Chapter II: Preface: , 5

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 17

CHAPTER I.

THE WORLD’S FIRST WORSHIP.

Testimony of an old record and of language--Another
witness: comparative religion--The story of the master
thief--The story of Rhampsinitos--The story of the poor
mason--The story of the shifty lad--Exodus of the nations, 33

CHAPTER II.

WHENCE CAME THE MANY GODS AND IDOLS?

Sources of information--The transition--The first hymns and
prayers--Where did idol-worship come from, 47

CHAPTER III.

SACRED AND HEATHEN TRADITIONS.

Traditions of Creation--Traditions of the Deluge--The
Chaldean story--The Hindu tradition--The Chinese
tradition--The Mexican legend--The Fiji-Islander’s
tradition--American Indian traditions--The Greek
story--Chaldean story of the Tower of Babel--What has the
Bible to say about idolatry? 63

CHAPTER IV.

THE SUBJECT IN A NUTSHELL.

Methods of grouping religions--Dead religions and
living religions--Original religions and reformed
religions--Dead religions--Living worships--The
proposed treatment--A concise view--Parseeism--African
religion--Western Europe--The Southern
migration--Buddhism--China’s religions--Shintoism in
Japan--Mohammedanism--Christianity’s conquests, 77

CHAPTER V.

THE LAND OF THE SPHINX.

Hidden history--The hieroglyphics--Some Egyptian
gods--Animal worship--Mummies--The celebrated book of the
dead--Egyptian worship, 93

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHALDEANS.

The great Chaldean historian--Ruined monuments--A library
of brick books--Manners and customs--The religion of
Assyria--The supreme god, Ilu--The Assyrian triad--The gods
of the planets--The great goddess Ishtar--The Genii of
Assyria--Worship of the gods at Babylon, 119

CHAPTER VII.

THE JEWS.

The plagues and Egyptian idolatry--The golden
calf--Baal-worship, 138

CHAPTER VIII.

GREECE.

Origin of the world and of the gods--The generations of
the gods--Gods of the Grecians--Specimen stories from
Greek mythology--Hermes and Apollo--The Lotus-eaters
and the Cyclops--Hercules’ twelve tasks--The Phidian
Jupiter--Grecian temples and worship of Paul’s day--The
city crowded with idols--Diana of the Ephesians, 150

CHAPTER IX.

ROME.

The Etruscan religion--The Sabellian religion--The gods of
the Romans--Father Jove--The Matron goddess--The goddess of
schools--The goddess of the hearth--Ceres and Liber--The
gods of beginnings--Rome’s lesser gods--The Roman empire, 173

CHAPTER X.

OUR ANCESTORS.

Ancient Britain--The Druids--Wonderful resemblance--Worship
of the Druids--Temple of the Hanging Stones--Human
sacrifices--The destruction of Druidism--Who first brought
Christianity to Britain--Paganism of the Saxons--Saxon
gods--Saxon sacrifices--Fairy-lore of Western Europe--An
Elfin Story--The penitent Nis--Nixes--The Peasant and the
Waterman--The wonderful little pouch--Christianizing the
Saxons, 185

CHAPTER XI.

INDIA.

Sketch of Brahminism--The gods of Hinduism--Story
of the Sages’ search--Can the gods die?--Sects of
Hinduism--Principles of Hinduism--Human beings killed in
sacrifice--How Hinduism regards woman, 210

CHAPTER XII.

HINDU TEMPLES, IDOLS AND WORSHIP.

Idols and temples of Juggernaut--Kali, the Goddess of
Blood--Temple Decorations--Benares--The sacred city of the
Sikhs--Cave-temples of Elephanta and Gwalior--Ganesha, God
of Wisdom--Pagodas--Hindu washings for sin--Hindu holy men,
devotees and fakirs, 232

CHAPTER XIII.

HINDU SACRED BOOKS, FAIRY STORIES AND FIRESIDE TALES.

The Vedic hymns--The law-book of Manu--Degradation of
women according to Manu’s laws--The burning of widows
commanded by Manu--The god Vishnu made man--A Sanskrit
story-book--The story of the terrible bell--The story of
the lion and the old hare--The story of the Brahmin and the
pans--The story of the recluse and the mouse, 288

CHAPTER XIV.

JAPAN.

The sacred books of Japan--Japanese story of creation--The
emperors descended from the gods--The sun-goddess enticed
from the cave--Shinto worship, 305

CHAPTER XV.

POPULAR GODS AND SHRINES OF SHINTOISM.

The seven household gods--The sacred mountain--Shinto
temples and gate-ways--The sacred shrines of Ise, 321

CHAPTER XVI.

THE DARK CONTINENT.

African belief in a god or gods--Praying for rain--The
Hottentots’ god, Gounja-Gounja--The Bushmen’s
god--Zulu tradition of the origin of men--Good and bad
spirits--The spirit in the insect--Fetich worship--A
horrible fetich--Stanley and the Africans’ fear of
fetich--Witchcraft, 341

CHAPTER XVII.

THE “GREAT SPIRIT” OF AMERICA.

The Indians of North America--The Great Spirit--Worship of
ancestors--Indian legends--The “Song of Hiawatha”--Indian
allegory of winter and spring--Alaskans’ worship of evil
spirits--Indian sun-worship--Amazon sun-worship--The
Araucanians--Patagonia--The Aztecs--Ancient Aztec idol--The
Incas, 362

CHAPTER XVIII.

IDOLATRY IN OCEANICA.

The depraved condition of the Papuans--The
pagan Polynesians--Traditionary origin of human
priesthood--Polynesian notion of the sun and moon--The
fire-god’s song, 387

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS.

