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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droitei, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants lllustrent !a mdthode 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■■p KPMPM NEW MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF MAN, DBRITBD FROM A COMP\EISON OF THE CALENDARS AND FESTIVALS OF NATIONS. BY R. G. HALIBURTON, F. 8. A, No. I. THE FESTIVAL OF THE DEAD. If the festivalB of the old Greeks, Eonans, Persians, Egyptians and Ooihs, could be arranged with exactness in the same form with these Indian tables, there would be found, lam persuaded, a 4^4< i. II. to it. We need noi ask whether any sincere Chrirtiai;, but rvhether any honest man, would for a moment justify us :n shunning an enquiry that has not boon willingly entered into, and that could not with propriety bavo been avoided. Shall the Hindoo say to us, " you have ccroe from the uttermost parts of the earth to try our traditions by a test, which jou dare not apply to your own " ? Until the facta mentioned in p. 13, attracted my attention, I had never entertained any doubts as to our narrative being in all its de.ails of an historical character. The points that have arisen, and which have hitherto escaped observation, must necessarily have forced themselves upon my notice, if no question had ever been raised on the subject, and if the incidents of that event had come down to us divested of all those difficulties that have suggested themselves to geologists and to matter-of- fact logicians. Those investigations into the calendars and festivals of nations were commenced partly as an amusement, and partly as being likely to lead to important results as respects ethnology. During the past nine years the subject of the Deluge did not appear to be connected with these researches, or was avoided as not being an inviting or necessary branch of enquiry. As I ami not qualified by my tastes or by my stuc'.ies for theological con- troversies, I must leave this important question to Divines, r.nd to those more worthy or more competent to discuss it than myself; and I am only too happy to refer them to Sir William Jones, Bryant and Greswell, as far more reliable authorities on the subject than myself. My inferences were arrived at by a tedious comparison of calendars, festivals, symbols and traditions; while those eminent authors lead us to conclusions, some of which being based on chronology, are the more important, as they can be reduced to a simple matter of arithmetical calculation. The only portion of the paper on the Festival of the Dead to which I would invite attention respecting this subject, is that (p. 84) in which it is attempted to be shewn that these invostigation'i suggest a new expla- nation for the difficulties in our narrative, and lead us to infer that it embodied primitive traditions in language in accordance with tbe re- markable peculiarities of the age in which it was written ; and that it was intended and understood to be partly a memorial of the Flood, and partly a record of a great philosophical trutb that was a heritage from primeval man. This truth, it is clear, must have been a gift from the Deity to qur first Darents, a gift by which the beneficent 'esign of the Creator, that *• thWights in the firmament of the heaven" should be for '• siffnt and for seasons and for days and years,'* was accomplished, from tho •W^wfefw^^wwiWi 1 \ 111. verj hour when creation gave birth to time and to humanity. The divine origin of this heritage must have been long trepsured »ip In the memory of men* The aacjred 7hu of the Egyptians, always placed in the hacds of their divinitieu, was regarded an " one of the greatest gifts bestowed by the Deity on man." This symbol, I have endeavored to show.t was the em- blem of the primeval calendar, which still exists in the Southern Hemis- phere, as the year of the Tau or of the Matarli (the Pleiades.) Hut unlike the Hebrews, the heathen nations of old appear to have turned the blessing into a curse, and to have confounded the gift with the giver ; and thus Time or the Year converted int» a God, and conceRled from the eyes of men in a veil of mystery, became the fruitful parent ^f many Deitieo.t Common sense, as well as common justice, demands that critics should test our history jf tne Deluge, as they would examine any literary pro- duction of remote antiquity, by the light of the age in which it was written. If we remember the s'-. lar tendency to make use of aatrono- • See extracts from GtMivfCt, j.. 27 ; also note to p. 7:\. T See note p. 78. t It will not f)e amisa to mention here a fact that hnn hitherto escaped w notice which confirms tlio view that the Festival of the Demi was re^'uiated by the tleiades! It would appear that the ancients coMil)ined with their worship of Time or the Year, their superstitious veneration for dcceaaed ancenors. Honco the coinmemo- rution of the dead became a new year's festival, a.id the Pleiades wers regarded oa the Stars of Death or ot the ^od of the dead. It has been conjectured by me, tliar the Aiwn tabtn, v?hosc mysteries wore so venerated by aitrient nations) wore thi seven 1 leiades, and that their name like that of the Cal>arips of MadaL'ascar. and of the Anatr Allan cor, olK>rp.rs, was derived from the Sanuing word kabis (death), nf iHSi rr't"" ''" '»'« I'xJi'^n Archipelajro. (II. p. 142,) gives a vocabulary of 18 dialects which, h,j says, belong it. common with those found throughout the Jhf wLi ?" ,' '"u""" «'-l.vno,sian langua-o. On examining it we find that the word for death, which in one instance is hihis, in 10 out of the 18 dialects selected, occurs as imiti, mate, iwttai, or mort^. We can hardlv doubt that Matarii 18 synonymous with Cabin, and that both mean the Stars of Death. The sieni(i- la'^^i"!-. f Pplyne^^>«n name fV,r the Pleiades, Matarii, will bo more apparent, if we HuUtitute for matai the word morte, nd call them the .l/or^mV.-See notes to pp. 18 and 47 ; also pp. 30, .5.5, 74. y2y 101. It may also be as well to explain a point to which I have not hitherto referred. ' res,,ecting our history of the Deluge. I have assumed that the year indicated b^ it, consisted of months of 30 days eiu-h, as the interval between the 1 7th day of the 2nd month, and the 17th day of the 7th, is apparently described as 150 days. If the term "t,et other sf.ven days" in v. 10, has the meaning to vhich some commen- tators assign to It, It supplies an additional proof of the nKtronomical nature of the lanative ; as we find that the first occasion, when the dove was sent forth, was on the 17thdayof the 11th month; the second (when it letumed wiib .he olire leaf or branch) was on ti 2l8t of August, when the . ..imles culi.inate a^ sun. rise; and the third when it finally left the ark, wa« on the ^Sth of August which was the last day of the Egyptian year, and among the ancient I^omans "-, a conspicuous aaniversary, as it still is among the Chinese and Japanese. The chronological evidence, however, to which I have referred, is much more satisfac- tory than inferences derived from calendars, which must he more or less the subiect of conjecture, or at least oi doubt and discussir,,,, The suIm touched .l»K,n here lis alluded to m notf, ],. 50, ;m.| nho in p. 5-4. ^ ' ■ . V. ^ ..J\ IV. niical parahlos or allcgoriefi, that ihon oiistcd, a toruiencj that must have been palpable and familiar to all men, though it too soon became among heathen nations the perverted source of pagan mythology,* we can see that equal injustice is done to that portion of the Holy Scriptures by those who insist on its being of a strictly historical nature, and by those, who cavilling at imaginary difficulties, deny its inspired character, and seek to debase it into a senseless fable. To discuss such a question in a spirit of bitterness or recrimination, would be to degrade it into a battle field for rival critics. I feel per- suaded that all the difficulties we imagine to exist, will be removed by a candid consideration of the subject ; that to invite a verdict on the ques- tion whether our account of the Deluge is an historical narrative or an empty fiction, would be to stake the truth on a false issue, and would be asking the reason or the faith of the Nineteenth Century to sit in judg- ment on the production of an age, the spirit of which must have been altogether foreign and opposed to the genius and modes of thought of the present day. '^ It ifl plain that the discussion of this subject must sooner or later be in- evitable. We may silence, but we cannot stifle enquiry; nor can we ti^ansfer to the next generation the responsibility whi.sh has devolved upon ourselves. ^ How any person of ordinary intelligence can either question the inspired charaoter of the Holy Scriptures, or deprecate fair and honest investigation into truth, seems incomprehensible. Those who object to science as dan- gerous to revelation, might as reasonably close our observatories, lest en- quiries mto the spots on the sun might load men to doubt its luminous nature or might diminish the rays by which it diffu.ses the light of day throughout the world. ^ ^SP^' INTRODUCTION. Tbe following paper contains the results of investigations commenced in 1853. Accident drew my attention to the antiquity of popular- customs, a point long known to the learned, and to the public through Brand's Popular Antiquities and other works. Finding that some of the super- stitions and observances of the peasantry of the Mother Country are to be found among the Indian tribes of America, I felt convinced that if the fact could be established, it would open up a new mine of materials for the history of man, and would probably establish the unity of origin of our race. It was however apparent that in order to ascertain what are' uni- versal customs and festivals, it was necessary to devote several years to the somewhat wearisome task of collecting data, out of which to select materials for these investigations. Accordingly I devoted my leisure to this very laborious undertaking, in the course of which I found the number of universal customs far greater, and the identity between them much more striking than I had anticipated. Having had rather unexpectedly to visit England in 1859, T thought it advisable to prepare a brief paper for the Society of Antiquaries of London, and accordingly selected customs con- nected with All Souls Day as a subject. On outlining it in England, it was apparent that the coincidences in the observance of the festival by different nations were much more striking than I had supposed. But a new and most startling fact was discovered when I came to read over the paper I had prepared. Rivero had remarked that it was singular that the festival of the dead among^the ancient Peruvians was celebrated on the same dav as by the Spaniards, viz., on All Souls Day, November 2nd. I had also con- sidered this merely as a curious coincidence ; but it was apparent on reading over the results of my investigations, that the festival was general- ly observed in November south as well as north of the »^quator, a fact so remarkable that it was evident that whatever could be the cause, it must be something hitherto unknown to astronomers and to historians. I there- fore did not regret that my having to return to America before the time when I was to have read the paper at a meeting of the Society of Anti- quaries, gave me an opportunity of investigating this very remarliable question, before bringing the subject to the notice of the public. From 1869 until the present year, all the leisure that could bo spared from public and private engagements, has been devoted to^ enquiry. It wai Jill 11. ' evident that the uniformity could not have been caused or preserved by any calendar now known to us. and that the festival must originally have been regulated by some visible sign or mark that nature had supplied to our ancestors and to the Peruvians. Suspecting that the rising of some constellation must have been the guide by which in remote ages this festival was regulated, I turned my attention to the Pleiades, as Humbolt alludes to the remarkable traditions that existed respecting them throughout ancient Europe and Asia. I found November, in India, called the month of the Pleiades ; but it was perfectly clear that that constellation rises, not in November but at the beginning of summer. The following paper will show how the problem was worked out by the aid of the xVustralian festival of the Pleiades in November. But after the fact that in ancient times the festival of the dead must have been regulated by the Pleiades, had been demonstrated, a further difficulty arose : the Pleiades rose nearly a month earlier 2000 years ago than they now do ; hence the festival must have once fallen in October, or the months must have in some way moved onward in the same ratio with the progression of the year cf the Pleiades. The results of my investigations on this point, if correct, will be new, and not a little interesting to astro- nomers. A remarkable fact, however, was incidentally forced upon my attention : that the memory of the deluge was by the Mexicans, the Egyptians and the Jews associated with the same time of the year, and in the two latter countries as well as in Greece, was attached to the 17th day of the month ; and with that day I had found some very peculiar superstitions connected, in the Pacific Islands as well as among most ancient nations. Among the Aztecs as well as the Egyptians the deluge was commemorated at the beginning of the year of the Pleiades, ^. e. when that constellation culmi- nated at midnight. A subsequent examination of the traditions as to Taurus having once opened the year, proved that that constellation among almost all nations was connected with the deluge. Further investigation as to the origin of the use of eggs a.s a symbol of the beginning of the year made it evi- dent that a bird was associated with the beginning of time, and with creation, and that the Deluge and Time were considered as si,nonymou$ by the ancients. The fruits of these enquiries into these curious facts have been very r- ' -J '"'-. a»'^i wih i wyiiuvo be m ),:r. mtcrosting to tljeologiaus as well as to scholars* If the results of these investigations, contained in the Ill, loilowing paper and the addenda, are correct, the year of the Pleiades and in its new year's festival of agriculture and of the dead, will shed an entirely new light on the origin of pagan idolatry, and on the history of the deluge, and will supply some very conclusive arguments in favor of the unity of origin of mankind. These are, of course, very important points,[any one of which is sufficient to interest not only the learned, but also general readers. I have been ex- ceedingly surprised at the results of these investigations, which.have been much more interesting th*an I ever supposed they would prove, and are likely to throw some light on questions, which, when I commenced writing the following pap^r, I had not the most remote idea would prove to be connected with the field of enquiry which I was exploring. It.is satisfac- tory for me to find that my conclusions are borne out indirectly by all pre- vious writers on these subjects, who mxxat have arrived at the same con- elusions as myself if they had had their attention drawn to.the connection of the Pleiades with the calendars, the commemorations and the mythology of antiquity. It is hardly necessary to apologize for the form in which I submit the results of my labors. The paper on the Festival of the Dead was pre- pared for the transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science and was substituted for one, which being rather intended as an amusing sketch of the universality of some trivial superstitions was regarded by me as hardly adapted for publication by a scientific society. The favorable re- ception which it has met with from some eminent authorities;io Oie scientific world, I can only attribute to the whole scope of the paper being devoted to estabhshmg the literal interpretation of our history of the Creation, and to disprovmg the theory of there having been different "centres of creation," at least as regards the human race, by showing the universality of certain trivial superstitions that must have been inherited by aU natioas from a common source. Whatever conclusions I may have since been forced to arrive at on other points, the spirit in which these ^investigations were commenced, will be apparent from the concluding paragraph. The present paper substituted for it was written in the course of a few weeks, and in the midst of public and private engagements, and\he space at my disposal proved far too limited to do justice to the subject. Since its publication in June last,! have gone on making iuiw ther investigations, the results of which were successively printed in" lOrmS of eiffht DaffeS nnnb ns nr1*1nn/1o o,.*U„*iU . these investigations will bo apparent and their ccrrectiMss or their faUacies demonstrated by the very defects of tho paper itself. The addenda were IV. v at first only iutendcd to occupy » few pages ami were privately printed for ^circulation among those who might be interested in such matters, which will explain and perhaps afford an excuse for the references to my own opinions and to the different steps taken by me in prosecuting these enquiries. The new facts, however, that were constantly opened up, induced me to continue these researches, until the paper and the addenda have assumed their present dimensions. Nearly every page will be found marred by misprints, and probably not a few mistakes may be found ; though none I believe, affecting the correctness of the conclusions to which I have been led, will be discovered. But my conjectures as to the origin of the festival and its connection with the year of the Pleiades will, I feel convinced, be fully borne out by further enquiries ; and the new facts collected by me as to the his- tory of the Deluge can scarcely fail to be regarded as important, even if my coi elusions are not accepted as correct. It may seem to be an act of presumption for any person to venture to submit to the attention of scholars a solution for some of the most difficult questions connected with the history of our race, questions that have engrossed the attention of most learned authors, and most eminent astronomers. But the charge of presumption may appear more peculiarly to apply to a Colonist attempting to supply a clue that has hitherto been sought in vain, especially when his paper appears in the transactions of a Colonial Scientific Society. As the charge would be, I feel, entirely uncalled for, I have thought it advisable to explain the mode of enquiry which I have adopted, and for which the only qualifi- cations required were the possession of very ordinary ability and a patient endurance of several years of literary drudgery. Before I had finished my investigations, it was evident that my conclu- sions depended on a comparison of calendars and festivals. I iiave there- fore adapted the title of this paper to the nature of its contents. More than half a century ago Sir William Jones was led to the very threshbold of this subject, and seems to have foreseen that a comparison of the dates of festivals in different countries, would supply new materials for the History of Man. Had he examined the field, which under pecu- liar difficulties I have been led to explore, and had he extended his enquiries to the festivals and calendars not only of the Hindoos, but also of more primitive races, the prestige of his great name would long ago have sanctioned the conclusions to which these investigations inevitably lead. Under those circumstances, I shall use the words with which ho intro- duces the subject of his researches, as a preface to my own :— I I i y. " The grent antiquitj of the Hindus k believed so firmlj by themselres, and has been the subject of so much conversatioa among Europeans, that a short view of their Chronological System, which has not yet been exhibited from cer- tain authorities, may be acceptable to those, who seek truth without partiality to received opinions, and without regarding any consequences that may re- sult from their inquiries; the consequences indeed, of truth cannot but be desirable, and no rcHsonable man will apprehend any danger to ^jociety from a general diffusion of its light ; but we mu8t;not sufFer ourselves to be dazzled by a false glare, nor mistake enigmas and sllegoriea for historical verity. Attached to no system, and as much dijposed to reject the Mosaick history, if it be proved erroneous, as to believe it, if it be confirmed by sound reasoning from indubi- table evidence, I propose to lav before yoa a concise account of Indian Chrono- logy, extracted from Sanscrit books, or collected from conversations with Pandits, and to subjoin a few remarks on their system, without attempting to decide a ques- tion, which I shall venture to start, "whether it is not in fact the sane with our own, but embellished and obscured by the fancy of their poets and the riddles of tkeir a$trono^ mers."— Sir William Jones on tha Chronology of the Hindus. rj f I tf«3H TH« TBAKBAOTIOM* Of TIE NOVA 80OTIAH IMSTITUTK OF HATHgAl BCIINOB ] THE FESTIVAL OF THE DEAD* BY R. O. HALIBURTON, P. 8. A. In European Calendars, the last day of October, and the first and second days of November, aio designated as the Festivals of All Hal- loween, All Saints, and All Souls. Though they have hitherto never attracted any special attention, and have not been supposed to have been connected with each other, they originally constituted but one commemoration of three daya duration, known among almost all nations as "the Festival of the Dead," or the " Feast of Ancestors." It is now, or was formerly, observed at or near the beginning of Novem- ber by the Peruvians, the Hindoos, the Pacific Islanders, the people of the Tonga Islands, the Australians, the ancient l^ersians, the ancient Egyptians, and the northern nations of Europe, and continued for three days among the Japanese, the Hindoos, the Australians, the ancient Romans, and the ancient Egyptians. Halloween is known among the Highlanders by a name meaning the con- solation of the spirits of the dead, and is with them, as with the Cinghalese.t the Pacific Islanders, and aimo-t every race among whom the festival Tn!,u\*''^l?f k"!".^^*'®''"'^''"'^ above paper was Bubstltuted for one read before tha Inatltute which had been privately printed. In the previous one. on " New materials for the History of man. derived fl-om a comparison of the customs and superstitions of nations." it !n^r, T'T* ^.7 ^^^^ "*' """"■"^ °^ ^^''^ superstitions, so far from being "absolutely bearSlj; it'h *" * '"'. '''° "''*'''" considered by all who have treated of them. couM .11,!^^ ,^f "'''"'''''■*'°" °^^^^ ""'**"^« of civilised and savage races; ai.d tha those rrSlvesocletr^ Po-essed of a marvellous viuilty. are valuable hlstorical^emorials of »htf/p;f fri'^'^.^K lu*''^"™"°° """"^ "Dlvereality of primitive superstitions and customs. ;^lZ J Th I ,'^' '"''' "' ""^'"^ """"^ *"^«' y°" ■' " '0 » P^^o" ^ho sneezes, were selected Th,s absurd custom, referred to by Homer, and found in Europe. AslaTAfdca Polynesia and An,erlca. was traced to a belief found in the Arctic regions, lustrtlii' and ^sultof natural but of supernatural causes; and that when a person sneezes, he Is liable tJ be a Victim of the spirits, or a. tue Celtic race express It. •• to be carried off by he fi rles." U was also argued that this custom, the trivial naf.re of which precludes the Sea Ikat t could have been borrowed by nations from each other, or that na'ture can eveVvherrhave soufp.'^n/i/" '^' human race, plainly must have been Inherited from a common source and is a very conclusive argument In favor of the unity of origin of our race Th^e v^ews have been confirmed -3y the observations of Captain. SpLe and OranZ(see Illustra! ^d London News. July i. 1803, p 23.) An interesting little work by W. R. Wyldfon Irish Popular Superstitions." published by WiUiam S.OrrACn.. T.nnHnn-HrV.!'-!" -^!!'^ unameto procure until after the paper was read before the NovrScotian'lnstituteliluDDHe^ from n^lZ" « "• T""' ''"""^-^"^ his conclusions as to the origin of thc^^^Pse, Lib i!l: P^^ril ' " '• " •" "'• ''' ^^" ''^'''' Prolusiones-ct sUrnZZZjil t See firady'g Clavis Caleudaria, as to Oct. 3l8t. is observed, connected ^Uh a Luivest home, or, soutLof tlie equator, witb a first fruits celebration.* An old writer asks why do we suppose that the spirits of the dead are more abroad on Halloween than at any other time of the year?* and so convinced are the Irish peasantry of the fact, that they discreetly prefer remaining at home or; that ill-omened night The Halloween torches of the Irish, the Halloween bonfires of the Scotch, the Coel ('oeth fires of the Welsh, and the Tindle fires of Corn- wall, lighted at Halloween, are clearly memorials of a custom found almost everywhere at the celebration of the festival of the dead, The origin of the lanthoru festival has never yet been conjectured. It will be found, I believe, to have originated in the wide-spread custom of lighting bonfires at this festival. The Church of de Sens, in France, was endowed by its founder in the days of Charlemagne, for the purjwse of having mass said for the dead, and the grave yard visited on All Halloween. f Wherever the Roman-Catholic Church exists, solemn mass for aU souls is said on the second day of November; on that day the gay Parisians, exchanging the boulevard for the cemetery, lunch at the graves of their relatives, and hold unconsciously their " feast of ancestors," on the very same day that savages in far distant quarters of the globe observe in a similar manner their festival of the dead J Even the Church of England, which rejects AU Souls, as based on a belief in purgatory, and as being a creation of popery, devoutly clings to All Saints, which is clearly a relic of primeval heathenism. On All Souls day, the English peasant goes a-souUng, begging for " a 80ul cake for all Christen souls." He has very little suspicion that he is preserving a heathen rite, the meaning of which is not to be found in the book of common prayer, but (as I shall heareafter show) is to be disco- vered in the sacred books of India, in which country the consecrated cake is still offered, as it has been for thousands of years in the autumn, to the souls of deceased ancestors.? But, though the festival of the dead is so generally observed in November, there are some exceptions. Thus it was observed in February by the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, and the Algonquins of America, and in August by the Japanese and Chinese. The traces of its being observed in May are very few, and those of its * See Brand's Popular Antiquities, v.I, p. 388, 396. (Ed. 1853 ) t Atlantic Monthly for May, 1862. HI- Maurice's Indian Antiquities, 189. beingheld at any other times of the year, are of exceedingly rare occur- rence. Before, therefore, I can attempt to treat of the festival of the dead, or refer to its origin and history, and the influence it has exerted on ancient mythology, it is necessary to confine this paper simply to questions connected with the Calendar, and the times when the festival is found to be observed. Tt is important to trace the ancient November festival to the primeval year, which must have [fixed it in that month among races South, as well as North of the Equator. This year, I believe 1 have succeeded in discovering ; and, as ' . appears to have originated in, or at least only now exists in, the Southern L' uisphere, I have designated it as the Primitive Southern year. It is also neuensary to show that the festival of the dead, occurring in February or August, indicates a change having taken pkoe, and a more recent year comm icing in February having been substituted. As we only find this year north of the Equator (so far .is I have been able to learn), 1 have designated it as the' Primitive Northern year. Wherever the festival ocours in November, it is, or at least originally was, the new year's festival, of the primitive Southern year. Where it is hf d in February, it is, or once was, the coamiemoration of the com- mencement of the Northern year. As the mode of investigation pursued on this point materially adds to the credibility of rcy conclusions, I may be pardoned for referring to it. The startling fact that *' this feast was celebrated among the ancient Peruvians at the same period, and on the same day that Christians solemnize the commemoration of the dead, (2d November)"* at once drew my attention to the question, how was tlus uniformity in the time of observ- ance preserved, not only in far distant quarters of the globe, but also through that vast lapse of time since the Peruvian, and the Indo-European first inherited this primeval festival from a common source ? It was plain that this singular uniformity could never have been pre- served by means of the defective solar year in vogue among ancient nations. How then could this result have been produced ? It was ap- parent that the festival must have been regulated by some visible sign, or. mark, that nature had supplied, such as the rising of some constellation. Remembering the ancient traditions as to the Pleiades, I naturally turned my attention to them. Professor How kindly offered to ascertain c „ ^ jACeiicnt asti OuOiiici' wliOtucr iho FlKiadcs cOuId have GVer risen in November in Asia or Europe. I was fortunately, however, able to save * Peruvian Antiquities, by M. iiivero and Von Techudi, translated by Dr Hawks, New York, 1855, p, 134. that gentleinun the calculation. On turning to Bailly's Astronomie Indienne* I found him 8tate that the most ancient year, as regulated by the calendar of the Brahmin«< of Tirvalore, began in November, and 1 was much gratified at finding that, in that Calendar, the mon.h of Nc .nm- ber is called Cartiguey, i. e. the month of the Pleiaces,— a circumstance which M. Bailly says, would seem to indicate that that (Constellation by their rising or setting in that mouth, must have regulated the commence- ment of the anoieut year in November. But here a fresh difficulty arose, as respects the Calendar. To suppose that the Pleiades rose in that month, and commenced the year in the autumn, was not only opposed to ancient traditions respecting them, and to their name as the Stars of Spring ( Vergilite), but also to their actual movements, at the present day at least. We could not assumt that great astronomical changes could ever have produced (jhis result How then could we account for the anomaly ? I dis- covered the clue in extending my researches to the Southern hemisphere, where I found the festival of the dead to occur in November, and to be the vernal New Year's festival of a year commencing in November, and regulated by the rising of the Pleiades in the evening. Before concluding this prefatory paper, it may be as well to state that the whole subject, both as regards the primitive New Year Festival of the Dead, and the primitive year, has altogether escaped the observation of the learned. DeRougemont, in his " Peuple Primitif, " published at Paris in 1856, has, out of three volumes, not devoted as many pages to " Les Fetes des Morts," though they are unquestionably the most reraark- Hblo memorials we possess of Le peuple Primitif. Festivals connected with the seasons, he says, cannot now be investigated, from our ignorance of the primitive calendar; and he therefore only selects those that took place at the time of the Vernal Equinox, and the Summer Solstice, i. e. asso- ciated with a solar year, and hence of a comparatively recent date, and subsequent to those of the two primitive calendars to which I have referred. " Nous ne pouvons ici faire une etude sp^iale de celles, qui se rap- portent avant tout aux saisons ; les calendriers des anciens nous sont trop imparfaitmont connus, pour que nous puissions esp^rer de reconstruire celui du peuple primitif. "f The primitive year of two seasons, commencing in Noyember, and the connection of the Pleiades with the primeval calendar, are not even referred to in the latest work on the astronomy of the ancients, published last year * Vol. 1, p. xxxi, 28, 134. 1 Vol 1 p. .523. t in Paris.