second appellation of the Sun-born Manco; for Capac is probably no other than the Ce-Bacche of the ancient Irish or the Ca-Baghis of the Hindoos, the import of which is the illustrious Bacchus.

In all their sacrifices the Peruvians used shells, calling them the daughters of the Ocean, while the sea itself they denominated the great mother of waters. I suspect, that the shells which they employed on such occasions were of an oval form resembling boats: and I am the more inclined to this conjecture from the obvious resemblance between the Peruvian custom and a parallel one of the Hindoos. In every sacred rite of whatsoever description these last constantly use the vessel called Argha, which is an avowed copy of the mystic ship Argha which floated with Siva on the surface of the deluge. With a similar reference and in a similar manner, the Greeks employed their pateræ and fashioned their sacred cups in the form of boats. Oval or round shells then were the arghas or pateræ of the Peruvians: and, in what light they considered them, may easily be collected from their styling them daughters of the Ocean. They were symbols of that sea-born goddess, whom the Greeks and Romans worshipped under the name of Venus or Aphroditè; the Syrians, under that of Atargatis or Derceto; and the Hindoos, under that of Rama-Devi or Lacshmi or Asyotcersa or Parvati or Durga. In each case was equally meant the Ark, represented by the ship Argha or Argo and by the navicular dish or shell: and hence it is, that the Venus-Anadyomenè is so frequently depicted standing in the midst of a large circular shell resembling in form that of a cockle.

Both the Mexicans and the Peruvians had another custom, which must by no means be passed over in silence. Their sacred virgins were wont from time to time to prepare certain loaves or cakes for the idol which they venerated. These were sometimes made in the form of hands and feet, and sometimes were so moulded as to imitate the shape of the idol himself. Such lumps of paste they considered as the bones and flesh of their god. They served them up in large golden dishes, which the Hindoos, I presume, would have called arghas: and, in the course of the ceremony, they all devoutly partook of them. We may here again trace the palpable identity of the American theology and that which prevailed so widely throughout the eastern continent. These cakes were evidently of the same nature as those, Pag. Idol. 2S

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CHAP. IV.

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which the Canaanitish women were accustomed to make in honour of Astoreth or the lunar arkite queen of heaven.' A similar custom prevailed both in Greece and Egypt. The sacred cakes were called Bous from their being formed with two little horns, so as to imitate the mystic heifer, which was at once the symbol of Isis, the Earth, the Ark, and the lunar Crescent. They were offered every seventh day to the Moon: and, as the Mexican loaf, which was an imitation of the god, was composed of maize moulded with honey; so these sacred cakes were made of honey kneaded with fine flour.2 We may observe, that the loaves of the American devotees were solemnly set out before the idol on a table: and precisely in the same manner, as we learn from St. Jerome, were the cakes, together with wine and other victuals, set out on a table before the deities of Egypt. To this practice, as he justly observes, Isaiah alludes, when he speaks of certain Jewish apostates; who, forgetting the holy mountain of Jehovah, prepared a table for Gad or the Cuthic Ghaut, and who provided a drink-offering for Meni or the lunar Menu. I may add, that St. Paul clearly refers to the same ancient custom, when he points out the utter incompatibility of Christianity and Paganism, by asserting, that we cannot consistently drink of the cup of the Lord and of the cup (that is, the Patera or Argha) of demon-gods, that we cannot at once partake of the Lord's table and of the table of hero-divinities. The curious apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon is evidently founded upon the rite now under consideration and it is valuable, as presenting an apparently faithful picture of the old serpent-worship of the Babylonians. Jeremiah calls the cakes, which were offered to the queen of heaven, Chonim, in the singular, Chon. I take it, that this appellation is borrowed from the name of Chiun, which the Egyptians varied into Chon and Gigon or the illustrious Chon. They applied the title to the great father, whom the Greeks sometimes called Hercules and sometimes Cronus. The Peruvians had also a god denominated Con; whom they made the offspring of the Sun, and to

2

Jerem. vii. 18. xliv. 15-19.

Hesych. Lex. Bous. Diog. Laert. in vit. Emped. The name of the cake in one of the oblique cases is Boun, or (as the Latins would write it) Bun. Hence we have borrowed our English word Bun: and from the same pagan source has originated the old popish custom, which we still retain, of selling a sort of consecrated cakes named Buns on good friday. 3 Isaiah lxv. 11. Hieron. Comment. in loc. 41 Corinth. x. 21.

whom they ascribed the first production of bread and of all things necessary to life. They speak indeed of a contest between Con and Pachicama, which may perhaps have some reference to the struggle between Osiris and Typhon: but both the character and the origin of these two gods plainly bespeak their identity. It will be recollected, that, by the mystic theocrasy of the ancients, even Typhon and Osiris were sometimes considered as one deity.

As the chief god of the Peruvians was the great father adored in the Sun, we shall not wonder to find, that, like all the other pagans, they venerated a certain divine triad. This was properly composed of the three sons of that transmigrating primeval personage, whose production was considered by the mysticizing genius of Paganism in the light of a wonderful self-triplication of their parent: but, since the great father was revered in the Sun, and since in the progress of pantheistic theology the different parts of creation were esteemed his different members, the Peruvian triad, like that of the Hindoos, was transferred to the Sun and to the elements. Thus, while they worshipped an idol named Tangatanga or Three-in-one, the exact Trimurti of the Hin doos: they likewise multiplied the Sun into three persons, the father Sun, the son Sun, and the brother Sun; and venerated three images of the god of the air, considered as presiding in thunder, rain, and snow.'

