should have deduced it. from DaO' (which means a fish). There is the most ancien t testimon au tsicle of the Bible in regard to this god of Asia in what Berosus, A pollodorus, and Polyhistor write concerning Oan Oannes is mentioned as a two-headed animal; that those of human beings grew from his tail, and tha the rest of him is a fish. His voice was likewise human, nd they say that, emerging from the Red Sea, he caine to Babylon, but that he returned to the sca at sunset. He did this -every day as if he were an amphibious animal, rom him men learned all the various n.rts, letters, agriculture, the consecration of temples, architecture, political goverm ent, and whatever could possibly pertain to civilised life, and the most wonderful history of Belus and Omorea. His image was preserved down to the time of Berosus, that i', to the beginning of the Grecian monarchy. This marine god can be no other than Dagon, whose history is found in SamueL lIe was worshipped not only by the Philistines, bu by the Babylonians also. Apollodorus, from the same Berosus, narrates more extensively of four Oannes, called A medotos,
16
FISHES,
}'LO'YERS,
A:-i'D FIlm
WORSHIP.
who likewise in the lapse of ages appeared out of t ie Red Sea, everyone of whom was half man and half fisl. Rut in the time of A~doracus, king of the Chaldea s, who preceded the del uge It few ages, another similar figure appeared, who was called Odakon. Dngoll is undo btedly intended and referred to in this fable of Odakon, A ydenos speaks of a second A nnedot.os, and bestows on h m the form of a senli-demon. Helladius Besant.inus speak of a certain mall of the name of Oleus arising out of t e Red Sea, whose head, hands and feet were human, but t rat the other mom bers of the body were those of a fish at d that he taught letters, and the science of astronomy, As all these references are so applicable to the Oannes of esorus, it is more than probable that the librarian made the uistake in the name of abbreviation in the copy. "\Vhat has been extracted from the Scriptures and what has been suid from the w ri tiugs of the ancien ts w II convince anyone that the figure of Dagon was a. mix ure of the human and marine form. His body was mari e, and his face, hands, and feet were human. "The Scriptures say expressly that his hands a id feet were cut off, or broken, when he fell before the ark of the Testament. These ancients wrote that his feet grew to his tail. The Scriptures make him a masculine god, b t what has been said elsewhere of tbe common sex of tl e gods should be here considered, for this very Dagon W[LS hanged into the goddess Adirdaga, that is, Atergatis, A( argatis, Derceto, and those other names mispronounced y the Europeans. It is certain that the Phcenician and hbylon goddess is the very same figure as Dagon, if you will change the sex. Lucianus describes briefly the image of Del ceto as seen by him in Phomicia, and it answers to that of Dagon. But also among other grcnt writers the goddess of Hi rapol is is called Derceto, or Atergfttis. ".Macrohius contends that, with the figures of A ergatis, she is Astarte, t.hat very mother of gods, and he d es not spen.k of her as a.ny other than that goddess of Hient olis. " Unless she had been half fish, she would by have been called Derceto. But A tCl'gatis, Adergatis, Derceto, Dcrce, Acbrgidis, Atargatis, all of which of this goddess, are corrupt words, and from n A ar A means a.rgata, names ardagn,

I
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
A~D
FIRE
WORSHIP.
17
wlrich in Hebrew means a magnificent or potent fish. This name was surely most suitable for Oannes, who is said to have conferred so many benefits on mankind. "In the same way the Sepharvites called their god .Arlramelcch, which means a magnificent king. In the fables there is generally no other reason for the figure than that because formerly Dirce, the daughter of Venus, hs ving fallen into the sea, was by fish preserved from all injuries of the waters, or on account of the metamorphosis of Tenus into a fish, .... vhen she was running away terrified at t re horrible advances of the monstre Typhon. ":Manilius, in his Astronomicon, book fourth, says:~
"Yhen Heaven grew weak and a successful fig It, The g(1ints raised and gods were saved by flight, From snaky Typhon's arms, a fish's shape Saved Venus and scoured b er from a rape. Euphrates hid her, and from thence his streams Owe all obedience to the fish's beams.'
"Or because a fish carried from the Euphrr tes an egg of wonderful size, which a dove kept warm, a d hatched the Syrian goddess; hence it 'was that they nbs nined from the eating of fish. They feared that if they ate those animals the vengeance of the goddess would be ar used: that the limbs of their body would swell; that they would be covered by ulcers, and consumed by wasting disease Plutarch says of the Pythagoreans, that of sea creatures the especially abstained from eating the fish called mulletnel urtic. They abstained from eating any kind of fish i 1 order to instruct men and accustom themselves to acts of iust.ice, for they say that fish neither do nor are capable of doing us harm. Others abstained from fish, the same a thor s<tys, because man arose from a liquid substance, an therefore they worship fish as of the same production an breeding with them scl ves, "Anaximander says that men were first p oeluced in fish, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown out, and so lived upon the land. So he contends that fishes were our common parents. "Xenophon, in his Anabasis, speaking of the river Chalos, says it was filled with large and gentle sh, which the Syrians worshipped as gods. N either would t ley permit them to be injured.
c
I
18
FISHES,
FLOWERS
AXD
FIRE
'YORSIIIP.
"These stories about fi h are by no means the growth of the more ancient ages, f r about the time of the return of the Israelites from Egy tian bondage, the Tyrians were in the hahit of taking fish to Jerusalem f01' sale. In N eherniah x iii, v. 1G the w rds are as follows: • There elwell men of Tyro also therein, w ich brought fish, and all manner of ware and sold on the sab at.h, unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalern.' .A t th s time the Jews were not free from the profane rites of t eir neighbours, pa.rticulurly such as had taken their wives f am among the Philistines, who especially worshipped Dagon To eat fish 01' to sell them on the public market-place vas surely a great indignity to the god. There were certain fish sacred among other nations, as Pompilius alllong the Grecians, Anguilla among the Egyptians, and others among the Pythagoreans, In the same way as fish, so were also (aves held in great honour out of favour to this god. It is, however, well known that doves were sacred to Y cnus, and she is Derceto. "The temple of Dagon is called Beth-Dagon, which is pur'e Hebrew. (See 1. Muc abeus x., ~3.) 'The horsemen also being scattered in the Iield, fled to Azotus and went into Beth-Dagon, t.heir idol' temple, for safety.' Venus of the Ascalonites-that is De ccto-has the very same name with Herodotus, as Mylitta, .Alittn, and the mother of the gods, and about the temple of the goddess of Hierapolis fish and doves were receive as sacred, and in her honour, no less t.han where Derceto was worshipped. " 'llaradise Lost' has t ie following of this deity:Who mourned in earnest, Maimed his brute image, In his own temple ou th Where he fell flat, and s Dngon his name, sea-m And downward fish: yet Reared in Azotus, dreade Of Palestine, in Gath an And Accaron and Gaaa'a 'Next came one when the capti ve ark heads and hands lopped grunsel edge, amed his worshippers; nater, upward man had his temple high through the coast Ascalon, frontier bounds." * off
"Phin.-The old Irish demi-god Pin or Fin seems to have been a form of L'iueua, and, like him, was a son of Hermes, sharing, with the Budh or Da- Beoe, the exalted
~ Selden's ~yrian Deities.
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
19
title of Bar-en- li, Son of the One G ad. It was Fin who conquered the dragon or put down serpent worship and established all the holy rites connected with Crones or Lingams, and, strangely enough, Phins or Feni, as Dr. P. 'V. Joyce c lIs them, showed like Eastern Boodhists, a. great liking fa both cha.rrus, which are but small phali, suitable for ca rying or wea.ring on the person. They are exactly like th little Lingas worn on the arms, or secreted on the head r chest of Indian Sivaites, Irish history relates that hristian Feni diligently searched out and revered the teet 1 of St. Patrick. "In the rchon Laws of tho Scnchus Mar, the Feni or Fiannas, or champions, are described as a real historical people and the In \vgi vel'S of I rene. Wha t Arthu r and his knights were to Brythonick, Bt'itish, at' 'Little Briton' Kelts, Fin and his enians were in the two Skotias or among the Skoti. "Before th Pagan Phin was converted, he is described as presiding ov r the Tara assembly 'as a Druid in strangely flowered garmen s ' (note the likeness to Indra and Ilerakles), and wibh a do ble-pointed head-dress, and bearing in his hand a book, Ii e Brahma, Matthew, Vish1100, and the fishy deities of Ass ria, and of the Clonfest Cathedral, County Galway, pietur of which are given by Keane. "The two-l eaded mitre of fishy form, the upright rod, spotted or che uered garment, and basket in hand, distinctly mark th Eastern idea of a great Phalik chief, whilst in the mermai with open book and jaunty arm akimbo, who allows n t even the waters to obscure her sexual oapacitres, we ee the Irish idea of Atargatis or Derketis, at' 'Divine Ke is,' that form of Venus which Juno assumed at Kupros, in he old Kelto-Pelasgian temple of Kupreuses. There, says _D yant, she was worshipped by the Pigalia, Pialia or Pial that is, the worshippers of the Oracle or Pi, who may he called the Pi-i, Phin-i, Pi-ni or Pini, a word v vhieh is possibly the base of the Latin and French terms for the hallus, and which is otherwise of unknown but significant derivation. Macrobius calls Der-Ketis 'the mother of the gods,' and Syrians, 'the receptacle of the gods,' that is, n Erk or Ark, which the fish represented. If we were fully cognisant of the origin of Der-Eetis, it might turn au to be, like the Indian names, a dual or
20
}'ISHES,
FLOWEHS,
AXD
FInE
WOnSIIIP.
Lingo-in Y ni, Thus Brahma, sitting on the lotus, is called liralnna-Yor i" anrl if Der be the J'ovine tree or' Oak, DerKetis woul be simply the bi-sexual name of a supreme god. The mythical Semiramis was a dauglitel' of Der-ketie, "who was cl anged ill to a dove, and her mother into a fish, showing the close intertwining of all these figures by phalJists." * " Chris ians were vcry partial to the fish, but indeed, may be sai 1 to have carried on freely all the ancient irleas, as , v 'hich fa tli has not after its first attempt at purification 1 On Christi, n tombs especially do fish abound, commonly crossed, wh ch reminds us that crossed serpents denote theiract of in te 'course, and in this symbolism the fish "would be Yery natura anrl usual, because denoting new life in death. Dereeto, th half-fish and half-woman of the temple of the Dca Syria at l l ira, was, says Lucian, the perfection of WOm,.11 j sh was the mystic Oanes, Athol', and Venus, whom Egyptians avo handed down to us embalmed. "So th ~ Fat.hers of the Cliu rch have cn.llerl t.heir flocks Piscicul i, at d their bigll-})\'iest a fisherman; a.nd have gn'en to all cardii als and bishops the fish-head of Dagon. "The sh is univ ersnl ly worshipped in all lands as the most fecune nti ve of all crea.tu res j and where most va Ined, the superst tious have offered it in sacrifice to their gods refusing to eat it. Many a time have T trnvelled through a pOOl' and La rren cou II try where it was all man kind Call ld do to live, anrl seen rivers and lakes teeming with fine fish "which I d] reel not touch, or only so by steal til us night carne all, nuch to the annoyance of my followers a.nd myself, and the detri 1I18nt of the people. " We find Phcenicians, Kelts and Syrians specially mentioned as bolding the fish ill the gl'f'atrst reverence, and at different periods of their history not eating it. The hilltribes towa ds the sources of the 1ndus have the same ideas. The Phreni ians picture Dagon and Dorketu the gods of (Io.:a and A s-Kal-on, as Fish Gods, or perhaps we should say :t fish rrod and goddess, fa!' we know they were also Astn.rtian cities. Eiuliera and ItUpl'OH (Cypress) as slnines of A ph rodi 0, vied in the worship of this fruitful E: ubele, nnd Syria I el d the gl'ea t nor-th em s11 II c of Hie ropol is most ii
'*' Forlong.
FISHES,
FLmVERS,
A. D FIRJ<: WQRSIIIP.
21
Cadiz, Rodes, or ne side of her coins, and a fish or Lunette on the other j whilst Syracuse, or rather Soora-Koos, and Soosa alike ield their finny multitudes sacred to Fertility. In these d ys we can imagine what Il" curse these faiths here were a the poor, and, indeed, to humanity." * " The high round hill of Tabor, known to Christians as the 'l\Iount of Transfigurari n,' is called by the Falahin the umbilicus of their great ear h mother Terra-that womb of nature in which we are tra isfigured, To her also they had sacred temples at Askalo and Akcho with suitable holy waters; and still at Tri olis, her very ancient city, do we find her pond of holy ish, which are said to 'fight against infidels,' and to which multitudes still make long pilgrimages, and worsh-ip with fferings and sacrifices. We have often come across simila holy ponds and lakes in India, and been warned off wi h our unholy rod and line. The Venus of Tripolis was Kdishah or Atergatis; indeed the eity is called Kadishah, a name expressive of coarse phallic vices." * "Dian Cassius says the aledonians never taste fish, although their lakes and riv rs furnish an inexhaustible supply. Two 'hoEe fishes' n the seventeenth century occupied a well near the chur h of Kilmore in Argyleshire. They were black-never chan eel colour-neither increased in number HOI' in size in the memory of the most aged. The people believed that n others existed anywhere. 1\lr. ltlal,tin, in his' Western I les,' describes the ceremonies practised by invalids who earn to be cured by the waters of a well at Loch Saint, in tl c Isle of Skye. They drank the water and then moved 1'0 nd the well deasil (sunwise), and before departing left an ffering on the stone. 1\f artin adds that no one would ventu e to kill any of the fish in Loch Saint, or to cut as mucl as a twig from an adjaccnt copse. These customs practised in the end of the seventeenth century, have apparently refer nee to the worship of the sun, the fountain, the fish, and the oak. H The absence of any all sian to the art of catching fish has been used as an rgument 1ll support of the
holy
Gadir·Cades, had Herkales
to
Venus
ItS
the
Fish
all
jfo
Rivers
f Life.
22
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
autl enticity of the poem of Ossian, as well as being corr borative of the statement of Dion Cassius. Fish-eaters was one of the contemptuous epithets which the Scottish Celt applied to the Saxon and other races that settled in the Lowlands of Scotland, and the remains of the superstiti us veneration of fish, or rather abstaining from fish as an rticle of food, is registered by the author of 'Caledonia' as i flucncing the more purely Celtic portions of the British pop lation in the early part of the present century. "Ancient nations that did not eat but worshipped the were the Syrians} Phcenicians, and Celts. But in ristaun, in the remote parts of the Hindu-Cosh} the Cau rs will not eat fish, although it is not said that they wor hip it. They believe in one great god, but have nu erous idols that represent those who were once men and wou en. A plain stone} about four feet high} represents whose shape they say they do not know. One of thei tribes call God Dagon. The fish-god and goddess of the Phceuiciuns were called Dago and Derceto j the worship of agon being more particularly celebrated at Gaza and Ash ad; that of Derceto at Ascalon." * "The old sculptures and gems of Babylon and Assyria furl ish sufficient proof of the worship of Fertility, but wri ers and readers have alike lost the key, or purposely ski ed the subject} and this we have a prominent example of [n the case of the beautiful Assyrian cylinder, exhibiting the worship of the Fish God, which 1\11'. Rawlinson gives us vithout a comment. There we see the mitred man-god wit rod and basket adoring the solar Fructifier, hovering over the fruitful tree from which spring thirteen full buds, whi st behind him stands another adoring winged deity bae ed by a star, a dove, and a yoni. On the opposite side of the Tree of Life is fire, and another man in the. act of adoration, probably the Priest of God} pleading with botl hands open, that tile requests of the other two figures be granted." t "I may state that all that the author of Auc, Mons. wri es in regard to these old faiths thoroughly supports wh I urgeJ though he is far from looking at their features as do, for he clearly knows very little of Eastern Phallic
* Leslie's
t Rivers
}<~arlyRaces of Scotland. of Lifo.
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AXD
23
faiths and their interpretation. is Ishtar or woman, the Stat' in more senses than 0 e ; the Pheenicians call her Astarte, but the 'present Mende n form is Ashtar,' and the plural Ashtaroth. Bunsen derive this representative name from the very coarse, but I fe r perfectly correct source, 'the seat of ih« cow-lias and tor th;' for this is true to the idea of all Hindoos, and shows us that the terms , male' and 'female' originally meant he organs pw' et simple, which indeed the writer of Gen. i. 27 expresses in the words Zakar and Nekabal». In all frican and Arabian dialects, Nana and not Ishtar is the c mmonest term for Mother, the usual initial being :JIa, Ya, Ye, Ni, and rarely Om and On j see the long list of over ne hundred names given by Sir John Lubbock as those f the 'non-Aryan nations of Europe and Asia' and of ' ast Africa.' There we see Ma and even Ama occasionally used for Father, perhaps because among some tribes t Ie strange custom existed of his going to bed to protect ai cl warm the infant as soon I1S born. The almost universal initial sounds for the male ancestor are Pa, Fa, BfL, and in a few instances Del and Ad, and once Od and Ta. I Asia Baba, Aba, Apa, and sometimes Ama occur; now what we want to kuow is the origin of these sounds, bu here philology is silent with seemingly no power to ad van e. This is not the case, however, in regard to the objcctiv roots of religion; here we work with reasoning creatures, a rd can see that the child continues, and that all mankind h ve ever continued to mate, whether in their own kind, or in their gods, the same A's, P's, F's, D's, to males, and I's. N's Om's, Y's to females, and we therefore conclude that those were man's earliest symbols and names for he organs of sex, the Omphe or Mamma of the mother, w hich man had first cognisance of, and the A, Ab or Pa W rich he noticed as the characteristic of the opposite sex. he Assyrian often represented Ishtar as the upright fish, robably because of the fecundat.ive powers of the fish, and s the creature par excellence of water. The great mythic qu en Semiramis, wife of Ninus, the founder of Nineveh or ~inus, was said to have sprung from a fish some twenty-th ee centuries B.C., and to be representative woman, Eva or lary. "The mythic genealogy of Semirami begins with a fish and ends with Ninyas. Her mother was Dorketo the Fish
24
FISlIES,
FLmVERS,
AXD FIlm
WORSHIP.
Goddess of Askalon, in Syria, where she was worshipped as Astarte or Aphrodite. She was famed down to the days of Augustus for her berurty, voluptuousness, virtues ruid vic ,8. There seems no douht but that there was some ruler call d Semiramis, who conquered most of Western Asia, Eg pt and part of Ethiopia, and who attempted India. 11cr fish origin is simply due to her being a woman and to marrying On 01' Ones, 01' probably Oames or Ilo-Anes, Serpent Fish, or recognised God of Passion, both 011 lower Euphrates and the lower Nile. Her conquests m y merely signify t.hat the race who had faith in her conquer d, or that certain conquc1'ors embraced the worship of the S 111 Goddess. When Kaldia fell to Assyria, she was v ry naturally made to marry Ninus, or the strong Bull-U n which this name signifies; she 'vas preserved by doves, or these birds were sacred to Aphrodite. Mr. Rawlinson belie es that the origin of the myth lies in I valoosh's Queen of the eighth century B.C., who was possibly a Babylonian, It rd shared in the Government with her Lord, but there is lit Ie doubt that there was such a queen or goddess. Her nan e, if em bracing Sun and fertilizing energies, would natu ra ly be Siva.my or Sami (God), Hames, Rami, or R.amesi-the Goddess of the Sun, in fact Ishtar, which Wilford CI lls her, saying these names mean Isis. The Assyrian story is, that she sprang from a dove or Yoni, which Capot si would signify, and this is the Indian manifestation." *
* ForJong,
Riv. Life.
I
CHAP'IEn
Lone
III,
to Flouiers-s-Exceesice of Flouiers leading to Adoration-Jlyths and Legends can ected with Flowers, the Flos Adonis, Narcissus, _Myrtle, Sil ne infiata, Clot·er-The Hundred-leaved Rose-l'1w Worship if he Lily Species-Significat~ion of the Loto~-IIermaphroditic CIa racier of the Lotos-The Indian J.1Iutiny of 1857, pa,rt }J!ayed by the Lotos during its Instigation.
"~·"'--""'RY1" asked a writer some yeal's ago, "why is it that every eye kindles with delight at the sight of beautiful flov ers? that in all lands, and amidst all nations, the Jove of flowers appears to prevail to so great an extent, that no horne is considered complete without them-no festival dul honoured unless they decorate the place where it is obs rved ~ They are strewn in the path of the bride; they laid on the bier of the dead; the merry-maker selects the floral tribes the emblem of his joy; and the mourner insignia of his grief. Everywhere and under all circumsta ces, flowers are eagerly sought after and affectionately che ished ; and when the living and gro\ving are not to be obt ined, then is their place filled by some su bsti tute or oth r, according to the circumstances or taste of the wearer; but whether that substitute be a wreath of gorgeous gems for the brow of royalty, or a bunch of coloured cambric for the adornment of a servant girl, it is usually wrought the form of flowers. "Tllis taste depends not on wealth or on education, but is riven, if not to all individuals, yet to some of every cln s. From the infant's first gleam of intelligence, a flower wil suffice to still its cries; and even in old age the mind wh eh has not been perverted from its natural instincts, can fin a calm and soothing pleasure in the contemplation of the e gems of creation." A man, reputed wise, was once asked in a garden: you like flowers 1" I' No," said he; I seldom find time descend to the little things." "This man," said an At erican writer, "betrayed a descent, in his speech, to the pitl ole of ignol'ance. Flowers, sweet flowers I he that loves
Un. cereal Love of Floioers-s-Lndifference
26
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
FIRl':
WORSHIP.
them no should be classed with the man that hath not music in his soul, as a dangerous member of the community." Inst d of not likiny or not caring, leaving out, not loring f1 wers, the general tendency with humanity has been to run t an opposite extreme and render them not merely estimn.tiori, care or love, but veneration and worship. The adoration of flowers is one of the most ancient systems f worship with which we are acquainted. It can be traced back for ages amongst the Hindus, who believing that the human soul is a spark or emanation from the Great Supreme, held that this essence can only be renovated in mall by communion with his works; it is found amongst the Chill sc, it occupied a most important position in the of Egyptain idolatry, it figures prominently on the present monuments of Mexico, and to some extent prevailed in Europe. Naturally enough, it arose in the warmer r giolls of the earth, where the vegetable productions of the tt' pies axe so much more gorgeous in their colouring and nob c in their growth, and in those regions it still lingers, a ter having been swept a'\vay in other lands before the adva ce of education and :t more intellectual religion. It ould be interesting did space allow to enumerate some of the myths and legends connected with flowers, but as we 11< another object in view these must be allowed vc to - pass ith a mere cursory allusion. There is the Flos Adonis '\ hich perpetuates the memory of Venus's favourite, Adonis, he son of My I'I'II who was herself said to be a, turned il to a tree called myrrh. Adonis had often been warned ,Venus not to bunt wild beasts; but disregarding her advi e, he was at last killed by a wild boar and was then cha ged by his mistress into this flower. There was N arcissus too, destroying himself in trying to grasp his form wh n reflected in the water by whose margin he was reclining. Then we have Myr tillus and the Myrtle. The father of Hippodamia declared that no one should marry his daugl tel' who could not conquer him in a chariot race j and one of the lovers of the young lady bribed Myrt.illus, who was an attendant of CEnomails, to take out the Iinchpin from his master's chariot, by which means the master was kille ; and I\lyrtiIlus, repenting when he saw him dead, cast him elf into the sea, and was afterwards changed by Mercury into the myrtle.
FISHES,
FI,QWERS,
A~D
)<'
RE
WORSHIP.
27
A bladder campion (Silcne infl ta) is another curiosity. Ancient, writers say that it was f rmerly a youth named Campion, whom Minerva employed to catch flies for her owls to eat during the day, when their eyes did not serve them to catch food for themsel ves ; but Campion indulging himself with a nap when he ought to have been busy at his task, the angry goddess change him into this flower, ,... ich still retains h in its form he bladders III which Campion kept his flies, and droops its head at night when owls fly abroad and have their eyes bout them. The common clover which was much used III ancient Greek festivals, was regarded by as sacred, chiefly in its fall I' lea ved variety. .here is indeed, in the vicinity of Altenburg, a supcrstitioi that if a fa.rrner takes home with him a handful of clover taken from each of the four corners of his neighbour's fiel it will go well with his cattle during the whole year; ut the normal belief is that the four-leaved clover, on acco nt of its cross form, is endowed with magic;)'l virtues. T 10 geneml form of the superstition is that one who carries it about with him will be successful at play, and will e able to detcct the proximity of evil spirits. In Boh mia it is said that if the maiden manages to put it int the shoe of her lover without knowledge when he is going on any journey, he will be sure to return to her faithfully nel safely. In the Tyrol the lover puts it under the pillow 0 dream of the beloved, On Christmas Eve, especially, one wh has it may see witches. Plucked with a gloved hand and t ken into the house of a lunatic without a.nyone else perc i ving it, it is said to cure madness. In Ireland also it i deemed sacred and has been immortalized in Lover's beauti ul song as a safeguard against every imaginable kind of Sal" ow and misfortune.
It was a belief among the Jew, according to Zoroaster says Howitt, that every flower is appropriated to a particular angel, and that the hundrcd-l avcd rose is consecrated to an archangel of the highest a del'. The same author relates that the Persian fire-worship ers believe that Abraham was thrown into a furnace by Nimrod, and the flames forthwith turned into a bed of rose.
In contradistinction to this in sentiment is the belief of the Turk, who holds that this 10 -ely flower springs from