* Though very nianj remarkable facts in the history of the calendar, and of our race, to which the study of the festival of the dead huH afforded nie a clue, are referred to by Greswell in his learned works on the Calendars of the Ancients, he has attempted to explain them by resorting to the miracles in the Bible — as to the snn having stood still or gone back on certain occasions — events which he contends must not only have disturbed, but have oven left their impress on the calendars of the ancients. But tliey are, I believe, capable of a more common-place solu- tion. I trust that I shall be able to prave that these subjects are susceptible of an explanation, without having, with Greswell, to refer to miracles in the days of Hezekiah, or with Ovid, to leave the knotty point to be unravelled by the Gods— . " Dicta sit ui;de dies, quae noininiR extet orijjo Me fugit, ex aliquo est invenienda deo."t TflK FESTIVAL OF THE DEAD BUOJGHT TO ECROPE AND ASIA BY A MIGRATION OF RACES FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. " Mudan de pays y de oatrellnB. "t—Garciliasso de la Vega. " Wh" can restrain the pleasant influences of the Pleiades?" we are ai, 2000 years ago, and marked the beginning of summer in the Sowth of Europe and Asia.t But we must conclude either that the Pleiades must have once, in some other manner, than by their holiaoal rising, indicated the beginning of sprin^^ or else that there must have been, by a long lepse of years, a change in tlieir movements, that rendered their rising inconsistent with their very name as tho stars if spring. It must, however, have been nearly 5000 years smce tho heliacal filing of the Pleiades occurred at the beginning of April, and even then it could not have indicated the coramonce^Tien't of seed time in the South of Asia and of Europe, or marked the beginning, of sprmg. Their name, the Hesperides, too, would seem to connect them with tho evening rather than the morning. But if, at sucb, a remote era the Phiades regulated the seasons by their Heliacal rising at that time of the year, they must have left their impress on primitive calendars, and traces of the connection of the calendar v ith the heliacal rising of the Pleiades, would still be iound among many races, either in thefr names for March or April, or at least in their traditions as to the time when their year once commenced. But this is not the case. There are no traces of a primitive year in general use in remote antiquity, commencing in March, April or May; the only apparent exception being the solar year, regu- lated by the vernal equinox, which was of comparatively recent inven- tion. But on examining the calendars of ancient races, we fina in Persia, India, Egypt and Peru, Ihat the month in which our first of November festival would fall, bears in its very name a singular impress of its former connection, cither with the Pleiades or the festival of the dead. In the most ancient cabndar in India, the year commenced in the month of November, which bears the name of Cartiguey, i. e. the Pleiades; a consteUation which, Bailly suggests, must by their rising or setting at that time, once have regulated the primitive year. We find also that, in the month of October the Hindoos, like ourselves, have three* days which are connected with the festival of the dead. * FI 'iados aJspccies oranes, totiiraquj sororam Agmen; ubi ante Idus iiox erit una super. .' ""^ ™?"i 101 dubiis autoribas incioit aestas -cc icpidi nneui tempora veris habent. I « , Ov. Fast. Lib. r. III. ri."' '' '^° '°'™''"^ "°^ ^'«"«'^»l "^'^SB of stars. GresweU's Fasti Catholici, '.i fit i In tlie ancient Egyptian calendar the same resemblance can be traced "between the name of the Pleiades, which among the Hebrews and Chal- deans is Athor-aye, with that of the Egyptian month of November, which is Atkor The Arab name for the Pleiades, Atauria, also suggests a resemblance.* In November took place the primeval festival of tha dead, clad in a veil of Egyptian mythology. In the Isia, the solemn mourning for the god Osiris, " the Lord of Tombs," lastud for three days, and began at sunset, like the Lemuria of the Romans, and the festival of the dead among the Persians and other nations. The singular custom of counting the day from the sunset of the pre- ceding day, or the noctidiurnal system, "was so universal, that Greswell refers to it as a conclusive proof of the unity of origin of our race. The Bible tells us " the evening and the morning were the first day."t Our words "fortnight" and "sennight," are traces of this primitive custom. But the first day of our festival of the dead, is a still stronger illustration, as it is called Hailow«ye. The origin of this custom has not been explained by Greswell. Vohaier connects it with the word Atkor, which means " the night" ; and which he tlierefore supposes represented the first evening of creation. But the most important night, not only in that month, but in the whole Egyptian year, was that of the 17th of Athyr, when the throe days of mourning for Osiris (i. e. the festival of the dead) began with an All Halloweve. Hence the origin of this wide-spread noctidiurnal system is to be found in whatever caused the fes- tival of the dead to commence at sunset, or with a Halloweera. Let us turn to the primitive races of the Southern Hemisphere to find a solution : — 1st — For the festival of the dead being connected wi^h an agricultural celebration. 2d — For its being held in November. 3rd — For its com- mencing with a Halloweve. 4th — For the primitive year commencing in November. 5th — For the Pleiades being connected with that month. 6th — For their being reverenced as the Fergilioe and Hesperides, the stars of the spring and the evening. 7th — For the " abnormal year " of ^six months, found north of the equator. A reference to the Australians and Pacific Islanders, will enable us to give a very simple explanation for these various points, without imagining that miracles must have given rise to some, or that we must leave the solution oi others to the gods. * Dupuis L'Origine de Tous Les Cultcs, ix. 190. t See Volmer's Wfjrtorbuch der Mythologie, v. Athor, p. 371. in origiuid paper referred to in p. 25, has been since corrected. A slight error ^j ^m ' ^e VVe limt that, aniuiig these Suutheru races,* when the PleiaJes are in the evoning lirst visible at tho horizon, which k at the beginning of No- vember, they mark the liogintiing of the year, and the vernal new year's festival, a feast con.seerated to lirgt fruits, and to the dead. As long aa at evening they continue visible, they mark a .season called the Pleiades above. When thiy cease to be visible in the evening, the second season commences of the Pleiades hehno : these seasons nearly equally dividing the year. Hence we can understand why tradition has connected the Pleiades with November, as the first month of the year, has preserved their name as tho stars of the evening and of the spring, and has caused tlie festival of the dead to commence in the evening, or with a Halloween. We can also understand how the year of six months arose, that has so puzzled Astronomers. In the voluminous report on the Aborigines, by a Committee of the Le- gislative Council of Victoria, Session 1858-9, we find W. Hull, Es(|uire, J. P., a gentleman who has written a work on the Aborigines, stating " their grand corroborees are held only in the spring, when the Pleiades are generally most distinct ; and their corroboree is a worship of the Plei- ades as a constellation, which announces spring. Their monthly cor- roboree is ill honor of the moon." (p. 9.) In another place Mr. Hull says, " referring again to their worship of the stars, I may mention that one night I showed Robert Cunningham the Pleiades, and he said ' they were the children of the moon, and very good to the black fellows,' — a remark that reeals to our mind 'the pleasant influences of the Pleiades.'" C. J. Tyers, Esq., Commissioner of Crown Lands, Alberton. (p. 79,) says in confiruhHion of the foregoing, — "Regarding their religious prac- tices very little is known, so little that Europeans generally believe them to be devoid of any. Yet they do, according to their manner, worship the hosts of heaven, and believe particular constellations rule natural causes. For such they have names ; and sing and dance to gain the f'avur of the Pleiades, (Mormodellick,) the constellation worshipped by one body as the giver of rain." Now the Pleiades are most distinct at the beginning of the spring month of November, when they appear at the horizon in tho evening, and are visible all night. Hence their vernal festival of tho Pleiades takes place in honor of the Vergilite, the stars of spring, at the beginning of November, the very month called in the calendar *I have only been able to fix the date of this fcstiva! amonsr the Peruvians, t.h!> Austrnliaus. and the natives of tho Society and Tonga Islands'. The diflUcuitv ot Krocuring necessary work« of reference in a Colouv will plead, I trust, an excust >r many oniissiuas, 2 10 If of the Brahmina of Tirvalore, the month of the Pleiades, and among the ancient Egyptians connected with the name of that constellation. But we are told by another gentleman examined by the committee, that all the corroborees of the natives are connected with a worship of the dead,* and last three days. If this be the case, is it not somewhat' startling to find that Australian savages, at or near the time of Halloween, All Saints and All Souls, also consecrate three days to the memory of the dead, as a vernal New Year's celebration, regulated by the time-honored Pleiades,— and like the northern festival of the dead, beginning in the evening, or with a Halloween ? " Hinc ubi protulerit formosa ter Hesperus ora, Ter dederint Phoebo sidera vieta locum ; Ritus erit veteris nocturaa Lemuria sacri ; Inferias tacitis Manibus ilia dabunt."t In the Tonga Islands, which belong to the Feejee group, the festival of Inachi, a vernal first fruits celebration, and also a commemoration of the dead, takes places towards the end of October,! and commences at sun- set. "The Society Islanders," Ellis tells us, " divided the year into two seasons of the Pleiades or Matarii. The first they called the Matarii i ma, or the Pleiades above. It commenced when, in the evening these stars appeared at or near the horizon," (i. e. at or near the beginning of November), and the half year during which, immediately after sunset, they were seen rbove the horizon, was called Matarii i nia. The other seasons commenced when at sunset these stars are invisible, and continued until at that hour they ..ppeared again above the horizon. This season was called Matarii i raro, i. e. ''the Pleiades below." The Pleiades are visible at the horizon in the evenings at the beginning of November. They then culminate near midnight, and are visible till morning. Ellis says that this year began in May ; but it is evident that what he calls the first season, "the Pleiades above," commenced at or near the beginning of November, and the second division must have begun towards the end of April, or early in May. If they appear at the horizon in the evening, on the 5th November, they continue visible at that time till the 24th April following. But, not only was the month of November connected with the * In confirmation of this, a member of the N. S. Institute, who has bcbO at these annual corroborees, tells me, that as the natives for these occasions paint a white stnpe oyer their arms, legs and ribs, they appear, as they dance by their fires at nignt, like so many skeletons rejoicing. The custom, however, is peculiar, I be- lieve, to Australia. WhUe paint is used for mournful, and red for joyful festivals See Report on Aborigines, p. 70, 94. t XJY. I'aei., Liib. V. } Mariner's Tonga Islands, p. 157, 381, 385. 11 {nit rifling of tho Pleiades, but also with a festival of the dead, and a first fruits celebration, as among the people of tbe Tonga Islands. " The most singular of their stated festivals was the ripening or com- Iting of the year. Vast numbers of both sexes attended it ; the women, however, were not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. A sumptuous banquet was then held. The ceremony was viewed as a national ac- knowledgment to the Gods. When the prayers were finished, and the banquet ended, a usage prevailed resemhling much the popish custom of mass for soick in purgatory. Each one returned to his home or family marae, there to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives."* Ellis does not tell us to what mode of dividing the year he refers -(for they appear to have had three) ; but, as the feast of A.I0 Alo in the Tonga Islands, as well as the festival of the Pleiades in Australia, took place in November, we may assume that this was the new year's festival of the season of the Pleiades.* Let us turn from the Islands of the Pacific to Peru, and there we find the primitive calender of two seasons marked by a new year's festival of the dead, occurring in November, and celebrated at precisely the same time as in Europe aud Polynesia. The month in which it occurs, says Rivero.f "is called Aya-marca, from Aya, a corpse, and marca, carrying in arms, because they celebrated the solemn festival of the dead, with tears, lugubrious songs, and plaintive music; and it was customary to visit the tombs of relations, and to leave in them food and drink. Jt is loorthy of remark that the feast was cele^ hrated among the ancient Peruvians at the same period, and on the same day, that Christians solemnize the commemoration of the dead, (2nd November)." ^ Finding the festival held at the beginning of November, I felt con- vinced that it never could hav^ been fixed m that month by a solar year, such as was in use in Peru, but that it must have been originally the New Year's festival of the year or seasons of the Pleiades, that must have once been in use in that country. Subsequent investigations bore out the con- clusion. Rivero tells us that in November took place tho termination of the year and of seed time. Garcila.ssoJ bears distinct testimony to tho existence of a traditionary year of seasons. ^ *It was held at the time of " the blossoming of the reeds." As the winter season ut-is iiuiii .tnij 10 Uctuoer, tins iestivai must have occurred in October or Novem- oer. bee Lllis Polynesian Kes. I. 86, 351. t Rivci-o's Peruvian Antiquities, transl. by Dr. Hawks, (New York, 1855) p. 134. r. ^^oT 1 ^i- t^ivrcifasso says the harvest time was in March ; but Rivero (I). 1J2) places It la May. 12 '• Yet, for all tliis aottish stupidity, the Inoauhad observed that the Suii accomplished its course in the space of a year, which they called huaM : though the commonality divided it only by its seasons, reckoning their year to end or be finished with their harvest," (i. e. in May.) % Here we have the year ending with the months of November and May, a plain proof that the Southern year of the Pleiades ending in November and May, must have existed there before the Incas invented or introduced the eolar year, and must have been the seasons referred to by Garcilasso. As the festival of the dead is, however, the new year's festival of the year of the Pleiad os, we may assume that it must have, in Peru, origin- ally marked the commencement of the year at the beginning of November. Wherever the festival of the dead occurs in November, even among nations now far north of the equator, the same inference may, I believe, be adduced. The race by whom it is preserved must have once regulated that festival in November, by the rising of the Pleiades, like the Austra- lians. In Persia we find a singular light thrown on the calendar by the festival of agriculture and of death celebrated south of the equator. In the ancient calendar, November wai CDnsecrated to the angel who presided over agriculture and death. We have seen that the month in which this festival occurred in Peru, was called " the month of carrying corpses." The month of November was formerly called in Persia Mordad, the month of the angel of death. In spite of the calendar having been changed, the festival of the dead took place at the same time as in Peru, as a new year's festival, (although the year no longer commenced then). It ia called by some writers the Nouruz oj the Magi, because the Magi, still adhered to the primitive new year's festival* It commenced in the even- ing with a Halloween, which was regarded as peculiarly sacred. Unde hujus diei Vespera quibusdam Persarum, peculiari nomine signatur Phrist§,ph.t Bonfires are lighted at this festival as they are in Britain, and in most portions of the globe, at thn season of the year,| In Ceylon, Sir Emerson Tcnnent says, a festival iifheld that is a species of a harvest home and a commemoration of the dead. It must, however, be rather a first fruits celebration, like that of n".tions south of the equator, as the harvest is over in May or June. This festival of agriculture and of death takes place at the beginning of November. § We now turn to Mexico, and there we find that the great festival of the * Rel. Vet. Peraarum, 238. t Id. 237. t W. 249. i) Tennent'a Christianity in Ceylon, 202, 228. Forbes Ceylon, 2, 322. Sfe The Maharansi trans, by Upham, til, 164. 13 lat the Sun ed huatd : oning their % and May, November introduced Garcilasso. ival of the eru, origin- November, en among I believe, e regulated the Austra- the festival r. In the presided which this ; corpses." , the month 1 changed, I, as a new in). It ia Magi, still n the even - Bd. Unde e signatur in Britain, is a species , however, he equator, ulture and itival of the 2, .322. Sw ^H Mexican cycle was held on the 17th of November, and was regulated bj the rioiades. It began at sunset ; and at midnight as that constellation approached the zenith, a human victim, Prescott says, was offered up to avert the dread calamity which they believed impended over the human race. This belief* was so remarkable that I cannot omit a reference to it here. They had a traditiou that at that time the world had been pre- viously destroyed ; and they dreaded lest a similar cataatrophtj would, at the end of a cycle, annihilate the human race. Now it is most remarkable to find that the Egyptians, with their Isia, or new year's festival of agriculture, and of the dead, that took place on the 17th day of November, associated traditions as to the deluge, and it is still more surprising to find that the 17th day of November is the very day on which, the Bible tells us, the deluge took place.f Gresweli has devoted several chapters, and much learning, to the 17th day of November, (Athor),| to show how remarkable a landmark it hag always been, through a long lapse of centuries, for the corrections of th^ Egyptian calendar, and he derives from it some curious arguments in sup- port of his views. De Rougemont and other writers have referred to this day, but have thrown no light upon it. They seem, however, not to have observed that even among the Persians the same day was peculiarly vene- rated. Hyde says that in the ancient Persian calendar the 17th day of November was held so sacred, that all favors asked of rulers were granted on that day ;4 but why it was so venerated ho does not attempt to conjec- ture. Even tradition has been unable to preserve the history of this day ; that must be sought for in the very earliest ages of the world, or among the rudest existing types of man. In the mysteries of Isis, the goddess =* Prescott's Conq. of Mexico, I. b. 1 , ch. iv. t While the above was going through the press, as I was convinced that the memory of the dehige had been thus presen'ed among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks and Mexicans, in the traditions connected with the new year's festival, and that the date of the commencement of the deluge,the 1 7th day of the first month, of the primitive year, was not of an historical but of an astronomical character, I most closely examined the Mosaical account of the deluge, and found my conjec- jure singularly verified. The deluge commenced on the 17th of the 2nd month of the Jewish year (/. e. November) ; the ark rested on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the 7th month ; and the dove returned with the olive branch on the 17th day of the nth month. Though the connection of this with the traditions fjid calendars of iieathen races is somewhat startling, I am convinced that should the study of Ethology afford a clue to the primeval origin of pagan idolatry, it will at the same time conclusively prove how entirely different and distinct must have been the source from which the Hebrews derived the great truths and principles of our religion. X Tliose wishing to examine in# these points, will find the following references hearing on them :— Grcswell's Fasti Catholici. I., 82, 152, 154, 168, 181, 196, 198, 200, 225,228,229,343,356; II., 104, 115, 226 ; III., 88. 89, 112, 113, 131, 160, 166, ."i3u, 405, 407, 413, 4iG ; IV., I7.i, fiiO, See Origines Kaiondariic Itaiicyi, I. 341, 348, 351 to 390, 423, 430. ; III., 33, 460, 516. ^ See Rel. Vet. Pcrs. p. 243. It was sacred to Murddd, th« angel presiding rvcr agriculture and the dead. •^grj 14 of agriculture and of death, the funereal part of the ceremonies, the lainea- tations and search for Osiris commenced on the 17th and ended on the 19th. There was also a Julian year of the Egyptians, which commenced, Greswell says, on the 18th of November.* Herodotus tells us, that Isis is the same as the Greek goddess Ceres, who with her daughter Proserpine presided over agriculture and the dead.f Among the Greeks, besides existing in other ceremonies, the primeval festival of the dead appears under a veil of mythology in all the ancient mysteries, but above all in the greatest of them, the Eleusinian. The Attic Anthesteria and the Roman Feralia were funereal celebrations, and held on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of Tcbruary. We may therefore as- sume, that as the Lesser Eleusinian mysteries, which were sacred to Proserpine alone, were celebrated in that month, they were held on those ill-oraened days.{ The Macedonians retained the primitive year beginning in November.* It is^ peculiarly interesting to note that with the festival of the dead, the tradition as to the deluge was also transferred by the Athenians to the 17th day of February. Even in some other months, the 17th seems to have been a conspicuous day in the Greek calendar. In Persia, in every ■month, there were three days of fasting and sadness; but as the 17th and 18th days were dies nefasti, on which no work was done, we may assume that the 19th was the ultima dies plaeandis manibus, and that the 17th. 18th and 19th were the days of mourning.|| In Europe, Asia and Africa, we find days in every month onsecrated to the memory of the dead. Let us now lo^k south of the equator for an explanation : 1st— Why the 17th, 18th nd 19th of the month were so funereal. 2nd— Why the primitive year of the Egyptians and of other races, and their funereal mys- teries once began on the 17th day of the month. 3rd— Why, not only at every new year's festival, but even monthly, the dead were commemorated. * Fasti Cathol. iv. 180. whic1iTefelJali?ir'?V^^ ""'^'^ '"^"■'^ ^"•='«"* than the Greater Mysteries, pine we7e''SrrnS'/''''' T^^PPhoria, which were sacred to Ceres and Proser- roKuTarchatZ^ T "'' ^'^\ They wereleld for ,V— P' '^V f-^^^- ^<'^'^''" Le Monde Primitif. " "7^^ Rt-l. Vet. Pers. p, 230, 232, 248, 262. 15 Almost all savage races, like all nations of remote anticiuity, regulate their months by the new or the full moon, and hold festivals of a funereal character at the time of the new moon, or when the nights are darkest. The Australians not only hold an annual oorroboree of the Pleiades, but also a monthly oorroboree of the moon, apparently connected with a dread of ghosts, or a worship of the dead. They regulate their months by the full moon. The Hindoos offer in every lunar month, on Maha- cala, the day of the conjunction, and defined as " the day of the nearest approach to tbo Sun," " obsequies to the mr.,nes of t\xe pitris, or certain progenitors of the human race, to whom the darker fortnight is peculiarit/ sacred.'^ Sir William Jones also says, referring to a Hindu work " many subtle points are discussed by my author concerning the junction of two, or even three lunar days injorming one fast ox festival.'"* The Chinese, the Africans, the Carib" and other races of America, th© Greeks, the Romans, and almost all ancient nations, kept a commemoration of the dead in the dark night& of the moon.f Here we have an explanation for a monthly commemoration of the dead, but why were the 17th, 18th and l^lhX days of each month, among some races, especially of a funereal character? Ellis tells us that the Society Islanders regard the 17th, 18th and 19th nights of the moon, as seasons " when spirits wander more than at any other time,"|| ap\in proof that even among the Pacific Islanders, three days, in every month, must have been consecrai d to the dead, us to this day, it is still believed in Britain, that on Halloween, when the festival of the dead once commenced, " the spirits of the dead wander more than at any other time of the year." " This is a night when devils, witches, and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baleful midnight errands." ^ut the question arises, how came the beginning of the year to be, among some nations, on the 17th day of the month? The explanation, I think, is plain. The Chinese, the Hebrews, and other races, regulated the beginning of the year at the time of the new moon i. e., at the time of the festival held in the dark nights of the moon. With many races, the 17th, 18th, and 19th days after the full or the new moon, were evidently re- * Sir Williiun Jones' works, (ed. 1807) vol. IV. p. 129. t De Roiigemont Le Peuplc Primitif, ii. 246, 263, 35.5. Bonlanger, I, 269 to 297, 301 Horace dies HI. 23. J See Fast. Cath. III. 160. II Elhs Polynesean Researches, I. 88. IF the Society Islanders commenced tlic month at tha new moon, tlie nights peculiarly consecrated to the dead, would be the light nights instead of the dark niglits of the moon. If their month began at the time of the full mnnn thn 17fh IStV. anA i OfK .„^.,\a k« j.u~ .i j i :_!.*_ , • . — ., .-».., ...... , t.. ,1, rrvtttvt r_m tiic iijicc uata. sixj;sitn out- cocding tao new moon, and would correspond with those devoted in Hindoitxin, and m many otlier otlicr coimtrioH, to a 'oinnicuioration of the de»d. 16 ganled as petuliarly sacred to the dead, and were the montlilj days of rest or the raontbly Sabbath of heathen races. Our own mode of regulating Easter, will serve to explain the commence- ment of the ancient year. The common prayer-books says : " Easter day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st day of March." But the Hebrews probably substituted four sabbaths in place of one monthly time of rest, and used the vernal equinox, instead of the rising of the Pleiades, to regulate their Passover. Let us substitute the monthly festival of the dead for the word sabbath, and the rising of the Pleiades for March 21, and we read, "New Year's day is always the monthly sabbath, yjWh happens upon or next after the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight." But as this would occur near the month of November, we can understand that when the months ceased to be lunar, and their festivals " movable," the new year's festival would, for some time at least, continue to be held on the 17th day of the first month, and that Lhe 17th, 18th and 19th days of every month would still appear in ancient calendars as funereal days. We can also understand that a traditionary veneration for the 17th day of the month, especially of Novem- ber, would long continue, like some old sea margin, to show the changes which time had effected ; and that the new year's festival of the dead, pre- served in the mysteries of Isis, would long be held on the 17th, 18th and 19th nights of the first month of the primitive year, though no longer those dark nights of the moon, in which the spirits of the dead are wont to wander forth from their Maraes and their temples to r ^eive the offerings of their trembling worshippers.* Among the Romans we find a trace of a partial observance of the festi- val of the dead in November.! They seem however to have borrowed their Feralia, or festival of the dead, from the Athenian Anthesteria, as they were both held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of February.^ The more ancient institution was the Lemuria, or festival of the ghosts, celebrated in May — a month, therefore, -o unlucky that no marriage took place in it. Ovid and Greswell both agree as to the antiquity of the Lemuria. It is evident that this festival, transferred from Novem- ber to May, was originally regulated by the heliacal rising of the Pleiades in tlie morning. Yet the offering to the spirits took place at * Wherever we find the festivaJa of a nation, especially those of n mournful or funereal character, oceuring on the l.'ith, 16th and 17th, or on the 17th, 18th and 1 9tti days of the month, there is strong Reason to assume tliat the month must have orgmally commenced, not -^ith the new, but with the full moon. Among the Hin- fioos, Dotn systems ar^ m vogue. See on this point Greswell's Fasti Catholici, I. 62. .Sir William Jones works, IV. 128. t Smberti do Saerificiii, 89. J Orii;. Kal. Ital. I. 303, 423, 430. 17 Itnidntght, & tinie wh*'^i^S' the appearance of Proserpine must S«"re first vTih?«^?th^^f°.'°^.*'^;'^ ^'^^^'^''^ ■'''^°^«'" ^^ioh commenced when those pi^l^Le»i«««n::«?!ll!:i?ii^«.?.°!'^^^^^ «^«i?.'°^.- m. November the great festival of the which (:«>•>•« Pma'ar'^iZZ'lJ.i '"l~ ^f'^^'^"''-'^"- i."u :ac; tnat. inero wa» a temple iu Hicily in T Marinw'i Toaga Islands, 3M. 19 vacler of l'm:erpine.* At the festival of tlie dead, i\ child presidea, who Hiceivcs the offorint^s made to deceased ancestors. f In the South she in thi- wife of A'lo, the god of weather, but in Grecian mythology, she is " in autuinu wed"} to Fluto, the god of the dead ; and in Egyptian fables, she is doomed, at the Novuniber festival of the now year, to mourn Osiris, the God of Agriculture and " the Lord of Tombs." It would bo strange, if, in the half naked liitle Fiji savage, the wife of A'lo, we should find a clue to her, who was " the ancient goddess" in the days of the Patriarchs, and whose statues bore the inscription, " I am all that has l>een, that shall be ; and none among mortals has hitherto taken ofi' my veil."§ Such then, north of the Equator, arc the scattered fragments of, what ». 3d * Since writlnc the above, I have met with a very inlcreBiing coiinrmation of my views OallocHho Ilimino Coro, "who iippeiirs," eays Sir William Jonue, ••inthccalijug, asadamttl twelve years old." itresirtes over a feBtival of the dead at Uicbet'lnning of October. "She worn a necklace of golden skulls dcscriptivo of tht; dreadful rites in which she took so gloomy a de- light." The oft'eringB which wore proscribed by the Vedaa were human sacrlftceB, lor which, however, bullH and horses wfro subRtituted. Soul cakes are also consecrated to her, as they wore to Proserpine in Greece, as the deity presiding over the dead. Our BoldierB found at Cawnpore an ode invoking "the black Goddess," the cruel OaDee. written by Nina Sahib befon! the outbreak. The soul cake, the symbol of revolt among the Hindoos, was the emblem of this bloody goddess; and there can be but little Ooubt that the ulaughter of our unhappy countrymen was regarded by the fanatical Sepoys as a welcome of- fering to tlifilr sanguinary deity. If any of her victims had ever in their native land been at a rustic " niaying," or harvest home, how little could they have dreamed, as they looked at the May Queeu or the Kernbaby, that they saw before them the primitive type of a cruel deity, at whose altar they were doomed to be sacrificed !— See Sir William .Tones" works IV. 185.— Mau- rice's Indian antiquities, II. 181. Hardwicke, the late Christian Advocate at Cambridge, is strangely in error on this point; see "Christ and our other MaBtets," part II, page 10.— See as to worship of the dead, III, 32, 135, 170, 196, IV, 78. t De Rougemont, Peuple Primitive," .. II, p. 356. t See Orpliic Hymn to Proserpine. § Exftibiting a funereal and agricultural cliaracter, the ancient mysteries were, as we have seen, cl.arly connected, by their very time of observance, with the new year's celebration of the Sou tie festival of first fruits, and of the dead. Bu' even their obscene rites and th iiliar secrec.,, may be solved by a reference to the savages of Australia and of Cen- tral Aiii-rt. Europeans, who have been initiated by the Australians into their mysteries, which they describe as being of an obscene nature, whenever they make themselves known to the natives by the secret signs tliey have learned, arc implored not to divulge the sacred mysteries. The same freemasonry exists amouj; the natives of America, and of Central Africa. Among the latter the priest is called an Ohi man, and the temples where those secret riles are observed are called Oboni, or houses of Obi, and are ornamented with phallic emblems, or symbols of generation. Now, I have found, that Obi means, in Central Africa, an ancestor, one who begets. Hence the Obi man is inspired by ancestors, and the Oboni are temples of the dead. Our very word necromancy (prophecying by aid of the dead) carries us b.ack to the Obi of the Africans. At the Oracle of Delphi, the priestess, before she uttered responses, was inspired by Ob; and mufct have been originally nothing more or less than an Obi woman. Is it not strange that pliallic en hlems, though so very oflensivelv significant, have been assigned by the learned to almost everything except the "worship of ancestors?