Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 91

"Every orthodox Hindu is perfectly persuaded that the dirtiest water, if taken from a _sacred stream_ and applied to his body, either externally or internally, _will purify his soul_." (Prof. Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 157.) The Egyptians bathed in the water of the Nile; the Chaldeans and Persians in the Euphrates, and the Hindus, at we have seen, in the Ganges, all of which were considered as "sacred waters" by the different nations. The Jews looked upon the Jordan in the same manner.

Herodotus, speaking of the Persians' manners, says:

"They (the Persians) neither make water, nor spit, nor wash their hands in a river, nor defile the stream with urine, nor do they allow any one else to do so, but they pay extreme veneration to all rivers." (Hist.

lib. i. ch. 138.)

[318:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 176.

[318:4] Hist. Manichee, lib. ix. ch. vi. sect. xvi. in Anac., vol. ii.

p. 65. See also, Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 249, and Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.

[318:5] "Pro infantibus non utuntur circ.u.mcisione, sed tantum baptismo seu lotione ad animae purificationem internam. Infantem ad sacerdotem in ecclesiam adductum sistunt coram sole et igne, qua facta ceremonia, eundem sanctiorem existimant. D. Lord dicit quod aquam ad hoc afferunt in cortice arboris Holm: ea autem arbor revers est Haum Magorum, cujus mentionem alia occasione supra fecimus. Alias, aliquando fit immergendo in magnum vas aquae, ut dicit Tavernier. Post talem lotionem seu baptismum, sacerdos imponit nomen a parentibus inditum." (Hyde de Rel.

Vet. Pers., p. 414.) After this Hyde goes on to say, that when he comes to be fifteen years of age he is confirmed by receiving the girdle, and the sudra or ca.s.sock.

[319:1] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. xxv. Higgins: _Anac._, vol.

i pp. 218 and 222. Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 189. King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 51.

[319:2] De Praescrip. ch. xi.

[319:3] Ibid.

[319:4] "Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos."

[319:5] "Semper enim cruci baptismus jungitur." (Aug. Temp. Ser. ci.)

[319:6] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Monumental Christianity, p.

385.

[319:7] "Sacerdos, stipatum me religiosa cohorte, deducit ad proximas balucas; et prius sueto lavraco traditum, prfatus deum veniam, purissime circ.u.mrorans abluit." (Apuleius: Milesi, ii. citat. a Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. p. 69.)

[320:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416. Dunlap: Mysteries Adoni, p.

139.

[320:2] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.

[320:3] See Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. pp. 67-69.

[320:4] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 38. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.

65.

[320:5] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 41.

[320:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 121, Gainsburgh's Essenes, and Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 66, 67.

[321:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.

[321:2] "_Holy Water_"--water wherein the person is baptized, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Church of England Catechism.)

[321:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 333, 334, and Higgins' Anacalypsis, ii. p. 65.

[321:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 80 and 232, and Baring-Gould's Orig.

Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.

"De-la-vint, que pour devenir capable d'entendre les secrets de la creation, reveles dans ces memes mysteres, il fallut se faire _regenerer_ par _l'initiation_. Cette ceremonie, par laquelle, _on apprenoit les vrais principes de la vie_, s'operoit par le moyen de _l'eau_ qui voit ete celui de la _regeneration_ du monde. On conduisoit sur les bords de l'Ilissus le candidat qui devoit etre initie; apres l'avoir purifie avec le sel et l'eau de la mer, on repandoit de l'orge sur lui, on le couronnoit de fleurs, et _l'Hydranos_ ou le _Baptisseur_ le plongeoit dans le fleuve." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.

Anac., ii. p. 65.)

[321:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 232.

[322:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 306, 313, 320, 366.

Baring-Gould's Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. pp. 392, 393, and Dupuis, p.

242.

[322:2] Mallet: Northern Antiquities, p. 206.

[322:3] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 393. Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. p. 67, and Davies: Myths of the British Druids.

[322:4] Sir George Grey: Polynesian Mytho., p. 32, in Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.

[322:5] See Viscount Amberly's a.n.a.lysis Relig. Belief, p. 59.

[322:6] Vol. i. p. 64.

[323:1] Monumental Christianity, pp. 389, 390.

[323:2] Kingsborough: Mex. Antiq., vol. vi. p. 114.

[323:3] Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 369.

[323:4] Ibid. p. 361.

[323:5] Ibid. p. 369.

[323:6] Monumental Christianity, p. 390.

[323:7] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416.

[325:1] That man is born in _original sin_ seems to have been the belief of all nations of antiquity, especially the Hindus. This sense of original corruption is expressed in the following prayer, used by them:

"I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, _I am conceived in sin_. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri, the remover of Sin." (Williams'

Hinduism, p. 214.)

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

THE WORs.h.i.+P OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER.