The illustration of Brahm, the androgynous creator of the Hindus,
“is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindu pundit for
Wm. Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its
mythology. It represents Brahm supreme, who in the act of creation made
himself double, _i.e._, male and female. In the original the central
part of the figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too
grossly shown for reproduction here. They are replaced by the _Crux
Ansata_ [a cross and circle representing the male and female elements
in nature]. The reader will notice the triad and the serpent in the
male hand, whilst in the female is to be seen a germinating seed,
indicative of the relative duties of father and mother. The whole
stands upon a lotus, the symbol of androgyneity. The technical word for
this incarnation is _Arddha Nari_.” (Inman’s “Ancient Faiths.”)
The illustration of the god Siva, nursed by his virgin-wife-mother,
Parvati, requires some explanation. The right hand of the virgin makes
the symbol of the yoni (female principle) with the forefinger and
thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the triad. In the palm and on
the navel is a lozenge, emblematic of woman. In the infant’s hand is
one of the many emblems of the linga (male principle), whilst under his
feet a lotus supports his body. The monkey is emblematic of the carnal
desire. The relationship existing between the mother and child was of a
twofold nature. The deities of the ancients were usually androgynous,
and thus each of the members of the Hindu triad possessed two parts, a
male half and a female half, which he inherited from his androgynous
parent Brahm, whose female principle brought forth the three essences,
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Thus each god became the husband as well as
the son of the divine female principle, just as _Virgo_ of the zodiac
was both mother and wife of the sun-god of the annual revolution,
mother at his birth at the winter solstice and wife at his ascension
at the summer solstice. The female part or wife-mother of Siva was the
virgin goddess Parvati; of Vishnu, Lakshmi; of Krishna, Devaki; of
Indra, Indranee; of Horus, Isis; etc.
The illustration of the amulet of the double _Crux Ansata_, represents
the female principle at the top in the shape of a ring (which has the
same meaning as the winged disc, cup, and shell, or _Concha Veneris_);
the male principle in full vigour on the right side in the shape of a
cross (male organ of generation in the original); the unprolific male
principle of infancy on the underneath side, also in the shape of a
cross (infantine male organ in the original); and the act of generation
on the left side, in the shape of a clenched hand, with the thumb bent
across the back of the first finger.
The illustration of god incarnate with man represents the saviour of
the world—ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΟΣΜΟΥSÔTÊR KOSMOU—as a cross, or phallic symbol (an
erect male organ in the original), which forms the beak on the head
of a cock, the symbol of the rising sun, the whole resting on the
shoulders of a man, symbolical of the incarnation of god and man.
The illustration of the amulet in Mr. Townley’s museum represents the
female principle at the top, in the form of a circle, under which
is the victorious sun-god of the vernal equinox, in the shape of a
bull’s head with a cross or phallic symbol (erect male organ in the
original) on either side of the mouth, the whole being emblematic of
the sexual union of the powers of heaven and earth, and the consequent
regeneration of nature at the spring equinox.
Mafuca, whose portrait is given in the following pages, was a female
ape from the Loango coast, placed in the Dresden Zoological Gardens.
Hartmann, in his “Anthropoid Apes,” describes her as being “120 cm.
in height, reminding us in many respects of the gorilla. The face was
prognathous; the ears were comparatively small, placed high on the
skull, and projecting outwards; the supra-orbital arch was strongly
developed; the end of the nose was broad; and there were rolls of fat
on the cheeks.” K. Th. von Siebold also classed her as a gorilla; but
Bolau and A. B. Meyer opposed this view; while Bischoff, judging by the
structure of the brain, thought she was a chimpanzee. Now it is pretty
generally believed that she was either a cross between the gorilla and
the chimpanzee, or else a member of a distinct species of anthropoids
intermediate between the gorilla and the chimpanzee. In Hartmann’s
account of Mafuca we read that she was “a remarkable creature, not
only in her external habits, but in her disposition.... She hardly
obeyed anyone except Schöpf, the director of the gardens, and when
in a good humour she would sit on his knee and put her muscular arms
round his neck with a caressing gesture.... Mafuca was able to use a
spoon, although somewhat awkwardly; and she could pour from larger
vessels into smaller ones without spilling the liquor. She took tea
and cocoa in the morning and evening, and a mixed diet between whiles,
such as fruit, sweetmeats, red wine and water, and sugar.... If she
was left alone for any time she tried to open the lock of her cage
without having the key, and she once succeeded in doing so. On that
occasion she stole the key, which was hanging on the wall, hid it in
her axilla [arm-pit], and crept quietly back to her cage. With the key
she easily opened the lock; and she also knew how to use a gimlet. She
would draw off the keeper’s boots, scramble up to some place out of
reach with them, and throw them at his head when asked for them. She
could wring out wet cloths, and blow her nose with a handkerchief.
When her illness began, she became apathetic, and looked about with a
vacant, unobservant stare. Just before her death, from consumption, she
put her arms round Schöpf’s neck when he came to visit her, looked at
him placidly, kissed him three times, stretched out her hand to him,
and died.” It may be added to this that Mafuca exhibited the greatest
decorum and modesty in the performance of all her daily and other
natural functions.
Aidanill, the hairless Australian, is a good specimen of a low type of
human being; having a superciliary prominence greater than is usually
found amongst races of men, with a remarkably small cranial capacity
and almost entire absence of frontal development. The skull, in fact,
differs but little from that of Mafuca, given beneath it; and its owner
belonged to those races described on p. 14 of “Evolution of Mind.”
The Swaheli Negro is a good specimen of the dolichocephalic prognathous
type of head, considerably higher in intellectual capacity than that of
Aidanill.
The hands are intended to illustrate the close resemblance between
the hand of a gorilla and that of a man belonging to the Hammeghs
of the Nubian Soudan. It will be observed that while the fingers of
the gorilla are webbed, the second and third fingers of the man are
slightly webbed and his thumb and first finger very considerably
webbed.