Ancient Faiths And Modern Part 15

"As Sakra*, with his thousand eyes gazed over every land, The hapless queen, with heart distraught, he saw dejected stand; His G.o.dlike eye revealed to him that to her blessed womb Two radiant G.o.ds ill.u.s.trious from Heaven's high town should come.

Then entering first the Bodisat's blest skyey palace fair, And next unto another G.o.d's, did Sakra straight repair: Benign he said:--Go to the world of men, that distant scene, And there be born from out the womb of yon delightful queen.

The saying of the king of G.o.ds unto their hearts they took; Then bathed they in his feet's bright rays that shone as s.h.i.+nes a brook: 'Let us be so conceived,' they said, when they the order heard, 'Within the womb of yonder queen, even as the Lord declared.'"

--Stanzas 129-131.

* Indra, "The Supreme."

But the two children do not appear as twins, like Romulus and Remus, for we find in stanza 155--

"Now when the darling little child, the wisdom-gifted one, Began to lift his tiny foot, and learn to walk alone, Another G.o.d from Heaven's high town flashed down the sky serene, And was conceived within the womb of that delightful queen."

I may notice in pa.s.sing, that the lady was married, but had always been barren with her husband.

In the instances to which we have referred above, there has been no very marked departure from the ordinary course of nature. In all, an union between a father and mother has occurred--in all, the relation between each to the offspring has been maintained, and the ordinary progress of gestation observed. The main discrepancies which are to be noticed are, that a divine is subst.i.tuted for a human father, or, as in the case of aeneas, the sire has been a man, and the mother a "celestial." But after birth, instead of the child being cared for by its parents, it very frequently happens that a goat, wolf, or other animal, performs the mother's duty as a nurse. The reader whose antiquarian lore is considerable, will probably remember that Christians in Italy, France, and I dare not say in how many other Catholic countries, were implicit believers in the idea that spirits from the invisible world could a.s.sume a human form, and under that, have intercourse with youths of either s.e.x. The literature upon this subject was at one time very great, but such pains have been taken to destroy it, in order that so great a blot upon the infallibility of Papal rulers should no longer be found, that there are few books to which I can refer inquirers. The first time I met with the subject was in a Latin treatise by Cardan, a.d. 1444-1524,*

being commentaries upon Hippocrates. In this, many chapters are devoted to the possibility of intercourse between women and embodied spirits.

The Mediaeval virgins, unlike the Greeks, always attributed their pregnancy to demons and not to G.o.ds, although on some occasions maidens were foolish enough, like those of ancient Babylon, to believe that they were embraced, by a divine being or angel. Into this matter the Italian doctor enters folly, and endeavours to establish some distinction how a woman could distinguish an "incubus" from a human being, and if she became pregnant and brought forth, how the devil's offspring could be told from an ordinary baby. The particulars which are given to the learned in Latin, will not bear to be reproduced in the vernacular, suffice it to say, that they are such as would be given by silly women more or less conscious of having been guilty of impropriety, and who were goaded by sanctimonious but ribald divines to enter into every detail of the devil's doings and the females' sensations.

* It is more than thirty years since I read the book in question, and I have long ago parted with it. As I am unable now to lay my hands upon a copy I am not sure whether the author was Facio Cardan, who flourished at the period given in the text, or the more celebrated Jerome Cardan who lived A.D. 1601-1576.

Before saying more of the "incubi," we may bestow a pa.s.sing glance upon the foundation of the idea of their existence. In mediaeval times, a large portion of the New Testament was taken to be literally true, and the people were instructed to believe that the devil went about like a roaring lion seeking whom he could devour. The papal priests encouraged the idea, for by frightening the ignorant, they induced them to purchase sacerdotal insurance by paying for ma.s.ses to protect themselves from the snares of Satan. For hierarchs who were obliged to live without wives, it was easy in the first place to imbue the mind of a superst.i.tious maiden with a horror of Apollyon's power, and then to take advantage of her fears by personifying the fiend. In this manner the bible suggested the sin to the priest and made the maiden pa.s.sive.

