Chapter XXXIII (4)

[186] America also has had her ancient pageantry. Antonio de Solis gives the following description of the Mexican shrine:--“The site of that temple devoted to the worship of the Sun, and its altar for human sacrifices, was a large square environed by walls, cloisters, and gates; in the centre was raised a high tower of a pyramidical form, broad at the base, and narrowed towards the top, having four equal sides in a sloping direction; in one of which was a flight of one hundred and fifty steps to the top, covered with the finest marble, with a square marble pavement, guarded with a balustrade: in the centre stood a large black stone, in manner of an altar, placed near the idol. In the front of this tower, and at a convenient distance from its base, stood a high altar of solid masonry, ascended by thirty steps: in the middle of it was placed a large stone, on which they slaughtered the numerous human victims devoted for sacrifice; the outside being set with stakes and bars, on which were fixed human sculls.”

[187] The regular pyramid is a section of the cube, whose altitude is equal to half the diameter of the base, and is contained within a semicircle. The great pyramid is not of this precise order; its height or altitude being found more than half the diameter of its base. A second order is that whose altitude is equal to half the diagonal of the base, and is also bounded and contained within a semicircle; and consequently, if the diagonal be given at 1000, the altitude will be 500: but the true height of the Egyptian pyramid being determined at less than half its diagonal, is therefore found to be not exactly of this order, but nearly approaching to it, and probably aimed at in the original design, though failing in the execution.--_Dissertation upon the Pyramids._

[188] Astronomy began very early to be cultivated among the Egyptians; and to them is attributed the discovery of the magnitude of the solar year, or, as it is distinguished, _the Egyptian year_ of 365 days; which discovery appears to be noticeable, and memorialised in the construction of their Great Pyramid. The ancient measure of length being the cubit, and that measure being determined common with the Hebrews and Egyptians, as nearly as Dr. Cumberland could determine it, and reduced to English measure, a certain standard is obtained: but we find also another, called the longer cubit, to have obtained, on which we may with equal propriety calculate the measures of the Egyptian Pyramid, on which to infer the number of days contained in the solar year; the measures of the base of the Great Pyramid being found, if not exactly, yet nearly approximating to it.--_Dissertation upon the Pyramids._

[189] I have not the least doubt but the ancient Egyptians measured by the cubit, whatever it then was; that the number of cubits was designedly fixed upon by them in laying the base of the Pyramid; and that if we divide the ascertained sum of 752 feet by 2, the quotient will be 376, which is a number exceeding 365 by 11: consequently, if we estimate their ancient cubit at 2 feet 7/10 of an inch, that measure will be ascertained, and found to approximate nearly to the longer Hebrew cubit; and so will the measures of the Pyramid be found to agree with the number of days in the solar year.--_Dissertation upon the Pyramids._

[190] Then Major Fitzclarence, March 2, 1818.

[191] _Asiatic Researches._

[192] _Scientific Tourist through Ireland_, p. 33.

[193] Usher’s _Primord_, c. xvii. p. 846.

[194] _Journal_, pp. 21, 23.

[195] Neither can I, with him, restrict their object to _Tombs alone_; their Phallic shape bespeaks another allusion; as does the style of architecture indicate an _affinity_ of _descent_, though not an _identity_ of _design_ with that of our _Towers_.

[196] In his treatise, _De Deâ Syriâ_.

[197] Of this distant adoration we may still see traces in the practice of the Irish peasantry, almost preferring to say their prayers outside the precincts of the chapel, or mass-house, than within it, unconsciously derived from this service of the Afrion, or benediction-house, _i.e._ the Round Towers.

[198] The Ghabres to this day chew a leaf of it in their mouths, while performing their religious duties round the sacred fire.

[199] Those are what Montmorency would fain make out to have been _roses_ imported from the Vatican.

[200] A similar sacrifice is described by Major Archer as still practised in the mountains of Upper India, which he himself witnessed. “An unfortunate goat,” says he, “lean and emaciated, was brought as an offering to the deities; but so poor in flesh was he that no crow would have waited his death in hopes of a meal from his carcass.”

[201] “Round the _tie_ or umbrella at the top (of the Dagobs at Ceylon) are suspended a number of small bells, which with these form _tees_ of a great quantity of smaller pagodas that surround the quatine, being set in motion by the wind, keep up a constant tinkling, but not unpleasing sound” (COLEMAN).

The temples of Budh in the Burmese empire are also pyramidical, the top always crowned with a gilt umbrella of iron filagree, hung round with bells.--“The _tie_ or _umbrella_ is to be seen on every sacred building that is of a spiral form; the rising and consecration of this last and indispensable appendage is an act of high religious solemnity, and a season of festivity and relaxation. The present king bestowed the _tie_ that covers Shoemadoo: it was made at the capital. Many of the principal nobility came down from Ummerapoora to be present at the ceremony of its elevation. The circumference of the tie is fifty-six feet; it rests on an iron axis fixed in the building, and is further secured by large chains strongly riveted to the spire. Round the lower rim of the tie are appended a number of _bells_, which agitated by the wind make a continual jingling” (SYMES).

[202] “It is remarked that in China they have no pyramids, but pagodas raised by galleries, one above another, to the top: the most celebrated of these is that called the Porcelain Tower, in Nankin, said to be two hundred feet high, and forty feet at the base, built in an octagonal form. These pagodas seem to have been designed for altars of incense, raised to their aërial deities, with which to appease them; and their hanging bells, _with their tintillations to drive away the demons_ lest they should, by noxious and malignant winds and tempests, disturb their serene atmosphere and afflict their country” (_Dissertations upon the Pyramids_).

[203] The reason of this will appear hereafter; while in the interim I must observe that this new appropriation of them to Christian purposes was what occasioned that error on the part of a writer some centuries after, who _opined_ that it was _Sanctus Patricius_ who first presented one to _Sancto Kierano_. I make no question of the _present_; but does presentation imply invention?