I
28
FISHES,
FLO\VERS,
A. D FIRE
WORSHIP.
the perspiration of Mohammed, and, in accordance with this creed, they never tread upon i or suffer one to lie upon the ground. "Of shrub or flower war. hip, the most important in the east and south has been hat of the lily species. The Ely of October-the saffrori-c-wa very sacred to the Karncan, or horned Apollo--that is, the sun-for horns usually stand for rays of glory, as in the ase of the horned Moses of our poets, artists and ecc1esias ics, who make him like an Apis of Egypt, becausc of th text which says, 'his face shone' when he carne down fr III the mountain. All lilies have more or less to do wi the female or fecundating energies, and so even in Eur pe we have many stories of the crocus species, because it is said 'of their irradiating light, having peculiar looking b lls, three-headed and crested capillaments, three cells, and re dish seeds,' &c. l< The Lotus is the seat 0 most deities, but notably so of the creator Brahma, wi 0, thus enthroned, is cal led the Karn.t11-a-yoni, or the great androgynous god. The lotus is the worub of all creation. It is said to originate from the gl'eat fertiliser, water, al 11ej and dropping its great leaves on this fertiliser as 0 a bed, it springs upwa.rds with a slender, elegant stalk, nd spreads forth in a lovely flower. Even the grave and I ighty Vishnoo delights in the lotus, which is one of the f UI' emblems he holds in his fourfold arms. It is Venus' sa red flower. "The flower is shaped lil e a boat, is a representation of divinity, and is shown as pl'inging from the navel of the great god resting all his urilky sea.. It always significs fecundation. luman, under th head Nabhi, navel, saysI The germ is "1\leroo" (the I ighcst pinnacle of the earth), the petals and filaments are he mountains which encircle Meroo, a type of the Yoni,' nd Sanscrit for mons oeueris. Amongst fourteen kinds of fr it and flowers which must be presented to 'Ananta ' (Sanskr t, eternity), the lotus is the only indispensable one, as he (Ananta) is then worshipped in the form of a mighty ser ent with seven heads. II Hindoo and other write s often tell us that the lotus originated the idea of the tt' angle, which is 'the first of perfect figures, for two lines re an imperfection,' and the lotus also gives us a circle 01 triangle which is full of cells and seed, and so is 111 perfect still. Siva is, as
AXD FInE
WORSHIP.
2D
Orientals kno , I the god of the triangle,' and hence, in his palace in Eail sa we are told the most precious object Ion his table of line precious stones is the plldma' (lotus), carrying in bosom the tr iangle, as origin and source of all things;' and that from I this triangle issues the LinO"am the eternal d who makes i11 it his eternal clwcllin« .', which, however, is not quite correct on the part of Guignian t, w h m )'Tr. Barlow quotes, The lotu s is an inverted trian Ie, and is therefore the femalA sign; the pyram it! or tri tIlgle on base is Si va, or the RaV of Ligllt, the sun-god, "Allother eason why the lotus is in all lands so sacred in its androg 'nous or hermaphrodite character, a feature imperative in t e case of all the great gods of man, though this is not ve y clear if we dive deeply below the surface, either - in the case of the Jewish Elobim or the lotus. Brsh rna, tho ci ea tor, whilst sitting on the lotus, as all great gods do, desire, says the 'llindoo Inspired Word,' to create thc universe, nd fot, this purpose, became androgynous, Or a breathing-spit it (R uach 2)-pra kriti or nature; when creation at once conun need and progressed, much as we have it in the genesis of most faiths. The details of this mystic plant have much ex rcised all Asiatic and Egyptian minds. In its circular sta nina it shows two equilateral triangles placed across each ot er, which Sanskritists call the sltristi-clialcra, also sixteen pe als called the slwodasa; and this, it is held, is a r evelntion from the deity as to the proper age for the representative voman or prakriti, in the Sakti ceremonies. These triangles with apex upwards and downwards, are the chapel or magi diagram which the pious arc told to ponder over, for it hIS many significations and possesses nuurcrous spells; and he ice we sei? it venerated in n.ll early ages, and still an irnpor ant article of Freemasonry. The spells go by the name f the dem-cliakrams, or goclesses of circles, no doubt having solar signification. "The Fa rna. and Kamalata or Cranter-cf-Dcsires. 01' I Consu 111 matorf-our- Wishes,' are all ter-ms applied to th e lotus. It is he symbol of V €nus or Laks It mi, or of he r incarnation-Ie 'ishna's wife, Padha, who is commonly a nude Venus or Sak i, It is also called ~lore's creeper,' the throne and ark of th gods, and the water-born one, One author writes, that f 'om far Thibet to Ceylon, and over eyery
~i.
30
FISHES,
FLO\VERS,
A~D
FlUE
WOHSII P.
eastern land and islet, the holy Padma is 01 ly a little less sacred than the Queen of Heaven-Juno I Oni) herself. It is as mysterious as the Yoni-is, like it the flower of concealment, of night aud of silence, and t rat mysteriousness of generation and reproduction; it is described as a sort of incomprehensible dualism which veils the Almighty One and his mysteries from our minds. L nnreus tells us it is the Nelwnbo, but It. Payne Knight i clearer when he writes to this effect. The flowers of the lotus contain a seed vessel shaped like an inverted cone or bell, which are very holy symbols with all peoples, and rep eseutative male and female. This inverted bell is punctua ed on the top with little cavities 01' cells in which the s eds grow as in a matrix. fed by the parent plant till they arrive at such a size as to break open 'the ark boat of I fe,' They then emerge and float nway, taking root whe vel' they find ground, and throwing down 101lg tentacles 01' tendrills in quest of it. The idea is expressed by Brahm in his address to the nng~ls, as given in the Li nqa-Poo 'an, beginning: <When I sprang into existence, I beheld tl e mighty Narayana. reposing on the abyss of waters;' wi ic h reminds us of the Jewish Elohim-god who it is said gen rated all things 'by brooding o'er the deep.')l * Those who remember the Indian mut ny of the yeal' 1867 and the long tale of horrors \'0' h ich verw helmed the British dominions with grief, dismay and ndignation, will be interested by the information that the conspiracy was first manifested by the circulation of sym bo s in the forms of cakes and lotus flowers. Commenting up n this, a writer in "Household Words," of September, 1857, said, after he had given a description aud historical account f the flower: I fear I may have indulged in too long an excursion into the realms of botn.ny to suit tile reader, who merely wishes to know why the Indian rebels choose otus flowers as sym boIs of cospiracy. I am sure I am as innocent of the knowledge as of the rebellion, but I will try to help my readers to a guess. Four-fifths of the hu ian species worship a God-woman; and the vestiges of his worship are found in the most ancient monuments, documents and traditions, stretching backwards into the pa t eternity from
* Rivers
of Lire.

I
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
IRE
WORSHIP.
31
millenium to millenium, toward all epoch heyond the records of the Deluge, and almos coeval with the loss of Eden. 'I'he Tentyrian planisphere of the ancient Egyptians represents the virgin and child ri ing out of a lotus flower. The Egyptian hieroglyphics depio the g-oddess Asteria, or Justice, issuing out of a lotus, and seating herself upon the centre of the beam of Libra, at' the Scales. Pictorial delineations of the judgment of he dead, represent Osiris as Ameuti, swathed in the white garments of the grave, girt with a red girdle, and seated upon a chequered throne of white and black spots, or go d and evil, Before him are the vase of nectar, the tabl of ambrosin, the great serpent, and the lotus of knowledge the emblems of Paradise. There are Egyptian altar-pieces up n which the lotus ligures as the tree of life. The Hindu iriests say that the lotus rising out of the lakes is the t of the world tssumg out of the ocean of time. Travellers who have observed he worship of the Hindus and Parsees, tell us that they gi\e religous honours to the lotus. The Budhist priests culti 'ate it in precious vases, and place it in their temples. The 'hinese poets celebrate the sacred bean of India, out of wh ch their god Amida and her child arose, in the middle of a lake. We can be at no loss to imagine the appeanl.l1C of the Dudhist pagodas, for our Gothic cathedrals are jus those pagodas imitated in stone. Theil' pillars copy the .runks of the palm-trees and the effects of the creeping plants of the pngodas ; their heaven piercing spires arc tl e golden spathes of palm flowers, and the stained glass rep od uces, feebly, the llIany hrilliances of the tropical skies. E 'ery pious Buddist, giving himself up to devout meditations repeats as often as he can, the words "On rna ni bat 110 Klom." \Vhen lI][LllY worshippers are kneeling and repe ting the sound, the effect is like counter-bass or the huuuni 19 of Lees j and profound sighs mingle with the repetitions. he ::,!longolian priests s:ty these words are endowed with 111 sterious and supernatural powers; they increase the virtue of the faithful; they bring them nearer to divine pro ection, and they exempt them from the pains of the futnr life. \Vhen the priests are asked to expain the words, t.l ey say volumes would be required to tell all their meanings. Klaproth, however, S:lys that the formula is nothing but a corruption of four Hindu
32
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AXD FInE
WonSIII
words, "Om mau'i padma houm," signifying "Oh ! precious lotus! " Without pretending that the volume of the Hindu fakirs on the signification of the lotus, mi ht not throw more light upon the use of it as a symbol of conspIracy, there are hints enough in the facts I h ve stated to warrant the conclusion that it serves as a s'gn of 11 gl'eat and geueral rising on behalf of Budhism, be flower was circulated to rally the votaries of the goddess f the Iotus,

