Ethiopian Superstition--Sacred Bread--Customs of
Ethiopian Monks--Heathen Indian Gods--Paraxacti and
her three Sons--Thirty thousand millions of Gods--Fate
of a Child written on its Forehead--Transmigration of
Souls--Seven Seas--Mountain of Gold--Adder of
monstrous size with a Hundred Heads--Vixnu--Dispute
between Bruma, Vixnu, and Rutrem--Curse pronounced
against the Thistle--Iranien the
Giant--Transformation--Morning Star--Vixnu's different
Forms--A King's Head kicked into the lowest
Abyss--Prediction by Soothsayers--A Tyrant's
Intentions frustrated--Vixnu's Guilt and Punishment;
his Marriages and supposed future
Appearance--Rutrem--A Son with Seven Heads--The Seven
Stars as Nurses--Parvardi's Loss of her Husband and
Birth of a Son--Rutrem's Revenge and its
Consequences--The Indians' Offering to the Sun--The
Ganges--The Giant Piamejuran--Superstitious
Observances at Marriages--Disposal of Dead
Bodies--Different degrees of Glory after
Death--Reverence for the Cow--Ways of detecting
Criminals--Addressing Oracles--Astronomy--Eclipse of
the Moon--Magic--John Gondalez.
In Ethiopia, superstition was general over the entire empire. The
Ethiopians used a sacred bread, called the corban. While this bread
was being made, the baker was obliged to repeat seven psalms. Upon
every loaf there were twelve impressions of the cross, and each cross
was within a square. Ethiopian monks slept on a mat spread on the
ground, and before lying down they stretched out their hands one
hundred and fifty times in the form of a cross. Baptism was understood
by the people of this empire to be a solemn ceremony that washed away
all impurities; but the rite was observed by nearly all the ancient
nations, in memory of the Deluge.
In an account of the empire of the Great Mogul, we find no end of
superstitious observances. Each heathen Indian tribe had a separate
god. Some tribes even worshipped boiled rice; after the same manner
the Egyptians paid homage to leeks. Indian writers say that, in the
beginning, a woman, whose name was Paraxacti (brought into existence
by the great Creator), had three sons,--the first named Bruma, who
came into life with five heads. He was endowed with the power of
creating all inferior beings. The name of the second was Vixnu,
appointed lord of providence and preserver of all things formed by
Bruma. The third was named Rutrem, whose function or inclination was
to destroy all things his other two brothers had made and preserved.
Rutrem, like his brother Bruma, had five heads. Bruma assumed the form
of a stag; and, to punish him for a serious crime he committed when in
that shape, his brothers and thirty thousand millions of gods punished
him by cutting off one of his heads.
According to the notions of Indian heathens, Bruma writes upon the
forehead of every child an account of all that shall happen to him in
the world. It is reported of Vixnu that he metamorphosed himself at
pleasure. He first took the form and nature of a fish, and the second
form assumed was that of a tortoise. The Indians believed there were
seven seas in the world,--one of milk, of so delicious a nature that
the gods ate butter made of it. One day, when the gods wanted to feast
on the butter according to custom, they brought to the shore of the
milk sea a high mountain of gold, which supported fourteen worlds that
composed the universe. The uppermost part of the mountain served for a
resting place, and over it was brought an adder of monstrous size,
having a hundred heads. The gods made use of this adder as a rope, in
order to get at the butter more easily; but while they were attempting
to procure the butter, the giants, who had a continual hatred against
the gods, drew the adder on the other side with so much violence that
it shook the whole universe, and sunk it so low, that Vixnu, in his
tortoise form, placed himself under it and supported it. Meanwhile the
hundred-headed adder, being unable any longer to endure the pain the
gods and giants inflicted on him, vomited poison upon the giants,
which killed many of them on the spot. Vixnu afterwards assumed the
form of a beautiful woman, and such of the giants as remained alive
fell in love with the fair being. In this guise, he amused the giants
till the gods had eaten all the butter.
In his third incarnation, Vixnu changed himself into the form of a
hog, in consequence of the following circumstance:--One day a contest
arose between the three gods, Bruma, Vixnu, and Rutrem, regarding the
extent of their power. Rutrem undertook to go and hide himself, and at
the same time promised to submit himself to him who should first
discover his head and feet; but if they could not find these parts,
then the baffled gods were to acknowledge him their superior. Bruma
and Vixnu having agreed to this proposal, Rutrem vanished, and hid his
head and feet in places a great distance from each other, where he
imagined they could not be found. Bruma, in the likeness of a swan,
commenced to search for the head, but, finding he could not obtain any
trace of it, he resolved to return home. Just, however, as he was
going to give up the search, he met the thistle flower, which came and
saluted him, and showed the place where Rutrem had hid his head.