[204] Cambrensis tells rather a curious story about St. Finnan’s bell:--“There is,” says he, “in the district of Mactalewi, in Leinster, a certain bell which, unless it is adjured by its possessor every night in a particular form of exorcism shaped for the purpose, and tied with a cord (no matter how slight), it would be found in the morning at the church of St. Finnan, at Clunarech, in Meath, from whence it was brought; and,” adds he, “this sometimes happened.”

[205] A communication from Mr. Hall himself, just imparted, assures me that, _as far as he could judge_, the aperture was _coeval_ with the instrument, and by no means accidental.

[206] “This word is generally supposed to be derived from Fars or Pars, a division of the empire of Iran, and applied by Europeans to the whole of that kingdom. It is certainly a word unknown, in the sense we use it, to the present natives of Iran, though some Arabic writers contend that Pars formerly meant the whole kingdom. In proof of this assertion, a passage of the Koran is quoted, in which one of Mohammed’s companions who came from a village near Isfahan is called Telman of Fars or Pars. We have also the authority of the Scripture for the name of this kingdom being Paras or Phars. The authors of the Universal History, on what authority I know not, state that the word Iran is not a general name of Persia, but of a part of the country. _This is certainly erroneous_: Iran has, from the most ancient times to the present day, been the term by which the Persians call their country; and it includes, in the sense they understand it, all the provinces to the east of the Tigris; Assyria Proper, Media, Parthia, Persia, and Hyrcania or Mazenderan” (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).

[207] These quotations from the professor’s book are not given _consecutively_ as he wrote them, but _brought together_ from detached sections and chapters.

[208] Pars is the Persian, Fars the Arabic, pronunciation of the word.

[209] I should have observed, that Plato also, speaking of those modern Persians, says: “They were originally a nation of shepherds and herdsmen, occupying a rude country, such as naturally fosters a hardy race of people, capable of supporting both cold and watching, and when needful, of enduring the toils of war” (Plato, _De Leg._ iii. op. ii. p. 695).

[210] Επεκτεινεται δε τ’ οὔνομα της Αριανης μεχρι μερους τινος καὶ Περσων καὶ Μηδων και ετι των προσαρκτον Βακτριον και Σογδιανῶν. εισι γαρ τως και ὁμωγλωττοι παρα μικρομ (STRABO, p. 1094).

[211] All the other variations are thus similarly accounted for; being but offshoots of the same radix, such as I have already shown (p. 128) in reference to Ireland--while the careful reader will of himself see that the name of that lake in Persia, of which the Greeks and Romans conjointly manufactured Aria Palus, corresponds to our Lough Erne, and must doubtless have been so called in Persia also, for _palus_ is evidently but the translation of lough.

[212] Zendavesta, i. 14.

[213] “And what would hardly appear possible, as we cannot discover what purpose such a finished fable of idolatrous superstition would be meant to answer” (Sir John Malcolm’s _History of Persia_, vol. i. p. 191).

[214] Yet in Hindoostan, also, as we learn from Major Archer, “an _astrologer_ is a constituted authority in all the villages, and nothing pertaining to life and its concerns is commenced without his sanction.”

[215] “Tout, dans le systême primitif de la religion des Grecs, atteste la transposition des traditions comme des principes; tout y est vague, sombre et confus” (DE SACY).

[216] “The Sabians themselves boasting the origin of their religion from Seth, and pretending to have been denominated from a son of his called Sabius, as also of having among them a book, which they called the _Book of Seth_” (Prideaux, part i. book iii.).

[217] This is only a corruption from the Irish word _Ercol_, the sun.

[218] Wisdom of Solomon, xiv. 16, 17.

[219] To this exactly corresponds, as well in import as in appropriation, the name of one of the hills upon which Rome was built, that is _Palatinus_, which--no doubt, to the amazement of etymological empirics--is nothing less than a compound of _Baal_ and _tinne_; that is _Baal’s fire_--the initial _B_ and _P_ being always commutable. And _Aven-tinus_, the epithet of another of the Seven Mounts, is derived from _Avan_, a river; and _tinne_, fire, meaning the fire-hill, near the river. And as the former was devoted to the _sun_, so the latter was to the _moon_; in confirmation of which it got another name, namely, _Re-monius_, of which the component parts are _Re_, the moon, and _moin_, an elevation.

The _Pru-taneion_, also amongst the Greeks, was what? A _fire_-hill. Startle not, it is a literal truth. But the dictionaries and lexicons say nothing about these matters? nay, offer other _explanations_? mystifications, Sir, if you please, whereby they implicate, as well themselves as their readers, in absurdities; which could not be expected to be otherwise uninstructed, _as their authors necessarily were_, in the elements of that language whence all those words have diverged.

_Pru-taneion_, then, is compounded of _Bri_, a mount, and _tinne_, fire; the _B_, as before observed, being commutable with _P_, particularly amongst the Greeks, who indifferently called Britain Βρετανικη and Πρετανικη (νησος being understood). Every community had, of old, one of those _Britennes_, or _fire mounts_, natural or artificial. The guardian of the sacred element therein was called, _Bri-ses_; and the dwelling assigned him, hard by, _Astu_. The number of those latter Cecrops reduced, in Attica from one hundred and sixty, to twelve. Of these, Theseus appointed the _principal station_ at _Cecropia_, the name of which he changed, by _way of eminence_, to _Astu_; and hence this latter word, which originally but represented the abode of the _Sacerdos_, came ultimately to signify a _city_ at large; as _Prutaneion_ did a Common Council Hall.

[220] To this day, the most kindly wish, and ordinary salutation, of the Irish peasant, continues to be _Bal dhia duit, Bal dhia ort_, that is the god Baal to you, or the god Baal upon you.

[221] The Irish mode of expressing it is _Slan fuar tu sin, agus slan adfaga tu sin_. The Caffres who reside all round the Cape, pay their adoration to the moon, by dancing to her honour when she changes, or when she is at the full. They prostrate themselves on the ground, then rise up again, and, gazing at her orb, with loud acclamations, make the following address:--“We, thy servants, salute thee. Give us store of milk and honey; increase our flocks and herds, and we will worship thee.”