I
CHAPTER
Importance of tlie LotosVarieties
IV.
of
Lotos-Stntement by Atlte and others=-The A borescent Lotos-The Sacred Lotos 0 the jYile-The Indian Lotos-i-Nepaulese Adoration. of the Lot sShing-moo, the Chinese Holy Jlother-Lakshm-i-The Q eens of Beauty - The Loves of Krishna and Radha.
Herodotus, 1Iorner, Theophraetus, Dioscorides; Pliny,
HE Lotos is a flower of such importance and prornin nce in the S11 bject before us, and especially in conne tion with the ancient worship of the East-notably of that fa phallic character, that we naturally look carefully abou us for the best descriptive information we can find respec ing it. A writer (1\1. C. Cooke, JI,A.) in the "Popull1r Sci nee Rcview " for July, 1871, says :_H The history of sa red plants is always an interesting and instructive study; lore so when it extends into a remote antiquity, and is associ ted with such great and advanced na.tions as those of E ypt and India" Much has been written and speculated cancer ling the Lotos of old authors j and great confusion has cxi ted in many minds on account of the desire to ma.ko all allu ions and descriptions to harmonise with one ideal plant the classic Lotos, We must clearly intimate that it is impos ible to combine all the fragments of history and descrip ion applied to some plant or plants, known by the name of Lotos-and met with in the pages of Herodotus, Ho er, Theophrastus, and others-into one harmonising ... vhole, and apply them to a single mythical plant. It is manifest, rom the authors themselves, that more than one Lotos is sp ken of, and it was never intended to convey the notion that, Iike immortal Jove, the Lotos was one and indivis ble. Starting, then, with the conviction that the one name has been applied to more than one or two very distinct and different plants, we shall have less difficulty than were we to attempt the futile task of reconciling all remarks a out the Lotos to It single plant." "In the first instance, it is perfectly elear that the Lotos of Homer, which Ulysses discovered, and whic] is alluded to in the ninth book of the I Odyssey,' is q ite
34
FISHES,
FLOWEHS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
distin from any of the rest. It is the fruit of this tree to wI ieh interest attaches, and not to the flower as in some others this is the arborescent Lotos. "The second Lotos may be designated as the Sacred Lotos, or Lotos of the Nile. It is tile one which figures so co spicuously on the monuments, enters so lat'gely int.o the d ,coration, and seems to have been interwoven with the r ligious faith of the Ancient Egyptians. This Lotos is me rtioned by Herodotus, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and therueus as an herbaceous plant of aquatic habits, and from their combined description. it seems evident that some kind f water-lily is intended. Herodotus says:-' \Vhen the ri vel' is full, an d the plains are inundated, t.here gl'ow in the w iter numbers of lilies which the Egyptians call Lotos.' Theop irast.us says :-' The Lotos, so called, gl'D'VS chiefly in the pains when the country is inundated. The flower is white, the petals are narrow, as those of the Jily, and numerous, as of a very double flower. \Vhen the sun sets they cover the seed-vessel, and as soon as the sun rises the fl wers open, and appear above the water; and this is repeat d until the seed-vessel is ripe and the petals fall off. It. is said that in the Euphrates both the seed-vessel and the p tals sink down into the water from the evening until miclni ht to a great depth, so that the hand cannot reach them; at daybreak they emerge, and as day comes on they rise ove the water; at sunrise the flowers open, and when fully xpanded they rise up still higher, and present the appea 'ance of a very double flower.' Dioscorides says:'The Lotos which grows in Egypt, in the water of the inund ted plains, has a stem like thnt of the Egyptian bean. The Hower is small and white like the lily, which to expand at sunrise, and to close at sunset. It said that the seed-vessel is then entirely hid in the and that a t sunrise it emerges [l,gain.' A then::eus that they grow in the lukes in the neighbourhood of dria, and blossom in the heat of summer, He also uienti ns a rose-coloured and a blue variety. 'I know that in tl at fine city they have a CI'O''''l1 called Antineean, made of the plant which is there named Lotos, which plant grows in the lakes ill the heat of summer, and there are two lours of it; one of them is the colour of a rose, of which the Antinoean crown is ninde j the other is called Lotin s, and has a blue flower,'"
}.'ISII ES
FLOWERS,
A~D
FIRE
WORSHIP.
35
After quoting number of other descriptions from these authors, the ... vriter proceeds :-" From these descriptions it is evident that the acred Lotos of the Nile, the Egyptian Lotos of the anci nts, ... vas a species of Nymphru<'L, common in the waters of th t river. Plants, and animals also, submit so much to exterua circumstances, that the lapse of centuries may eradicate ther from spots on which they were at one time common. It y no means follows that the same plants will be found flouri hing in the Nile now, that were common under the Pharaohs ; but, .... vhen the French invaded Egypt in l7D8, Savigny lwought home from the Delta a blue Nympho-a, which, as figured in the "Annales du Museum,' corresponding very closely in habit to the conventional Lotos so common on the Egyptian monuments. "It seems to ~ very probable that the Lotos-flower in the hands of the guests at Egyptian banquets, and those presented as offeri gs to the deities, were fragrant. The manner ill which hey are held strengthens this probability, as there is no at er reason w by they should be brought into such close pI' ximity with the nose. "There is stil a third Lotos mentioned by Dioscorides, Theocritus, and 1 oiner, which may be somc species of J\ledicago or of th modern genus Lotos. It is herbaceous, sometimes wild, au sometimes cultivated ; but always written about as though co istituting herbage, and is on one occasion cropt by the hors s of Achilles. \Ve shall not pause to identify this plant but proceed at once to the last plant it is our design t deal with. " The Kyamo, or Indian Lotos. This can scarcely claim to be one f the kinds of I .. tos mentioned o by the ancients, since it s distinctly alluded to by them as the Egyptian bean, or Kyamos. This plant among the Hindus has a sacred char cter, equal to that of the Lotus among the Egyptians. It was doubtless Asiatic in its origin, but at one time was lentiful in Egypt, whence it has now totally vanished. It is represented on the Egyptian monuments, but fn,r les common than the Sacred Lotos. Some authors declare tl is to 1)8 the veritable 'Sacred Lotos of Egypt,' (l, title to vvhich it has no claim. Herodotus, after describing the Lot s, adds->-' There are likewise other lilies, like roses ( and these, too, grew in the Xilc) whose fructification is pr duced in a separate seed- vessel, springing
3G
:FISHES,
FLOWF.RS,
AXD
FInE
WORSHIP.
like a sucker from the root, in appcarnnce exactly resemblin a wasp's nest and containing a. nurn bel' of esculent seeds abou t the size of ali ,'e· berries. These are also eaten wher tender and dry. "'l'heophrastus describing this plant, says :-' It is pro duccd in marshes and in stagnant waters j the length 0 the stem, at th e longest, four cu hi ts, and the th ickness 0 a finger, like the smooth jointless reed. The inner textur of the stem is perforated throughout like It honey-com b, an upon the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, in circurnfereric and appearance like a wasp's nest. In each of the cell there is a, bean projecting a little above the surface of tb seed-vessel, which usually contains about thirty of these bean. or seeds. The flower is twice the size of a poppy, of th colour of a full-blown rose, and elevated above the water abou t each Hower are produced htrge leaves of the SIze 0 a 'I'hessalian hat, haying the same kind of stem as th flower-stem, In each bean when broken may be seen th embryo plant, out of which the lc ..f grows. So much fa the fruit. The root is thicker than the thickest reed, an cellular like the stcm ; and those who live about th marshes eat it as food, either raw, or boiled, or roasted These plants are produced spontaneously, but they ar cultivated in beds. To make these bean-beds, the beans n.re sown in the mud, being previously mixed up carefully w itl chaff, so that they may remain without injury till they tak root, after which the plant is safe. The root is strong, an not unlike that of the reed j the stem is also simila except that it is full of prickles, and therefore the crocodiles which do not see very well, avoid the plant, for fenr 0 running the prickles into their eyes." Major Drury observes that the mode of sowing th seeds, is by first enclosing them in balls of clay, and ther throwing them into the wa t.OI" Si r .J ames Smith says tlla in process of time the receptacle scparntes from the stalk and, laden with ripe oval nuts, floats down the watcri The nuts vegetating, it becomes a oornucoporia of yonn sprouting plants, which at length break loose from their confinement, and take root in the mud. After compn.ring these and other accounts, the n.ut.hoiof the pa POI' urges that there is no room fo [' rlou Lt tha this is th e plant w IIich was known to the ancients as th Kynmos or Egyptinn bean, the Tamara of modern India.
I
FISHES,
FLOWEHS,
AXil
FIlm
'·ORSIIIP.
3;
"The beans and flower stalks of t spiral tubes, which are extracted with breaking the stems and drawing apart filaments are prepared those wicks wlii Hindoos in the lamps placed before gods. In India, as well fLS in China an are held to bo specially sacred." Sir William Jones says :_U The Thib temples and altars with it, and a nati prostration before it on entering my st plant and beautiful flowers lay for exami "Thunberg affirms that the Japan as pleasing to the gods, the imn.ges of tl represented sitting on its large leaves. moo or Holy Mother is generally repre of it in her hand, and few temples representation of the plant. C! According to Chinese mythology, son, while she was a virgin, by eating plant, which lay upon her clothes on where she was bathing. In the course to the same place, and was there deli infant was afterwards found and educa man, and in process of time became performed miracles. When Shing-moo is she geuerally holds a flower in her sitting, she is usually placed upon one 0 The Lotos (Lotus) is held in the India, incl usi ve of Thibet and N ep Brahmans and enthusiastic Hindoos, no looked on with more superstition; and in mystical allusions to this lovely aqu the most beautiful of vegetables, it furnishes a name for the Hindoo qu Kamal or Kamala is a name of Laksh Pedma, another Sanscrit appellation fo form of Kamula, Lakslnni is usually Lotos in her hand, and in most pictur consort Vishnu, he is furnished with t
lis plant abound in creat care by gently he ends; with these h are burnt by the he shrines of their Ceylon, the flowers tans embellish their 'e of N epaul made idy, where the fine ation."
e regard the eir idols being n China, the ented with a n.re without
plant often Shingflower some
Shing-moo bore a the seeds of this he bank of a river f time she returned ered of a boy. The eel by a poor fishera great mall and represented standing, hand; when she is its leaves." * 1ighest veneration in ul. Amongst the object in nature is their books abound tic. Being esteemed not unappropriately en of beauty, and ui : as is Padma or both. Under the represented with a and statues of her ie Pedm», or Lotus
* See
Pop, Science Rev., v 1. x,
38
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND FIRE
WORSHIP.
Lud, in one of his four bands, as [L distinguishing at .ribute, Accordingly, as it is represented in different sta es of efflorescence, it varies, in the eyes of mystics, its emble natical allusions. As an aquatic, the Lotos is a symbol lso of Vishnu, he being a personification of water or hu nidity, and he is often represented seated on it. Bralu a the creative power, is also sometimes seated on the Lot s, and is borne on its calyx in the whimsical representa ion of the renovation of the world, when this mystical plant issued out of the navel of Vishnu from the bottom of he sea where he was reposing on the serpent Lesha. Lakshmi, as we have just noticed, is the sakti r consort of Vishnu, the preservative power of the deity The extensive sect of Vaishnava, or worshippers of "ishnu, esteem Lakshmi as mother of the world, and then call her Ada Maya; and such Vaishuavns as arc saktas, t rat is, adorers of the supremacy of the female energy, worsl ip her extensively as the type of the Eternal Being, and endow her with suit.able att.ributes, She is represented ly the poets and painters as of perfect beauty. Hindoo cruales are commonly named after her: and there are few III the long catalogue of their deities whose various naru sand functions are so frequently alluded to in convcrsati nand writing, either on theogouy, mythology, poetry or phil sophy. Her terrestrial manifestations have been frequent, It d her ongm various. As Rhern ba, the sea born goddess, sh arose out of the fourteen gems from the ocean when chu r ed by the good and evil beings for the arnrita or beve age of immortality. She then assumes the character of Venus Marina, or Aphrodites of the Greeks, wl 10, as Hesi d and Homer sing, arose from the sea, ascended to Olymp s, and captivated It II the gods. The production of Rhem ba, Sri, or Lakshmi is thus described in the thir-tv-sixth section of the first book of Ramayann. "The gods," the asuras n id the gandhal'vas, again agitnting the sea, after a Ion time appeared the great goddess, inhabiting the lotus j lothed with superlative beauty, in the first bloom of youth, overed with ornaments, and bearing every auspicious sign j darned with a crown, with bracelets on her arms, her jett locks flowing in ringlets, and her body-which resembled bu nished gold-adorned with ornaments of pearl. Thus was produced the goddess Padma or Sri, adored by the whole Ul IYel'SC,
r,
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND FIR
WOHSHIP.
39
Pn.dma by name. She took up her abode in the bosom of Padma-nabha, even of Heri," that i, of Vishnu, of whom these are names. Sri, as this deit is often called, distinguished her more particularly as ie goddess of fortune, the word meaning prosperity j but it is not given exclusively to Lakshmi, Other of her natnes are derived from the lotus, which is the emblem of fernal beauty, and especially applicable to this goddess. In imag s aud pictures of her, which are very common in Tndia, Lakshmi is generally represented as a mere woman; son etimes, however, fourarmed j often holding a kamal or otus, in an easy and elegant attitude, and always very han Isorne, With her lord, Vishnu, she is frequently seen on he serpent Sesha; he reposing, she in respectful a.tteudauce while a 10tuR springing from Vishnu's navel to the surf, ce of the sea (for this scene is subaqueous) bears in its ex anded calyx, Brahma, the creator of the world, about to perform the work of renovation. Sometimes she IS seat d with her lord on Garuda, or Superva, clearing the ail of which Vishnu IS a personification. In Vishnu's mas splendid avatara, 0[' incarnation of Krishna, she became anifested as Rukmein, or Radha, the most adored of th amorous deities, and mother of the god of love; here aeoain corresponding with our popular Venus, the mother of C ipid. In the avatara of Rama, Lakshrni was his fait.hful . pouse, in the form of Sita; in that of N arsingha she was N arsin hi, or N risinhi ; when Vuraha, Varahi ; and as the akti of Narayana she is by her own sectaries called N a ayni j and in most of the many incarnabions of Vishnu she appears to have descended with him, frequently under his own celestial name: as hi" consort generally she is called aishnavi, Laksh mi and Bha van i are botl considered queen s of beauty, and their characters are sa d to "melt into each other:" Lakshmi being commonly s en with a Kamal or Lotos, the emblem of female beauty iu her hand, she is called Kamala: the word is hy SOL ie-s-by Sir \V. Jones, indeed, in his earlier lucubrations on Hindu mythology, spelled Kernel. In his profound nd spirited hymn to Narayana, which every inquirer int its subject would do well to consult with attention, that deity, a personification of the Spirit of Brahrne, as "be h aven ly pensive on the Lotus lay," said to Braluna, "Go; hi all the worlds exist 1" and the Lotus is thus aposgrophised :
40
FISHES,
}'LOWERS,
AXD FIRE
WORSHIP.
" Hail, primal blossom! hail, empyreal gem! Kernel, or Pedma, or whate'er high name Delight thee; say, what four-formed Godhead
With graceful stole, and bearing diadem,

stem?-
erne,
Forth from thy verdant Fun-gifted Brahma." '*'
The following extract from the "T.Joves of Kris na and Radhn " shews the deep poetic senti men t associat d with flowers, and especially with the Lotos. Krishna, am cted by the jealous anger of Radha, exelaimsH Grant me but a sight of thee, 0 lovely 1 adhica 1 for my passion torments me. I am not the terrible Iahesa : a g:trland of water-l ilies, with subtile threads, de ks my shoulders-not serpents with twisted folds: the blu petals of the Lotos glitter on my neck-not the azure learn of poison: powdered sandal wood is sprinkled on my lin bs-not pale ashes. 0 god of love! mistake me not for Ma iadeva j wound me not again; approach me not in anger; iold not in thy hand the shaft barbed with an amra flow r. My heart is already pierced by arrows from Radha's ey s, black and keen as those of an antelope; yet mine eyes are not gratified by her presence. Her's are full of shaf s j her eyebrows are bows, and the tips of her ears . Ill' silken strings: thus armed by Anangn, the god of des re, she marches, herself a goddess, to ensure his triumph vel' the vanquished remorse. I meditate on her delightful on the vanishing glances darted from the £ragant her mouth: on her nectar-dropping speech; on her Ii as the berries of the Dim b:t," Radha, half pacified, thus tenderly reproaches- hi "Alas! alas! Go, l\ladhava-depart, Kesavi ; s eak not the language of guile: follow her, 0 Lotus-eyed go -follow her, who dispels thy care. Look at his eyes, 1];11 -opened, red with waking through the pleasurable night-ye smiling still wit.h affection for my rival. Thy teeth, 0 cerulean youth J are [LS azure IlS thy complexion, from the kisses which thou hast imprinted on the beautiful eyes of thy darling, graced with dark blue powder ; and th~ limbs, marked with punctures in love's warfare, exhibit a letter of conquest, written in polished sapphire with liqu d gold.
*"
Hindu Pantheon,

I
FISHES,
FLOWEHS,
AND FIRE
wons
lIP.
41
That broad bosom, stained by the bright otos of her root, displays a vesture of ruddy leaves over he tree of thy heart, which trembles within it. The pre sure or her lips on thine wound me to the soul. Ail! how canst thou assert that we arc one, since our sensa .ions differ thus widely?-Thy soul, 0 dade-limbed god! sh ws its blackness externally; even tby childish heart was ma ignant, and thou gayest death to the nurse who would have g yen thee milk." Krishna is thus farther described in the same poem"His azure breast glittel'cd with pearl of unblemished lustre, like the full bed of the cerulean Yai una, interspersed with curls of white foam. From his gl'::1e_ful waist flowed a pale yellow robe, w hich resembled the g ldeu dust of the water-lily scattered over its blue petals. is passion was inflamed by the glances of her eyes, whie 1 played like a pair of water birds with azure plumage, that sport ncar a full-blown Lotos on a pool, in a season of dew. Bright earrings, like two suns, displayed, in fu I expansion, the flowers of his cheeks and lips, which g istened with the liquid radiance of smiles. His locks, interwoven with blossoms, were like a cloud variegated with moonbeams, and on his forehead shone a circle of odorou oils, extracted from the sandal of Malaya-s-like the moo just appearing on the dusky horizon, while : his whole b dy seemed in a flame from the blaze of unnumbered gems." \Vith respect to the mention above 0 the blue Lotos, ]\T 001' notes :-" \V ritten in the north of Inc ia ; the Lotos in the southern parts, Bengal and the Dek ian, having only white and red flowers. Hence the Hindu poets feign that the Lotus was dyed red by the blood of Siva, that flowed from the wound made by the arrow of Karn ." And with respect to the expression, "the bl'ight Lotos of her Ioot," he says :-" Hindustani women dye the soles of their feet, and nails, of a bright red. Redha, in her frenzied jealousy, fancies she sees a print f her rival's foot on Krishna's breast ; observi ng, perhaps, the indelible impression of the foot of B righ u, recei ved n his breast by "Thc Indians commonly represent the mystery of their physiological religion by the emblem of a }. /1llph(£.a, or Lotos, floating like a boat on the boundless a ean; where the
Vishnu."

