Vestiges of the spirit-history of man

Front matter

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I

m

a

Preface

The basis of the world is power. It lives in us and in every tiling. From the beginning it came forth from God, and was uttered in the philosophies of great teachers and prophets of the ancient world. God has not placed it here to remain inactive : it strives, creates, institutes. So long as the world is filled with it so long will its efforts continue, for power expresses the will of God. This work proceeds upon the conviction that there has been a gradual rise of systems, one cultus growing out of another. Thought grows like a plant. New fruits become the bases of further developments. The present perpetually evolves new power.

The first three chapters of this book are a kind of general introduction to the main body of the work. The third chapter has been extended by additional matter, in order to afford a broader basis for the subsequent chapters to rest upon. The authorities are given at the bottom of the page, and notes are added: particular notes to certain pages will be found in the Appendix of Notes and some remarks (p. 387) in reference to reading Hebrew without the vowel-points. These are not to be used in reading Hebrew proper names in this work. Corrections and additions will be found in the Errata.

iv

PREFACE.

The author most prominently referred to in this treatise is Movers, Phonizier, Yol. I. Movers is authority among scholars : his work bears the highest reputation. Reference has also been made to Roth, Lassen, Weber, and other prominent Sanskrit scholars ; Rawlinson, Spiegel, Haug, students of the Old-Persian ; SeyfFarth, Lepsius, and Uhlemann, on Egyptian antiquities ; Pauthier on the Chinese ; Duncker on the Persians, Hindus, &c. ; Adolf Wuttke on the Chinese and Hindus : on the American races, to J. G. Miiller, Yon Tschudi, Schoolcraft, Squier, Stevens, Gallatin, Prescott, Larenaudiere, Lord Kingsborough, La Croix, Adair, the Dacotah Grammar, " Mounds of the Mississippi Yalley," &c. : on the Polynesians, to Hale, Ellis, and, on linguistik, to a number of recent and earlier European publications, besides the works of Grimm, Bunsen, Lepsius, Bopp, and many other Sanskrit, Old-Persian and other Oriental authorities. The author has used Tischendorff 's as well as Lachmann's edition of the New Testament in Greek, a translation of Griesbach, Sebastian Schmid's Hebrew and Latin Bible, Leipsic, 1740, also Cahen's Hebrew Bible, De Wette's Yersion and the Septuagint, ed. Tischendorff.

In compiling the brief account of Buddhist doctrines in the last two chapters, the following works have been used : Duncker's Geschichte des Alterthums ; Wuttke, Geschichte des Heidenthums, Yol. 2 ; Burnouf, Intr. to Bouddhisme ; Neve, sur le Bouddhisme ; Weber, Akad. Yorlesungen ; Weber, Ind. Skizzen ; Prof. Salisbury's article in the Journ. of the Am. Oriental Soc. Yol. I. ; Spence Hardy's Eastern Monachism, also his Manual of Buddhism, and other authorities: the reader can also examine the

PREFACE.

V

Lotus de la bonne loi, by Burnouf, and Koeppen's Religion des Buddha.

The language of an author has generally been closely followed without putting the extract in quotation marks : these however are frequently employed. As this work is a collection of studies (Studien), frequent use has been made of parentheses to insert explanations, collateral ideas, or suggestions of any kind, and words in the original or in . the German translation. J. G. Miiller is quoted as J. Miiller, D. M. G. is an abbreviation for Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft and R. A. S. for Royal Asiatic Society. Seyffarth's Berichtigungen &c. is quoted as Computationssystem. The word Dios, Dins, Deus, has been used both in the genitive and nominative cases for " God." In Greek it is the genitive case of Zeusi As Oriental names are sometimes spelled differently in different authors, no attempt has been made to establish a uniformity in this respect, but the words have frequently been taken as the author found them, even where a more elegant usage has since sprung up.

