_Story of the Fire-God and his secret--Growth of Fire-Worship--Fire an
essential in Hindu Worship--The Chaldeans--The Persians--The Hebrews--
Fire in Hindu Ceremonies--Duties of Hindu Life--The Serpent and Fire--
Phallo-Pythic Solar Shrines--Fire and Phallic Worship--Leaping through
Fire--Fire-treading in Scotland--Fire-leaping in Russia--The Medes as
Fire Worshippers--The Sabines--Fire and the Ancient Christians--The
Roman Church and Fire--The Jews--Temple of Vesta--Fire Worship in
Ireland--Phallo-Fire Worship of Greeks and Romans._
The Rev. W. Gill in his "Myths and Songs from the South Pacific" supplies
us with a story particularly suitable for notice here, called the "Fire
God's Secret." The story tells us that originally fire was unknown to the
inhabitants of the world, who of necessity ate raw food. That in the
nether-world (Avaiki) lived four mighty ones: Manike, god of fire; the
Sun-god Ra; Ru, supporter of the heavens; and lastly, his wife
Buataranga, guardian of the road to the invisible world. To Ru Buataranga
was born a famous son Mani. At an early age Mani was appointed one
of the guardians of this upper world where mortals live. Like the rest of
the inhabitants of the world, he subsisted on uncooked food. The mother
Buataranga, occasionally visited her son; but always ate her food apart,
out of a basket brought with her from nether-land. One day, when she was
asleep, Mani peeped into her basket and discovered cooked food. Upon
tasting it he was decidedly of opinion that it was a great improvement
upon the raw diet to which he was accustomed. This food came from
nether-world; it was evident that the secret of fire was there. To
nether-world, the home of his parents he would descend to gain this
knowledge, so that ever after he might enjoy the luxury of cooked food.
The story goes on to say that when Buataranga set out, next day, on her
journey to nether-world, Mani followed her, unbeknown to her. He then
saw his mother standing opposite a black rock which she addressed in
these words: "Buataranga, descend thou bodily through this chasm. The
rainbow-like must be obeyed. As two dark clouds parting at dawn, Open,
open up my road to nether-world, ye fierce ones!"
At these words the rock divided, and Buataranga descended. Mani
carefully treasured up these words; and started off to see the god Tane,
the owner of some wonderful pigeons. He begged Tane to lend him one, but
as the one Tane lent him did not please him, he returned it, as he did
also another and a better one. The only bird that would content him was a
certain red pigeon, which was specially prized by its owner and was made a
great pet of. Tane at first objected to part with the bird and only did so
upon Mani's faithfully promising to restore it uninjured. Off went
Mani with the bird to the place where his mother had descended.
Pronouncing the magic words, the rock opened, and Mani descended. The
guardian demons of the chasm, enraged at finding themselves imposed upon
by a stranger, tried to seize the pigeon, intending to devour it. They
only succeeded in getting possession of the tail, which the pigeon went on
without. (They say that Mani had transformed himself into a small
dragon-fly and was perched upon the pigeon's back.)
Arrived at nether-land, Mani sought for the home of his mother, which
was the first house he saw. The pigeon alighted on an oven-house opposite
to an open shed where Buataranga was beating out cloth. She stopped her
work to gaze at the bird, which she guessed to be a visitor from the upper
world as none of the pigeons in the shades were red. She said to the
bird:--"Are you not come from daylight?" The pigeon nodded assent; "Are
you not my son Mani?" Again the pigeon nodded. At this Buataranga
entered her dwelling and the bird flew to a bread-fruit tree. Mani
resumed his proper form, and went to embrace his mother, who inquired how
he had descended to nether-world and the object of his visit. Mani
answered that he had come to learn the secret of fire. Buataranga said,
"This secret rests with the fire-god Manike. When I wish to cook I ask
your father Ru to beg a lighted stick from Manike." Mani inquired where
the fire-god lived. His mother pointed out the direction, and said it was
called Are-ava, _house-of-banyan-sticks_. She warned her son to be
careful, "for," she said, "the fire is a terrible fellow, and of a very
irritable temper."
