Forlong - Rivers of Life

394
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
Salii on Mount Palatine was called the Curia Saliorum, and that Phallic Fire was the god
we see by the thoroughly accepted tale told by Tully, that though a general conflagration
at one time reduced all on the hill to ashes, yet the fire injured none of “the Augurial staff
of Romulu.” Here a Daniel and all his company escaped unscathed. Livy states that
the first Curiæ were called after some of the celebrated Sabine ladies, and this and the
presence of ladies may be the cause why the great Eucharistic Repasts of the Curia,
which continued down to the days of Augustus, were called Agapæ or “feasts of Love.”
Christianity has little if at all changed the form of ecclesiastical rule and government.
The Curio (Kurios of Atika) was the Priest who had a Cura Curiæ, care of
love 1 for the people and their sacrifices, and who had special charge of widows and
orphans, particularly of those at whose birth and wedding rites he had officiated; these
he protected even from their own kinsmen, duties which Curates still assume. The
Curio performed all the rites and ceremonies as executives of the bishop—and all the
Curios were under an Archbishop or Pope, called Curia Maximus. The Priests
chose their bishop and took their selection to the Archbishop for confirmation, and
the assembly of Bishops chose the Curia Maximus, although many civil ruIers, like
the German Chancellor, object to this now.
Every Curio had at first only one fire-altar, at which he and his family worshipped;
then a sacellum, or sacred cell, to which the people came, single or in groups
as they felt inclined; and lastly, a great hall, which came to be called the Curia, where
all the Curiales assembled to discuss politics and finance, as well as religion; although,
as “the place of the gods,” even when the Curia became the senate house, it always
maintained a sort of religious character. The original niche, or cella, by the sacred
hearth, became in time “the dwelling,” or Naos, 2 par excellence, and was even
considered more holy than the Lares and Penates, nay, even than the fire for which it
had been built, a feature very common in ancient faiths, as we see in the case of
the Jewish Ark, which although constructed only for the “testimony” became the great
object of worship from David’s day, till lost in the Persian captivity. So also the
Al-Kaba of Meka, though only built for its “testimony,” has long been worshipped
on its own account as “the ark of life.”
Another significant feature of the Phallic faiths of Greece and Rome, was the
entire separation of every family from every other, by a line, fence, and neutral
ground, which it was almost always death to pass. The angles were marked by
Hermes or Termini, which, in shape and position, were also very characteristic.
The Rev. Mr. Barker remarks, that the ceremony of erecting these Hermi “was
intended to constitute the terminus a representative of the domestic worship,” that is a
Penates, or Maha Deva. “After a hole had been dug, the Hermes was raised on the brink,
1
In Italian Calere signifies “to love” as well as “to
care for” one.
2
Naos, said to be from naio, “to inhabit,” but
more likely from naus, the ark-boat of life. I beg
my readers to remember what I have already urged
as to this attempt to get at the Roots of Faiths, not
merely the Roots of Greek and Latin words. These
are no sufficient roots, for terms connected with Faiths
existing long ere these comparatively modern
language were known.