We see, then, that there are _three_ different accounts concerning the _place_ in which Jesus was born. The first, and evidently true one, was that which is recorded by the _Matthew_ narrator, namely, that he was born in a _house_. The stories about his being born in a _stable_ or in a _cave_[155:6] were later inventions, caused from the desire to place him in as _humble_ a position as possible in his infancy, and from the fact that the virgin-born Saviours who had _preceded_ him had almost all been born in a position the most humiliating--such as a cave, a cow-shed, a sheep-fold, &c.--or had been placed there after birth. This was a part of the _universal mythos_. As illustrations we may mention the following: _Crishna_, the Hindoo virgin-born Saviour, was born in a _cave_,[156:1] fostered by an honest _herdsman_,[156:2] and, it is said, placed in a _sheep-fold_ shortly after his birth. _How-Tseih_, the Chinese "Son of Heaven," when an infant, was left unprotected by his mother, but the _sheep_ and _oxen_ protected him with loving care.[156:3] _Abraham_, the Father of Patriarchs, is said to have been _born in a cave_.[156:4] _Bacchus_, who was the son of God by the virgin Semele, is said to have been _born in a cave_, or placed in one shortly after his birth.[156:5] Philostratus, the Greek sophist and rhetorician, says, "the inhabitants of India had a tradition that Bacchus was born at _Nisa_, and was brought up in a _cave_ on Mount Meros." _Æsculapius_, who was the son of God by the virgin Coronis, was left exposed, when an infant, on a mountain, where he was found and cared for by a _goatherd_.[156:6] _Romulus_, who was the son of God by the virgin Rhea-Sylvia, was left exposed, when an infant, on the banks of the river Tiber, where he was found and cared for by a _shepherd_.[156:7] _Adonis_, the "Lord" and "Saviour," was placed in a _cave_ shortly after his birth.[156:8] _Apollo_ (Phoibos), son of the Almighty Zeus, was born in a cave at early dawn.[156:9] _Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, was born in a _cave or grotto_,[156:10] at early dawn. _Hermes_, the son of God by the mortal _Maia_, was born early in the morning, in _a cave or grotto_ of the Kyllemian hill.[156:11] _Attys_, the god of the Phrygians,[156:12] was born in a _cave_ or grotto.[156:13] The _object_ is the same in all of these stories, however they may differ in detail, which is to place the heaven-born infant in the most humiliating position in infancy.