Chapter XXIV

The regal figures, which I promised, as belonging to the _Nubian_ temple, and corresponding to the _Knockmoy_ frescoes, are the following:--

You will, furthermore, observe how that they all wear the _philibeg_, like our crucified effigy at p. 296, and our war-god, Phearagh, at p. 138. Each of them, also, is adorned with the _cross_, as the passport of their redemption: while the three _divinities_, delineated in the Irish scenes, have these as their counterparts in the temple of Nubia.

Abbe Pluché states, that “the figures of those gods brought from Egypt into Phœnicia, wore on their heads leaves and branches, wings and globes, which,” he adds, “appeared ridiculous to those who did not comprehend the signification of these symbols, as happened to Cambyses, King of Persia, but these represented Isis, Osiris, and Horus.”

“In the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for November, 1742, is an account,” says Vallancey, “of two silver images, found under the _ruins of an old tower_, which had raised various conjectures and speculations amongst the antiquaries; they were about three inches in height, representing men in armour, with _very high helmets on their heads, ruffs round their necks_, and standing on a pedestal of silver, holding a small golden spear in their hands. The account is taken from the Dublin papers. The writer refers to Merrick’s translation of Tryphiodorus, an Egyptian, that composed a Greek poem on the destruction of Troy, a sequel to Homer’s _Iliad_, to show that it was customary with the ancients, at the foundation of a fort or city, to consecrate such images to some titular guardians, and deposit them in a secret part of the building; where he also inserts a judicious exposition of a difficult text of Scripture on that subject.”

The above extract was indited long before the publication of those Nubian antiquities; and, consequently, when neither the contributor to the magazine, nor the quoter from its columns, had any knowledge of their existence. Its production, therefore, must be valuable here, as showing not only the connection of the _idols_ with the _Round Tower ceremonial_, but also that the helmets of the _Nubian_ gods had been adopted in the effigies of some of those amongst us.

I terminate my proofs of the primeval _crucifixion_, by the _united_ testimonies of the _Budhists_ and the _Free-Masons_.

“Though the punishment of the cross,” says the _Asiatic Researches_, “be unknown to the Hindus, yet the followers of Buddha have some knowledge of it, when they represent Deva _Thot_ (that is, the god _Thot_) crucified upon an instrument resembling a cross, according to the accounts of some travellers to Siam.”

“Christianity,” says Oliver, “or the system of salvation through the atonement of a crucified Mediator, was the main pillar of Freemasonry ever since the fall.”

Let me point your notice now to some _consequences_ of that mysterious fact. I begin by asking--

How happened it, that, of all places in the world, Ireland was that which gave the readiest countenance, and the most cheering support, to the Gospel of Christ, on its first promulgation?

This question you will consider of no trivial tendency. It is, in itself, worth a thousand other arguments. To solve it, I must premise that, besides the many ancient appellatives, already given you, for this country, there was one, which characterised it, as anticipating that event?

_Crioch-na-Fuineadhach_[393] was this name. Its meaning is, _the asylum of the expectants_: or, _the retreat of those looking forward_.

To what, you ask?--To the consummation, I reply, of that prophecy, which was imparted to Israel through another source, saying, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until _Shiloh_ come.”[394]

Numerous intimations have, from time to time, been conveyed to man as harbingers of an event which was to crown their species with universal blessings. In the Puranas, it was prophesied, that “after three thousand and one hundred years of the Caliyuga are elapsed, will appear King _Saca_, to remove wretchedness from the world.”[395]

I have given an abstract of the history of this remarkable personage at pp. 293 and 294, and shortly after, at p. 296, I presented you with the effigy of his crucifixion. As to the era of his appearance, as deducible from the Yugas, I shall confine myself to the opinion advanced by Mr. Davis, in the _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 243, where he states: “It may further with confidence be inferred, that _Mons. Anquetil du Perron’s conclusion, with respect to the late introduction of Yugas_, which are the component parts of the Calpa, into the Hindu astronomy, _is unfounded; and that the invention of those periods, and the application of them to computations by the Hindus, must be referred to an antiquity which has not yet been ascertained_.”

