CHAPTER I

.

THE WORLD’S FIRST WORSHIP.

I have laid it down as an invariable maxim constantly to follow historical tradition, and to hold fast by that clew, even when many things, in the testimony and declarations of tradition, appear strange and almost inexplicable, or at least enigmatical; for so soon in the investigation of ancient history as we let slip that Ariadne’s thread we can find no outlet from the labyrinth of fanciful theories, and the chaos of clashing opinions.--F. VON SCHLEGEL.

There are many systems of worship in the world. Some of these are limited to single nations, others extend themselves over different nations, and in history we read of certain religions which no longer exist. For instance--of those systems limited to a nation, there is the worship of ancestors, as taught by Confucius, in China; the worship of the idol gods Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and a multitude of other gods, more numerous than their worshipers, in India; and Shintoism, the nature-worship of Japan. Of those which have extended to other lands, there is the worship of the hero-saint, Gautama Buddha, in all southern and eastern Asia; and Mohammedanism, the fierce opponent of idolatry, and the system of the prophet Mohammed, in India, Turkey, Egypt and in China. Of the dead religions, there are those of Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome. These are but a few of the many forms of worship that we find in glancing over the world’s history, or in looking at its present condition. There are wide differences between these systems of worship and also many resemblances among them.

Where did these systems all come from? Where and how did they start? They differ very materially one from another. Some worship one God and have no idols, others worship millions of gods and have multitudes of idols. Their temples are of different styles. Their sacred books and ceremonies are extremely varied. Can they have started from one source, or did each start independently of the rest?

TESTIMONY OF AN OLD RECORD AND OF LANGUAGE.

How shall we find out about this? We have one record that will help us and upon which we can depend. This is the oldest history of mankind. There were a great many of these histories written later, but for no one of them is there a tenth part of the evidence as to its being genuine, which there is for this one old record. It has been tested in every possible way and no flaw has yet been found. Ancient monuments and their inscriptions, the oldest traditions of the most ancient peoples, all confirm its statements. But these monuments and the written histories of nations go back but a few thousand years, and this one record is older than they all. So traditions only remain to be compared with it. No, there is one thing left that is related to tradition. It is language.

Those who have studied the languages of the world and compared them with each other have something to say, and it is this: All languages can be grouped into families or classes of speech, and all these families are seen to have started from one common source. This, too, agrees with the story of that older record. That tells how God made first a man and then a woman, how that they were very good at the outset, but soon became bad. It goes on to tell how their children were very wicked, and how God punished them by sending a great flood of waters which destroyed all but one family. Then this family increased, and they too became wicked. They finally planned to build an immense tower, so, perhaps, that they should not be drowned again in a flood; at any rate, if this was not the reason, it was for some other wicked purpose that they builded. God was angry with their wickedness, and to stop their building confused their language. They had all spoken the same language before, but now some spoke one and some another. Just here other histories begin, and the stories in these and in the record we have referred to, go on very much alike. But the traditions, which are older than the histories, agree with the record, as we shall see in a future chapter. This record is the Bible, especially the first part of the Book of Genesis. So here is found one answer to our question,--_all_ religions grew out of one original system of worship.

ANOTHER WITNESS: COMPARATIVE RELIGION.

There is still another way to get an answer. Place the religions side by side, study their principles, examine their legends, and see if, after all, there are not resemblances beneath the surface. Let us strip them of those things which are the additions of a later day, and of those things which the peculiar conditions of their countries, climates and languages have added. Take for instance their legends or household stories. Some of these traditions are written in the inscriptions on the ancient monuments of Egypt, or especially of Babylonia, or in the sacred books and histories of the older nations; others have been handed down by word of mouth. It was long after these legends were old, that even neighboring nations held any communications with each other. It had been just as if a great high wall was built around each nation--a wall without gates. So they could not have told these stories to each other. Then, too, some of these stories are told by nations thousands of miles apart.

The truth certainly is that before the several branches of the race separated from their common home, perhaps on the table-lands of Bactria, they had many legends, nursery tales and peculiar stories in common. As they moved to the colder North, or to the warmer South, they carried these tales with them. In course of time these came to be somewhat altered. This change was in the dressing rather than in the tales themselves. Hence we find among the Egyptians, Hindoos, Greeks, Germans, Spaniards, Norsemen, stories which are so much alike that it is certain that they had a common origin. Take, for instance, the story of the Master Thief of the Norsemen, and compare it with the same story as told by other nations, and we are led to the conclusion that it is part of a stock of nursery tales which were told before the dispersion. Let us remember that many collections of stories were not originated by the men whose names they bear, but that these men simply gathered together legends and tales which they found already existing among the people. Thus “Grimm’s Household Tales” is a collection of old German fireside stories. “The Arabian Night’s Entertainment,” the “Hindoo Hitopadesa,” “Dasent’s Popular Tales of the Norse,” and “Old Deccan Days,” are collections of the same sort. It will repay us to attend at some length to the various versions of one of these stories, which will serve to illustrate many others of more momentous character.