I
42
FISHES,
FLOWlmS,
AXD
FJRJ<:: WonSIIIP.
whole plant signifies both the earth and the two p -inciples of its fecundation: the germ is both JUru and the Linya; the petals and filaments are the mountains which encircle l\h~ru, and are also a type of the Yoni ; the leave of the calyx are the foul' vast regions to the cardinal pints of Meru, and the leaves of the plant are the duiipo» or isles round the laud of Jambu, Another of their em lems is called Arqlia, which means a cup or dish, or a yother vessel, in which /ntit and fioioers are offered to the deities, and which mtght always to be shaped like a boat, though we now see arghas of many different forms, oval, circular or squH,re; and hence it is that Iswara has the title of Arghanatha, 01" the lord of the boat-shaped vessel: a rim round the argha represents the mysterious Yoni, nd the navel of Vishnu is commonly denoted by a conv xity m the centre, while the contents of the vessel are sy ibols of the linya. This arqha, as a type of the adhara- iacti, or 1iower of conception, excited and vivified by the l"nga, or Phallus, we cannot but suppose to be one and tl e same with the ship A rgo, which was built, according to rpheus, by J uno and Pallas, and accordiu g to A ppolon' us, by Pallas aurl Argus at the instance of J UBO: the oni, as it is usually pronounced, nearly resembles the u.uu of the principal Hetrusean goddess, and the Sanscrit phrase A1'ghanatlia Iswara seems accurately reudererl by Plutarc I, when he asserts Osiris was commander of the Argo, "\V cannot yet affirm that the words phala, 01' fruit, and phullla, or a flower, have ever the sense of Phallus ; but fr it and flowers are the chief oblations in the arqlca, and tl"iphab is a name sometimes given, especially in the 'Vest 0 India, to the trifula., or trident of JJalmde\'a. It can b shown t.hat the Jupiter Triphylius of the Pauchcenu Isla. Ids was no other t.hu.n Si va holding a t.riphala, who is rei resell ted also with three eyes to denote a triple energy, as Vishnu and Pritlii vi are severally typified by an equilateral triangle, (w hich likewise gi ves an idea of capuci ty) a lid c njoi utly, when their powers are supposed to he combined, by two such equal triangles intersecting each other."*
* See Asiat, Res., vol,
iii.

I
CHAPTER
Y.
Story of the Fire-God and his secret-Growth of Fire- TVorship -Fir'e an essential i Hindu lVoTsllip-The Chaldeans-The Persians-Tlte Hebre s-l?ire in lIindu Ceremonies=Duties of llindu Life-The Serpen: and Fil'e-Phallo-Pytll/ic Solar Shrines-Pipe and P. aUic WorHhip-T-eaping tlirouqh. Fi1'eFire-treading in Scotl d-Fire-leaping in Russia-The Medee as Fire Worshippel's The Sabines-Fire and the Ancient Cltristians-l'he Roma Church. and Fire-The Jeioe-c-Temple oj Vesta-Fire WOl'slip in lreland-Phallo-Fire Worship of reeks and Romans. IlE Rev. \V. Gil in his Myths and Songs from the South Pacific" supplies us with a story particularly suitable for notice her, called the "Fire God's Secret." The story tells us that originally fire was unknown to the inhabitants of the v; or ld, who of necessity ate raw food. That in the nether-w rId (A vaiki) lived four mighty ones: Maniko, god of fire j the Sun-god Hit; Ru, supporter of the heavens; and la t ly, his wife Buataranga, guarcliau of the road to the invi ible world. To Ru Buataranga was born a famous son l\fftlli. At an early age }\J ani was appointed one of the guardians of this upper world where mortals live. Like the rest of the inhabitants of the world, he subsisted on uncooked food. The mother Buataranga, occasiona Iy visited her son; but always ate her food apart" out of a basket brought with her from nether-land. One da , when she was asleep, Mani peeped into her basket and iscovercd cooked food. 1;pan tasting it he was decidedly of opinion that it was a great improvement upon the aw diet to which he was accustomed. This food came from nethcr-world : it was evident that the secret of fire was tIJ re. To nether-world, the home of his parents he would des end to gain this knowledge, so that ever after he might er joy the luxury of cooked food.
(l
out, her,
The story goes 11 to say that when Buataranga set next day, on her journey to nether-world, 1\1ani followed unbeknown to h r. He then saw his mother standing
44
FISHES,
FJ.OWEHS,
AND FmE
WOR HIP.
opposite a black rock which she addressed in these words: his chasm. The "Buataranga, descend thou bodily through clouds parting rainbow-like must be obeyed. As two da ye at dawn, Open, open up my road to nether-world, fierce ones!" At these words the rock divided, and Buataranga descended. Mani cn.refu lly treasured up th se words; and started off to see the god Tane, the owner of some wonderful pigeons. He begged Tane to lend him one, but as the one Tano lent him did not please him, h returned it, as he did also another and a better one. TI e only bird that would content him was a certain red p'geon, which was specially prized by its owner and 'vas I ade a great pet of. Tane at first objected to part .w.ith tl c bird and only did so upon Mani's fai thfu 11y prollnsmg t restore it uninjured. Off went ::'tfani with the bird to the place where his mother had descended. Pronouncing t e magic words, the rock opened, and 1\1 ani descended. The guardian demons of the chasm, enraged at finding themselves imposed upon by It stranger, tried to seize the pigeo 1, intending to devour it. They only succeeded in getting possession of the tail, which the pigeon went on without. (They say that l\Iani had transformed himself into a. sma I dragon-fly and was perched upon the pigeon's back.) A rri ved at nether-land, l\Ti1ni sought for the home of his mother, which was the first house he aw. The pigeon alighted on an oven-house opposite to an open shed where Buataranga was beating out cloth. She topped her work to gaze at the bird, which she guessed to bf': a visitor from the upper world as none of the pige ns in the shades were red. She said to the bird :-" Are y u not come from daylight 1" The pigeon nodded assent; " re you not my son :VIani 1" Again the pigeon nodded. A this Buataranga entered her dwelling and the bird flew to bread-fruit tree. Mani resumed his proper form, and wen to embrace his mother, who inquired how he had descend d to nether-world and the object of his visit. Msni answ red that he had come to learn the secret of fire. Buata anga. said, '( This secret rests with the fire-god Manike. Wh 1 I wish to cook I ask your father n u to beg a lighted sti k from Manike." 1\1ani inquired where the lire-god lived. 11 s mother pointed

I
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND FIRE
WORSHIP.
45
out the direction, and said it was called Are-av , house-ofbanyan-slicks. She warned her son to be careful, "for," she said, "the fire is a terrible fellow, and of a \'e'Y irritable temper." Mani walked up boldly towards the house of t ie fire-cod. Manike, who happened to be busy cooking an ov tl of f~od stopped at his work and. demanded what the stran er wanted: l\lani replied, "A fire brand." The fire brand N'l\S given. Mani carried it to a stream running past the brea fruit tree and there extinguishcd it. He now returned to 1\ anike and obtained a second fire brand, which he also extir ~ O"uisheu in . the stream. The third time a lighted stick was demanded of the fire-god he was beside himself with rage. I aking the ashes of the oven, he gave the daring Mani some f them on a piece of dry wood. These live coals were throv 11 into the stream as the former lighted sticks had been. Mani correctly thought that a fire brand w uld be of little use unless he could obtain the secret of reo The brand would eventually go out; but how to reprod ce the jirp1 His object therefore was to pick tL quarrel with the fire-god, and compel him by sheer violence to yield up the invaluable secret, as yet known to none but himself. On the other hand, the fire-god, confident in his own prodigiou strength, resolved to destroy this insolent intruder into his se ret. Mani for the fourth time demanded fire of the enr ged god. Manike ordered him a-..vay, under pain of being ossed into the air; for Mani was small of stature. But the isitor said he should enjoy nothing better than a trial of str ngth with the fire-god, Manike entered his dwelling to put a his W'1rgirdle; but on returning found that Mani had swel ed himself to an enormous size. Nothing daunted at this, Mat ike boldly seized him with both hands and hurled him to he height of a cocoa-nut tree. Maui contrived in falling to lake himself so light that he was in no degree hurt by his adventure. Manikc, maddened that his ad versal'Y should ye breathe, excited his full strength, and next time hurled him fax higher than the highest cocoa-Hut tree that ever gn~w. ret 1\J.1ni was uninjured by his fall, whilst the fire-god lay I anting for breath. It was now Mani's tum. Seizing the fife-god be threw him up to a dizzy height and caught him Itgnin Ji'e a bn.ll with his hands. Without allowing Maniko to ouch the
46
FISHES,
FLOWE
S, A.:\D FIRr;
'YORSHIP.
ground, be threw him a s cond time into the air, and caught him in his hands, Assur d that this was but a preparation for ::t final toss which woulld seal his fate, the panting and thoroughly exhausted ;'I[al ike entreated Mani to stop and to spare his life. Whatever ie desired should he his, The tire-god, now in miserable plight, was allowed to breathe awhile. :JIani said, "Only on one condition will I spare you-tell nw the se ret of fire. Where is it hidden? How i~ it produced? 1\1a ike gladly promised to tell him all he knew, and led him ins de his wonderful dwelling. In one corner there was a q uantit of f ne cocoa-nut fi bre; in another, bundles of fi rc-yielding sticks-the au, the oronga, the tauinu, and particularly tl e aoa or banyan tree. These sticks were all dry and ready f I' use. In the middle of the room were two smaller sticks y themselves. OlH~ of these the fire-god gave to Maui, de iring him to hold it firmly, while he himself plied the oth r most vigorously. And thus runs the Fire-god's Song:"Grant, oh gran Thou ba Perform an in Utter a prayer The ban Kindle a lire f Of the dust of me thy hidden fire, ylln tree! antation; to (the spirit of) an tree! r Mauike the banyan tree."
By the time the sonsr was completed, Mf1ni, to his great joy, perceived a. faint Sl oke arising out of the finc dust produced by the frictio of one stick upon another. As they persevered in their work the smoke increased; and, favoured with the fire·go('8 breath, a slight Rame arose, when the fine cocoa-nut fibre \'1\S called into requisition to catch aud increase the flame. )lanike now called to his aid the different bundles of stick and speedily got up a bla.zillg fire, to the astonishment of ) iini. Tile grand secret of fire was secured, The story tells us that the victor then in rder to be revenged for his troll ble and his tossing into the ir, set fire to his adversary's abode, that in a short time all be nether-world was in fil1111eS, which consumed the tire-god am all he possessed, :JIiini then picked u the t\VO fire-sticks and hastened to the bread-Iruif tree, whcile the red pigeon awaited his return, His first care was to restore the tail of the bird so as to
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
4.7
avoid the nger of Tane. There was no time to be lost, for the flames were rapidly spreading. "lIe re-entered the pigeon, which cat' ied bis tire-stalks one in each claw, and flew t; the lower ent ance of the chasm. Once more pronouncing the words he learnt from Buat1uanga, the rocks parted, and he safely got back to this upper world. 1\1ani now resumed his original h man form, and hastened to carry Lack the pet bird of T ne. Passing through the main valley of Rein, he found tha the flames had preceded him, and had found an aperture t 'I'eava, since closed up. The king's Rangi and Mokoiro reinbled for their land; for it seemed as if everything Wall d be destroyed by the devouring flames. To save }langaia rom utter destru ction, they excited til emsel ves to the utmo t, and fina.lly succeeded in putting out the fire. Rangi th ncoforth adopted the new name of Matarnea, or Watery-ey s, to commemorate his sufferings; and Mokoiro was ever after called Anai, or Smoke." "The inha bitan ts of }Iangaia availed thcmsel ves of the conflagrati n to get fire and to cook food. But after ft time the fire w nt out, and as they were not in possession of the secret, the could not get new tire. "But )1 ani was never without fire in his dwelling j /-I. circu msta ce that excited the surprise of all. Many were thc inquiries 1- s to the cause. At length he took compassion on the inhabi ants of the world, and told them the wonderful secret-til t fire lies hidden in the hibiscus, the urtica argenta, the 'taui u' and the banyan. This hidden fire might he elicited b tho use of fire sticks which he produced. Finally, he desired them to chant the fi re-god's soug, to give efficacy to the us of the fire-sticks." "Fro that memorable day all the dwellers in this upper world use 1 fire-sticks with success, and enjoyed the luxuries of light a d cooked food. "To he present ti me this primiti ve method of abtaini ng fire is sti 1 in vogue; cotton, however, being su bstitu ted for fine cocoa rut fibre as tinder. It was formerly supposed that only the our kinds of wood found in the tire-gad's dwelling wou leI yie d fire. for intensity and rhyth m the "'Ao ' means banyan-tree; The bauyan was sacred to word is I 19thed into 'aoaoaoa.' the fire-go 1. "The spot where the flames are said to have burst
48
FISIIES,
FLOWERS,
A:\,D FIRE
WOnSHIP.
through, named Te-oao or the banyun-trf!f!, vas sacred till Christianity induced the 0\\ ncr to con vert the waste land into a. couple of taro patches." * "Light, then fire, the sun, and thc 'whole host of heaven' seem successively, and at last colle tively, to have become objects of worship to the Arian me j but first of all light, which was to them pre-eminently the object of adoration in Northern Tndia previous to th period of the collection or composition of the hymns of th ea.rlicst Hindu Veda, 01', in round numbers, thirty-five cent ries ago_ "According to Herodotus, tho Persians enerated fire as a divinity, and Pliny explains that the ragic of Persia might apparently have been learned from be practices of the Britons. There is abundant evidence to show that our heathen ancestors worshipped the sun [mel moon. It, might, therefore, reasonably be inferred that iln Britain, as in other countries, fire would be substituted as ty fical of the great luminary-of its light and its heat-and b came an object of adoration, when the sun was obscured Or invisible in seasons set apart for celebrating the rclig ous rites of a SaLian worship. But we are not depencler t on inference, however rational, for a knowledge of the fa t that fire was an object of adoration to our heathen ancest rs, even so late as the elcyenth century j for in the laws of nut fire n.ppears as one of the objects tbe worship of which is forbidden." "}'ire seems to have always had the firm st hold upon the wonderment and then the adoration of the i lfant mind. To the present moment it is au essential par of all Hindoo worship and ceremonies. From his cradle to his grav~, when the Hindoo is folded in the goel's embrace, he ancient races around me seek for it, use it, offer sacrif ces to it) and adore it." The Chaldeans had a high veneration for fire, which they accounted a divinity j and in the prov nee of Babylon there was a city consecrated to til is usagc, vhich was called the city of U 1', or of Fire. The Persiaus.. also adored God under the Image or l'{'prcsentatioll of fire, because it is tire tha gi\'cs motion to everything iu nature. They had temples , hich they called
.. For a somewhat longer account of this and ot-her )lyths, see nev. W. Gill's Book.
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AXD Fum
WORSHIP.
49
"Pyrrea, " lire temples set apart solely for the preser ation of the sacred fire. They are said to have in that em ire fires still subsisting which have burnt many thousand yeqrs, The worship of the goddess V §.§t~__ and of re, was broug-hl-intO - !tili -by .illneas- and the other Troj ins who landed there; but the Phrygians themselves had re eived it from the eastern nations. Fire was held in religious v neration among the Gnuls ; and similar sentiments and practi BS have prevailed in several countries of America . .'I.he_BelJre;ys_kept up the holy fire in the temp e. This holy fire descended from heaven, first upon tho alta in the tabernacle at the consecration of Aaron and his son to the priesthood, and afterwards it descended anew on the altar in the temple of Solomon, at the consecration of that temple. And there it was constantly maintained by the pI' est day and night, without suffering it ever to go out; nd with this all the sacrifices were offered that required fi e. This fire, according to some of the Jewish writers, was ext.i guished in the days of 1\Ianasseh; but the more general opinion among them is, that it continued till the destructio of the temple by the Chaldeuns ; after that it was nev r 1ll000e restored; but instead of it, tbey had only common fire in the second temple. The part played by tire in the life of a Hin 100 is a remarkable one, and shews the immense extent 1,0 W 1'ich this form of worship has prevailed and still prevails 11 some countries. In the man's earliest days-in his child rood-c-at the ceremony called the investiture of the thread fire is kindled from the droppings of the sacred cow, sprin led with holy water and blessed. Then arc brought to it various offerings of grain, butter, &c., by the worshippers vho are supplicating blessings, the officiating priest all tl e while reading passages from the sacred books. The. child s father and mother pray to Agni (Fire) that its past sins may Le forgiven, having been done in ignorance; then the declare him to be of an age to know good and evil-he is between seven and nine. The sacred thread is then, after he·ng duly washed and held over the fire, placed around the chil 's neck, constitutinz ;:, him a Brahm Achari-one sworn to pra tise the .. laws and behests of Brahm or Almighty God. D tbOIS, III Meeurs des Indes, says-" A pious father will t len say
I
50
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AXD 1<'11 WORSHIP. E
privately to his child, 'Hemember, I y son, there is hut one G ad, the Sovereign :JI aster and Pri ciple of all things, and every Brahman is bound to worship him ill secret.'" A fortnight afterwards, a kind f confirmation ceremony takes place, again before the tire, in which the parents promise that they will see that he ets married and leads a good life, J\Iarriage is the principal featur in a Hindoo's life, and this, as most people know, takes rlace very early and is attended with many important cerer onies. Here, again, fire is conspicuous as an object of worship, the ceremony before it-the God A ni-being the last and most serious of all. \Vith clothes tied together, bride and bridegroom parade round about the d ity casting to him their offerings which now "symbolise," say Forlong, "the sacrifice of all their virgin modesty to the god, as the em blem of sexual fire." The final oath of mutu I love and faith is then taken in an address to the fire, and the pair, who are mere boy and girl, are duly mart ied. A little further on when the perio arrives fOL'cohabitation, the fourth ceremony is then gone t irough, fire again being adored and sacrifice offered, J n the final scene, when death has taken possession of the body, fire is again called into equisition j it is carried before the corpse hy the nearest lelatives, and ultimately reduces the inanimate form to its ori inal dust and ashes. Forlong says-" Fire enters int every duty of a Hindoc's life, Before partaking of his naming meal he utters incantations to Agni, offers to hin portions of that meal ; and in like manner, uefore he wears a new cloth or garment, he must take some threads or parts of it and ofler these to the same deity," "It is from the rubbing togeth r of the wood of trees, notably of the three Banian iigsepal, Bar, and Gooler, the favourite woods for Phallic i rages, that holy fire is drawn from heaven, and before all these species do women crave their desires hom God." " eave and ti re rites are not y t extirpated from ~·u'_ salem, nor, indeed, from any nation of tile earth. Christians still ru sh for sacred iire to the h Iy cave at the birth of Sol, and men and women strive, i 1 secret nooks, to pass naked through holy fire."
FISHES,
FLo"\YEI~S, AND
FIRE
WonSIlIP.
51
H Syrians, as well as all other nations, coune ·ted the Serpent with Fire. Thus the Jews had their fire a tars, on which the holy flame must be ever burning and never go out; and they carried about a serpent on a pole as thei healer. So also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles spea s of the Christian Holy G host as having serpent-like 'cloven toncues of fire,' which the margin of orthodox Bibles very prop~rly connects with Isaiah's Seraphim." Forlong says :-" I began my study of Briti h ruins about eight year's ago (from 1882), during a two-year- urlough, attracted to it at first by my friend the late Si James Simpson-President of the Society of Antiquaries, E linburgh -a t that time writing and de bating ill ueh on these matters; and I came then to the same conclusion as I hold to-day; viz.: that the ruins of Armorika, those of Stonehenge Abury, and various others, known popularly as 'Druid Circ es,' are, or originally were, Phallo-Pythic-Solar shrines, r places where all the first five elemental faiths more or less fl urished; the first (Tree) very little, and the last (Sun) Vel' abundantly; and if so, then we see the cause why ~uropean writers so pugnaciously hold out, some for Sun, owe for Fire; one that they are mere places for sacr-ifices or burial, or for assembly of rulers, clans, &c.; whilst 1\ few outlying writers hint tlmt the large stones are Lingams, or mere groups of such stones as that of Kerloaz-the Newt 11 stone, &c. Colonel Forbes Leslie, in his 'Ancient Races of eotland,' has very nearly told us the truth, his long reside ice and travels in Asia having enabled him almost to pi rce the cloud, though he seems at first not to have fully ap reciated the ever very close connection between Sun, Fire, Sel'pent and Lingam faiths, which I believe he does now." "The European mind having once lost the old ideas of what these words meant, and from having still sue objects as Sun, Fire, and Serpent before them, is always thinking of these visible objects, which I might almost sa a true Sivaite never recognises per se; for in fire the tru Phallic worsh ipper sees no flame, and in the SUll no far-ou t resplendent orb as we know, standing npart, as it vcre, in space, and to which we all gl'avitate; he sees imply:t source of fertility, without which the Serpent has I 0 powel' or passion, and in whose absence the animal and egetable world must cease to exist. The fire here, then, is lot that
I
52
FISIIES,
FLmVETIS,
A::-iD FIlU~
WORSHIP.
which the real Sivaite sees or cooks by, but Hot or lloly Fire, or the 'Holy Spirit,' or the fire of pas ion, which to a certain small extent, and in certain symb lie forms and posi ti ons, he recognises in flame, as wh en rais d on a to wer, coming out of an a bel isk, or rising in a c lu mn or pillar over an ark, or smouldering in the secret ad tum; for the first impresses him with the Arkite, the se ond with the Phallic and Arkite, and the third with the urely feminine idea; in all, he merely sees representative mr Ie and female energies which are excited and fructified by tl e Sun, Apollo, or the Sun-Serpent, as in his old coin, where ertility fed by fi 1'8 feeds the shell. In a column, be it wood stone, or fire, he sees the Sun-stone, such as the 1\ludros of Phcenicia, the Mindir of Ireland, and obelisk of Egypt; a id in the cist, shell, or Akros, the womb, Yoni, or sun-bo ; in all, the column or Palas, and its Caput-oliue." "Leaping or walking through the fire, so frequently mentioned in Jewish writings in counectiou with Molek, is still quite corumon ill tho less civilised parts f India, being usually done in fulfilment of a vow for hlessi 19S desired, or believed to have been conferred by the cl ity upon tile X azarite or Vower. I have known of it bein gone through for recoyery from (t severe illness, and for success in an expedition or project which the Naza.rite had 1 uch at heart:' Some say tire should be trod because Drupadi, the mythical wife of the Pandoos, did this, a tel' defilement through the touch of Kichaka, and because S ta proved bel' purity by fire. Where the British Ooverumer t can prevent this rite, flowers are th 1'0\" n in to the fi re-pi t, vhich seems as if the fire were looked upon as a female energy ll'it'e-tt'eading is commonly accomplished by digging a deepi h WUTOW pit, and filling it with firewood, and then when he flames are scorching hot, leaping over it; usually the rite begins by first walking closely round tho fire, slowly at f st, then faster and faster, with occnsional leaps into aud ou of it in the wildest excitemcnt. 1\1r. Stokes, of the Madra Ci vil Service, thus describes the rite as it came oflicially to notice in .J\ pril, 1S73. In 11 level place before the village d ity, who was Drupadi Arna (Mother D.), a fire-pit, in size ~7 by 71 feet by £} inches deep, was excavated east ..nrl vest, and the goddess set up at the west. encl. Six Babool r Acacia trees
FIS! ES,
FLOWEItS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
53
(this being a fiercely burning wood) were cut and thrown in; thirteen persons trod this fire, and one died from the effects. They followed e ch other, some with tabors, others l·inging a bell, and each after passing through the fire, went into a pit fined with ater, called the "milk pit." All merely wore a waist cl th, and had their bodies daubed over with sandal, The on who died, fell into the fire, and had to be pulled out. The fire was lit at noon, and "walking it" took place at two p. I., when it had become very bright and hot. The Poojore, or priest of tho tewple, said it was his duty to walk annuall through the fire, and that he had done so for seven or eig rt years. It was the mother of the dead man who had YO ved that if her son recovered from an attack of jaundice she would tread the fire, but the old woman being blind, her son fulfilled the vow. Some said that the dead man himself had vowed thus to the Goddess Drupadi : ":Mother, if I r coyer, I shall tread on your fire." Death is rarely the res It of this practice, but Mr. Stokes adds that a few years ag, n" mother and her infant died from the effects. "On the 2 th of June, men, and even babes, had to be passed through he fire. 'On this llight,' says Dr. Moresin, 'did tho Bighla del'S run about on the mountains and high grounds with 1ig ited torches, like the Cicilian women of old, in search of Pr serpine,' and Scotch farmers then used to go round their corn- elds with blazing torches, as was the custom at the Cerealia. The ancient Rowan Kalendar states, among other matter, til t fires are made on the Z:3rd; 'Boys dress in girls' clothe ; waters arc swum in during the night. 'Vater is fetche in vessels and hung up for purposes of divination; fel'll is esteemed by the vulgar because of the seed . . .. ; girl gather thistles, and place a hundred crosses by the same;' or has not the thistle a cap like the lotus, and is it not a trefoil i "In the 'i nglishwoman in Russia,' p. 223, a writer says that 'on n idsurnmer eve a custom still (1855) exists in H u ssia, am on g he lower cl asses, th at co uld only be deri ved from a very re ate antiquity, and is perhaps a remnant of the worship of Jaal. A party of peasant women and girls assemble in sam retired unfrequented spot, and light a large fire, oyer which they leap in succession. If by chance one of the other se should be fonnd near the place, or should
54
FISHES,
FLOWE
S, AXD FInK
WORSHIP.
have seen them in the::l.c of performing the rite, it is at the imminent hazard of is life, for the women would not scruple to sacrifice him f I' his temerity.' The writer was assured that such instanc s had often been known. Thus this 'Fire-dance' is a vel' serious matter, and one which under the circumstances, we can learn very little about: from its secret practice he by women it is clearly connected with Agni, the Procreator or Fertiliser. Our ancestors were inveterate fire-worshippers, especially at the four great solar festivals. They thought n cattle safe unless passed through the .May Day and l\lidsu mer Beltine fires, and no person would suffer a fire within their parish which had not been t.lien kindled afresh from the Tin-Egin, or sacred fire produced by friction." The Medes were undo btedly worshippers of Fire, "as the most subtle, ethereal, inc mprehensible, aud powerful agent. They were averse to all temples or personification of the material things, or of 0 mazd, Like our Parsee fellow· subjects, they never allowed their hearth-fires to be extinguished, nor would they even blo out any ordinary fire or candle j in the ~Iagian days, he w 0 did so forfeited his life." I. We still see the r ma.ius-s-some very perfect-of the lone Fire-towers, which G eeks called Puraitheia, amidst the lofty hills of Armenia, A erbijan, Koordistan and Loor istau, some of which were Dakr as, or 'Towers of Silence,' having gratings for roofs, throug 1 which the bones fell when the body was destroyed. The Fire-God was called At-A?'." The Sabines were, pe haps, more nearly related. to our ancestors than :is generally thought; at least we may believe so from the Sabine and G lie languages having more affinity even than the Welsh all Irish, and from other evidence. Dr. Leatham, in his war on Descriptive Ethnology, says that 'much of the blood f the Romans was Keltic, and so is much of the l.. atin Ian uage, , and a study of the movements of ancient peoples ill show how this is so, Like the Skyths, these old Sabines ere devoted to all the worship of Sivaites, and particularly of Mars' symbol, the Quiris or Spear, after which we still call their greatest fete Quirinalia, and their Mount Zion, tl e Quirinal. The worship of the Quiris has not yet ceased in high Asia, nor, I believe, in America. It was promi ent on the summits of all the Skythian bonfire piles all mounds at ... vhich these Aryan
FISHES,
FLOWEHS,
AND
FIRE
wo
(SHIP.
55
fathers worshipped, and is connected wit 1 most rites, \Ve also see it on numerous sculpturings whi h have been unearthed from the ruins of the' Sknt.i, or Kelts of Ireland and Scotland-much to the perplexity of local ant.iquaries. II uc, in his 'Tmvels in Tartary,' gives s these Phalli as existing all over the immense extent of co ntry he traversed, inc I uding North e rn Chi na, 1\1ongo lia, T h bet, Spears are, however, too valuable to be left sticking i 4 these Ob08,' as he calls them, and therefore "dried bran hes of trees' are substituted in very good imitation of spear ." "'Ve have abundant proof that Fire '\ as never neglected by ancient Christians, ci ther on tomb or ,lta,r. In a letter from Home, we find that in front of he Cu bicu! urn, or square tomb of Cornelius the martyr, is a short pillar supporting an ever-burning lamp of oil; and when this custom of never-dying flame-alike com In n to all faithsWaS revived in the third century A.C., ve read that the Popes used to send to kings and queens few drops of the oil from this lamp of the tomb of Corn lius. (See Cor.Ill. Lon, N ews, 3-72.) :x01· need we be astonished at this, seeing that Vesta's shrine still flourished end received Papal attention, and that in every corner of tl e world Fire-fait.h existed. To this day none may neglect th rites of this faith in Syria-cradle of the God, as the po l' Turkish Bey of Antioch and his son found to their co t, when, after the earthquake of April 3rd, 1872, they and t eir officers kindly, reverently and wisely buried the Christian dead, but without the fire-symbols and bell-ringing (which th y failed to understand), thereby greatly offending a powerf 1 sect of Antioch, called the Dusars, who, still clearly WOl shipping Baal and Astaroth, rose upon the poor Turks and s note them hip and thigh." (ever lastin o fire' 0' "In the county of Kildare, Ireland heaso Andagha, or was preserved by 'holy virgins-called the Reformation. daughters of ji1'e,' down to the time lar d, and never other These were often the first ladies of the than those of gentle birth." 44 No blessing can be asked or grante from the altar of any Catholic Church until the candles are lighted, If a woman when pregnant desires to be blesse I by the Christian Church, she is instructed 'to wait on her knees, at the door of the ch urch, with a lighted taper in h r hand,' nor can