[222] The word is more _mysterious_, as I shall explain elsewhere.

[223] Hannah More.

[224] Byron.

[225] “One superstition of the pagans never fails to assert its influence upon spots like this--the _genius_ loci is always ascendant” (DEANE).

[226] _Ab-roch_ also, the official title of Joseph, when appointed regent of Egypt, signifies father of the _king_.

[227] “The Himalaya are the peculiar abodes of the gods of the Hindoos; the rivers, issuing from the eternal snows, are goddesses, and are sacred in the eyes of all. Shrines, of the most holy and awful sanctity, are at the fountain-heads of the Ganges and Jumna; and on the summit of Kedar Nauth, Cali, that goddess of bloody rites, is supposed to have taken up her residence. One among the numerous proceedings of her votaries, is to scramble as high up the mountain as they can attain, taking with them a _goat_ for an offering: the animal is turned loose with a _knife_ tied round his neck; the belief is, that the goddess will find the victim, and immolate it with her own hand” (ARCHER).

[228] This adjective I apply indiscriminately to Persia or to Ireland.

[229] It lies in the district of _Ins-oin_, which means the _abode_ of _Magicians_; corrupted now to _Inis_-owen, which would import Eugene’s _island_. An aggravated blunder--the place being in the _very centre_ of the country, with which such an imaginary chevalier was never associated.

[230]

“His tibi _Grynæi_ nemoris dicatur origo,
Ne quis sit lucus, quâ se plus jactet _Apollo_.”
Virg. _Ecl._ 6.

[231] “_Granem_ dixere priores.”--OVID.

Although those heaps are now but signals of accidental or violent death, for which each passenger bespeaks his sorrow by _adding a small stone_, yet we see that in their origin they were more religiously designed; and while this _latter practice_ is observed also in India, it appears that they have retained there more correctly the primitive idea, as may be inferred from these words of Major Archer:--“On the right and left are several cairns of stones, erected by parties of travellers as they cross, in _acknowledgment to the deities or presiding spirits for their protection_.”

[232] _Ogyg. seu Rer. Iber. Chron._ part i. p. 16.

[233] One of the ancient names of Ireland is _Inis Algan_, that is, the _Noble Island_.

[234] “The children gathered the wood, the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven” (Jer. vii. 18).

[235] _Lettres sur les Sciences_, p. 202.

[236] _Hist. du Calendrier_, Pref. p. 14.

[237] “Obeliscum Deo soli, speciali munere, dedicatum fuisse” (AMMIANUS).

[238] “Chinenses et Indi, præter imagines in pagodis et delubris, prægrandes aliquando etiam _integras rupes_, presertim si naturâ in _pyramidalem formam_ vergebant, in idola formari solebant” (HYDE).

[239] Is it not pitiable, therefore, to hear Mr. Deane, in the last volume of the _Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries_, London, ascribe the erection of those obelisks which he met in Britanny, to the following text? namely, “Behold Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster” (1 Sam. xxvi. 7).

When Captain Pyke landed in the island of Elephanta, near Bombay, he found in the midst of a Gentoo temple a low altar, on which was placed a large polished stone, of a _cylindrical_ form, standing on its base, the top _rounded_, or convex: they called it _Mahody_,--that the name of the inconceivable God was placed under it aloof from profanation.

Launder, in his _Voyage to India_, p. 81, saw one _erected_ in a _tank_ of water. Herodian tells us he saw a similar stone, round at the bottom, diminishing towards the top in a conical form, at Emessa, in Phœnicia, and that the name they gave it was Heliogabalus (VALLANCEY).

[240] _I.e._ the _Good_-Baal-Peor.

[241] Wilford, in like manner, after a more mature acquaintance with the system, says, “I beg leave here to retract what I said in a former essay on Egypt, concerning the followers of Buddha.”

[242] _Observations on Drakontia_, London, 1833.

[243] The Mexican hierogram is formed by the intersecting of two great serpents, which describe the circle with their bodies, and have each a human head in its mouth.

[244] Ovid.

[245] Gen. xi. 31.

[246] See pages 503-506 for the explication of the serpent and the rest of the allegory.

[247] The Betula, or Birch tree.

[248] Were additional proof required that this is the true solution of the Mosaic _myth_, respecting the forbidden _apple_, it is irresistibly offered to anyone who will see that relic of Eastern idolatry, presented by Lieutenant-Colonel Ogg to the Museum of the East India Company, London, which consists of a tabular frame of white marble, furnished with a fountain, and emblematically stored with religious devices; the most extraordinary of which is a representation of the _Lingam_ and _Yoni_ in _conjunction_, around the bottom of which, in symbolical suggestion, is coiled a serpent; while the top of another Lingam, placed underneath, is embossed towards the termination, which is _conical_ and _sunny_, with four heads, facing the cardinal points, and _exactly corresponding with those which grace the preputial apex_ of the Round _Tower_ of _Devenish_. Those four heads represent the four gods of the Budhist theology, who have appeared in the present world, and already obtained the perfect state of Nirwana, viz. Charchasan, Gonagon, Gaspa, and Goutama. And the entire coincidence between this Lingam and the characteristics of our Round Towers is such as to convince the most obdurate sceptics, even had I not put the question beyond dispute before, that they were _uniform_ in design, and _identical_ in purpose.

[249] Venus preferred a _cestus_, or a talisman of her own sex, as we are told in the fourteenth book of the _Iliad_, where it is said, that

“the Queen of Love
Obeyed the sister and the wife of Jove,
And from her fragrant breast the zone unbraced,
With various skill and high embroidery graced.
In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.”--HOMER.

[250] The offerings made at the present day are precisely of the same kind. “Boiled rice, fruits, especially the cocoa-nut, flowers, natural, and artificial, and a variety of curious figures made of paper, gold leaf, and the cuttings of the cocoa-nut kernel, are the most common” (SYMES).

[251] Gen. iv. 7.

