[Illustration]
There had up to this time been many sects in the religion of the Ammi.
They all agreed simply in recognizing Shoozoo as its founder, and his
fight with the Alligator as the great transaction on which it rested.
There was early, however, a schism in the main body. One class had
drifted away from the worship of Shoozoo to the worship of his Alligator,
and in time they claimed that the Alligator was the god, instead of
Shoozoo. This came from their habit of using the alligator, or figures
representing it, as symbols of the Shoozoo religion, whereby the symbol
became in time more important than the thing symbolized. There were,
accordingly, in the Shoozoo religion, the pure Shoozoo party and the
Alligator party, and for nearly a generation a fierce controversy raged
between the two, resulting often in bloodshed.
The Alligator party, however, triumphed in the end, and many of the pure
Shoozooists were exiled, and have since lived among the Lali and other
apes, where they have continued to worship Shoozoo without any mixture
of the Alligator, and have converted back some of the Apes to their faith.
In time, however, the Alligator party came to be divided among
themselves, as the outgrowth of the same spirit. They accustomed
themselves to use, as the symbol of the Alligator, a dragon-fly (for the
alligator vanquished by Shoozoo was admitted to be a flying alligator
which somewhat resembled a dragon-fly), and by many the dragon-fly came
at length to be taken for the Alligator and to be worshipped as such.
A fight accordingly arose between the pure Alligator party and the
dragon-fly party that waxed more bitter than the original fight between
the Alligator party and the Shoozoo party. The dragon-fly party were in
the end victorious, and the Alligator party were slain or banished as
heretics, just as the pure Shoozoo party had been.
There was soon after this a like division among the successful Dragon-fly
party, and from a like cause. The people, finding it difficult to draw a
dragon-fly, represented it by a cross, or two lines drawn transversely,
the longer one representing the body of the fly, and the shorter one
its wings. This symbol, which was soon seen on all the utensils of the
Ammi, and frequently carved on trees and rocks, especially during the
controversy with the Alligator party, came at length to be taken for
the dragon-fly, and worshipped in its stead. This abuse was deplored
by some of the Ammi, who tried to recall the people to the worship of
the dragon-fly itself, and not its symbol. Others, however, had become
attached to the cross, and soon there was a violent controversy between
the dragon-fly party and the cross party, and the dragon-fly party fought
the cross party more than they had both together fought the Alligator
party. The cross party were successful, however, and the dragon-fly party
were compelled to keep quiet; for by this time they had learned the first
rudiments of religious tolerance, and stopped killing and banishing the
dissenters, provided only that they would not preach their doctrines in
public, or attempt to disturb the established faith.
Soon, however, the cross party was rent with dissensions, one class
insisting on worshiping the long beam of the cross, and the other
the short beam; and there was soon the long-beam cross party and the
short-beam cross party in the church, and the long-beam party fought
the short-beam party more than the whole cross party had before fought
the dragon-fly party. The short-beam party insisted at last on making
the short beam as long as the long beam, forming something like a Greek
Cross, which finally came to be their symbol, while the long-beam party
came in time to omit the short beam altogether and use only a one-beam
cross; and they took as their symbol a straight line.
The short-beam cross party, however, were successful, and they greatly
persecuted the long-beam party, though with less severity than their
predecessors had done, because the spirit of religious liberty was always
in the ascendant.
The short-beam cross party, however, soon broke up into other sects owing
to disputes about the nature and form of the short-beam cross, which
gave the long-beam cross party (which had at length become the one-beam
cross party) an opportunity to urge its claims, and there was a reaction
among the short-beam cross party in favor of the long-beam cross party,
which gained many converts, and at one time threatened the disruption of
the short-beam cross party; and it would doubtless have accomplished this
but for a great reformation which now swept over the religious world of
the Ammi.
This was a movement in favor of restoring the primitive religion of
Shoozoo, or the worship of the Alligator. It was led by one Lookoo,
who was afterwards known as the Great Reformer. With a fiery zeal and
vigorous eloquence he called the attention of the Ammi to the fact
they had got away entirely from their original faith, which was in the
Alligator, and, instead, were worshipping short crosses and long crosses.
“Neither short crosses nor long crosses,” said he, “are anything, but
only alligators. Not even a dragon-fly will avail you, but only the
original Alligator of Shoozoo, who occupies the Swamp and flies through
the air. He gives us warmth in the sun, and comes to the earth in
lightning to punish his enemies. He is the Lord of the Ammi, and will put
to flight the Lali and all monkeys beyond the Swamp. He led our fathers
out from the Apes, gave us Cocoanut Hill, taught us to make darts and
wedges, and led us to build houses. Our gathered fruits are due to his
guidance, and by his jaws the reptiles of the great forest are kept
in fear. Return, then, to your allegiance to the great Alligator, the
companion of Shoozoo and equal deity with him.”
Lookoo gained many adherents, not only because it was evident to all the
Ammi that they had departed from their god for his successive symbols,
but because the priests of the short-beam cross religion had established
the custom of drinking all the milk in the Cocoanut, which they had
taught the rest of the Ammi that it was sacrilege for anybody to drink
but the priests. The reformation, accordingly, gained headway out of a
desire on the part of the common people to get some of this milk, as well
as out of a change in theological convictions. There was a general demand
for reform, and some of the worst, as well as some of the best men, were
active in the movement. The priests made the principal opposition to it,
although a few of them, in the hope of preferment, or because they had a
grievance against the other priests, joined the new movement and became
its leaders.
The reformation was generally successful. Some, however, refused to be
led away by it, but became more devoted than ever to the short-beam cross
worship, and cultivated such a devotion for the short-beam cross as had
never been known. They were commonly known as the clerical or priestly
party, and constituted the conservatives until the time of the great
earthquake just mentioned. They insisted on retaining all that their
ancestors had handed down to them, the very fact that it had come from
antiquity being evidence of its truth; while the Reformers claimed the
right of going back to original sources and re-establishing themselves on
the truth of the great Alligator.
The tendency to skepticism and the introduction of new gods, deplored by
Lookoo, as well as the explanation of the Alligator and other theological
truths as phenomena of nature—fire, earthquake, wind, etc.—has generally
been found among the Reformers, who early tried to explain all religion
away, or else resolve it into natural causes and effects.