It would not be profitable to write a catalogue in detail of the authorities upon which I found these statements. I will rather give a short resume of an article upon "Incubi," which is to be found in a most curious book ent.i.tled _Dictionnaire Infernal ou Bibliotheque universelle sur les etres, les personnages, les livres, les faits et les choses qui tiennent aux apparitions, a la magie, au commerce de Venfer, aux divinations, aux sciences secretes,... aux erreurs et aux prejuges,...

generalment a toutes les croyances mer-veilleuses, surprenantes mysterieuses et surnaturelles.--Par M. Colin de Plancy. Deuxieme edition entierement refondue _; Paris, 1826. The book is rare, but most interesting to the philosopher who concerns himself about matters of "faith," for it shows, clearly, that there is no depth of human degradation into which people who are guided by blind trust in some fellow mortal, unchecked by the exercise of reason, will not enter, and there reside permanently, until stirred up by those whom they a.s.sert on the first blush to be "infidels."

After a few preliminary remarks, we are told that the French incubi did not attack virgins, but in the next paragraph is an account of a maiden who was seduced by a demon in the form of her betrothed. This was in Sardinia. An English fiend acted in a similar way, and from the congress followed a frightful disease of which the poor girl died in three days.

This story is told by Thomas Walsingham, b. A.D. 1410. A Scotch la.s.s is the next victim reported, and to her the unclean spirit came nightly under the guise of a fine young man. She became pregnant, and avowed all. The parents then kept watch, and saw the devil near her in a monstrous unhuman form. He would not go away till a priest came, then the incubus made a frightful noise, burned the furniture, and went off upwards, carrying the roof with him. Three days after a queer form was born, more horrible than had ever been seen, so bad indeed, that the midwives strangled it. For the credulous, what fact could be more strongly attested than this? The reporter is Hector Boetius, b. 1470.

The next tale, having a locale in Bonn, occurred at a time when priests married and had a family. The daughter of one who was closely watched and locked up when left by herself, was found out by a demon, who took upon him the form of a fine young man. Such an occurrence was thought nothing uncommon then, inasmuch as Paul had told the Corinthians that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2 Cor. xi. 14). The poor victim became enceinte and confessed the whole to her father, who, fearing the devil, and anxious not to make a scandal, sent the daughter away from home. The impudent fiend came to remonstrate, and killed the wretched sire with a blow of his fist.--Quoted from _Caesarii Heistere mirac_., lib. iii., c. 8. The next case occurs at Schinin, wherein we are told (Hauppius _Biblioth portai, pract._, p. 454) that a woman produced a baby without head or feet, with a mouth in the chest near to the left shoulder, and an ear near the right one; instead of fingers it had webs like frog's feet, it was liver coloured, and shaky as jelly, it cried when the mother wanted to wash it, but somebody stifled and then buried it. The mother, however, wanted it be exhumed and burned, for it was the offspring of a fiend who had counterfeited her husband. The thing was taken up and given to the hangman for cremation, but he could neither burn it nor the rags which enwrapped it until the day after the feast of Ascension.

The following story is laid near Nantes:--Therein a young girl baulked of her lover, mutters something like a modern order to him to go to the foul fiend, and remarks to herself that a demon would be a better friend. She is betrayed in the usual manner, and finds, when too late, that she is embracing a hairy incubus which has a long tail. She exclaims fearfully. The "affreet" blows in her face and leaves her. She is found frightfully disfigured, and is brought to bed seven days after of a black cat. The remaining histories are of a similar nature, all alike showing how completely the so-called Christian people of Modern Europe believed that disembodied spirits could a.s.sume human form with such completeness as to be the father of offspring. We may fairly compare these tales with that told by heathen Greeks about Jupiter and Alcmena, but when we place them side by side, the ancients show a far superior fancy in their fables than do the comparative moderns. I find from _Reville's History of the Devil_, p. 54 (London: Williams & Norgate, 1871), that so late as a.d. 1756, at Landshut, in Bavaria, a young girl of thirteen years of age, was convicted of impure intercourse with the devil, and put to death. It is a pity that no account of the trial is appended.