Rutrem, exasperated, cursed the flower, and forbade it ever to enter
his presence. For this reason, his followers prevented thistles being
brought into their temples in any part of the East Indies.
For the purpose of finding the feet, Vixnu transformed himself into a
hog, and went from place to place digging into the earth, but without
success. For cogent reasons, Vixnu next assumed the form of a man and
lion at the same time. Rutrem, it appears, conceived a strong
friendship for one Iranien, a mighty giant, and granted him the
privilege that no one should kill him either by day or by night.
Instead of the giant proving grateful, he became proud and
overbearing, and even insisted on being worshipped as a god. To punish
the giant, Vixnu suddenly appeared before him in the form of a cloud,
and then, taking the monster shape of a being half-man half-lion,
resolved to take vengeance on the ungrateful wretch. In the evening,
when Iranien was standing at the threshold of his door, Vixnu sprang
at him, tore him to pieces, and drank his blood. But the blood
affected Vixnu so much that he became stupid. Vixnu's fifth
transformation was into a dwarf. At that time a cruel king's subjects
appealed to Vixnu to relieve them of their oppressor, and, to carry
out the people's desire, he, in the form of a dwarf, went to the city
where the tyrant kept court. The dwarf begged from the king a grant of
three feet of ground whereon to build himself a house. The tyrant was
about to comply with the request, when the morning star, which
attended the king in the character of secretary of state, suspected
there was treason in the case. It was common, when requests were
granted, for the king to take water into his mouth and pour some of it
into the hand of the suppliant, and therefore the secretary, by the
assistance of magic, slipped imperceptibly down the prince's throat,
in order to prevent the water being thrown out. The magic had not the
desired effect; for the king, finding something in his throat, forced
a sharp instrument into it, which put out one of the secretary's eyes,
and the water gushed out, ratifying the agreement. Vixnu changed
himself into a monster so large that the whole earth was not
sufficient to afford room for his feet. He then said to the king, "You
have given me three feet of earth, and yet the whole world can
scarcely contain one of my feet: where am I to place the other?" The
tyrant, seeing deserved wrath awaiting him, laid his head down before
Vixnu, who with one kick tossed it into the lowest abyss of hell. The
wretched king, finding himself condemned to such a place of torment,
begged pardon and mercy of Vixnu, but all the favour he received was
one day's respite every year, to enable him to take part at a
particular ceremony, to be observed in commemoration of his own
downfall and punishment.
Vixnu's sixth form was that of a white man. He subdued many tyrants,
and washed his hands in their blood. In this form he destroyed many
giants, and compelled all the apes in the country to attend him. The
last form Vixnu assumed was that of a black man, in which likeness his
cunning and success were not less marked than when he was disguised in
several of his former shapes. Here is another story told of
him:--There was a great tyrant named Campsen, a violent persecutor of
good men, who had a sister called Exudi. It happened that the
soothsayers, of whom there were many in the country, having consulted
the stars, told the king that Exudi would have eight children, and
that the youngest of them would kill him. This enraged the monarch so
much that he destroyed seven of her children as soon as they were
born. Notwithstanding the natural affliction of the princess, she
became pregnant for the eighth time, but, wonderful to relate, of no
less a personage than the god Vixnu, who, unknown to her, succeeded in
finding a place in her womb. Fearing the child would be conveyed
beyond his reach as soon as it was born, the king placed spies
everywhere to prevent the young prince's escape. The supposed father
of the child succeeded in carrying him away, and placing him under the
care of shepherds far up the mountains. Every effort was made by the
baffled monarch to discover the young prince, and at last he found
him. Desiring to be the executioner himself, he went and laid hold of
the child to murder him. Just as the hand was raised to inflict the
fatal blow, the prince vanished, and in his room appeared a little
girl, whom the tyrant also attempted to kill; but she too, after
mocking the king, disappeared uninjured. Vixnu grew from boyhood to
manhood, when he raised an army against Campsen, whom he defeated and
slew with his own hands, fulfilling the prediction of the soothsayers.
Vixnu married two wives, but, neither of them pleasing him, he
divorced them and espoused sixteen thousand shepherdesses. The people
imagined that he would appear some time or another in the form of a
horse, but thought that until that metamorphosis took place he would
wallow in a sea of milk, with his head supported by a beautiful snake.