[252] Methinks I hear some wiseacre start up here and say this cannot be, because man in an _uncivilised_ state occupies more space than when restricted by social usages. Pray, sir, who told you that man was then _uncivilised_? Then, in fact, it was that he may be called truly civilised, as more recent from the converse of his Creator.

[253] In fig. 1, plate 33, of Mr. Coleman’s book, “is a four-headed Linga of white marble, on a stand of the same, surrounded by Parvati, Durga, Ganes, and the Bull Nandi, in adoration. The size of the stand or tablet is about two feet square, and the whole is richly painted and gilt. On the crown of the Linga is a refulgent sun.” In fig. 2 of same “is a Panch Muckti, or five-headed Linga, of basalt, of which the fifth head rises above the other four, surmounted by the hooded snake. Each of the heads has also a snake wreathed around it, as well as around the Argha. The Bull Nandi is kneeling in adoration before the spout of the Yoni.”

[254] And _Bacchus_, in reality, was but another name for one of the various _Budhas_. Even under the name of _Dionysos_ we find him, to this hour, amongst ourselves. “On _Sliabh Grian_, or the _Hill_ of the _Sun_” says Tighe, “otherwise called Tory Hill, in the county Kilkenny, is a circular space, sixty-four yards in circumference, covered with stones. In this stands a very large one, and on the east side another, reared on three supporters, and containing an inscription, which in Roman letter would exhibit “Beli Dinose.”

[255] “There are in India (also) public women, called _women of the idol_, and the origin of this custom is this: when a woman has made a vow for the purpose of having children, if she brings into the world a pretty daughter, she carries it to Bod,--so they call the idol which they adore, and leaves it with him” (Renaudot’s _Anc. Rel._ p. 109).

[256] “It is generally known, that the religion of Boudhou is the religion of the people of _Ceylon_, but no one is acquainted with its forms and precepts” (JOINVILLE).

[257] Goldsmith.

[258] That is, “_above_ reason.”

[259] Gen. vi. 2.

[260] _Ibid._ iv. 26.

[261] Job xxxviii.

[262] “_In the beginning_ God created” (Gen. i. 1).

[263] Gen. vi. 4.

[264] Dr. Gill, very _innocently_, would account for it otherwise, viz. “_either_ because they made their fear _fall_ upon men, _or_ men through fear to _fall_ before them, because of their height and strength--or rather because they fell and rushed on men with great violence, and oppressed them in a cruel and tyrannical manner”!!!

[265] Philosophers will ultimately repose in the belief that Asia has been the principal foundry of the human kind; and _Iran_ or _Persia_ will be considered as one of the cradles from which the species took their departure to people the various regions of the earth (Dr. Barton, _Trans Phil. Soc. Philad._ vi. p. 1).

“It follows that Iran or Persia (I contend for the _meaning, not the name_) was the central country which we sought” (Sir W. Jones, _Asiatic Researches_).

[266] An edifice of this kind, in which the _relics_ of Budha were kept, near Benares, is described by Wilford as about _fifty feet high, of a cylindrical form, with its top shaped like a dome_.

[267]

“Tuatha _Heren_ tarcaintais
Dos nicfead sith laitaith nua.”

That is,

The _magicians_ of Ireland prophesied
That new times of peace would come.

I would point your attention to this stanza, not only as confirmatory of the solution above given for the word _Tuatha_, but as furnishing another link in that great chain of analogy which I have traced between the names of Ireland and ancient Persia. _Haran_, in Mesopotamia, is but the prefixing of an aspirate to _Eran_, the Pahlavi variation for _Iran_, the original name for that _Sacred Land_.

[268] General Vallancey was equally ignorant as to the meaning of the additional words _De-danaan_.

[269] The Lotos was the most sacred plant of the ancients, and typified the _two_ principles of the earth’s fecundation combined--the germ standing for the _Lingam_; the filaments and petals for the _Yoni_.

[270] This _Puzza_ is nothing more than our Irish _Pish_: and, what is miraculously _coincident_, the title of the enthusiast who annually kills somebody in honour of her, under the name of the goddess _Manepa_, at Tancput, is _Phut_, or Buth; that is, the Budh of the Irish!

[271] “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. xi. 24).

[272] “There is a sect of Hindus, by far the most numerous of any, who, attempting to reconcile the two systems, tell us, in their allegorical style, that Parvati and Mahadeva found their _concurrence_ essential to the perfection of their offspring, and that Vishnu, at the request of the goddess, effected a reconciliation between them; hence the _navel_ of Vishnu, by which they mean the _os tincæ_, is worshipped as one and the same with the sacred _Yoni_.”

[273] She “made use of the same artifice the old woman, called Baubo, did to put Ceres in good humour, and showed him the prototype of the _Lotos_. Mahadeva smiled and relented; but on the condition that they should instantly leave the country.”

[274] “But such is the confusion and uncertainty of the Hindu records, that one is really afraid of forming any opinion whatever” (WILFORD).

[275] Sir John Malcolm, vol. i. p. 270.

[276] Thomson.

[277] “When history fails in accounting for foreign extraction of any people, or where it is manifestly mistaken, how can this extraction be more rationally inferred and determined, or that mistake rectified, than from the analogy of languages? And is not this at once sufficiently conclusive, if nothing else was left them?” (_Eugene Aram_).

[278] “The merchants of Magadha formed not only a particular class, but also a particular tribe. It seems that they were bold, enterprising, and, at the same time, cautious and circumspect; hence they are said to be merchants by the fathers’, and warriors by the mothers’ side, according to Mr. Colebrook’s account of the Hindu classes” (_Asiat. Res._ ix. p. 79).

[279] See _A Dissertation on the Antiquity, Origin, and Design of the principal Pyramids of Egypt_, etc. etc.