Mani walked up boldly towards the house of the fire-god. Manike, who
happened to be busy cooking an oven of food, stopped at his work and
demanded what the stranger wanted. Mani replied, "A fire brand." The
fire brand was given. Mani carried it to a stream running past the
bread fruit tree and there extinguished it. He now returned to Manike and
obtained a second fire brand, which he also extinguished in the stream.
The third time a lighted stick was demanded of the fire-god he was beside
himself with rage. Raking the ashes of the oven, he gave the daring
Mani some of them on a piece of dry wood. These live coals were thrown
into the stream as the former lighted sticks had been.
Mani correctly thought that a fire brand would be of little use unless
he could obtain the secret of fire. The brand would eventually go out;
_but how to reproduce the fire?_ His object therefore was to pick a
quarrel with the fire-god, and compel him by sheer violence to yield up
the invaluable secret, as yet known to none but himself. On the other
hand, the fire-god, confident in his own prodigious strength, resolved to
destroy this insolent intruder into his secret. Mani for the fourth
time demanded fire of the enraged god. Manike ordered him away, under pain
of being tossed into the air; for Mani was small of stature. But the
visitor said he should enjoy nothing better than a trial of strength with
the fire-god. Manike entered his dwelling to put on his war-girdle; but on
returning found that Mani had swelled himself to an enormous size.
Nothing daunted at this, Manike boldly seized him with both hands and
hurled him to the height of a cocoa-nut tree. Mani contrived in falling
to make himself so light that he was in no degree hurt by his adventure.
Manike, maddened that his adversary should yet breathe, excited his full
strength, and next time hurled him far higher than the highest cocoa-nut
tree that ever grew. Yet Mani was uninjured by his fall, whilst the
fire-god lay panting for breath.
It was now Mani's turn. Seizing the fire-god he threw him up to a dizzy
height and caught him again like a ball with his hands. Without allowing
Manike to touch the ground, he threw him a second time into the air, and
caught him in his hands. Assured that this was but a preparation for a
final toss which would seal his fate, the panting and thoroughly exhausted
Manike entreated Mani to stop and to spare his life. Whatever he
desired should be his.
The fire-god, now in miserable plight, was allowed to breathe awhile.
Mani said, "Only on one condition will I spare you--_tell me the secret
of fire_. _Where is it hidden? How is it produced?_ Manike gladly promised
to tell him all he knew, and led him inside his wonderful dwelling. In one
corner there was a quantity of fine cocoa-nut fibre; in another, bundles
of fire-yielding sticks--the _au_, the oronga, the tauinu, and
particularly the aoa or banyan tree. These sticks were all dry and ready
for use. In the middle of the room were two smaller sticks by themselves.
One of these the fire-god gave to Mani, desiring him to hold it firmly,
while he himself plied the other most vigorously. And thus runs the
Fire-god's Song:--
"Grant, oh grant me thy hidden fire,
Thou banyan tree!
Perform an incantation;
Utter a prayer to (the spirit of)
The banyan tree!
Kindle a fire for Manike
Of the dust of the banyan tree."
By the time the song was completed, Mani, to his great joy, perceived a
faint smoke arising out of the fine dust produced by the friction of one
stick upon another. As they persevered in their work the smoke increased;
and, favoured with the fire-god's breath, a slight flame arose, when the
fine cocoa-nut fibre was called into requisition to catch and increase the
flame. Manike now called to his aid the different bundles of sticks and
speedily got up a blazing fire, to the astonishment of Mani.
The grand secret of fire was secured. The story tells us that the victor
then in order to be revenged for his trouble and his tossing into the air,
set fire to his adversary's abode, that in a short time all the
nether-world was in flames, which consumed the fire-god and all he
possessed.
Mani then picked up the two fire-sticks and hastened to the bread-fruit
tree, where the red pigeon awaited his return. His first care was to
restore the tail of the bird so as to avoid the anger of Tane. There was
no time to be lost, for the flames were rapidly spreading. "He re-entered
the pigeon, which carried his fire-stalks one in each claw, and flew to
the lower entrance of the chasm. Once more pronouncing the words he learnt
from Buataranga, the rocks parted, and he safely got back to this upper
world. Mani now resumed his original human form, and hastened to carry
back the pet bird of Tane. Passing through the main valley of Keia, he
found that the flames had preceded him, and had found an aperture at
Teava, since closed up. The king's Rangi and Mokoiro trembled for their
land; for it seemed as if everything would be destroyed by the devouring
flames. To save Mangaia from utter destruction, they excited themselves to
the utmost, and finally succeeded in putting out the fire. Rangi
thenceforth adopted the new name of Matamea, or Watery-eyes, to
commemorate his sufferings; and Mokoiro was ever after called Anai, or
Smoke."