— See Report ou Aborigines, p. 64, 60, 70.~See Powen's Central Africa. (Now York, 1857,) p. 271, 315 to 319 ; A\io Dictionary of Yoruba Language, Smithsonian Contributions, X.. xvi. xix. 109.— De Rouge- riiont'8 Peujile PrimitifT, II, 303. J refer those who may take an interest in such matters, to the following authorities as to the funereal character of ancient mysteries, and the time of their observance, Ac. : Dupuls 1., 234, and seq., 312, 340, 340, .304. 390, 402, 410. 422, 427, 439, 443. Boulanger L'antiquite devoilee. 1., p. 269 to .303 : III.. 178 to 186. St. Croix sur les Mys- tores du Paganisme. I. 64, 56, 66, 75, 78, 317, 340, pt ijassini, Le Monde Primitif, III. 329. OijvarofTnn the MysteriPH, p. 1.27: .ils.'> rhrist;r.> .i.-.tJs, l!>0, 17'^' WarV-urtoD'? Divine Legs Hon of Moses, Faher's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, and Bryant's Mythology, .are prinnpally de- voted to a subject, which has caused more learned and fruitlesR speculation than an v other topic connflcted with the history of ancient natloni. wo can only rt'ganl aH the wreck of the primitive Southern year, and of it« New Year's festival of tir«t fruits, and the dead. I have endeavoured to collect together these disjecti membra, ditlused and hitherto lost in vague myths, confused calendars, uncertain traditions, and obsolete cus- toms* Yet, in the Now, as well as in the Old World, civilized and 8avi\ge races gaze with e((ual wonder on the memorials, that everywhere exist, of the observance of this festival by primeval man. In the large deposits of ashes, and of the remains of food, found in vast burial tumuli in Austa- lia, America and Asia, the graves of races long extinet.t we have sig- niticant evidence of this new year's commemoration dating back to the moat remote ages ; while even at the burial cave at Aurignae, to which an antiquity of not less than 8000 y jars is assigned by some authorities, we have the same memorials of the feasts and fires of this ancient festi- val.! Its memory has long been forgotten. Preserved only in the rites of heathen races, or merely lingering, among civilized nations, in the cus- toms and superstitions of the peasantry, this festival has never been con- sidered worthy of tho attention of the historian or of the ethnologist ; and « Though it has requirfid much time and labor to collect eveu the materials which I have used, respoctlug this festival north of the equator, the dlfflculty has iteen far greater In obtain- iug any definite Information regarding its observance in tho southern hemisphere ; first, be- cause travellers are generally ignorant of, or inattentive to the festivals of savage races, and rarely specify the time or the particulars of their observance ; and secondly, because In a colony, from the absence of extensive libraries. It is almost Impossible to glean precise Information, which, even If it exists, can only Ije procured IVom a large number of writers. As regards Polynesia, I have felt thle dlfflculty very much. Ellis, on whom I have had mainly to rely, though he regards the Polynesians as belonging to the same race, ai:4 almost identical In their custr and religious ideas, does not clear up a point of no little Importance in these inves- tig'^ .nms, as to the festival of the dead, and the year of the Pleiades existing universally tiiroughout the Pacific Islands, his remarks being, m a great measure, confined to the groups ofnunieroas Islands, known as the Georgian, and Society Islands. Even his work I could not procure while writing this paper. 1 had therefore to rely on notes made some years ago, while reading his works, before my attention h;-.;'. heon particularly drawn to this subject. As, however, south of the equator, on the west coast of SouiW America, among the ancient Peru- vians, as well as in the southern Pacific, in Tahiti, the Tonga Islands, and Australia, we find the year of the Pleiades or Its New Year's festival, there can be but little doubt that equally distinct traces of them will be found in the more northern islands of the Pacific. A reference to (Crawford's "Indian Archipelago" will confirm this view. See I., 28. t See Report on Aborigines, p. 62. The work of Mess -s. Squler and Davis on the Mlsslgsippi mounds, and Dr. McPherson's researches at Kertch, throw a light on this Bubjeot. tThe existence of articles resembling American wampum in the cave at Aurignao, is pecu- liarly interesting, both as tending to throw light on the habits of the race that then existed In Eu- rope, and as giving some clue to their representatives among existing nations. The cowrie (Cy- prea moneta) is used in Asia and Africa, and is entirely different froni the relics to which I refer. In Ainerica. shell money is made from the shell of the hard shelled clam, (mercenaria violarea, Sehum.) which Is cut into small oblong pieces, perforated for the purpose of being strunginto "britt of wampum," wliich are buried with the possessor at his death. Hence in most Indian graves we find numerous pieces of porfbrated shell. This throws a light on the following passage in Sir Charles Lyoll's "Antiquity of man," (p. 188.) "Mixed with the human bones, inside the grotto, first removed by Bonnemalson, were eighteen small, round and flat plat«s of a white, shelly substance, made of so.ne species of Cockle (cardlum), and pierced through tho middle, as if for being strung into a bracelet." As there is no further remark made concerning these spec.imens resembling wampum, goon after the work appeared, I drew the author's attention to the point. They are plainly not cowries, as the shape precludes such an inference. Should the use of wampum be limited to the New World, an inquiry '.nto this subject mar "read to iutwesiirig eoiicUisii'iits. The iii&ilf itf niaUin^ wampum is noscribed in a nolo to " Uu'ia and Misrule of the English in Amerioji,' by the author of Sam Sliclf, h. ii., ch. v. See Prehii toric Man. by Dr. Danl. Wilson, I, 318, 44.3, U. 14*. thl 21 this paper is the first attempt that has been uiado tu throw any light on its history or its origin. I have restricted my remarks to such jwints aa connect it with a year oommenoing in November, a branch in itself far too extensive for the space at my disposal. My next paper will show the liglit which this festival, occurring in February, throws on the primitive northern year ; and my third will be devoted to a far more interesting and easier branch of oni^uiry, as to the prime origin of this festival of he dead, and the influence it has exerted on the idolatry, the mythology, and the religious rites of all ancient nations, an influ'^nce even still dcicernable in the customs and mc^.es of thought of civilized nations. That, from Aur' ia to Britain, we have all inherited this primitivo year and its new year's festival, from a common source, is plainly manifest. Was it carried south by northern nations ; or, has there been a migration of southern races to northern latitudes ? That the " Feast of Ancestors," which still lingers in our All Hallo- ween, All Saints and All Souls, is the same as the Inachi of the South, and was originally the New Year's festival of a primitive year commenc- ing in November, is a matter, which can, I believe, be established be- yond any question ; but in what part of the world it first originated, is necessarily, with me, a matter of vague conjecture only, especially with the limited materials I possess respecting the festivals of southern races. The fact, that tho yenr-'of the Pleiades, as 'veil as the ancient reverence for that constollation, only now exists south of the equator, is, however, in itself very significant. We have hitherto examined the universal customs of nations, let us now turn to those wide spread primitive traditions, which, though hitherto unexplained, and apparently inconsistent with each other, have been regarded from the days of Plato to the present, as embodying the dim outlines of primeval history. First — We have tho very remiirkable tradition of remote antiquity, referred to by Plato, and by modern writers, as to the sun, moon and Ktars having once risen ii. the opposite quarter to what they now do. (jlroswell* regards ^'le trarUtion as historical evidence of a miracle. Can it be explained by natural causes 'i It can; but only in one way — by sup- posing a migration of races from south to north of the equator. To the Tahitians, the sun, moon and stars rise on their vight hand ; to us, they rise on our left. * Fasti Calholiri J, .14.3. f)'> Secoud-The most ancieut tradition perhaps in the world, one that ha. feft Its impress on the astronomical systems, the religious rites, and even '-he social customs of nations from Syria to Japan, preserves the belief o/ the Chaldaeans that the first inhabitants of Asia were a maritime race that landed on the shores of the Persian gulf.* Third— From China to ancient Britain prevailed the uniform belief that the ancestors of the human race came from Islands ; and from the time of Plato to the present, scores of volumes have been written on the 8ubject.t A celebrated French philosopher asks us, " Ne trouvez vous pas, Mons.eur, quelque chose de singulier, dans cet amour des anciens mnr les isles ? lout ce qu'il y a de sacre, de grand, et d'antique, s'y est passe • pourquoi les habitans du continent ont ils donne cet avantao-e aux isles" sur le continent meme ?" J An enthusiastic Welshman has gone near home for the primeval paradise, though a mistaken impression undoubtedly existed among ancient nations, that Britain much more nearly resembled the internal regions. § Let us imagine that a migrauon did take place from Southern lati- udes. and what would be the result ? The wanderers would bear with them a recollection of the Islands of the south, which they had left They would see with dread, and remember long, that the stars that once rose on their right hand, had apparently reversed their movements Thev uiight bring with them a year of seasons only suited to their former homes Ihe stars that once announced spring would long continue to be rever- «r 4 as the Vergili^. though rising at the beginning of summer. Once .-arKing the commencement of the year by appearing to their worship- pers on the southern Halloween, and hence causing '^he evenin. ami we morning" to be "the first day," the Pleiades would Ion. "retain heir name as the Ilesperides (the stars of the evening), eve^n when hey had ceased to regulate the year, when their "p]>.«.nt influences" had been forgotten ; when their rising in the evening was no longer xeverenced, and their heliacal rising and setting in the mornin. ^a alone regarded ;|| when even that mode of regulating the season?, had become disused, and the past influence and history of the Pleiads only existed as a matter of fable, and of doubt even to Astronomers themselves ^^»^aber.. II. 378. De Ronge.ont. I. 3... Dupai. V. 1. Layard. Nineveh and iU ren,a.u. t De Rougement. II. 248. Paber'B origin of Pagan idolatry. 1. 393 4 Letters sur L'Atlantlde, par M. Bailly. p. 361. 5 Dftvies' Mythoio£y of the British Druids, 1.18, 181. 1 SeeGroswell'sOrig. Kal. Itiil III v im K\a n r W and 23 Vet we fiad among ancient nations, that tbe Hesperides were connected most singularly with the traditions as to the primitive abodes of our race. The Southern Garden of the Hesperides recalls them to our mind;* while the name of these daughters of Atlas and of the Ocean, is blended with the memory of the lost Island of Atlantis. The key to many a mysterious myth will yet be found in the history of the seasons of the Pleiades, t It is not less interesting to mark the wreck of the southern year, and of its New Year's festival of first fruits and of the dead, over which the Virgilite once presided. In some eases, as in ancient Egypt, in Britain and Persia, we find it stranded in November as an ancient popular observance, though the year had long ceased to commence in that month. In other countries it drifted off from the autumn to form a New Year's festival in February. In one instance it shared the fate of the Pleiades, and took place, as the Lemuria of the Romans, in May, in which month it must have once been regulated by the heliacal rising of the Hesperides in the morning ; while the year of fwo seasons only survived in fables as to the two-faced Janus, or as matters of doubt and mystery to astronomers. So entirely have the history and ''the pleasant influences of the Pleiades" been forgotten, that the latest work on the astronomy of the ancients does not even refer to the primitive year commencing in Novem- ber, or to the Pleiades as dividing its seasons. Even where history has • See Dupuis I, 329. De Roup'omont, II, 248. t As the fables of lo and Icarus, hitherto uncxplaiiied, Boem to relate to traditions as to a mi- gration of races, and to changes in the seasons, it may ho worth while to refer to them here, lo, t.lie daugliter oflnachus, is tlie same as Ibis, who, we have seen, is plainly a mythical em- bodiment of the primitive year, and of its funereal and agricultural New Year's festival. The name of the Hindoo Isis, Cali, means time. Mythology tells us that lo, accompanied by the Pleiades, after w.andering over the whole earth, and being persecuted by Juno, on account of .fupiter, arrived at last at the Nile, where she was worshipped as Isis. " To what can this re- fer, except to a year regulated by the Pleiades, having Ijeen brought from some distant coun- try, and embdUied in the myth of Isis. The fable of lo appears plainly in the Hindoo god, Car- ticcya, (the Pleiades?). A reference to the representation of him, given by Sir Wm. Jones, will leave but little doubt on this point. By his name, as well as by his crown of seven stars, ho represents the Pleiades. By his faces looking in opposite dlrectioDS, and by his six arms on each Bide, Janus bifrone, and the year of two seasons of si.x months each ; whih- in the pea- fock, on which he rides, we have the well known classical emblem of the many eved Argus, tlie watchful keeper of lo. Sir William Jones calls Carticeya the Hindoo Orus ; but Orus or HoruB, Bunaon says, unites in himself all the myths of Isis and Osiris. The persecutions oflo, probably refer to traditions, as to the seasons having changed, in consequence ofa migration of races, and having become unsuited to the year and its festivals. Ica'-us (ailing short in his flight, fVom Jupiter or the sun having melted the wax with which his wings were fastened on, must also have reference to a change in the time of harvest. Now it is a curious coincidence, if nothing more, that in Africa, to this day, Oro is still wor- ehipped, as he Is in Polynesia. Isi moans a new period of time, iiimX a feast or festival, and ikore the /largest. ?e6 Sir Wni. Jones' works TIT *>. ?.(i?,. Bunscu'a Egypt's Place in Universal History, I. 434 to 437. Dicty. of Yoruba Language— introd XVII. Bowen's Central Africa, p. 372, 317. The learned have Invariably ignored the fiict, that Greek mythology points, with singular HBiformity, not to Egypt or to Asia for its orlijin, but to Ethiopia, and tho ocean beyond Afrlo*- 24 preserved the taL' of the Aztecs legulutiug their cycle in Noverutier by the culmination of ihe Pleiades, Greswell considers the circumstance so remarkable, as to deserve the special attention of Astronomers, and assumes that, if explained, it will fevor his view as to there havinw been once a miraculous suspension of the laws that govern the universe. It is not gratifying, it is true, for civilized and refined nations to trace their origin to the savages of thePacific Islands, yet those persons who may dislike the conclusion to which this enquiry tends, may, if they agree in the correctness of my views, console themselves by rememberino- the monuments of an extinct civilization, that are still to be found in those Islands, and that must have been the work of races far superior to the present natives of Polynesia.* Yet the Islands of the southern ocean most nearly realize the memory of the Fortunate Isles, " where the air Was wholesome and temperate, and the earth produced an immense number of fruits, without the labors of tnen." The early European voyagers, transported with the beauty and salubrity of the Islands of the Pacific, fixed upon them as the primeval abodes of our race. Even nature would appear to confirm the impression. There the very ocean and the stars seem subservient to man. The tides with unvarying regulantyf mark morning and evening, midday and mid- night; the Pleiades divide the seasons and regulate the year; and " the celestial clock,"J the brilliant Southern Cross, by its deflection in the heavens, proclaims the hours of the night. The conclusions to which ethology§ has led me, that we must look south of the equator, if we would find the origin of our November festi- val of the dead, or a solution for the traditions as to the Pleiades, receive a very significant confirmation from the following passage in a lecture JluJn!^im'm'uSu'^^^^^^^ ''' ^^'''' '''"'"''' '''''' '"''' ''"^^"^ '' '""'''' -.»V'^"t>'*'^ "'.,'' '■eraafkable circumstance ia the uniformity of the time vf hieh and low water. During the year, whatever be the age or Bituation of the moon! the w4ter is lowest at Thi is 80 weTesStd Xfth' "J"" '"p "r.f.^"'"^' »"*^ »'*«'-^' at noon 'a'nd mlUuiglU tide and ^n ill the liln,t ,.fi l^'' T^ • ^°'"''^ '* '"'"'^"'^ ^^ ^^0 ebbing and flowini^ of the Re8.'l 29. • *''«*"'" fo"" high water and midnight is the 8ame."-Polyne8iau I Humbolt'8 Cosmos, translated by 0. 0. Otte, (N.Y. 1850) II. 290. § I may, I trust, be pardoned for coining a new word for researcheB into a anhiA.^* Jiithor»« considered to be either unworthy of attention or closed againTrSar ^veSti^^^^ *iU I trZt' belnZ^ff'""' "^ °""°,"? '"■" ""^^ wonderfully enduHng memorial oV^^he Jast Will. 1 trust, be apparent from some of the facts contained in this naiMT When I come to i^at S^'el b" 8h7d°' 'E^en 'ihl?*; 'f^ 'f ? '^"'^ "' I'' ""K'"- ".i' wiU be^'m uch m^e cone S' rJ^„^tL!. ■. •,, v"" , -^^"^ should the interpretat ons, which I have siven nrovB entli-plr Incorrect, it will bo plain that, to more comoetont enqui;fir«. .],« ufTn,: J nu"L.l!»"!.*„f ""' J WiU8\°e"dm°orVri!fhtf".*f.««!f •<„'{'''' i' ''T?';" '''T- suo^optTble^f 8crenti"ftc''re7earch;'«nd that will snea more light on the social and religious life of primitive man, than philology itself. Wlngof^n uln- "liTaTrW^iiKm'i"'^"' ''?£"''",'" ""^ *" ^''"^ ''^"^y ""''^ that custom U th« «m« 01 m men , and Sir William Jones, the only modern writer, who seems to hare dn\f I 'ember by astance so ners, and ving been ■se. nations to arsons who ly agree in jering the I in those rior to the e memory jrate, and labors of sauty and primeval apression. Ihe tides and mid- md " the 3n in the aust look iber festi- 3, receive a lecture d 80 much gh and low is lowpst at 1 miduight. ving of tlib ■PoiyneBiau ct hitherto tion. That jt the past, me to treat ore conclu- de entirely , and that itself. iluro ia th« bare duly 25 delivered February 23rd, 1863 * by Professor Max Muller. His remarks, coming from one whoso profound researches have shed so much light on the history of our race, are entitled to-a peculiar weight. Referrint^ to his attention having been recently drawr .o the supposed similarity in°the structure of Polynesian, and Indo-European languages, he says, " strange as it may sound to hear the language of Homer and Ennius spoken of as an offshoot of the Sandwich Islands, mere ridicule would be a very inap- propriate and very inefficient answer to such a theory." " There are other theories not less startling than that, which would make the Poly- nesian language the primitive language of raankiud." "T^i^^lr^ks^^^^^^^^^^^Zr!^^ if a comparison of the times Wance amo.g them ; an7an\Srcorp;dro"f i^^^ZZTu\lrorLTtV.li I'T [soflTv'p'rif'^P''" '''' ""'''''' '''''^ P"""'"''^ world." S^o'sirT foneJtXfe^ bitherto entertained as to Ihe possMity o? tractrpoF^?ar °cul'tr"and'surjirf- "'", 'T' or,„„, are referred to Brand's "preface to\ia Pop«farT..quities!l^K537p vll to^ """' N«B.-InoonBeqneBco of the above paper having exceeded the limits, to which the writer mshed o confine it. the following notes were omitted from the " Transactions of the N 8 t ^Mtute. They have hoen inserted here, as they may help to explain or illustrate the suyect' Ko^m^fffiyvrifllt JS' "*o'n N^ ",U^' 'p'^^ 1803. 2 vols, translated by Leonard I'jrrt he has devoted to this point As to tho h«Hor r>f .V'A w "fP''*"* "n examining the cliap- by m. I«m nnahle to sup.!]y tL ^;^;';^K^'^K^^;^t ^"^l:^]^ to the 1^, day'ofth^Vmonth. mles "w8'8n-v"diem"n;,;'' 51'* '''^'"i '^"^ ^>" -»^''^^^r\u, miM<-omf-diem, qui dies ex uta nock nascetur, «f,'rn« • PuWialied in Macmillan's Mai{uzino for March. 1863. f MntamorphoB, XI 357. I n- 26 Of iML'ilSf ^ri^TntS^^^^^^ ^Z^y?i *•• ^- beIou«.n, to Athor. or the Btars 'TrSreK^Xr^^^^^^ ""'''' '-''^ '^" several thousand years ago In nHoe of ui?"'' ^''''^ '""^" ^'«"«ed In the north of Eurooo and May, a year of two seasons related it thfu-int"^ "'^^'"''^''^^ commencing in NovSr by the northern nations of EuropI But though wf« ''"'^, '"""°*^'' «°'«"™ ^a^ substituted CO nmencing in the evening, it ret «ned traces of 1.^^'' rv' ^'f ' ''•"' »'«"<=« not necesBarily jnL^^^^.;^°,tyhtKi«.^^|Ha„ow^^^ the northern nations oflferedsrcViflcl on thit'n'r" """f'^ny" or the ghosts of Yule, to whom Europe the peasantry are afraid o go to Churpf rm''^ f '^'''•J ^° ^1"« day in th^ northTf apparition of spirits. Uich, they eaf wander aL?/t th'^ '^''y- because "they dread the r,,?" i"?*' ''^ appeased by eSn LcriL.. "t t^^ on that day. and Lapland, for in some portions of thrRnRa^.Toi- ^ ,.^,**®^° superstitions are not conflnpd ?« place food in tho church-yards for the^.««n«-H"P'''?' ' '' '''" customary, on JNTrV^ °« rfav t^ UonsH^T 'iT^'^^ ?' Stho'anc^TNew Srdav'rt^^ "'^ Chur^elTrnaSnN wons that must have been made thnnBnnri= -^«• ^^"'^^ day, remind us of the same Drenara- othe fresh ones an, laid in their stead."! ^" ^*'''^*' ^*''°'» ''■^ o^en as they dry up thep^„,»^!:- May^^ay was -n more .arice^^^^ St. John eve,, almost extinguished So-S^3-e-tS^ 1?SZ~^^ thoforro7r:k'e's^1rcetfark'1^^^^^^^^ -?-. are supposed to reappear in "flying dragons i» the .lyre." In Cornwal? u u th^ '^ f^P*^°* '■• «• ^^° t'ead). are at larce as snakes to me,t in co^ipanis," on MiZmme ivi^^'' wi'*'"'''?"'^^''^'^ ^"'^■'^••' 'h^t "itis i sull'fo? ,'^'^'':l''S8ing they foi-m bubbles. XhhaTen into ^ ^^y joining their heads toge her by lot of northern nations. But. in soite of thp nho„^ ^% ^."S'" " »°ake stone" the sacred amu .nn Hv-'^r ni" '^"'0^?." i" the traditions of tCnorth"?[inH.,'^M^'''''°"'y*^''''''° Hallo ween an Hyperborean tradit on, which would imnivtw.i V'odorus," Grcswell s.iys, "mentiona Sd' VnH ''r ''''^'' '"«"«'»•• and theZig n 0^ li^e Us^f P/i"ni^'^ 'f,*^'^'"" «'' the no" f," wi?h world, and placed it where th, universal fcX/^f ^.L; • , ^S'^'^^^ with tliat of tho rest of thn ^llln'T^ '" ^'? !?^i"*^' '« South of thrEquaor^ Whore we Lf '°""^° year, commencing Tn WhUcouid'^T^'f'^''y.'?«Vergilia>, the stars of SrTng' '"'"' * year commencing at Ilal- ,mrfha, ?"""• '^ y^^'' Obsolete perhaps in the davs of min 'i '."J '^"''"' "'o ^«stig08 of that northern Europe, as it did in Peru, amonc the timnfnnr?^ ^•"'' '°"8 lingering probably in solar year. It can hardly be imat^i^e 1 thit amnn^^ ".r^'''**' '" «Pi'o "f the introluct on ofa tivc southern year was transferrpH t,wh;^ ™°"^ northern nations the be-'innins? of thp^f.i?;- festival of agriSulturcfLd of !he dead tiiuT^^ZT''''.'' *"« second season in May 'The an unseasonable time as -^^wi^/^'^^-J.-S^ ^ f^ SuT/^^^^ ^^^ J S"!;^n«''> Lapland. 102. t g^^^,,-^,, „ |^i£i?«r'^«"=-^ p— i!^;;:!^^^''^^'---'-^. i^-d i, ..o to m tt S;u'?kS'^S^ "^^ '''''' '''•' ^'- •'°''"'« «^«. Halloween, and Ohriatma. or, or the Btars itly, not aware mical rising of It, when tlma rth of Europe, in November »s substituted 3ot necessarily a former year. gfU" (mcedre* Q at St. John'g r the Pleiades ; moraines, and otible records of the people. ?ht, reappear 'ule, to whom the north of oy dread the that day, and t confined to Year's day, to 38, ornamcnt- itno prepara- welcome the B descriptioa among their round about hs of birch." lit with green they dry up, extinguished iS. We have The British iroad on that of forgotten are buried," we And the the Fijians, inly temples, reappear in at large, as is usual for ogether, by sacred amu- to the two n Halloween , "mentions north, with rest of the at is, in the mencing in ing at tlal- g northern Keen. Our gos of that )robably in luction of a f the primi- May. The very name cmoves all r) at Buch :<'S for the 27 acron cal r sing of the Pleiades, All Halloween was transferred to Yule, or the winter solstico- Had the primitive year begun in May, -the Mother Night" would have been MldsummeTeve and would not have been ah (ted back to Christmas. Hence it is plain, that the tradition of a year commencing m the spring, points to the primitive southern year beginning at Ha loween and loads us ic Southern latitudes^;' where the year still commences in November! and bS with a Halloween, when the Vorgilto or Hesperides. rising in the evening, are " wershipDed ai a constellation that announces spring." 6. "'o wuiBuippeu as .£,^^n^ ''" surprised at finding that the memory of this migration of races to the far north and ofthcprimitivD southern year having been carried with them through all the changes of L w n,.'Jh^°fh''","^ •;• "'°^"' b? preserved in strange myths as to the wanderingB of the Plei- ades ; or hat the tradition should long survive, that the seven stars were for years comDelled to flylYom the pursuit of Orion.t and that their movements in the heavsns hkd been reversed? tTcranoQov t« Jpo/iiywa UsHeiados «tS odov aiXav Zivg ftna^uXkii.^ Nor can we wonder that the Hesperides rising on the primeval Halloween, and thus making Inl^'T/,"^ and the morning the first day" of the year, should have left such distinct evf- nomP,?[vhn h„v« r"'° throughout the world, as to excite the interest and attention of as?ro- of Us or'i ^n surprised at the universality of the noctidiurnal cycle, though ignorant o„l'1I*'V^"''"'^^°'"•^w'''•''*'^'^'" ^""^^ Oreswell, "which inquir, into the rule of reckoning the f ^ i^, , ' '^^ •■'"'' "'^'".i: "" ■■'Ji l"'''"^''''' "^ '^« ^^"'•l'^' ^""^ =»t all periods of human history, brings to light being cyorywhore the same; the conclusion deducible from it, rests on the broad basis of an almost universal induction : viz., that there must have been, from the flrst? a simple and uniform rule of this kind, everywhere observed; a rule coeval with the origin of t me itself f'vL"'h'"'°T^'"*'°'^°'^';i''!^^•^'V'"P^''"^'*>o"''^'"^'^Wo globe; a rule from which every other (even ,. hose that superseded It) is to be derived; but in comparison of which, in point of an tiquity and in point of extent, even those that have been longest substituted for it. and most Sn'', '^nnH'fnr.'''1 "l "? '''' 'V-°'^''^ '*'''« "'"^ «^ "'"^'^d circulation, none having been flvi; •i*"^ independent of everything else of the same kind; none having existed from ths flrst, and none having been universal but this."§ caibw;u uum iu« ERRATA. P. 2, after the words "lunch at tho graves of their," read "deceased;" for " hcareafter," road "hereafter." P. 6, for ''are no longer reverenced," read "is no longer reverenced." P. 9, inverted commas bhould como after word "black- fellows." P. 14, for " Orisis," read Osiris." -' Oreswell'B Fasti Oatholici II. 104, 111. t Past. Cath. IV , p. 180. X Eurip. Orest. 1001 . § Fasti Cath. I. 219. 536. m>^ i:s* A 1) 1) K N I) A The necessity of coinprefsing the subject into such narrow limits, has rendered the following additional remarks unavoidable, in justice to a branch of enquiry, of which I feel I have given a most imperfect outline. Since the publication of the foregoing paper on the Festival of the Dead, Mr. William Gossip, the Secretary of the Nova Scotian Institute, has drawn my attention to the Rev. William Chalmers' remarks as to the existence of the year of the Pleiades among the Dayaks of Borneo. The facts mentioned by him, in addition to others which I have recently discovered respecting the Fiji and the Sandwich Islands, almost settle the point, that the identity in the November festival of the South with that of Northern nations, cannot possibly be accidental ; and confirm my conjecture as t(j the probability of the year of the Pleiades, and the new year's festival of first fruits and of the dead, being found to exist throughout the Islands of the Pacific, and of the Indian Archi- pelago.* We have seen that, north of the equator, in Hindostan, Persia and Egypt, November was connected by its very name, either with tho Pleiades, or with the festival of first fruits and of the dead. The Boeotians designated it the month of Ceres. Even many of the northern nations of Europe, though they appear to have thousands of years ago, transferred " the mother night," and the beginning of the year, from Halloween to Yule, retained traces of the ancient year, not only in the festivals of All Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls, but also in the very name of November, which was called among the Anglo-Saxons, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Swedes, the month of blood or of sacrificed * See ante, note to p. 20. t See le Monde Primitif, iv.. 89 to 114. Gebelin, whose learned work on tlie Calendars of the Ancients, I have only been able to consult since the publication of the foregoing paper, will be found to con- 2^2t::^l- Bucceeding the full moon mI nut ™^ month— Avoiid be the thr(>P niHhZ by the full, and also by the new moon Tt Jo^i • V "'^'i*'^^ ^3^ *"'» systems viz • wo systems, a confusion, notTnlTas to .^ . ??>" ;hat,/rom the existence of these tian aSSj eTr^o^^m^nSSlJ^l?:!^^^^^^^^^ T — <^ - to the Egvp- explain why, among many races the nri:.-^ c '^^ ^'^ "^^n^h ; and also wSl the evening.-Seo TUu^t-lVl^- ' V ''?^*' '■ '•' ^^ th^Jr aco^vo^l risinl^n 120. 192. 254, 291,-et passim "" '^'^''' ^^''^ ^^'i' ^«««- Monde-rrimltif"^iv.^ t'fo^nira?^T£S/l'"^K:^^^^^ -»«^ -on« natwo. or M.d..„o„. ^.,^' 31 mans, that winter ccnies up from hell at the beginning of November, " the mouth of Death" (Mordud), which is also known among the Arabs^aa Kajeb (" the Month of Fear.")* The festival of Kali the goddess of death, and the spouse of biva, «' the destroyer," takes place in Hindostan, in November, (the month of the Pleiades). Both of them, like Osiris, " the Lord of Tombs," are honored us " delighters in cemeteries," the goddess, like the wife of Alo Alo, being represented by a little girl. The explanation of these myths will bo found in the new year's festival of first fruits and of the dead, amonw the races of the far South. The Fijians, like the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians, believe that m November a god comes up from the infernal regions. He is named Katumaimbula, and is, like, Osiris, Kali, and Proserpine, a deity presi- ding over agriculture— and " a god of great importance in Fiji, as h« causes the fruit trees to blossom, and on him depends the fruitfulness, or otherwise, of the seasons. There is a month in the year, about Novem- ber called Vula i Ratumaimbulu (the month of Raturaaimbulu;. Jn this month the god comes from Bulu, the world of spirits, to make the bread-fruit and other fruit trees blossom and yield fruit. He seems to be a god of peace, and cannot endure any noise or disturbance, and hia feelincrs in this respect are most scrupulously regarded by the natives. They° therefore, live very quietly during this month, it being tapu to go to war or to sail about, or plant, or build houses, or do most kinds of work, lest Katumaimbulu should be offended, and depart again to Bulu, leaving his important work unfinished."! As the Fiji Islands are adjacent to the Friendly or Tonga Islands, and the natives of both groups strongly resemble each other in their customs and observances, there can be but little doubt that Alo Alo, the Ud of Agriculture of the Friendly Islands, whose festival takes place in November,^ is the same as the Fiji god, and like him is assumed to come in that month from the world of spirits, which is called by the Fijiaus Bulu, and in the Friendly Islands Bulotu. For the same rea- sons we may assume that a vernal queen, like the little damsel who pre- sides at the festival of Alo Alo, also welcomes the Fiji god. on his arrivrag in that month from the land of spirits— as Isis welcomed Osiris, and Pro- serpine wedded Pluto iu November. § ♦ Fasti Catholicii, ii. 99. t See Erskine's Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 244. ! frCGreek^and Sicilian festiTal in honor of Proserpine was regulated bTth. .cronycal rising of the Pl.iades, th. month in which U occurred, must hare. 32 But the custoiiia of tlie b 1'" .i 'iji savages throw an entirely new JiVhi ii>nrw.