We are informed that Rutrem, the third son of Paraxacti, was much
respected by the people, though, judging from the accounts transmitted
to us, the wonder is that he was not detested. He married Parvardi,
daughter of a king, whose dominion was in the mountains, with whom he
lived a thousand years; but his two brothers, Bruma and Vixnu, having
disapproved of the match, gathered together the thirty thousand
millions of gods, and went in search of him. Accordingly he was found
and dragged away from his wife, which caused him to wander up and down
the earth in search of forbidden pleasures. One day the earth gave him
a son with seven heads; but as a nurse could not be got to bring up
the child, the seven stars undertook the task. Parvardi, disconsolate
at the loss of her husband, went in search of him, but could not
discover his place of abode. In her lonely state, she begged the gods
would give her a son,--a request that was complied with, for a
man-child dropped out of the sweat of her forehead. In the meantime
Rutrem returned to his house, and, finding the child, became
exceedingly enraged. His anger, however, turned into love on being
informed of the miraculous manner in which he was born. The king of
the mountains made a feast, to which the gods were invited, but
Rutrem, his son-in-law, was not asked. This want of respect provoked
him so much that he went to the banquet, and, laying hold of one of
the gods, tore off a handful of hair from his head. From the hair a
giant of enormous size started up, whose head reached to the
firmament, and struck the sun with so great violence that all its
teeth were knocked out. For this reason, the Indians refused to offer
anything to the sun but what could be eaten without teeth. Not
satisfied with knocking out the teeth of the sun, he bruised the moon
so severely that the marks remain to the present day. He then killed
several of the guests, among whom was his step-son, created from the
sweat of his mother's forehead. Vinayaguien (that was the youth's
name) lost his head, and had it replaced with that of an elephant. In
the disfigured state into which he was turned, his father dispatched
him in search of a wife as beautiful as his mother,--a task that
proved endless, because there could not be found a woman equal in
beauty to his maternal parent.
Rutrem married the River Ganges, which was represented under the form
of a blooming woman. At that time there was a giant named Piamejuran,
who had for several years undergone a severe penance for having
offended Rutrem, but, becoming sensible of his offence, desired to be
absolved. The favour was granted him, with the privilege of reducing
to ashes everything he laid his hands upon. The power with which he
was endowed proved his death. One day he went to the Ganges to bathe,
and, lifting his hand to his forehead, it reduced him to dust.
At their marriages, the Indians were very superstitious, and paid
great regard to omens. The consent of the parents being obtained, and
a fortunate day appointed, the parties met with the relations, when
the bridegroom threw three handfuls of rice on the head of the bride,
and she cast an equal quantity at him. Part of the marriage ceremony
consisted of the fathers of both bridegroom and bride putting a piece
of money and a small quantity of water into the bride's hand. This
being done, the bridegroom hung a ribbon, with a coin attached to it,
round her neck.
As soon as a man died, his beard was shaved, his body washed, lime put
into his mouth, and women rubbed his face with rice. When the body was
burned, the deceased's ashes were thrown into the Ganges, for the
water of that river was supposed to have a virtuous and holy influence
on whatever it touched. The Brahmins believed that there were five
different degrees of glory after death. Bruma, with his wife
Sarassuadi, was in the fourth state attended by a large swan, on which
he rode abroad, this god being supposed to be exceedingly fond of
travelling. None but the most innocent were exalted to the fifth seat
of glory.
Cows' dung was spread over the floors of Indian temples; and such was
the people's reverence for the cow, that when sacrificing they poured
milk on their altars. Their priests pretended that their gods had
oracles, by which they could foretell future events. When several
persons were suspected of stealing anything, and the guilty one could
not be discovered by ordinary means, the priests wrote the names of
the suspected persons on different pieces of paper, and laid them down
before the altar, and invoked their oracle, after which they locked
the doors, so that no person could get in. When they returned and
found any paper removed, the person whose name was on it was declared
to be the criminal. On the priests addressing their oracles, they
became so excited that they remained for hours seemingly in great
agony. After recovering, they explained to the people the sayings of
the oracles. The Indians had tables of astronomy which they
consulted. When the moon was eclipsed, they believed she was fighting
with a black devil.
The Indians supposed that by means of magic a man could change himself
into the form of a lion or any other animal he chose. We have heard of
one John Gondalez, who changed himself into the shape of a lion, and
in that form was shot by a Spaniard. The day on which Gondalez was
fired at he was reported to be sick. A clergyman was called in to take
his confession. The pious man, in giving an account of what he saw and
heard, said, "I saw Gondalez's face and nose all bruised, and asked
him how he had received the injuries. He told me that he had fallen
from a tree and nearly killed himself. After this he accused the
Spaniard of shooting at him. The affair was inquired into by a Spanish
justice of the peace. My evidence was taken, and I told what Gondalez
had said to me regarding his fall. The Spaniard swore that he had shot
at a lion in a thick wood, where an Indian was not likely to be."
Gondalez was examined as to how he was not seen by the Spaniard when
he went to look for the lion; to which he replied that he ran away
lest the Spaniard should kill him. As Gondalez's dealings with the
devil were well known to all in the neighbourhood, it was held that he
had received his injuries when roaming as a four-footed beast; and
therefore the justice discharged the Spaniard.