Chapter XVII

“Chilly as the climate of the world is growing--artificial and systematic as it has become--and unwilling as we are to own the fact, there are few amongst us but who have had those feelings once strongly entwined around the soul, and who have felt how dear was their possession when existing, and how acute the pang which their severing cost. Fewer still were the labyrinths unclosed in which their affections lay folded, but in whose hearts the name of _woman_ would be found, although the rough collision with the world may have partially effaced it.”

This instinctive influence, which the daughters of Eve universally exercise over the sons of Adam, is not more irresistible in the present day, than it proved in the case of their great progenitor. _Love_, however disguised--and how could it be more beautifully than by the scriptural penman?--_love, in its literal and all-absorbing seductiveness_, was the simple but fascinating aberration couched under the figure of the _forbidden apple_.

All the illusions of fancy resolve themselves into this sweet abyss. The dreams of commentators may, therefore, henceforward be spared; the calculations of bookmakers, on this topic, dispensed with: whatever be _my_ fate, one consolation, at least, awaits me, that in addition to the _Towers_, I shall have expounded the mysteries of Genesis.

In the _Irish_ language, which, as being that of ancient Persia, or _Iran_, must be the oldest in the world, and of which the _Hebrew_, brought away by Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees,[245] is but a distant and imperfect branch,--well, in this primordial tongue, the nursery at once of science, of religion, and of philosophy, all _mysteries_, also, have been matured: and it will irrefutably manifest itself, that in it, exclusively, was woven that elegantly-wrought veil, of colloquial illusiveness, which shrouds the _nature_ of our first parents’ downfall.

How, think you, was this accomplished? By assigning to certain terms a twofold signification, of which one represented a certain _passion_, _quality_, or _virtue_, and the other its _sensible index_. To the latter alone had the _multitude_ any access; while the sanctity of the former was guarded against them by all the terrors of religious interdicts.

For instance, in the example before us, _Budh_, or _Fiodh_,--which is the same thing,--means, primarily, _lingam_, and secondarily, a _tree_. Of these, the latter, which was the popular acceptation, was only the _outward signal_ of the former, which was the _inward_ mystified _passion_, comprehended only by the initiated. When, therefore, we are told that Eve was desired not to taste of the _tree_, _i.e._ _Budh_, we are to understand that she was prohibited what _Budh_ meant in its true signification, viz. _lingam_: in other words, that when cautioned against the _Budh_, it was not an _insensible tree_, its symbolic import, that was meant thereby, but the _vital phallus_, its _animate_ prototype:--that, in short, “_missis_ ambagibus,” the word _Budh_ was to be taken, _not figuratively_, but _literally_.[246]

Again, in this cradle of literary wonders--the Irish language--every letter in its alphabet expresses some particular _tree_; but its second, _Beth_,--whence the _Beta_ of the Greeks, and a formative only of _Budh_, the radix,--signifies in addition to the _tree_ which it represents[247]--_knowledge_ also! And _here, obvious as light, and impregnable to contradiction, you have the tree of knowledge, in natural nakedness, divested of all the mystery of pomiferous verbiage, and identified in attributes, as in prolific import, with the name and essence of the sacred_ Budh![248]

Here then we have, at length, arrived at the _fountain-head_ and _source_ of the _mystery_ of _Budhism_. Eve herself, I emphatically affirm, was the _very first Budhist_. And, accordingly, we find that, in former ages, women universally venerated the _Budh_, and carried images of it, as a talisman, around their necks and in their bosoms![249]

But if Eve was the first Budhist, the first priest of the Budhist order was her first-born, but apostate son Cain: and in his acknowledging the bounty of _Budh_, the _sun_, who matures the fruits of the earth,--and thereby recognising Jehovah only as the God of _nature_ and of _increase_,--rather than in looking forward by faith to the redemption by _blood_, as a different sacrifice would have intimated, consisted “the whole front and bearing” of his treason and offence.[250]

“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, a sin offering lieth at the door”[251]--the means of propitiation are within your immediate reach.

The endearing tone in which this is conveyed bespeaks an appeal to some usage familiar to the party. It betokens indisputably, that on previous occasions, when Cain had acted “well,” he had met with no rejection. And for the truth of this Jehovah refers to the defendant’s own experience and self-convincing consciousness.

Cain, therefore, was a priest under a former dispensation, and a favoured one, too, and his being deprived of this office, or, in other words, “cast off from the presence of the Lord,” was the great source and origin of his present wretchedness.

But if a priest, he must have been so to a larger congregation than his father, mother, and brother: and besides, he, as well as Abel, must have had _wives_; but the Scriptures do not tell us that Adam and Eve, as individuals, had any _daughters_; it follows, therefore, that the consorts of the two brothers must have sprung from some _other_ parents. There, then, were more men and women on the earth than Adam and Eve: and this is still further confirmed by the apprehensions expressed by Cain himself, after the murder of Abel, lest he might be slain by someone meeting him.