[280] Mersennus writes thus:--“I find that the cubit (upon which a learned Jewish writer, which I received by the favour of the illustrious Hugenius, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, supposes the dimensions of the temple were formed) answers to 23¼ of our inches; so that it wants ¾ of an inch of two of our feet, and contains two Roman feet and two digits, and a grain, which is ¼ of a digit.” The Paris foot, with which Mersennus compared this cubit, is equal to 1-68/1000 of the English foot, according to Mr. Greaves; and consequently is to the Roman foot as 1068 to 967. In the same proportion, reciprocally, are 23¼ and 25-68/100. That cubit, therefore, is equal to 25-68/100 _unciæ_ of the Roman foot, and consequently falls within the middle of the limits 25-57/100 and 79/100, with which we have just circumscribed the sacred cubit: so that I suspect this cubit was taken from some authentic model, preserved in a secret manner from the knowledge of the Christians (SIR ISAAC NEWTON).

[281] “And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a _hole_ in _the wall_. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door: and he said unto me, Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in, and saw; and, behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about” (EZEKIEL).

[282] “Inter omnes eos, non constat à quibus factæ sint, justissimo casu obliteratis tantæ vanitatis authoribus” (PLIN).

[283]

קנים גפר עצי תבת לךעשה
אתה וכפרת התבה את תעשה
אשר וזה בכפר ומחוץ מבית
אמה מאות שלש אתה תעשה
אמה חמשים התבה ארך
קומתה אמה ושלשים רחבה

_Gen._ vi. 14.

[284] Exod. ii. 3.

[285] The Septuagint translators, not perceiving any difference, rendered all, similarly, by the word κιβωτός!

[286] As does also _Tha_, _To_, _Ti_, _Tho_, _Thu_, with their several commutables, derivatives, formatives, etc.

[287] And the _Valley of To-phith_, in which human victims were sacrificed, thus discloses, in the _symbolic secret of its shape_, that the propitiation of this _instrument_ was the grand object of the sacrificers.

[288] Virgil.

[289] Gen. vi. 9.

[290] Gen. vi. 12.

[291] Rom. i. 20-24.

[292] Gen. vi. 8.

[293] _The-bith._

[294] Gen. ix. 1.

[295] “This king is stated to have reclaimed his subjects from a _state_ of the _most savage barbarity_. He was, we are told by our author, the son of Yussan-Ajum, while others call him the grandson of Noah; _all agree in acknowledging him as the founder of a dynasty, which are known in history as that of the Paishdadian_” (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).

[296] The Irish name for a _boat_ is _baudh_, which is only a formative of _pith_.

[297] Gen. v. 29.

[298] If the reader will now turn to p. 223, will he not think it probable that the _symbol_ contained on the broken-off portion of the stone, there represented, must have been the phallus?

[299] Who can forget the fable in Ovid, _de jactibus lapidibus_?

[300] “But as his descendants gave him his right as to the title of Deva, and decreed divine honours to be paid to him, we shall henceforth call him Deva-cala-_Yavana_; or, according to the vulgar mode of pronouncing this compound word, Deo-cal-_Yun_, which sounds exactly like _Deucalion_ in Greek” (WILFORD).

[301] Fielding.

[302] Isa. viii. 7, 8.

[303] Gen. vii. 2.

[304] Gen. viii. 10, 11.

[305] The following is an abstract of the Hindoo version of this allegory, as copied from their Puranas:--“Satyavrata, having built the _ark_, and the flood increasing, it was made fast to the peak of Nau-baudha, with a cable of a prodigious length. During the flood, Brahma, or the _creating power_, was _asleep_ at the bottom of the abyss: the _generative powers of nature_, both male and female, were reduced to their simplest elements, the _Linga_ and the _Yoni_. The Yoni assumed the shape of the hull of a _ship_, since typified by the Argha, whilst the Linga became the _mast_. In this manner they were wafted over the deep, under the care and protection of _Vishnu_. When the waters had retired, the _female power_ of nature appeared immediately in the character of _Capoteswari_, or the _dove_, and she was soon joined by her consort, in the shape of _Capoteswara_.”

[306] See p. 63.

[307] Acts vii. 22.

[308] The _date_ of those Uksi was not the only misconception this historian has committed. He was equally in the dark as to the _place_ whence they came, and, for want of a better name, called them, at a venture, Arabians!

[309] See p. 64.

[310] Most of the _oracles_ in the ancient world were but _personifications_ of this influence--the _goddess_ invariably being the sacred Yoni. And the priestesses so far prevailed upon the credulous worshippers as to make them believe that _she_ actually spoke! The oracle of _Delphi_, the most venerable in all Greece, obtained its name from the _very thing_--the first syllable _De_, signifying _divine_ or _sacred_; and the second _phi_, _i.e._ phith, _yoni_: the letter _l_ having been inserted only for euphony. Even in the _Greek_ language this import is not yet lost.

[311] As _Noah_ was himself named from the _symbolical boat_, so was his eldest son _Japheth_, from its sanctified _prototype_. _Ja-Phith_ signifies _consecrated to Pith_, or the _Yoni_. And again, _his_ son’s name, _Ja-van_, means _consecrated to woman_.

[312] “In the city of Babylon there is a temple with brazen gates, consecrated to Jupiter Belus, being four square; and each side being two furlongs in length. In the midst of this holy place there is a solid tower, of the thickness and height of a furlong; upon which there is another tower placed, and upon that another; and so on, one upon another, insomuch that there are eight in all. On the outside of these there are steps or stairs placed, by which men go up from one tower to another. In the middle of these steps there are resting-places; and rooms were made for the purpose, that they who go to the top may have conveniences to sit down and rest themselves” (HERODOTUS).

“’Tis a tower exactly round, in form of a cone, or round pyramid; the diameter, or thickness at the base, being 81 feet; the circumference, or way round, 254½ feet; the height perpendicular likewise 81 feet, equal to the diameter; the height likewise, oblique, 90½ feet; and the angles of the sides equal to those of the former design: the whole likewise a mass of brick and bitumen work, amounting to 140,589 cubic feet, upon 5207 square” (MARK GREGORY).

[313] Gen. xi. 4.

[314] Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_.