Talboys Wheeler, in his _History of India_, vol. IL, p. 515, indicates that there is to this day, in India, a belief in _incubi_. Speaking of Paisacha marriages, in which a woman is united to a man without her knowledge or consent, he remarks:--"The origin of the name is somewhat curious. The Paisachas were evil spirits or ghosts (see "_Lilith"

and "Satyr" Ancient Faiths_, vol. ii.) who were supposed to haunt the earth.... If, therefore, a damsel found herself likely to become a mother without her being able to furnish a satisfactory reason for her maternity, she would naturally plead that she had been victimized by a Paisach.... In modern times, however, the belief is still very general throughout the rural districts of India, that wives, as well as maidens, may be occasionally victimized by such ghostly admirers."

Every mythologist who has invented such stories as that of Jupiter and Alcmena, and every woman who has ever attributed her pregnancy to a divine being, call him what she may, seems completely to ignore the idea that a G.o.d who deserves the name, does not require human aid to produce a man or woman. Surely every profound thinker would say to himself, The Supreme, who could by a word create full-grown creatures "in the beginning," has not lost the power now; surely He, who could make Adam out of dust, and Eve out of a bone of man, can produce in later days similar images of the G.o.dhead, as we are told in Genesis i. 26, without accoupling with a descendant of the rib. The mythological idea, therefore, of a divine child coming from a celestial father and a terrestrial mother, has nothing profound therein, for it is essentially a bungling contrivance of some stupid man. On the other hand, such a notion could only be entertained where a grovelling or anthropomorphic idea has prevailed, or is cherished amongst a credulous people. To put the subject into the fewest words possible, a G.o.d has never--so far as thoughtful men can judge--been said to be the father in the flesh of a human being, except by frail women, or vain, foolish, or designing men.

We are fortified in this conclusion by the method in which nations or sects who have each their own favourite "son of G.o.d," treat each other. None endeavour to prove that the mother of their own hero had no commerce with man, for that is impossible--all, on the other hand, ridicule the idea of there being a child without a human father, and insist that no woman's word countervails the laws of nature. But this argument is only used against opposing religionists--it has no weight against their own divine leader. The cases which we have described are wholly different from those mythological stories, in which the union of the s.e.xes is absolutely or relatively ignored. They differ also from those in which the Creator is represented as androgynous, or being originally without s.e.x, becomes, by an effort of will, a bis.e.xual being, so as to bring about the creation of man and of the world. For example, when we find in the Orphic Hymns (Cory's _Ancient Fragments_, pp. 290, seq.), "Zeus is male, Immortal Zeus is female," it is clear that there was in the writer an idea of an union of the s.e.xes being necessary to creation. But when we find Chaos alone being the progenitor of Erebus and Black Night, from which again were born Ether and Bay, and Earth the parent of Heaven and the Sea (Hesiod, Theogony, 116-130), there is a total absence of a s.e.xual notion. This idea, however, appears in the subsequent lines which represent Earth wedding with Heaven. The same s.e.xual notion, appears in another fragment from _Aristophanes_, (Cory, A. R, p. 293), which tells us that "Night with the black wings first produced an aerial egg, which in its time gave rise to love, whence sprung all creation." Yet the egg necessarily presupposes a being which formed it, and another that fructified it, so that the mythos is not wholly free from the intermixture of the s.e.xual element.

When mythologists have been peculiarly anxious to shake off the somewhat grotesque doctrine that the celestial Creator must be independent of any other power, in the genesis of the world and heaven, there has been a great variety of attempts to show how this has been brought about. In one curious Hindoo legend, Vishnu is represented sleeping on the bosom of Devi, at the bottom of the ocean which covered the world. Suddenly a lotus sprung from his navel, and grew till it reached the surface of the flood. From this wonderful flower Brahma sprang, and, seeing nothing but water, imagined himself the first-born of all creatures. But ere he felt sure, he descended the stalk and found Vishnu at its root; and then the two contested their respective claims, but Mahadeva interposed, and, by a curious contrivance, stopped the quarrel, demonstrating that before either came into existence there reigned an everlasting lingam.