Yes, in the paradisaical state, before “sin entered into the world,” the earth was as crowded with population as it is at present, and Adam and Eve are only put as representatives, male and female, of the entire human species all over the globe.[252]

Here I cannot do better than set the reader right as to the rendering of a subsequent text, which says that “God set a mark upon Cain lest any one meeting him should kill him”; nor can I recollect another instance wherein human ingenuity, while struggling after truth, has been more directly instrumental in the dissemination of error.

One would suppose that the setting “a mark upon” a person, instead of allaying his fears of being molested by those meeting him, should, on the contrary, aggravate them, from its extraordinary aspect. Besides, in the innumerable fantasies which commentators have conjured up as specifications of this “mark,” no vestige whatsoever has been yet traced on the human form to justify the inference.

We are obliged, therefore, at last, to recur to the _truth_, and it fortunately happens that this is accessible by only translating the original as it should properly be, thus, viz. “And God _gave_ Cain a _sign_ lest any meeting him, should kill him.”

The only question now is what that _sign_ was, which God _gave_ to Cain? And to resolve this, we have but to bethink ourselves of his dereliction,--namely, the offering worship to Budh, _i.e._ _nature_, or the _sun_: and his refusing to sacrifice, in consequence of such devotion, anything endowed with _life_, of which Budh, _i.e._ Lingam,--according to the double acceptation of the word,--was the type, as it is also the _sign_ of Budh, the sun,--and we have infallibly developed the answer and the secret.

Stamping the nature of his crime, and at the same time indicating that, in the now fallen condition of man, this badge of his revolt would be rather a security against trespass, and a passport to acceptance than an inducement to annoyance, God shows to Cain, as much in derision as in anger, the _substantial_ image of that deity to which he had but just before done homage, viz. Budh; and thereupon, Cain goes, and, on “the land a wanderer,” he erects this _sign_ into a deified _Round Tower_.

Perhaps the reader would like to have some _collateral_ proofs for these startling interpretations. I shall give them, as convincing as the solution itself is irrefutable and true.

The Maypole festival, which the Rev. Mr. Maurice has so satisfactorily shown to be but the remains of an ancient institution of India and Egypt (he should have added Persia, and, indeed, placed it first), was, in fact, but part and parcel of this Round Tower worship. May the 1st is the day on which its orgies were celebrated; nor is the custom, even now, confined to the British Isles alone, but as naturally prevails universally throughout the East, whence it emanated _of old_ to us. Lest, too, there should be any mistake as to the object of adoration, we are told in the second volume of the _Asiatic Researches_, in a letter from Colonel Pearce, that Bhadani, _i.e._ Astarte, _i.e._ Luna, _i.e._ Venus, _i.e._ “Mollium mater cupidinum,” was the goddess in whose honour those festivities were raised.

Now as astronomy was connected with all the ceremonies of the ancients, the sun’s entrance into Taurus, which in itself bespeaks the vigour of reanimated productiveness at the vernal equinox, was the symbol in the heavens associated by the worshippers with this allegorical gaiety. But this event takes place a little earlier every year than the preceding one, by reason of what astronomers call the _precession_, so that at present it occurs at a season far more advanced than it did at first.

Theory and observation both concur in establishing that 72 years is the period which the equinox will take to precede 1 degree of the 360 into which the heavens are divided,--2160 years 30 degrees, that is, one sign,--and 25,920, 360 degrees, or the twelve signs of the Zodiac. If, therefore, we compute at this rate the precise year at which the vernal equinox must have coincided with the 1st of May,--which must certainly have been the fact at the origin of the institution,--it will prove to have been about the four thousandth before the Christian era, which exactly corresponds with the time of Cain, and irrefutably confirms the origin which I have assigned to the worship of the Budh, Tower, Phallus, or Maypole.

Mr. Maurice’s position deserves to be remarked. “_I have little doubt, therefore_,” says he, “_that May-day, or at least the day on which the sun entered Taurus, has been immemorially kept as a sacred festival from the creation of the earth and man, originally intended as a memorial of that auspicious period and that momentous event_.”

It is with extreme reluctance that I would dissent from a writer who has contributed so largely as the gentleman before us towards the restoration of literature; but since we agree as to the _era_ of the origin of the festival, and _substantially_ as to its _design_, I have the less hesitation in recording my belief that _it was not the creation of the earth or of man_ that was intended to be commemorated, but the commencement of a _new dispensation_, consequent upon _man’s defection_.[253]

Lord, from the Shaster, quotes the following abstract, marking the opinion of the Easterns themselves, as to Adam and Eve having had many contemporaries. This relates an interview between a different couple. “Being both persuaded that God had a hand in this their meeting, they took council from this book, to bind themselves in the inviolable bond of marriage, and with the courtesies interceding between man and wife, were lodged in one another’s bosoms: for joy whereof the sun put on his nuptial lustre, and looked brighter than ordinary, causing the season to shine upon them with golden joy; and the silver moon welcomed the evening of their repose, whilst music from heaven, as if God’s purpose in them had been determinate, sent forth a pleasing sound, such as useth to fleet from the loud trumpet, together with the noise of the triumphant drum. Thus proving the effects of generation together, they had fruitful issue, and so peopled the East, and the woman’s name was Sanatree.”

