It is because the author believes that the subject of false gods and idol worship is so interesting, and because he hopes to furnish some much-needed information on this topic, that he has undertaken the present work. There is no one book that covers this ground. There are many volumes covering various phases of the religious systems of heathendom, but there is not one that deals comprehensively with all religions, extinct or existing, except indeed it be those suited only to students and to learned men. The aim in this volume is to present the subject in a popular style, suited to the average reader of our land. It is proposed to make a book to be read in the family and by the fireside. The very best works of the most thorough students of the non-Christian religious systems have been consulted, and the author has freely availed himself of the results of their labors. If due acknowledgment is not always made of the aid thus received, it is because he deemed it best not to multiply references and because he has so frequently found it necessary to translate scholastic and technical phrases used by these authors into language familiar to the general reader. Among those whose works the author has consulted are, Max Müller and Hardwicke on Comparative Mythology; Wilkinson on the Ancient Egyptians; Lenormant on Assyria and Babylon; Haug on the Parsees; Monier Williams on Hinduism; Rhys-Davids, and Barthelemy St. Hilaire on Buddhism, and Edwin Arnold’s paraphrase of Buddha’s life in his “Light of Asia;” Humboldt on Central America; Schoolcraft on the American Indians; Wyatt Gill and Lord Grey on the Pacific Islands; Legge, Edkins and S. Wells Williams on the Chinese; Griffis and Sir Edward Reed on Japan; and Stanley and Livingstone on Africa. Beside these he has derived great help from “The Tour of the World with General Grant,” and Dr. H. M. Field’s “From Egypt to Japan.” In addition he has consulted quite a host of other authors in works of travel, and in the translations of various sacred books. In all parts of his work the author has sought to present definite information, carefully arranged, truthfully told, and clearly and interestingly stated. He has aimed to show the origin, development and spread of each non-Christian religious system; and to give an account of their gods and goddesses, temples, shrines, idols, sacred places, superstitious customs, legends, myths, domestic worship and the innumerable peculiarities of their daily religious life.