Another myth closely resembles one which is indicated in the Hebrew Scriptures, viz., that Narayana, or the spirit of G.o.d, a self-existent ent.i.ty, moved over the waters, and made them bring forth all things living. This Narayana is identical with the _yomer elohim_--"the spirit of G.o.d" of the Hebrew Genesis i. 2; the [--Greek--]--the spirit of G.o.d, or Holy Ghost of the Greeks. It is the same as the breezes of thick air which hovered over chaos in the legend a.s.signed to Sanchoniathon (Cory's Fragments, p. 1), and produced the slimy matter from which all beings sprung. Narayana is again the same as the Night of the Orphic fragment which hovered with her black wings over immensity--the same as the _chakemah_, or "wisdom" of Proverbs viii.; the Greek _sophia_ and the _logos_--"the word" of John i. 1. The Buddha--or Brahma of the Hindoo.

From this mysterious source matter was formed into shape and all creatures sprang into life.

Another Indian mythos (Moor's _Hindoo Pantheon_, p. 78), attributes even more than this to Brahma. He is said to have produced four beings who proved refractory, and grieved their maker. To comfort him, Siva issued from a fold in his forehead--then strengthened by Siva, he produced Bhrigu and the seven Ris.h.i.+s, and after that, Narada, from his thigh, Kardama from his shadow, and Dacsha from the forefinger of his right hand. He had, apparently, without a consort, sixty daughters, and from these last proceeded all things divine, human, animal, vegetable, and mineral.

This is not altogether dissimilar from the Hebrew idea of Jehovah creating all things except woman from the dust,* and forming her mysteriously from a rib of the only existing man. We may also compare it with the birth of Minerva from Jupiter's brain, and Bacchus from his thigh. But the Greek myth differs from the Hindoo, inasmuch as the deities referred to were originally conceived by human women, and did not grow from The Thunderer's body like branches from a tree.

* In Mythology, things ever repeat themselves, with very little alteration. For example, Mahadeva is represented as fighting with Dacsha, and producing heroes from the dost by striking the ground with his hair. (See Moor's H. P., p.

107).

There is amongst the Hindoos a G.o.ddess called Prit'hvi, who is said to personify the Earth; she had many names which we need not describe, and she was also furnished with a consort, whose birth is thus described (Moor, H. P., p. 111.)--"Vena being an impious and tyrannical prince, was cursed by the Brahmans, and, in consequence, died without issue. To remedy this, his left arm was opened, and churned with a stick till it produced a son, who, proving as wicked as his father, was set aside; and the right arm* was in like manner churned, which also produced a boy, who proved to be a form of Vishnu, under the name of Prit'hu." We may add that Prit'hvi treated him badly, and he had to beat and tear her before she would be comfortable with him. Hence the necessity for ploughing and digging before crops of cereals, &c., will abound. We can understand the last part of the legend better than the first. In the Vedic Mythology, we may say generally, that the means of producing offspring are curiously numerous; for example, we find in Goldstucker's _Sanscrit and English Dictionary_, page 20, under the word _angiras_--a statement that an individual bearing this cognomen, is named in the Vaidik legends, as one of the 'Praj.a.patis', or progenitors of mankind, engendered, according to some, by Manu; according to others, by Brahma himself, either with the female half of his body, _or from his mouth, or from the s.p.a.ce "between his eyebrows._"

* As these legends generally are based upon something which Europeans would designate a vile pun, I turned to the Sanscrit Lexicon (Monier Williams), first to ascertain the names of "the arm;" and, secondly, if there were any words allied to it, however remotely, which had a certain meaning.

Amongst others, I find that _buja_ signifies "an arm," and _bhaga_ is a name of Siva--one of whose epithets, _bhagan- dara_ = "rending the v.u.l.v.a." _Dosha_ also means "the arm"

and "night." Another word having the same meaning, is _praveshta_, and this not only signifies the arm, but one "who covers over." We can then, I think, see why the device of the churning, referred to in the text, made a process available for the production of a child. The legend is a clumsy one, but not more so than that in Exodus x.x.xiii. 23, wherein we are told that Jehovah showed to Moses "His back parts,"--Vulgate, _posteriora mea_--inasmuch as no one could see His face and live!

