Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
Agni and the priest; and, on the promise of his parents that they will take care of
him, that he shall be married and lead a good life, the former vow is wiped out.
The third ceremony of the child’s life is now marriage, which may take place at
any time of the life of the boy after the Moonje-bandhan, or thread-ceremony, generally
at about twelve or thirteen; the girl any time before arriving at puberty. Many forms
and ceremonies are gone through at the marriage, but that before the god Agni is the
last, and is irrevocable. The clothes of bride and bridegroom are then tied together,
and they walk round the god throwing on him offerings of grain, &c., as before, but
which now symbolise the sacrifice of all their virgin modesty to the deity, as the
symbol of sexual fire. The last oath is then sworn by both addressing the Fire, and
saying they will love and be faithful to one another.
A fourth ceremony takes place on the virgin attaining puberty, when Agni is
again adored by prayer and sacrifice, until which cohabitation cannot take place.
In the last and closing drama, Agni, symbolising that life which has fled the
mortal body, is now carried before the dead by the nearest relative; with “holy
water” the corpse is washed and then laid reverently upon its mother earth until a
stretcher is ready to receive it, when it is borne aloft on four men’s shoulders in solemn
procession, the Spirit-Fire marshalling the way, till it reaches that bourne where, after
the spirit is consecrated by “the man of God,” it enwraps the cold clay in its smoky
shroud, and becomes one with it in another world, perhaps of spirit and of matter.
These are but a few instances of this ancient faith, for Fire enters into every duty
of a Hindoo’s life. Before partaking of his morning meal he utters incantations to
Agni, and offers to him portions of that meal; and in like manner, before he wears a
new cloth or garment, he must take some threads or parts of it and offer these
to the same deity.
All peoples have ceremonies corresponding to those of Christian baptism and
confirmation—that is, they dedicate or seal their infants to their gods, and on the
arrival of puberty release them from their vows, or make them take upon themselves
the vows or duties of a citizen, which word of old carried with it a sacred signification—a
civitas signifying a religious no less than a political association, within the
urbs or domicile of the groups. Greek infant-baptism was called Amphidromia,
and dook place on the seventh day of the infant’s life. The medium was Fire and
Water, and the dedication was more especially to Hestia or Vesta, the queen of
hearths and homes. The nurse, accompanied by all the women of the house, bore the
little one to the Sacred Fire on the family hearth, and there, after stripping it of every
garment, in token that its body and soul were consecrated in uncovered purity, and in
the most intimate relationship to its Protectress, they formed a procession and marched
round Hestia’s flame.
Like Israel of old, Rome of later days, and Zoroastrians of the present, good and
devout Brahmans ever keep kindled in their houses the Sacred Fire, as a symbol of life
and of God’s Holy Spirit.