In another age was promised another Redeemer; and of him I copy what Mr. Wilford transmits, as follows, viz.:--

“A thousand years before that event, the goddess Cali had foretold him that he would reign, or rather his _posterity_, according to several learned commentators in the Dokhin, as mentioned by Major Mackenzie, till a _divine child_, born of a virgin, should put an end both to his life and kingdom, or to his dynasty, nearly in the words of Jacob, in Genesis, chap. xlix. ver. 10. The Hindu traditions concerning this wonderful child are collected in a treatise called the _Vicrama Chastra; or, History of Vicrama Ditya_. This I have not been able to procure, though many learned pundits have repeated to me by heart whole pages from them. Yet I was unwilling to make use of their traditions till I found them in the large extracts made by the ingenious and indefatigable Major C. Mackenzie of the Madras establishment, and by him communicated to the Asiatic Society.”

In truth, it was to the _certainty_ of this _manifestation_ that the first couplet of an Arabic elegy, preserved by Mons. d’Herbelot in his account of Ibnuzaidun, a celebrated Andalusian poet, refers. In Roman letters, the lines run thus--

“Jekad heïn tenagikom dharmairna
Jacdha alaïna alassa laula tassina.”

That is, “The time will soon come when you will deliver us from all our cares; the remedy is assured, provided we have a little patience.”

The learned President of the Society of Bengal, unaware of the _drift_ of this beautiful stanza, and without ever having so much as _seen_ the original whence it was quoted, offers to alter its import to the following, viz.: “When our bosoms impart their secrets to you, anguish would almost fix our doom, if we were not mutually to console ourselves!” And the only reason he assigns for this novel interpretation is, that _two_ individuals, _neither of whom, he himself admits, knew anything about its meaning_, happened, or rather pretended, to put it for him _differently_ into Arabic words!

On the pillar at Buddal, this emanation of the godhead is thus characterised: “He did not exult over the ignorant and ill-favoured: but spent his riches among the needy: in short, he was the wonder of all good men.”[396] Isaiah’s prophecy of the _future_ Messiah would appear a _verbatim_, though more _poetical_ transcript of this inscription, viz.: “He shall not cry, nor lift up; nor cause His voice to be heard in the street; a bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”[397]

At p. 110 of this volume, I have promised to explain the origin of the word _Eleusinian_, as applied to the celebration of certain religious rites. I have very little doubt but that, when reading the declaration, the reader looked upon its offer as, to say the least, gratuitous--satisfied that the term could have no possible other meaning, than as an adjective formed from the substantive _Eleusis_!

Well, the rashness of that judgment I very freely forgive; and repay it now by the verification of my contract.

_Eleusis_, the _place_, and _Eleusinian_, as descriptive of the _mysteries_ therein solemnised, were both denominated in honour of that _Advent_, which all nations awaited; and the fulfilment of which, in the person of one of the _Budhas_, made him to be recognised on one occasion as the “source of the _faith_ of the three epochs of the world.”[398]

I have already redeemed the character of those ceremonies from the sinister imputations which attached to their _secrecy_. An apprehension that their publication would subvert the popular belief, or a supposed indelicacy in their tenour, were the _mildest_ constructions which the _uninitiated_ would afford them. Though secure in the sufficiency of my former proofs, I cannot avoid taking support from an article in a very talented publication of our day, in which the writer, _wholly uninstructed, while he evidently is, as to the nature_ of those celebrations, yet confirms the fact of their worth and their purity.