[315] _Shiloh_ is an _Irish_ word, literally meaning _seed_, and additionally showing that it was in our _sacred_ language all those occurrences were _originally named_.

[316] Both words equally signify the _happy country_ or the _sacred land_.

[317] Gen. iii. 15.

[318] See chap. xvii. p. 229.

[319] Gen. iii. 15.

[320] Gen. xix. 31-34.

[321] _Asiatic Researches._

[322] Job xix. 25.

[323] John viii. 56.

[324] Rev. xiii. 8.

[325] _Appeal to Common Sense_, p. 45.

[326] See chap. xvi. p. 224.

[327] _De Morib. German._ xxiv.

[328] _Western Islands_, vol. i. p. 184, etc.

[329] _Highlands_, vol. iii. p. 236.

[330] “I inquired,” says Mr. Martin, “of the inhabitants, what tradition they had concerning these stones; and they told me, it was a place appointed for worship in the time of heathenism; and that the chief Druid stood near the big stone in the centre, from whence he addressed himself to the people that surrounded him.”

[331] United at the feet in this manner . The jewel in the freemasons’ royal arch is thus formed. Noah was a freemason; and being the inventor of that _mysterious_ and _sacredly-religious ceremony_, called the _Deluge_, we may be satisfied that all the _secrets_ of that body bear reference to my developments. I look upon their institution as most _solemn_ and _majestically sublime_.

[332] In the accounts transmitted to us of the various _Buddhas_, no term occurs more commonly as descriptive of their innocence and their meekness than that of _lamb_.

[333] Gen. iii. 15.

[334] Luke iii. 39.

[335] See p. 132.

[336] _Indian Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 361.

[337] See chap. xvi. p. 221.

[338] Matt. xxii. 29.

[339] Vol. i. p. 308, on the article “Fine Arts.”

[340] The initial subscribed to the article.

[341] See Appendix.

[342] Like the two former effigies, at pp. 138 and 140, it is made of _bronze_, and found in Ireland after the Tuath-de-danaans. Those found after their brethren in the East are made of the same metal. “Sometimes,” says Archer, “the _images_ are of _wood_ or _stone_, but these, unless possessing the rarity of some monkish legend, are not in such repute as their brothers of _brass_.”

[343] This is the only _peculiar_ monogram of Jesus Christ--I. H. S. belonging originally to Budha, though appropriated afterwards to _him_, Υ Η Σ was its proper form, and it comprehended a mysterious number, as follows:--

Υ 400
Η 8
Σ 200
---
608

Another monogram of Budha was Φ Ρ Η. It composed the same numerical enigma, viz.--

Φ 500
Ρ 100
Η 8
---
608

Salvo vera Deum facies, vultusque paternæ,
Octo et sexcentis numeris, cui litera trina
Conformet sacrum nomen, cognomen et omen.
MARTIANUS CAPELLA.

[344] _Arch. Soc. Ant. Lond._ vol. ii. p. 83.

[345] _Asiatic Researches._

[346] “He has a separate apartment, shrouded from vulgar eyes by a black velvet curtain, richly embossed with gold, in a splendid palace at Ummerapoor: and his whole residence is as dazzling and sumptuous as gold and silver can make it. He is furnished with a silk bed, adorned with gold tapestry, hangings, and jewellery, and has his gold appurtenances. Foreign ministers are introduced to his sacred person, and he ranks before every member of the royal court except the king” (SYMES).

[347] It was only as an _epithet_ that the title _sacred_ could apply to Samothrace: and as such, every other locality, wherein those mysteries were commemorated, shared it in common. But in _this our island_, to which Artemidorus above alludes, and where superior solemnity attended the celebration, the name of _sacred_ was no adventitious clause, but, _par excellence_, the _constituent essence_ of its _proper appellation_ (see pp. 128, 129).

[348] Μυστηρια δε δυο τελειται του ενιαυτου; Δημητοι Κορη; τα μικρα και τα μεγαλα· και εστι τα μικρα ωσπερ προκαθαρσις και πραγνέυσις των μεγαλων.

[349] Lib. x. p. 474.

[350] εις την Πολιτ. Πλατ. p. 380.

[351] See the article under her name in the _Classical Dictionary_, with all the authorities there adduced.

[352] _Clem. Alex. Strom._ ii.

[353] Mihi cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athenæ tuæ peperisse--tum nihil melius illis mysteriis quibus agresti immanique vitâ exculti ad humanitatem mitigati sumus: initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera principia vitæ cognovimus: neque solum cum lætitiâ vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliori moriendi (_De Legibus_, 1. i. c. 24).

[354] Pope.

[355] Luke xix. 20.

[356] “The _Bulbul of Iran_ has a passion for the rose, and when he sees any person pull a rose from the tree he laments and cries” (“Persian Poem,” quoted in Ouseley’s _Oriental Collections_).

[357] Basnage, bk. iii. ch. xix. s. xix.

[358] That phenomenon in the heavens, called the “Southern Cross,” appears to me so associated with the _mystery_ of redemption, in all ages, that I cannot forbear drawing attention to the sign. The following is Captain Basil Hall’s description of this curious constellation.

“Of all the antarctic constellations, the celebrated _Southern Cross_ is by far the most remarkable; and must in every age continue to arrest the attention of all voyagers and travellers who are fortunate enough to see it. I think it would strike the imagination even of a person who had never heard of the Christian religion; but of this it is difficult to judge, seeing how inextricably our own ideas are mingled up with associations linking this sacred symbol with almost every thought, word, and deed of our lives.

“The three great stars which form the Cross, one at the top, one at the left arm, and one, which is the chief star, called Alpha, at the foot, are so placed as to suggest the idea of a crucifix, even without the help of a small star, which completes the horizontal beam. When on the meridian, it stands nearly upright; and as it sets, we observe it lean over to the westward. I am not sure whether, upon the whole, this is not more striking than its gradually becoming more and more erect, as it rises from the east. In every position, however, it is beautiful to look at, and well calculated, with a little prompting from the fancy, to stir up our thoughts to solemn purposes.