A still more curious story is related in the same dictionary, p. 451, under the word _ayonijeswara_. This appellative is one belonging to a sacred place of pilgrimage sacred to _Ayonija_, whose miraculous birth was thus brought about. A very learned Muni, though making a commendable use of the proper nasal way of reading sacred scripture in his own person, yet a.s.sociated with individuals who did not give the orthodox tw.a.n.g.* The good man remained, in consequence of this, in a sonless condition, but the legend does not condescend to explain why toleration of tones in religious ceremony should make a husband infertile and his wife barren. At any rate, the Muni, named Vidyananda, feeling the punishment a great one, travelled, apparently alone, from one holy place to another without being nearer paternity. At length he met with a _yogin_ or male anch.o.r.et, hermit, devotee, or saint, corresponding to the _yoginis_, who are represented by Moor (H. P., p. 235) as being sometimes very lovely and alluring; and he, taking pity upon the Muni, gave him a wonderful fruit, which, he informed him, if eaten by his wife, would have the effect of procuring for Vidyananda the birth of a son. But the Muni, like many another character in mythological and fairy tales, seems suddenly to have lost his sense of hope deferred and a certain prospect of relief, for instead of hurrying home he sought repose under a tree on a river's brink, and whilst there ate the fruit himself. He at once became pregnant. When the new state of things was evident, he confessed all that had happened to the Yogin, and the latter, by means of his supernatural power, introduced a stick into the body of Yidyananda, and relieved him of the infant. The creature was a beautiful boy, radiant like the disc of the sun, and endowed with divine l.u.s.tre, and on account of the mode in which he was born his father called him _Ayonija_, which signifies, "not born from the womb." The account then goes on to state that this miraculous infant became a wonderfully good, learned, pious, religious, and fanatic man; that the G.o.d, delighted with his piety, gave him sons and grandsons, and after his death received him into his heaven. Any persons coming now to bake at the spot where these favours from Siva were granted, and duly performing the various duties of a pious pilgrim, are rewarded, according to their piety, &c., with progeny, worldly happiness, freedom from transmigration, and eternal bliss.

* This reminds me of an anecdote which I once read of a devout Scotch mother, who, on hearing her son read the Bible in an ordinary tone of voice, cuffed him violently because he presumed to read that Holy Book without the customary religious drawl.

Under the word _Ayonija_, Goldstucker gives the following examples of individuals "not born from the _yoni_" viz.:--"_Drona_, the son of Bharadwaja, who was born in a bucket" "_Suyya_, whose origin was unknown." "_Draupadi_, who at a sacrifice of her father Drupada, arose out of the sacrificial ground." "_Sita_, who sprang into existence in the same manner as Draupadi" The same is also an epithet of Vishnu or Krishna.

These stories pale in interest before that of the origin of Carticeya (see Moor's H. P., p. 51, 89), and I give an account of this legend, foolish though many conceive it to be, for everything which is connected with a Hindoo mythos is remarkable, whenever it is found to be antecedently parallel with Christian surroundings of a somewhat similar narrative. We notice, for example, in the following tale, that the Indian idea of the power of "penance" and "asceticism," is, that these doings or actions are so great, that by their means alone man may compel the Creator to do things against His design, whilst in the Papal tales of certain monks and nuns, we find the doctrine a.s.serted that by preeminent fastings, scourgings and prayers, people have acquired the power to sell salvation to their fellow men, in a manner different to that which is appointed. Again, the G.o.d when forced to obey the power of the devotee, is represented as inventing a method by which he could, as it were, cheat himself, just as Jehovah or Elohim is said to have contrived a plan by which He could circ.u.mvent Himself for the vow which He had made to destroy all the men upon the earth by a flood of water.

Again, as the arrogance of the ascetic threatened to destroy the world and the heaven, a deliverer or a saviour was promised, who should be begotten by an incarnate G.o.d upon a G.o.ddess equally incarnate, and save mankind from a terrible devil This is a counterpart of the Papal theory, which makes it appear that a portion of the G.o.dhead became incorporated with a dove, and had union with a woman, herself an immaculate manifestation of another portion of "The Supreme." Yet still more striking than this, is the part which the dove plays in the Indian mythos of the birth of the Hindoo Saviour. In almost every mediaeval painting or etching of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, the dove takes the position of the divine father of Jesus. Nay, so distinct is the idea intended to be conveyed in one instance, that a dove, surrounded by a galaxy of angelic heads, darts a ray from his body on high, into the very part of the virgin, proper to receive it. The design of the artist is still farther heightened by the _vesica piscis_, the emblem of woman being marked upon the appropriate part of the dress, and a figure of an infant within it, points unmistakeably to the belief that the Holy Ghost, like a dove, absolutely begot the Jewish saviour as he did the Hindoo deliverer of G.o.ds and men. (_See Ancient Faiths_, vol IL, p. 648, fig. 48).