"The inhabitants of Mangaia availed themselves of the conflagration to get
fire and to cook food. But after a time the fire went out, and as they
were not in possession of the secret, they could not get new fire.
"But Mani was never without fire in his dwelling; a circumstance that
excited the surprise of all. Many were the inquiries as to the cause. At
length he took compassion on the inhabitants of the world, and told them
the wonderful secret--that fire lies hidden in the hibiscus, the urtica
argenta, the 'tauinu' and the banyan. This hidden fire might be elicited
by the use of fire sticks which he produced. Finally, he desired them to
chant the fire-god's song, to give efficacy to the use of the
fire-sticks."
"From that memorable day all the dwellers in this upper world used
fire-sticks with success, and enjoyed the luxuries of light and cooked
food.
"To the present time this primitive method of obtaining fire is still in
vogue; cotton, however, being substituted for fine cocoa-nut fibre as
tinder. It was formerly supposed that only the four kinds of wood found in
the fire-god's dwelling would yield fire.
"'Aoa' means banyan-tree; for intensity and rhythm the word is lengthed
into 'aoaoaoa.' The banyan was sacred to the fire-god.
"The spot where the flames are said to have burst through, named Te-oao
or _the banyan-tree_, was sacred till Christianity induced the owner to
convert the waste land into a couple of taro patches."[22]
"Light, then fire, the sun, and the 'whole host of heaven' seem
successively, and at last collectively, to have become objects of worship
to the Arian race; but first of all light, which was to them pre-eminently
the object of adoration in Northern India previous to the period of the
collection or composition of the hymns of the earliest Hindu Veda, or, in
round numbers, thirty-five centuries ago.
"According to Herodotus, the Persians venerated fire as a divinity, and
Pliny explains that the magic of Persia might apparently have been learned
from the practices of the Britons. There is abundant evidence to show that
our heathen ancestors worshipped the sun and moon. It might, therefore,
reasonably be inferred that in Britain, as in other countries, fire would
be substituted as typical of the great luminary--of its light and its
heat--and became an object of adoration, when the sun was obscured or
invisible in seasons set apart for celebrating the religious rites of a
Sabian worship. But we are not dependent on inference, however rational,
for a knowledge of the fact that fire was an object of adoration to our
heathen ancestors, even so late as the eleventh century; for in the laws
of Cnut fire appears as one of the objects the worship of which is
forbidden."
"Fire seems to have always had the firmest hold upon the wonderment and
then the adoration of the infant mind. To the present moment it is an
essential part of all Hindoo worship and ceremonies. From his cradle to
his grave, when the Hindoo is folded in the god's embrace, the ancient
races around me seek for it, use it, offer sacrifices to it, and adore
it."
The Chaldeans had a high veneration for fire, which they accounted a
divinity; and in the province of Babylon there was a city consecrated to
this usage, which was called the city of Ur, or of Fire.
The Persians also adored God under the image or representation of fire,
because it is fire that gives motion to everything in nature. They had
temples which they called "Pyræa," fire temples set apart solely for the
preservation of the sacred fire. They are said to have in that empire
fires still subsisting which have burnt many thousand years.
The worship of the goddess Vesta and of fire, was brought into Italy by
Æneas and the other Trojans who landed there; but the Phrygians themselves
had received it from the eastern nations. Fire was held in religious
veneration among the Gauls; and similar sentiments and practices have
prevailed in several countries of America.
The Hebrews kept up the holy fire in the temple. This holy fire descended
from heaven, first upon the altar in the tabernacle at the consecration of
Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, and afterwards it descended anew on
the altar in the temple of Solomon, at the consecration of that temple.