“I know not how others are affected by such things, but for myself I can say with truth, that during the many nights I have watched the Southern Cross, I remember on two occasions, when the spectacle interested me exactly in the same way, nor any one upon which I did not discover the result to be somewhat different, and always more impressive than what I had looked for. This constellation, being about thirty degrees from the South Pole, is seen in its whole revolution, and accordingly, when off the Cape of Good Hope, I have observed it in every stage; from its triumphant erect position, between sixty and seventy degrees above the horizon, to that of complete immersion, with the top beneath, and almost touching the water. This position, by the way, always reminded me of the death of St. Peter, who is said to have deemed it too great an honour to be crucified with his head upwards. In short, I defy the stupidest mortal that ever lived, to watch these changes in the aspect of this splendid constellation, and not to be, in some degree, struck by them” (_Fragments of Voyages_).

[359] Isa. liii. 4, 5.

[360] Isa. liii. 3.

[361] _Asiatic Researches._

[362] Matt. x. 26.

[363] This will explain a text in Scripture never before understood, namely, “Son of Man, when the land sinneth against Me by tresspassing grievously, then will I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break _the staff of the bread thereof_, and will send famine upon it, and cut off man and beast from it” (Ezek. xiv. 13). _Fogh_ is another term equivalent to this.

[364] This will at once appear from Varro, who, in Nonus Marcellinus, is made to say, “We are barbarians, because that we crucify (in gabalum suffigimus) the innocent; are you not barbarians, when you acquit the guilty?” Compare also Selden, _Syntagm._ ii. c. 1.

[365] Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos (Tertullian, _de Præscrip._ cap. xi.).

[366] Ezek. ix. 4, 5, 6.

[367] John iii. 10. The omission of this _cross_ from the text of our translation may afford some handle to the enemies of religion.

[368] Matt. vi. 27.

[369] _Cunni_ Diaboli.

[370] The _rosary_ was also anterior to Christianity.

[371] John i. 29.

[372] John i. 30.

[373] John i. 31.

[374] Isa. xlii. 9.

[375] Temora.

[376] “And this _stone_, which I have set for a _pillar_, shall be _God’s house_” (Gen. xxviii. 22).

[377] It is fit I should advertise that Mr. Hamilton spoke of the individual merely as a figure, without professing to identify him in name or history either with _Thot_, _Budha_, or _anybody else_.

[378] Introduction, p. xciii.

[379] Cowper.

[380] From the Brahma-vawartta, section of the Crishna-janma--c’hand’a.

[381] Much, mugh, mughsaine tra ainm sain delias do dheadh (Cormac’s _Glossary_).

[382] The _locale_ of that _boar_, as well as the _mystery_ of its meaning, which Plutarch transmitted in his allegorical _war_ between Osiris and Typhon, is now no longer ambiguous (see p. 327).

[383] I have before explained that the _serpent Pyth-on_ means the _seduction_ of sensuality--_Pith_ itself signifying _yoni_, the _boat_, or _serpent_, the final _on_ being nothing but a Greek termination.

[384] Isa. liii. 7.

[385] “The gods,” said the Budhist priest to the Catholic bishop before alluded to, “who have appeared in the present world, and who have obtained the perfect state, niebau, or _deliverance from all the evils of life_, are four, Chanchasam, Gonagom, Gaspa, and Godama” (Syme’s _Embassy to the Court of Ava_).

[386] I shall give you my _definition_ for this word by and by.

[387] 1 Cor. xv. 51.

[388] It will be perceived, that I do not mean this to be an exact _copy_ of the Knockmoy Crucifixion--or _vice versâ_.--The general idea is, what I mean to substantiate, and the identity of design cannot well be gainsaid. This remark applies also to the kings about to be introduced by and by.

[389] “We saw,” says Colonel Symes, alluding to the imperfect shell of a _Budhist_ temple, in the Burman Empire, “several unfinished figures of _animals_ and _men_ in _grotesque attitudes_, which were designed as ornaments for different parts of the building” (_Embassy to the Court of Ava_).

[390] 1 Cor. i. 12.

[391] _Asiatic Researches._

[392] The name of _Sulivan_ in Ireland, than which there is no one more common, is unquestionably but the perpetuation of the above _Sulivahana_. And I can give a proof of the fact, _independently of its derivation_, which will scare ridicule into defiance. It is that a particular branch of that family called the O’Sulivans, of Tomies, have been ever looked upon with a feeling of _reverence_ by the natives, almost approaching to veneration. I have in vain striven to ascertain from them the origin of this indefinable sense of sanctity. It was like magic upon their minds: they half-worshipped them, and knew not why. There were but _two individuals_ of this stock remaining when I was a schoolboy, a few years ago, at Killarney.

[393] “That is,” says Keating, “the neighbouring country”!!! as if a country would call itself by such a name! Vallancey ridicules, but bungles himself still more. And while reminded by this circumstance, I had best note, that what this last-mentioned writer elsewhere translates as “the _topographical_ names of Ireland” (_Ainim abberteach an n’ Eirean_), should have been “the _appellative_ names of Ireland”: they are the _titles_ of the _island_ itself, not _descriptions_ of the several _localities_ within it.

[394] Gen. xlix. 10.

[395] _Asiatic Researches._

[396] _Asiatic Researches._

[397] Isa. xlii. 2, 3.

[398] Retiring into a still more solitary place, _Gautama_ and his disciples sustained triumphantly an argument with two of their bitterest enemies. But a severer trial exhibited his righteousness in a yet clearer light. Four young and beautiful sisters, burning with unholy love, presented themselves naked before him, and besought him to comply with their desires. “Who, O Gautame!” said they, in the rage of their disappointment, “who is the lying witness who dares attest that the virtues of all the former saints are concentrated in thee?” “Behold my witness,” said the sage, striking the ground with his hand, and at the moment Okintôngu, the tutelar genius of the earth, appeared, proclaiming, with a loud voice, “It is I who am the witness of the truth!” The young women then fell upon their faces and adored Gautama, saying, “O _pure_ and _perfect countenance_, wisdom more precious than gold! majesty impenetrable! honour and adoration to thee, _thou source of the faith of the three epochs of the world_!” (Abridged from KLAPROTH).

