Ancient Faiths And Modern: A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist.Inman, Thomas
Religion
Ancient Faiths And Modern: A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist.
Inman, Thomas
Religions
in some of the ancient tombs and quarries of Egypt, an observation
which receives additional value from Domenech's remark, vol. I., p.
364--"These works of art (arms, idols, and medals, found in New Granada
tombs) are acknowledged, by the archaeologists of Panama, to possess the
characteristics of both Chinese and Egyptian art." Here, again, I would
call my readers' attention to the facts, that in very modern times
Chinese have migrated to California, Australia, Singapore, and other
distant localities, and that Fortune found Egyptian curiosities in
_virtu_, shops in China, whilst Egyptologists have discovered Chinese
manufactures in Egyptian tombs. The subject of the extent of travel in
ancient times does not enter into my present plan; but as I am desirous
to make the mind of my readers expansive enough to receive everything
which bears upon the history of man upon the earth, I may be allowed to
sow seed by the way-side, some of which may blossom as "a garden flower
grown wild." Domenech, in p. 408, vol. I., figures a remarkable stone,
by many persons supposed to be a hoax or forgery, which was found at the
base of one of the largest mounds in North America, situated in Western
Virginia. It lay in a sepulchral chamber, thirty-five feet from the
surface, was elliptic in shape, two inches and a-half long, two wide,
and about half an inch thick, and the material was of a dark colour, and
very hard. The following is a copy from Domenech's work, and, without
dwelling upon it, we may call attention to the similarity of some of
the letters with those known to, or used by the Phoenicians, Ancient
Greco-Italians, and Carthaginians. Like the Newton Stone, in Scotland,
and some Gnostic gems, it may be said to be learned "gibberish," which
"the spirits" can read but no one else.
[Illustration: 056]
There is, indeed, much more evidence than is generally supposed to
connect the ancient mound-builders in America with the inhabitants
of the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly in their modes of burial, the
nature of their earthworks, and the style of such ornaments and figures
as have been found. For example, there is one enclosure described, in
the centre of which is erected a mound and pillar, precisely resembling
the linga yoni of the East. In addition to these, carved stones have
been found, which unite together such Oriental emblems as the sun and
moon, the Tau, T and the egg, O which together make the well-known
Egyptian symbol A. Again, Domenech figures some male and female human
effigies, of whom American savans write that they represent idols of
sexual design, similar to those exposed in the _Mysteries of Eleusis_,
one of them being a badly finished image of Priapus. Domenech still
farther states, on the authority of Cortez, that a form of worship,
recalling the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris, was established in
America.
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