THE STORY OF THE TABLETS.
The designers and executors of the picture writing were of the
Accadians, as indicated by the names affixed to the tablets, as was
also Elib the scribe of the inhabitants of Elim, and so in a long line
of writers on the tablets could be discerned the Accadian origin of
the names. It was they who brought from their homes to the eastward
of the Tigris the knowledge of their system of hieroglyphics, half
ideographic, half phonetic, that helped to make Babylon the seat of
learning and power, and preserved for the world the story of their
development and glorious civilization.
The story was taken up where it was left off by Elib the scribe as
recorded on the parchment.
For many long years after the landing of the ten tribes upon the
Western continent, they led a simple pastoral life, growing rich in
flocks and herds and gradually drifting to the southward, but fitting
out yearly an expedition to Ophir for gold with which they purposed in
due time to build a temple that should rival Solomon’s. The beautiful
and fertile valley of Mexico allured them at last to permanent
settlement where they could, in their scriptural language, water the
ground with the foot, typifying the ease with which irrigation could
be practiced there, and a settled purpose grew upon them to make this
region the center of their dominion and the site of a temple of worship
for all their people.
I have since traveled over this interesting region, finding abundant
evidence to corroborate that of the tablets, and I have no doubt that
at Palenque in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, is the site of their
settlement, and of the first great temple on the Western continent
devoted to the worship of the living God.
I have also visited Palestine and gleaned all the information possible
from that source; and a glance at the Temple of Palenque suggests the
oriental style of architecture, and further investigation proves it
to have been an almost perfect imitation of Solomon’s temple, with
its various consecrated places of worship, its courts, cloisters, and
cells for the priests, with magnificent porches supported by pillars,
ornamented in stucco work.
The inner walls had been once elaborately decorated with inscriptions
cut in hieroglyphic characters in the rock, and there were ruins of
a great altar, with the figure of a wedge (a prominent figure on the
brick tablets as well as on the rock pictures, appearing to have been
an object of worship).
For twenty-three miles the country was strewn with the ruins of
splendid palaces, temples, and dwellings, richly decorated with
ornaments of gold and silver in the likeness of flowers so perfect in
form as to rival the natural ones represented; and the walls of many of
the finer structures were ornamented with the very net work or basket
work that Solomon used in the palace of cedar that he builded for
Pharaoh’s daughter. Subterranean chambers underlay the palaces, used
seemingly as sepulchers. In one was discovered large quantities of gold
and silver, supposed to be the public storehouse, used in the building
of the temple.
But to return to the narrative.
“In the land of Ophir to the southward toward the sea, was builded
the temple of the living God,” and here it was stated they dedicated
themselves together with this earthly temple to allegiance to Jehovah,
solemnly binding themselves to eschew forever all kings but Jehovah,
and reinstating all their tribal usages and laws as delivered to them
by Moses, to resume the tribal and patriarchal government, and to
acknowledge God alone as the Supreme Ruler of their temporal as well as
spiritual affairs.
Here in the city of Ophir, which they had founded, they began to build
the magnificent temple the ruins of which to-day possess far more
absorbing interest to the archæologist than those of Egypt or Babylon;
so that Americans need no longer cross oceans and continents to pursue
the study of the cuneiform picture writings. But the tribes were
weakened by desertion at Babylon, and three generations passed away
before the temple was completed in all its details of substantiality,
and decorated with vases and scrolls, and gold and silver flowers among
foliage of emeralds and other precious stones. Insects and bees poised
above the flowers so life-like in form and position that one could
almost imagine they heard the hum of their wings, and serpents seemed
actually to glide among the lilies in the pools of Solomon.
Luxury and learning grew apace in the young city of the West. Numbers
and knowledge increased in equal ratio, and public works of a permanent
and beneficial character were undertaken and carried to a successful
issue. Stone aqueducts were built to conduct the water from the
foothills, spanning valleys and gorges, and built so strongly as almost
to defy the ravages of time. Public baths and walks were built, parks
and groves and amphitheaters sprang up to satisfy the demand of the
Elimites among them for amusements, whose skill in architecture and
picture writing, as well as their capacity as scribes upon parchment,
gave them great and growing influence in the affairs of the tribes.
Generation succeeded generation, and centuries multiplied upon
centuries marking the progress of an active, aggressive, and
intellectual people toward the climax of human power. The Accadians
or Elimites were tenacious of their influence, tireless in their zeal
in all the pursuits of learning and advancement. The priesthood came
to be recruited largely from their ranks. The tribal judges were many
of them either of the Elimites or closely allied to them by marriage.
In letters and architecture they were the superiors of their adopted
people.
But in matters of religion the Israelites were their tutors, competent
to lead and instruct. The religion of the Elimite was the worship of
Belus or Baal closely allied to, if not identical with, the worship of
the sun, and while so far advanced in other lines of knowledge their
attainments in religion were so meager as to class them as a nation of
idolaters, with all the difference that is implied in the respective
terms, between them and the worshipers of a Supreme Ruler whose
followers did not limit his dwelling to a temple of human building, or
ascribe to him the malevolent as well as the beneficent attributes.