[399] _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_, October 12, 1833.

[400] This is the exact rendering of the name by which they called it: viz. _nua vreith_, or _the being born anew_ by the operation of grace.

[401] It is still practised in the East.--“For the purpose of regeneration it is directed to make an image of pure gold of the _female_ power of _nature_, in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue the person to be regenerated is inclosed, and dragged out through the usual channel. As a statue of pure gold, and of proper dimensions, would be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred _Yoni_, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass” (WILFORD).

[402] See pp. 3-78 and 162.

[403] Be it remembered, that it was in consequence of his ignorance of the principle of regeneration that our Saviour addressed Nicodemus in these cutting words, viz. “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” thereby recognising the existence of the doctrine before His own manifestation to that people.

[404] “Enter ye in at the _strait gate_: for _wide_ is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to _destruction_, and _many_ there be which go _in_ thereat, because _strait_ is the _gate_, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto _life_, and _few_ there be that find it” (Matt. vii. 13, 14).

[405] “The dome [of this, what he calls a cemetery] springs at various unequal heights, from eight to nine and ten feet on different sides, forming at first a coving of eight sides. At the height of fifteen or sixteen feet, the north and south sides of this coving run to a point like a gore, and the coving continues its spring with six sides; the east side coming to a point next, it is reduced to five sides, the west next; and the dome ends and closes with four sides; not tied with a key-stone, but capped with a flag-stone of three feet ten inches, by three feet five. The construction of this dome is not formed by key-stones, whose sides are the radii of a circle, or of an ellipsis converging to a centre. It is combined with great long flat stones, each of the upper stones projecting a little beyond the end of that immediately beneath it; the part projecting, and weight supported by it, bearing so small a proportion to the weight which presses down the part supported; the greater the general weight is which is laid upon such a cove, the firmer it is compacted in all its parts” (POWNALL).

[406] “The eight sides of this polygon are thus formed: the aperture which forms the entrance, and the three niches, or tabernacles, make four sides, and the four imposts the other four” (POWNALL).

[407] This word I have already derived, after the example of other writers, from _peutgeda_, or _house of idols_, so misnamed by Europeans. I must state, however, that another explication is also assigned thereto, and that is, a perversion of the term _bhaga-vati_, or _holy house_. But with great respect to the gentlemen who incline to the latter opinion, I have to observe that _bhaga-vati_, properly signifies the _sacred Yoni_; and, therefore, that however applicable to a _subterraneous temple_, or _cave_, it could by no means represent an _erect building_.

[408] “The entrance into this temple, which is entirely hewn out of a stone resembling porphyry, is by a spacious front supported by two massy pillars and two pilasters forming three openings, under a thick and steep rock, overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs. The long ranges of columns that appear closing in perspective on every side; the flat roof of solid rock that seems to be prevented from falling only by the massy pillars, whose capitals are pressed down and flattened as if by the superincumbent weight; the darkness that obscures the interior of the temple, which is dimly lighted only by the entrances; and the gloomy appearance of the gigantic stone figures ranged along the wall, and hewn, like the whole temple, out of the living rock,--joined to the strange uncertainty that hangs over the history of this place,--carry the mind back to distant periods, and impress it with that kind of uncertain and religious awe with which the grander works of ages of darkness are generally contemplated” (ERSKINE).

[409] “This appellation, Caucasus, at least in its present state, is not Sanscrit; and as it is not of Grecian origin, it is probable that the Greeks received it through their intercourse with the Persians” (WILFORD).

[410] Darwin.

[411] “If perfection in art consist in affording continued pleasure, its achievements, when contemplating this column, must be deemed insurpassable. A Corinthian capital of 10 feet is poised on a shaft of 67½ feet, the latter resting on a base of 21½ feet; the whole rises to a height of nearly 100 feet” (HEAD).

[412] “Or the obelisks, commonly called Cleopatra’s Needles, one alone is now standing; the other, lying down, measures seven feet square at the base, and sixty-six feet in length. They are so well known, that it is not necessary to give a very particular description of them” (CLARKE).

[413] In confirmation of this, you will find at p. 14 of Seguin’s _Thessalonian Coins_, the impression of a man with a hammer, as above, in one hand, and a key in the other, and the word _Cabeiros_ as the inscription.

[414] On all public occasions displays of this kind are still indulged in the East. The _floralia_ of the Romans were adopted from the Easterns. “Every person, male and female, had _festoons_ depending from the top of the cap down one side of the head. These were composed of the flowers of the _wild rose_ and hawthorn, and other beautiful kinds, which, while they set off the headpiece of the lieges, literally perfumed the air wherever they went” (ARCHER).

[415] _Sketches of India Field Sports._ Dr. Shaw and Mr. Forbes are even more conclusive.

[416] P. 338.

[417] If you examine the Tuath-de-danaan crosses with a minute eye, you will find this exposition irrefutably verified. Though they all have the traces of the Budhist sculpture, they have also the marks of _obliteration_; and no one of them to a greater extent than this at Finglas, where it is known that St. Patrick principally resided. Yet even this retains indistinct evidence of snakes, etc.

“The body of the snake is not only capable of flexion, but of close and intimate application to every rugged inequality of a tree on the earth; and this faculty is the result of its minute subdivisions. The body of the snake is never bent in acute angles, but always in flowing easy curves or circles. From each of those distant bones, so multitudinous in their number, which form the vertebral column (and in one species of Pythra we have counted 256, exclusive of those composing the tail), a rib arises from each side, and both together form a great portion of a circle, so as to embrace nearly the whole circumference of the body. These ribs are restricted to the vertebræ of the body only; they do not arise from those of the tail.”

[418] _Travels in Northern India._

[419] Oliver Cromwell with his army of locusts.

[420] Byron.