The Ruins Part 12

Their costume is a robe with a belt of four knots, and a veil over their mouth for fear of polluting the fire with their breath.

*** The Zoroastrians are divided between two opinions; one party believing that both soul and body will rise, the other that it will be the soul only. The Christians and Mahometans have embraced the most solid of the two.

Next to these, remark those banners of an azure ground, painted with monstrous figures of human bodies, double, triple, and quadruple, with heads of lions, boars, and elephants, and tails of fishes and tortoises; these are the ensigns of the sects of India, who find their G.o.ds in various animals, and the souls of their fathers in reptiles and insects.

These men support hospitals for hawks, serpents, and rats, and they abhor their fellow creatures! They purify themselves with the dung and urine of cows, and think themselves defiled by the touch of a man! They wear a net over the mouth, lest, in a fly, they should swallow a soul in a state of penance,* and they can see a Pariah** perish with hunger!

They acknowledge the same G.o.ds, but they separate into hostile bands.

* According to the system of the Metempsychosis, a soul, to undergo purification, pa.s.ses into the body of some insect or animal. It is of importance not to disturb this penance, as the work must in that case begin afresh.

** This is the name of a cast or tribe reputed unclean, because they eat of what has enjoyed life.

The first standard, retired from the rest, bearing a figure with four heads, is that of Brama, who, though the creator of the universe, is without temples or followers; but, reduced to serve as a pedestal to the Lingam,* he contents himself with a little water which the Bramin throws every morning on his shoulder, reciting meanwhile an idle canticle in his praise.

* See Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, vol. 1.

The second, bearing a kite with a scarlet body and a white head, is that of Vichenou, who, though preserver of the world, has pa.s.sed part of his life in wicked actions. You sometimes see him under the hideous form of a boar or a lion, tearing human entrails, or under that of a horse,*

shortly to come armed with a sword to destroy the human race, blot out the stars, annihilate the planets, shake the earth, and force the great serpent to vomit a fire which shall consume the spheres.

* These are the incarnations of Vichenou, or metamorphoses of the sun. He is to come at the end of the world, that is, at the expiration of the great period, in the form of a horse, like the four horses of the Apocalypse.

The third is that of Chiven, G.o.d of destruction and desolation, who has, however, for his emblem the symbol of generation. He is the most wicked of the three, and he has the most followers. These men, proud of his character, express in their devotions to him their contempt for the other G.o.ds,* his equals and brothers; and, in imitation of his inconsistencies, while they profess great modesty and chast.i.ty, they publicly crown with flowers, and sprinkle with milk and honey, the obscene image of the Lingam.

* When a sectary of Chiven hears the name of Vichenou p.r.o.nounced, he stops his ears, runs, and purifies himself.

In the rear of these, approach the smaller standards of a mult.i.tude of G.o.ds--male, female, and hermaphrodite. These are friends and relations of the princ.i.p.al G.o.ds, who have pa.s.sed their lives in wars among themselves, and their followers imitate them. These G.o.ds have need of nothing, and they are constantly receiving presents; they are omnipotent and omnipresent, and a priest, by muttering a few words, shuts them up in an idol or a pitcher, to sell their favors for his own benefit.

Beyond these, that cloud of standards, which, on a yellow ground, common to them all, bear various emblems, are those of the same G.o.d, who reins under different names in the nations of the East. The Chinese adores him in Fot,* the j.a.panese in Budso, the Ceylonese in Bedhou, the people of Laos in Chekia, of Pegu in Phta, of Siam in Sommona-Kodom, of Thibet in Budd and in La. Agreeing in some points of his history, they all celebrate his life of penitence, his mortifications, his fastings, his functions of mediator and expiator, the enmity between him and another G.o.d, his adversary, their battles, and his ascendency. But as they disagree on the means of pleasing him, they dispute about rites and ceremonies, and about the dogmas of interior doctrine and of public doctrine. That j.a.panese Bonze, with a yellow robe and naked head, preaches the eternity of souls, and their successive transmigrations into various bodies; near him, the Sintoist denies that souls can exist separate from the senses,** and maintains that they are only the effect of the organs to which they belong, and with which they must perish, as the sound of the flute perishes with the flute. Near him, the Siamese, with his eyebrows shaved, and a talipat screen*** in his hand, recommends alms, offerings, and expiations, at the same time that he preaches blind necessity and inexorable fate. The Chinese vo-chung sacrifices to the souls of his ancestors; and next him, the follower of Confucius interrogates his destiny in the cast of dice and the movement of the stars.**** That child, surrounded by a swarm of priests in yellow robes and hats, is the Grand Lama, in whom the G.o.d of Thibet has just become incarnate.*5 But a rival has arisen who partakes this benefit with him; and the Kalmouc on the banks of the Baikal, has a G.o.d similar to the inhabitant of Lasa. And they agree, also, in one important point--that G.o.d can inhabit only a human body. They both laugh at the stupidity of the Indian who pays homage to cow-dung, though they themselves consecrate the excrements of their high-priest.*6

* The original name of this G.o.d is Baits, which in Hebrew signifies an egg. The Arabs p.r.o.nounce it Baidh, giving to the dh an emphatic sound which makes it approach to dz.