I
56
FISUES,
FLOWERS,
A~D
FInE
WonSII IP.
any cross be blessed until three tap rs are lighted by the 'Illan of God,' had placed at its base. Sec Picart II., 117, where he gives some graphic plates of Christian Pliallosolar-fire rites. "In Good win's Civil and Ecclesi etica! Rites, under the head of Feasts of the Expiation, wh ch we have reason to believe was at one time a period 0 human sacrifice, we have the great Winter-Ohristmas S turnalia, 01' J uveualia Festival of Lights and Fires describe, when not only the temples of .J ews and Christians, but very house had to be carefully lighted. Jews taught that t e lights IIIlist be held in the left hand, and the holder mu t 'walk between two commandments,' which seems to denot the climatic or sola I' turn of the year. This old writer tells us that it was 'woman's peculiar province to light t ieir lamps .' and tlmt 'there are certain prayers appropriate to this festival, and among the rest one in 1J1'aise of' G d, who hath orr1aiwd the ligllting up 0./ lamps upon Solem t Days.' Here ,YO see a close resemblance between the faitl of the Jew and the Islami, whose wives are enjoined personally to see to the lighting of the household Jam ps on en us' Eve. J erusa.Iern, we know, acknowledges the God of Agni to the present hour, by annually giving out that h Iy Fire descends from heaven at It stated season into the dark Arlyt» of the Sacred Shrine; all old fires must b extinguished at this the season of Sol's renewed vigour, so when the priest emerges from the adytum with the ew fire in his hand (and Christian priests have often don this, if they do not do so still), crowds of every hue an creed rush towards him, light their tapers, and bear awa the new tire to their homes." neferring to the Temple of Vesta mentioned by Davies, Forlong says~" Now, what was this emple of Vesta Z In its rites and surroundings, its dutie social and political, it was one with the temples still exi ting in Asia devoted to Phallic and Fire-worship combined, or perhaps I should say a temple to Phallic worship only but the cult in the dawn of brighter faiths was somewhat hid away by the priests in the darkest recesses of th ir temples, and not well-known by ma,ny of the worshippe s, and scarcely at all by European writers even of the mid Ie ages. .Any student of Delphic lore and of Eastern travel, 1 owever, will recognise
FISHES,
FLOWEnS,
AXD }'IIn;
WOHSIIlP.
57
at nee 111 Delphi's Oracle and Vesta's Temple, 'The Old Fait i ' and its priestess worshippers, although the writer in 8mi h's Dictionary of Antiquities does not appeal' to do so. lIe describes Vesta's as merely a Fire-temple, and says that ther were six Vestales or Virgin Priestesses to watch the eter al Fire which blazed everlastingly on the altar of the godd ss. On the Pope has descended the name of their superior as 'Poutifex Maximus.' If by any negligence or misf rt.une the Fire ... vent out, the Pontifex :J1aximus scourged the rring vestal virgin, for had not she-a \voman-permitt d the procreative energy of the god to forsake mankind 1" "' Dr, George Petrie, who in 1845 still combatted, but with ut force, the pre-Christian idea of Irish Towers, ackn wledges signs of a very strong and all-prevailing Fire 'Val' hip in Ireland, This he sees in Bel or Bil-tene-s'the goodly fire,' in which Bel, the sun in Ireland, as of old in Babylon, was the gt'e,tt purifier. The Druids, he says, used to worship in presenec of two fires, and make cattl walk bctwcen them to keep off evil. Even in Dublin we ave still May-fires, and those of St. John's Evc; and an ld mall uscri pt of Trinity College tells us that 'Del was the name of an idol at whose festival (Bel-tine) a couple of all cattle were exhibited as in his possession,' whicl I conclude means-fixed by his rays. The name of this feast III Scotland was Egiu-Tiu, III which we can rec0t':> lise Agin, Ag, or Agni-firc, and the fire-god or all Asia. In the island of Skye-sl1ys De. ~I;utill, quoted by Petri, page xxxviii.-the Tin Egin was a forced fire at' fire of n cesaity which cured the plague and murrain amongst cattl. All the tires in the parish were extillguished, and -one married men (a multiple of the mystic number being thought the necessary uu rnber for effecting this . took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who, by their repeated efforts, rubb d one of the planks against the other until the heat there f produced fire, and from this forced fire each family is 5U plied with new fire. , This is the true 'fire which falls from heaven,' and it must st-ill be so produced at the temples of all fire-worshipping races, and at the hearths of the G uebre or Parsees, as it was in this remote Isle of Skye. , I must now make a few general observations upon
58
FISHES,
FI.OWERS,
A:-.'D FIRI<; WORSHIP,
the Ill, rked PhalloFire Worship of the Greeks and Romans, too co nmonly called {Firc mal Ancestor Worship,' it not heing crceivcd that the ancestor came to be honoured and worshi )ped only as the Generator, and so also the Serpent, as his symbol.
" he
niches or "b the E before prostr. similar "
'Signs' 01' Nishaus of the generating parents, the Lares and Penates, were placed in the family close to the holy flame-that {hot air,' 'holy spirit,' -eath '-the active force of the Hebrew BRA, and yptian P'ta--th'Ol engenderer of the heavens and earth, which ignorant and superstitious races prayed and tcd themselves, just as they do to-day before very sy IIIbols, he Greeks
Paraees
and Rornans watched over their fires as or Zoroastrians. The males of the family sec that the holy flame never went out, but in the absenc of the head, and practically at all times, this sacred duty evolved on the matron of the house. Every evening tbe sa red Dee was carefully covered with ashes so that it migbt not go out by ovcrsight, but quietly smoulder on; and ir the early morning the ashes were removed, when it l>ightened up and worshipped. In March or early it 'was allowed to die out, but not before the New Fire had been kindled from Sol's rn.ys and placed sanctuary. No unclean object Was allowed to come neal' gni; none d u rst even warm themsel ves near hi 111 ; nor co ld auy blameworthy action take place in his presence. If e w s only approached for adoration 01' pmyGr j not as tire, \ hich he was not, but as sexual jlame or life. Prayers were ffercd to him similar to those Christians use; and with 110st he held just such a mediatorial office as Christ does. The Almighty was addressed through him, and he was sked for hea.lth, happiness wisdom and foresight j guidance in prosperity and comfort in adversity, long life, off-spr'ng, and all manly and womanly qualifications. His follow rs wore taught that it was the most heinous sin to appro, ch him with unclean hearts or hands, and were encourag J to come to him at all times for repentance nnd sanctit ca.tion. the " ~efore leaving the house, prayer had to be made to s red lire; and on returning, the father must do so
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSIIIP.
59
even be re embracing his wife and children. Thus Agarnemnon act d, we are told, on his return from Troy. Sacrifices, libations wine, oil and victims were regularly offered to the Fire, a d as the god brightened up under the oils, all exulted and fell down before him. 'I'hey believed that he ate and drank, and with more reason than the Jew said this of his Jehovah and El-Shadai. A bove all, it was necessar to offer food and wine to him j to ask a blessing before very meal, and return thanks when it was over. From 0 id and Horace we see it was thought pious and proper t sup in presence of the sacred flame, and to make oblation to it. There was no difference between Romans, Greeks, and Hindoos in these respects, except that Soma wine in India took the place of the grape of cooler lands. All alik besought Agni by fervent prayers for increase of flocks a c1 families, for happy li yes and serene old age, for wisdom nd pardon of sin. \Ve see the great antiquity of this fait 1 in the well-known fact, that even when the early Greeks ere sacrificing to Zeus and Athene at Olympia, they al ays first invoked Agni, precisely as had been ordered in the edas some 2,000 yeal's B.C., and probably as he had bee invoked many thousands of years before the art of writi g was known."
CHAPTER
YI.
Fire-v:m'ship t.n the States of tlie Mediterranean-s-Sp Sacredness of the public City-fire of Greece and Rome sacred Fire 0/ Tlachtga-Ceylon Fire-worship-The Parse Persian Afonurnenls-Im],iely of Cambyses-Cingalese Te Sanscrit, Welsh, &c.-'1'he Yule-log-Fi1"e-worship in Eng -The Fire of Beltane-Druidical PiJ'es-J[ay-day Fir November Fires in Ireland-Between Tico Firee=Scotla The Summer Solstice asui Pi1'e Ceremonies- Worship of in Ireland-St. John's Day-Bon.fires-Decree of Counci Constantinople.
cial
'The sms, nd sdaal of
states of the Moditerranean and Persia India, baptismal forms connected with With the Greeks and Romans the baptismnl ceremony place between the ninth and t.welfth days of birth, generally comrnenced by women seizing the infant and rum ing round, or dashing through tbe fire with it. So a13 at marriages, fire was the activo and 'covenant god.' No account was taken of a bride s faith; to marry was to embrace the husband's religion, to be to him in filio: loco, and to break entirely with her own family; nay, marriage was for long entered into with a show of violence, as i to demonstrate the separation. It certainly reminds one of arly times when men thus obtained their wives. The prin ipal part of the marriage ceremony was to bring the bride b fore her husband's hearth, anoint her with holy water, and ake her touch the sacred fire; after which she broke brea or ate a cake wibh him. Fire was also the God who witn ssed the separation of husband and wife, which, if there vere offspring, was a rare and difficult act; but if the couple were childless, divorce was an easy matt.er." "No stl'<Lnger dared appear before the city-fire either in Greece 01' Home, indeed the me1'e look of a person fOleign to the worship would profane It sacred act, and disturb the auspices, The vcry name of stra-ngers was Icostis, or e emy to the goels. When the Homan Pontiff had to sac ifice out-of-doors, he veiled his face so that the chance sigh of
"ALL like the _
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AND FIRE
WORSiliP.
61
trangers might be thus atoned for to the gods, who were ~pposed to dislike foreigners so much, that the most laboIOUS ceremonies were undertaken if any of these passed ear, not to say handled any holy object. Every sacred fire iad tu be re-lit if It stranger entered a temple; and so in ndia, every sacred place must be carefully purified if fi, oreigner (ruler and highly respected though he may be) ass too close to a Hindoo shrine. I have seen Government crvants under me, and Sepoys, who meant no disrespect, hrow away the whole of a. day's food, and dig up the little re-places they had prepared before cooking and eating, by accident or oversight, my shadow had passed though sometimes, if there were no onlookers, this measure was not carried out, partly out of regard r me." Dr. Keating, in his "History of Treland," speaks of he royal seat of 'I'lachtga, where the Fire Tlachtga was rdained to be kindled. LIe says :~The use of this sacred ro W!'l.S to su to mon the Priests, the A ugu rs, and Druids of reland to repair t lrither and assemble upon the Eve of J. It Saints, in order to consume the sacrifices that were ffered to their Pagan Gods; and it was established under t ie penalty of a great fine, that no other fire should be indled upon that night throughout the kingdom; so that t ie fire that was to be used in the country, was to be erived from this holy fire; for which privilege the people 'ere to pay a Scraball, which amounts to threepence every car as an acknow ledgmen t to the King of 1\1unste t', 1 ecause the palace of Tlachtga, where this fire burned, was t e proportion taken from the province of Munster, and dded to the country of l\Ieath. The second royal palace that was erected was in the roportion taken from the province of Conacht, and here as a general con voca tion assembled of all the inhabitan ts o the kingdom that were able to appear, which was c lied the Oonvocation of Visneach, and kept upon the first d y of l\f ay, where they offered sacrifices to the priucip:d d ity in the island, whom they adored under the name of - euI. Upon this occasion they were used to kindle two fires in every territory in the killgdom, in honour of this p gan god. It was a solemn ceremony at this time to drive a number of cattle of every kind between these fires j
62
PISIlES,
FLOWERS,
AXD FIRE
WORSHIP.
this WI\. conceived to be an antidote and a preservation against the mu rrain, or any other pestilential distemper among attle for the year following; and from these tires that were mn.de in worship of the god Beul, the day upon which t ie Ch rist.ian festival of St. Philip and St. James is observed is called in the J rish language Beul-tinne. The derivati n of the word is thus: La in ] rish signifies a day, Beul is the name of the pagan deity, and Teinne is the same wjlth fire in the English, which words, when they arc pl'onoun ed together, sound La Beultinuc." Les ie in his "Early Races of Scotland," says: "From Dondera Head in Ceylon to the Himalaya Mountains, and from til borders of Ohina to the extremities of 'Vestern Europe and its islands, we find clear evidence of the former revalence of the earliest form of false worship, viz., the adoration of light, the sun, and 'the whole host of heaven.' In the Rajpoot state of Marwar, in its capital Udayay or, 'The City of the Hising Sun l ' the precedence of Sur a, the sun god, is still maintained. The sacred standar of the country bears his image, and the Raja, claim in g to be his descen dan t, appears as his re p resen ta ti ve. " "II a complicated form the Parsees of British India still ret tin that worship of light, sym hoi ised in the sun and fire, fa!' which they became exiles when their faith was proscrib d ill the land of their ancestors." Les ie quotes various authors and travellers who had personal y witnessed the remains of many of these altars. "Chanli ," he says, "in his travels in Media in the end of the eventeeuth century describes circles or large stones that in st have been brought a. distance of six leagues to the pla where he observed them. The tradition regarding these ci -cles was, that councils were there held, each memo ber of t ie assembly being seated on a. separate stone." * In the Persian province of Fars, Sir William Ouseley observed a IIIonoli th ten or twelve feet high, surrounded by a fence of stones. This rude column had a cavity on the top. S' ruiliar iustances-e-viz., of monoliths having a crt. ity v in the top-existed run ong the pri miti ve manu men ts of Scotland (In Kincardineshire, at Auchincorthie, there were
J
*" Chardin's
Voyages, vol, ii.
FISHES,
FL
WERS,
AXO FIHg
WOHSIIIP.
63
five circles of stones. On the top of one of the stones which stood on the e tst side of the largest circle, there was a hollow three inc lCS deep, along the bottom of which, and down the side of tl e stone, a channel was cut. Another of the stones in this group had a similar cavity and channel. Other exampl s of such a rtificial cavities in ancient Bt·itish monuments coul be pointed out.-(Gibson's Camden, vol. ii., p. 291.) The ame tra veller remarked a few old trees w hich grew nen.r this col u inn, and th ese he supposed to be the remains of a consecrated grove. One of the trees was thickly hung with rags, the na.ti vo offet'ings of the inhabitants of the count y. Trees with such garniture may commonly be observed n the Dekhan and other parts of India, and not long sin c might be seen in many places in Britain. The Monolith thus described, and adjacent to the grove, was called by (].I ex pression egu ivalen t to "Stolle of the Fire Temple!' \V, know from Herodotus that the ancient Persians, like their expatriated descendants the Pu.rsees, were worshipp rs of the sun and tire, and the ill ysterious rites of the heathen inha hi tan ts of Bri tain must have closely resembled those of the Persians, when the similarity induced Plin to remark that Britain eu ltivates magic with ceremonial a august that it might bo supposed that the art was til'S communicated from them to the people of Persia. Turning to Herod tus as here suggested, speaking of the order gi\'en by Calli yses to bu rn the corpse of Aruasis, after his people had £.tiled to tear it apart, owing to its having been embalmed, he historian says :-" This was truly an impious command to give, for the Persians hold tire to be a god, and never by ny chance burn their dead. Indeed this practice is unlawf l, both wit.h them and with the Egyptians-with them f r the reason above mentioned, since they deem it wrong to give the corpse if a man to a god; and with the Egyptians because they believe fire to be a live animal, which eat whatever it can seize, and then glutted with the food, eli s with the matter it feeds upon." * Leslie says "it is it iportant, as a prelude to the description of rites in a wors lip common to the early inhabitants of the Indian Peninsula nd to the Celtic population of Gaul
.. Th Iia, 16, Rawlinson.
F SIms,
FLOWEfiS,
AXD FmE
WOHSl{IP.
and Britain, 0 refer to the cognate expressions which they employed for be object of their adoration. In Cingalese, .I 11, J wala, signific light, lustre, flame j J walana, light; also Agni, or personified and deified fire. Eliya is also Cingalese for light. j in We sh, Lleuer and Lleuad, the moon j in Gaelic, Eibhlo, anythi)g on fire. In Sanscrit, Jwala signifies light, flame j in Cor iish, Gwawl; in \Velsh, Goleu; in Armorican, Goleu. In Ga lie, Geal and Eallaidhe is white j Soillse, light, sunlight; Suil the eye. In Cingalese, Haili and Bel, and in Sanscrit, H Ii or Helis is the SUllo In Welsh it is Haul, pronounced lL il j in Armorican, Haul and Heol j in Cornish, Houl and Henl. The gre'lt festival of heathen Britain-c-viz, Yeul-s-was cel brated at that period of the year when the sun having 0 tained the greatest distance from the earth, commenced hi return to restore warmth anel to revivify nature. Alth ugh Christmas superseded the heathen festival, not only the a icienr name of Yeul, but many of the customs, evidently conn cted with the heathen rites, are not yet obsolete in South ritain j and in Scotland, at least in the more remotc parts, and in :.1gricuItural districts, Y eul is still the word in gene 111 use £01' Christmas Day." Hone, in his "Every-day Book" vol. I. p. :!O+, says: "The Yenl fast and Yeul log can be clearly traced to their original SOUI'CC. Tho blaze of lights, and the kindling of the great ule log on Christmas Eve by a portion of the Yule bra d of the former year, is as clearly a heathen ceremony, and for the same object of worship, as the fires on Xlidsumme Eve, As to the feast, in times comparatively recent, he Grcenlanders held a sun-feast at the winter solstice, to rej ice in the conuiencement of returning light and warmth." H From T inidh and Tein, I'rish and Gaelic for fire, is probably deri ed the obsolete English word 'to teend.' Herrich, spe::L ing of the Christmas brand, says part must be kept wher with to teend the Christmas by next yen!'." Evidence of some sort of fi re- worsh iP in EnghLnd at various times s to be found in the Confessional of Ecgbert, Arch hishop of York (8th century) and the Penitential of Theodore, Arcl bishop of Canterbury (7th century), and that this included he adoration of the light of the sun and moon seems probable from the prohibition of the practice of passing children throu h fire extending to that of exposing them on the house-tops for the benefit of their health.
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
A)l"D ,FlRJ~ WORSHIP.
65
Leslie em arks that it is curious to compare these restrictions ud penalties to be enforced by English ecolesiastical auth rites with the denunciation of the same heathen practices by the prophet Zeplianinh, (Chap. 1., 4, 5.) HI will cut off' the remnant of Baal, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the house-tops." The all sion to the Midsummer Eve Fire in Hone, reminds us f the ":Fire of Bel" or Beltane of Scotland, a festival g nerally celebrated on May-day old style. Leslie says, in oth r Celtic countries of Western Europe the same expression, ' ith slight varin.tions in sound, was also used for the great he then festival which was held about the beginning of the mont 1 of May, He further says :-" Beltane is also used to exp 'ess the fires that were kindled in honour- of Bel on that and on other days connected with his worship, I1S on Mids Ulmer Eve, afterwards called the vigil of St. John, on .L ll-Hallowe'en, and on Yeule, 'which is now Christmas. Of the ceremonies practised at Bcltane, and continued al nost to our own times, the most remarkable and general were the fires lighted in honour of BeL" " Kiudli 19 fires at Beltane, on the hills and conspicuous places in le 'el districts, was so universal in Scotland-also in Ireland nd Cornwall-that it is unnecessary to refer to records for roof of events which may still be witnessed in this year It565. "Conjoi red with Apollo in the inscription on a Roman altar found at Inveresk is an epithet bearing a considerable resemblance to the name of the sun in Gaelic. ApolliniCranno is t ie comrnencement of the inscription. Grian Or Greine is tl e sun in Gaelic, and Grianach is 'the sunny.' This resemllance it is as well to notice, for epithets not similar in ound but identical in meaning are used for A polIo or tl e sun by classic au thors and the Scottish Celts, as Gruagach, the fair-haired. Enclosures called Grianan or Greinham, 'the house of the SUIl,' where the people worshipped the sun, are to be met with everywhere. On the Gruagaeh st lies libations of milk were poured. A clergyman of the 'Yes .ern Isles says that about a century ago (this was in 177 ), Grul1gach got credit for being the father of a child at hulista, near Duntulme, the scat of l\J'Donald. Gruagach, tie sun, was represented by certain rude stones of large siz. On the island of Bernera, in the parish of
<
}o'
66
FISHES,
FLOW EnS,
AND FIRE
wonSHIP.
Harris, a circle, defined by long sharp pointed stones, has in the centre a stone in the form of all inverted pyramid, called Clach-na-C reine, 'the stone of the sun.'" Toland, in his "History of Druids," gathers together a good deal of important information relative to Fire Customs in various parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the adjacen t islands, He speaks of the earns (caims) or heaps of stones which are found on mountain tops and other eminencies in different localities, and after alluding to the uses they served in course of time as beacons, being conveniently situated for such a purpose, saY8-" They were originally designed for fires of another nature. The fact stood thus. On May-eve the Druids made prodigious fires on those earns, which being e"ery one in sight, could not but afford a glorious show oyer a w hole nation. These fires were in honour of Beal or Bealan, latinised by the Homan authors into Belcnus, by which name the Gauls and their colonies understood the sun: and, therefore, to this hour the first day of l\lay is by the aboriginal Irish called La Bealteino, or the day of Belen's fire." "May-day is likewise called La Bealtoine by the Highlanders of Scotland, who are no contemptible part of the Celtic offspring. So it is in the Isle of l\1an; and in A rmoric a priest is still called Belee, or the Servaut of Bel, and priesthood Belegieth. 'r\VO such fires as we have mentioned were kindled by one another on May-eve in e"e1'Y village of the nation (as well throughout all Gaul, as in Britain, Ireland, and the adjoining lesser islands), between which tires the men and the beasts t.o be sacrificed were to pass j from whence came the proverb, Iletsceen. Bel'« two firee, meaning one in a great strait, not knowing how to extricate himself. One of the tires was on the earn, another on the ground. On the eve of the first day of November there were also such fires kindled, accompanied (a.s they constantly were) 'with sacrifices and feasting. These November fires were in Ireland called Tine tlach'c! gila, from tlneh'd-gl,a, a place hence so called in Meath where the Archdruid of the realm had his fire on the said eve; and for which piece of ground, because originally belonging to i\l unster, but appointed by the supreme monarch for this use, there was an nnnual acknow ledgement (called t;greaboll) paid to the ki 11 g of that province.
FISHES,
FLOWERS,
AX!)
}'IRE
WORSHIP.
G7
"On the aforesaid eve all the people of the country, out of a religious persuasion instilled into them by th Druids, extinguished their fires as entirely as the Jews are wont to sweep their houses the night before the feast of u bread. Then every master of a family was religiousl obliged to take a portion of the consecrated fire home, and 0 kindle the fire anew in his house, which for the ensuing ear was to be lucky and prosperous. lIe was to pay, how vel', for his future happiness whether the event proved answ rable Ot' not; and though his house should be afterwards b rnt, yet he must deem it the punishment of some new sin, o· ascribe it to any tiling rather' than to 'want of virtue in he consecration of the fire, or of va.lidity in the benedictio of the Druid, who, from officiating at the cams, was likewi e called Cair uech, a name that continued to signify priest even in Christian times. But if any man had not cleared ith the Druids for the last year's dues, he was neither to have a spark of this holy fire from the earns, nor durst a y of his neigh bou rs let him take the bene-At of theirs 11 nder pain of excouununication, which, as managed by the Dru ds, was worse than death. If he would brew, therefore, or bake, or roast, or boil, or warm himself and family; iu a vord, if he would live the winter out, the Druid's dues must be paid by the last of October, so that til is trick alone "as more effectual than are all the Acts of Parliament n ade for securing au I' present clergy's dues, "As to the fire-worship which (by the way) re vailed Dvel' all the world, the Celtic nations kindled other fires on Midsu mmer-eve, which are still continued hy the Roman Catholics of Ireland j making them in all their grou ds, and carryillg flaming brands about their corn-fields. T is they do likewise all over France and in some of the Scottish Isles. These midsummer fires and sacrifices were t obtain a blessing on the fl'uits of tile earth, now becomii g ready for gatherillg; as those of the first of May, that th y might prosperously grow; and those of the last of Octobe were a thanksgiving for finishing their harvest. But in all of them regard was also had to the several degrees decrease in the heat of the sun's rays." With regard to the proverb "Bet\veen Bel's t, a fires," Mr. Huddleston in his new edition of Toland (18 4) adds a note in which he says :-" As J\I r. Toland in his note on
I
68
FISHES,
FLO'YEItS,
AND FIRE
WOHSIIIP,
this passa e, informs us the Irish phrase is Ittir elha theine Bheil ; D', Smith has also given us the Scottish phrase, Gabha Bl eil, i.e., the jeopardy of Bel. Both agree that tbese exp essions denote one in the most imminent danger. Mr. Tolar d S[l,Ys the men and beasts to be sacrificed passed between wo fires, and that hence the proverb originated, Dr, Smitl], on the contrary, imagines that this was one of the Drui ical ordeals whereby criminals were tried; and instead 0 making t.heru PH.SS betwixt the fires, makes them march di ectly across them. Indeed, he supposed the Druids were kine enough to anoint the feet of the criminals, and render th ern invulnerable to the flames. If so there could have been neither danger nor trial, It may also be remarked, that had the doctor's hypothesis been well founded, there was no a casion for two fires, whereas by the phrase, between Bel's two res, we know that two were used. Doctor Smith has evid ntly confounded the Gabha Bhcil with a feat practised by the Hirpins on l\Jount Soracte." It s ems that the expression used by the Scotch expressive f a man in difficulties, "He is between the two fires of el," 'was common enough to attract the attention of ether wri ers than those we have cited, and of 1110st t.ravellers in the ighlands. Martin mentions it in his "'Vestern Isles," as also Shaw and the Rev. D. l\l'Queen. The latter is cited y Leslie I\S a Gaelic scholar of the last century, who in r g[Lrd to the expression, "He is betwixt two Beltein fires:' giv s as an explanation that the Celtic tribes in their sacred en losures offered sacrifices, commonly horses, that were burnt be ween two large fires, and Leslie adds, "On this it In!1y e remarked that horses were sacrificed to tho sun by the rian race from the earliest times; and this continued to be practised by Hindus, Persio.ns, and other nations. In Britai 1 it is probable that om' heathen ancestors sacrificed horses, Itl d it is cert.ain that they ate them." J ami SOB'S splendid "Etymologicltl Dictionary of the Scottish anguage," supplies us with valuable information on the point we arc discussing, drawn from a variety of relinbl« authorities, Under U BELTA~TE, Beltein, the name of a sort of festival observed on the first day of }\Iay, O.S.;" we have :_11 town in Porthshire, on the borders of the Highlands, is called Tillie- (or '1"Ullie ) beltane, i,e. the eminence or rismg ground of the fire of EU<11. In the neighbourhood
.F1S1I1<;8, FLOWERS,
AXD
IRE
WORSlIIP.
69
is a druidical temple of eight u right stones, where it is supposed the fire was kindled. A some distance from this is another temple of the sante ki d, but smaller, and near it a well still held in great venera .ion, On Beltane morning superstitious people go to this we I, and drink of it; then they make a procession round it, as I am informed, nine times. After this, they in like rna ner go round the temple. So deep rooted is this heathenish uperstition in the minds of many who reckon themselves g od Protestants, that they will not neglect these rites, eve] ... "hen Beltane falls on Sabbath." Quoting from P. Loudon, S atist. Ace, iii., 105, thc writer proceeds :-" The custom s ill remains [in the 'Vest of Scotland] among the herds an young people to kindle fires in the high grounds, in ho lour of Beltan. Beltan, which in Gaelic signifies Baal 0[" Bel's fir», was anciently the time of this solemnity. It is now kept on St. Peter's Day.)) .T ust here we may turn to )1r. Pennant's "Tour in Scotll1nd," for the following intercs ing particulars. "On the first of )1;;.y, the herdsmen of every village hold their Beltein, a rural sacrifice. Tiley c t a square trench on the ground, leaving the turf in the iddle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they ell' ss a lal'ge candle of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and iuilk ; and br ng, besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky; for each of the company must contribute somethi g. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle all the ground by way of libation: on that every one take a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square kno s, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed pre erver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular ani al, tho real destroyer of them: each person then turns hi face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over is shoulder, says-This I give to thee, preserve thou my ho ses / this to thee, presen;e thou my slieep ; and so on. Aft r that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals; This I gil'e to thee, 0 Fox! spare thou my lambs / t!tis to thee, 0 hooded Croui] this to thee, 0 Eagle!" * Further on the same traveller writes :-" The Beltein, or
oJ!:
Pennant,
vol.
I'I
p. Ill.