Use is made of names, which, having been handed down from remote ages, stand in the place of inscriptions and records ; for if there was a name, there must have been a thing named. They are evidences of ideas, persons or things that once existed ; and where they happen to be compound words, several ideas are often recorded in a single name. The terminations as, es, is, os, us, i, ya, &c, usually form no part of the proper word or root, but are merely case-endings, &c. In this volume the proper names are divided by hyphens in many cases, to show that they are composed of shorter words. The termination syllable is vi

PREFACE.

occasionally separated by a hyphen from the root of a • word. Sometimes the letters forming the original root have been printed in small capitals, and those letters that have been added by a later nsage left in ordinary type. Occasionally the article (iZ=IIa) prefixed to a Hebrew word is printed with a capital letter italicised, to divide the article from the word proper. The references to Sanchoniathon are taken from Ensebins, Praeparationis Evangelicae, Liber L, cap. Phoenicum, Paris, mdcxxviii.

The aim of the author has been to state verified facts with as few of his own inferences as possible. The order of arrangement follows the march of thought from the first conceptions and untaught speculations of the religious sentiment, passing rapidly through the classic period of ancient philosophy and religion to the field of modern controversy.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — Spirits 1

II.— Great Gods 24

Chapter 1. Spikits

From the earliest times, among all nations, man lias sought to recognize his God ; to define that inscrutable Providence which rules the world. Like the successive changes of the forests, the infinite variety of the harvests, the differing notes of the birds, the opposite languages of men, the varied fragrance of the flowers, such is the contrast of religions belief which man's spirit brings, as its first fruits, to its Creator.

From Constantinople to the shores of India, China, and Japan, four great world-religions meet in conflict. Each asserts its claims to be regarded as the civilized and saving religion of mankind. Brahmanism has an antiquity of more than three thousand years, Buddhism of twenty-three hundred, the Christian religion of eighteen centuries, the Mahometan of twelve. The number of Christians is perhaps two hundred and fifty millions ; that of the Mahometans, Brahmans, and Buddhists united, may be set down as not far from eight hundred millions. This enormous mass of human beings, whom we call pagans, are adherents of systems which are founded on the religious convictions of many

l

SPIRIT-HISTORY OF MAM".

centuries, and are improvements upon former modes of worship that have long since passed away. The Christian religion holds possession of Europe and America ; the Mahometan, of Xorth Africa, Turkey, Lesser Asia, Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, and even Northern India; the Brahman holds Hindustan, and some isles ; Buddhism predominates in Ceylon, Thibet, the countries north-east of the Ganges, the Birman Empire, Siam, China, Japan, and the Indian Archipelago ; also in Russian and Chinese Tartary.

Man has his worth — his mission. To properly estimate our own, we must consider it in its relation to that of all other men ; not only those who at this day cover the surface of the globe, but those who have preceded us and contributed in action, thought and sentiment, to form the present.

Nature, to man in the most primitive state, is all alive ; she is a congregation of distinct existences,, each moved by the soul or spirit that dwells in it.1 There is no harmony, no unity. All is separate, independent life. Hence, almost every object is a subject of suspicion to the savage. He is environed by agencies visible and invisible. Legions of spirits are seen in the woods, the flowers, the fruits, the grass, the mountains, the seas, the lakes, the rivers, the brooks, the fountains, the waterfalls, the birds, and the stars. Trees have their protecting spirits ; the animals have tkeir spirits, and are themselves divine spirits.2 Songs were sung and fasts celebrated in honor of the guardian deities cf the bears in Canada.3 Every appearance is the work of a spirit. If thunder is heard, the mighty god of the thunder is adored. The snow, the frost, the hail, and the stormwinds, have each their especial divinities, which lie con-

1 "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein is a living soul.'' — 1 Gen. 30.

"Like man, all nature separates into body and spirit." — 2 Duncker, 66; Castren, Vorl. iiber Finnische Mythologie, 59, 163.

s J. Miiller, Am. Urreligionen, 75, 91.