Their historians, as they succeeded each other, as they chronicled the
main events of their times, drew unconsciously a picture of great
vividness, showing how boundless for good was the influence of the
Elimites in all intellectual affairs, and how baleful their examples
and precepts in morals. So while the crafty priests and ambitious
judges outwardly conformed to the Jewish form of worship with great
apparent devoutness, they secretly despised the religion of Moses and
merely bided their time, cultivating meanwhile all the voluptuous
passions of highly civilized life, encouraging the finer arts and
sciences, bringing the decorative arts especially to such perfection as
set the city of Ophir on the pinnacle of glory among the nations of the
world, from which they had so completely isolated themselves.
Gradually the number of the judges was increased, the priesthood
swarmed with devotees to sacerdotal orders, and as the offices of
emolument and honor increased, a corresponding increase was made in the
number of scribes and doctors of the law. All these officers came to be
recruited almost entirely from the ranks of Elim, and natural tastes
and interests drew them together socially, so that they soon formed a
distinct and privileged class.
The wily priests gradually insinuated new ideas of the Supreme Being,
and the form of worship most pleasing to him, beginning by inspiring in
the minds of the Israelites a feeling of awe for the fiery orb of day,
until at length as their ideas began to be received they grew bolder,
and taught that the sun was the all-seeing eye of Divinity, taking note
of the actions of men by day, and delegating his power to the lesser
gods whose twinkling eyes watched over the world by night.
The lawyers and judges being in full sympathy with this doctrine,
construed the Mosaic law to suit it, and slowly but surely Israel was
growing to be a nation of worshipers at the shrine of Belus or Baal.
False religions and despotic power go hand in hand, and at the end of
the tenth century of national existence since the Babylonian captivity,
the ten tribes were not only worshipers of Baal with all the revolting
and licentious orgies that marked it as the vilest form of religion
in the known world, but the restless ambitions of the Accadian rulers
were already set upon making Israel an absolute monarchy. Religious
frenzy is a powerful factor in ruling the world. It can rock kingdoms
like toys and shake nations like aspens. But to overturn and destroy
it needs but to combine forces with another passion more subtle, more
powerful, and of more universal application than the wild frenzy of
creed.
And the name of that passion that sways the world like a leaf is Love.
Voluptuous and effeminate as the splendid city of Ophir had become,
cringing as the masses of Israel were to the more accomplished
Elimites, the latter might not brave the fierce opposition that existed
against monarchy without appealing to the baser passions of the people.
The plan by which they hoped to gain complete ascendency in creed and
government was to introduce the last sensual step into the rites of
their worship, and so make religion to pander to lust, and lust in turn
to bind men more closely to their worship of the sun.
The judges deliberately planned to make Jokim, a Jewish Accadian, King
of Israel, because in all essentials necessary to their purpose he was
an Elimite, and also because of his Jewish origin he had long wielded
practically unlimited influence over the Jews. Jokim, who was an
artful, ambitious, self-contained man, had looked forward for years to
such a consummation and had diligently courted the favor of all classes
of people in Israel, by a show of great interest in their humble
affairs, and great apparent sympathy for the traditions of the nation.
But he knew full well that the slightest hint of his aspirations would
be fatal to his power with the people, and he cast about him for means
to bring about, in his time and for his benefit, the union of two human
passions that would overrule all opposition, and place him upon the
throne with power as absolute as that of Solomon, and as he dreamed,
with circumstances of glory that might even transcend that of the Wise
Man.
The plan, which was carefully discussed among the patrician classes,
was to introduce into their worship the office of a feminine deity, the
wife of the sun whom they called Metyta, or the Goddess of Generation.
The patricians boldly determined to work upon the credulity and
superstitions of the people through the agency of a beautiful woman
whom they resolved to clothe in the eyes of the people, with all the
majesty and power of deity, to represent her as the goddess of the
moon descended directly from that silvery orb, to teach truth to the
children of men.
With their knowledge of astronomy and the art of magic it was an easy
task for the blind leaders to lead the blind.
Jokim was not at a loss for a fit person to carry out his plans of
perfidy. Corinthia was a young woman of Ophir whose dazzling beauty of
form and feature has given her a fame upon the Western continent as
great as ever was enjoyed by the innocent cause of the Trojan war, or
by the Egyptian queen whose allurements caused Mark Antony to forget
all his ambitious plans and sacrifice all his glorious career to the
consuming passion which lured him to her feet.
As the mistress of Jokim, Corinthia’s career had been public enough
to excite the greatest admiration of the lordly class, shameless
enough to school her for acting such a part as was proposed for her,
and gorgeous enough in her natural beauty, decked out in the costliest
wardrobes that skill and wealth could provide, to completely blind
the Israelites themselves to her unscrupulous character. Besides,
the cunning of their choice was shown in the fact that the Elimites
foreswore their national prejudice, that they might carry out their
infamous scheme, by choosing this same Corinthia, whose mother was well
known to have been a Jewess, and thus had a strong claim upon both
classes of people. In order to give prestige to her name, and insure
obedience to her mandates, the judges determined to induct her into
regal power by a series of supernatural events or miracles that should
fill the minds of the Jews with superstitious fear of her power and
overawe all opposition that might arise.