I
70
FISHES,
FLmVERS,
AXD FInF.
WORSHIP.
the rural sacrifice on the first of l\f ay, O.S., has been mentioned before. Hallow-eve is also kept sacred: It soon as it is dark, a person sets fir€' to a bush of broom fa tened round a pole, and attended with 11 crowd, runs rou d the village. He then flings it., down, keeps a great quan 'ty of combustible matters in it, and makes a great bonfi e. .A whole tract is thus illuminated at the same time, and lakes a fine appearance. The carrying of the fiery pole a pears to be a relic of Drudism." * The II Statistical Account of Scotland, Parish of Calhnder, Perths," supplies several important and interesting fa ts reluting to this. II The people of this district have two c storns which are fast wearing out, not only here, but all ov r the Highlands, and therefore ought to be taken notice of while they remain. Upon the first day of May, w hich is called Beltau or Baliein. Day, all the boys in a township or iu.m let meet in the moot's. They cut a table in the gt'een sod of a round figure, by casting a trench in the ground of su h circumference as to hold the 'whole company. They kii dle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the cons stence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, wh ch is toasted at the em bers against 11 stone. After the custh.rd is eaten up, thcy di vide the cake into so many portio 1S, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these p rtions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of cake into a bonnet. Everyone, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bon et is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore, in rendering the year pro of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered i this country, as well as in the east, although they now pas from the act of sacrificing, and only compel thc devoted erson to leap three times through the flames; with whic 1 the ceremonies of this festival are closed." Again referring to Jamieson, he says :~u The 1 espect paid by the ancient Britons to Belus, or Bclinus, is e idcnt from the names of some of their kings, As the Babyl niaus
* Pennant,
vol,
Ill.
I
FISHES,
FLO' 'EUS,
AND FIRE
WORSHIP.
71
had their Beletis or B lilrus, Rige-IJelus, Jlerodoch-Baladan and Belshazzar; the Tyr ans their Ich-baals and Balator, the Britons had their Cassi-be 'n, and their Cuno-bclin. The Gftel and 11'. vord Ileal-tine or Beil-teine signifies Belue' Fire; as composc( of Baal 01' Belis, one of the names of the sun in Gaul, and tein signifying fire, Even in Angus a spark of fire is called a tein or teind," Martin's Western lsI nds bears similar testimony, thus;"Another god of the B itons was Belus or Belinus, which seems to have been the Assyrian god Del, or Belus; and probably from this Pag n deity comes the Scots' term of Beltin-having its first rise from the custom practised lJY the Druids in the isles, f extinguishing all the fires in the parish until the tythes vere pnid ; and upon payment of them, the tires were kin led in eaeh family, and never till then. In those days 1Il lefactors were burnt between two fires j hcnce when they would express a man in a great strait, they say, He is etween two fires of Bel, which in their language they expl' ss thus, Edir da lrin Veaul or BeL" It has been remar red that the Pagan rites of the festival of Midsummer ;~ve, the Summer Solstice may be considered as a counter art of those used at the \Vinter Solstice of Yule-tide. 'There is OBe thing," S[l,ys Brand, "tha.t seems to prove th s beyond the possibility of a doubt. In the old Runic Fasti a wheel was used to denote the festi val of Ch r iat.ru a.s. h us Durand us, w Iien speaking of the Hites of the Feast John Baptist, informs us of t.liis curious circuuist nee, that in some places they 1'011 a wheel about to signif that the Sun, then occupying the highest place in the 7.0 l ia.c, is beginning to descend; and in the amplified account given by N aogeorgns, we read that this wheel was taken p to the top of a mountain and rolled down from thence; and that, as it had been previously covered with straw, tw sted about it and set on fire, it appeared at a distance . s if the sun had been fa.lling from the sky. And he furth I' observes, that the people imagine that all their ill-luck r lls away from them together with this wheel." "Leaping over the res is mentioned among the superstitions rites used at he Pal ilia in Ovid's Fasti, The Palilia were feasts instit ted in honour of Pales, the goddess of shepherds (though Va TO makes Pales masculine), on the
72
FISHES,
LOWERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
calends of May. In order to drive away wolves from the folds, and distempers from the cattle, the shepherds all this day kindled several haps of straw in thcir fields, which they leaped oyer," " Bon me tells u that it was the custom in his time, in the Korth of En land, chicfly in country villages, for old and young peoplc t meet together and be merry over a large fire, which w s made for that purpose in the open street. 'I'his, of wha ever materials it consisted, was called a Bone-fire. Over ar d about this fire they frequently leap, and play at variou games such as running, wrestling, dancing, &c.; this, 10\VCVer, is generally confined to the younger sort ; for tbe old ones, for the most part, sit by as spectators only, )!ld enjoy themselves OVCI' their bottle, which they do not quit till midnight, and sometimes till eoek-crox v the next 111 ming." A correspondent of the Gentleman's Jlaga:::ine for February, 1795, writing frorn Skye, gives us :-" Curious fact relating to the worsl ip of Baal in J reland. The J rish ha "e ever been worshipper of fire, and of Baal, and are so to this day. The c liicf festival in honour of the S11n and fire, is upon the twen ty- rst of J nne, when the sun arrives at the Summer Solstice, or rather begins its retrograde movement. I "vas so fo ·tunate, in the summer of 1782, as to have my curiosity gr tified by fL sight of this cerelliony OY01' a very great extent f country. At the house where I WaS entertained, it was old me that we should see at midnight the most singular si ht in Ireland, which was the lighting of Fires in honour of the Sun. Accordingly, exactly at midnight, the Fires began to appmr j arid tn.king the advanta,ge of going up to thc leads of the house, which had a widely-extended vi w, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the Fire burning on every eminence which the country afforded, I had a farther satisfaction, in learning from undoubted auth rity, that the people danced round the Fires! and at the c1 se went through these Fires, and made their sons and dnu liters, together with their cattle, pass through the Fire; and the whole was conducted with religious solem nity. his account is exceedingly curiou s, and though I forbear th mention of names, I can venture to assure you that it is uthentic."
FI lIES,
FLOWEHS,
ASD
FIHE
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The remar s of Borlase in his "Antiquities of Cornwall," come in here very suitably. He says-" Of t.lie fi res we kindle in man parts of England, at some stated time of the year, we know Hot certainly the rise, reason or occasion, but they lllay prol ably be reckoned among tho relicks of the Druid supersti ious fires. In Cornwall, the festival fires called Bonfires are kindled on the Eve of St. .r ohn the Baptist and S. Peter's Day j and Midsummer is thence, in the Cornish to! gue, called 'Golnan,' which signifies both light and rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches, tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their fires, and go from village to yillage carryin their torches before them, and this is certainly the re )UiIlS of the Druid superstition, for 'faces prreferre,' to c rry liglited torches, was reckoned a kind of Gentilism, and as such particularly prohibited by the Gallick Councils, Th y were in the eye of the law 'accensores facularwn,' a d thought to sacrifice to the devil, and to deserve capital punishment." Brand m ntions a few additional particulars which we here transcriLe " Torrebla lea, in his 'Demonology,' has a p::l,:=;sageIn which lie tells us how the ancients were accustomed to pass their children of both sexes through the fire for the sake of seeming th m a prosperous and fortunate lot, and he adds that the C ernuaus irni ta ted this profa ne usage in their 1\1 idsummer py rE:Sin honour of the anniversary of St. John's Day. "Moresin appears to have been of opinion that the custom of leaping over these fires is a vestige of the ordeal, where to be able to pass through fires with safety was held to be an indi cation of innocence. To strengthen the probability of this conjecture, we may observe that not only the young and v gorous, but even those of grave characters used to leap ver them, and there was an interdiction of ecclesiastical utbority to deter clergymen from this superstitious instan e of agility. A note at the foot of the page says that Mr. Brand saw in the possession of Douce, a French print, entitled 'L'este Ie Feu de 1a St. Jean,' from the hand of larictte. In the centre was the fire made of 'wood piled u very regularly, and having a tree stuck up in the midst f it. Young men and women were represented
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dancing round it hand in hand, Herbs, 'ere stuck in their hats and caps, and garlands of the sam surrounded their waists or were slung across their should rs. "In the 'Traite des Superstitions,' ve read '\Vhoeyer desires to know the colour of his futur wife's hair, has only to walk three times round the fire of St. J ohn, and when tile fire is half extinguished he n ust take a brand, let it go out, and then put it under his pillow, and the next morning he will find encircling .it threads of hair of the desired colour.' But this must be one with the eyes shut. \V c are further told, where ther is a widow or a marriageable gid in a house, it is ne essary to be very careful not to remove the brands, as tIl is dri ves a way lovers, "The third Council of Constant.inopl , A. D. 680, in its sixty-fifth canon, enacted the following il terdiction ;-' Those Boncflres that arc kindled by certaine pea le on N ew l\loones before their shops and houses, over wlhich also they do foolishly leape, by a certaine ancient cu tome, we command them from henceforth to cease. Whoever, therefore, shall doe any such thing; if he be 1-1 clergyman, J ,t him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunica ed. For, in the Fourth Book of the Kings it is writtcn : And )Ianasseh built an altar to all the host of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord's house, and made his childr n to passe through the Fire, &c.' Prynue observes upon tbi : 'Donefires, therefore, had their ol'igiunJl from this ido atreus custome, as this General! Councel1 ha.th defined; thei efore all Ch ristians should avoid them.' And the Synoelus Ii' 'rtncica under Pope Zachary, .A.D, 74:2, inhibits 'those sacri cgious Fires which th ey call Nedfri (or Bonefi res), and all oth er observations of the Pagans whatsoeyer.'''
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CHAPTER
VIr.
Paradise Lost and Moloeh-s-The God of the Ammonites-The slaughter of Gltildren hy Fire, notices in the ScripturesFire (leremonc .~ and .Moloch-Sacred Fires 0/ the Plueniciaue - The Cartli ginians - Custom of the Oxiese - Sardinian Customs and .. Moloch-The Cuthites-Persian Fire WorshipThe lJouse-Fi es of Greece and Rome-Sacred Books 0/ tile East-Laws l.! Manu-s-The Rig Veda and Hymns to Aqni, the God of 'ire- Vesta, worship of-The ~1fafJi-Zoroa8ter.
IN ~~~~~:'sd:I~;:~a~!::idT.~:~,'
::m:::c~ .; Of hn an sacrifice, and pn rents' tears; 'I'hough for the noise of drums and timbrels loud. Their c ildren's cries unheard, that passed through 'I'o his rim idol. Him tho Ammonite Worshi ped in Rabba and bel" watery plain, In Arg b and in Basan, to the ;;trf'Hm Of utm st Arnon: nor content with such Audaci us neighbonrhood, t.he wisest heart Of Sol man he by fraud to build His to p1e right against the temple of God, On tho. opprobrious hill, and made his grove The pI asant valley of Hinnorn, Tophet thence And bl ek Gehenna called, the type of lIell."
blood
fire,
led
" 1\1010ch "\v the goel of the Am moni tes. In the worship ILS and sacrifice in his honour they burnt their sons and daughters, wi h the accustomed forms and ceremonies." In Leviticus x vi i. 21 we find a prohi bi.tion of passing the children thro gh the fire and in chapter xx, the punishment of death by toning is awarded to any who gave their seed to Moloch. "Howev r,JI says Selden, "tU<tny of the Hebrews write that the chil ren were neither burnt nor slain, but that two funeral pyres were constructed by the priests of Moloch, and that they Jed the children only between the pyt·es, as if in this way to urify them. Moses Ben Maimon says that in -those days t e servitors of the fires made men believe that their sons an daughters would die unless they were thus
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led, and on this account and the love of their hildren they hastened to do that which was so easy, and t ere was no other way of saving the children from the fire There are some who say that the father in due form (eli vered the child to the priests to be given back, and th, t he led it through, carrying it on his shoulders. It is nevertheless true that the children were not only led betw en the fires, but were also burnt in the sacrifices of the idols, See Psalm cvi, 37 and 38, and read, " Yea, they sa rificed their sons and their rlaughters unto devils, and 51 ed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and thei daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Oanaan, nd the land was polluted with the blood." Philastrius says "that they placed an altar n the valley of the children of Hinnom, and so called after the name of a certain Tophet, and in that place the Jews 5 rificed their sons and daughters to demons." There are ther places which sufficiently indicate irmnolation of childr II in those regions of Syria where Moloch was adored. Thus, see Wisdom of Solomon, xii, 5, "And also those merciless murders of children and devourers of men's flesh, the feast of blood;" and xiv, 23, "For whilst they slew their children In sacrifices"; and Jeremiah vii. 31, says" And th y have built the high places of Tophet, which is iu the allcy of the son of Hinnom, to hurn their sons and their daughters in the fire." See also nineteenth chapter, verse 5; Ezekiel xvi, 20, 21, and xxiii, 37 and 39. From this ffair perhaps arose the delusion of the Greeks and Hebre vs that, by another ancient rite, they who took an oath we e accustomed to pass through fire, as if by escaping from injury their words would be proved true. The learned Pa 1 Fagius, in speaking of him, says, "The statue of Moloch , as such that it had seven hollow chambers. One was 0 en for meal offerings, another for turtle doves, the third f I' sheep, the fourth for the ram, the fifth for the calf, the ixth for the bu 11, and a seventh was open for him who wi hed to offer his child." The face of the idol Was the sal e as that of the calf, and the hands were evidently disposed and arranged conveniently to receive from the bystanders 11 that was offered. While the child was burning in the blazing fire, they danced about and beat drums to drown the horrible cries and lamentations, There is a question whether the
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author of these seven hollow cl ambers did not learn it from the sacred rites of thc Persi n Mithm, for he also had seven sacred doors, which referre to the number of the planets, and men, women and chil ren were likewise sacrificed to him. It was neccssary to such as ere initiated to this god to pass through eighty kinds of ufTerings, that is, through fire and cold and most serious ch gcrs of every kind, before they could be received as epop as, or regularly initiated. It is proper to add that neither elsewhere than in 1\1010ch will be found Aclrammelech and nam melech, the gods of Sepharvaim. See II. Kings xvi i. 31: "And they burnt their children in fire to Adramme ech and Anarnrnelcch, the gods of Sepharvaim." His priests who were also frequently the priests of other gods, were c: Iled Cemerin. This word in the Chaldee dialect Cameraja, i everywhere in the TarguOl su bstit uted for priests of idolatry. In II, Kings xxiii. 10, it reads, "And he (.Josiah) defile 'I'opheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnorn, that no man rnight make his son or his daughter pass thr ugh the fire to Moloch." The valley of the children of Hi nom, which in Hebrew is gi her IIinnom, was a field near the city, and is so called from the groans or lamentations of the children while they were burning. Rinnom is from be Hehrew word nahmen, and means that he groans or gna hed his teeth from intense pain. That place is watered by he streams of Siloe, and in the time of St. Jerome was beau iIul, and ornamented with sbady groves and delightful garde s, And there he remarks "that it was a custom ~tlllong a her nations to select the head of streams and groves for s creel rites." But the word Tophet is from the Hebrew Toph that is, "they ask for a drum," which was beaten and lou Iy sounded in the vicinity to prevent the parents hearing th most doleful lamentations and wailings of their children wlrile the sacred rites were performing. Moloch is also called Baal. ee J ererniah xix. 5., "They have built also the high places f Baal to burn their sons with fire." He is also called Mil 0110 in Kings xi. 5., ""F'0l' Solomon went after Ashtoreth th goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcolm the abominatio s of the Ammonites." And Luke, in Acts viii. 43., says, "Ye , ye took up the tabernacle of Molech." The Syrians and A abians call it Melcom. In

