Religions of Primitive PeoplesBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Religion
Religions of Primitive Peoples
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Mythology; Religion; Religions -- History
How natural, then, that we should find in so many primitive faiths the
belief in the triplicate nature of divinity, should find myths, idols,
rites, so devised as to reflect and inculcate this! Such is the case,
and it is easy to quote examples, whether we turn to the Indians of
America or the Indians of Hindostan, whether we touch on the triads of
ancient Egypt or those of the Druids, whether we recall the three Norns
of Teutonic myth or the three Fates of the Hellenes. As a writer, who
has made the subject his special branch, observes: “It is impossible to
study any single system of worship throughout the world, without being
struck with the peculiar persistence of the triple number in regard to
Divinity.”[141]
The exception to this would naturally be where the concept of the number
itself was too feeble to impress itself upon the myth. There are tribes
who cannot count four, whose languages have no word for any number
beyond two, and yet who are by no means deficient either in mythologies
or practical arts.[142] Among these, we should look in vain for the
sacredness of numbers.
_3. The Drama of the Universe._—I have already quoted the saying of the
wise men of ancient India, “There is no limit to the knowing of the Self
that knows.” He who through meditation and prayer has become one with
God, knows what God knows. Thus it is that in the rudest tribes we find
the story of the beginning of things clearly told as coming from the
inspired knowledge of the seers.
This story has many points of similarity, wherever we find it, not
owing, I hasten again to say, to any unity of origin in place, but due
to the higher unity of the mind of man, and the necessary results of its
activity.
Look in what continent we please, we shall find the myth of a Creation
or of a primeval construction, of a Deluge or a destruction, and of an
expected Restoration. We shall find that man has ever looked on this
present world as a passing scene in the shifting panorama of time, to be
ended by some cataclysm and to be followed by some period of millennial
glory.
Whenever we have a fairly complete body of the mythology of a primitive
stock, we discover the same scenario of the vast drama of the universe,
varying abundantly in detail and local colour, but true to the grandiose
lines of its composition.
It is instructive to analyse its various elements and trace them to their
psychic sources. Let us begin with the modes of action of the creative
power itself.
This mysterious power is known to man under three forms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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