SPIRITS.

cealed in the material substances to which they belong, like the soul in the human body. Spiritual existences inhabit almost every thing, and consequently almost every thing is an object of worship. Gods are seen "in the mist of the mountain, the rocky defile, the foaming cataract, the lonely dell, the shooting star, the tempest's blast, the evening breeze.'' 1 The Dacotah has " his god of the north, his god of the south, his god of the woods, and god of the prairies ; his god of the air and god of the waters." 2 The savage has his war-god, his fire-god, and his sun-god. The child of Nature reveres the lovely morning-red and the zephyrs that attend the path of the sun ; 3 he adores the "great star" Venus4 and other planets, the clouds, or the shining nymphs of the waters above,5 and locates souls of the distinguished dead, as deified spirits, in the regions of the air, or among the countless host in the starry heavens. The Milky Way is the " path of souls leading to the spiritland," or the stars are their lights seen in heaven.6 The soul, an airy form, is borne on the wings of the wind, following the sun in its course to the heaven in the west.7 The Northern Lights are the dances of dead warriors and seers in the realms above.8 The Iroquois and Algonquin tribes call the souls " shades " (otahchuk), like the Greeks and Romans.9 The sunbeams are themselves the pious souls in the old Yedic ideas.10

1 Ellis. Polynesian Res., vol. i. 331. 2 Introd. to the Dacotah Grammar. s Rinek, i. 50. 4 J. Muller, 53, 220; Squier, Serpent Symbol, 123.

6 Weber Yorlesungen iiber Ind. Literaturgesch. 31 ; Ind. Studien, ii. 301 ; Wuttke Gesch. des Heidenthums, ii. 248.

6 J. Muller, 54; quotes Wied, ii. 152 ; Lafiteau, i. 406 ; Squier, Serp. Symb. 70, quotes Wied, 360 ; Weber, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland. Gesell. vol. ix. 238 ; quotes Rigveda, vi. 5, 4, 8.

7 Weber, Vorles. iiher Ind. Literaturgesch. 31 ; Weber, A Legend of the Catapatha Brahmana, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland. Gesell. vol. ix., 238, note.

8 J. Muller, 54. The Dacotahs call the Aurora Borealis " Old Woman." She is the goddess of war. — Schoolcraft, part hi. 487.

9 J. Muller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, 67.

10 Rigv. i. 9, 3, 10, in Zeitsch. d. D. M. G. ix. 248, note.

SPIRIT-HISTORY OF MAN.

"And now Cyllenian Hermes summoned forth The spirits of the suitors ; The sun's gate, also, and the land of dreams They passed, whence next into the meads they came Of Asphodel, by shadowy forms possessed, Simulars of the dead." — Cowper's Iliad, Book 24.

The American aborigines believed falling stars to be divine beings.1 The Greeks worshipped the stars in common with the most ancient nations.2 The Zendavesta says, "I invoke and praise the stars, heavenly people of excel- *» lency."3 The stars in Charles's Wain were believed by some of the New England Indians to be men hunting a bear. The Seven Stars were seven dancing Indians.4 Stars, in the Arya-Hindu belief, were considered abodes of the gods, or visible forms of pions persons after death.5 The Californians believe the sun, moon, morning and evening stars, to be men and women, who every evening leap into the sea, and reappear in the morning on the other side of the earth.6 Agni, in India, is thought to rise in the morning in the shape of the sun out of the ocean.7 The Mexicans adored Tlavizpantecutli, the god of the dawn and of the twilight. It was' the first light which appeared in the world. The Peruvians worshipped Yenus by the name of Chasca, "the youth with the long and curling locks," the page of the sun whom he attends so closely in his rising and his setting. The Romans adored Aurora ; the Greeks, Eos ; the Dorians, Auos ; the Old Prussians, Aussra ; the Persians, Ushasina; and theVedic Hindus, Aushasa (Ushas), impersonations of the rosy-fingered morn. Among our Indians, the Rainbow is a spirit, who accompanies the sun. He is worshipped by the Peruvians as a direct emanation from the sun. Among the Greeks, she is Iris the Messenger. The

2 Eschenburg, Manual 465 ; Rinck, Religion der Hellenen, i. 38.

3 Kleuker's Zendav. 83. 4 Squier, Serp. Symbol, 11.

6 Wilson's Rigv. Veda, i. 132. 6 J. Muller, 53. 7 Wilson, Rigv. i. 248.

SPIRITS.