THE STORY OF THE MASTER THIEF.

In the Norse tale, the Master Thief is a farmer’s apprentice. In his country there is an order or society of thieves, and the apprentice wishes to join them. The thieves promise to admit him to their society provided he can succeed in stealing an ox from his master as the master is driving three oxen, one by one, to market. It must be done, the thieves say, without the master’s knowledge, and without hurting him. The youth put a silver-buckled shoe in his master’s way as he traveled along the road. The farmer admired the shoe but passed on without touching it, as an odd shoe would be of no service to him. The thief cunningly picked up the shoe and ran around by another path so as to come out ahead of his master, and place the shoe in the farmer’s way again. This time he stopped, tied his ox to the fence, and picking up the shoe before him, went back to find its mate. The lad then stole the ox and took it away to the thieves’ council. But they want to try him still further, and direct him to steal a second ox from his master, who is again driving to market. Disguising himself the lad put a rope around his body under his arms and hung himself to a tree at the roadside. The farmer passed on, barely noticing the lad. He was so much troubled about the loss of his ox that he did not think of rendering assistance. The lad then untied himself, and running by a roundabout way came out on the road ahead of the farmer and hung himself as before. Again the farmer passed by unconcernedly. Again the thief hung himself. This time the farmer thought himself bewitched, and returned to see if the other two lads were still hanging. His second ox was now left tied up and the lad then led it also away. The thieves then said that if he would steal the third ox from the farmer, now on his guard against tricks, he should be their master. Going into a piece of woods along the road, as his master was passing by with the third ox, he imitated the bellowing of oxen. The farmer now hurried away to catch his lost cattle, leaving the third one to fall into the thief’s hands. The thieves thereupon took him into their council, but determined (as he shrewdly provoked them to do) to outdo the young thief, they went away to carry out their plans. The lad then returned his master’s oxen, and carried off all the valuables and goods which the thieves had stored away. Soon after he married his master’s daughter.

This story was told in Western Europe, probably long before Herodotus heard the story of the Egyptian thief and wrote it out, or before the Hindoo tale of Karpara and Gata was made known outside of India. The tale of the Forty Thieves in the Arabian Nights also bears a close resemblance to these. The Spanish legend of the Poor Mason may have been borrowed from any one of these. Compare the main points of these stories with those of the tale of the Master Thief.

THE STORY OF RHAMPSINITOS.

Rhampsinitos, an architect, built for the King of Egypt a treasure-house with a secret entrance. This secret, at his death, the architect told to his two sons. They thereupon helped themselves to the king’s treasures. As the king noticed how his treasures were gradually decreasing, he placed a trap in the entrance to the treasure-house. The younger brother was caught in the trap, and seeing that he could not escape, he begged his brother to cut off his head so that the king might not know that the architect had told the secret, and that the brother might not get into trouble. So the king found the headless body, and of course could not recognize the thief. But to find out who he was, he had the body exposed in a public place, and ordered the guards to arrest any person who should mourn for the dead man. The mother saw and recognized the body, and threatened to tell the king, unless the elder son should bring the body home. The son then filled some skin bottles with wine, and loaded them upon asses. As he rode by the guards, he slightly loosened the mouth-string of the sacks, and the wine began to run out. The guards, pretending to help him, helped themselves to the wine. After tying up the skins, the youth asks them to sit down and drink wine with him. They do so, and are soon overpowered by it, and fall asleep. He then carried away the body. Soon after he was married to the princess, for the king sought to honor this Master Thief, and he was held to be the cleverest man of the cleverest people.

THE STORY OF THE POOR MASON.

In the Spanish story of the Poor Mason a priest wished him to build a secret hiding-place for his treasure. In order that the mason might not know how to get at the treasure, should he be so inclined, the priest blindfolded him from the time of leaving his own home till he arrived at the treasure-house, and again blindfolded him on his return. So the mason knew the secret of the priest’s hidden treasure, but did not know where the house was in which it was secreted. The priest finally died. The house was then said to be haunted. The landlord could not find a tenant. At last he happened on the poor mason, and offered him the house rent free. As soon as the mason entered it, he saw that it was the house where the wealth was stored, and where he had worked. He kept the secret to himself, until like the Egyptian architect, he told it on his death-bed to his son.

