Forlong - Rivers of Life

298
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
Saviour or Redeemer. Ovid speaks of Pi-tan in Aeolis (Met. VII. 357), as we still
speak of Patāns in India. The Obi-ci wera the Pitanatæ who had Serpents in all
temples, as our Indian Patans still have. The roots or earliest objects of man’s faiths
are in general the origin of all tribal and national names and rites.
It is important to notice here that the original name for the Latian Jupiter was P’ur,
which shows why the Greek Ph or f was used instead of P with an aspirate. Bryant and
Holwell tell us that “in time P’ur was changed to Puer, the deity of Fire, whose priests
were Pueri; and because many of them selected for that office were handsome youths
Puer came at length to signify any young person. “History,” the Rev. Wm.
Holwell adds, “shows that it had no relation to Jupiter’s childhood.” “It was a
proper name and retained, especially among the people of Præneste (Pi-ron-es) who had
been addicted to the rites of fire.” “They called their chief god Pur, and dealt particularly
in divination by lots, termed of old Purim.” 1 In Gruter there are inscriptions,
“Iovi Puero.” Lucretius says that Puer was originally Pur. 2 This word P’uri of the
ancient Latins, is held by Bryant and Holwell to come from the Kaldi rwa Ur (p. 356).
The Greeks therefore spoke of Prutanis, and every Prætor had a brazier of live coals
carried before him to denote that he was a P’ur-tor. In Hebrew and Doric Greek,
Puer is Poir, a youth or a maid (Littleton), and it may be that Pu in such words as
Pu-dendum, Præ-pu-tium, &c., may come from this root, Fire or desire. P or p has in
Hebrew two sounds, being Pi sharp, and F as in Joseph. It is only intcrchangeable
with b and m, Beth and Mem. In ancient Hebrew it was written ]. The following
words are suggestive, and should be borne in mind by him who studies faiths.
awlp Palea or Pallu—a dinstinguished one. lub Bol, Bel, Bull, The Creator.
Phra (P’ra) the Sun of Egypt, so also Poti-phera and Poti-phar in Koptic.
Parah (P’-ar-?)—a. prince, leader, one who causes to be fruitful.
Phegor-Peor—Priapus, as Belphegor the deflowerer—beelfegwr.
alp Pala—He splits, or is distinguished. Sansk. Ma. Arabic Fal, Fale, col. Tale.
jlp Palach—He splits, ploughs, and cultivates. Organic root p Pi to Create.
lla Palal or slp Palas or Palsh clp.—He tears or breaks through, words common
to Pheneician, Syriac, and Ethiopic. lp Bal or Bal, the strong One.
]lp Palak—He is round or plump, probable origin of a coarse Saxon word.
In Greek we have Pallo or Palo to “shake” or “hurl” a missile; Pallas or Minerva,
a sakti of a Phallus; and fal¾j, Phales, the fig-tree, from which Phalli were made. The
word Phallus, no doubt, survives in the Pales or Palus of Latin; German Pfahl;
and Pale or Pole, as May-pole, in English: fallÕj Phallos, having no independent mean-ing
in Greek, is thought to come from clp above, that is from a Kaldi root. We
have a word of similar import in I Kings XV., 13. viz., Miplet-zet, or Miplet-seth txlpm
the Ashera; or, as Bagsters bible-margin better describes it—“Simulacrum Priapi,”
which the queen mother Maakah made, and so persistently worshipped. An older
language than Greek gives the same results, for Phal in Sanskrit signifies to burst and
1 Virg. Æn. VII. 679, and Holwell 355; Cic. de Divinat. 1. 2.
2 L. 41., v. 1020.