1

cealed in the material substances to which they belong, like the soul in the human body. Spiritual existences inhabit almost every thing, and consequently almost every thing is an object of worship. Gods are seen "in the mist of the mountain, the rocky defile, the foaming cataract, the lonely dell, the shooting star, the tempest's blast, the evening breeze." The Dacotah has "his god of the north, his god of the south, his god of the woods, and god of the prairies; his god of the air and god of the waters." The savage has his war-god, his fire-god, and his sun-god. The child of Nature reveres the lovely morning-red and the zephyrs that attend the path of the sun; he adores the "great star" Venus and other planets, the clouds, or the shining nymphs of the waters above,' and locates souls of the distinguished dead, as deified spirits, in the regions of the air, or among the countless host in the starry heavens. The Milky Way is the "path of souls leading to the spiritland," or the stars are their lights seen in heaven." The soul, an airy form, is borne on the wings of the wind, following the sun in its course to the heaven in the west.' The Northern Lights are the dances of dead warriors and seers in the realms above. The Iroquois and Algonquin tribes call the souls "shades" (otahchuk), like the Greeks and Romans. The sunbeams are themselves the pious souls in the old Vedic ideas.10

'Ellis. Polynesian Res., vol. i. 331. ⚫ Rinck, i. 50.

4

2 Introd. to the Dacotah Grammar.

⚫ J. Müller, 53, 220; Squier, Serpent Symbol, 123. Weber Vorlesungen über Ind. Literaturgesch. 31; Ind. Studien, ii. 301; Wuttke Gesch. des Heidenthums, ii. 248.

J. Müller, 54; quotes Wied, ii. 152; Lafiteau, i. 406; Squier, Serp. Symb. 70, quotes Wied, 360; Weber, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländ. Gesell. vol. ix. 238; quotes Rigveda, vi. 5, 4, 8.

' Weber, Vorles. über Ind. Literaturgesch. 31; Weber, A Legend of the Çatapatha Brahmana, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland. Gesell. vol. ix., 238, note.

* J. Müller, 54.

The Dacotahs call the Aurora Borealis "Old Woman."

She is the goddess of war.-Schoolcraft, part iii. 487.

• J. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, 67.

10 Rigv. i. 2, 3, 10, in Zeitsch. d. D. M. G. ix. 248, note.

"And now Cyllenian Hermes summoned forth
The spirits of the suitors;

The sun's gate, also, and the land of dreams
They passed, whence next into the meads they came
Of Asphodel, by shadowy forms possessed,

Simulars of the dead."-CowPER'S ILIAD, Book 24.

The American aborigines believed falling stars to be divine beings. The Greeks worshipped the stars in common with the most ancient nations.' The Zendavesta says, "I invoke and praise the stars, heavenly people of excellency." The stars in Charles's Wain were believed by some of the New England Indians to be men hunting a bear. The Seven Stars were seven dancing Indians.* Stars, in the Arya-Hindu belief, were considered abodes of the gods, or visible forms of pious persons after death. The Californians believe the sun, moon, morning and evening stars, to be men and women, who every evening leap into the sea, and reappear in the morning on the other side of the earth. Agni, in India, is thought to rise in the morning in the shape of the sun out of the ocean.' The Mexicans adored Tlavizpantecutli, the god of the dawn and of the twilight. It was the first light which appeared in the world. The Peruvians worshipped Venus by the name of Chasca, "the youth with the long and curling locks," the page of the sun whom he attends so closely in his rising and his setting. The Romans adored Aurora; the Greeks, Eos; the Dorians, Auos; the Old Prussians, Aussra; the Persians, Ushasina; and the Vedic Hindus, Aushasa (Ushas), impersonations of the rosy-fingered morn. Among our Indians, the Rainbow is a spirit, who accompanies the sun. He is worshipped by the Peruvians as a direct emanation from the sun. Among the Greeks, she is Iris the Messenger. The

1 J. Müller, 54.

2 Eschenburg, Manual 465; Rinck, Religion der Hellenen, i. 38.

3 Kleuker's Zendav. 83.

4

Squier, Serp. Symbol, 71.

Wilson's Rigv. Veda, i. 132.