But the parallel may even be carried farther, for in the Indian history it is Agni, the embodiment of fire or the fire or sun G.o.d, who becomes the dove; whilst in the Christian history, fire is one of the manifestations of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 3). We conclude this from the fact, that all devout churchmen believe that the Holy Ghost descended upon the day of Pentecost with the sound of a rus.h.i.+ng mighty wind, as a mult.i.tude of cloven fiery tongues, which again suggests to the recollection of those familiar with the Vedic story, that the Maruts--rus.h.i.+ng, mighty, stormy winds--were frequent attendants upon Agni For example, in one of the Hymns (p. 39) of the Rig Veda Sanhita (translated by Max Muller), the burden or chorus of every verse is, "with the Maruts come hither, O Agni." Here, however, the parallel between the two myths ceases, for in the Indian tale the saviour has no earthly mother. We may really affirm that he has no mother at all, being the offspring of the father alone, whilst in the Christian history, the deliverer is represented as having no human sire. The one story is just as likely to be true as the other, or just as unlikely. As a reasonable being I cannot believe the one without crediting the other, or reject only one of the two.

With this preface, we may proceed to relate the legend as recorded by Moor. A certain devil or Daitya--for it must be remarked that the Hindoos regard the devil as being composed of many individualities, much in the same way as Christians do--was extremely ambitious and oppressive, as Satan is said to have been in heaven.* To force Brahma to promise him any boon he should require, the ascetic went through the following penances, persisting in each for a hundred years. (1) He stood on one foot, holding the other, and both hands upwards, and fixed his eyes on the sun. (2) He stood on one great toe. (3) He lived upon water alone. (4) He lived on air. (5) He immersed himself in water. (6) He buried himself in the earth, and yet continued as before in incessant adoration. (7) He then did the same in fire. (8) Then he stood upon his head with his feet upwards. (9) He then stood upon one hand. (10) He hung by his hands from a tree. (11) He hung on a tree with his head downwards.

* I call attention to these parallels, for they compel as either to accept the Hindoo stories as true, because they coincide with that which Christians regard as "revealed truth," or they oblige as to distrust our current ideas as to the inspired verity of some biblical stories, founded as they are upon the same, or a similar, basis to those of the Brahmins. The Hindoo tale being founded in the Sinpurana, there can be no reasonable doubt that its fabrication preceded that of the Hebrew or Christian mythos.

The effect of these austerities alarmed all the G.o.ds, and they went to Brahma for consolation. He answered that though he was bound to grant the boon desired by a man who became powerful by his austerities, he would devise a method of rendering it inoffensive to the heavenly host.

Tarika, the name borne by the Daitya, asked for the gift of unrivalled strength, and that no hand should slay him except a son of Mahadeva.

This being acquired, he plundered all the minor G.o.ds--the sun, dreading him, gave no heat; and the moon, in terror, remained always at the full--in short, the devil, Tarika, usurped the entire management of the universe. Nareda--the personification of Reason--Wisdom, the Logos, or "word," now prophesied that the destined deliverer, or saviour of the world, would come from the union of Mahadeva and Parvati. But the first was indisposed to marry, and only consented to do so after being mollified by ardent devotions and great austerities enacted by the second. To the horror, however, of the discomfited world, Parvati was barren; and the G.o.ds deputed Agni to try to produce the son whom all so earnestly desired. He took the form of "a dove," and arrived in the presence of Mahadeva just as he had risen from the arms of Parvati, and received from him, in a manner not easy or necessary to describe minutely, the germ of Carticeya; but, unable to retain it, the bird let it fall from his bill into the Ganges. On the banks of this river arose, therefrom, a boy, beautiful as the moon, and bright as the sun. This was "The Saviour" promised by the prophet. When he attained to manhood, he fought the devil in a terrific combat which lasted ten whole days; but Carticeya came off the conqueror, and delivered the world. I may notice in pa.s.sing that as Carticeya is represented to be the son of his father, Mahadeva alone--so Ganesa, who was born after the marriage above referred to, is said to be solely the son of his mother, Parvati; Mahadeva not having anything to do with him. It is still farther stated in the _Sin purana_ that the husband was jealous, and displeased at this a.s.sumption of independent power by his spouse, punished her in the person of this mysterious son (Moor, H. P., page 171-2).

