ATAHUATA. EGYPTIAN. CNEPH, the Creator, Goodness. PTA (Opas), the active principle of Creation (= Vulcan). EICTON. The Egyptians had other Trinities than the above, each chief city having its own form; in these, however, the third personality appears to be supposed to proceed from the other two, which scarcely seems to have been intended in the instances already given. Some of the city Trinities were as follow:-- THEBES. AMUN-RA (= Jupiter), (RA = the Mid-day Sun.) MANT or MENTU (= "the mother," Juno.) CHONSO (= Hercules.) PHILAE & ABYDOS. OSIRIS (= Pluto). ISIS (= Prosperine). HORUS, the Saviour, the Shepherd (the Rising Sun). ABOO-SIMBEL. PTA or PHTHAH. AMUM-RA. ATHOR, Love (the wife of HORUS). So that it is no coincidence that both Hercules and Horus are met in Gothic carvings as deliverers from dragons. ELEPHANTINE. KHUM or CHNOUMIS. ANUKA. HAK. MEMPHIS. PTAH. MERENPHTAH. NEFER-ATUM. HELIOPOLIS. TUM (Setting Sun.) NEBHETP. HORUS. Another Egyptian triad, styled "Trimorphous God!" was:-- BAIT. ATHOR. AKORI. Another:-- TELEPHORUS. ESCULAPIUS. SALUS. VEDIC HINDOO. AGNI, Fire, governing the Earth. INDRA, The Firmament, governing Space or Mid Air. SURYA, The Sun, governing the Heavens. BRAHMINIC HINDOO. BRAHMA, the Creator. VISHNU, the Preserver. SIVA, the Destroyer (the Transformer) (= Fire). The Platonic and other philosophic Trinities need not detain us; it has been asserted that by their means the doctrine of the pagan Trinity was grafted on to Christianity. Right down through the ages the number three has always been regarded as of mystic force. Wherever perfection or efficiency was sought its means were tripled; thus Jove's thunderbolt had three forks of lightning, Neptune's lance was a trident, and Pluto's dog had three heads. The Graces, the Fates, and the Furies were each three. The trefoil was held sacred by the Greeks as well as other triad forms. In the East three was almost equally regarded. Three stars are frequently met upon Asiatic seals. The Scarabæus was esteemed as having thirty joints. Mediæval thought, in accepting the idea of the Christian Trinity, lavishly threw its symbolism everywhere; writers and symbolists, architects and heralds, multiplied ideas of three-fold qualities. Heraldry is permeated with three-fold repetitions, a proportion of at least one-third of the generality of heraldic coats having a trinity of one sort or another. In all probability the stars and bars of America rose from the coat-armour of an English family in which the stars were three, the bars three. St. Nicholas had as his attributes three purses, three bulls of gold, three children.