And there it was constantly maintained by the priest day and night,
without suffering it ever to go out; and with this all the sacrifices were
offered that required fire. This fire, according to some of the Jewish
writers, was extinguished in the days of Manasseh; but the more general
opinion among them is, that it continued till the destruction of the
temple by the Chaldeans; after that it was never more restored; but
instead of it, they had only common fire in the second temple.
The part played by fire in the life of a Hindoo is a remarkable one, and
shews the immense extent to which this form of worship has prevailed and
still prevails in some countries. In the man's earliest days--in his
childhood--at the ceremony called the investiture of the thread, fire is
kindled from the droppings of the sacred cow, sprinkled with holy water
and blessed. Then are brought to it various offerings of grain, butter,
&c., by the worshippers who are supplicating blessings, the officiating
priest all the while reading passages from the sacred books. The child's
father and mother pray to Agni (Fire) that its past sins may be forgiven,
having been done in ignorance; then they declare him to be of an age to
know good and evil--he is between seven and nine. The sacred thread is
then, after being duly washed and held over the fire, placed around the
child's neck, constituting him a Brahm Achari--one sworn to practise the
laws and behests of Brahm or Almighty God. Dubois, in Moeurs des Indes,
says--"A pious father will then say privately to his child, 'Remember, my
son, there is but one God, the Sovereign Master and Principle of all
things, and every Brahman is bound to worship him in secret.'"
A fortnight afterwards, a kind of confirmation ceremony takes place, again
before the fire, in which the parents promise that they will see that he
gets married and leads a good life.
Marriage is the principal feature in a Hindoo's life, and this, as most
people know, takes place very early and is attended with many important
ceremonies.
Here, again, fire is conspicuous as an object of worship, the ceremony
before it--the God Agni--being the last and most serious of all. With
clothes tied together, bride and bridegroom parade round about the deity
casting to him their offerings which now "symbolise," says Forlong, "the
sacrifice of all their virgin modesty to the god, as the emblem of sexual
fire." The final oath of mutual love and faith is then taken in an address
to the fire, and the pair, who are mere boy and girl, are duly married.
A little further on when the period arrives for cohabitation, the fourth
ceremony is then gone through, fire again being adored and sacrifice
offered.
In the final scene, when death has taken possession of the body, fire is
again called into requisition; it is carried before the corpse by the
nearest relatives, and ultimately reduces the inanimate form to its
original dust and ashes.
Forlong says--"Fire enters into every duty of a Hindoo's life. Before
partaking of his morning meal he utters incantations to Agni, offers to
him portions of that meal; and in like manner, before he wears a new cloth
or garment, he must take some threads or parts of it and offer these to
the same deity."
"It is from the rubbing together of the wood of trees, notably of the
three Banian figs--Peepal, Bar, and Gooler, the favourite woods for
Phallic images, that holy fire is drawn from heaven, and before all these
species do women crave their desires from God."
"Cave and fire rites are not yet extirpated from Jerusalem, nor, indeed,
from any nation of the earth. Christians still rush for sacred fire to the
holy cave at the birth of Sol, and men and women strive, in secret nooks,
to pass naked through holy fire."
"Syrians, as well as all other nations, connected the Serpent with Fire.
Thus the Jews had their fire altars, on which the holy flame must be ever
burning and never go out; and they carried about a serpent on a pole as
their healer. So also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles speaks of the
Christian Holy Ghost as having serpent-like 'cloven tongues of fire,'
which the margin of orthodox Bibles very properly connects with Isaiah's
Seraphim."
Forlong says:--"I began my study of British ruins about eight years ago
(from 1882), during a two-year-furlough, attracted to it at first by my
friend the late Sir James Simpson--President of the Society of
Antiquaries, Edinburgh--at that time writing and debating much on these
matters; and I came then to the same conclusion as I hold to-day; viz.:
that the ruins of Armorika, those of Stonehenge, Abury, and various
others, known popularly as 'Druid Circles,' are, or originally were,
Phallo-Pythic--Solar shrines, or places where all the first five elemental
faiths more or less flourished; the first (Tree) very little, and the last
(Sun) very abundantly; and if so, then we see the cause why European
writers so pugnaciously hold out, some for Sun, some for Fire; one that
they are mere places for sacrifices or burial, or for assembly of rulers,
clans, &c.; whilst a few outlying writers hint that the large stones are
Lingams, or mere groups of such stones as that of Kerloaz--the Newton
stone, &c. Colonel Forbes Leslie, in his 'Ancient Races of Scotland,' has
very nearly told us the truth, his long residence and travels in Asia
having enabled him almost to pierce the cloud, though he seems at first
not to have fully appreciated the ever very close connection between Sun,
Fire, Serpent and Lingam faiths, which I believe he does now."