There is another Hindoo story in which a father alone becomes the progenitor of twins--and it is remarkable, not only for this, but for the dread which a deity is said to feel from the austerities of a man.

Wheeler (_History of India_, vol. i, p. 78; Williams' _Sanscrit Lexicon, s. v. Kripa_), regards this tale as Brahmanical, and, accepting his authority, we can see that the asceticism which is introduced into the story is intended to exalt the claims of that section of the priesthood who torture themselves. It runs thus:--Saradvat, by the magnitude of his penances, frightened Indra, who sent a celestial nymph to tempt him.

He resisted all her wiles, and refused all commerce with her; but his excited imagination produced one of its common effects, and from that which was "spilled upon the ground" a boy and girl arose, Drona and Kripa. In Wheeler's sketch of the story, two such miraculous events occur, for a precisely similar occurrence took place with a certain Raja--and the males sprung from this supernatural form of generation, Drona and Drupada, became cronies, and were educated together. In Wheeler's account Kripa becomes the wife of Drona, and not his twin sister. She is represented to have been born from a Brahmin named Gautama, in the same fas.h.i.+on as Drona was. Certes, the scribes who wrote the gospels, and doubled wonders to make them more miraculous, are far behind the Hindoos in the unblus.h.i.+ng effrontery of their conceptions.

A story somewhat a.n.a.logous to that of the origin of Carticeya--Drona and Drupada, is to be found in Grecian mythology. Therein we read (see Lempriere's _Cla.s.sical Dictionary, 8.V_., Minerva), that Jupiter promised to his daughter, Minerva, that she should never be married--since that was her especial desire. But, unfortunately, the Thunderer had not a good memory, and was unable to foresee the future; he therefore promised to Vulcan that he would--in return for a perfect suit of armour--give him whatsoever boon he asked. The distorted G.o.d, being a great admirer of the personification of wisdom, demanded Minerva in marriage. Zeus then granted his pet.i.tion and gave Minerva to him for a bride, so that "arts and arms" should thenceforth be wedded together.

But the G.o.ddess disliked Vulcan, just as much as science and philosophy shun war and physical weapons. Jupiter then privately counselled his daughter to submit, apparently, but to contend, actually, whenever her husband should endeavour to caress her. This advice the G.o.ddess very artfully and determinately carried out. But Vulcan's impetuosity was extreme, and the contest between the spouses was prolonged. Though the promised wife was in the end victorious, and retained her virginity, the scene of the strife, like many another battle-field, required cleansing.

The material employed by the G.o.ddess in the process was thrown down to earth, and from this stuff sprung Ericthonius, as the son of Vulcan alone, who, on attaining man's estate, became the fourth king of Athens.

A somewhat similar story is told of Jupiter (Arn.o.bius, _adv. Gentes_, B.

v.), who is represented as enamoured of Themis, who, when lying on the rock Agdus, in Phrygia, and there surprised by the G.o.d, resisted his desires, as Minerva had done those of Vulcan, and with a somewhat similar result. But in this instance, that which the author calls in another pa.s.sage of his work, the _vis Lucilii_, fell upon the hard rock.