Camanches worship the moon as god of the night. The moon was also a male deity among the Cherokees, as well as among the ancient Germans and Egyptians. The elements are deified. Air, fire, and water, have each their divinities.

The Mandans think the stars are the spirits of the dead.1 The Egyptians accorded divine honors to the dead. The Madagassians consider the dead evil spirits. The Hebrews held notions like those of the Egyptians and other neighboring nations. They had a dim conception of existence after death. They had their " Sheol," which is the same as Hades, Orcus. There the shades assemble, who no more have either blood or flesh. Moses could not deprive them of these ideas, for he had nothing to replace them with.* "They joined themselves unto Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." 3 The Jews regarded the souls of the dead as demons. So did the Greeks. " Their term demon, in its ancient acceptation, meant a divinity." 4 In like manner the Chinese erected temples to their ancestors. The Hindus and Greeks, before Homer, honored them by invocations and libations. At the time of the new moon, the Hindus made offerings (pitri-yagna) to the spirits of " the fathers ; " also on the birthdays of the dead ; and water was sprinkled every day in their honor, besides certain days of the month specified in the laws of Manu. They were said to have adorned the heaven with stars. The Romans believed in lares of all sorts, spirits of the departed, protecting spirits, lares of gentes, lares publici, and lares that stand where cross-roads meet.6 They held an annual festival (Feralia) in honor of the dead. It began the 18th of February, and lasted to the end of the month. The manes were both good and hostile powers. They were subordi-

1 Squier, Serp. Symbol, 70. 2 Friedlander, i. 92.

8 Psalm cvi. 28. 4 Compare Euripides, Phoenissae, 1607, 1608.

5 Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellsch., vol. ix. p. lx. ; Duncker Geschichte des Alterthums, vol. ii. 171 ; Wuttke Gesch. des Heidenthums, vol. ii. 251, 393.

6 Creuzer, Symbolik, 586.

SPIRIT-HISTORY OF MAN.

nate to the authority of Pluton. Ataensie, a death-goddess in America, dwells in the moon, like the Greek Persephone, and stands at the head of all the bad spirits ; and in the belief of the Apalachis, Cupai, the adversary, rules over the underworld.1 The Indians believe in the transmigration of souls, not only into the bodies of animals, but into the stars.2 The soul is considered immortal among the Algonquins, passing from one object to another.3 The Caribs believed that the insignificant and inferior souls were changed into animals.4

The Phoenician deities were personified powers of Nature, which gradually came to be regarded as beings " considered human," until at last Euhemerism made mere men of them. The Phoenician religion was Nature-worship, in which the sidereal element was prominent ; and the gods, which elsewhere appeared visibly in the verdure of the trees, in the beauty and grace of plants, in the manifold stirrings of the animal kingdom, in consuming fire, in the murmuring of streams and fountains, in the mountains, in the glowing poisonous simoom, in short, every where in Nature, where life and death reveal themselves, had especially their " idols" (symbols and carriers of the deity), in the lights of heaven.5 The Khonds, in India, had a sun-god, an Earth-goddess, a moon-god, a war-god, a god of hunting, a god of births, a god of the small-pox, a god of grain, and many other gods.6 The religion of the first inhabitants of India consisted in the worship of local deities, some supposed to be benevolent, some malevolent. They were originally supposed to be spirits of deceased persons, who still retaining the feelings they had when alive, haunted the places of their former residence. They

* Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, i. 33 ; J. Muller, Geschichte der Amerikan. Urreligionen, 66, et passim.