This _Maypole_ ceremony, under the name of _Phallica_, _Dionysia_, or _Orgia_, which last word, though sometimes applied to the mysteries of other deities, belongs more particularly to those of Bacchus,[254] was celebrated, at one time, throughout Attica with all the extravagance of religio-lascivious pomp. Archer, in his _Travels in Upper India_, arrived at a village just a few hours only after the May gaieties were over, and found the _pole_ still standing. “The occasion,” says he, “was one of festivity, for all had strings of flowers about their heads, and they spoke of the matter as one of great pleasure and amusement.” As, however, he did not come in for the actual observances, I shall supply the omission by detailing the form of its celebration in our own country.

“Anciently,” says M’Skimin, in his _History of Carrickfergus_, “a large company of young men assembled each May-day, who were called May-boys. They wore above their other dress white linen shirts, which were covered with a profusion of various coloured ribbons, formed into large and fantastic knots. One of the party was called King, and the other Queen, each of whom wore a crown, composed of the most beautiful flowers of the season, and was attended by pages who held up the train. When met, their first act was _dancing to music round the pole_, planted the preceding evening; after which they went to the houses of the most respectable inhabitants round about, and having taken a short jig in front of each house, received a voluntary offering from those within. The sum given was rarely less than five shillings. In the course of this ramble the King always presented a rich garland of flowers to some handsome young woman, who was hence called ‘the Queen of May’ till the following year.”

With this compare the description given by the author of the _Rites and Ceremonies of all Nations_, of a similar worship as celebrated amongst the Banians. “Another god,” says he, “much esteemed and worshipped by these people, is called _Perimal_, and his image is that of a _pole_, or the _large mast of a ship_. The Indians relate the following legend concerning this idol. At Cydambaran, a city in Golcondo, a penitent having accidentally pricked his foot with an awl, let it continue in the wound for several years together; and although this extravagant method of putting himself to excessive torture was displeasing to the god Perimal, yet the zealot swore he would not have it pulled out till he _saw the god dance_. At last, the indulgent god had compassion on him, _and danced, and the sun, moon, and stars danced along with him_. During this celestial movement, a chain of gold dropped from either the sun or the god, and the place has been ever since called Cydambaran. It was also in memory of this remarkable transaction _that the image of the god was changed from that of an ape to a pole_, thereby intimating (adds the good-natured expositor of himself) that all religious worship should reach up towards heaven, that human affections should be placed on things above.”

Now, this mysterious _Peri-Mal_ is but a euphony for _Peri-Bal_, that is, the _Baal-Peor_ before explained: and when you remember the destination which I have there assigned him, you will perceive the propriety of his having been represented by a _mast_ or May-_pole_. As to the Indian legend, it only shows the antiquity of the rite, superadded to that religious _investment_ which was meant as a shield against profanation.

Vallancey also mentions the following additional custom, which he himself witnessed in the county of Waterford:--“On the first day of May, annually, a number of youths, of both sexes, go round the _parish_ to _every couple married within the year_, and oblige them to give a ball. This is ornamented with gold or silver coin. I have been assured, they sometimes expended three guineas on this ornament. The _balls are suspended by a thread, in two hoops placed at right angles, decorated with festoons of flowers. The hoops are fastened to the end of a long pole, and carried about in great solemnity, attended with singing, music, and dancing._”

The _mummers_, in like manner, who went about upon this day, demanding money, and with similar solemnities, as if for the _moon in labour_, were derived from the same origin. In Ceylon this practice is confined to “women alone,”[255] who, as the editor of the _Rites and Ceremonies_, etc., informs us, “go from door to door with the image of _Buddu_ in their hands, calling out as they pass, ‘Pray, remember _Buddu_.’[256] The meaning is, that will enable them to sacrifice to the god. Some of the people give them money, others cotton thread, some rice, and others oil for the lamps. Part of these gifts they carry to the priests of _Buddu_, and the remainder they carry home for their own use.”

The money collected in Ireland, on the same occasion, would appear to have been somewhat similarly expended, having been “mostly sacrificed to the jolly god; the remainder given to the poor in the neighbourhood.”

“Here, for a while, my proper cares resigned,
Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind;
Like yon neglected shrub, at random cast,
That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.”[257]