"The European mind having once lost the old ideas of what these words
meant, and from having still such objects as Sun, Fire, and Serpent before
them, is always thinking of these visible objects, which I might almost
say a true Sivaite never recognises _per se_; for in fire the true Phallic
worshipper sees no flame, and in the sun no far-out resplendent orb as we
know, standing apart, as it were, in space, and to which we all gravitate;
he sees simply a source of fertility, without which the Serpent has no
power or passion, and in whose absence the animal and vegetable world must
cease to exist. The fire here, then, is not that which the real Sivaite
sees or cooks by, but Hot or _Holy Fire_, or the 'Holy Spirit,' or the
fire of passion, which to a certain small extent, and in certain symbolic
forms and positions, he recognises in flame, as when raised on a tower,
coming out of an obelisk, or rising in a column or pillar over an ark, or
smouldering in the secret adytum; for the first impresses him with the
Arkite, the second with the Phallic and Arkite, and the third with the
purely feminine idea; in all, he merely sees representative male and
female energies which are excited and fructified by the Sun, Apollo, or
the Sun-Serpent, as in his old coin, where fertility fed by fire feeds the
shell. In a column, be it wood, stone, or fire, he sees the Sun-stone,
such as the Mudros of Phoenicia, the Mindir of Ireland, and obelisk of
Egypt; and in the cist, shell, or Akros, the womb, Yoni, or sun-box; in
all, the column or Palas, and its Caput-oline."
"Leaping or walking through the fire, so frequently mentioned in Jewish
writings in connection with Molek, is still quite common in the less
civilised parts of India, being usually done in fulfilment of a vow for
blessings desired, or believed to have been conferred by the deity upon
the Nazarite or Vower. I have known of it being gone through for recovery
from a severe illness, and for success in an expedition or project which
the Nazarite had much at heart."
Some say fire should be trod because Drupadi, the mythical wife of the
Pandoos, did this, after defilement through the touch of Kichaka, and
because Sita proved her purity by fire. Where the British Government can
prevent this rite, flowers are thrown into the fire-pit, which seems as if
the fire were looked upon as a female energy. Fire-treading is commonly
accomplished by digging a deepish narrow pit, and filling it with
firewood, and then when the flames are scorching hot, leaping over it;
usually the rite begins by first walking closely round the fire, slowly at
first, then faster and faster, with occasional leaps into and out of it in
the wildest excitement. Mr. Stokes, of the Madras Civil Service, thus
describes the rite as it came officially to notice in April, 1873.
In a level place before the village deity, who was Drupadi Ama (Mother
D.), a fire-pit, in size 27 by 7-1/2 feet by 9 inches deep, was excavated
east and west, and the goddess set up at the west end. Six Babool or
Acacia trees (this being a fiercely burning wood) were cut and thrown in;
thirteen persons trod this fire, and one died from the effects. They
followed each other, some with tabors, others ringing a bell, and each,
after passing through the fire, went into a pit filled with water, called
the "milk pit." All merely wore a waist cloth, and had their bodies daubed
over with sandal. The one who died, fell into the fire, and had to be
pulled out. The fire was lit at noon, and "walking it" took place at two
p.m., when it had become very bright and hot. The Poojore, or priest of
the temple, said it was his duty to walk annually through the fire, and
that he had done so for seven or eight years. It was the mother of the
dead man who had vowed that if her son recovered from an attack of
jaundice she would tread the fire, but the old woman being blind, her son
fulfilled the vow. Some said that the dead man himself had vowed thus to
the Goddess Drupadi: "Mother, if I recover, I shall tread on your fire."
Death is rarely the result of this practice, but Mr. Stokes adds that a
few years ago, a mother and her infant died from the effects.