^.t„,l ...-■.1 . . " Isis is represented as K„i„g „„ ,|,„ „„| "f ° "J"* ''" " '"J"™-'- .-. .. on tL .bird .lay eV he ll r „' 1 ' "■"'"''°'' « »"''"'8''t. ~„fthe dj, to «.et;:::;;;;:;"re,':::er:::?o:i .n the ark or eoffor, „hich i, carefully „„.l,ea „i,|, ^.^ In . Eleu™,a„ „y,eer,e,. .he ark „r „,y,,„ ,„. „, , „^„ t;:' -fc.. V'" ownlfhat nV I • '^"^ ^''''^"^^y ^"'^^^ fi'^'"' one of their own — that of always go no- to bitlm ..fVn.. *u i i town to town." ' ° ^""' ''"""' "'"''''' '» ""'M frotn which it once formed a part, occurs ea y L' )1 f /"^^^^°^^' ^^ more festivals are held in honor of a D^T . ^' "^ '^' *^°' ^^ ""^^ Isi. Ppr^« . A -n ^ """'^y ^^^^ combines the attributes of ^^r^r^zr;;t:i-t::-:tr!:rn :fr<£t:::;^:raiS:;X7e%f — pHnelpally .» thT^noryte ^r^n ^^^rL "'';t r,'"*'^ kept, that .t has lecome a proverbial saying, that those who have L the 2000 years ago. more n^ar'v --->.<. i same remarks will apply to the festhal" of rr 'r'--' n'^*°'-'''' *''"« November. The ades.) See Sir WilC Jones' WorkJ iv lit ZeZT ^ f^'"''""' ''^' '''' ^^''- * Maurice,s ladian Antiquities, ii. i84. ' ^ ^' ^' *' ^' 33 uiuatiH of celbbrating it, should yull one uf tlioir cliildreii tu {)rocure them."* At thia festival the goddess Durga, the same as Kali, the goddess of nature is worshipped. lu every house there are earthenware images, into posi-ession of which the Brahmins coreiri.-uiously induet the goddess. There are great feasts and rejoicnngs, while she is a visitor. On the third day a most imposing ceremony takes place, viz : that of sending the god- doss back to heaven, which is done by means of water. " In each family" says Mr. vVright, in describing this festival, " the officiating Brahmin engages, with various rites, sprinkling.s, and incantations, to send the god- dess back to her native heaven ; concluding with a farewell address, in which he tells the goddess, that lie expects her to receive all his services, and to return again to renew her favors in the following year." Almost the whole population of Calcutta, at the close of her festival, flocks to the banks of the Uanges, which is covered with innumerable boats. At a given sign all the images are broken and cast into the river. The same writer, who was once an eye witness, thus speaks of the scene presented by the imiumerable crowds that are then assembled — " Who can depict the wondrous spectacle? — the numbers without num- ber ; the fiintastic equipages (jf every rank and gratle ; the variegated costumes of every caste and sect ; the wild and phren/.ied excitemeni of myriads of spectators intoxicated with the scene ; the breaking, crashing, and sinking of hundreds of dispossessed images, along the margin and over the surface of the mighty stream, — amid the loud and shrill disson- ance of a thousand untuneful instruments, commingled with the still more stunning peals of ten thousand thousand human voices."! This account of the Hindoo festival recalls to our minds the vast crowds on the Nile at the festivals of Isis described by Herodotus, and the shout that was carried far and wide throughout Egypt, announcing that Osiris was found. What could have been the origin of sending the god of the dead back to the land of spirits, by immersing his image in water ? We must tuii to the simple basis of all these observances, to the funeral ceremonies and annual commemorations of the dead, to solve the meaning of those mythical i-;i * Dubois' Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, p. 384. See Sir William Jones' works, IV., 132, as to the festival of the dead, which clearljf forms part of the itotivui of Duij^a ur Kali, " the iiiint yital dai/s of that festival.'"' t India and its Inhabitants, by C. Wright, M. A., sixth edition. Boston, Mass. p. 221. See also Montgomery's Voyages and Travels round the World, p. 242; also see EH to year of the Heiades and first fruits offerings in Polynesia, fee. 76, 77, 78, ai to Chinese festival of the dead, 209. 34 ■i4 beings and rltos, thai sprang from tlio new year's festival of agriculture und of death. At Flindoo funerals three htones are placed on a small pile of earth, representing the deoaased and the deities presiding over the dead. On the t»!nth day the officiating lirahniin " carries them to a river or tank, and going with them into the water up to his neck, ho turns to the sun, which he addresses with these words, ' up to this day these stones have repre- sented the deceased. Henceforth let him cease to be a corpse. Now let him be received into Paradise. Tliere let him enjoy all blessings as long as the Ganges shall continue to flow.' In pronouncing these words, h& casts behind him the stones and tlie vessels he holds in his hand, and re- turns to the banks of the pond."* Thus the rites observed in honor of Durga, are the same paid to the dead by the Hindoos ; but her festival, we have seen, was connected with and evidently grew out of the primitive festival of the dead. A similar mode of sending the spirits of the dead to Paradise by water, is resorted to in Japan, at the Feast of the Lanthorns, or the festival of the dead. The festival lasts three days, or two days including a Halloween. On the first evening they light up the grave-yards to guide the spirits to their former homes ; on the second day feasts and rejoicings are held in every family in honor of their unseen guests ; and at midnight they launch forth into the sea a boat made of straw, which they light with tapers, that the souls may be cheered on their dark journey to the world of spirits. At the festival of Isis, the Egyptian priests, proceeding to the sea shore, placed the image of Osiris into the sacred coffer or boat, and launching it out into the sea, watched it as it was borne out of sight by the winds and waves, t All these mystic rites of the Hindoos and the Egyptians resolve them- selves most clearly into customs still practised at the festival of the dead. Isis and Osiris are manifestly the same as Kali or Durga, and her hus- band Siva. Apuleius makes Isis say, " I am nature" — " the Queen of the Dead "—" the greatest of the Gods." The Puranas thus address Kali — " Oh dweller in cemeteries, bearer of a skull, borne on a ca 'rawa by ghosts," — " b jaring the moon on thy matted locks, and on thy neck a string of akulls."J She is worshipped as the Goddess of Nature, and supreme over all the gods. ♦ Dubois, p. 297. t St. Croix les Mysteres du Paganisme, ii., 162. t See the Lainga Puran, Part ii., ch. 100 ; also Padma Paran, r. ch. 5 . Q»rur» Puran. See also " India and its inhabitaats," 261 . 85 /^: m OsiriH " the Jiortl of Tombs," is plainly the pame as Siva, who " dp- lights in cemeteries, accompanied by ghosts and goblins." lie is also designated, like Osiris, "the Lord of the Universe."* In the feast of Lanthorns. or thy festival of the dead of the Japanese, and in the November rites of tho Fiji deity, we have a clue to tho mystic Isidis Navigium, to the sncred boat being launched forth into the sea, bear- ing in it Osiris, the Lord of Tombs; to the sacred bull, Apis, into which the god had entered, being drowned in the Nile ; to the annual festival of sending Durga or Kali homo to the world of spirits, by casting her image into the Ganges ; to tho Egyptian and Grecian myth, as to Charon carrying the spirits of the dead across the Styx ; to tho northern nations of Europe casting "with great solemnity" into a streaui, the maypole, which had been ornamented with garlands in honor of the Sclavonian goddess Ladaf ; and to the Roman custom of, aln>ost immedi:^tely after the close of the festival of tho dead, easting figures of men, made of rushes, into the Tibur. Can it be possible ''at the following passage from Tacitus refers only to an accidental coincidence between the customs of the Fijians and of the ancient Germans ? The same dies nefasti, those unluck;; days of rest and peace, when no work could be done, and the same custom of bathing the God, characterized this anniversary among both races: — " In these several tribes there is nothing that merits attention, except that they all agree to worship the goddess Earth, or, as they called her, Herth, whom they consider as the common mother of all. This divinity, according to their notion, interposes in human affairs, and, at times visits the several nations of the globe. A sacred grove on an island in the Northern Ocean is dedicated to her. There stands her sacred chariot, covered by a vestment, to be touched by the priest only . When she takes her seat in this holy vehicle, he becomes immediately conscious of her presence, and in his fit of enthusiasm pursues her progress. The chariot is drawn by cows yoked together. A general festival takes place, and public rejoicings are heard, wherever the goddess directs her way. No war is thought of; arms are laid aside, and the sword is sheathed. The swees of peace are known, and then onli/ relished. At length the same priest declares the goddess satisfied with her visitation, and re- conducts her to her sanctuary. The chariot with the sacred mantle, and if we may believe report, the goddess herself, are purified in a lake. In this ablution certain slaves ofiiciate and instantly perish in the water. Hence the terrors ot superstition are luore widely diffused ; a religioua horror seizes every mind, and all are content in pious ignorance to vene- rate that awful mystery, which no man can see, and live. "J * The fabled mutilation of Siva, like that of Osiris, gave rise to phallic worship, t Took's view of tho Russian Empire, i. 48, ii. 66, 372. ; Tacitus Germ,, xl. m ! i-' •" «■■ f» an I. Hence we may Infer, that as the goildesd was ticconipaniecl to the land of spirits by the souls of those who wore lier ministers and her rictinis, the traditions that human beings were once thrown into the (ranges, the Nile, and the Tibur, were not, perhaps, without some foundation. Not only Isis, but Derceto, iJeres and Venus were each represented as annually visiting the sea ; and de Ilougemont says "On aurait pu tout aussi bien pr^cipiter leurs statues, ou leur images dans les eaux, en commemora- tion du Deluge." He tells us that the same custom still exists among other races. The Poles, the Silesians, and the Bohemians, t^* this very day, con* tinue to throw into a river or pool, the image of a woman who hears the name of their ancient goddess the Earth, and which has the two names of Zie- wonie or Life, and Morena or Death, De Rougemont says that the festival Durga takes place, like that of the Sclavonian goddess, in the autunm and the spring, and considers that their festivals are representations of the seasons. Death appearing in the autumn and Life in the spring* It is evident therefore that when Morena, or Hortha, comes up as Death in the autumn, and is sent home by a baptism in water, to the land of spirits, she is precisely the same as the Fiji god of November. But it is erjually plain that this distinction cannot be connected with the seasons, but must be associated with the two divisions of the Pleiades above, and the Pleiades below ; because the God of Death is supposed to appear in November in Fiji, where it is a spring month — and November is almost everywhere connected with a festival of the dead, or with the rites of the god of the dead. In Rome, in November, the world of spirits was sup- posed to be open, mundus patet, as it was called. This took place thrice a year, about the 27th of August, when the Japanese and Chinese festival of the dead takes place, and when the Romans, like the Japanese, had their " lanthorn festival," or a general illumination ; on the 3rdt of October, about which time the Hindoos held * Le Peuple Primitif, ii. 253. t It is worthy of remark that the bej^inning of October, even among races hold- ing tlie festival of death in November, was also, in some cases, marked by a preliminary festival. In Egypt, on the 3rd of October, a festival of Isis took place.* Although I suiiposed, a^ the yams ri))ei) ;it the l)foinning of November, the Inachi of the Friendly Islands was the same as the festivul in N()veml)er m honor of Alo Alo, I find, on a more careful examination of Mariner's account, that for the Inachi yams were specially planted a month before the usual time. Hence that festival mur»t have been early in Octol)er. Although Ellis describes the festival of the dead of the Society Islands as " the ripening of the year," on procuring his works, since the ibregoing paper waa written, I find that it fell when the young canes begin to grow. Whether that la in October or November, I cannot say, • tea OaMiD, It., 34. 37 thuir festival of l>arga, and tlieir commeinonitiou ui thv dead ; aud iu November, at the midnight culmination of the Pleiades.* Riddle gives for this meaning of mimdas the following explanation : — '*' A pit dug in the centre of a newly built town, into which were thrown ^he firstlings of fruits, and other things. On three separate days of the year this place was regarded as the open door of the infrnal regions for the departed spirits to pass through, aud wa.s called mundus paf.e7is.'''f These days of rest, which every where tharaeterized not only the great annual commemorations of the dead, but also the monthly festivals in their memory, as well as all those that sprang from this primeval institution, are every where discernible as a connecting link between the customs of nations. Afaong the Fijians a,s well as the ancient Germans and Homans, the anniversary in honor of the dead, or of the god of the dead, was an fmlucky time, when no war could be declared, and no work done, liut as the festival of the dead was a new y(;ar's anniversary, the god of the dead became the god of time, or of the year. Hence Pluto is repre- •sented as carrying the Jceyf of the year, or of the world of spirits, like rTanus. The last month of the year was sacred to Pluto, the first month to Janus. They were the embodiments of the same idea, as the Ger- man goddess of Life and Death. When Pluto unlocked " the gates of hell," no war could be carried on. But Janus being an auspicious deity, was therefore the God of War, and hence his temple was never closed <5xcept in (what the ancients considered an unlucky season) the time of peace. They were both Janiters of the year.f In the same way the festi- val of Durga, the Hindoo goddess of Death, marked the beginning of the year. So did that of Cartieeya, the god of the Pleiades. The latter, as I heve already shown, was the same as Isis, or lo, and plainly the same deity as Janus. Hence he is the Hindoo God if War, as well as the God of the year § All the myths, therefore, connected with the festival of the dead, shew * Gebelin, iv., 37, makes it fall on the 7th of November, and Scorpo rise on the 8th ; but this occnrs at the time of the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight. t Riddle cites the following authorities — Varr. ap. Macrob, I, 16: Plutarch, Rom., 10, 3. Plutarch shews that in the time of Romulus it took place at the date of the Palilia, the ancient new year's day of Rome, the 21 at of April, I faave been unable to procure a copy"of Macrobius ; perhaps the reader may be rn(%>.f tracing »ueh singularly resembling customs to a common source.'' If all nations have descended from one parent, and have inherited from primeval man this wide spread new year's commemoration of the dead to what quarter of the globe must we turn for the origin of this festival? If the year of the Pleiades can furnish us with no clue, and the ftinere*! ceremoniea of the New Year's festival will supply no guide to this point, yet m the festival of agriculture connected with it, we may be able ta learn fron» what part of the globe it was derived. In Southern latitudes the new year's festival was accompanied by offer, mgs of first fruits > and these were renewed for a period extending over from two to three months. Traces of . fi,at fruits celebration are to be found m most of the Pacific Islands. pIw '""!T.^'^^''""^' '"* '^' ^'^'''^' ^ '^ ^"«°dly Islands. 0^^ „nn T *^\^r ^ *^« fi^«* fr"'^« ripen in February, and ar. l!mT T' ''^•':'°^^«*'^«^««°f Fl^i'JataDdSyria.gthey ripen t Bee Adair's American Indians, p. 109. ♦ S«e Nelson's FeitivaJa unil V„„*^ ^r.u. /-«..._,. « -. . . II Thi. nnin* '. I. " '"" '"" '^"«rca 01 r^DgiaBd, p. s. 39 The Ile\r. Wm. Chalmers iu the Coluuial Church Chronicle for 1861, ,e at his right hand. This ndo hobls strictly for extra-tropical latitude^. \n TropicMl iHtiiudes it k „nl..- finwalh; tna : thut is tn' suv. the mn M ij.mmi i^ tW 41 of November, we huvo the relief^ of a priuiitivc new year'h cclebiatiuii, a still more iniijortant conclusion is almost inevitable. We have seen that tbe universal tradition of our race points to the spring, as a time when the primitive year began. So distinct was the memory of this among some of the northern nations of Europe, that, to express the idea of an annual revolution of time, they adopted the word "year," which originally signified '' the spring.'"* But no where is November a spring month, except far south of the Equator, where at the time of our festival of All Halloween, All Saints and All Souls, tlie year, regulated by " the stars of spring," is ushered in by an otferiug of first iruits, and by a commemoration of the dead. With these facts before us, it is difficult to avoid turning to tlm Southern hemisphere for a clue to the origin of the festival and of our race. Sucli, then, are some of the conclusions to which the study of Ethology has led me. There are, however, further proofs deducible from chronology, and astronomy, which, though less interesting to the general reader, are most important in confirming the inferences to which this enquiry tends. Though they were the last to suggest themselves to me, they will not be, I believe, the least conclusive, in the hands of others more com- petent to deal "'ith them than myself. If the forej.; , paper is imperfect, this is almost unavoidably the case. The field is almost entirely new ; and many points were incidentally sug- gested, while I was preparing the paper ; for though collecting materials for a comparison of the customs and festivals of nations, required several years of drudgery, many identities in the mode of observing the Festival of the Dead, only became apparent to me, when t had carefully collated and compared the different references to it, which I had noted in tbe course of my reading during the past eight or ten years. Of course the difficulty of procuring, in a colony, any works bearing on the subject, not a little contributed to my labors. Before going into what may be regarded as, in some respects, a distinct branch of the subject, it would be as well to recall the stops, which have led me so far in this enquiry. Accident drew my attention to the antiquity of certain popular cus- the eroatcr part of the- vear in tlie (^outiiern quarter of the heavens to an ohfe— -^ in the northera torrid zone ; and in the northern quarter to an observer m the south torrid zone. I consider that all vour point? are well made out." * Sen GreswellV Fasti Ci-.i in ^^:ti:^ ^n^trT:^'""' " """ ^"■• tl.»e the ft,,iv»l of thj ,l,.a.l «„. . *•"»!«. I "t Ihe Mme lime found •nJcn. calendar^ et iT'lir"'"""''^ "" -batratu™ of »„ calendar, of .„eie„t „,i"!l, •. ""'''"'^ ""■• ""="'f°'^. '"'» «>• "f « p^ -ive .;::i:f":; tir i~::: -r """""" -^'"- in different parta of the globe ^ '"« '"•■°'' '""' '" ™S>» 'bS; :!::^:: j::::'-::- - - .- o; .eaaona Of and that their mn.Lr Int,:; ttil'LT "'f ^ "■" """"" ^^"• "f the Egyptian month of A%r T - t \ 'r.,'" "■" "" "^^ now jear'a day of the K^vodal', b ^ '""^^'^ "■' P™''"'" third month, at II L„ attf the ! Ir ?'" '" '? ""' "* ''•^ "^ *» an eale„da„; atil. CZZTlyZlJ/'^ 'he .««< . V;,^ of b«k aa the year B C 1355 T. ,•' , "" ""««»»■« «» f" whiehweposLaatothe alendafo tir f'''" ^'"■°°""""' ^'" date; and in HindosUn B rin« ..f"'"""' "'"^'"^ " '» "■" carry baek our j'^To^^: "^ ''"' '' •"' ''""' '» "'■-l- « can aafel, ."rirthrth^'srofter-'t-'r"" --> i"ttefs rharb4^'""— - - ^« of these Deit Jrh.™ t f '°*''""^' *■"' "■» ™»''!p Mhowe,er;::id'7etvZe:a:;:nti "'"/•'''"■" of thoae deities, among the sod .„T " '°* °""''°''' ^-rn Oeean. . ma^ tr^^ZT^^ SL 1 ^ S*» Fasti Cath. ii. m IV. .Tl 40 tJai). Ht'iiee if tin- primitive year was rejjuluteit by the miiliiiglit culmina- tion of tj^e Pleiailca, wo may expect to find all affinities in calendars con- nected with that particular day. Thia is exactly what Greswell has dis- covered. He cannot explain why, out of the 365 days of the year, the 17th day of November should be such a point (Tappui of all calen- dars. Yet be considers it derived from some primitive unknown calendar, in which it constituted the beginning of the year, and that in all modes of dividing the year, in every portion of the globe, a connection with the 17th of Athyr is to be traced.* With that day, as we have seen, among the Egyptians and Hebrcwst the traditions of a deluge were associated. The Mexicans, it is plain, must have connected the same ideas with the very same day, because their great cycle of fifty-two years was regulated by the midnight cul- mination of the Pleiades, and on the night when that took place, a dread lest the world should then be again destroyed, filled the Aztecs with gloom and dismay, which only passed away, when the Pleiades were seen to reach their highest point in the sky, and a new cycle had begun. To this day the 17th of November is regarded with dread by the Arabs, as well as by the Persians. The very same supersLiiion existed among the ancient Romans, it being by them connected with the rising of Scorpio, which occurs at that time of the year.t Greswell says, referring to the fable of the Pleiades flying from the pursuit of Orion, I "in our opinion it was founded ultimately on this Julian year of the Egyptians, in wliich the stated date of the Epagomenae was Nov. 13, and that of the first month was Nov. 18th. Qrion and the Pleiades were observed to set always at the same season of the year, and that season November, and within a short distance of each other. In Eudoxus' Calendar (apud Geminum), the Pleiades set cosmically Nov. 14 ; and Orion begins to set on the same day. According to him, too, Scorpio begins to rise the day before, Nov. 13 ; and it was another fable of antiquity relating to Orion, that he came to his death by the bite of a scorpion." At the equator, the Pleiades on the 17th of November rise at sunset, and set at sunrise ; but this is not strictly the case elsewhere. It is pro- * See Fasti Catli. i. lU, 118; iii. 160, 113, 61.3. t Calmet saj's that the months of the primitive Jewish year were in all proba- l)iUty based on those of the Egypti.ins. Hence we ftnd they have shared in tiie uncurUiiity Uuit exists iis 10 the nature of the primitive Egyptian cslendar The primitive Jewish year is supposed to have conimeneed near the 1st ot October,— See Bryant's Mythology, ii, .'W"). Fast. Catli., ii. 1 !'». \ Id, iv,, 180. i. pi. appearance of the Pleiades In fh« / t ^"^ ^"°^ °^ *^« ^''^ p 44 J* *^' evening-(see Profe,s.sor Everett's table, thr*o^;';eJ"yr<;'?,'X*t\lV';^^ ^''%"»'''"" "f November will, I helieve excited so much spoculatfou-"^' *™'^'"^" '■'^^''"^■^' ^« •'>• Virgil, and \vludl ha, Candidas aurati. aperit cum cor«ihus «,u„,m SShr£:;!;r::f ferT^' ^ -«-.• to avcrcnnte period whentl,e^ v^is tradition with the ^ISl" ?iS;;";S,;",J "^ .^'"- then can ^in\hol^,^^''''\ '"•" '*? '''^' '^t"'-" '" 'i'»>n.., the Sea e,' ".ornin,., marked tlu? h^ nine r", ^" f^ Sv'"'"^' ''^»"'l-'iKJ.t and ' s Jttiug „ hi has only to consult the vario ^w •; P"""^'^' year in November. Tlie rol r Jind that there can bJ^^.I^IS^ uSl^n" ;^^T ''"'''''' "" *'"^ '^'"^ -^ ^ "^ trad t.on. I have already connected low;.,?), ^^ ^™-':«'''tnes« of this vieNv of the as she was by those stars in Tr wa deH i i ' T'^'",°( ""'^' ^'^'''"'^«' accompan ed wh^Cw ;;StS.;t'liiJ;^;Se::f'i^ "r"rv'" ™«"^''' «" ^'- ^-^^ ^^ay of •^ ^m to have noticed the conneJthS of 1 ' ^''°,'^ P'''^^''^- f''-e««well, who does not ..» Nove„,ber, says " accorr^jr ome ,tZr"'lrS'^ '^^"""^ ^'*'' ^'''^ ™o"tl whieh IS evidently the same with ti.a T? • ''"^ ^™'>»c names, is ^toworyl/o- Vh JV''^'!.'''" ^'''''''''^' ^fJi^-'t AiZd affl ?"i ^''' ^«""°ction of Taurus Kat« ?^""'l'' '^■^■^"'•'■atfcd together ifolSvwf- ' "^Tf^' 'V^'y ^^''^''^ ^ven in the /?ir of ./" ^'"7''*'' *'■""' the l&'p^an t fro ,^^ ^''' ^^'"•^""«'- Wilkinson ;.'"* of the earth, and wM dol,/k//,TJ, V- '"''°'" ^''« ''^""try o/r«-«/ tf>f first ^rViT""^'-^'"" betweontS^ yC • ri '•■''?°*'-"'* '^'"^ at h^ altar." lie 1' Waiiners ami cnstoni IS of Anoient Rt yi'tians. (ril. H-l), i. noo. 47 From tho ITtli of Mhya lut us now turn to A^iril liOtli. and to the Hocond division of tiie priniitivo Houthorn your, " the Pluiudcs below." It will be observed that there is a very marked difference in the duration of the first season, in northern and southern latitudes, it being a good But the coiinoctioii of Tuurus ( Atiuir) witli u fiuieieal, coiniiiemonitioii wliidi tonk plai'c (Ml tlie ITtli of Atliyr, is iiiilirfctlv attcstoit to by Plutmrli, who say.s "the [triests tliciel'ore practice certain dolfj'id rittjs, one of which is to cxiJO.se to [diblic view, lis a proper representation of tlic grief of the umld&s.i (Isis) an ox covered with a pall of the (iiiest linen, that animal beinj^ considered the iniaf^e of Osiris. Tiu". cerenioiiy is performed for four days successively, lje;;inniiif^ on the 17th day of tlm iiliovc mouth ( Athyr)." " Tims they commemorate what they call ' tht- loss uj Usiris,' imd on the 19tli of the month another festival reprcstints ' thuJmUug of Osiris.' " The Uiithorities I have already cited* seem to show, that this refers to the 19th of Athyr, (not of Pui'hiiiis, ns Sir (lardiner Wilkinson su;;gests). I'lutarcli snpjioses thiN funereal celebration to represent the death of the year, and the be<;iiinin^' of winter. ]>e Rouyemoiit makes the same conjecture as to the festival of the German tjoddesB of death; but 1 have already shewn that these theories are incorrect, because in the ISouthern hemisphere, the vernal month of Norember is sacred to the ^od of the dead. But I'lutarch supplies, unconHciously, the clue to the eni;,'ma, wlieJi he states that these funereal celebrations " take [)laee in I he montli when the Pleiades are viost distinct," i. e. in Ath} r.t These lamentations, followed by rejoiciwjs, were plainly connected with the disappearance, and reapjicaraneo of the Pleiades, and were in no way descrijitive of the seasons. The Abijioues of South America call that con- stellation their " (irandfatJier." When it disappears from the sky at certain sea- sons, " they sup[)ose their ^grandfather is sick, and arc under a yearlv Jii)prehcnsion that ho is jj;oinj,' to die ;" when these stars ajjain appear, they rejoice, and hold festivals in honor of his recovery.} In Borneo &' keni, the Ciod of Agricultui-e, resides in the Pleiades. Hence we find the Pleiades, like Osiris and Proser])in(', wore rcfrarded as tlie god of the dead, and of agriciiUurc, and thus the festival of the Pleiades was a feast of ancestors, and a tirst fruits celebration. In Australia, on or about tiie 17th November, the savaj:cs celebrate their ji'reat corroborec in iionor of tlic stars of Taurus — (sec ante p.9), which, utf^ I have shewn, is of a funereal character. It is therefore evident tliat, as tho Hindoo name for November is Cartiguey, (the Pleiades), the Egy])tian name for it, Athyr, is connected with Atanr, (Taurus,) and the seven stars the Ple- iades. Hence we learn from the fable of lo, that the cow or bull, accompanied by the Pleiades, was worship])ed at the Isia on tiic 17th of Athyr, /. e. when these stars in the constellation of Taurus arc most distinctly visible; and thus as the ))riniitive year began at that time, the constellation of Taurus may be said to have opened the j)riinitive year. — See Landsecr's Saitscaii Researches, p. 7.5 to 85, 861. See Greswell's Fasti Cath. II. 88, n. II. 112; lii., 235, 257, ,370 ; Introd. 241 ; iv., 280. A plate, in Hyde's learned work, on the Religion of the Ancient Pci-sians, taken from an anti(iue gem, which was supposed to represent Mitlira or the sun in tho sign of Taurus, evidently refers to the stars in the constellation of Taurus, and to Orion and Scorpio, which are at the same time visible in November, when tlie jirimitivc year began. Hyde says that the representations of Mithra were intended by Zoroaster to be of an astronomical, not of a religious or mythical cliaractcr. We have i-eprcsentwd in this gem, a man holding a sword and accompanied by- two dogs, (the form under which Orion was represented), near him a scorpion, and above him the seven sLars, the sun and the moon. The tradition as to the scorpion, 1 have already siiowii, was comiected with Novcmbtn- and with Orion by the ancient Romans, and to this day is associated by the Aniljs wlih November. '>Si'C as lo till! ITtli, 1-tli iiml 10th, l)^'iiiij rliivf! ••■-.irrrA to ttir ilniiil, aiito p, ^^, Ifi. Sro Faet, <'atli. II. i')'), 158. I Mradr'nM'fi Atii'T, Vtili^i., TJl, illiid, i,. 48 I i ;!l deal longer north, than it is south of the t'({uator. This circumstance may prove of very great importance in affording a clue to the part of the world, in which certain very con.si)icuou.s festivals of ancient nations had their origin. I have already noted the fact, that there are to be found in most parts of the world traces of two great festivals ; of the one in or near ]Jut thu Persiuiis tlicmsolvcs, when tlicy cliaii;,'!!!! their year fVoni November to Fcl)riiary, /. (\, from tlio tiine of the ini(fi)i,u;ht culmiiiiition of the PkittdeK to that "C ^'.'".''" <';ilin!'i'itioii at sunset, inu.st have tran.-tbriod the tradition us to the doiith still celehrate ii festival in pious, llydc savs this fes- of Orion hy the l)ito of a scorpion to Fchniary, as thev Pehriiary, in whicli channs are used to drive away scor tival once took place in Novenilicr. I can lind no' trace in the customs Of uny race, in wiiich any superstitions resjicctinj;' Taurus, Orion, and Scorpio arc connected with I\Iay.— Hyde de Hel. Vet. I'ers., n;j. BaiUy's Astr. Indieniio, x.\x. cliv,, 4 18, 78. Kee also ante p. ti.'J. That the reverence of Asiatic nations, as well as of the nations of anti(|uity, for sacreil hulls, arose from the seven stars in the constellation of Taurus markin';;'the heginnino- of the year in November, is probable from the following facts eonneeted with the traditions as to the dclu^'e. We have seen that the memory of tliat event was jiroserveil in the j.rreat relij,'ious festival of ancient nations, the new year's commemoraiioti of the dead. But as this was re},'uhvted by the Pleiades, "which arc in Taurus, let us see whether the Bull and the Seven Stars are not mixed up M-ith the traditions of the ddui^e. Bryant* shows us tliat the Pleiades were c(mneeted with that event iiAirccian mythology, tliough he ^'ives no satisfactory explanation for the fact. We have already seen that, beyond any (piestion, the Mexicans associated the memory of the deluge, and a dread of its recurrence, with the midnight culmination of the Pleiades. No solmion has been supplied for the remarkable circumstance, that the Zenda- vesta, and even the prayers (jf the Parsees, mix u]) the bull with the memorv of the deluge ; nor luis any clue been found to the meaning of the traditions of the Ohinese the ancient Britons, Greeks, Persians, Hindoos, and K-vptians, as to "the seven |£elestiai beings " preserved from the waiors of the Plood.t Thev all i)lainlv ijoint Tor their origin, to the connection of the memory of the deluge with the new vear's coinincmoration. This festival, as we have seen, was regulated bv the stars 'in the constellation of Taurus. Hence the belief of tlie Mexicans, that "the delude com- menced at the moment when the Pleiades, culminating at midnight, marked the beginning of tlie year, has been .'^hared in by other races. We can tlierefore understand, why the bull, and the .seven stars arc connected with that event not onljr in ancient mythology, but also in the traditions, and even in the nravers of Asiatic nations. The belief of many writers, tliat the ancient British fables as to Kmg; Arthur are derived from some astronomical myth, will receive some conlirmation from tlie facts contained in this paper, and from the references which 1 give on this point Wo find the Arkite God Hu (the bull), t'%/- or Arthur, (Athvr?) connected with the deluge, from which Arthur andihis savcn friends escaped.t The lamentations for the death of Hu, are traceable to the connection of Taurus with the new year's feast of ancestors, which grew in time into a commemoration of the dMik of u did- mti/,ov into a festival of the .yw/ (;/^) IS the same mythical event as the death of Osiris, with whom the bull J;;/.s and • -U/w/- ( I aurus) were connected. The lamentations for Adonis, Thammuz, Pro- serpine, and other deities, are derived from the same nivth. Dupuis savs, '" dans ur mysteres on rappelait la chute, et la regeneration des ames. par fe 'taureau ii^s a mort et re.ssuscite."J The astronomical idea^ of the ancient Britons confirm this view. We have the testimony of Plutarch that in an Island to the west of Britain, a festival at the end of every thirty years was held, which \va> connccied with, and proliablv, like th.; ■' Bryani'H Mviholu^'y, i. J'.Hi— ',i ; ii. i;s6. t See Davies' Myth, of British Oriiiil.s, ii. |;3I. |::ii l.'