Babylon--The Chaldeans were Priests, Philosophers,
Astronomers, Astrologers, and Soothsayers--Downfall of
Babylon predicted--Worship of the Medes and
Persians--Devils confined in an Egg--Sacred Fire--The
Gaures--Births and Deaths in Early Times--A narrow
Bridge--An immense Tree--Creation of Prophets--A Stone
to which Abraham tied his Camel--Adam and Eve's
Trysting Place--Black Art--Ways of discovering whether
a supposed Criminal was Guilty or Innocent--Looking
into Futurity--Canaanites, Syrians, and
Arabians--Strange Fables--Abraham breaking Heathen
Idols--Worship of the Egyptian Thorn--Altars--Religion
of the Carthagenians and Tyrians--Supremacy of the
Gods.
The great city of Babylon owed its origin to the ambition of the proud
people who built the tower of Babel. In course of time Babylon rose to
great grandeur, but superstition became so prevalent that it proved a
snare to the inhabitants. Like the heathen around, they worshipped
fire and images. The Babylonians pretended to great skill in
astrology, soothsaying, and magic. The Chaldeans, so called in a
strict sense, were a society of pretenders to learning, priests,
philosophers, astrologers, and soothsayers, who, it is said, dwelt in
a region by themselves, and the rest of the people were called
Babylonians. While Babylon was in its glory, prophets predicted that
dreadful judgments would befall it. And so it happened. On the very
night the destruction came, the king, alarmed by the mysterious
handwriting on the wall, consulted his magicians; and Daniel, who had
been made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and
soothsayers, made known the sad end of Belshazzar and his kingdom.
The Medes and Persians worshipped the sun, fire, water, the earth, the
winds, and deities without number. Human sacrifices, as in other
idolatrous countries, were offered by them, and they burned their
children in fiery furnaces appropriated to their idols. At first the
gods they worshipped were Arimanius, the god of evil, and Oromasdes,
the giver of all good. Plutarch says that Oromasdes created several
inferior gods or genii, and that Arimanius created many devils. The
former also created twenty-four devils, and enclosed them in an egg;
but the latter broke the egg, and by that means let out the demons,
and created a mixture of good and evil. The religion of the Persians
underwent a variety of revolutions. Temples were built for the worship
of fire, prior to which Magian priests kept the sacred fire burning on
mountain tops under considerable difficulties. They fed it with wood
stripped of the bark; they were prohibited from blowing the fire with
their breath or with bellows, lest it should be polluted. Had one done
either, he would have been punished with death. The Jews had the real
fire from heaven, and the Magi pretended to have received theirs from
the upper regions likewise.
The Gaures held that the earth was inhabited at first by two persons.
They had a tradition that Eve brought twins into the world every day,
and that for one thousand years death had no power over her seed. They
believed that a select company of angels were appointed guardians of
mankind, but that, notwithstanding this, evil increased: men grew
wicked and perverse in their ways, and therefore the deluge was sent
to sweep them away. The Gaures had their guardian angels for every
month and day throughout the year, and to them they devoted their
prayers. New Year's Day was a high day with them, and they had a great
many lucky and unlucky days.
The Persians hold that at the last judgment every man must pass along
a bridge no wider than a razor's edge; that the unbelievers and the
wicked will certainly in their passage fall into hell, there to be for
ever and ever tormented; but that the faithful shall be so guided and
supported that they shall pass the bridge swifter than a bird can fly
through the air, and enter into paradise, and seat themselves on the
banks of the river of delight, which, they say, is shaded by a tree
of such immense size, that if a man were to ride forty thousand years,
he would not pass the extent of one of its leaves. In Persia it was a
common belief that there were many prophets living between the days of
Adam and Mohammed, who were created before the world was made. Their
prophets, according to history, were possessed of the power of working
miracles; and charms and amulets were common in the country.
Pilgrims who went to Mecca invariably kissed a black stone, regarding
which there is a curious legend: Abraham, we are informed, tied his
camel to this stone when he went to sacrifice Ishmael, for the
Mohammedans represent Hagar as Abraham's lawful wife, and Ishmael his
heir. There is another tradition, that when Abraham was about to build
the Kaaba, held in great veneration, the stones marched thither of
themselves ready hewn and polished, and that the black stone, being
left out when the building was completed, demanded of Abraham why it
had not been used in the sacred structure. The prophet told the stone
not to be disappointed, for he would cause it to be more honoured than
any stone in the building, by commanding all the faithful to kiss it
as they went in procession. The faithful people were wont to meet at
the place which they supposed was Adam and Eve's trysting place after
the expulsion, for it is related in one of their legends that the
first man and woman wandered about the world, separately, hundreds of
years after the Fall.
The Persians were extremely addicted to the study and practice of the
black art and all magical incantations, supposing that by such
mysterious operations they could influence the elements and all the
products of nature. When any one was suspected to have died an
unnatural death, the surviving relatives consulted spirits, with the
view of discovering the cause of it. Sometimes the relatives alleged
that a spell had been cast on the spirits consulted, which prevented
their giving answers to interrogatories. In that case, magicians were
employed to remove the fascination. A suspected murderer was submitted
to a severe ordeal:--A particular liquid was poured upon the arm or
thigh of the unfortunate person; but before the fluid was used it was
boiled, while the supposed criminal's name was repeatedly mentioned.
The moment the liquid began to boil, they commenced to address their
imaginary spirits in the following terms: "Is the party on whom I pour
this water guilty or not? If he is, may it scald him and shrivel up
his skin." If the application of the boiling liquid did not injure the
suspected person he was declared innocent, but if it burned him he was
pronounced guilty. People anxious to know the result of approaching
warlike engagements put a vessel full of water, mixed with particular
ingredients, over a fire. As soon as the water commenced to boil they
performed magical incantations, which, as they imagined, irresistibly
attracted the titular genius of their enemies, and obliged the spirit
or god to plunge himself into it. In this painful situation they
confined him for a considerable time. When he had endured sufficient
penance to humble him, he was questioned relative to the success of
the war. The information sought was delivered, as the people thought,
through the appearance of the scum on the water. By turning a red-hot
pot upside down, attended with magical incantations, they imagined the
courage of their soldiers exposed to its heat could be raised.
Canaanites, Syrians, and Arabians were all superstitious, and given to
idolatry. These people had various idols, regarding which there are
strange fables. An idol worshipped by the Philistines and Syrians,
called Derceto, has an interesting history. Near Askelon there was a
deep lake, abounding with fish. Not far from the lake stood the temple
of this famous goddess, the mother of Semiramis, who had the face of a
woman, and the rest of her body resembling part of a fish, for which
the Syrians assigned the following reason:--Venus having conceived a
hatred against Derceto, caused her to fall in love with a young
Syrian, whom she subsequently murdered, and then threw herself into
the lake, where she was transformed into the shape of a fish with a
woman's face; for which reason the Syrians did not eat any fish, but
worshipped them as gods. There is a legend of Abraham, before he left
Ur of the Chaldeans, which exhibits the contempt he had of idols. It
is said he took an opportunity of breaking in pieces all the idols he
could reach, except Baal, and that he suspended about the neck of this
idol the axe with which he had performed the destruction. The people
coming to see what had been done, supposed that Baal was the author of
the mischief. Some say that Abraham accomplished the exploit in his
father's shop during his absence, and that Terah, returning home,
inquired how the work of destruction had taken place. Abraham told him
that the idols had quarrelled about an offering of flour that an old
woman had brought them, and that Baal had proved the strongest, and
broke all the rest to pieces.
The Arabians, Ishmael's offspring, were equally guilty of idolatry. So
far did they carry this sin, that they actually worshipped idols under
the shape of Egyptian thorns. In early times the thorns were adored in
the open fields, but subsequently altars and temples were erected for
their worship. The Arabians worshipped Assaf under the shape of a
calf; and they had a goddess named Beltha, supposed to be the Venus of
the Greeks. The Sabeans were the principal worshippers of this
goddess; and such was their devotion to her, that they regularly
presented to her a portion of their plunder.
The religion of the Carthaginians and Tyrians was horrid and
barbarous. Nothing of moment was undertaken without consulting the
gods, which was done in various ridiculous ways. Hercules was the god
in whom the people placed most confidence. He was invoked before they
went on any important expedition; and when their armies were
victorious, sacrifices were offered to him. One of the chief deities
that they worshipped was Urania, or the moon, to whom they appealed
when overtaken by calamities, such as drought, excessive rain,
destructive hail, thunder, and dangerous storms. Urania was the queen
of heaven mentioned in the Scriptures, to whom even the Jewish women
offered cakes, etc. Carthaginians, in worshipping Saturn, offered up
human sacrifices to him. Even princes and other great men were wont,
in times of distress, to sacrifice their most beloved children to this
deity. People who had not any children of their own, purchased infants
that they might offer them as victims to this idol, with the view of
inducing him to fulfil their desires. Diodorus relates that when
Agathocles was going to besiege Carthage, the people imputed all their
misfortunes to the anger of Saturn, because, that instead of offering
up to him children nobly born, he had been fraudulently put off with
the offspring of slaves and foreigners. To atone for past
shortcomings, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage
were sacrificed, and further, to obtain the god's favour, three
hundred adult citizens immolated themselves.
Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, was an idolator, as were also his
descendants. Nineveh was the seat of his empire. As the sun and moon
became early objects of worship among the Assyrians, so in later days
they adored the fire as their substitute,--a form of worship that was
common among the ancients in many lands. The Assyrians published
abroad that the gods of other nations could not stand before their
fire-gods. A competition took place. A vast number of idols were
brought from foreign nations, but as they were composed of wood, the
god Ur (or fire) consumed them. After many contests, an Egyptian
priest discovered a plan of destroying the reputation of this idol,
which had become the terror of alien people. He caused the hollow
figure of an image to be made of perforated earth, with the holes
stuffed with wax, and the large internal cavity filled with water. He
then challenged the god Ur to oppose his god Canopus,--a challenge
which was accepted by the Chaldean priests. No sooner did the heat
that was expected to devour the Egyptian idol begin to take effect,
than, the wax being melted, the water gushed out and extinguished the
fire. Before the Assyrian empire was joined to that of Babylon,
Nisroch was the god worshipped in Nineveh, and it was in the temple of
this idol that the great Sennacherib was murdered. This idol was in
the shape of a bird--a dove or an eagle--made, if we can believe the
Jewish rabbis, from a plank of Noah's ark. The people repented at the
preaching of Jonah, but it was not long before they relapsed into
their former idolatry and general wickedness.