"On the 29th of June, men, and even babes, had to be passed through the
fire. 'On this night,' says Dr. Moresin, 'did the Highlanders run about on
the mountains and high grounds with lighted torches, like the Cicilian
women of old, in search of Proserpine,' and Scotch farmers then used to go
round their corn-fields with blazing torches, as was the custom at the
Cerealia. The ancient Roman Kalendar states, among other matter, that
fires are made on the 23rd; 'Boys dress in girls' clothes; waters are swum
in during the night. Water is fetched in vessels and hung up for purposes
of divination; fern is esteemed by the vulgar because of the seed...;
girls gather thistles, and place a hundred crosses by the same;' for has
not the thistle a cap like the lotus, and is it not a trefoil?
"In the 'Englishwoman in Russia,' p. 223, a writer says that 'on midsummer
eve a custom still (1855) exists in Russia, among the lower classes, that
could only be derived from a very remote antiquity, and is perhaps a
remnant of the worship of Baal. A party of peasant women and girls
assemble in some retired unfrequented spot, and light a large fire, over
which they leap in succession. If by chance one of the other sex should be
found near the place, or should have seen them in the act of performing
the rite, it is at the imminent hazard of his life, for the women would
not scruple to sacrifice him for his temerity.' The writer was assured
that such instances had often been known. Thus this 'Fire-dance' is a very
serious matter, and one which under the circumstances, we can learn very
little about: from its secret practice here by women it is clearly
connected with Agni, the Procreator or Fertiliser. Our ancestors were
inveterate fire-worshippers, especially at the four great solar festivals.
They thought no cattle safe unless passed through the May Day and
Midsummer Beltine fires, and no person would suffer a fire within their
parish which had not been then kindled afresh from the Tin-Egin, or sacred
fire produced by friction."
The Medes were undoubtedly worshippers of Fire, "as the most subtle,
ethereal, incomprehensible, and powerful agent. They were averse to all
temples or personification of the material things, or of Ormazd. Like our
Parsee fellow-subjects, they never allowed their hearth-fires to be
extinguished, nor would they even blow out any ordinary fire or candle; in
the Magian days, he who did so forfeited his life."
"We still see the remains--some very perfect--of the lone Fire-towers,
which Greeks called _Puraitheia_, amidst the lofty hills of Armenia,
Azerbijan, Koordistan and Looristan, some of which were Dakmas, or 'Towers
of Silence,' having gratings for roofs, through which the bones fell when
the body was destroyed. The Fire-God was called _At-Ar_."
The Sabines were, perhaps, more nearly related to our ancestors than is
generally thought; at least we may believe so from the Sabine and Gælic
languages having more affinity even than the Welsh and Irish, and from
other evidence. Dr. Leatham, in his work on _Descriptive Ethnology_, says
that 'much of the blood of the Romans was Keltic, and so is much of the
Latin language,' and a study of the movements of ancient peoples will show
how this is so. Like the Skyths, these old Sabines were devoted to all the
worship of Sivaites, and particularly of Mars' symbol, the Quiris or
Spear, after which we still call their greatest fête Quirinalia, and their
Mount Zion, the Quirinal. The worship of the _Quiris_ has not yet ceased
in high Asia, nor, I believe, in America. It was prominent on the summits
of all the Skythian bonfire piles and mounds at which these Aryan fathers
worshipped, and is connected with most rites. We also see it on numerous
sculpturings which have been unearthed from the ruins of the Skuti, or
Kelts of Ireland and Scotland--much to the perplexity of local
antiquaries. Hue, in his 'Travels in Tartary,' gives us these Phalli as
existing all over the immense extent of country he traversed, including
Northern China, Mongolia, Thibet. Spears are, however, too valuable to be
left sticking in 'these _Obos_,' as he calls them, and therefore 'dried
branches of trees' are substituted in very good imitation of spears.