4 J. Muller, 209. 6 Movers Phonizier, i. 157.

6 Allen's India, 425.

SPIRITS.

were thought to have the power of assisting their friends and injuring their enemies. Thus able to interfere at pleasure in human affairs, they became objects of great anxiety.1 The Father-Genii possess wonderful powers; they bless and protect the pious, bestow possessions and wealth ; they resemble the heavenly bands who help the gods in their works like the Feruers of the Zend legends.2 The Persian liturgy says : " I invoke the fearful and mighty Fravashis of the saints, of the pure men, of the men of the Old Law and the New Law, the Fravashis of my ancestors, and the Fravashi of my soul."3 The Persians venerated rivers, trees, mountains, herds of the resurrection, stars, spirits, feruers. Feruers were in all places ; in the streets, cities, and provinces, heaven, water, wind, earth, animals, etc. ; in Ormuzd, the Amshaspands and all the deities. Spirits of the departed were feruers. Connected with the worship of the stars is the worship of the Fravashis, or Feruers. The Fravashis are souls, and are stars also. " All the other numberless stars which are visible, are called the Fravashis of mortals : for the whole creation which the Creator Ormuzd has made, for the born and the unborn, for every body, a Fravashi, with like essence, is manifest," 4 (mit gleicher Essenz ist offenbar.) All the stars are considered metamorphosed Indians, by the inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands and the Patagonians.5

The Hindus believed the stars to be spirits called Gandharvas and considered to be heavenly choristers.6 At the close of the year, during the last five days, the Persians celebrated the " Festival of All Souls." On these five in-

1 Allen's India, 361.

2 Begleitende Heifer der Gotter bei ihren Werken wie die Feruer der Zend sage. Roth. 4 D. M. G. 428.

3 2 Duncker, 3*75. So, in the New Testament, we find, " I will say to my soul : Soul, thou hast many good things," etc. — Luke xii. 19.

4 Spiegel Die Lehre von der unendlichen Zeit. Zeitschrift der D. M. G. 185] . Minokhired S. 343. Paris MS.

e 1 Weber, Ind. Stud. 196, 224. Milman's Nala, p. 122.

6PIRIT-HIST0RY OF MAN.

tercalary days the souls of the dead come again on earth and visit their friends. At this festival every one must pray twelve hundred times a day, " Purity and glory is for the just, who is pure ; " and the prayer, " That is the will of Ahuramazda," with other prayers. Noxious animals must be killed, entertainment and dresses prepared for the pure spirits, and they must be invoked with prayers, — customs which have evidently the same origin as the banquets of the dead among the Hindus.1 Festivals in honor of the dead were celebrated by the American tribes every eight or ten years, and even by the Aztecs and Tlascalans in Mexico.'2

The ancient Chinese religion was that of all the earliest forms of society, — the worship of the visible powers of Nature or of the stars. The Chinese sacrificed to the Shin, that is, to the superior spirits of every rank, and to their virtuous deceased ancestors, and addressed the wind, rain, thunder, diseases, etc., as divinities. Confucius says, " Shun then offered the sacrifice called lui to Shangti, he presented a pure offering to the six venerable ones, he looked with devotion towards the hills and rivers, and glanced around at the host of Shin." 3 The Micronesian islanders, in the Pacific Ocean, worship the spirits of their ancestors. Their word " anti " means deified spirit. They believe that as soon as a person dies, his spirit or shade ascends into the air, and is carried about for a time by the winds. At last it is supposed to arrive at the Kainakaki, a sort of elysium. 4 In Ellis's Polynesian Researches, the name of a spirit is " varua," which means a " god " likewise. " Varua ino " are the bad spirits. Oramatuas tiis, "spirits of the dead," were greatly feared by the islanders.5 Among the Old Persians the bad spirits were, in part, spirits of the dead.6 Some of the Indians of our Southern States believed the higher regions above inhabited by good spirits,

