Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
represented by a large stone, a rock, or typical man, who delights in blood like his
consorts—goddesses of Rivers and Hills; so these rock and river superstitions are clear
indications that Phallic faiths prevailed throughout these Keltic and Teutonic lands,
just as they did and still do in Asia.
Before here leaving the subject of Mountain and Arkite faiths, I must say a few
words in regard to Ararat or Ala-a-lat. The locale of the mountain which Christians
have uniformly accepted as their “Holy Ararat” is, I fear, founded upon as uncertain
data as many other facts of this very unhistorical faith. The Pentateuch speaks only
of “the mountains of Ararat,” which, as Kitto says in his Comments on Gen. viii. 4,
may meab “one of the mountains of a country called Ararat.” Elsewhere 1 in the Old
Testament this Ararat is called Armenia, and if we accept the double-peaked range
known to Armenians as Mount Macis, and to Turks as Aghur-Dagh, the “Great or
Heavy Mountain,” then the Hebrew may signify one of these, though the word
“Ararat” still remains a mystery, which is very much increased by the fact
that the Samaritan Pentateuch (that of all the ten northern tribes, who ought
to have known best) does not speak of Armenia or Ararat at all. In Gen.
viii. 4, the ark, it is said, rested on SAR-AN-DIP, 2 which is the ancient
Indian, and still the Arabic or Shemetic name for Ceylon. Dip, Sanskrit Dwipa,
signifies an island, and metaphorically an ark. Sar-an is, of course, Sal-an or
Cel-lan. Poetically and piously, Ceylon is often called the Ark of Life, as my Chapter
on Boodhism will allow. The general but hazy Western idea of ancient days seems
to have been, that mankind sprang from a holy Eastern mountain or high place (which
is not far from the truth, if we think of high Asia) to the east of Mesopotamia. Gen.
xi. 2, states that Noah “travelled from the East,” till he reached Shinar or Babel
(verse 9). The holy peak, therefore, of Deva-Vend (the God-Zend?) will not suit, and
we durst not (even though these were days of wondrous miracles) suggest the
Adām or Lingam peak of Ceylon, far less the fabulous and Sivaik Mount Meroo of
Hindooism; and therefore there is no alternative, if revelationists will insist on some
Eastern mountain, but to take the Arkite one of Noorgil, or Kooner, “a towering
hill” opposite to the ever-sacred Sufed-koh, or “white mountain,” which rears its
eternal snowcaps into the heavens, and is invoked by every wayfarer in the dangerous
pass between Peshāwar and Kābol. Noorgil also is the mountain on which Afgans
say the Ark rested; 3 and they ought to know, being believers in most of the
Pentateuchal tales, and some say, “the ten lost tribes,” which however, we
have no historical data for asserting ever existed at all. In the two precisely
similar verses of 2 Kings xix. 36, 37, and Isa. xxxvii. 38 (which seem to show a
copyist or perhaps the same writer), the word Ararat is translated Armenia, but is probably
merely signifies a “high mountainous country;” Al, Ur (Ar), or El meaning high
1
2 Kings xix. 36, 37; Isa. xxxvii. 38; Jer. li. 27; here it is Lesser Armenia.
2 3
Leslie’s Origin of Man, 222. Burne’s Travels in Bokhara, I., 117.
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