“From the whole concurrent testimony of ancient history,” says he, “we must believe that the Eleusinian mysteries were used for good purposes, for there is not an instance on record that the honour of an initiation was ever obtained by a very bad man. The hierophants--the higher priests of the order--were always exemplary in their morals, and became sanctified in the eyes of the people. The high-priesthood of this order in Greece was continued in one family, the Eumolpidæ, for ages. In this they resembled both the Egyptians and the Jews.

“The Eleusinian mysteries in Rome took another form, and were called the rites of Bona Dea; but she was the same Ceres that was worshipped in Greece. All the distinguished Roman authors speak of these rites and in terms of profound respect. Horace denounces the wretch who should attempt to reveal the secrets of these rites; Virgil mentions these mysteries with great respect; and Cicero alludes to them with a greater reverence than either of the poets we have named. Both the Greeks and Romans punished any insult offered to these mysteries with the most persevering vindictiveness. Alcibiades was charged with insulting these religious rites; and although the proof of his offence was quite doubtful, yet he suffered for it for years in exile and misery; and it must be allowed that he was the most popular man of his age.”[399]

Analogous to these were the solemnities at Carthage, designated by the name of _Phiditia_; and the import of which, as well in term as in substance, has been no less a riddle to antiquarians, than was the sanctified commemoration which it disguises. During the interval of their celebration, the youths received lessons from their elders of the state, as to the regulation of their conduct in after life; and the lustre of truth, and the comeliness of virtue, as they shone forth in _Budha_ (_which solves the mystery of the name_), were the invariable _ethics_ they propounded.

Public feasts were the scene for the delivery of those discourses. They found their way also to Rome, but the _spirituality of Redemption_ not going hand-in-hand with its _doctrine_, or not duly comprehended, if accompanying, the _joyousness_ of _hope_, was there sunk into the _licentiousness_ of _enjoyment_, and the innocence of mirth and of moral hilarity was superseded by the uproar of riot and of vice! _Such were the Saturnalia._

How different was their celebration in our “Sacred Ireland!” The very letters of the epithet, by which our forefathers had solemnised them, show the spirituality of purpose which actuated their zeal. _Nullog_ was that epithet--it is compounded of _nua_, _new_; and _log_ (for bullog), a _belly_, meaning _regeneration_, or the putting aside of the old leaven of sin, and the assumption of the new investiture of righteousness, by justification.

As everything, however, in their religious procedure was transacted by symbols, so, in this instance, they did not content themselves with the _inner consciousness_ of a _new birth_,[400] but the most go through the outer form of it by typification; and for this end it was that they excavated those _apertures_ in the bodies of rocks, which I have noticed in page 314, as calling forth, from ignorance, the animadversion of the _devil’s yonies_, in order that, by _passing themselves through them, they might represent the condition of one issuing, through the womb, to a new scope of life_.[401]

A nobler method of symbolisation, and confined solely to the _initiated_, was that which characterised the construction of their subterranean temples. Here the sublimity of their worship breaks out in all the grandeur and the majesty of awe.[402] The narrowness of the entrance, never larger than the girth of the ordinary human body, pourtrayed, as well the _circular passage_ in their regenerating _type_,[403] as the _circumvention_ of temptation by which the faithful are ever beset;[404] while _the model_ of the _cross, which regulates their architecture withinside, attests the mystery and the form of their master’s death_.

The Mithratic temple, at New Grange, is exactly so constructed. After squeezing yourself, with much labour, through a long _emblematic_ gallery, you arrive at a _circular room_, or rather an _irregular polygon or octagon_;[405] whence, at measured intervals, three other apartments diverge, forming, with the inleading gut, a perfect _cross_; and presenting, altogether, to a susceptible mind, _the most solemn combination of symbolical mysteries_![406]

I wonder why do not our _moderns_ confer these _subterraneous cruciform_ edifices upon the industry of the early Christians, as they have striven to claim for them the _corresponding_ structures _above ground_! and without half the probability of success! For if it may be stated, that the _crucifixions_ upon the _towers_ were an _interpolation_, with a view to _Christianise_ what before was devoted to _Paganism_, _no one_, at all events, would maintain that the _monks_ had gone down into the bowels of the earth, and after ejecting the inmates of old _Alma Mater_, converted their tabernacles into a magical cross!

