Ancient Faiths And Modern. Thomas Inman
have come down to us, with a view to ascertain whether there is anything essentially good in modern Christianity, either in faith or practice, which is peculiar to that form of religion, or whether almost the same style of teaching may not be found to have been common in the remote East, at a period some centuries prior to the birth of Jesus.
As we have investigated the subjects of Sin, Salvation, Prayer, Inspiration, &c., it is unnecessary to refer to them again.
CHAPTER II
Travellers' tales not to be trusted. Prejudice perverts
facts. The Esquimaux. Cause of reverence for parents. The
Red Indian in the presence of immigration is a moral
murderer. Inquiry into Indian religion. O. KEE. PA. Indian
reverence for phenomena of nature. Ruins of a past
civilization in America. Cairns and human sacrifices.
Manufactured goods. Bronze in Yucatan. Resemblance between
the ancient American people and certain Orientals. Abbé
Domenech's travels. Sacrifice at obsequies, idea involved
thereby. Scythian proceedings. Mexico and its theology. Two
different conceptions of deity. The Unity subdivided by
Mexicans, Jews, and Christians. The God of war and the Lord
of Hosts. The God of air a deity in Mexico, a devil in Judea
or Ephesus. Mexican baptismal regeneration. Resemblances
between the Occidental and Oriental people in many curious
doctrines. Particulars. Mexican Heaven, Hell, and Limbo.
Mexican baptism and prayers. Priests and their duties. A
parallel. Romanists and Mexicans. Confession. Expiation.
Human sacrifice to obtain pardon of sin. A comparison
suggested. Mexican education. Purity of life in the Mexican
priestesses. Father Acosta's opinion thereon. Tartary, Rome,
and Mexico have something common in culture. Education of
youth. Policy of the priesthood. Reflections thereupon.
Teocallis or houses of God. Worship. Festivals. Human
sacrifice. No sexual deities or rites. Question of
credibility—God and the Devil act alike! Aztecs and
Europeans compared. Christians have offered human sacrifice
from the time of Peter downwards. Transubstantiation is a
cannibal doctrine. Christian gods in Mexico as bad as the
Aztec deities. History of Peru. The policy of its rulers.
Roads and magazines. Nature of its government Governors were
instructed in their duties. Civil service examination.
Inauguration of youths into honourable manhood. Travelling
compulsory in rulers. Postal system—division of the people
—local magistrates—law speedy. Code of law. Punishment
without torture. Peruvians and inquisitors. Reports required
of lands and families. Register of births, &c. Rapidity of
communication. Plunder not permitted. Peace the motive for
war. The vanquished incorporated with the victors. A
paternal government. Peruvian religion. Difference between
political institutions and priestcraft. Peruvian sun god. An
invisible God recognised. Priests. Eternal life. Heaven
and Hell. Temple of the sun magnificent. Golden
ornaments. Huge urns of silver. Number of priests.
Festivals. Cannibalism not permitted. Fire made from rays of
sun and concave mirror, or by friction. Virgins of the sun.
Concubines of the Inca. Matrimony. Reflexions.
When the philosopher reads over the histories which adventurous travellers, or Christian missionaries, have given of the religions of the savage, or uncivilized, people whom they have visited, he feels painfully conscious that the accounts are not implicitly to be relied upon. In some he recognizes the fact that communications only take place between the one party and the other by signs, which not only may be, but very generally are, misinterpreted on both sides; in others he is able to see, or, at least, he comes to the conclusion, that the untaught barbarians have not a single idea which is not connected with eating and drinking, war, revenge, and love;—that such, indeed, resemble brute beasts, who have no more conception of hell or heaven, God and the soul, than an elephant has of aerostation, or a crow of theology. In other narratives the observer notices, that the individuals who interrogate the savages are themselves enthusiasts of a high order, who ask leading questions, and are content to receive, as a satisfactory answer, anything which can be considered as a reply. By this means very erroneous ideas have crept in amongst ourselves, and writers have built arguments upon a foundation as flimsy as a shifting sand. For example, I have repeatedly heard it alleged that every known tribe, in every part of the world which has yet been visited, has a tradition respecting an universal deluge, and the salvation of their progenitors by a floating vessel; and on this has been founded the hypothesis that all architecture, and even written characters, have an ark for their type. This development has been very ingeniously supported by J. P. Lesley, in Man's Origin and Destiny (Trubner, London, 1868), a work replete with learning, and bold, but somewhat unsound, deductions. This assumed fact has also been used in support of the Biblical story of Noah, his ark, and the universal deluge—a myth so palpably extravagant, that everyone who professes to credit it is compelled to object to some detail, and to lean upon some frail reed, with the hope that he may thus be pardoned for his credulity. Since the above was written, it has been ascertained that the tale of Noah and his deluge is adapted from an Assyrian or Babylonian legend, written apparently with a view to make a story fitting to the sign of the Zodiac called Aquarius, one to the full as fabulous as that of the birth of Bacchus, and the amours of Zeus.
In some instances, moreover, and palpably in those cases where the account of the religion of barbarous nations is given by fanatics, such as the Roman Catholic invaders of America, or by such conquerors as Cæsar and others, who have themselves very hazy notions of their own faith, the philosopher feels that the savage is intentionally misrepresented; consequently, in these, as in all other instances, it behoves the philosopher to examine the evidence at his command with critical acumen, rather than accept the statements made by more or less careless observers. Endeavouring, therefore, to avoid these difficulties as far as possible, let us summarize the result of our reading, and record the impressions left upon our mind respecting the faith, ritual, and practice of certain modern and ancient barbarians.
Beginning with the vast American continent, we find that the Esquimaux appear to have no conception whatever of a Creator, of a future state, of a mundane theocracy, or of any unseen agency but good or bad "luck." But they, nevertheless, put a certain amount of faith in conjurers—cunning men or women who profess to be able to insure them a good supply of seals or walrus, and protection from Arctic dangers. For such a people as this the wants of the day form the chief, if not the only, object of thought; and they resemble lions or eagles, who are now all but famished in the hunt for food, and now gorged to repletion with the result of their quest. To such a nation, Heaven, as described in the Bible, with its sea of glass, its harpists and singers, would afford no temptation, and, unless it was furnished with abundance of oily food, an Esquimaux would not visit it; nor would the fires and heat of Hell have any terrors for one whose torments on earth are connected