In the story of Trophonius and Agamedes, which Pausanius tells, the two masons built the treasury of the king, so that one stone in the wall could be removed from the outside. The king found his wealth growing less, and set a trap for the thief. Agamedes was caught and Trophonius cut off his head. In the Hindoo story of two brothers, Gata and Karpara, not only treasure is stolen by means of a secret entrance to the king’s palace, but also the princess, the king’s daughter. Karpara was finally found out, was put to death, and as it was desired to catch the other thief, his body was exposed. The guards were ordered to seize any one who might mourn the death of Karpara. The word “Karpara” means a gourd or melon. Gata, Karpara’s brother, in order that he might mourn as Hindoos feel bound to do and yet not be caught, loaded some asses with melons, and as he passed the body of Karpara, contrives to have his load slip off, crying, as the gourds fell to the ground and burst, “Alas! for my precious Karpara!” The guards supposed, of course, that he referred to his gourds, and so did not arrest him. Afterwards they perceived the trick that had been played upon them, and told it to the king. He then, by royal proclamation, offered the princess in marriage to the clever thief if he would but come and claim her.

STORY OF THE SHIFTY LAD.

The historian of ancient Scottish legends records a tale which resembles in many points the tales mentioned above. In the Scottish story, the Shifty Lad goes through his apprenticeship, not among a company of thieves, but under the sole charge of the Black Rogue, of whom he at last rid himself by getting him to try the pleasant sensation of being hung by the neck. The trick answers to that of the Norse thief, but the mode of effecting it differs widely. Having disposed of his master, he engages himself to a carpenter, whom he persuades to break into the king’s storehouse. The advice of the Seanagal, whom the king consults, is that a hogshead of soft pitch be placed near the entrance. The wright, again making the venture, sinks into the pitch, and the Shifty Lad, stepping in on his shoulders, takes as much as he can carry, and then sweeping off his master’s head, leaves the body in the hogshead. Again the Seanagal is consulted, and his answer is “that they should set the trunk aloft on the points of the spears of the soldiers to be carried from town to town, to see if they could find any one at all that would show sorrow for it.” As they pass by the wright’s house, his wife screams, but the Shifty Lad cutting himself with an adze, leads the captain of the guard to think that the cry was caused by sorrow at his own hurt. The body is then by the king’s order hung on a tree, the guard being ordered to seize any one who should venture to take it down. The lad driving before him a horse loaded with two kegs of whisky, approaches the soldiers, as though he wished to pass them stealthily, and when they catch the horse’s bridle, he runs off leaving the men to drink themselves to sleep, and then returning takes away the wright’s body. This exploit is followed by others which occur in no other version; but the final

## scene is a feast, at which, according to the Seanagal’s prediction, the

Shifty Lad asks the king’s daughter to dance. The Seanagal upon this puts a black mark upon him, but the lad, like Morgiana in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” discovering the mark, puts another on the Seanagal and on twenty other men besides him. The king is then advised to say that the man who had done all these tricks, that had been so well done, must be exceedingly clever, and that if he would come forward and give himself up he should have the princess for his wife. All the marked men accordingly claim the prize; and the craft of the Shifty Lad is once more called into practice, to secure the maiden for himself.

From the comparison of these popular tales with each other we can see their common origin. Nations so widely separated as the Norsemen, Hindoos, Spaniards, Egyptians and the early inhabitants of Scotland, could not have borrowed these stories from each other. Their resemblances--a thief of wonderful cunning, his successes and escapes, and final honor--all point to the fact that they are but different versions of the same story. This one story could not have been communicated by one nation to the others, and as the only way to account for the resemblances we are shut up to believe that the nations long ago all lived in one home, from which they afterward separated to go to the different lands of their final settlements.

When we add to this evidence, that from the sameness in the ideas of God held by the different nations in their descriptions of His power, and even in the very names by which they designated God, we are carried back to the early worship of the race, and we see from all these evidences that, originally, man worshiped one God. The human race did not begin life on the earth as a savage, or as a child, and was not developed from this condition to a higher state of intelligence; but man began life as a full-formed, mature, intelligent creature. From this high vantage ground he has descended, first, to the worship of many gods, and later on, of idols.

Such degeneration has often happened in the history of the world. The descendants of powerful nations have, in the lapse of years, become far inferior to their ancestors. For example, the ancient Egyptians have left monuments whose construction baffles us. We cannot imagine how they have raised and posed the immense stones, nor can we ascertain the purpose of many of their buildings. We talk of “lost arts” and “lost civilizations.” We know that it has often happened that educated colored people from the southern United States, have sunk to the low level of the people of Africa when they have returned to the land of their fathers. From the Bible narrative, as well as from the most ancient traditions of heathen nations, we learn that at the first, man held close intercourse with God and that he held this pure worship during many centuries. The traditions of ancient nations confirm the Bible account of the high position of man at the outset.