This conceived, and, after ten months, the stony soil brought forth a son, called, from his maternal parent, Agdistis. His character, and even his appearance, were frightful and rugged in the extreme. His strength, recklessness, and audacity frightened all the G.o.ds. In their dilemma, Bacchus offered to give his aid, and proceeded first to make the man drunk by subst.i.tuting wine for the water of the fountain from which he habitually drank. Then, by a curious contrivance, he made the fierce hunter emasculate himself. The earth swallows up the sanguinary ruins of his manhood, and in their place comes up a pomegranate tree in full bearing. This being seen by Nana, a king's daughter, she plucks some of the fruit, and lays it in her bosom. By this she becomes pregnant, and, her story being disbelieved, her father attempts to starve her. But the mother of the G.o.ds sustains her with apples (see Canticles ii. 5), and berries, or other food. Her baby, when born, is exposed as being illegitimate, but found by a goatherd and brought up--becoming the all but deified Atys.

In this legend, we see one son born without a human mother, and a second without any other father than Rimmon, or a pomegranate.*

* Agdus, Agdistis, &c--I am frequently tempted, after reading a story like the preceding, to search in the Sanscrit lexicon to ascertain if there can be any esoteric signification in the legend that can be explained by that ancient language. Arn.o.bius opens the story with a statement of the remote antiquity of the tale, and how it is connected with the Great Mother. He then tells of a wild district in Phrygia, called Agdus. Stoaes taken from it, as Themis had enjoined, were used by Deucalion and Pyrrha to repeople the world which had been destroyed by a flood. The great mother was fas.h.i.+oned amongst the rest, and animated by the deity; then follows the story given in the text. Now, in the Sanscrit, Agadha signifies a "hole or chasm," and such things have from the earliest times typified the Celestial Mother. Agdistis I take to be a Greek form of Agasti--son both of Mitra and Varuna by Urvasi, said to have been born in a water-jar, to have swallowed the ocean, and compelled the Vindhya mountains to prostrate themselves before him, &c. (Monier Williams' Sanskrit English Lexicon, pp. 4, 6).

Themis may be a corruption of Dhamas--the moon, an epithet of Vishnu, Yama, and Brahma; also the Supreme Spirit (M. W.

op. cit., p. 448). Deucalion seems readily to be resolved into the dyu or div--holy, and Kalam, s.e.m.e.n virile (M. W., p. 211). Pyrrha may apparently be derived from bdra--an opening or aperture (M. W.); also bhdra--bearing, carrying, cheris.h.i.+ng, supporting (M. W., p. 700). Atys, described as of surpa.s.sing beauty, may fairly be a.s.sociated with atisi and atisaya--to surpa.s.s, excel, exceed; and pre-eminence, superiority (M. W., op. cit., p. 15). Liber, again, who is clever enough to outwit and conquer Agdistis, may, without too strong a stretch of imagination, come from Idbha-- obtaining, gaining, getting; capture, conquest; the rootword is labh--to seize, to take hold of, gain, recover, regain, fcc. (M. W., p. 861, 2). Nana, the mother of Atys the beautiful, has probably come from nanda--happiness, pleasure, joy, felicity, delight (M. W., op. cit. p. 467).

In the previous volumes I have referred to the pomegranate-- Hebrew, Rimmon--as an emblem. In the legend which makes Nana conceive by eating this fruit, there are, I fancy, two ideas--one, that the pomegranate is filled with seeds and pulp of a red colour; the other, that in the Greek its name is rota, or roa, which has a close resemblance in sound with reo--to flow or gush. Of the word Midas--the name of him who sought to bring about the union of the opposite s.e.xes by marrying his daughter Nana to Attis or Atys, the most appropriate etymon which I can find in the Sanscrit is in the root math, which signifies to strike fire by rubbing wood together, to churn or produce by churning.

If we allow that there is truth in these derivations, we can then see how completely Arn.o.bius has been deceived by taking the legend au pied de la lettre. He sees nothing but the exoteric side of the fable; the more instructed philosopher sees in it nothing beyond an attempt to weave a story to account for ordinary men and women existing. The Earth, from her deep womb produces stones which become male and female (compare Psalm cxxzix. 15--"When I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." But mycologists were not always content with giving precedence in creation to the "Great Mother," consequently the "Father of all" comes upon the scene from no one knows where.

Refusing to share with him her supremacy, he, like the Hindoo Mahadeva, becomes a father in spite of her. Like his parent, the son becomes raging mad, like an elephant or a horse in spring. He is tamed by castration, but the parts he loses still bear a fructifying power, and once more, a maiden--type of the celestial virgin, has offspring.