.s H.ii'iH 171 170 M I 'U t iHijiiiiit. VI. '.>9S, ' • — 't. lo mi 40 November, ol' ihc othur in Ai>ril. Dwh the inttrvul lictwccn thi.^c iVBtivalj- coincide with the duration of " the Pljiados above" in northern latitudes, or does it point to a southern origin V The first festival of I«is fell, as I have assumed, on the 17th of Athyr, (corresponding with our November.) But the second festival of Isis fell on the 20th of Fharmutbi, i. e. near Mexican cycle, was repulatcd by the constellation of Taiirus. " It is mentioned by riutarch," says Greswell, " that the principal object of adoration among the Cimbn, m the time of Mariiw, was u brazen bull; iiy wliich they are accustomed to swear on occiisions of greater solemnity than usual. If this bull was not borrowed from the Bgvi)tian8, and was not merely their Apis or their Mneuis, wc can have but little reason tciioubt but it must Imve been intended as a type or symbol ot tlie bull m t!ie heavens ; and we consider tliis sui)position much tiie more probable of the two. Tiiis fact, however, woul.l do much to connect the origin of time, and the begiii- ning of tilings in tlic opinion of these nations with tiie sign of the bull. Tlie Hin- doos both of ancient and modern times, and tlie Persians also, have always asso- ciated th'i sign of the bull witii tlie origin of time ; and there is no reason why the nations of the North might not have done the same, and for tiie same reasons iii general too, viz : l)ecausc immith-e tradition and belief amotifj them alsoadually cm- ncdid the Ix'i/inuiiKi of tliim/s with this siijn, or the const vllution in particular."* _ But we need not go to leiuotc antiquity, or to distant nations, for traces of this connection of tiie stars of Taurus with the beginning of the year, whidi they rc'ulated bv tiieir rising in the evening. To this day the Higlilanders Iwjlievc, that //( the" twilinht on new year's ew, the figure of a gigantic bull is to be seen cros^iu"- t!io lieaveus. They even imagine that tiie course which it tal Seo Fast- Cath. II, III. 112. OreswoU connects these facts with the tifftiot Taurus, i. «. with May-'.ot with U?; conBt^Uation of Taurus by its rising '•^N^yemter marking the beg.n^ th.! year-a theory whicli does not appear to have suggested itself to him. nor can 1 And t at Invwdt,,, has taken the view which I have of the traditions. «ymbol3, and myths of ancenl iintiDiis, us cminectud with astronomy and wiUi ihu primitive year. t See rtii'warl's Superstitions ol tlu; Highlanders, ;J4t5. ^ ; Sec iiiitc, p. (i. § !!ry;iiil'" MyUi'.lu«y, II., DO. i Sri- ll.r.Vi'H'r I 'rlllr;ll .Vflleil. -li'i. i 41 i 60 the middle of A,,nl, „„d lung before the Pleiades are i.nisiblo in th, evening .n northern latitude. Assun.ing the account of 1, 1 have been astronomical, not historical, that event beL^an on !h7i-fu . the 2d month. (November), and the Ark rented:! ^ 1^:^^: lith of the seventh month, t. e. Ar)ril IHth w„* • .i i about M.y I,t ; and ,„ g„. ,h„ fi„. ^„,„„ „/t :/,,."■, .fj''''^ comcde wieh the fntcrval, wo ,„.,t go f„. ,ou.h of ^ "iV -t 1° tm great festiral, are fou»,l i„ .|,„o»t every nuarter of ,r l r contra. Afnoa they aro stU, in ™g„„. i„ a^^r fr Ll^.t t : r.cark restoa on Mount Ararat orthc 7th , v f 'i'iT""""?^'."^ ^hc vear. vu,h month the second Isia and the on . n 1> Hia t.^^^^^^^^ t" '"""!' ^^I"'^)' '" i^ay IS unquestionably the same festival ,rfl?n p . • -'^ t"«>k plare. Ihn onr Mav 3>.vy the /)ruids corfnectedtrmlitio.rnr^h ,'''"' ^^^ ^"^'^ "f IVIaV ft the ark, and retunSl more o„ th ulf If^ i '? ^''^T' "' ^''« ^'''^«'"^. tlic 21st of Au-ust, wlien the P|Sp« ,.„ . • / '^ ''^ ^''•^" ""' '"""f''. '• ''■, on The d.^te mSS^.:^,ssf;Se;r ;;f ^-^^^ ■" t-- -«-•'- Aincnca. On each of them we fi 1 a nc w Z-, t ' • ^fT'i' ^r'"' Africa and ^.«l»onf,^some races. Nov. ITtl" I have X.J.; hLS^"^ "^ "'" l'''^'' ^"^"^ r'''«'« ancent nations, and is st.ll the new vn". , n ' '''"' ■' '"'"'^^^'^ '^">- '"'"">« savages „s well as a sul.jec of supemi ions d ? T"''"'''"'''"'' "^ ^''° Australia^ , On February 17th a new ycaK f iv I nf '"","".^' '^"'n'' Asiatic races. tl.e form of the Attic AnTl.es'eria n t be j/ m !> "'" .'" ''"^'^ ""''"• ' was the new year's dav of Vn „„ • "i ■ '^••'"'"' I'fircntalia. Anril '^Oth of spirits was^^u^^otLo 1 Xen'" On X",?., ''"."V^","'^' ""'^ "" ''t tbe J ^ unese and Japanese ccnn LncT and In t ho 2S >."\ ^^ ^■'"'•an-, the year of the takes place as it did in EgvjS h" Kome "' "' '^"^^"'^^ '^' ^""'^^ «* '"»'<^«»"'« |.'-edays tUil almost ulLunHS^^ "^ .-en.emb;^,;' tl t /I u'l that they were each in T.m,. «.. "'^f'"''''^ intervals; and especially when we ••o.inected. in soi^ieTns tance w7th S b"''-''"-'"' '1^°'^ "^■""'■'*"'^ calendars -each tl.c. lead, or with theCvrneS'^'the'^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^'^'^ ^l^" ^-tival of the^rriSv:';:^!^^^^^^^^^ ^^-•^-•^ iiSo^^et/nrky Day stil, ..rvivc ' thousands O^C\al itSrsT'"'"''^ '/'" ^T ^''-'''^^ '■'^■^^'^''"^. -^ "id ;:'.if.ed the traditio.S"th?a. r ''him S^ the ancient liritons must have from the be-inninc of " the fe^.^lf ..''"/" *''° ''''° "t' Mnv Dav, /. e This is the ordy instance in whI.hT "l'«[e, ' to that of " the Pleiades below ='• with the second^eSro "tl^:'";ri,ii?iTe ti.*''%r'';'"V"' ^'" '*^'"«« -»'>-"ed aocsir William Jones' works TV If. p.. . . . worns, 1 V . 10. Buchanan's IiulU, I. j.Ji. 1 I ^v • 51 npj)caraneo an.l ilisap|.(»araiic(' lA' J'rnf»or|)inp, She liersolf was tlio (laughter of Taurus, or, according to the fable, of Ccros, antl of Jupiter, who uh- sumod ths form cf a bull.* Ovid refers to a very signiiicant fact, that the initiated at the my.« Ceres having then for the first time broken her long fast. But the facts contained in this paper will suggest for it a more probkble orig' ''here can be but little (juv^stion that it dates back to an era when the goUdess herself had not l>een created — to the origin of the festival, its deities, its mysteries and its myths — to the primeval custom of regulating the year by the appearancw or disappearance of tho Pleiades in the evening. The reverence paid to the seven i^tars' was abnost universal — and pro- bably referred not to the sun and moon, and the live planets, as has boon bitnerto supposed, but to the seven Pleiades. It was conspicuous in the ancient mysteries, and is traceable iu the cir- cular dance of the priests representing the course of the stars. But the most striking evidence of ita influence throughout the globe, is that a reference to the seven stars, or to the number seven, pervades the sym- bolism of almost all races, in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America, even still lingering among our Fre masons, with whom the Seven Starsi^ are a conspicuous and probably not very intelligible emblem.} But as this reverence for the number seven, or for sevon stars, is found in every (|uarter of the globe, and the Pleiades are aln.. •= .very where t!ie subjects of veneration, or at least of observation, we can scarcely do be that the wide-spread symbol of the seven starS can only refr\" to the Pleiades. § * See St. Croix, i. 168 ; ii. 17, and note ; also 6, 13, 120. The facts meniioncil l>y Dupuis almost settle the point. See vi. 277, 283; ix. 340, ?I!). See Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, trans, by T. Taylor, p. 67, and note. Gcl>c'ir., iv. 347, 349, 358, t Ov. Fast. liv. See ante p. 14-18. I have in p. 18 placed the 2nd festiv»l in May— which is apparently too late. According to Ovid it fell in April. J See Oliver's Hist. LandniarkiJ of Freemasonry, references in j,eneral Index ; also in index to notes, as to tlie "Seven Stars."' Also as to commemoration of DdiUh, II. 142, 14^ ; also as to " Serpent" symbol, see Indezi. See in reference to this point note to p. 19 and p. 26, foregoing paper. Also see Archdeacon Williams' Essays, p. 298, 302 ; Christy iu Ceylon, 202 ; Tsehudi's Fenivinn Antiq. 13. Kerr s Voyages and Travels, xxv. 8. If Masonry is entitled to claim a very remote antiquity, it is far more closely connected with the primeval superstitions of which I have been treating, than with the Hebrew i ce. Many of the uninitiated, who mlipnlo t\\n ficciltnntintic nf TTi'/intT^nco^o lio^ri. ..,'/-»V,oKIir ^ir^flir^iif rt»maft/^»* 11/^.1.^.1. >*^f1 " All Souls " as of Christian origin, with as much reason as FreemaBons connect tiieir order and its symbols with Jewish History. *" ■^ The following autliorities refer to this subject. Bunsen's Egyjjt's Place iu Universal History, i. 69, i:!7, 378. GreswoU's Fasti Cath., iv. 357, Maurice's la- 52 if (r«;})t*lin* sfiys that at the time of harvest in th<' month of Phurmuthi, about the 20th April, the Egyptians wept over their sheaves of grain, as they invoked Isis. '' It is worthy of remark" he tiMs, " that the 19th, 20th, and 2i8t April were the days on which the festival of Ceres and that of Palea were held." The Palilia of the Romans was their ancient new year's day, on which took place, in the time of Romulus, a festival of the dead. The world of spirits was supposed then to be open ; though when the beginning of the year ceased to fall at the time of the Palilia, the mundus patens seems to have become attached to some other day, or at least was no longer connected with the Palilia. Y i the customs pre- served by the Romans, we find a trace of their anci. . new year's festival of the dead. It was usual at the Palilia to light bon-fires, and to leap through the flames. This custom still lingers in Scotland and Ireland, in connection with the eve of May Day, and of Halloween. Bon-fires almost every where were connected with the festival of the dead. But Jhe custom of leaping over a fire, is still practised in Ilindostan afler funerals, for the purpose of driving away the ghost, that may hover around the living. The goddess Pales is supposed to be the Italian type of Isis, Ceres, and Durga.t and the Palilia from their funereal characteristics which I have noticed, would seem to bear out the conjecture. In India a festival occurs in the spring, which, with that in memory of 4he flood on August 22d., Sir William Jones connects with the two great commemorations of Osiris, his entrance into the moon, and his enclosure in the ark. The Siamese have two years in use, one, the more ancient civil year, commencing in November, or Cartiguey (the month of the Pleiades), and the other the astronomical year, commencing in April. J Every where we can find traces of these festivals, in almost every case, dividing the year into two unequal seasons. I have already shewn that de Rougemont is in error in supposing that they represented au- tumn and spring, uLuer the name of the festivals of Death and of Iiife.§ yinl)nlisni is us universal in the New, as it is in the Old World ; hut will not Imrtlieu this pivliminary outline of these iavestinations with any more rofcronecs on this point, * \\iy,v.]f !>rimiiif, iv. .".58. t As ti. date of Palilia, &9., sec Fast. Cath. 318, II. 55, 58 ; Orig. Kal, I. 110. t .See liadloy's Astr. ludionne, p. 4, 18, 30. ^ See ante, p. 36. 53 But assuming that thoy were originally the festivals marking the commencement of the two seasons of the year of the Pleiades, how is it that the second festival fell before the second season of the Ple- iades began, in Rome, Egypt, and Hindostan? We may explain it by supposing that a migration of races from the South once took place. It is plain, that with a very rude race, regulating their seasons by the Pleiades, their months being merely *' moons," the Second festival would fall later, as they would migratf to the north. But if any semi-civilized race can have passed from southern to northern latitudes, carrying with them a calendar, in which the year was divided into months and into days, it is quite possible, that the second festival, being fixed in their calendar, may have retained its place, though no longer adapted to the time of the disappearance of the Pleiades in the evenings. When it is remembered that the ancient new year's day, the Roman Palilia, the second festival of Isis, and the second great event in the his- tory of the deluge, took place within four days of each other, i. e., between the 16th and 20th April, we can scarcely fail to see that the circumstance is sufficiently striking to invite further enquiry. There must have been some cause for this coincidence in the festivals and traditions of nations so far removed from each other. Greswell has not turned his attention to this point, but on astronomicr.l grounds has endeavored to show, that the natale mundi, the beginning of the primitive year, fell at that time. He finds April 20th, an important* epoch in calendars from Italy to China. The tradition that the primitive year began in the spring seems io have affected his judgment a little on this point. Scaliger, who was led to the same inference from the same traditions, subsequently abandoned it, and was compelled to adopt the view, that the primitive year began in the autumn. The evidence of customs and calendars have led me to the same conclusion, as the new year's festival of the dead is almost always connected either with the autumn, or with February. To arrive at any satisfactory results from an examination of the inter- vals between the two great festivals, to which I have referred, would require more accurate information than I am possessed of. Sir William Jones, Landsoer, and other writers have considered that a comparison o^ the times when these festivals were observed, might lead to interesting results ; and I cannot help thinking that the enquiry may, in the hands of utiiors more 'jninpeteut tiiau myself, not only throw a light on the mode in I' * ["'list. Catl; ii., OS. !»'■ f 54 i which those festivals were regulated, but also supply a clue to the quarter of the globe from which they were derived. Let us now turn from the two divisions of the primitive southern year, to those of the primitive northern year, i. e. to February 17ta and Au- gust 28th. A study of customs led me to designate the year commencing on February 17th as the primitive northern year, because I had not dis- covered the festival of the dead occurring in February south of the equator. A reference to Professor Evefett's table will show, that in an astronomical point of view my conjectures have been confirmed, as the Pleiades culminate at sunset south of the equator early in January ; but in the latitude of Egypt and Japan, they culminate at sunset on the 17th of February, and at sunrise towards the end of August. This fact I ascer- tained, after I had conjectured, from an analysis of customs, that the primitive northern year, was adapted to the movements of the Pleiades north of the equator. The Dyaks of Boi-noo hold their first fruits festival (the Nyiapaan) on the 17th of February, when the Pleiades are begin- ning to descend towards the west in the evening. This is the precise date when the festival of the dead, embodied in the Anthesteria was held by the Greeks, and when the Roman Parentalia or festival of the dead took place. In Japan, the year began on the 19th of February,* and among the Persians, Tartars and other northern nations of Asia, it now begins, or formerly did so, in the middle of February, t The festival of the dead among the Algonquin Indians of North America, took place in the middle of February, the Mexicans and Peru- vians holding it apparently in November. It is a little remarkable that, though the primitive northern year in Persia was an intrusive year, which was substituted for the year commencing in November, in America the re- verse appears to have been the case, as far as I have been able to fix the date of the festival of the dead in North and South America. The Chinese differ from the Japanese, in holding the lanthorn festival at the beginning of the year, on February 19th, and the feast of ances- tors about August 28th, while the latter hold both of those festivals on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of August. In Japan we have almost conclusive evidence that the calendar ana its festivals were regulated by the Pleiades. The year begins on the 19th of February, t. e. within two davs of the culmination of the Pleiades at sun- * Soo Thunberg's Japan, i., 46 ; iii., 92. \ See Hyde ile Rel. Vet. Tors. p. 187, 230, 2.32, 241. 00 set. The Star festival is held on the 20th August, the Pleiades culmin- ating at sunrise, on the 2lst; and the feast c ancestors, or the lanthorn festival, falls on the 26th, 27th and 28th uf that month. The second great festival, the Matsuri, takes place on the 18th, 19th and 20th of October, the Pleiades first rising on the 19th of October in the evening. The Egyptian year was preceded by five days of intercalation, which were dies nefasti. Even in the new world we find that these days were' regarded as unlucky, and were consecrated to the god of the dead. On them was performed, by the Yucatan Indians, the ceremony, which I have traced from Europe to the Fiji Islands, of welcoming, honoring, and bidding farewell to the god of the dead.* The Yucatan deity Mam, (the Grandfather), like the Fijian Rutumaimbulu, the German Hertha or Morena, the Hindoo Durga, the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, and the Greek Pluto and Proserpine, was the mythical representative of that heritage from primeval man, the new year's commemoration of the dead. But the god Main is plainly the same as the Egyptian Typhon who was called Baba, which in Central Africa means ''Father.'" In South America Mam or Baba is connected with the Pleiades. The Abipones, says Debrishoffer, think the Pleiades "to be the representation of their grand- father.'' This festival, which clearly dates back to an era long anterior even to that remote period in the history of our race, when a deity was created to preside over the feast of ancestors, in time became sacred to Isis, Durga, Proserpine, and other funereal deities, and was ultimately, among many races, converted into a festival of the god of the dead. This theory throws a new light on the belief of the Egyptians, that that their princi- pal deities were bom on these dies nefasti. W * I have already shewn that the custom of bathing the Fiji God, is to be traced to tlie northern nations ©f Europe, as well as to the aiicient Egyptians and Ilindoog ; but I was not aware that the same ceremony was practised in honor of Ceres. Tacitus eridently was surprised at the coincidence on this point in the rites of Ceres among his countr}'Tnen, and the custom of the Germans at the festival of Hertha — " Mox vehiculum ct vestes, et, si credere velis, numen ipsura secrete lacu abluitur."* Ovid says that, at the festival in honor of Ceres, the priest bathed the goddess ani! the utensils used in her worship — Illic purpurea canus cum voste sucordos Almonis domi»am sacraque lavit aquis.^ A similar ceremony now exists in Ceyion— Sec The Mahavansi, iii., 150. And also in India, see Broughton'tj Costumes and Manners of the Mahrattas. p. 71. Sec also, as to liaka. and Mtwi-rntf, heing iiicd i\s epithets in India for nnolos and grand- fathers, p. 41. '• Tac. Ocrm. xl. t Ov. Past, iv. Sec also anto \\. 32—35. "'i Ol) I •• We are informed by Plutarcb," saya Greswell,* « that the last five days of the Egyptian year, (the five epagomenae of the equable year ) were reputed, among the Egyptians, the Urth days of five of their prin- cipal dlvimties ; the first of Osiris ; the second of Arueris (Apollo or Horus the elder) ; the third of Typhon ; the fourth of Isis; the fifth of Nepthys, Tel^ute, Aphrodite, or Nike. Now Typhon,t in particular, in the apprehension of the Egyptians, being the personification of the prin- ciple of evil, bis birthday was naturally regarded as an .,>«c« <'no^ii<^, • for which reason, says Plutarch, the kings of Egypt would transact no public business, nor even attend to the care of their own persons on that day." This superstition is still attached, in Persia, to the 17th day of Novem- ber on which, as we have seen, rulers and princes cannot refuse to comply with petitions presented to them, that day being sacred to Murdad the angel presiding over agriculture and the dead. J This third day of the epagomenae was called in Yucatan Cemis, or the day of Death. Among the Greeks and Romans these days were called ,a«^a,, stained or polluted by death, which is precisely the same name by which they were known among the Yucatan Indians. They were also known among the former as «^o,f«^.,, unlucky days. This name was clearly connected with the dead, as it was applied to the Sceleratae Portao of Kome, throudi which funerals passed. Don Juan Pio Perez of Yucatan, speaking of the Yucatan calendar, says " five supplementary days were added at the end of each year, which made part oj no month, and which for that reason they called '%. without nameP^ They called them also uayah, or uay^Jaah. The word uayah may be derived from nay, which means to m destroyed, wounded, corroded by the caustic juice of plants or with ley and other strong liquids." If this was the real meanin. of 'the name, these days were known not only in the old world, but°also in America, as days that were " stained'' by death.% * Fasti Cath. i., 152. tVolney states that the name Typhon is tlie same as the Arab word " To„ni.«„ which sigmfies the deluge." He also cites AristntlP^,lV> ^Ifn r? • •^•^"P'f"' saying that "the winter of the great cychf yet a Jet;^^' Tl^ ^ '' '■ T^^ "' X See ante p. 13. S in Ilindostan the time when the monthly rommAmnrnfinn of incGstor. nr^nr, IS eaiieu amavasva or ■mnhn^nln 'in,„ "xiV i — — -■— son oi ancesrors oeears, Ai'rica. mnlnln W 1 A^ .^ r . ■^'"' monthly festival of the dead is called in 57 " On this account," tho same writer eays, " the Indians feared those days, believing them to he unfortunate, and to carry danger of sudden death, plague, and other misfortunes. For this reason these five days were assigned for the celebration of the God Mam (" Grandfather") On the first day they carried him about and feasted him with great magnificence ; on the second day they diminished the solemnity ; on the third day they brought him down from the altar, and placed him in the middle of the temple ; on the fourth day they placed him at the threshold or door ; and on the fifth day, the ceremony of taking leave (or the dismissal) took place, that the new year might commence the following day."* The first day was called by the Persians the day of salutation, and the fifth the day of bidding farewell, f The custom of removing the image of the god from the altar on the cemis (or day of the dead), reminds us of the superstitions of ancient nations, who during the festival of the dead, closed their temples, and veiled the altars and the images of their gods. On " All Souls day," in some parts of Europe, the high altar is shrouded in black, while over a huge coffin, or cenotaph, that is placed : i the church, a solemn mass for the dead is performed. y It is not improbable that there may be a reference to these " days with- out a name," in the words of Job, when he curses the day of his birth " Let darkness and tho shadow of death stain it.'' " Let it ?iot be joined unto the days of the year ; let it not come into the number of tho months." These unlucky days were regarded in the Old as well as the New World , as " stained by the shadow of death . " J They were not numbered with the months, nor included in the days of the year. * calation. In it we find in every month days called Ceinis, or " belonging to the dead " ; but this is plainly the same word as Kamis, the Japanese name for the spirits of deceased ancestors.— See Sir Wm. Jones' works, iv., 128, 134. Buchanan's India, i., 231, 244, 339, 421. De Rougement, Le Peuple Primitif, ii., 357, 359. Don Icrdmand Columbus says that "the natives of the West Indian Islands wor- shipped little images called Cemis, to which they give each a name, which I believe to bo derived from Wigit fathers and grandfathers, for some have more than one image, and some ten, all in memory of their forefathers."— Kerv'a Voyages and Travels, xxiii. 131. * Sec Stephen's Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, i., 437. t See Ilydo do Rel. Vet. Pers., 199, 269, 548. tit is not a little remarkable that to a curse, similar to that of the Patriarch Job, tlie Egyptians attributed tiio very origin of the^e Hvc unlucky days. Plutarch tells us (do Is. et. Os. c. 12) that tho Sun enraged with Chronos (Saturn, Time, or the j'car), and Rhea (tho starry heavens) for having begotten the five planets, for whom there was no space in the year or in the hearcns, uttered a curse that thev should nti- '4- 58 As those dies nefasti fell, in the Egyptian calendar, about the end of August, when the Egyptian year began, when the Romans believed the world of Spirits to be opened, and illuminated the city with bonfiv \s, and at the very same time that the Japanese now hold their lanthorn festival,' we can scarcely arrive at any other conclusion than that theso festivals, .-..t the end of August, are memorials of a common primitive 'calendar, based on some simple natural law, that caused and preserved this striking uniformity in countries so widely separated, and through a lapse of so many cen- turies. These various identities in the festivals uf natiuus hava never been the subject of regular investigation; and nothing yet laid down by astrono- mers, respecting any ancient* calendar, can in any way account for the existence of such remarkable coincidences, traceable in all ages and to all portions of the globe, among the Egyptians the most learned of ancient nations, and among the Australians the most degraded of savages. ther he born in a month, nm-in the year. Therefore Hermes, iis a return to Rhea for cast tavors played at dice with the moon, and won back tl,e 72d part of ^0^^ of the year of 360 days, i. e. 5 days which thencefortJi constituted {hose five epSrnent or "days witiiout name, ' which neither formed a part of the monlL ^ nSr of the t'h?h«,i?/ tv' '''\V'"^!^"I is tlie identity between the imprecatS wWciforms the basis of this myth, and that of Job against the day of his birA we h-iveonlv tn imagine the Sun using the very words of the Fatriufch, t^ ie hose Tnomined ..rhdaysof thcphmets. "Let the days perish wherein They are bom ''^V?i darkness and the shadow of death stain LL" " Let them no^ be joined unto die W t? H J 'i' ^'' ^^'"\ "°* 'T' "^*° ^^^ '^"'^ber of the months." Tlmtoltbit Bimi"n?E.^vn ^"^Pll™''^V' -^^'Vl^^^ '' ^''''''^ ^^ ^^'^-P^i'"^ monuments See -£ i^^SS' 1^X72^ -^^'^^^ --'^ «^ Cartica^r SSoi: 59 PROOFS PROM ASTRONOMY AND CHRONOLOGY, THAT IN RELATION TO THE PLEIADES OUR CALENDAR NOW EXACTLY CORREBPONDS WITH THtf PRI- MITIVE YKAR. ilAijiaJwv (fuivoviruv ^i^vQ rtxftaiqtrai lu^ijr.* Assuming all these inforencos to be correct, a difficulty will suggest itself to the reader, which may naturally seem fatal to the conclusions at which I have arrived. It may be said, "it is true that these festivals falling among so many races at the present day, as well as among so many ancient nations, on the 17th November, in the middle of February, or at the end of August, appear to have been regulated by the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight, sunset, or sunrise, yet it is only a singular coinci- dence, that is the result of accident. If those festivals now agree with the culminations of the Pleiades at the times named, yet they did not do so two thousand years ago. The Pleiades gain twenty-eight days on the tropical year in every 2000 years ; hence 'the Pleiades that now culmi- nate at midnight on the 17th November, did so in October 2000 years ago. Hence you must prove that the months have moved onward with the Pleiades, or all your assumptions fall to the ground." This difficulty, however, when enquired into, not only strengthens my conclusions, but also opens up a new question regarding calendars and chronology, that is in itself most important, as well as most interesting. It is evident that if the primitive year was regulated by the Pleiades, the months must have been gradually affected by the beginning of the year commencing one day later in every seventy-one years, and hence the first month, whether November, February or August, if connected with a sidereal or astral year, must have moved onward in an equal ratio with the movements of these stars, and of course all the other months in the calen- dar must have shared equally in this progressive tendency. No one hitherto has suspected that the primitive calendar of ancient nations were based on a sidereal year. Let us, however, see whether astronomers have not supplied us with facts that necessarily lead to this conclusion. I may assume that if a sidereal year was the primitive basis of all calen- dars, astronomers must have been surprised to find simultaneous and pro- gressive changes in calendars, which must have appeared to have been the result of arlificial ''corrections." If the primitive year was regulated by the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight, all derivative calendars would * Greek Antliolosia, iii. 211. Sec also Fasti Cttthol. iv. 192, 60 I J be tbuutl gradually to change, aud yet to preserve a-relatiou towards each other, and this connection would bo traceable to tho point d'appui of these calendars, the day whnp the Pleiades culminate at midnight, sunset or sunrise, by whichever tho year was regulated. Let us see, then, what Greswell says on this point : — deDartu?e'^I"InLT''''T',°'' *""\'»''\« h^^l only one primum mobile, one point of m every conntry, and among every nation on the face of the earth "* 80 TariTle^ a' na3%' fit? ''^'' ^"'^ *" ^ P"I"''>^« ^^•^^"' ^*J^"'^"'-« of apparently ThIsS. "frnl n\ 'f "?"y wear a task too difficult to be surmounted types of the stmXnl 0^''?^ '^- ^^^^^''^J^J'' ^ut the fact of the substitution of new ,;-?.! 1 5 ^*''™^'^'* of nature, nistead of the first and ori^nnal one • from tbft vn ,.T/''fl?"f-°^ "'"'" "°^«°^« compared with those of the old and from the ne' SLtlncerSnT:?^'""^ t. f/^^--^«l-''h of the sXirulnre^l "0" o?^: Xit;:?e^Tht!"r '"■ ^""""" ''^'"•'^'"'' ^"'^ common inh^nS: I have already shewn that the system of counting the day from sunset which .(xreswell says is so universal as to prove the unity of origin of our race, and which he believes to have belonged to the primitive calendar, is still m existence in the southern hemisphere, and connected with the Hal loween of the year of the Pleiades.J Let us see whether there are not some other land marks of the primitive calendar, that are relics of this system of regulating the year of the Pleiades. As the Egyptian and Hindoo calendars are the most important, let us see how far they exhibit traces ot the progressive year of the Pleiades. * 1 have shewn that the Jsia were originally the new year's festival of the aeacl, and were connected always with the 17th of Athyr, and with the * Fast Cath., i. 40. t lb. Hi). I bee ante p. 8, 20, 57 ; note also ,,. S9. Fast, C'atii, iii. .l:i. 61 luildiiiglu culmlautiou of the fluiades. We timl that d.. W .. r i j tl.e .ane The year commocmg at tho end of August, wa, probibl'v of A.hy, or xVovo,„bor. They would be both .iJcroal a„d subi ot to t c reading the following remarks of Greswell respecting thai ,h, ll"l' " It has been alrcadv .«eon th'it th(> 1^\; .,,. » xi r^ the ti,-.tto .ne partifula. n.ontl. of lu- ; 1 ' i [^ ''"„ ffP^'""^' v^•ere attached from "iont . ; ami that thi,s particular inon .: ' he llii" ^" 7« P""^"' '»• <3ay of that the 7th ot the third month. An.l the •■ en hu- f ' v *'•" l^V'^''"^"'" ''"^ ^^^8 atid Ion- after it, hein,' alto-ether th 'sn ../ '■ ^^--^'I'^'an^ I'Oth at this time month in the civil calentlar^of- e F^n-; i m ''T'!'}^''-'^''' '"^'^^^ ^'^ third calendar con.mou to all numki. ^0^ i^V ,n^^ "i '^'^ '^C'''^ ^''"''l '" '>'« ^'ivil one and the san.e. It f.)liows h It tie 'ta ei^ w'f H ^""# "^'"'" '^ ^^^''^ al>«olutelv to tlie 17th of the third month i he r rm- ' I '" ^^^'vptian Isia, once fixed of the third month too in tl/e c n S/ El I o7 /l^'J^^^^^ ^« ''^« ' '"h of the E,ypth.;? i;Si. r eS :n^f £ "j;. :; "^""-7^ ^r^ respecting the Isia thu.l in their proper calendar, am t J^. k, tl7l-Tf%"f'^ '" '^"'^ •"°'"''' '^e tion of the reader is next to h • di„v .,1^7 " ' '^'' °^ ^'''i* "^"''t'' ! the atten- tho history of the prinu^ ve'calel uS l! aVS^'ISe'ff P'-"^'^"-- "^ li.irht; VIZ. a succession of moditicittw MM.! I ^'"^*''''^" "»' before, brings to calendar itself on the ovcHc^^jS^ p hS Xr;""^' ' n"^*^^ "^^ ^^^'^ P^""'^'^ g«de order, (that is, i,r the order iV I e ' e'.s o .f H "'' "'''l?'' ?