J. Müller, 53. 'Wilson, Rigv. i. 248.

Camanches worship the moon as god of the night. The moon was also a male deity among the Cherokees, as well as among the ancient Germans and Egyptians. The elements are deified. Air, fire, and water, have each their divinities. The Mandans think the stars are the spirits of the dead.' The Egyptians accorded divine honors to the dead. The Madagassians consider the dead evil spirits. The Hebrews held notions like those of the Egyptians and other neighboring nations. They had a dim conception of existence after death. They had their "Sheol," which is the same as Hades, Orcus. There the shades assemble, who no more have either blood or flesh. Moses could not deprive them of these ideas, for he had nothing to replace them with.' "They joined themselves unto Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." The Jews regarded the souls of the dead as demons. So did the Greeks. "Their term demon, in its ancient acceptation, meant a divinity." In like manner the Chinese erected temples to their ancestors. The Hindus and Greeks, before Homer, honored them by invocations and libations. At the time of the new moon, the Hindus made offerings (pitri-yagna) to the spirits of "the fathers;" also on the birthdays of the dead; and water was sprinkled every day in their honor, besides certain days of the month specified in the laws of Manu. They were said

to have adorned the heaven with stars. The Romans believed in lares of all sorts, spirits of the departed, protecting spirits, lares of gentes, lares publici, and lares that stand where cross-roads meet. They held an annual festival (Feralia) in honor of the dead. It began the 18th of February, and lasted to the end of the month. The manes were both good and hostile powers. They were subordi

1 Squier, Serp. Symbol, 70. Psalm cvi. 28.

Friedlander, i. 92.

Compare Euripides, Phoenisse, 1607, 1608. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellsch., vol. ix. p. lx.; Duncker Geschichte des Alterthums, vol. ii. 171; Wuttke Gesch. des Heidenthums, vol. ii. 251, 393.

nate to the authority of Pluton. Ataensie, a death-goddess in America, dwells in the moon, like the Greek Persephone, and stands at the head of all the bad spirits; and in the belief of the Apalachis, Cupai, the adversary, rules over the underworld.' The Indians believe in the transmigration of souls, not only into the bodies of animals, but into the stars. The soul is considered immortal among the Algonquins, passing from one object to another.' The Caribs believed that the insignificant and inferior souls were changed into animals."

The Phoenician deities were personified powers of Nature, which gradually came to be regarded as beings "considered human," until at last Euhemerism made mere men of them. The Phoenician religion was Nature-worship, in which the sidereal element was prominent; and the gods, which elsewhere appeared visibly in the verdure of the trees, in the beauty and grace of plants, in the manifold stirrings of the animal kingdom, in consuming fire, in the murmuring of streams and fountains, in the mountains, in the glowing poisonous simoom, in short, every where in Nature, where life and death reveal themselves, had especially their "idols" (symbols and carriers of the deity), in the lights of heaven. The Khonds, in India, had a sun-god, an Earth-goddess, a moon-god, a war-god, a god of hunting, a god of births, a god of the small-pox, a god of grain, and many other gods. The religion of the first inhabitants of India consisted in the worship of local deities, some supposed to be benevolent, some malevolent. They were originally supposed to be spirits of deceased persons, who still retaining the feelings they had when alive, haunted the places of their former residence. They

1 J. Müller, 140, 150.

6

2 J. Müller, 209, 67

Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, i. 33; J. Müller, Geschichte der Amerikan. Urreligionen, 66, et passim.

J. Muller, 209.

Allen's India, 425.

Movers Phönizier, i. 157.

were thought to have the power of assisting their friends and injuring their enemies. Thus able to interfere at pleasure in human affairs, they became objects of great anxiety. The Father-Genii possess wonderful powers; they bless and protect the pious, bestow possessions and wealth; they resemble the heavenly bands who help the gods in their works like the Feruers of the Zend legends." The Persian liturgy says: "I invoke the fearful and mighty Fravashis of the saints, of the pure men, of the men of the Old Law and the New Law, the Fravashis of my ancestors, and the Fravashi of my soul." The Persians venerated rivers, trees, mountains, herds of the resurrection, stars, spirits, feruers. Feruers were in all places; in the streets, cities, and provinces, heaven, water, wind, earth, animals, etc.; in Ormuzd, the Amshaspands and all the deities. Spirits of the departed were feruers. Connected with the worship of the stars is the worship of the Fravashis, or Feruers. The Fravashis are souls, and are stars also. "All the other numberless stars which are visible, are called the Fravashis of mortals: for the whole creation which the Creator Ormuzd has made, for the born and the unborn, for every body, a Fravashi, with like essence, is manifest," (mit gleicher Essenz ist offenbar.) All the stars are considered metamorphosed Indians, by the inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands and the Patagonians.*

The Hindus believed the stars to be spirits called Gandharvas and considered to be heavenly choristers." At the close of the year, during the last five days, the Persians celebrated the "Festival of All Souls." On these five in

Allen's India, 361.

'Begleitende Helfer der Götter bei ihren Werken wie die Feruer der Zend sage. Roth. 4 D. M. G. 428.

32 Duncker, 375. So, in the New Testament, we find, "I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast many good things," etc.-Luke xii. 19.

4 Spiegel Die Lehre von der unendlichen Zeit. Zeitschrift der D. M. G. 1851. Minokhired S. 343. Paris MS.

J. Müller, 256, 220.

1 Weber, Ind. Stud. 196, 224. Milman's Nala, p. 122.