XI. Evident traces of the same theological system may be observed also in the island of Otaheite: and it is probable, if minute inquiry were made, that it would likewise be found to prevail throughout the other islands scattered in clusters over the vast Pacific ocean.

When captain Cooke first visited Otaheite, the natives venerated a kind of sacred chest or ark. The lid of this machine, according to the description of it which has been given to us, was nicely sewed on, and thatched with palm-nut leaves. The ark itself was fixed upon two poles, and supported on little arches of wood very neatly carved. The use of the poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of a sedan-chair. At one end of it was a square hole: and in the middle of the hole was a ring touching the sides but leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole

'Purch. Pilgr. b. ix. c. 9, 10, 11, 12. b. viii. c. 12, 13. Robertson's Hist. of Amer. vol. iii. p. 21-24, 200, 201.

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within a square one.
The first time that Sir Joseph Banks saw this ark,
the aperture at the end was stopped with a piece of cloth, which he left un-
touched to avoid giving offence. Probably there was then something within:
but, when he afterwards examined it, the cloth was taken away, and the
coffer was found empty. The same machine is noticed in the narrative of
captain Cooke's last voyage, and some interesting particulars are added. Sir
Joseph Banks had been informed, that it was called the house of the god:
but we are now further told, that the name of the god, to whom it was de-
dicated, was Ooro. The English were not allowed to go near enough to ex-
amine its mysterious contents: but they learned, that Ooro, or rather a
symbol supposed to represent him, was concealed within it. This sacred
repository was made of the twisted fibres of the husk of the cocoa-nut: and
in form it was somewhat round, but with one end much thicker than the
other. Captain Cooke and his attendants were present at a sacrifice to Ooro.
The rite was performed in a Morai, which is at once a place of worship
and of burial. That, where the English witnessed the sacrifice, was the
principal one in the island; and its form was that of an obtuse oblong pyra-
mid with a square area on each side. At a small distance from the end of it
nearest to the sea was a large scaffold or lofty table, on which the offerings of
fruit and other vegetables were laid and by the side of it was a heap of stones
constituting a rude altar. Here the sacrifices were offered up, which were
frequently men no less than animals: and here the ark of the god Ooro was
placed during the performance of the ceremony.'

Dr. Hawksworth, who arranged for publication the minutes of captain Cooke's first voyage, seems to have been struck with the ark of the Otaheiteans much in the same manner as Mr. Adair was with the ark of the northern Americans; for he observes, that the general resemblance between that sacred coffer and the Jewish ark of the Lord is remarkable: and he considers it as still more remarkable, that it should be called Ewharre no Eatua or the house of the god. I do not wonder at his noticing the resemblance; though I think it no proof of the Hebrew origin of the Otaheiteans, any more than of the northern Americans. The additional particulars relative to this ark-god,

• Cooke's First voyage. b. i. c. 20. Third voyage. b. iii. c. 2.

afterwards furnished by captain Cooke, shew pretty evidently, that he was the great universal father of the gentile world, venerated alike throughout the eastern and the western continent. The ark, furnished with staves for the purpose of being carried by the priests in solemn procession, is the same sacred boat, as the Argo of Ammon or Osiris, the Argha of Siva, and the ark of Bacchus, Hu, Ho, and Vitzliputzli. Its square aperture or door, furnished with an interior ring, is no other than the sacred oracular navel or omphalus. And the god, who was thought to lie concealed within it, is that primeval character, whose mystic concealment or aphanism formed so prominent a feature in the ancient Orgies. It was not however so much the god himself who was thought to be hidden within the ark, as his symbol or representation. What this symbol was, we are not able positively to say; for the Otaheiteans, it appears, were as unwilling to expose the contents of their sacred ark to the eyes of the profane, as the hierophants of the Dionysic: Mysteries but I more than suspect, that it was the very same as that, which was inclosed within the ark of Bacchus, and which was so generally. esteemed by the pagans the peculiar type of the great father. The name of this ark-god was Ooro. Now, though I wish not to build upon etymology; yet, when I observe such decided marks of resemblance between the Otaheitean theology and that of Egypt, I am strongly inclined to conjecture, that this Ooro is the same even in appellation, no less than in character, as the Horus of the Egyptians and the Auri of the Hindoos.

The mode of conducting the worship corresponds with the deity. The of: scaffold or table, on which were placed the offerings of fruit, is but a copy that table, on which the sacred bovine cakes and drink-offerings were wont to be set out to Menu and the lunar queen of heaven: while the obtuse pyramid serves to shew, that the Otaheiteans represented the mountain of the ship just in the same manner as their idolatrous brethren of Egypt, Hindostan, and Babylonia.

Their worship of the ark-god produced as its natural consequence the veneration of a triplicated deity. It seems probable, that the natives have. recently adapted the titles of this divinity to the doctrine which they have

Respecting the omphalus more will be said hereafter. Vide infra b. v. c. 4. § III..

CHAP. IV.