™^'? '" '^^^ retro- natural year,) all rouritl the Julian or mm dvvl "^/''f^,'-^'l"''^''Je m the Julian or almost to t!,e same prtiut ao,,iu : ?o?S « o^^ „ '. aar, on this common princfple, a^m'ci'n/rth eac! ! Ji '''°"' "' '^' primitive calea- but m a still more rcn.arkaMc Tuid "har ct' Iri ""' °'''^' '" ^'>"' ''^^Pect. Httached to the same n.onth of r rpn^f S. ir^h w? •'', '^''\ "^ ^'''°^' "^^ day ot this month, the I'th t""""ivc caltndai, the thn-d, and to the same ev;n^;r&ttxSi;^ SSir'tir.:!:? nr^y «^?-- -'-- (and place it out of question ; and thf fS he , „ '•:""'' "!'^) '« confirmed hy proofs that ^Linj? curious aid remaHcaill t dlj h Stt^l ^'' !! "'"f'^ ''' '^'l^T^' "^ '^^ ^°"^«- res.dved into an acci.lental oc !' !W i It? 62 i^'^^St'^r''^'!!* ^ ***?'''• ',^ '■?eV"««l<" ' How difflcuh mu.t it have appetred to account for it, on any pnnciple which should exclude the idea of chance I'' * Greswell tries to account for theae extraordinary coincidences by point- ing to Egyptian science as the common fountain of all the analogies of the calendars and of the myths connected with the year; but the assumption 18 plamly untenable. The Egyptians certainly never taught the Fijians to celebrate the festival of the God of the Dead in November, nor could they have led the Australians, the Dayaks of Borneo, and the Mexicans, to regulate their year by the stars in Taurus. If, as he assumes, analogies m the calendars of nations are relics of a primitive year, we must look for It among the] most primitive races, and among those who have been least affected by civilization and change. If this primitive cale idar was inherited from primeval antiquity, we may expect to find ev-n among the rudest races some trace at least ot their common heritage from the common parent of our race. What do we actually find ? In the southern hemisphere, at the equator, and in Mexico, unmistakable proofs of the existence of a primitive sidereal or astral year, regulated by the Pleiade.%. Among civilized races we find all traditions and myths pointing to a primitive year regulated by Taurus. In Hmdostan, November we have seen is called the month of the Pleiades, and m the Egyptian calendar was connected with Taurus. In the middle of November and of February, we have found among ancient nations, and even among existing races, either the commencement of a year, or the vestige of an ancient new year's day, still lingering in a festival of the dead ; and we have seen that the Pleiades culminate at midnight or sunset at those times which I have mentioned as being so conspicuous in the calendars of nations. The inference from these facts would naturally be that If any primitive calendar ever existed, we have in the year or seasons of the Pleiades the original type of the primeval calendar. And this we might infer, even if in the calendars of ancient civilized nations no trace of the primitive type could be found. But I believe that there are some very significant facts, which have already attracted the attention of astronomers in connection with the history of the calendar and which can only bo explained by assuming that all ancient calendars originally partook of the sidereal character of the primitive calendar, and that its progressive tendency is traceable in all ancient calendars. Ihough I cannot pretend to deal with these matters as an astronomer, and feel great hesitation in referring to this somewhat difficult subject, there are some simnlo Kiif q;~r,:« ii?--^-' ■ .. ...,*'' --„ r, s,^.„nva= 1^°™" mon,W Novo b ; •>4 th I, „ " T" .""""'"« "■ "'^ -'™''- l-"- 'ia.e Novel' *Fapt. C'lth. iv. 192. t Fait. Cat!i. ii. 5().'». caL;s;;;;rs;;of ;ir'""t"^r' ''^•^ r ""^-'^ -^••— ••« as to the gctijer untrue; or at I.ast i^^ ," [/^''^^^^^^.f ";;7' ^vhen or where they wA-c S- ? I behevo that I a,u conr,ct in , u JoniS-ffn ''^'^, '"1'^ ^^?"""' ^'^'Mmies.^ the Ism havi„g been fixed ,^r, tho i ?^, 18 ( n , ''■. ' ' •'.' "'' '■"•'•""»^''i»^'« of a superst.Mon whirl. „oto'.\ eV- ,.',,,,. . ]-^' l^''^' ^* ''"^ "'ontii, arose from and theligyptians, as to ch^t^by m Uso ' VT"^' '"';' ^^^''^'^^^ ^''« l^«'-«i=^" landers* and the natives of Pon . - • i *? ^'^ .^"""'1 among the PaciHc Is- thcnioon are c/.V,„.y2,,inndo?iSHv, /'■''' ^^^ '""\ ^he rtl,, and 19tli nilts of of the dead. A vdn\i^t^f^^u^'^Z^'^''^ri^' ^''*' ""^"tl'''ycon.mon.orat ou wors np of Isis.J ui.ich has l^ n u eadv noti ! llv '' "'"'"'' ^'"^ ^ *«''^»'-« '" f'>" son, Bunsen,§ and I beheve al aurom 'es ^'>^, "''•''^'•«- «"' C^ardmer Wilkin- nanms when the Isia were in^titu^,Stn'^?^'''l' ^'l' "'""'''^^ '•"•^■i^^^l their and perhaps simply ''«oo.s/'iS;em^^^^^^ l^''^' Y ^'''^ '"""'• "^""'^^ their fetes appear to have hJen ceic r, ed ■ tl " ^^"^tra 'a" .savages. " Most of b^'nff u so cliosen by (he Israelites fo,-l;. ' '""' "'' ''' ^'^^ ^"^1 >»»'^". ^'c fonner month bein^^.,•eproscnt,.d in erSv hi. ? "'" '^'"'J^"''*' ^ ^"^ this, as well as I mnn P f "^- ^'■'^ Pnmitive vear o'l'^ 'i ''"" """"J'^'ou^fies to this day."i| "monthly festival of the dead, on the 1 Ttt , «,';," .^, 'I"'''', u'^'*^^^''^' J'^*^'- '»''^' ^•seeantep i,, tv.> ''thjlbth, and I9th nights of tho "moon," : KastJ Cath. iji.' ] ij/jeo '"'''' "'*'^ '" P" !"*• 5 Egypt's Plnofi in T7nivpr?ai Hi=. . ■ Romau calendar before the Julian connection.* But Plutarch etates that the Isia and other funemal celebrations of ancient nations were held " when the Pleiades werfi most distinct,'' Hence the laia and the 17th of Athyr must have corresponded with the midnight culmination of the Plciadf's. It is nnneccssary to go more fully into this point at present, as I have shewn that the Pleiades culminated at midnight in the middle of the Egyptian Athyr, and of the Roman month of November, at or near the beginning of our era. x\3 we have seen that the 17th day of Athyr is the poiut d' appui of all calendars, the great landmark of the primitive year, and that the Isia, the most dolemn festival of the Egyptians, wore always connected with that day ; and that at the beginning of our era, the 17th of Athyr and the Isia fell when the Pleiades were most distinct, let us see what was the nature of the Egyptian calendar. Probably there are few questions more difficult of investigation. Every thing connected with the year was veiled in the most profound sccrcsy ; and simple truths were cffoctrally concealed near the time wlien the Pleiades are most distinct, would have been the great festival of the Ploiadcs, like that of the Austnilians ; .inti heir^e would have been a new year's festivnl. But when the year was divided into days and months, and ceased to be lunar, the Isin, or rather the festival of tlie de;id, could no longer be a new year's festival, and at the same time fall on the 17th, 18th, and 19th days of the m'onth. Hence it would ap^u-ar that the beginning: of the year was so arranged that the 17th, 18th and Utth of Aliivr would coincide with, or perhaps immcdia'dij p-ecede, the mid- night culmination of the Tleiades. As the 17th, 18th and 19th of Athvr weie clearly n vestige of the primeval new year's festival of the dead, and as the termi- nation of this festival nearly everywhere marked tlie beginning of the vear, it is not improbable that the rioi.ulcs culminated on the 19th or 20th of Athyr. If the Egyi)tian year commenced on the 2ath of August, it would exactly make the 19th of Athyr correspond with t!ie 17th of November. It is probable that the ceremony of "the finding of Osiris," which M-a-i celebrntcd on the 19th of Athyr, really originally symbolized the beginning of " the Pleiades above," and of the primitive year. The same iteculiarity is observcri in the 17th, 18th, and 19th of Anthesterion, wliieh v.ere funer<.>al, being connected with the deluge, and with ' 'mentations, the 20tli being marked by rejoicings. This festival of the dead, of th-j days duration, begin- ning with traditions of the deluge, and with mourning, and ending with rejoicings, almost everywhere immediaUii/ preceded the beginning of the j-ear. In the new- year's festival of Dnrga three days sacred to the dead are peculiarly marked. Even in the I'ive intercalary days, wliich, at a comparativelv late period' in Egvpti.n.n liis- tory, were introduced at the end of the year,* we find that the third day of the opagomence, /. e. tlie third day before the year began, was peculiarly unlucky, and was connected witii Ty])hoi), and with the memory of the deluge. In the : ucatan calendar, the same thing is observable as we have seen ; the day of the dead (Cemis,) did not fall on the first of the live suppleracntary days, but on the third ; i. e. tiirec da3s bciore tlie year commenced. Hence it was plainly a vestige of the primeval new year's festival. If I am correct in my conjecture as to the reference in .fob to thcfc dnyn of intercalation, it will indicate that a year, probal^v of 3G5 days and of 12 nionths, was in existence long anterior to what has been hitherto Mift'iosed to bo the date of its invention. -Btin^^en HtitRs that, intpmalary days wrrn not iifnl. tory, lit., S" ; «ef!, howf Tor, p. 0.1 anii 7(i. -Sen Fjj-pt'B Piace in Unirorml Hin- u C6 V in the most trivial unJ childish n.ytb.. ll^ere were probably several mode, of regulating the year in use at the same time ; there must have been at east a fixed year and a cyclical year ; perhaps a sacred year known only to the pnests Hence the 17th of Athyr appears in different forms i connected with a ^xed or with a moveable year, and this gives rise to In more uncertamty. Wore the Isia connected with a fixed year, or with the moveable year? If with a fixed year what was it ? ' ^^ witt, the Bunsen gives us no positive information on the subject. Greswell shews that the pnnciple of the Julian year was always known in Egypt. Bun- sen refernngto the probable existence of a civil and of a sacred or a sacer- dotal year, says* '• there can be little reason to doubt that the Egyptians had a means ot marking the progress of the cyclical year." AftS^'hew- «g the absence of any data for calculations on the subject, he says that It .probable, tkou,, there is no proof oj it as yet, that the de ail these (their sacred festivals) " were reckoned by the primeval year in wbchthelst of Thoth commenced with the heLa/ris^Jof'sL " The best evidence on this head v^ould be obtained, if we could get some more accurate knowMye of the great festival of L It has been ready remarked that in the year 70. B. C. it took place a month af r the autumnal equinox." tott't't'^'fr'^'^'"'"'"'' ^^^^^^^'"^ ^^'^ f- calculations as to the nature of the year, he adds " it was still easier to mark the com menoement of the cyclical year, where together with these festivals, there w xe others connected with immovable points in the year, such as the solstices and equinox." " It was easy to calculate these points after na- ture had ceased to indicate the beginning of the year." If my conjectures are correct, nature never ceased to afford a ^uide for the regulation of time to the Aztec or to the Egyptian. Let us°take Z!l r , r'" u'°^''''' '' " ''''■ ^^' '"^''^ ^^'^ °f their obser vance, of which we have any record is B. C. 1350, when they were held 2^^^s^::^::t '^ "^^^ ^^ " " ''' ^'- ''- -^^ ^'- of tTsL7f 7o"', " T ^" 'r^ "'' ^^ approximation to the date I Id h h!^^" ..' L""^'"^ '' '"''^^ '^^''' *^^^ '^'y •""«* fa^ve been I.old then between the 21st and 2.kh of October. These dat<.s extend *in. r,i. J K"^!- f^^^'- .'.'•• >«0, Hn.l note. Fa.^t. Path iv -il u«.t. cath. ,,.451.453. 4A„„H not..:;;:, 1:03! over a period present time Athyr, were and if Athyr are most con approximate the assumpti in the course incorrect. 1 tradition, wh ho and Gem brated in tht the alleged c connected wi The Pieia than twy 1st of Octol siders the c Hindoos ma had institu them. Bu Festival of tury the Me if the Aztec exist betwee Pleiades. I and probabl must have b October, an( simultaneou Hence we stances alm( But it m: ever, some i instituted a actached to the calenda pably, that * Egypt's : t Fast. Cat auJ CiHtoins 67 over a period uf 1705 years, and carry us back 3iJl;5 yoars from tli* present time. If the Isia, which were always attached to the 17th of Athyr, were held as Plutarch says " when the Pleiades are most distinct," and if Athyr was, as it has been designated, the raonth when these stars are most conspicuous, then these dates though varying so much, should approximate to the time when the Pleiades culminated at midnig' i ; and the assumption of many ancient and modem writers, that the Isia carae^ in the course of time, to be hold at various seasons of the year, must be incorrect. Iv should be remembered that Eratosthenes only speaks from tradition, when he says that <^he Lsia were once held in spring ; but both ho and Geminus testify to the fact that, m their day, the Isia were cele" brated in the autumn;* and the same thing will be 'noticed as respects the alleged dates of the Isia given by other writers ; they are generally connected with autumn. The Pleiades must have culminated 3213 years ago, 45 days earlier than tHy now do, The Festival of Durga, 1306 B. C, fell on the 1st of October, and the Isia, 1350 B. C. on the 5th, and Greswell con- siders the coincidence as very remarkable, and as proving that the Hindoos must have been guided by the Egyptians, who 50 years before had instituted the Isia, and invented all their myths relating to them. But 1350 B. C, the Australian savages must have held their Festival of the Pleiades about the 3rd of October, and in that cen- tury the Mexicans must have regulated their cycle on the 3rd of October, if the Aztec calendar was then in use. The same coincidence is found to exist between the other two dates and the midnight culmination of the Pleiades. In the 1st century B. C, the Isia, the Australian, the Mexican, and probably the Celtic festival of the year, or of the cycle of the Pleiades, must have been celebrated almost simultaneously on or about the 21st of October, and in the 4th century of our era, they must have been almost simultaneously celfebrated on the 27th of October. Hence we have a very remarkable procession in the Isia, in those in- stances almost exactly coinciding with the year of the Pleiades. But it may be said that these are only coincidences. There are, how- ever, some faoh to show that they are not accidental. When the Isia were instituted at the beginning of October, the idea of seed time became actached to them, and the Isia were described as occurring in seed time in the calendar. But the Isia moved on in the course of time so pal- pably, that t ley were held after seed time was* nearly ovej.* This has ♦ Egypt's Place in Universal History, iii. 37, 51. t Fast. Cath, iii. 133. iv. 360. See however Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's Manner? iuJ CiHtoins of jinoient Egyptians, ii. ch. vi. I': '#•1 GS already attractbd utteutiou. as bhewiug a change iu the dat.- ui the Lia, as well as proving the time of their institution. Couple with these facts what we have already seen, that Athyr and Taurus are synonomous ; that classical writers describe Athyr as "the month when the Pleiades are mosi distinct:' and I think it will be conceded that these are coincidences that at least deserve very careful enquiry. But the Celtic race appear to have had a cycle of thirty years, and the Mexicans one of fifty-two years regulated by Taurus or the Pleiades Is it not a little remarkable that the Apis and Mnevis cycles wore cycles of the ^< and that at the end of the Apis cycle, the Bull Apis was drowned in the Nde ? It may yet be found that the ilexicans and the I>yptian. had precisely the same simple mode of regulating their eras by the mi.lniaht cuhnmation of the stars iu Taurus. ° _ I now turn from the calen.lar of the Egyptians to that of the Hin.loo. m which Tve can lind unmi.tukeable traces of the ,)ast existence and infiu' ence of the primeval year of Taurus. The worship of Durga is tpposed to have about the year B. C. 1306, been borrowed from the K,yptians and to have been introduced into India with the astronomical the ies of i'igyptma scieno. I give below two very remarkable passages from Greswell's works which m connection with this subject are well worthy of a perusal.* Hi,; tl.e raost iatercstini, f^i s .>f ou a e .^s Wi,^o '''''Tf '^'^ "^'^^ i'ni'orta.lt and wirl. certain rites an-l o , ™cVS"^^^^^^ h n I u .,"'"""'"' '" ^'^7-?^ '""' '"^^o^.tted «i.nilar observance, m^ u S^? .md S^ie u^^ w . I' I'''' '1"" ^'^'^'' ""^"'^^-^ ^^'^'^ of the calendar also, crifica v • ceo nmod 'tS f^ ;"""'• /■l'='"«-t'« mul corrections under a diflerent name, in India Plu-vm^i fSnV- i w^r W '^'^^"^'"^ ''I'^ss and in quarters of the world -^4 h rmoveyivo.^^F^ ^"■'''''' ""^' '-^l^'^^vhere ? we should not have supposed {halt i c ,?l! " ' ' f"'] f '?'>"" ^^■''"''' «''»'• I'^vpt influential and pernuinent H an4s T the . • , '^'■'•''V"", "'*'<"' ''i^^veries, all ^assiimptioui and Osiris, Goddess of and of the '. Pluto, Cert primeval fe sequently c served throi Nor was th Egyptians ; calendar ol Celts, with This prii . all nations. Egypti^s ( It appea then attachi moon, had the new yea and became Let us SI gr»ssive, th the original still move o come the se is exactly v obtained th( contemporai been the ca Pleiadi . "v ber. jaiil the year mi the Plc-'^ik Hindou go( Pleiades, ai to ihe 1 7th of was associate the Egyptian Durga were t Osiris and Is • Fut^ Oath. ^*.'^ , : ,^'^ m assumptions, however, are opon to a good deal of doubt. The rites of Isis and Osiris, and of the Hindoo Durga, are the same as those of the German Goddess of Death, of the Yucatan god iWam, (the ancestor or grandfather,) and of the Fiji god of Bulu, the world of spirits. All these deities, with Pluto, Ceres, and other funereal patrons of agriculture, sprang from the primeval festival of first fruits and of the dead — a festival which was sub- sequently converted into celebration in honor of a god, vnd yet still pre- served through thousands of years its primitive and peculisr characteristics. Nor was the Hindoo calendar based on the astronomical science of ihe Egyptians ; the arguments in lavor of such a view would connect the calendar of the Australians, the Pacific Islanders the Mexicans, and the Celts, with that of the EgyptiLns. This primeval calendar, with all its U'.iis^ersal myths, was a heritage of all nations, and d. ;.ived from the same common source to which the Egypti^s owed their knowledge of the primitive year. It appears that prior to B. C. laOG, the Hindoo festival of Durga, then attached as now to the autumnal equinox, and to the ninth day of the moon, had been regulated by some other system. From that time forth the new year's festival of Durga ceased to be regulated by the Pleiades, and became fixed by its relation to the tropical year. Let us suppose that the year having been sidereal, and therefore pro- gressive, the new year's festival beecrae fixed. It is manifest that unless the original system of the calendar were also changed, the months would still move onrrard as before, a'^d the first month in 2000 years would be- come the second month, and the last month would become the firs''. This is exactly whuL We find to be the case. In B. 0. 1306, the months first obtained their names, but these names the Hindoos state had reference to contemporary astronomical phenomena. This, Bentley assumes to have been the cast At that date Cart'oa or Cartiguey, the month of tho Pleiadi • . ^vs the first month, and coincided then with our present Octo- ber. Jailly, as we have seen, suggests that when that name was imposed, the year must have been \n some way regulated by the rising or setting of tho Pic': J js in Cartica. I have already conjectured that Carticeya, the Hindoo god of war, was a mythical embodiment of the year of the Pleiades, and this I inferred solely from his name (which has apparently to the 17th of the primitive Athyr, tcia eve. 2657; and that the Indian correction ivas associated from that time forward with the worship of Deunus and Durga, as the Egyptian was with that of Osiris and Isis; and that the Indian Deu^od and Durga were absolutely tlic same kind of conceptions and impersonatiops in India as Osiris and Ibis iu Egypt."* * Faat^ Oath. Iv. 81 . 70 escaped ubservatiun hitherto) and t'roiu hi(S emblems tis thoy are given to us by Sir William Jones.* But little question can exist that ray conjectilre is correct, as when it was made, the connection of (jarticeya with the beginning of the Hindoo year, and with the month of Cartica was unknown to me. " Mr. Bentley has mentioned several facts connected with this month, and under this name, from which we may infer that it must have received its name at this time, or have been supposed to have done so. He tells us that to render this designation of Kartika, as the tirst month, the more remarka- ble, and the more efFectually to perpetuate the memory of it, they fabled the birth of Kartikeya, the Hindoo Mars or God of War, in this month, whom he considers nevertheless only a personification of the year, as be- ginning in this mouth."! " We may perceive a reason for connecting the birth of their Mars with the autumnal equinox, because that was the beginning of the military season in India." On this point I trust a very difterent solution ^ggested by me in p. 37, will not be considered lois satisfactory than that which I have quoted. At the festival of Kartikeya at the beginning of October, " it was usual to represent him riding on a peacock ; which Mr. Bentley explains of hib leading on the year, followed by the stars and planets in his train ; and various epithets were familiarly applied to him, all founded on the same supposition of the relation of priority or precedence, in which he stood to the year, and to everything most closely connected with the year." Hence we find that B. C. 1306, when the Pleiades culminated at mid- night at the beginning of October, the Hindoo year began with the month of the Pleiades ; and that then or soon after the festival of Carticeya, the god of the Pleiades was fixed at the beginning of Cartica, and was a new year's festival. UnSeo Sir Wm. Jones' works, iv. 72 11 ^fH Hence it is plain that tLis must have referred to a sidereal year, whicfe it is equally evident, must have been the primitive year of the Pleiades. The same conclusions to which we have been led by an analysis of the dates of the festival that marked the season of " the Pleiades above," will follow also, I believe, from a careful examination of the times cf ob- servance of the second festival. As far as I have had data to guide me, I have found that in remote antiquity, in several instances, the latter was held more than a month earlier than the date assigned to it at the begin- ning of our era ; and that hence it must have shared in the progressive tendency of the primitive year. I believe it will be found that the evidence of the lunar and sidereal mansions of the ancients tends also in the same direction, as they seem to evince this progressive character in relation to the seasons, and to the natural year. For instance Critica (the Pleiades) which was once the first is now the third Hindoo mansion. But this is a matter which I must leave to astronomers, or at least must reserve any further remarks for a future occasion. But it may be asked how is it that the memory of this natural measure of time supplied by the Pleiades, has been so long and so generally lost among nations north of the equator ? The reason for this has been already supplied by the ancients themselves. Everything connected with the year and its festivals was concealed by the Priests with the most watchful jealousy, and was veiled from the eyes of men in allegories and myths. Even when the mystic secret was par- tially disclosed to the initiated, it was {guarded by the terrors of supersti- tion and by the sanctity of oaths, which it was death to violate. The stories of the wandering lo, of Proserpine, Osiris, Menu, and the Phoenix, show this tendency to convert simple truths connected with astronomy or natural phenomena, into gods or fables. The memory of these secrets, so carefully guarded, must have gradually faded away ; but the myths, in which they were concealed, must have outlived their own history and meaning, and must have long lingered after the key that could unlock their mystic treasures had been lost and forgotten. That a primitive calendar must have existed among all ancient nations, will be apparent by comparing the data which I have collected, and the unquestionable fact of the actual existence of the year of the Pleiades among many existing races, with the following passage from Greswell's works. It has been written by an author, who, apparently, has not had tho slightest suspicion that such a year as that of tho Pleiades ever existed,* * Set' antt? note tu p 1 7 . and who der nomical data, with my own. terized all cal attention. U driven to exp they had theii sion which m\ These coim must have be* have been dri likely to be v: tion for these facts themseh studied his vo Unless his da tive year whic vogue in the s of November i those who ma; Grreswell whic ber the month the Fijians, th( J^ear among tl it in so many ( world as well i races of tho pre * It is a coni own, that lififbre , lm.s, that there n H study of astron in the times whe friohe. I was nc tlie same as tliat will he apparent Nova Scotian In from the Librar extensively quoti " Tho uniform strong grounds fi Stone age, proba Paoific Islanders, hahly a Bouthen Fchruarv and Ai t " It has been of I ho world we {i and who deriving all his conclusions purely from chronological and astro- nomical data, has used them in support of a theory utterly inconsi^teut with my own. Those pecularities, which must necessarily Lave charac- tenzed all calenders based on the year of the Pleiades, have attracted bis attention. Unable to account for them by any natural law. he has been driven to explain them partly by miracles, and partly by suppo' „. that they had their source in the rapid diffusion of Egyptian science, a diffu- sion which must have been as marvellous as miracles themselves. These coincidences and peculiarities in calendars which he describes must have been very marked and very unquestionable, before he could have been driven to account for them by reasons, which he confesses are likely to be viewed as incredible by his readers. That not only his solu- tion for these phenomena in the calendars of nations, but also his very facts themselves are imaginary, few will venture to state, who have studied his voluminous and learned works on the history of the calendar.* Unless his data, as well as his theories, are entirely fanciful, the primi- tive year which he describes, can be no other than that which is now in vogue m the southern hemisphere, and that gave its name to the month of November in the calendars of the Egyptians and the Hindoos. Let those who may question the truth of the statements in the extracts from Greswell which I give below.t first answer the question, what made Novem- ber the month of Death, or of the God of the Dead, among the Peruvians, the Fijians. the Persians and the Egyptians, and to thip day the month tf Fear among the Arabs ; and why do we find funereal celebrations held in It in so many countries, north as well as south of the equator,— in the old world as well as in the new,— by the most civii'zed and the most savage races of the present day. as well as by nations oi the most remote antiquity ? owt ^Ihl f ,^:°"*;™?^'«° "f '}'^ correctness cf Groswell's view, as well as of mv h«s't H-^"' ''"^'.'^*''V'"''°''^^ ^'•'^^ ""'"^'"'^ '''^^'^^ ^'^m^ conclusion as hi S. nf I t """'' '"''I 'r" a primitive calendar. What he has discovered by n S- ^T'"""/ ')."d.clironology, I was led to infer from finding a coincident^ n the times when thfe festival of the dead is observed in different quarters of "ho ff ohe. I was not then aware that the year beginning in Februarv was substantiallv the same as that beginning in November, and like it regulated by the Pleialy a Southern origin, dividing the year in November and May, the other in rcbruary and August. t " It has been (lenioiistratcd that go where wo mav, visit and explore any part ot ilio world we please, iiKiuire into, investigate, and compare together the nieaslirc* 74 1 'Sf OONCLUSION. lu treating of tho primitive year and tbo festival of the dead, I have endeavored to restrict my researches to the connection of this commemo- ration with the calendar by which it was regulated. Whether I am right or not in my conjecture, as to a migration of races from the south, is not material as respects the main object of this paper ; though I believe that it will at least prove correct as regards the Egyptians and many other ancient nations, among whom this festival was invested with a veil of mystery, beneath which, however, it is easy to trace the Fijian god of the world of spirits presiding over the November festival of agriculture and of the dead, and to recognize the belief of some of the wild tribes of South Ame- rica as to the Great Father, who residing in the Pleiades, sinks beneath the world with " the Pleiades below," and rises to light with '• the Plei- ades above."* ot time which men are using at this moment, or ever have used, trace them back to their utmost possible extent, as we may, in Europe in Asia in Africa in America, under all changes of circumstances, through all revolutions and con- fusions of the course of things in other respects, through all states and conditions of society, moral, religious, and political, still, with respect to the measures of time we must come to the same conclusion every where ; viz, that th« calendar is still and always has been the same ; that this at least has never varied, whatsoever else may have done so ; that this has continued identical with itself, or hits never exhi- bited any other kind or degree of deviation from the standard of absolute identity a"nii ^"^ "^'^^"^ ^^ compared to the difference of dialects in a common language. " Tiie inference from this state of the case is or ouglit to be as certain and spon- taneous as that from the other ; That, if , mankind have always been using and are still using the same calendar, they must have had the same origin. Nothing will account for it but the fact that men themselves have everywhere had a common origin ; and have derived their celondar everywhere from the same source as their being itself. '* t It has been shewn that the Fiji god conies up in November from the world of spirits to laake the fruit trees to blossom, and tiiat the same superstitions that were attached by the Romans to the mundus patens, or to Pluto unlocking the gates of Hades, are to be found among the Fiji Islanders connected with their ^od. We can best judge of the identity of the two Deities, by examining the following- hymn addressed to Pluto, in which we find him represented as the janitor of the world of spirits, and the God of Agriculture, and of the Dead. It would equally apply to the Fiji diety, the Lord of Pulo^M :—t J i'i' J " Pluto, magnanimous, whose realms profound Are fixed beneath the firm and solid ground, In the Tartarean plains remote from sigiit. And wrapt forever in the depths of night. • FtBti Cat)). I. 690. T Ttirner'i Polynesia, p. 88, 837 Seeanlep,18, 31, 37, 56, note. To . I have uh'oady shown that " lo taureau ini;^ a mort et rcauscitu," which was typified, as Dupuia assorts, in all the ancient mysteries, represented this death and revival of the stars in Taurus ; and that tiio myth of Osiris (whoso soul resides in a Bull) being lost and found in November, and of Proserpine (the daughter of Cores and a Bull) sinking down into hell and rising again ; as well as the two festivals of the German Goddess of Life and Death, all had their origin in the appearance and disappearance of the stars in Taurus.* That the initiated at the ancient mysteries really learned something as to ilie astronomical basis of their religion, we have every reason to infer ; but it is plain that Herodotus and many other ancient authors were either ignorant, or prudently silent as to tho secret sources of classical mythology. Chacremon and others, however, according to Eusebius, not only believed but also declared that the Egyptians held that the stars were the only deities, and that all festivals had been instituted originally in their honor ; that " the heroes whose names appear in tho almanacs, are nothing else than charms for the cures of evils, and observations of the risings and settings of stars." They also believed " that the legends about Osiris and Jsis and all other their mythological fables have reference either to the stars, their appearances and occultations, and the periods of their risings, or to tho increase and decrease of the moon, or to the cycles of the sun, or to the diurnal and noctidiurnal hemispheres." i It is therefore plain that my conclusions, based on the times of obser- vance of festivals and on their connection with the year of the Pleiades, are borne out by the opinions of tho ancients themselves. ]>ut their view of the astronomical character of Egyptian mythology, supplies a clue to what has hitherto evaded all enquiry. If the very deities of the Egyptians ware merely representatives of the stars, and of the year, then their sym- bols must also have had a hidden meaning connected with the year or its Terrestrial Jove, thy sacred ear incline. And pleas'd accept these sacred rites divine. Earth's keys to thee, illustrioas king, belong, Its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong ; 'Tis thine abundant annual fruits to bear, For needy mortals are thy constant care."t * T have already shewn that the " finding of Osiris," did not take place in Pachons. but in Athyr. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson has adopted a meaning of a pas- sage in Plutarch, which Gebclin and others have pronounced to be incorrect. Ores- well connects the myth of Proserpine and her autumn festival with tho Isia. See Gebelin le Monde Primitif. Fast Cath. ii. 455, 458; iii. 135 ; iv. 29. 1 Eus. Pr. Evan- iii. c. 4. See Cory's Ancient Fragments of Phoenician, Chal- dtcan, Egyntian and other writers, p. 288. } The Mystical Hymus of Orpheus, translated by T. Taylor, p. 52. Also auto p. 18, 31, .'^7, 55. ^ n If! f ^M«0Ti9. TLe crux ansuta, or tlio T or tuu, .surianuutcil Iiy a ring, aut\ the sacred beetle the scarahcem, were the ino.st luystcriouy jind the juosit conspicuous emblems of the E<;ypti.iTis. I have found that thej' were in reality the same. In seeking for the meaning of the ycaralwu.*, it has escaped notice that it was the hieroglyphic for the letter T, and that its Egyptian name was Thore. On examining a scarnbncus in my po^^sessioa I found out the reason for its name, and of its hignificance. On the back of the beetle a T or Tau is most clearly marked. A friend to whom I mentioned this fact, informs me that these are the natural marks on the Egyptian beetle ; and my discovery suggested to him ^in interesting fact that the same species is still popularly known in England as the Tor or Tau beetle. What was the meaning then of this emblem? We find the T sur* motmted by a circle, and the scarab represented with expanded wings. It is plain that there must have been some reference to the divisions of the year. The Pleiades were known as Aloria, or Atauria. Is thore any connection between the year of the Pleiades and a Tau ? The symbol would seem to indicate //tree divisions or seasons, (possibly, though not probably, two.) The Egyptians had divisions of the year into two, three and four seasons respectively. Let us go south of the equator for a clue to this matter. Among the primitive races of the Pacific Is- lands, among whom the year of the Pleiades is still to be found, we find n year of the Tau or of the two seasons of the Pleiades, and that the year was also divided into three seasons, each of which was a tau. Ellis says of one of these divisions they reckon it " by the Tau or Matarii season or half year." Matarii is the Polynesian name of the Pleiades, the Stars of Ataur of the North, or of 2\xurus.* No one would pretend .to argue that the Polynesians, the Australians, and the Mexicans derived their knowledge of the year of the Pleiades from the Egyptians. They all inherited it from a common source. Hence as the heavens were not mapped put into the forms of animals by the Poly- nesians, and the signs of the Zodiac and Bulls were alike unknown to the Pacific Islanders, it is evident that the Polynesian word tau, a season, is not on only the root of Ataur, and Taurus, but also of the letter Tau ia the Egyptian, and of its representative, the letter T in our alphabet. We may infer that when the year of the Tau migrated to the north, or civilization was developedj the present imaginary and conventional forms of constellations were invented, and the stars of the Tau were placed in the neck ♦ See Ellis' Pel. Res. i. 186. Ellis is not very precise aa their seasons, and ha;- confounded the first with the second season of the P leiades. 77 oTtbo Hull, an animal not a native of the Pacific I«laiuls. This eon.itellHtion BtiU bore the name of the Tau. It was called Ataur and Athyr, from which it is not improbable wo have the Latin Taurus, und the German Thier. The year of the Tau, and the stars of Ataur have left their im- press on the very mountains of iJreat Britain. Tho reason has not been explained why the Greek word Bounos, as well as Bomos, meant a hill and an altar—both being derived from a word sig- nifying i^^fiww-w an ox. Why is many a hill still known in England as a 7or, and others designated as Arthur's Seat^n name also applied to to some hills in Germany V* There can be but little doubt that our ances- tors raised their "seven altars" on these hills to the stars of the Tau,* or of Athyr; and that to this day tho memory of "the pleasant influence of the Pleiades," commemorated by Job, and celebrated by Australian savages, is still lingering in Britain under the popular traditions as to *' the good King Arihur.'"\ * Seo Volmer v. Arthur. It is worthy of note that Ih (tlic Bull or Arthur, in Britain) meant in Egypt " a hill." See Bunscn's Egvpt, i. 4G5. 1 1 have called tho .scavahieus the hieroglyphic for the letter T. The marks on its back, winch probably suggest the precise sound it represented, not having been noticed, its name and the letters signided have been supposed to be P"»«'P'« «» palace iiau o*u ""»» v- ^ - . .". 1,-26 COO veaw — the nme in whjch northern lation, and 180 years more than the true penod.** yM^a^^ havftie existed at least worthy of notice. . „ . , •• .00 occasions by getting tni^ P^'^„*' f^r^^ « found to exist in moet countries, as well as visits to neighbors on new y^r « J' " ^'^bs. But not only friends these gift. <»Il«i«t•"g?«"f™^^'*^*|f.„i£ve8 ^^^ were thought of, but^lfo the souk of departed^^^^ to tlTelpSts. A^ng thi anciant nations on the "Mother "f ^^ „*S™^® **|S ii 66. '' at the New Year • Bunsen's Egypt, i. 537. .. t Hawks' Egypt and the Bibte. 64. t See Maurice's Ind. Anliq. vii. 645, 857. ^ Mallet's Northern Antiq. Ho. Ilsc.''Xn''*°Al.oIV,t.' Manual of Scndinamn My.hol.gv,p. 35. iiji m • 80 dlemas Bull can be seen, as we are told, riHlng at twilight and sailing over the heavens V Bat in Herefordshire it was recently the custom not to 1" Tar- get the living representatives of Taurus. On Twelfth Night it is cus- tomary to prepare a large cake, perforated with a hole in the centre, which is placed on the horns of an ox.* Hence we must admit tl it it has a fair claim to the designation of a Bonn, or a cal of Taurus. What is the reason that at Easter European nations have the custom of making presents of eggs, which are frequently dyed rod and are called paschal eggs ? As the new year's festival of our ancestors in honor of Taurus resolves itself into the great annual corroboree of the Pleiades of the Australians, so the origin of our Easter eggs must be sought for in the rude traditions of the creation preserved among the Australian savages. Easter eggs are used among Asiatic nations at the beginning of the year ; and among the Persians at the time of the vernal equinox. Gebelint informs us " that the custom of giving eggs at Easter is to be traced up to the theology and philosophy of the Egyptians, Persian*, Gauls, Greeks, Romans, &c., among whom an egg was the emblem of the universe, the work of the Supreme Divinity." In Egypt the Deity was represented by^n egg.f Hutchinson^ in his History of Northumber- land, ii. 10. says " eggs were held by the Egyptiatis as a sacred emblem- of the renovation of mankind after the deluge. The Jews, who use eggs at the passover, have a tradition that they do so in honor of a mythical bird called Ziz. We must look for the origin of the custom in the religious ideas of primeval antiquity. Let us turn to the Australians for a clue to themystary. In the interet^ing report on the Aborigines of Australia, published in the Journals of the Legislative Council of Victoria for 1858,11 we find that Mr. Beveridge says : " In the traditions of natives respecting ment for whicti the priest gets the victuals."* In Yucatan on " All Souls,'' food is offered to the spirits and mass said on "their behalf; and soul cakes are still a feature of our " AU Souls." An old English writer in 1493, speaks of "AUe that take hede to dysmal dayes, or use nyce observaunoes m the new moon, or in the new yere, as setting of mete or drynk* by night on the benche, to fede "Al- Jwlde or Gobdyn"* The castom arose from the year commencing with the festival of the dead. In India these soul cakes are offered in the early part of October, at the festival of the dead. * Brand's Pop. Antiq. i. 30. So singularly was the deluge by almost all nations, mixed up with the year, and with Taurus, that we are told by a Greek wriiter that the " sacred heifer of the Syrians is no other than Thoba, the ark. " The ark among the Syrians is styled Bous (or cow)." See Bryant, ii. 422. t iv. 251 . See Brand's Pop. Antiq. i. 168. t See Bunser's Egypt, 368. j u u- t ^ Gel)elin says that the cjw was the emblem of darkness or chaos, end the Emfph or egg God, the symb*! of creation or light. I! P. 69. * Brand's Popular Antiq. i. 9. » 81 tbo creation thay say : — ai one time they were all birds and beasts, and there was no sun, but darkness dwelt upon the land: but in a dispute be- tween the Emu and a native companion, the latter threw an eyg of the formei tip to the sky, when it broke and became the sun, and the world was floodea with liaht, and thousands of birds became men.'' Here we have a clue to one of the most singular features in ancient eymbolisra and mythology, " the mundane egg" as it is called— or the egg of creation, and to the origin of our Easter custom, which is simply a commemoration of "the JBr.iu's egg.'' This explains the Hindoo belief that Brahma was born of an egg ;* and the Egyptian myth that Ra (or the Sun) and other gods, sprang from an egg. The connection is the more striking when we remem>>er that Ea is the Polynesian name for tho Sun.f The Greeks not only seem to have held that birds were created before men, but also that creation itself Sprang from an egg. * " First was Cliaos and Niglit, and black Erebus and vast Tartarus ; And there was neither Earth, nor Air, nor Heaven ; but ir. the boundless bosoms of Erebus, . Niqht with her black wings, first produced an amal egg, From which at the completed time, sprang forth the lovely Eros, Glittering with golden wings upon his back, like the swift whirlwinds, But embracing the dark winged Chaos in the vast Tartarus, He be^ot our race (the birds), and first brought us to light. The race of the Immortals was not, till Eros mingled all things together; But when the elements were mixed one with another, Heaven was produced, and Ocean, , „ , . , j n j »* And Earth, and the imperishable race of all the blessed Gods. { This passage from Aristophanes, giving priority to birds in the crea- tion, may be supposed to be inserted because his dramatis persona are birds. But it is plain this is not the case, as we find almost every where the traces of the bird as well as of the egg of creation, deluge, or time. The same idea as to the egg exists in the poems attributed to Or- pheus. In the Orphic hymn§ to Protogonus (i. e. the first created) ho . ifl thus addressed : '' I invoke Protogonus of a double nature. Groat, wandering through the ether, £m 6orn, rejoicing in thj golden wings ; hSs the countj^nce of Ml. the procreator of blessed gods, and of men. II A large volume might be written on the subject of traditions as to the * See Maurice's Ind. Antiq. ui. 457, 458. vii. 846. Dubois' Manners and C«f- toms of Hindoos, 37 1 . , ^^^ t Bunsen's E^,t, i. 367, 368, 277, 384, 385, 423. t See Afistoph Aves. 698, Suid. v. Chaos. Cory's Fragment •, 294. ^Td. 293. H I'M- , iiSee ■.jj-gticsl Hymns of Orphcun-. trans, by T. Tuylor. 18. 82 wundane egg, which is frequently connected with the Bull or Taurus. Gebelin, Faber, Bryunt, De Rougemont, Davies, and a host of other writers, have gone fully into the subject, p.ad a reference to their works will supply the reader with the prooi of the singular universality of the emblem of the egg, and of its connection with the creation and with the deluge, 68 well as with time and with the year, all of which were mixed up and confounded in a singular manner in the mythology of the ancients. But as the Pleiades were also associated with the year, they in many in- stance? became the representatives of our ancestral Emu (.') that bird <^ time, of the creation, and of the deluge, and appear as Peleiades or doves, as Pillalou codi (the hen and her chickens,*) as Samen or Ganesa, the swan or g^ose, as Manu, or the fowl, and as the more illustrious Phcenix. It woTjJd take me too long in this preliminary paper ,to trace all the forms in which the Umu and its egg appear in connection with the Pleiades. Semiramis was born of an egg, which came from the waters oP the deluge, and was brooded over by a Peliad or dove-t Castor and Pollux sprang from an egg, and alternately for six months resided in Hades, and then rose to light, which is simply the Pleiades above and the Pleiades below, mixed up with the story of the JEmu's egg. But let us see how this myth appears in connection with those festivals of which I have been treating, and which regulated apparently by the Pleiades, were connected with time, the year, and the deluge. We have seen that in Central Africa the hen and the palm tree are the principal features in the history of the deluge. Now the Phoenix means both a bird and a palm tree— and both a, symbols of tinae, the one is the emblem of a cycle called the Phoenix period, and the other the hieroglyphic for a year. In Egypt the deluge was comm^jmorated at the same time in Mexico, " when the Pleiades were most distinct," when also the corroboree of the Pleiades is now held by the Australian savages. Typhon or Baba, the god of the deluge, is represented by a swan or goose, called Saman by ♦.he Egyptians. At the Isia, on the 17th of Athyr, not only was the em- blem of the cycle of Taurus, the BuU Apis, led in procession, but also the Bird of time or of the deluge, the goose of Set or Typhon. In Kome the sacred ^Kwe was also conspicuous in an annual procession, which pro- bably wUl be found to have occurred on the 17th of February, or towards the end of Augfust, as the commemoration of the year and of the deluge * Sec ftot« p. 6. T »* J -D • vf t Numeroui illustrutions of these myths are giveu by Gebelin, Le Mona« rnmitii, IT. *5u. 83 BeeiBS to have generally occurred among ancient nations at tbe time of one of the three most remarkable culminations of the Pleiadea, t. e. at mid- night, sunset, cr sunrise, November 17th, February 17, and August 21bt or22d. But thi^ goose of Typhon was called Samen, and Sancboniatko f»y» the first god worshipped by men was Beelsamin. In Ceylon we find there is a sacred' goose called Anffsa. There is a great festival at the time of the full moon of August. Previous to its occurring a bough is cut from the sacred Bo ttee, which is carried in pro- cession at this commemoration of the deluge and of the year. We hare at this festival, not only the Hindoo god of the deluge, Vishnu, who is always accompanied by his bird Garuda, but also a native Cinghalese god Nata-samcn. As the god Bali or Bel is also worshipped by the Cinghalese, it is probable that we have in Nata-samen the Beelaaraen mentioned in the scriptures and by Sanchoniatho ; and it is not im- • probable that on enquiry we shall find Samen or Angsa, the goose, ap- pearing in the procession as it did in Egypt. In Hindostan the deluge is commemorated on the 22nd of August for three days, and occurs at the time of the culmination of the Pleiades at sunrise, and at the time when the dove left the ark in our history of that event. We have Ganesa, Manu, and tbe sevm holy Rishi's commemo- rated. Now in some of the dialects of the natives of the Indian Archi- pelago, which belong to the same family o? languages as the Polynesian, we find that gangsa and aogsa mean a goosb, like the German gauis, or ganze, and the Latin anser, and Manu means ^fowl or bird. The repre- sentations of Ganesa, and the Hindoo mode of pronouncing his name, though they do not confirm this view, do not prove this coinbidence acci- dental. The circumstance that Brahma (Time) was bom of an egg, and that Carticeya appears riding on a peacock, confirms tbe view that the brother of Carticeya may have been the representative of SavMn or Gangsa. But Ganesa is the Indian Janus, like Carticeya, and is repre- sented as a brother of that god of the Pleiades,* and I have shewn that Manu and the manwantara (the period of Manu) are connected with the progressive year of the Pleiades. So intimately was the idea of a bull or a bird blended ^ ^h time, that one cf the names by which the Pleiades are known in the mdian Archi- pelago, ifewton^, means not onl^ a star, but also a cow or beast (Idnatmg), and sapi (apis and ser-apis of the Egyptians ?) means a cow. Even the name paschal eggs may mean simply ' ' tbe eggs of th^ bird.'* The word * Sir WililaiQ Joucs' Works, lii. 326, -^sa, 36<.. li u pisclnal It is well knowu U bon-owetl from the Indian paksha, u division of time, and paksi means in the Indian Archipelago &foivl* But let us turn to ancient Britain to see in which form the bird of time appears. It is most remarkable that our ancestors seem to have had the same tradition as that now existing in Central Africa. We find that Ceridwen, the goddess of the deluge, is represented as the Ife^i of the de- luge. Hqt QvMeina vfete an egg, mid the branch of a tree. In Britain the deluge was commemorated and the cow; was sacrificed on the eve of May Day, i. e. of the disappearance of the stars of Taurus in the evening t When we thus find that everywhere not only by symbols of the Bird and of the BvU of time or of the deluge, and by the Bough, the emblem of the year, but also by the very days when the deluge was commemorated among the Mexicans, the Egyptians, the Hindoos, the Athenians, and our heathen ancestors, the memory of that event was connected with the year of the Pleiades, we can scarcely avoid the inference, that when the Syrian's called the ark Bous or the Bull, they were merely expressing openly what other nations did by symbols and by myths, the year of Taurus or the Pleiades. In alluding to the light which I believe these investigations into the times of observance of the festivals of nations, are likely to throw on the subject of the deluge, I do so with a good deal of hesitation, first, because this event being connected with sacred history should be inquired into with all due reverence, and secondly, because it is a matter which a largo num- ber of earnest and good men believe should be taken out of the range of investigation, and placed beyond the pale of scientific enquiry. Yet it must bo allowed that the history of the deluge has often proved the stum- bling block of soience, and the apology of the sceptic. I feel but little sympathy with that want of faith, which forgetting that Christianity owes, not only its existence, but also its protection to the Deity, often seeks to defend revelation by. attempting to preclude all honest and fair investiga- tion, and by exhibiting a bitterness and a want of charity, which seem too often peculiar to theological controversies, and which would not be tolerated in the ordinary affairs ot every day life. To rebuke the fears of his followers, the great Head of the Church walked in safety over the waves ; and we may be sure that the truth ' of Christianity will never founder, whatever may be the forebodings tf the timid or the unbelieving. Only the faith of a few narrow-minded bigots is now disturbed by the * See Crawford's Indian Archipelago, ii. 146. T Uckiioa Tu-jilu. Oi iiiitisu i^ruids, 205, 23U, 2o6, 188. 85 'diacovcry that the sun does not go round the earth ; and before many years the view that the history of the deluge is to some extent at least, of a figurative character, will be accepted as generally, and with as little injury to religion, as the discoveries of astronomers. When T began to write the foregoing paper the history of the deluge was the last subject I anticipated would be connected with the festivals of nations. But a comparison of the calendars, and the 'customs of dif- ferent race.?, disclosed a fact new to me, but which has not altogether es- caped the notice of previous enquirers, that the ancients connected time with the delude. I found that not only was this the case, but also that time and the deluge seemed to have been strangely confounded or at least regarded as synonymous by primitive antiquity ; and that the ^idea of the flood was connected with the beginning, or rather with the end of the year, and of cycles ; and that this was not confined to the old world, but also extended to America. I found farther that the superstition of na- tions as to the seventeenth day of the month or of the moon, was among the Egyptians, the Athenians, and other races, connected with the flood ; and that this peculiarity was still more conspicuous in our own history of that event. Further enquiry revealed a new fact, that the Bull, and the "seven celestial beings," or Taurus and the Pleiades, were from China to ancient Britain connected with that event. I also found it mixed up with a prime- val mvth as to a bird, and a tree, which apparently had also a reference to time. _ # Hence it, appears that Sir Wm. Jones was very nearly opening up the same enquiry as I now have, when he drew attention to " the deluge of time " of Asiatic nations,* and had he followed out what he suggested as likely to throw a new light on the history of the human race, a comparison of times when the festivals of nations are observed, he would have found that the connection of the deluge with these festivals and with time, was a palpable fact which could not be passed over without comment or enquiry. The peculiarity which GreswoU, as well as otber writers, has noticed in the traditions of the Aztecs, the connection of the midnight culmination of the Pleiades with the deluge and with the end of a cycle, I found even more remarkable than has been supposed, and that the Hebrews, the Egyptians and the Mexicans must have attached the memory of that event to the same day and probably to the same phenomenon. 1 found Greswcll say- ing, ■• we commend this fact to the attention of astronomers. The fact .. ~ ^. tx-r -r , t— !:: 009 OAO f»AA • iv 19 8* 86 ia certaiu that the cuhuiuation of this particular ooneitoUation (the Pleiades) was one of the phenouwna presented by the heavens, to which the the Aztecs in particular, for some reason or other, looked with peculiar interest and attached peculiar importance.'''' Knowing as I did that the midnight culmination of the Pleiades was connected with a primitive year beginning in November, and hence had nothing whatever to do with the miracle alluded to by Greswell, and that with that month the Hebrews and the Egyptians connected the beginning of the deluge, I fait that I had acoldently met with a most marvellous fact, that at once established a con- nection between our account of the deluge and the traditions of heathen nations and of primeval antiquity. It was plain that if the latter were, to Bome extent, astronomical rather than historical our account of it must to a certain degree partake of the same character. At any rate no can- did enquirer could meet with a fact like that, and shut his eyes to its importan^.e and significance, or forbear to allude to it, for fear of the odium that the discussion of this subject is apt to entail upon any one, who does not accept literally all the incidents and details of the history of the deluge. The facts referred to in page 48 were entirely unknown, or at least were not thought of by me, when page 13 was written ; and my observations in page 84 being the result of subsequent investigations must be to some extent regarded as confirmations of my previous conjectures. These facts have forced themselves upon my attention. ITiey are so palpable, that one could even commence these investigations without hav- ing^is attention drawn to the connection of the traditions of all nations as to the deluge, with primitive festivals and with the idea of time ; and no person could, pursue the enquiry without coming to the conclusion that our own history of that event is almost identical with the traditions of primeval antiquity on the subject. I feel convinced that whatever preju- dices may be created by the fact/ I mention, further enquiry will fully substantiate my conclusions ; and that the day will come, when it will uni- versally be conceded that our narrative of the deluge was neither an his- torical account, nor an empty fiction ; but^was a figurative description of that event, that was in accordance with the ideas of primitive antiquity on the subjflct. It is not improbable that as the year and the seasons were so intimately blended with the religious ideas of the age in which it was written, and especially with the memory of the flood, the narrative which we now inter- pret literally, was not intended and was not regarded as in every particu- lar an historical account, but partly as a parable or figure as to the year, 87 and partly as a record of an event, that had stamped its impress on the primitive calendars aud festivals of our race.* ^ The difficulty which many pcraons would feel, in conceding that the incident* of the history of the delude a?o of a figurative character is that the 'ntrod^ct.ou of 8ucS an allegory would 1h5 inconsistent with the inspired character of Jie wor J of God. But they should ho careful not to create the very d'^culty which they wish to avoid. It must be remembered that while the great truths ot the Holy Scnp- ^relwhich are intended for the guidance and hupniness of man, were adapted for al ages and all times, the for.n in which these trutk were ^""«»"f '» J.^^^ «^^^^^^^ to the age in which the writer lived; and not only was not, but could not possWy be. adapted to all ages, for the tastes and feelings of men are PeT«'"f ^ ^^^ang np^ What i? most forcible, and most acceptable in one age. loses much of f f ^^'^ »« the eyes of the next generation, and can scarcely be understood, or at least appre- dated after the lapse of ma:.y centuries. I cannot select ^.^^^/J^^^^^Z^'^ of this, than the use of paralleUsm and alliterations m the Old and m he New Tes- tamen 8. Longinus, tLugh bo great a critic, forgot that he was testing the pro- Sone of for'mer ages by' the st'andard of his own time« whej ho censmjd se^^^^ authors for playing upon words or names, and accused them ot being guilty oi in Sc nrpuns^whlch were altogether unsuited to serious compos.Uons, and to the Zn?tv of ?ii8tory. Had his attention been drawn to the same pecu Unities m the B&ewoTd probably have denounced them aa incompatible witK the sacr^ character of a work prol^ssing to bo written under divine inspiration. I can r^ member a pe^s^n having givel great offence to mmy well-meaning and sincere ChristiansValluding to these alliterations. His hearers were horrified by his So "s,'and arrived at the conclusion, either that he must be wrong, or that the '''SLToomany^wl'S^-ss the history of the delude, thev asBumed their ta«, and judg^St U> be an infallible guide,'and staked tSe tmtli of the Bible on an fssue wS was unfair to religion, ae well as to the person they condemned. They Srott^k themselves the q'uestion,. supposing these P««"l\«;"f « «/ 2^/,VS were thev not, though inconsistent with our ideas of propriety, the most striking Tnd acceyable forS of composition, at the time when the pi^sags m wh h^hey nrcur were written 1 Any person who is familiar with the system ot alliterative noe?^ro^e™llv in vogue among ancient nations, can understand how .^ust ra^mlldTd tKtes If the tin^. in which it w^ used. That By^J- * - use among our ancestors, is to be found in Central Africa. It still exists m lama. Tdappea^rs in the Vollispa of the Scandinavians, and in the productions of.our ^'Thfnfeaste ^produced by a contrast, and a consonance . of words, though no longer Ed inKs. m Jhave been ^^^7 e^e^^t «™ong -"^fv CiK^^^^^ huve had its influence on prose compositons and even mdu:ectly on the tasU> ot na Ss who never adopted this form of poetry. The question, th«r«fo'-in f,^^;^*^^^^^ orelves is simply, was the system adapted to the age m ^^ich \t w^, 7„X?te„ In iudeinc of the history of the deluge, wo should remember that it was written at a t meWen tie spirit ^of allegory must have existed \^J'S^^^^^,^'Zl almost incredible to us, and which we can scarcely «°/°|!fi«^J-J^'t^7eLo^^^^ been especiaUy applied to every tWng connected with *? jear and its 8e«^o°«^^ wpU as with time and the deluge. I refer to the passage in p. 68, cited tromj^res mnv alqo infer that in consequence of the complete revolution that has since taKen "iK^thetLLs^ndain'^gs of men, we ma? be -J? P ^^eS « ^o^ro?^^^^^^ not intended to Vjo^o viewed, and thus may have ourselves created a suhject ot ttis tussion and doubt. IkKJI 88 But while an enquiry into the oustoma and festivals of nations may tend to throw some doubt on received opinions on (ho subjoct of the de- luge, it will remove all doubt, I believe, on a point of far more vital im- portance to revealed religion, the u.Uty oj origin of our race ; and it was a belief that these researches mig'^t assist in establishing tliat important troth, that first tempted me to incur the labor of eoUeoting those materials for the history of man. The comparison of the festivals and traditions of nations will, I believe, not only settle this point, but will also lead to an almost equally important Tv. vult. While we find in the new year's festival of the yoar of the Pleiades, and its agricultural and funereal characteristics, the key to the origin of pagan idolatry, we at the same time discover how entirely distinct was the religion of the Hebrews from that of other nations. So marked is this diver- sity, that an enquirer into the subject, even if ho were a sceptic, on meeting with a race possessing a faith similar to that of the Jews, thoug'a he might be ignorant of its just claims to a divine origin, would nevertheless at once conclude that he had before him a peculiar religion, entirely differ- ent from all others. He would find its distinctive peculiarities, not only in the grandeur and purity of its conception of the Deity, but also in its being exempted from any trace of that funereal character, that underlies the whole system of paganism from Australia to Egypt, and which led the Greek philosopher to exclaim " if the beings whom you adore are gods, why do you bewail them ? If you niourn for them, why do you regard them as gods?"* TlH question will naturally suggest itself, whether the Festival of tho Dea^ was not originally a commemoration of tho deluge. They were both connected with the beginning of the y3ar, and hence Greswell, who does not seem to know of the existence among almost all races of this festival, and of ihese traditions, supposes that the Roman commemora- tion of the dead, was instituted in memory of the Flood of Ogyges,t which was, like the Feralia, connected with the middle of February in If even in the times of Chseremon, the Egyptians retained a knowledge of the astronomical basis of their religion, we may be'sinc that in the time of Mosses it \vi\s palpable to all classes, not only of the Egyptians, but also of tho Hebrews who were resident among them. The latter mast have been familiar with tlie custom of connecting the deluge witli the year and its seasons, as tlio same alleo;ory existed in Syria as well as in Egypt ; nor could they possibly have accepted literally the a-v count tciven by Mosea, which was so identical with the tigurativo descriptioHS of the year and of the deluge with which they liad been so long familiar. Lot us therefore be careful how wo create a stiimbling block which does not really exist, by making the prejudices or the taste of the nineteenth century a test of the truth of revelation. * See Boulanger i. 276. i This uaiue reminds us oi Oga-ogj (the Kigh God) in Central Africa. 89 Greece and in Rome.* He thorcfore dcBignatcs it " the festival oi Fear,'^ Bupposing Feralia to bo derived from our word fear. As the Arabe call November, with which tniditions aH to the delago were conowcted by the Egyptians, the Hebrews, and other races, Rajch, (" the month of Fear,''^) OrcswoU's suggestion does net at first seem so very improbable. But ovod if that were the meaning of the name, it was not derived from the deluge, but from the unlucky nature of tho festival itself, the days of which were nameless nnd ''stained by tho shadow of death," in tho new world as well as in the old.J I am inclined to suggest a different origin for the word, viz , that it came from Je^o, to carry the dead in arms, liko tho name of the festival and of the month in which it was celebrated among the Peruvians, which was Aya-marca — the festival or month of carrying the dead. A careful analysis of tho mode in which tho festival is observed among differ ^i races, -^vill prove that its origin had nothing whatevor to do with the deluge, and that this apparent connection arose from both being associated with time and with the beginning of *hi year. As a btudy of the festival itself may somewhat modify tli .