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Il1any oriental langungcs Melech, means king, ThEcom means their king, and Ma.lcecem, our king, and. both war s in sacred scripture designate Moloch. To him reference is had in Zephaniah i. 5., U And them that worship and s\ ear by the Lord, and that swear by ::'\T lelia Ill," because e 1 oloch was especially worshipped under the name of king. A thus Baal means Lord, and as J1Ielech or 1\101ech 01' 1'1010ch neans king, they denote this god of the Ammonites; and it is perhaps, he himself who, in the most ancient theology of the Phcenicians, was often called by the singular title of king 0 gods. He was also called Adodus, and was worshipped by the Syrians not ollly as Adad- Hadad and Benhadad (and \ 'hieh could readily pass into Adodus), but the very name Adad was propagated continually for ten generations in their royal families. These names, and Bedad, Hedar :'11sa hab, and Allah, will be found in Genesis xxxvi. and I Kings xx. 1\1 acrobius, spc[tking of the t;yrians and this god dodus and king of gods, says, H They gave to the god whom they venerate as the highest and the greatest tbe ;"UJlC A (l::J,d, and ,v hich means unus or one. Hada or Chae a is a god of the female sex, and agrees with Adardaga a Atergatis, and was wars hipped in that riame in the neig om hood of Syri[t. H escychius says that Hada was the gocld .ss of J-U110, and Adad a god and the sun. But Hadad very vell denotes the clamour or lonel noise of persons exhorting; ieither is it al together un 1ike the lamen tat.ions of children in he sacrifices to ~\1 oloch. And ancient writers say tbat the eBi -ies of both Ado.d and Moloch were the same, and fushioi eel for expressing the sun. T heophy Iactus says "tha.t the bright shining tone in the image of Phosphorus he understands to be the sun." All these n.re "ery pl'oper for the sun, the king of g els or stars, an d w hich he also thou gil t w ho made the fi rst men t.ion of the seven hollow chambers in the statue of Mol ch. In the aame number is ascribed to Mithra, who by th unanimous consent of antiquity, and especially of the ancient inscriptions, is regarded as heing the same as the sun, shine with lllfiny colours, But Mithri, 1\1ithir or 1\1ether, in Pel's' an, signifies dynasty or lord, and this is also one of the title of )loloch. 8a,tu I'll among the Lati IIs, and Ch ronos amon the Greeks, is oft-times considered to be Xloch. Infants or c iildren were victims common to hath, and that nefarious sacred rite
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would seem to have migrated from Syria into Europe and Africa. Pescennius Festus says "that he Cart.haginians were accustomed to offer human victims to Saturn, and when they were overcome in battle by A rathoc1es, king of the Sieu li, he (the king) believed that hi god was angry with him, and, therefore, that he might diligently make the necessary ex pia.tion, he immolated t this god two hundred children of the nobility. Those wli had no children were forced to buy them from the poor." Tertullian writes :-" That impious cus om continued in Africa down to the times of 'I'iberius." hese sacred rites of the Phoenicians proceedcd from those 0 the Syrians, as the solemn use of fifes and drums among them will prove. For the lumen ta tions of the ellild ren or pat ents amoug those about to be sacrificed is held to be all tenement. It is almost cortai n tha t by the nnrue of 1\J 010' h this God was worshipped in like manner among the Cal thaginians, The Carthaginians worshipped Amilear and that name comes from the same source as Molech. Both words are PlUC Hebrew or Punic, if you regard the r etymology, and they mean king, or perhaps Arueliar may e queen, that is, may mean Basilia, queen of the A tlan tian, and which may refer to Celestis, queell of the CnrtbH.gillians. For as alllOlJg them Bel or U rauus is a god, and ernie tis lL goddess, so U ranus and Basilia may be a god and god less among them. And from the same source we must look for the name of Milieus, the father-in-law of Hannibal, an of Iris daughter I milcis, which is queen, and of Irni leo, a Ca ,thngillian genentl. l\Ielech means king, and _jIalchn. queen, which they pronounce Molicus and Imilcis. Strabo says ., that H rcules, worshipped among the Tyrians, was called Melcarto or Melcartbos. But he was the son of Jove Dema.runs, ai d he is the same as the rllUmician and Carthaginian H rcules, who was appeased by human victims as l\Ioloeh w: s. TIre first parf of his name was evidently derived froi Melech of the Hebrews, for almost by the same word 11 rcules was known a mOllg the Amath usian s, A 111ath us was ;L ci ty of Phrenicia, and an island of the Phreuician sea adjoir s Cyprus, and in it there is also a city called Amathus. The latter had sacred rites in common with the fonner. '" hat the words Artos or Arthos in the name mean IS 110 clear. Traces of it, however, are seen III the Punic nan es Bomilcar and