Nay, a greater difficulty would still attach to this adventure. The _Pagodas_[407] of Benares and Mathura, the two principal ones in all India, are _cruciformly_ built! and, in order to make both worlds harmonise, the _advocates_ for the monks, or rather their _beliers_, would have to transport their mechanics to those regions also, and turn upside down, and sideways, and every way, whatever was the shape of the original structures, until they moulded them at last into this mysterious cross!

Some blame, however, would seem attachable to the _superintendents_ of this vision: and it is that, while imprinting this _mark_ over the head of the principal figure in the cave, or Mithratic temple, at Elephanta,[408] they neglected to demolish the _Lingam_, appertaining to the previous worship; and which actually presents itself but a little from it in the front!

To be grave. There was nothing more _natural_ than that those different symbols should be thus united. I have shown that in the various copies of our annals, the _Round Towers_, or overground temples, are designated by the name of _Fidh-nemead_, the meaning of which I have elucidated to be, the _consecrated Lingams_: the _Mithratic caves_, or underground temples, their _correspondents_, it was to be expected, should be known by a _suitable_ denomination; and, accordingly, you will find this very one at New Grange mentioned in the _Chronicon Scotorum_ by the title of _Fiodh Aongusa_; that is, the _Mysterious Cavern_ of _Buddh_; while the _crucifixions_ upon the _former_, and the _cruciform shape_ of the _latter_, are the reverential memorials of his atoning dissolution.

The mysteries celebrated within the recesses of those caverns were precisely of that character which are called _Freemasonic_, or _Cabiric_. The signification of this latter epithet is, as to written letters, a desideratum. Selden has missed it; so has Origen and Sophocles. Strabo, too, and Montfaucon, have been equally astray. Hyde was the only one who had any _idea_ of its _composition_, when he declared “it was a _Persian word_ somewhat altered from _Gabri_, or _Guebri_, and signifying fire-worshippers.”

It is true that _Gabri_ now stands for _fire-worshippers_, but that is only because that they assumed to themselves this title, which belonged to another order of their ancestors. The word is derived from _gabh_, “a smith,” and _ir_, “sacred,” meaning the _sacred smiths_; and _Cabiri_ being only a perversion of it is, of course, in substance, of the very same import.

Mount _Caucasus_,[409] also, which still, in our language, retains its original pronunciation, of _Gaba-casan_, or the Smith’s Path, was named from the same root; nor is the tradition of the _reason_ altogether obliterated from those who dwell beside it, if we may judge from a ceremony described by a recent traveller, as performed by them, as follows:--

“The original founders of the Tartarian Mongolian Scythians, called Cajan and Docos, got embarrassed amongst those mountains, then uninhabited. After a sojourn there of 450 years, having become so numerous as to require other settlements, they were at a loss to find a passage through the mountains, when a _smith_, pointing out to them a place very rich in iron ore, advised them to make great fires there, by which means the ore melted, and a broad passage was opened for them. In commemoration of which famous march, the Mongols to this day celebrate an annual feast, and observe the ceremony of heating a piece of iron red hot, on which the Ceann (that is, the chief) strikes one blow with a hammer, and all the persons of quality do the same after him.”

I shall close this chapter by the description given of the destruction of Cambyses’s army in the Nubian desert, _after the insults offered by him to the Cabiri priests_.

“Gnomes, o’er the waste, you led your myriad powers,
Climb’d on the whirls, and aim’d the flinty showers;
Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,
Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;
Wave over wave the driving desert swims,
Burst o’er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs;
Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,
Hosts march o’er hosts, and nations nations crush:
Wheeling in air, the winged islands fall--
And one great sandy ocean covers all.”[410]