Accordingly it was given out by the priests that visions had been seen
by them at various times, and with increasing frequency admonishing
them that the time had come when it pleased heaven to give the people
of Israel a ruler who should bring light and joy to the face of the
earth, but whose departure from the moon where she had long dwelt as
the wife of the sun, should cause that placid orb to hide her face in
bitter anguish.
It was expressly revealed to the priests that on a certain day, she,
upon whom heaven decreed the queenly spirit should fall, should see
her name in flaming letters on the wall of the temple, and she was to
be crowned queen of Israel and the goddess of the moon by the most
impressive and solemn rites. It was found on consultation that all
the priests had received such instructions, there being but little
difference in their versions of the vision, except that one or two of
them understood themselves as being pointed out as spiritual advisers
and confidential agents to the queen.
The day set for the selection and coronation of a queen by high
heaven was not far distant, and great excitement prevailed, and great
speculation as to whom the scepter should be given to. All Israel
thronged the city of Ophir on the day appointed, which was also a
Sabbath day, and at the hour of worship the temple gates were choked
with an eager crowd that filled the outer court to suffocation and
overflowed far back upon the adjacent streets.
The solemn rites of the Jewish worship were observed with unusual
unction. An air of subdued piety marked the ministrations of the
priests, and a hush of expectancy was over all the throng as the
services drew to a close, and at last when they were finished an
oppressive, brooding silence fell upon all.
Suddenly it began to grow dark, though the afternoon was but half
spent. Expectation gave way to fear in the minds of the ignorant
multitude, and they cowered and trembled in abject terror at this, as
they supposed, direct intervention of Providence.
Deeper and more deeply fell the gloom until the terror-stricken faces
of the crowd were hardly discernible to each other, when a pious
ejaculation from a priest who stood near the altar gazing upward,
attracted universal attention to a pale glow upon the draperies
overhanging the altar, and, as they all gazed, it brightened and took
form until it resembled live coals of fire, forming with fearful
distinctness the word “Corinthia.”
The priests prostrated themselves before the altar, and gave fervent
thanks for the signal favors bestowed by a kind Providence in thus
signifying his will so plainly to his people, and then harangued the
people on their happy lot to be thus led by the hand in the green
pastures of divine love, and exhorted them to beware of disobeying the
heavenly vision, or of being unfaithful to the duties that it involved
upon them as subjects of the lovely, wise, and virtuous queen whom the
will of heaven proclaimed at once as the daughter of heaven, the wife
of the sun, and queen of Israel.
As timely as the entangling of Abram’s ram for a sacrifice, by
providential coincidence, Corinthia, in her loveliest attire but deeply
veiled, was discovered among the throng, and all the wild thrills of
awe and all the hush of expectancy in the crowd reacted in vociferous
clamors of “God save Queen Corinthia.” The fickle mind of the rabble
full of deep-seated prejudice against a monarchy was turned in a
moment, and now flowed at flood tide in the channel carefully prepared
for it as the mold for the molten metal and as plastic in the hands
of the artful sons of Elim as is sand in the hands of the artisan who
shapes the mold.
Corinthia was hastily led forward by a high priest, her veil removed,
that her beauty might have its due effect upon the assembly; there she
was made to kneel down by the altar, and a crown was placed upon her
head, fitting it as perfectly as though molded to her temples, and
glorifying her wondrous beauty till exclamations of admiration fell
from every lip.
The ten judges advanced to the altar, and laying their hands upon hers
invested her with the scepter of power over Israel, acknowledged their
joyful allegiance to her in the name of their respective tribes. The
high priests besieged heaven in her behalf that wisdom and moderation
might be hers, and in behalf of Israel, that they might see clearly
in this demonstration of the Divine will that His pleasure would
follow their dutiful allegiance to the young queen and His heaviest
displeasure be visited upon those who should dishonor or disobey him in
her person.
Then as mysteriously as the crown was evolved from nonentity came a
gorgeous gold-clothed chair of state in the semblance of a throne;
the ten judges ranged themselves beside it, and Jokim, as the most
venerable and influential of them all, bowing himself humbly before
her, conducted the paragon of maiden beauty and virtue, and the plain
choice of heaven to the throne, seated her upon it, and did himself the
honor of being the first to prostrate himself before the first Queen of
the Ten Tribes of Israel.
He was quickly followed by the other nine judges, who likewise paid
their respects to the queen. Jokim and the others, now bowing low, and
facing the throne, gradually withdrew from the immediate presence. The
priests invoked anew the blessings of Providence upon their nation,
the ceremonies were done and the assembled multitudes broke forth into
wild shouts of enthusiastic professions of eternal allegiance to Queen
Corinthia.