"We have abundant proof that Fire was never neglected by ancient
Christians, either on tomb or altar. In a letter from Rome, we find that
in front of the Cubiculum, or square tomb of Cornelius the martyr, is a
short pillar supporting an ever-burning lamp of oil; and when this custom
of never-dying flame--alike common to all faiths--was revived in the third
century A.C., we read that the Popes used to send to kings and queens a
few drops of the oil from this lamp of the tomb of Cornelius. (See
Cor.--Ill. Lon. News, 3-72.) Nor need we be astonished at this, seeing
that Vesta's shrine still flourished and received Papal attention, and
that in every corner of the world Fire-faith existed. To this day none may
neglect the rites of this faith in Syria--cradle of the God, as the poor
Turkish Bey of Antioch and his son found to their cost, when, after the
earthquake of April 3rd, 1872, they and their officers kindly, reverently
and wisely buried the Christian dead, but without the fire-symbols and
bell-ringing (which they failed to understand), thereby greatly offending
a powerful sect of Antioch, called the Dusars, who, still clearly
worshipping Baal and Astaroth, rose upon the poor Turks and smote them hip
and thigh."
"In the county of Kildare, Ireland, 'everlasting fire' was preserved by
'holy virgins--called _Ingheaw Andagha_, or _daughters of fire_,' down to
the time of the Reformation. These were often the first ladies of the
land, and never other than those of gentle birth."
"No blessing can be asked or granted from the altar of any Catholic Church
until the candles are lighted. If a woman when pregnant desires to be
blessed by the Christian Church, she is instructed 'to wait on her knees,
at the door of the church, with a lighted taper in her hand,' nor can any
cross be blessed until three tapers are lighted by the 'man of God,' had
placed at its base. See Picart II., 117, where he gives some graphic
plates of Christian Phallo-solar-fire rites.
"In Goodwin's _Civil and Ecclesiastical Rites_, under the head of _Feasts
of the Expiation_, which we have reason to believe was at one time a
period of human sacrifice, we have the great Winter-Christmas Saturnalia,
or Juvenalia Festival of Lights and Fires described, when not only the
temples of Jews and Christians, but every house had to be carefully
lighted. Jews taught that the lights must be held in the left hand, and
the holder must 'walk between two commandments,' which seems to denote the
climatic or solar turn of the year. This old writer tells us that it was
'woman's peculiar province to light their lamps;' and that 'there are
certain prayers appropriated to this festival, and among the rest _one in
praise of God, who hath ordained the lighting up of lamps upon Solemn
Days_.' Here we see a close resemblance between the faith of the Jew and
the Islami, whose wives are enjoined personally to see to the lighting of
the household lamps on Venus' Eve. Jerusalem, we know, acknowledges the
God of Agni to the present hour, by annually giving out that holy Fire
descends from heaven at a stated season into the dark Adyta of the Sacred
Shrine; all old fires must be extinguished at this the season of Sol's
renewed vigour, so when the priest emerges from the adytum with the new
fire in his hand (and Christian priests have often done this, if they do
not do so still), crowds of every hue and creed rush towards him, light
their tapers, and bear away the new fire to their homes."
Referring to the Temple of Vesta mentioned by Davies, Forlong says--"Now,
what was this Temple of Vesta? In its rites and surroundings, its duties
social and political, it was one with the temples still existing in Asia
devoted to Phallic and Fire-worship combined, or perhaps I should say a
temple to Phallic worship only, but the cult in the dawn of brighter
faiths was somewhat hid away by the priests in the darkest recesses of
their temples, and not well-known by many of the worshippers, and scarcely
at all by European writers even of the middle ages. Any student of Delphic
lore and of Eastern travel, however, will recognise at once in Delphi's
Oracle and Vesta's Temple, 'The Old Faith' and its priestess worshippers,
although the writer in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities does not appear
to do so. He describes Vesta's as merely a Fire-temple, and says that
there were six Vestales or Virgin Priestesses to watch the eternal Fire
which blazed everlastingly on the altar of the goddess. On the Pope has
descended the name of their superior as 'Pontifex Maximus.' If by any
negligence or misfortune the Fire went out, the Pontifex Maximus scourged
the erring vestal virgin, for had not she--a woman--permitted the
procreative energy of the god to forsake mankind?"