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Hamjlcar. In Ikeotin, which retains many names which Cadn us brought with him from Phomicin, there is a river and city called Haliartus, named after the builder and disco ercr. In Scolus there is likewise all image of Mega. lartu held in great esteem. Some think it is the image of the Iegalartian Ceres, and derive it from the Greek word artos, which means bread, because she was the goddess of corn.' , But whatever the god was, his Phrenician origin is cvide t, for Oadmus, Fsmenus, and Thebes were all Phranician name, and perhaps the Hebrew word Aritz in artes passed into Ielicartes, which some read Melicatus. Aritz means very strong, and thus Melieari tz signifies a strong king or tyran, and the word could readily pass into Melicartos, Then e perhaps in the Persian language Artaioi is heroes, or t ose who in the olden periods made themselves par. ticularly illustrious, and the word with this idea is present in tl e names Artoxerxis and Artabasis. Hence in Persian, Arta meant grp-at or illustrious, and Artana kingdoms, and lIero lotus says that Artoxerxis rnen.ns a great warrior. H Among the ancient Persians and Syrians in customs and languages many things were common to both. The Persi ns are accounted among our Syrians now and thsn by E ropean writers, and Babylon is called a Persian city. "As to the horrid sacrifice, the slaying of children, its origi does not lie concealed if there is any truth in Phce ician annals. There is a tradition alllong them that Satu 1, one of the most ancient kings of Phoenicia, and whon they called Israel in order that he might deliver his king am from the greatest peril of an impending war, to rende the gods propitious, immolated [1,11 only begotten son of h mself and wife Anobreta, He was first ornamented with the royal fillets, and then led to the altar built for that purpose, and a wicked posterity, Hot un derstauding the case r the circumstances, continued to follow his example."* lUang the many usages derived by the Sardes from their Phcenician ancestors, one of It singular character is still pract sed by the Oziesc, of which Father Bresciani gives the folio iug account :-" Towards the end of l\T arch, or tho begin ing of April, it is the custom for young men and '*' Selden's Syrian Deities, Hauser's Translation.
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women to agree together to fill the relation of godfat and godmothers of St. John, comparfl e comare-such is phrase-c-for the ensuing year. At the end of May the roo posed comare, having procured a segment of the bark fa cork tree, fashions it in the shape of a vase, and fill it with rich light mould in which are planted some grain of barley or wheat. The vase being placed in the sunsl ine, well watered and carefully tended, the seed soon germin< tes, blades spring up, and, making a rapid growth, in the co irse of twenty-one days-that is, before the eve of St. Jo the vase is filled by a spreading and vigorous. plan young corn. It then receives the name of Hermes, or, 01'8 commonly, of Su Nennere, from a Sarde word, which possibly has the same signification as the Phcenician name of gal' en; similar vases being called, in ancient times, the garden of Adonis." Forester in his "H.ambles in Corsica and Sardir ia," quoting the above and remarking upon it says :-" On the eve of St. John, the cereal vase, ornamented with rib ons, is exposed on a balcony, decorated with garlands and ags. Formerly, also a little image in female attire, or ph llic emblems moulded in clay, such as were exhibited in the feasts of Hermes, were placed among the blades of c m ; but these representations have been so severely denou ced by the Church, that they are fallen into disuse. The y ung men flock in crowds to witness the spectacle and attend the maidens who come out to gm.ce the feast, A great til' is lit on the piazza round which they leap and gaUl bol, the couple who have agreed to be St. John's compare comple illg the ceremony in this manner :-The man is placed on one side of tile fire, the woman on the other, each hoi ling opposite ends of a stick extended over the burning em ers, which they pass rapidly backwards and forwards. 'I'hi is repeated three times, so that the hand of each party P' sses thrice through the flames. The union being thus so lcd, the comparatico or spititual alliance is considered per ect. After that, the music strikes up, and the festival is oneluded hy dances, prolonged to a late hour of the night." " Father Bresciani, La l\f armora, and oth er wri ers, justly consider the N ennere as one of the many relic of the Phcenician colonisation of Sardinia. E v·ery one k ows that the sun and moon, under various names such as Isis
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and Osiris, Adonis and Astarte, were the prineipn.l objec s of worship in the east from the earliest times; the sun eing considered as the vivifying power of universal na ure; the moon represented as a female, deriving her light rom the sun, as the passive principle of production. The aus ruse doctrines on the origin of things, thus shadowed out by the ancient seers, generated the grossest ideas, expressed in the phallic em Hems, the lewdness and obscenities mixed u in the popular worship of the deified principles of all exist nee. Of the prevalence in Sardinia of the Egypto-Phcen cian mythology, in times the most remote, no one who has examined the large collection of relics in the Royal l\Iu eum at Cagliari, or who consults the plates attached to La Marmora's work, can entertain allY doubt. But it is surprising to find, among the usages of the Sardes at the present day, a very exact representation of the rites f tl, primitive religion, introduced into the island nearly th'rtyfive years ago, though it now partakes more of the char cter of a popular fp.stival than a religious r.eremony. "One of the principal incidents in the Sarde Ne: nere consists in the consecration of the spiritual relation bet 'een the compare and comare, by their thrice crossing hands 0\'('1" the fire in the ceremonies of St. John's Day. A still nore extraordinary vestige of the idolatrous rite of passing thr ugh the fire, is said to be still subsisting among the customs of the people of Logudoro, in the neighbourhood of Ozieri, and in other parts of Sardinia. "Of the worship of Moloch-par excellence the Syrian and Phceniciau goel of fire-by the ancient Sardes, there is undou hted proof. \Ve find among the prodigious quantit of such relics, collected from a.ll parts of the island, in the Royal l\1useum at Caglinri, a statuette of this idol, sup osed to have been a household god. Its features are appal iug: great goggle eyes leer fiercely from their hollow soc ets; the broad nostrils seem ready to sniff the fumes of the horrid sacrifice; a wide gaping mouth grins with rabid fury at the supposed victim; dark plumes spring from the orehead, like horns, and expanded wings from each sho lder and knee. The imnge brandishes a sword with the left I and, holding in the right a small grate, formed of metal bars, It , v·ould appeal' that, this being heated, the wretched vi tim was placed on it, and then, scorched so that the fum s of
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the disgusting incense savoured in tli nostrils of the rabid idol, it fell upon a brazier of burning coals beneath, where it was consumed. There is another i 01 in this collection with the same truculent cast of feat res, but horned, and clasping a bunch of snakes in the ri ht hand, a trident in the left, with serpents twined round its legs. This image has a large orifice in the belly, a d flames are Issuing between the ribs, so that it would ppear that when the brazen image of the idol was thoroughl heated, the unhappy children intended for sacrifice were t irust into the mouth in the navel, and there grilled-savo ry morsels, on which the idol seems, from its features, rabic ly gloating, while the priests, we are told, endeavoured to d 'own the cries of the sufferers by shouts and the noise of dr ms and timbrels' .. , ... horrid king, besmeared with load Of human sacrifice, and parents' tear ; Though, for the noise of drums and imhrels loud, Their clrildren's cries unheard, that assed through 'I'o his grim idol.'-Par. Lost, i. 392.
fire
"This cruel child-sacrifice was pro ably the giving of his seed to Moloch, for which any Israelit or stranger that sojourned in Israel guilty of the crir e was, according to the Mosaic law, to Le stoned to deat 1. \Ve are informed in the Sacred Records that no such denunciations of the idolatries of the surrounding nations, no revelations of the attributes or teachings of the pure W z-sliip of Jehovah, restrained the Israelites from the prac ice of the foul and cruel rites of their heathen neigh hours and we find in the latter days of the Jewish Comma iwealth the prophet Jeremiah predicting the desolation of he people for this sin among others, that they had estrange themselves from tho worship of Jehovah, and burned ince rse to strange gods, and filled the holy place with the bl ad of innocents, and burned their sons and their daughters with fire for burntofferings unto Baal. "There appear to have been two modes in which the ancient idolaters devoted their children to Moloch. In one they were sacrificed and consumed in the manner already descibod, a burnt offering to the idol fo' the expiation of the sins of their parents 01' their people. In the other they were only made to pass through the re, in honour of the deity, and alii a sort of initiation iut his mysteries, and consecration to his service.
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"Thus Ahaz, King of Judall, is snid to have made his son to pass through the fire, according to the ah urinations of the heathen. And it is reckoned in the catalo ue of the sins of Judah, which drew on them the vengea,l1c of God, that they 'built the bigh places of Baal, to cause heir sons and their daughters to pass th rough the fire unto 1oloch.' * ,< In the case of infants, it is supposed that this initiation, this 'baptism by fire' was performed either by ph ing them on It sort of grate suspended by chains from th vault of the temple, and passed rapidly oyer the sacred fire, or by the priests tnking the infants ill their ai-ms an swayiug them to and fro over or across the lire, chant ng meanwhile certain prayers or incantations. \Vith cspcct to children of older growth, they were made to I ap naked through the fire 'before the idol, so that their wh Ie bodies might be touched by the sacred flames, and puri ed, as it were, by contact with the divinity. "The Sardes, we are informed by Father Ere eiani, still preserve a custom representing this initiation by fi 'e, but as in other Pheeniciau rites and practices, without th slightest idea of their profane origin. In the first days f spring, from one end of the island to the other, th villagers assemble and light great fires in the piazza and a the cross roads. The flames beginning to ascend, the chi dren leap through them at a hound, so rapidly and with sucl dexterity that when the flames are highest it is seldom hat their clothes or a hair of their head arc singed. The} continue this practice till the fuel is red uceel to em bel'S, the IUusicians mean while playing on the lionedda tunes a.da -led to <l. Phy n-ic dance. This, sa.ys the learned father, i a representation of the initiation through fire into the 111 stories of 1\1010ch." "Xergal, which is a Hebrew word, was, I erhaps, a perpetua.l fire most religiously preserved in their Sefta, or sacred places. The CutiJites were so called froi I Cuthus, which was both the nn.me of a river nud I'egion in Persia, and from which they weI'€: carried into Samari in very large numbers. Strabo confirms the existence of he sacred fire in Persia in book fifteen. He says < that in t ie temples
• Jeremiah See Bresoiani xxxji, 35. Sardinia,
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he worshippers of Anaitis and Omanus, or Amanus, ian gods among the Cappadocians, the care of the etual fire was committed to magi, who were called thri, or fire worshippers.' He further says, 'In that cour try there is a great multitude of them, and likewise rna y temples of the Persian gods; that they do not slay the victims with a knife, but with a certain kind of club, as ounding them to death with a pestle; that there were also certain chapels in which these fires were kept worthy of eing remembered j that the altar was in the centre of the chapel, and upon ... vhich there were many cinders, and the e the priests watched the inextinguishable fires j that the entered there daily, and sang or chanted for the space of lmost an hour, at the same time holding a bundle of rod before the fire j that they were veiled in a woollen which, :fitting well on all sides, covered their lips and Th ese, which were bu i1t in th eir sh rines, and which called Pyratbeia, were the eternal fires of the magi. Thalt which they chanted was the theogony, or primeval hist ry of the gods.' "The Persians believed that every song was not equally effi acious in sacred rites. Tile rods seem to have been of tama.risk, and without a magus no kind of sacrifices were pel' armed. In the other sacred rites it was an annual cus am for the magi to hold the tamarisk while they chanted the theogony, as it was the habit of the ancient poets while sill'iug to carry laurel in their hands. For this reason SOl e believed that they were called rhapsodists, from the Gr ek word rhabdos, which means a rod. While chanting the stirred the fires with their rods and increased the fiat es. That which the ancients write is true regarding the institutions of the Persians, that anyone who was about to ecome a king should be initiated into the magic rites, and tha .Ninus could not be more a king than a magus from custom. The Persians received these sacred rites from the most ancient Chaldeans, and the latter called them N c gal, from two Hebrew words, nil' and gal, which may met n either the fountain of fire or light, or fire or versatile ligl t, and especially that inextinguishable fire which they wa ched in their holy places as the symbol of the sun. An 1 although there were many gods in Persia, yet fire was wo shipped by them before and above all other gods, and
7
of Per per Pyr
86
FISHES,
F O\VERS,
AND
FIRE
WORSHIP.
in evcry sacrifice they especially invoked him as the Romans did Janus. And he ce, bound by religion, they did not dare to pollute fire estined for daily uses with any uncleanliness. The Pyr theia, or fires, were called Pyreia by others. Suidas says that Heraclius destroyed the Persian cities and overthrew their Pyreia. But so ancient do the Hebrews make the worship of fire among the Chaldeans, that Ur of the Challeans, mentioned in Genesis XL, they took for their fire ad. Neither do the writings of the ancients quoted by Iaimonides prove anything else than that fire was held n so much honour because it was a symbol of the sun. n regard to this most ancient worship in Chaldsea he thus discourses in '"J.Iore N ebochim,' book three, chapter thirty :-' It is known that Abraham was born among a people who served fire, and who, in t.heir credulity, believed th re was no other god except the stars, and I will in this c iapter make yon acquainted with their books, which are It t found with us translated in the Arabic \angu agp. Tn their narrations and ancient contentions you will know their reasons and opinions. Their credulity is proved to you in their worship of the stars which they believed to be gods, nd that the sun is the greater among the gods. And they said that the other planets arc gods, hut that the sun an moon are the gr'eatest of their gods. You will find what they undoubtedly say, that the sun governs the upper a cl lower world. All this you will find in their books; and they speak of the condition of Abraham, and they decla e further that Abraham was horn and edueated in the Ian of fire worshippers. lIe thoro contradicted their opmI ns, saying that there was another operator besides the sun. And they offered their reasons opposed to his, an among which they mentioned the operations of the which arc manifest and which nppear to be seen throughou the universe.' But Abraham was cast into chains because h, refused to adore their sun, and after that he was robbed f his goods, and by the king banished into Canaan. They clicvcd that the sun ruled the world, that there was no g d superior to him, and they adored fire. Therefore, '\vhat else was fi re than the sign or sy mbol of the sun, and vel' consonant to his nature 1 And here, I think, is seen the god of N ahor, son of Terah, referred to in Genesis XXXI., 53 :-' The god of Abraham, the God

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FISHES, FLOWERS, AND FIRE

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