8 Canon of Shun. Shu King, book h\, Chinese Repository.

SPIRITS.

called "Nana isktohoollo." The evil spirits, "Nana ookproose," were supposed to possess the dark regions of the west.1 The conception of souls of the dead as changed into airy shapes, which the wind attends to their restingplace, is the old belief of the Indogerman races extending from Britain to the Ganges.2 In Tahiti, the dead are elevated to the rank of gods, and the "First man" (the Creator) had the same name, Tii or Tiki.3

Every Indian, in youth, seeks a protecting spirit for himself. There are also bad spirits ; but all spirits are to be feared : for the protecting spirit of one is to be feared by others.4 Throughout the spirit-realm the same spirits are both good and hostile, or they are divided into those which are favorable and those which are unfavorable.5 According to Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, the air is filled with invisible inhabitants, spirits free from evil, and immortal. The best of them are the angels. God uses them as inferior powers and ministers to benefit mankind.6 The angels were the souls of the stars.7

''When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of Elohim (God) shouted for joy."

The Septuagint gives this verse differently :

" When the stars were brought forth they approved me, All my angels with a loud voice." 8

In Homer, the same gods are favorable or hostile to different persons; but there is no formal division into good and evil deities among the gods ; bad spirits, spectres, etc., were generally, among the Greeks, believed to exist. Bad angels are not known to the Hebrews before the exile ; although the angels work evil.9

3 J. Muller, 135. 4 J. Muller, 12.

6 J. Muller, 151. 6 De Wette, Bibl. Dogm. i. 146.

7 De Wette, Bibl. Dogm. 82. 8 Job xxxviii. 7. 9 De Wette, Bibl. Dogm. i. 82.

10 SPIRIT-HISTORY OF MAX.

The ancient Irish worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and the winds ; 1 the Gauls, natural phenomena, the elements and heavenly luminaries, stones, trees, winds, rivers, thunder, the sun, etc. The ancient German and the Scandinavian religions were based on nature- worship. They adored spirits of every kind, in the sun, moon, and stars, air-gods, water-gods, etc. The Esquimaux, the Greenlanders, the people of Siberia, and the Polynesians, worship spirits. The Baktrian Hindus worshipped spirits of the sun and moon, the air, the heaven, the water, the rivers, the winds, celestial singers, nymphs and demons, patron deities of the villages, and the souls of their ancestors. The American Indians worship the fire, the sun, the elements, and innumerable other spirits.2 The Peruvians, Mexicans, Romans, Greeks, Assyrians, Arabs, Hindus, Babylonians, Tartars, Persians, Massagetse, Egyptians, and Hebrews, adored the sun. The primitive Magian religion was the worship of the heavenly bodies.3 The old Canaanites adored the sun, moon, and stars. Some of the Mexican races considered the stars sisters of the sun. In Peru they were the moon's maids. Among the Hebrews they were the sons of El (the Sun). " They fought from heaven. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera."4 "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God." 5 " Take heed that ye despise not these little ones ; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." 6 " Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you."7 The demons enter the herd of swine. Jesus walking on the water is thought to be a spirit. " What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? " " Je-

1 Vallancey, Essay on the Celtic Language, 51, 65.

2 Schoolcraft, i. 38, et passim. 3 Heeren's Asia, vol. ii. 190.

4 Judges, v. 20. 5 Luke ii. 13. 6 Matthew xviii. 10.

7 Luke x. 20.

SPIEITS.

sus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves." 1

" For so the Spirit of the Theban seer Informed me." 2

" For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven." 3 " The chariots of God are twenty thousand ; thousands of angels." 4 " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the High Ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.5 "The stars are not pure in His sight."6 "His angels he charged with folly." 7 " Who maketh His angels spirits." (Winds.) "Then a spirit passed before my face." 8

