Forlong - Rivers of Life

226
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
all know who this bird of agitation or restlessness (from agito or vibro) was, we are
told that “the derivation is from the Sanskrit Yoni, and belongs to conjectural
etymology, suggested by the ancient use of the wag-tail in love-potions and incantations”
(p. 33). My readers will find in Coleman’s Hindoo Mythology a drawing of
this wag-tail or bird of Venus, understood to be Venus herself, sitting on the summit
of her Meroo or Olympus. The great Orientalist does not enlighten us with any remarks
upon this well-known mythic story, as it is clearly one not suited for the general public.
He merely lets us understand that such a Linga-in-Yoni, with a merry little bird, is
a common article in temples as an ornament for box covers, &c.
This I can certify to, having seen several such ornamented
Lingams: the bird is here half cockatoo, half wag-tail. I have no
doubt that this is the Oriental idea of the grosser Egyptian one,
where we see a child, very coarsely portrayed, signifying the
Fig 98—SRI LINGA BIRD
continuity of nature. The Romans called the wag-tail Frutilla,
from Frutis, one of the names of Venus, and Fruti, the Fruitful
One. It was also Motacilla, from which we have in Christianity the “Holy Virgin
of Moticelli.” Fruti is a prolific word: thus in Gothic we have Bruth, a new-
married woman, and in Anglo-Saxon Bryd, a maid, our bride. In the Greek we have
Ploutó as a woman’s name, from Ploutus, wealth; Plutus king the god of wealth and
husband of Di-ana-Trivia or triformis, sometimes called the Priapic Rose: so in
Sanskrit we have Vrit, “to bestow gifts,” and Bhāga, the sack, or bag of gifts or of
abundance; she is “the mountainous one” as Bhāga-vati, 1 or Par-vati, or “Lady of the
Sack,” whom the ancient Florentines called “Madonna del Sacco,” now changed into
Dea Immacolata, and occasionally called simply St. Bride or Bridgetta. In some
Hindoo works Bhāga and Yoni are interchangeable, probably from the writers not
understanding the anatomy of woman. As regards the holy mother Moticelli, we
have in her the root of matter, or that which produces. Mot is mother in Phenician,
and Mouth in Egyptian is a name of Isis, the “mother of God,” and yet a virgin.
Mat, mot, met, and mut, are roots of mat-ra—in Sanskrit the invisible element materia,
which we in English render matter, and of which the Greek poet Linus says:
“Hules aiskron dotsiran hapanton.”
”Matter is the giver of all shameful things.” 2
The Torso-like crosses, Fig. 97, were abundantly found on coins, especially at the
demolition of Serapis, and in a simpler form among the ruins of Nineveh. They turned
up in great numbers at the general destruction of so-called “Pagan” buildings, by that
shocking heathen, Theodosius. Mr R. Payne Knight and Mr. King are very clear on
this point, and these crosses are of more importance than may at first sight appear, for
all the Christian Antiquaries of those early days agreed that “they signified future
life,” precisely what the Christian says of his cross.
Porphyry alluding to crosses asked in 280 A.C., “why theologists give passions to
1 The English word Pagoda is said to come from Bhāga-vati.
2 “Idolomania,” p. 34.