"Dr. George Petrie, who in 1845 still combatted, but without force, the
pre-Christian idea of Irish Towers, acknowledges signs of a very strong
and all-prevailing Fire Worship in Ireland. This he sees in Bel or
Bil-tene--'the goodly fire,' in which Bel, the sun in Ireland, as of old
in Babylon, was the great purifier. The Druids, he says, used to worship
in presence of two fires, and make cattle walk between them to keep off
evil. Even in Dublin we have still May-fires, and those of St. John's Eve;
and an old manuscript of Trinity College tells us that 'Bel was the name
of an idol at whose festival (Bel-tine) a couple of all cattle were
exhibited as in his possession,' which I conclude means--fixed by his
rays. The name of this feast in Scotland was Egin-Tin, in which we can
recognise Agin, Ag, or Agni-fire, and the fire-god of all Asia. In the
island of Skye--says Dr. Martin, quoted by Petrie, page xxxviii.--the Tin
Egin was a forced fire or fire of necessity which cured the plague and
murrain amongst cattle. All the fires in the parish were extinguished, and
eighty-one married men (a multiple of the mystic number nine) being
thought the necessary number for effecting this design took two great
planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who, by their
repeated efforts, rubbed one of the planks against the other until the
heat thereof produced fire, and from this forced fire each family is
supplied with new fire.
"This is the true 'fire which falls from heaven,' and it must still be so
produced at the temples of all fire-worshipping races, and at the hearths
of the Guebre or Parsees, as it was in this remote Isle of Skye.
"I must now make a few general observations upon the marked Phallo-Fire
Worship of the Greeks and Romans, too commonly called 'Fire and Ancestor
Worship,' it not being perceived that the ancestor came to be honoured and
worshipped only as the _Generator_, and so also the Serpent, as his
symbol.
"The 'Signs' or Nishans of the generating parents, that is the Lares and
Penates, were placed in the family niches close to the holy flame--that
'hot air,' 'holy spirit,' or 'breath'--the active force of the Hebrew BRA,
and the Egyptian P'ta--the engenderer of the heavens and earth, before
which ignorant and superstitious races prayed and prostrated themselves,
just as they do to-day before very similar symbols.
"The Greeks and Romans watched over their fires as do our Parsees or
Zoroastrians. The males of the family had to see that the holy flame never
went out, but in the absence of the head, and practically at all times,
this sacred duty devolved on the matron of the house. Every evening the
sacred fire was carefully covered with ashes so that it might not go out
by oversight, but quietly smoulder on; and in the early morning the ashes
were removed, when it was brightened up and worshipped. In March or early
spring it was allowed to die out, but not before the New Year's Fire had
been kindled from Sol's rays and placed in the sanctuary. No unclean
object was allowed to come near Agni; none durst even warm themselves near
him; nor could any blameworthy action take place in his presence. He was
only approached for adoration or prayer; not as fire, which he was not,
but as _sexual flame_ or _life_. Prayers were offered to him similar to
those Christians use; and with most he held just such a mediatorial office
as Christ does. The Almighty was addressed through him, and he was asked
for health, happiness wisdom and foresight; guidance in prosperity and
comfort in adversity, long life, off-spring, and all manly and womanly
qualifications. His followers were taught that it was the most heinous sin
to approach him with unclean hearts or hands, and were encouraged to come
to him at all times for repentance and sanctification.
"Before leaving the house, prayer had to be made to the sacred fire; and
on returning, the father must do so even before embracing his wife and
children. Thus Agamemnon acted, we are told, on his return from Troy.
Sacrifices, libations, wine, oil and victims were regularly offered to the
Fire, and as the god brightened up under the oils, all exulted and fell
down before him. They believed that he ate and drank, and with more reason
than the Jew said this of his Jehovah and El-Shadai. Above all, it was
necessary to offer food and wine to him; to ask a blessing before every
meal, and return thanks when it was over. From Ovid and Horace we see it
was thought pious and proper to sup in presence of the sacred flame, and
to make oblations to it. There was no difference between Romans, Greeks,
and Hindoos in these respects, except that Soma wine in India took the
place of the grape of cooler lands. All alike besought Agni by fervent
prayers for increase of flocks and families, for happy lives and serene
old age, for wisdom and pardon of sin. We see the great antiquity of this
faith in the well-known fact, that even when the early Greeks were
sacrificing to Zeus and Athene at Olympia, they always first invoked Agni,
precisely as had been ordered in the Vedas some 2,000 years B.C., and
probably as he had been invoked many thousands of years before the art of
writing was known."