Ovid says in his Metamorphoses, " that no region might be destitute of its peculiar animated beings, the stars and forms of the gods possess the tract of heaven." 9 Human figures were sculptured by the Assyrians, having stars upon their heads.10 The same are found in Egypt, representing the twenty-four hours of the day.11 Others have a huge star in the middle of the figure.12 The Persians, Chaldeans, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Old Canaanites, including the Phoenicians, worshipped the spirits of the stars. In the language of Mr. Prescott, " As the eye of the simple child of nature watches through the long nights the stately march of the heavenly bodies, and sees the bright host coming up one after another, and changing with the changing seasons of the year, he naturally associates them with those seasons as the periods over which they hold a mysterious influence." 13 "And they had no sure sign either of winter, or of flowery spring, or of fruitful summer ; but they used to do every thing without judgment, until I showed to

I Mark ii. 8. 9 Odyssey, xxiii. 251. 3 Mark xii. 25.

4 Ps. lxviii. 17. 5 Isaiah xxiv. 21. 6 Job xxv. 5. 7 Job iv. 18. 8 Job iv. 15. 9 1 Metam. p. 7. Riley. 10 Layard's Nineveh vol. i.

II Champollion Egypte, p. 131. 13 Gesenius, Jesaia, vol. ii. 529. iS Prescott's Mexico, i. 121.

SPIRIT-HISTORY OF MAN.

them the risings of the stars and their setting 's, hard to be discerned.1" So, in the opening of the tragedy of Agamemnon by ^Eschylus, the watchman says :

"I have beheld the gathering of the nightly stars, Both those that bring winter and summer to mortals, Brilliant Lords, Stars conspicuous in the JEther."

And Job :

Canst thou fasten the bands of the Pleiades,

Or loosen the chains of Orion ?

Canst thou lead forth the Signs in their season,

Or guide Arcturus with his sons ?

Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens ?2

Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.8 The Mexicans regulated their festivals by the Pleiades.4 The Polynesians determined their two seasons by this constellation. " Matarii i ma," " Pleiades above,'' " Matarii i raro," Pleiades below" (the horizon).5 The Cherokees venerated " the Seven Stars ; " and they were called " the dancers " by some of the Northern tribes of Indians. The Peruvians consecrated a pavilion of the great temple at Cuzco to the stars, and especially to Yenus and the Pleiades.7

In India, the Maruts, the Eudras, the BAbhus, and the Pitris, were protecting spirits, originally men.* The Maruts are the wind and storm gods ; a spirit-band formed by the souls of the dead. Hence the oft-repeated expression " they were once mortals," and hence probably their name ; Maruts, " morts," mors.9 In the Yedas, the Manes are called "the fathers" (pitris), and Yama, an old

1 JEschylus, Prometheus bound, 454 — 457

2 Noyes, Job, p. 198. Job xxxviii. 31. 32. 33. Munk, 424.

3 1 Genesis, 14. 4 Prescott 146. Mexique 29.

5 Ellis, Polynes. Res. i. 87.

6 J. Miiller, p. 54. Squier,Serp. Symb. 69.

7 Lacroix, Univers pitt., Perou, p. 370.

8 Wuttke, Gesch. des Heid., p. 568.

9 4 Kuhn's Zeitsch.fiir Yergleichende Sprachforschung, p. 116.

SPIRITS.

sungod or firegod, is their king. Tarna was the "first man," like Manu.1

The Hindus poured out libations to the dead like the Greeks. The Peruvians made libations to the Sun ; they searched the entrails of victims, and believed in auguries like the Romans, Babylonians and Greeks, and their idols were thought to speak after the manner of the ancient Greek pythonesses.3 The flight of birds, especially vultures, was ominous among the American savages, as amongst the ancient Italians.4 "So sang the birds in the branches to Sigurd, after he had destroyed Fafni, what yet remained for hi in to do.6"