^^x- encea to which the history of the calendar and tho traditions of the old world all tend, as to a migration of races from the Southern Hemisphere, it may bo as w^ll to enquire, what can have induced all nutions to insti- tuto this commemoration. A study of the customs of the American Indians will show its origin, and will prove that the festival was not at first annually observed, and that it was not of a religious, and scarcely of a commemorative char^ter, in its inception. It arose necessarily from interring tbecead in the tribal burial place, which was only opened at certain intervals, the form of burial that must have been in vogae in primeval antiquity. Among the Hurons, Iroquois, and other races, at the beginning of every eighth or tenth year, a grand festival was held -^hich was called " Covering the Dead." The bodies of all t>: > had died since the preceding commemo.„. tion, were exhumed for the purpose of being deposited with those of their deceased kinsmen, which were, during the commemoration of the festival, taken from their resting place and carried back to their former homes. Nations assembled to do honor to the event. Funeral games were cele- brated. In every cabin there were rejoicings mingled with mourning, aa the living feasted and wept in honor of the dead, and extended their hos- pitality and their sympathy to their unconscious visitors from the graves. * Orig. Kal. Ital. i. 430. t Fiwti CiUli. ii. 19. • t Sec nntO; p. 56. •,. * m 90 The forest, illun* led by bonfires, resounded with the din of mimic com- bats, and the shouts of victory, which were succeeded at intervals by a sudden silence, only broken by that mournful wail, " the cries of the souls," which mingling with the revelry, told of the funeral character of the celebration.* When the festival had concluded, the bones of the dead were removed from their former homes to the Council lodge, and were afterwards car- ried from thence to a large trench, which was lined with furs. In this the bones of the deceased, clad in fresh robes, and accompanied by the offerings made to them wCiTe laid, to sleep on until the next festival should restore them once more to the cabins and to the hospitalities of their relatives. Bolingbroke, in his " Voyage to Deraerary," says that this festival was celebrated in the same manner, and at certain inter- vals, by all the Indians from Florida to the Orinoco, and he gives a most striking and impressive picture of the touching spectacle which he wit- nessed at one of these celebrations. He says that he saw the natives carrying those who had died since the preceding festival, in many .in- stances tor many miles through the forests, bearing their burdens, which were in all stages of decomposition, during a journey of several days' dura- tion, mindful only of the duty they owed to the deceased to let them rest in the burial place of their tribe with their departed relatives. In the Relations des Jesuites there is a most interesting account of the festival as observed by the Canadian Indians, agreeing with that given us by C||jarlevoix and by Bolingbroke. This form of burial wac; probably the same which was practised by the race who deposited their dead in the Cave at Aurignac, and though traces of it are to be found in the north-east of Asia, it seems to have died out everywhere except among some of the primitive races of the new world ; and even there nearly all of those by whom it was observed have either abandoned their ancient festival, or have been exterminated by the arms of the whites or the vices of civilization. Among the semi-civilized inhabitants of Peru.t wo find that the festival of the dead was held simultaneously with our All Hallo^ireen, AUSaints and All Souls. It is also particularly interesting to mark the transition in Peru to the annual observance of the festival. The reason of the change is apparent. The causes that gave rise to the celebration uo longer existed, and it be- came a mere commemoration of the dead. Though food was Ictt at the ■■'■ ^ee Charlevoix. Voyage to North America, vol. i>. letter xxri. t See ante p. il. 91 graves, the dead were no longer borne from their r3, 430. Also note to p. 2. t See note to p. 4. . • i, ^ I much regret that I have been unable te procure their worits. 95 Though tbo brook may in time swell into a river, it is very easy to follow it downwards to the sea, but to retrace its course from the ocean may be a most difficult task. Had the savages of Central Africa felt the oame curiosity as to the mouth of the Nile, that we have as to its source, the mystery that has so long existed would ages ago have been removed. To trace the popular custous and superstitions of European nations up to theur origin, is a most arduous undertaking. A bewildering labyrinth lies before the student, as he attempts to explor«^ the maze of myths, customs, and superstitions that have grown up in rank luxuri- ance in civilized communities ; and that are the accumulated produc- tions of many centuries, and of continual changes in modes of thought. What is primitive is so small a portion of what appears equally ancient, and is so disguised by the changes which time has produced, that the stu- dent inust often find around him much that is highly interesting and cu- rious, but nothing that is sufficiently definite to form the basis of historical reasoning. I commenced in 1853 to pursue an entirely different mode of investi- gation, viz : by instituting a comparison of the customs and superstitions of nations. In the first instance I entirely disregarded the traditions and myths of civilized nations and of antiquity, as more likely to lead one astray than to aid ray investigations, merely striving to ascertain what cus- toms and festivals are to be found in Europe, Asia and America. The next step, after having discovered the existence of universal festivals or customs, was to see how they were observed among savage races. Hav- ing once established this starting point, I made use of what I believed to be the primitive type, as a guide to the more developed form which each custom or festival had assumed among the bivilized nations of ancient or modern times. I make these remarks in consequence of having xecently received from an eminent Philologist, a letter, in which he advises a different course of enquiry from that selected by myself. "I have no doubt that a comparative study of the customs of ancient and modern nations, will lead to results as interesting as those akeady arrived at by a comparative study of languages. The field no doubt must be much enlarged, and at first the customs of the great well established families of mankind should be explored separately, just as we have^ to work out first a comparative grammar of the Semitic, Aryan and Turanian nations, before we can approach the problem of a possible community of origui of liiowi disiinef laruUies. jl buuuiu cuiisiuui = --■.-1^- -••.i-.;r customs and traditions of savage races particularly important, care being 96 taken to separate >nything that could be adventitious from the original Btock of their folklore." , t i, • I would, however, suggest whether the science of ethology (as I bayo ventured to designate the study of the customs and festivals of nations) will not open up far more abundant materials for the history of man than com- parative phUology; and hence whether the former need be restricted within those limits, beyond which science has been unable to trace aflmi- ties in the languages of Europe and Asia. It is possible that, if there are universal festivals and customs, traces of the primeval language may be found in connection w.th them. When we find the Tau of Polynesia in countries so widely separated from each other, and the Cemis, the household gods of the West Indians, ap- pearing in the Cemisoi Yucatan, the iTames of Japan.* ^amis of Egypt, audi' Vamse, the ancient Diana or Hecate of Italy.t the idea does not appear so very improbable. But whether there can ever be traces found of the primeval language of mankind or not, there can be no question that in the Festival of the Dead we have a relic of the social and religious life of primitive society, and in the year of the Tau or of the Pleiades, a memori^ al of its calendar. , , ,. The paper to which I have made such comparatively voluminous addi- tions was unavoidably, as has been stated, very hastily prepared, and was published in the transactions of a Colonial Scientific Society The addenda have been privately printed in forms of eight pages, as I found leisure to make further investigations: and several months had elapsed before the materials collected and printed had assumed their present dimensions 1 mention this, as it will explain any slight inconsistencies or modifications of my views that may be apparent, and will afford a reason and an excuse for some repetitions, that were almost unavoidable. This circumstance, while it exi^ses the paper to criticism, to some extent affords a test as to the general correctness of the conclusions to which I ^^ -"-^- -/^^^^ form is a confirmation or otherwise of that which precedes it The po- tion as to the progressive character of ihe year of the P eiades, and its Set on ancient Slendars and festivals, was worked out after the paper on the Festival of the Bead had been published.^ Unless some evidence * Bunsen, i. 435. ; S „rjl»*^' " .he .d«, ha™ ^e.n *« -U ^^^^^^, -•_„ »i. j*»«if «roQ nrintfid ftxrentine that portion rciauvt. lu "'«._, ...,,.„, JhTNo^tii'Xmericai; IndiaW" Several Wgrap^^^^^^ J^VpS'iSr. can scarcely be avoided, whew the author is compelled to be ms o^J P j ^^^ ,„r. 97 could be adduced to show that anoicol calendars mro progress,™ in rela- tion to the seasons, a vie« not hitherto entertamed, tne oonneefon of the felal of the dead mth the year of the Pleiades wodd he rejected ^n Kml. as altoKcthor inadmissible. Hence, under ever, disadvantage 'r ;t bei g fble to pr^uro assistauc. fron. othe., I have been con>- peUed to en Jinto a question of no ordinary difficulty and "-f«'Jy ■« Tmanner that has not done justice to the subject StUl enougo has been shorn, I hope, to induce more competent enqmrers to explore a Sold the existence of which I have merely attemptod to mdioate. An author who has turned his attention to the study of cdstoms has wrUten to mc to say that, if a connection could be estabbshed between ; customs and superstit-ns of the Old World and those or Amema Tit wmld he a mJ< .«ar«% discovery." Th,s pomt, which I behove T trproved beyond any question, will, ^ .'™f ^^,;— ^7' if all my other assumptions arc regarded as rnadmmble by the '=»">«'■ I I have not proved satisfactorily that the FestWal of the Dead among the Australians, the Fijians, the Sandwich Islanders, the people of the fIX Island , of Peru, Yucatan, Japan, China, India, Pers,», Ceylon Ru sia Lapland, ancient Egypt, Greece and Home, was the same as our All llu .a, L,ap , =jr^ ^ _^y^ ^^ ^^ ^ hereafter, w *r;'e=^ In S I In be able to treat of the origin of the festival nTof the various customs connected with it, tfcat are to be discovered :hcrl itTs"^rated. It wiU yet.be found that the festrva Is and lustom ot'^tions are far more ancient than the oldest monuments and 2TZt time honored deities; and that the new year's commemoration of SurTand of the dead long preceded and will long survive the dWiiiities and the myths to which it has given birth, ^ , . . „ AtTtimo like this, when the human race seems to be striving so earn sdv to solve the mystery of its origin; when science points on he no tad, thl links thlt connect us with the ^te -atien and on the other to the distinct and apparently unchangeable "types of man that iTr'atTtV Australian, the African, -"d "» A™™-- " "f ^ ^T Th Eu olu, anything, however trivial, that may tend to show that all the Iw Lokind Wong to one common family, can scarcely He regarded %":"! r^feTMar MUller and of other philolo^^. have ae- eomplisht wonders, but have not yet succeeded in disclosing the long „„,„, a.. . l,»v„ „o.icc.l, whioh are act mcn.;onca,mf_. £,_.re * Mo^^i^E - 98 sought for elements of one common primeval language. Science has not yet refuted the conolusionB of Agazziz and of American Ethnolo- gists, that the vftrious " types of man" owe their origin to diflferent " cen- tres of oreation." To oontrovert their views, we may have to turn, tiot to the silent monuments of remote antiquity, but to those living memorials of our race that are preserved in the customs and festivals of nations. It would not be a little remarkable, if those three days consecrated in India to " the memory of the Pitris, the progenitors of the human race," shquld prove to be a link to unite their descendants together, and to be at once the evidence and the commemoration of a common origin. If it be true that we have sprung by development from the brute cre- ation, it is plain that tie transition to humanity must have been very rapid and very decided, as the Feast of Ancestors, inherited by all nations from primeval man, is a touching tribute of regret from the living to the dead, and is clearly based on a belief in the immortality of the soul ^;miiatraiaaiiM;iM&»a^aiiiaa&>aM 99 AU.)IT10NAL FACTS IN (;0NKIUMATloN OF VIKWS IN THE rREOKDINU rAl'EU: 1 have stated that I wan convmced t'^-^t further investi.a^^^^^^ tioLl proofH of the correctness of my -onc\^x.u>mmtotW^ that S^emfrelv escaped confirmation ot .:u8 J may mention a very rema^^ „,y notice and which 1^ been t^^^^^^^^^ „^^^^ ,^ , to show that the 72 F'^'^*'^. "\"\'' '^ {,.' , ^, ,n-«.thfir are alwavs so represented the sons of Noah, the iud.y.duak m ;^h.ch^^»X number of 72 exactly."* Ho by the commentators of -^'V^krs .^f moLtdfor'^^^^^^^^^^^ in «.ality munt has also coniectured that ^»^«J^'' f "y^^'^J.'^^^^^^^^ had the same significance, tirai, a fact to which Bion alludes. " Cease Venus now t% wail; reserve thy tear Again to full with each Adonian year. T But there can be still le- Jouht that O^ns who^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^1;; conB^llationArgowasthe^^ en the subject. But m mtiia, ivianu wuu ""■ i ^ manwantara con- Jones shows, is the Hindoo Noah, ^^^ ^^^^^ P;"«^^ 72 sists of 71 years, or as it has been more ^^'^"'^^iy^f.^fSuK which the year o§ the years. This is simply a penod ot T-^^nis or the tune with n wh en n ^ Pleiades gains one day on the t^op^cal year-a cakulat^on^^^^^ Tnd to have made a Hindoos and Scandhiavmns seemed to have »«,fV. W"'^"^ or 72 years most singular approximation to tlf ^VThfE^^ti Jn Apis andThe ^Iwirlppers of of the manwantara, the 72 pru^sts of »»^«3r^nm^rai fact But the Egyptian and Tammuz, must have related to the same «^t"^onomical fact, mt tne yp .^ the Hindoo periods were connected if.fl^^^^^^J^tirdl^uoc to the same possible to avoid the mtorence that ^J-^.Jf. „'°"f °L^ ^r^^^^^^ our account is astro- period of the year of the Pleiades «"^f«^Ti7Sem^^ the time when Lmical, how does it conform to the I'l^'-^.^f winS of ^e^ great cyclical Sfe deluge took placed ArMotle y, '^the >^'nter o^ eve^^^^ year is a deja^e," which simply lX^he def^ge of Menu occLid at the end metaphorically takes place. In ^"2 "'^';. "S^ j^ea to their cycle. Gres- of a cycle, and the Mexicans attached the same idea ro^^ well tells us that all over the globe we can find traces « j«° S^ g ^ j.^-^ of 600 vears, called in Egypt the AP'?^^<=y;^l^' .• ^?'?" ??^^al S the origin of cycle, Greswell says, '' «« vei>eral,le for its antiqu^^^^^^^ 8 ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^'^trWilliam Jones says that the "ytholot^^TVlS of mV^"^^^^^ mogony preceded the ^«l»g«; /^^^^ ^^S t thT sX^^^^^^^^ '-haracter'. let us see whether our account does not exhibit the sam^^^ „ot resolve itself t Erto''n'B' Classic foets. I. 3(15. ''■'^^fZTltxivWm Tse. lU* ni irlvaa ttlB tm* .tmmtmm HMlHi 100 literal cliaracter of a hitttoiy, for which uo one can fcul u more profuuiid vcneruliun th'in niynelf. Those facts have come to my knowlwl^ic wince the foregoing pajicr was written, and lire dcHcrvinc; of further enquiry. Were tliis paper puldished for general circu- lation, I should hortituto to refer to tiicsc facts, not from nny doubt as to their co > roctness, but from fear that tlicy may have u very diU'ercnt effect on the minds of general roudora, from what they would produce on the jud'^ments of scholars. If the conclusiens that 1 have been forced to arrive at, are accepted as correct, I am convinced that they can be made entirely consistent with the in.sj)ired character of the word of God. It is certainly highly desirable that they should be enquired into bv the learned ; and l:s only a few copies of the pi.per have been struck otf, mainly for cfrculation among scientific societies, I feel the less hesitation in bringing them to the notice oi' scholars. To suppress all allusion to tiicse facts .vould be unfair to trnth itself; and I am persuaded, as they are the result of honest investigation and car- ried on with a perfect conviction of the inspired character of the scriptures, they will be fairly judged and candidly enquired into. The note to p. 13 will show how I was Hrat forced to examine into this question. The infei-once to which the facts there alluded to, seemeii to load, hcve been fully con- firmed, and tt careful analysis of our history of tlie deluge will prove that it bears the marks of having been previously transferred from a lunar-sidereal vear ; that it wan inherited by the J')W8 from a period long anterior to the times of Moses ; and that it could not have Iwen derived from the Egyptians. In consequence of the number of authorities which it was necessary to consult, I omitted to examine Bryant's voluminous work respecting the traditions as to the deluge. I find that almost every page of Vol. II. of Ins Analysis of Ancient Mythology, bears out my conclusions most fully. This is the more imporfant, as ho does not t-nn to have had the slightest suspicion of there being an astronomical basis for the traditions of ancient nations as to that event. Ho accordingly proves that all accounts are almost identical with our own ; and that so important n part diu the deluge play in ancient mythology, that the ark (Argo, Theba, &c.) and the dove, not only gave names to numerous cities, but also to divinities. But he shows that the influence of a myth as to a Bull (which lie does not explain), was equally conspicuous, and that the tors of Greece and Asia were more numerous than those of Great Britain. Even whore he gives & plate of the Bull Apis with a a dove on its back, he does not seem to suspect that it referred to the Pleiades on the back of Taurus. He has shown that the Argonantic expedition was simply an allegory as to the deluge. » I would invito the attention of scholars to the Hesiod's Theogonia, and to the Argonautica of Orpheus, as well as to the passage cited from Pindtr in Sir William Jones' works, IV. 57. If we simply bear in mind that Argha v/as tho Ark of Mann, and that Argo, or Argos, and ^heba (called Bous by the Syrians) or Thebes and its seven gates, referred to the ark ; that Pelias, the Peleiados, Pelion, Peleus and Phasis s- constimtlv mentioned, are all indirect allusions to the Pleiades (the doves of the deliu;v Oi of time) ; and that the references to Taurus and Thera point not to a ".•\;riri or >lace, but tc ;' constellation, the astronomical character of these allegoric. :'. ' be upp"-'^nt. That .he memory of the Flood had become blended with the idea of time and of tho year is clear from tho fact that tho oldest heathen author in his account of the creation, and of the early history of tho world, does; not allude to the deluge. When it is remembered that Omheus and Cadmus, to whom Grecian mythology points as having introduced religion and learning into Greece, came from Phoenicia, the silence as to the deluge observed by the Phoenician author Sanchoniatho, who must have written long before the fables cf Orpheus were known in Greece, is the more important and the more significant. This circumstance has already excited some surprise. Cory says, in his Ancient Frag- ments, p. ix. : " It is remarkable that Sanchoniatho is almost the only heathen urriter upon antiquities who makes no direct allusion to the deluge, though several obscure allu- sions to it may be found in the course of tho fragment. "Were wo assured of his silcco upou the puLiii ui the parts of the work which have beeu lost, liie uiiiissioii iniyhl still b*. acco]intod for from his avowed determination to suppress what he considered merely allegorical, for ho would find the traditions of the deluge so intimately blended with 101 those relntinR to the crontion, that on cn(lcavorin« lo disentanKlo the tmth from t|i« fiit.lo, ho niiulit cuHilv he indiiwl to suppoc" ihiit they rohited to the Haine event. But so intimately had Timrufl ii.i.i the Ark hecome blended with Time itselt, that the very paHsa{,'o in Santhoniatho describing tac fact, indirecily uitoats '.o tlie truth of hJR assortionH : " ChronoR (time) viriting the conntry of the South. t,'uyo all Egypt to the; god Tmntm, tfiat it ini-ht he his kingdom." The hitter w.w, he tells mcMcu J hmr in EcTpt. " Those things, says ho, tlie Ciiheri, the seven houh of Bydyc, and ttieir brother Asclcuius, first of all sot down in the rcconls in oijcdicneo to »he coin, mands of the God Taautus," which simply means that Tme gave the aecoum; tc Thor or Taurus, and that the Pleiades wrote it on the records. Hut this mngtUar allegory continues in the same strain : " Ml these things (iie son of rhahwn I Thcba an vvk) " the first Ilierophant of all among the Phoenicians, allmmzed and mixed up with the oecun-ences oj vature and the world, and delivered t<) the pnosts and prophet^, the superintondants of the mysteries; and they, penyivmg ike ramjor thene allegories incrense, delivered them to their successors, and to foretgnera. I think that no one who reads the learned works o. Bryant and Fabcr, and the early mythological poems of Greece, witu the new light which ho Aztec commemo- ration of the deluge sheds on the subject, can fail to see that Orpheus and other early Greek writers composed works which, under the semblance of history were flimplv poetical versions of astronomical truths, intelligible perh^p.<. to the initiated, but unintolligiblo to the generality of mankind, and that the«e _ llegones contuiu continual allusion, to Tauru., the Pleiades and to Theba, veiled under words having an analagous meaning or an identity in sound to the names of that constel- lation or of the ark. 'j^hv. continual repetition of tl.e same names is enough in itself to iuggest that there must have boon some hidden truth -, eiled under these fables ; a»l that they must have been written in what was called the language of ^Tho ship Argo, Plutarch says, was made a constellation, as being the ark of Osiris. All the incidents of the Expedition of the Argonauts which Newton regards as an histori.^al narrative, clearly refer to r rimitive festivals and supersti- tions. The golden fleece hanging on the sacred tree, can be obtained to this daj with but little danger by any one wlio is willing to outrage the superstitious venera- S of the Russian peasantry for sacred trees wh ch they still adorn with wool and yam, a custom, traces of which are to be found m Asia Atnca^ Aiistraha and Aiica-(see Took's View of the Russian Empire, II. 372.) The Cauldron of Medea waa well known to the early inl vbitants of Bntain as the cauluron of the year and of the Fiood, which was "regarded as an e'««'^f '^'.*?'^J^»^?;f f ' „^"^ ^ '' kept boiUnq for a year and a day,," (Davies' Myth, of British Druids, p. 226) ; and as to Jason bathing at midnight fxs a protection from ^he spirits and throwing a stone among the ghosts whom ho had conjured up, as a means of laying them a fable told also of Cadmus, we lave the explanation in the history of the flood of iCcalion, iu the fuaeral ritos of the ^n^^ops, in Ae superst.t^ns of the New Zealanders, and in the ceremonies at the Lemuria, the R«jn'*" /««,f f ^,°^,^hoot8 -CSee an e p. 34, 5.^>, note, 91. Ovid Fast, v 437. Or. Kal. Ital. I.^aOi 305. Si rr'8 Ceylon, II. 199. The Mahavansi, III. 150. Le Peuple Primitif, xl. 179.) The fables of Orpheus and Euryd cc, of Ceres a|^rosorpine are merely poetical vers ons of populii- superstitions that still existlffong some of our peasantry, as Jo Ses latlng the food of the "good people," is st 11 as dangerous as eacmg promeg anates in Hades once was ; looking back at Hahween, is as unlawful as it was at the "festival of ghosts," or in the realms of Pluto; and the cake offered To Cerberus still exists in oui' somas or " All Soul's" cake, and m the mukbtpoijo ^''^But tlrhS oTtfraehas been more merciful than the imngiuation of the poet, and has preserved more distinct relics of primitive society m the customs of the Jeop?6 than are to be found in the allegories of Grecian mnhologv ^et while n.t I!n?v scholars but even school-boys are expected to be famdiar wuh aU the fables of antiquity, the learned have too often despised ao uawOitfij ai nuui-v uic r-nug » Cory's Ancifat Fragments, p. 16. Eiweb. Pruep. Evan, I. c. 19. 102 momorinl. of primeval man that are still preserved in the superstitions and fon^ '' The^rXlncJs whioh I give to the works of Bryant. Sir William Jones, Faber 1 1^ r^-t^J ';f»^':^ Z found to bear on the eiibject of tliis paper ; and as they have "'^^rireCoivof Xientn^^^^^^^^^ «" entirely different light from that regarded the iiistoiy «* ^"^^'^'^J ^J'^,^ ^^titled to more weight than any facts that I'SS advIncX uppo« of my rondlLns. It must be remembered that the i den- Lv of our Sm of the Delu/e with that of heathen nations, has been estabhshec aLcy b" auKs who are in no way liable to the charge -[ff^^^;^^^jrX^, raditions as to the del Je are in one instance found to be connected with astronomi al 'i^rJan'onlyt umav^Sed by the due'which tlfo Aztec festival has s"m>lied to u. I wouldTiticularly invite attention to the following passage ^om bir Wi h^^^ lmip7works(IV 12) which shows that that most emment author, whose orthodoxy i rfew w 11 question^^ struck by the resemblance between our his ory Khniinfcal that of the Lotos, be not the same with that recorded m our Scnp- tme ; and 'blither the story of the se.;enth Menu be n.vt one and the same wnh that of Noah. I propose the questions, hut affirm mllitriff. „fl,.^„t;nr. There w 11 be found in Bryant's Analysis, I. 501, a most tn terestmg fonfirrnat.on of The con ecturo as to the G^racos representing the " pleasant u.fluence ^> the ^le iades, as, according to 1^; tlieir nanie^was or^maUy /W Tn CAcn-.^ mounted by a r'S!i^^ he year (and hence the god) of tl>e Pleiades or Taurus u-^u^i ^ms havt%ccn"ltaur. We can therefore uiulerstan.l how the Tan represented T 1 iln ,r A To show thit this is thc casc, we hnd that among some nations the ™Me nfesen^^^^^^^^^^^^ Do T. But the Bull Apis is represented with a tn- ;1. on hrforchead and hence it would seem that the symbol must lave been like he^T c" 1^; 1 T.m^^aud that it must like that emblem have represented the hree sea- sons of Taurus. I am aware it#erwards got anotlier s.guiicancc, both in udi.i and in Egypt but that it had an itronomical origin few can doubt. Ih.s emblem Ilk e Tail tie cross and thc serpent, is to be found in almost every part of the priest who has devoted particuUir attention to t Y'r^^ri. f t nt t' t symhoi ,.,« roitio tn tlie same cone us on to which I had been led, tluit t. t symom '^s^dien'ir^mongthe Micmacs, and -^ -^ ^^jg^f^ l^^^J^^^SS missionaries, who added to the system some signs whicli can 7, ^\ f. f, *^^'S ' of from those previously in use. Among tlie articles foun.l m tlie Indian mouiuls ot ihe United States, is one inscribed with iliaped like a triangle, the learned author •h'lra-t'u's "I- svmbols. of one of which, „f I'veiiistoi-ic Man (U. l^'i, 1'."',) say^ 103 Siiv;*, " it 18 the Greek Delta, whicli is also the letter T or D in several of the ancient alphabets. This character is also the letter Tyr in the Icelandic Runic, represent- ii rthe C;orf Tvr or a Bull." I'rofessor Wilson arrives at the conclusion that the emb em had an astronomical significance. I would draw attention to the very rS confirmation which this aifords of my con ecture in note to p. 79, that the name of the sod Thor of the Scandinavians, was the same as the Phoenician word ' S a Bull^and must have originally signified the constel ation Taurus, or die God of the Pleiades. It is worthy of notice that while m ancient alphabets we hnd tVie letter Tau represented by the'cross, the Tau ^ross, and by a man^e we f^^^^ traces of all those symbols still lingering in Britam, as lUust/ated by he Dor Tau) beetle, the hot cross bun, the triangular form not only of the somas («oul-ma8s ) •ikes used on " All Souls," but also of the New Year's cake of Thor, or Taurus. AwitcHn?heIlustratedLondon News in 1857, asked the question what could tveS -en rise to a custom which he had observed near Coventry, of using tri- irmfar shaped cakes at the beginning of the year. But a reference to Brand 8 iSlar ISuities (ed 1853,) ir3I2, 372, 389, 391, 394 546. will show that this rastom and traces of the ideas originally connected with it, are to be found in mSi pits of Grcat^B^^^^^ and even in ^France. The wide spread reverence for tScse^vmbofs that must have once existed, will appear from the following autho- ikies wh ch arc onlv a few out of very many which I have co lected on this point : CaSn's American Indians. II. plate 287 ; Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 118. 227 ; Maurice's Indian Antiquities, I. xxviii ; II. 172 ; III. 442 ; IV. 445. 5^8, 566 , VII 623; Stevens' Yucatan, II 259.313,315; Kerr's Voyages ^ndTrnvels XXV. note to p 77. Archdeacon Williams' Essays, p. 41. It is not therefore improba- iTe that die triangle and seven stars of Masonry may have an antiquity fully equal tn that which tradition among the fraternity has assigned them. ■, r,, B \d t a Uo-ht do these trivial customs and symbols throw on the ^rds o ho mo ancient heathen author on the subject :-" From Misor ^XTnLJw) who invented the writin- of the first letters ; him the Egyptians called {/"«» (Thor?) he Alex"iiulrines Thoyth, and the Greeks Hermes. But from hydyc descended tS Dosniri or Caberifor Corybantes, or Samothraces ; these he say . built the ti' St sh '' Tthe :ark. But (he two Dioscuri were alternately for six months V 3, c a Id nvisible; and the Cabiri w<.-e seven in number ; and as to their building ie fiist ship or the ark. the meaning is iipparent in the connection ot the j;ear of e P Ic adcs with ti>e deluge. Thoor (or thor as Taurus was cf ed bj *e 1 hoem- •ians) invented the first letters. What they were is afterwards described All tlcse things the son of Thabion" delivered to his descendants aiid to foreigners, of , hnin one was hlrh the inventor of the three letters." This is simply a piay ton^^l^T^;a n ait an ark and a bull, the son of rAai^o^ simply mean. 7W, o? the god Taurus, and Isiris or Osiris was represented by the Bull Apis and ^v iTnl.i iilv the iiod Thor. Hence Ta^trus invented the three letters-j. e. thiee ot The ibols of t^o yea of Taurus became letters in the alphabet. These symbols, I L?cSSccd, .^Jc thtwa«, the cross, and the triangle, and two oi the letters were '''vilLtl\fmremii""tiire that traditions as to the S/>™7 point to « .«>igration from the Sunthfmay'be considered a. (.uestionable, I would ^^vUe attention to Uio p,o.n-ession of the year of the Pleiades in connection with the ^^^^"f «^ ^'f^^^?";*^^ Tun ware tliat it will be regarded as an ac^f very great presumption for » k bnt t to e 1 leavor to give a clue to what has Merto never been explauied by the Wi m. ■ bat it mist 1.1 remembered that l>y using new historical in^terials viz imimNal festivals and univc-sal symbols, I may have found a simple clue which profound learning and enquiry Imvo hitherto sought for in vain. Th'it these investi-ations have not in every instance led to meic tanciiui contiu sion ii be P 4 by a conlirniation from o/woik which I obtained from England aftei- the a Ide Kla were nearly finished. The passage did not attract my attention 1 til k • le paper on the i'estival of the dead and the addenda were printed. I h ve St aid la that commemoration is " derived by all natrons from primitive man ■■ and tC li ional proofs could be supplied when I had more space at my d^sno'a The American Indians erect on graves what they call "^PJjr PJ " Thi' i-^mi!n« (