In the Avesta, the sacred book of the Parsees, who are known also as fire-worshipers, we are told that the first king, Jemshid, and his subjects, after living for a time in the original home of the race of mankind, removed to a secluded spot not far distant. Here, there “was neither overbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither puniness nor deformity, neither huge teeth nor bodies beyond the usual measure. The inhabitants suffered no defilement from the evil spirit. They dwelt among odoriferous trees and golden pillars; these were the largest, best and most beautiful on earth; they were themselves a tall and beautiful race.” The Mexicans tell of the “golden age of Tezenco.” The Peruvian tradition begins with the story of the two children of the Sun, who established a civilized country on the banks of Lake Titicaca. Hesiod records the Greek tradition thus:

“The immortal gods, that tread the courts of heaven, First made a golden race of men. Like gods they lived, with happy, careless souls, From toil and pain exempt; nor on them crept Wretched old age, but all their life was passed In feasting, and their limbs no changes knew. Nought evil came them nigh; and when they died, ’Twas but as if they were overcome by sleep. All good things were their portion: the fat soil Bare them its fruits spontaneous, fruit ungrudged And plentiful; they, at their own sweet will, Pursued in peace the tasks that seemed them good. Laden with blessings, rich in flocks, and dear To the great gods.”

The Chinese and Hindoo traditions also point back to the beginning of the history of the human race as a time of happiness and perfection. In those early ages man lived a long life, and so the early worship of the one God could be handed down from age to age with scarce a chance of change. Thus we are brought down to the time of the Deluge. While there was a general tendency to evil on the part of all the descendants of Adam, God preserved some pure characters, such as Enoch and Noah, who kept the truth from utterly perishing from off the earth. On account of the increasing wickedness of mankind, God sent the Deluge, which destroyed all the race, Noah and his family alone excepted. This we learn not only from the Bible, but from Chinese, Hindoo, Egyptian, Greek and Mexican traditions. Soon after this deluge, the descendants of Noah multiplied greatly, and on account of their wicked attempt to build the tower of Babel, God confused their language. Thus the great dispersion of nations was brought about, through their inability to communicate with each other by means of speech. They separated inevitably from each other.

THE DISPERSION OF NATIONS.

Somewhere to the north of Persia, in the land of Khiva, was probably the second cradle of the race. This land is now the central meeting place of empires; here, Russia from the north, England, through India, from the south, and the European powers from the west are coming together. This was the point of departure whence the nations started for their future homes. From the three sons of Noah came the nations by whom the whole earth was overspread. Let us keep in mind that Noah’s worship of God was pure, that he preserved the true faith in Jehovah, that he handed this to his sons, and that the degeneration into the worship of many gods and idols took place later in history. The religion of the world was still _one_. Not that all men accepted it, for many wickedly rebelled against it, but the knowledge of the true God was too fresh in their minds for them to set up other gods for themselves. Not only this, but while they were all together, each new generation received instruction from those who did worship God in the right way. _It was only when they were scattered and left solely to their recollections of these teachings; that their religions began gradually to differ from that which they had known when together._ Then, also, the peoples began to differ from each other; then those who went to the cold north or warmer south, to the isles of the sea or to inland hills and valleys, gradually changed their habits of life and worship according to their surroundings. From the mountains of Armenia, where Noah landed from the ark, the streams of population poured forth to all parts of the world; north-west to Europe, west to Asia Minor, south-west to Egypt and Africa, south to Arabia, south-east to Persia and India, and east to China. Of course, this was not the work of a day. It took ages for the nations to reach the more distant lands; ages for them to become settled in their new homes; ages for them to people these lands densely. Hundreds of years after the deluge, some of the peoples who reached the western shores of the Pacific Ocean, and who ventured on its waters, were carried away on the stream whose currents sweep to the north, then to the east, and thence down again to the south. It has happened in the last few centuries that Malays and Japanese sailors have thus been swept away by the Kuro Shiwo (Black Stream). Thus, in all probability, the continent of America was peopled. Thus the present Japanese nation originated from the mixing of these Malays from south-eastern Asia and the Ainos, the nation which had made its way overland to Japan.

In the languages and traditions of these nations, even after they were well settled, are to be found traces of Monotheism. Not distinct and clear, it is true, for the Polytheistic worship of after ages has destroyed to a great extent these indications of the early worship of one God, and yet in almost all systems of religion a supreme place is given to some one Deity, who is above all the others, and who is recognized as the ruler of all.

[Illustration: Illman Brothers, Engravers & Printers.

THE TEMPLE OF TEN THOUSAND IDOLS IN JAPAN.]

##