Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
ness, which is of course altogether a mistake. The Moslem has, to some extent, got
over the repulsion of feeling at seeing an unbeliever look upon his mosk and the faithful
at their prayers; but he does not like it, and still turns us away as Kāfirs or unbelievers
from many tombs of his saints. These tombs—equivalent to the Roman’s Hearth—still
exist in great abundance, and are fervently worshipped by the great mass of the ignorant;
whilst the better-educated, when challenged, say they only go to such places as to “a
hallowed spot” for prayer. The custom is, as usual, far older than the people deem.
These tombs of heroes are, in fact, those of Genii, and the remains of that service which
was due to the “gods of the city”—those who watched over and protected their children,
and who though dead, were still held to live and act for those who remained faithful to
their Soil and Gens. Long ere Mahomed was heard of, the Pythia declared in an oracle
to Solon: 1 “Honour the chiefs of the country—the dead, who dwell beneath the earth.”
Besides the deities of the hearth, there were great national gods like Janus,
the phallic “opener and shutter;” Jupiter, such another; 2 the wise Minerva,
queenly Juno, Pallas, &c.; but here also tribal, if not family exclusiveness, prevailed;
some saying “My Pallas is not your Pallas, nor my other gods your gods.” One
loved Paul and denied Apollos, yet they held to the unity of the god-head, though
they loved and retained that separateness and excluaiveneas which the sexual system
had taught them was absolutely necessary for purity, as well as for continuance in
people. One Pallas fought for the Greeks at Troy, and another for the Trojans. Argus,
Samos, Rome, and her long and bitter enemy—the Etruskan city of Veii—had all Junos,
and some of them two, but none save an Argivc could approach the Argean goddess,.
nor a Roman, her of Veii, until the city and tribes were captured, when, just as in the
case of their women, they could be removed to the Roman’s home or Harem, or the
conqueror could occupy the tenement of the conquered. So we see that most ancient
nations, though sometimes condemning or ignoring the gocls of their neighbours, yet
carried them off bodily like their women, and adopted them. Now this shows us that
Pallases, Jupiters, and Minervas, were purely sexual features, alias Lingams and Yonis,
each necessarily sacred to one nation, and not the common propeny of all; and so also
was it in the case of the Fire or Energy of Pallas or IOni. The same customs and ideas
still obtain in Roman Catholic countries, where education has meagrely permeated
the masses. “In Naples,” writes Mr. Barker, “every district has its Madonna, and the
lazzarone who is devout enough before his own, will insult that of the next street;
nay, two facchini have been known to fight with knives for the merits of their respective
Madonnas,” just as Protestants have done about an attribute of Christ.
All early tribes carried one or more of their chief gods to battle with them, and
latterly their symbols or insignia, as Christians do their crosses, eagles, &c. Yet the
ancients, whether Greeks, Romans, or Jews, often freely acknowled the greatness of
1 Plutarch, Solon, 9.
2 See Barker, quoting a multitude of authorities in his Aryan Civil., 92.
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