The Karens not idolaters--Worship of _Yuah_--A singular
tradition--The dog who ate the book--Funeral services--Mrs.
Vinton’s letter, 401

CHAPTER XX.

THE FIRE-WORSHIPERS.

Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ormazd--Zoroaster’s worship
of one God--Ormazd and Ahriman--Finding of the
Zend-Avesta--The Parsee Bible--Parsee worship, 407

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CHINESE PHILOSOPHER, LAO-TSZE.

Chinese contrarieties and language--The three Chinese
religions--The old boy--The talisman of long life--The
visit of Confucius to Lao-Tsze--The voyage in search of the
talisman of long life, 416

CHAPTER XXII.

THE TAOIST SACRED BOOKS AND GODS.

The book of rewards and punishments--Some selections
from the book of rewards and punishments--The book of
secret blessings--The gods of the Taoists--The god of
letters--Charms--Kwan-te, God of War--Tsai-shin, the God of
Riches--Taoist superstitions, 428

CHAPTER XXIII.

CONFUCIUS AND THE CLASSICS.

The background of the picture--The story of the sage’s
life--Teachings and writings of the Chinese sage--The
wisdom of the sage, 445

CHAPTER XXIV.

CONFUCIAN TEMPLES AND WORSHIP.

The worship of Shang-te, at Peking--Temple of
Confucius--Examinations in the sacred books--Anecdotes
of students--How Mencius’s mother incited her son to
study--How a tired student was led back to his studies--The
little sage who hid fire to light his lamp--An example of
a studious ancestor--The student with a round stick for a
pillow, 460

CHAPTER XXV.

HOME-LIFE UNDER CONFUCIANISM.

Ceremony of turning the bridge-ladder--Worship of ancestors
at a wedding--Mother, Goddess of Children--Teaching a child
to worship idols--The story of Ma-chu, Goddess of the
Sailors, 478

CHAPTER XXVI.

BUDDHA, THE “LIGHT OF ASIA.”

The story of Gautama, the founder of Buddhism--Gautama’s
four visions--The great renunciation--Gautama becomes an
ascetic--The “Light of Asia” and the “Light of the World,” 498

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BUDDHIST BIBLE, THE “THREE BASKETS,” AND ITS TEACHINGS.

The Buddhist way of salvation--What is Nirvana?--Buddhist
morals--Some of the “footsteps of the law”--Buddhist
beatitudes, 513

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE GROWTH OF BUDDHISM--THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MENDICANTS.

The Sangha, or Buddhist Brotherhood--The initiation
ceremony--Rules of the Order--Daily life of a monk--The
three great Buddhist councils--Buddhaghosha, the famous
monk and missionary--The story of King Kakavanna--Buddhist
courtesies of the present day, 522

CHAPTER XXIX.

INDIA AND CEYLON.

The famous Topes--The great Sanchi Tope--Ceylonese
Buddhism--The sacred Bo-tree of Ceylon--Reducing the
Tripitaka to writing--Buddhaghosha in Ceylon--A Buddhist
temple in Ceylon--The sacred Ceylonese books, 532

CHAPTER XXX.

BURMAH.

The Shway-da-gong pagoda--The story of Shway-da-gong--Other
pagodas--Worship of nats--A nat story--Superstitions of the
Burmese--The funeral of a pongyee or monk, 555

CHAPTER XXXI.

SIAM.

The celebrated Wat Chang pagoda--Temple of the Emerald
Idol--Worship of the white elephant--Ruins of the great
temple of Nagkon Wat--Some other temples, 575

CHAPTER XXXII.

THIBET.

Sketch of the history of Lamaism--Monks and
monasteries--Temple at Teshu Lumbo monastery--Services at
the H’Lassa cathedral--Praying-wheels--The mystic sentence
of Thibet--The incarnation of Buddha in the Grand Lama--The
Lamaist Bible, 598

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHINA--_continued_.

Pagodas--Chinese Buddhist temples--The worship of
Kwan-yin--The worship of Kum-Fa--Idols--The Temple of
Horrors--Monasteries--A Monk’s Monument--Chinese Buddhist
Bonzes--Buddhist devotees--Ceremony of the Water-lamps--The
Do-nothing sect of Reformed Buddhists--Booldo, the Buddhism
of the Corens, 611

CHAPTER XXXIV.

JAPAN.

Bodhidharma in Japan--The Sun-child and his miraculous
deliverance--Further history of Japan--Buddhist sects in
Japan--The Protestants of Buddhism--Kwanon’s Temple at
Asakusa, Tokio--Temple of Shiba, in Tokio--Temple of five
hundred gods--The casting of a Temple Bell--The Colossal
Idol, the Kamakura Dai Butsu--Some Japanese gods--Japanese
Festivals--Mount Fuji-Yama--Customs concerning birth,
marriage and death--Some Japanese superstitions--Religion
of the Ainos, 656

CHAPTER XXXV.

MOHAMMEDANISM.

Extent of Mohammedanism--The Arabian camel-driver who
founded a great religion--The Prophet’s youth and early
manhood--Gabriel’s message to Mohammed--The flight of
Mohammed--Converts made at the sword’s point--Mohammed’s
successors, the Caliphs--Caliph Omar--The Crusades--The
writing of the Koran--The teaching of the Koran--Some
selections from the Koran--Mohammed’s Paradise--The Koran
on the judgment, 719

CHAPTER XXXVI.

MOHAMMEDAN MOSQUES AND WORSHIP.

Worship in the Mosques--The dancing and howling
Dervishes--The smart and smarting answer of a
Dervish--Daily worship--The Mosque of St. Sophia--The
Jummah Musjid at Delhi, India--The Taj Mahal, the “jewel of
India”--Pilgrimages and festivals--Conclusion, 741