Kempfer, an acurate traveler, writes it Budso, which must be p.r.o.nounced Boudso, whence is derived the name of Budsoist and of Bonze, applied to the priests. Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromata, writes it Bedou, as it is p.r.o.nounced also by the Chingulais; and Saint Jerome, Boudda and Boutta. At Thibet they call it Budd; and hence the name of the country called Boud-tan and Ti-budd: it was in this province that this system of religion was first inculcated in Upper Asia; La is a corruption of Allah, the name of G.o.d in the Syriac language, from which many of the eastern dialects appear to be derived. The Chinese having neither b nor d, have supplied their place by f and t, and have therefore said Fout.

** See in Kempfer the doctrine of the Sintoists, which is a mixture of that of Epicurus and of the Stoics.

*** It is a leaf of the Latanier species of the palm-tree.

Hence the bonzes of Siam take the appellation of Talapoin.

The use of this screen is an exclusive privilege.

**** The sectaries of Confucius are no less addicted to astrology than the bonzes. It is indeed the malady of every eastern nation.

*5 The Delai-La-Ma, or immense high priest of La, is the same person whom we find mentioned in our old books of travels, by the name of Prester John, from a corruption of the Persian word Djehan, which signifies the world, to which has been prefixed the French word prestre or pretre, priest.

Thus the priest world, and the G.o.d world are in the Persian idiom the same.

*6 In a recent expedition the English have found certain idols of the Lamas filled in the inside with sacred pastils from the close stool of the high priest. Mr. Hastings, and Colonel Pollier, who is now at Lausanne, are living witnesses of this fact, and undoubtedly worthy of credit.

It will be very extraordinary to observe, that this disgusting ceremony is connected with a profound philosophical system, to wit, that of the metempsychosis, admitted by the Lamas. When the Tartars swallow, the sacred relics, which they are accustomed to do, they imitate the laws of the universe, the parts of which are incessantly absorbed and pa.s.s into the substance of each other. It is upon the model of the serpent who devours his tail, and this serpent is Budd and the world.

After these, a crowd of other banners, which no man could number, came forward into sight; and the genius exclaimed:

I should never finish the detail of all the systems of faith which divide these nations. Here the hordes of Tartars adore, in the forms of beasts, birds, and insects, the good and evil Genii; who, under a princ.i.p.al, but indolent G.o.d, govern the universe. In their idolatry they call to mind the ancient paganism of the West. You observe the fantastical dress of the Chamans; who, under a robe of leather, hung round with bells and rattles, idols of iron, claws of birds, skins of snakes and heads of owls, invoke, with frantic cries and fact.i.tious convulsions, the dead to deceive the living. There, the black tribes of Africa exhibit the same opinions in the wors.h.i.+p of their fetiches. See the inhabitant of Juida wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in a great snake, which, unluckily, the swine delight to eat.* The Teleutean attires his G.o.d in a coat of several colors, like a Russian soldier.** The Kamchadale, observing that everything goes wrong in his frozen country, considers G.o.d as an old ill-natured man, smoking his pipe and hunting foxes and martins in his sledge.***

* It frequently happens that the swine devour the very species of serpents the negroes adore, which is a source of great desolation in the country. President de Brosses has given us, in his History of the Fetiche, a curious collection of absurdities of this nature.

** The Teleuteans, a Tartar nation, paint G.o.d as wearing a vesture of all colors, particularly red and green; and as these const.i.tute the uniform of the Russian dragoons, they compare him to this description of soldiers. The Egyptians also dress the G.o.d World in a garment of every color.

Eusebius Proep. Evang. p 115. The Teleuteans call G.o.d Bou, which is only an alteration of Boudd, the G.o.d Egg and World.

*** Consult upon this subject a work ent.i.tled, Description des Peuples, soumis a la Russie, and it will be found that the picture is not overcharged.

But you may still behold a hundred savage nations who have none of the ideas of civilized people respecting G.o.d, the soul, another world, and a future life; who have formed no system of wors.h.i.+p; and who nevertheless enjoy the rich gifts of nature in the irreligion in which she has created them.

CHAPTER XXI.

PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS CONTRADICTIONS.

The various groups having taken their places, an unbounded silence succeeded to the murmurs of the mult.i.tude; and the legislator said:

Chiefs and doctors of mankind! You remark how the nations, living apart, have hitherto followed different paths, each believing its own to be that of truth. If, however, truth is one, and opinions are various, it is evident that some are in error. If, then, such vast numbers of us are in the wrong, who shall dare to say, "I am in the right?" Begin, therefore, by being indulgent in your dissensions. Let us all seek truth as if no one possessed it. The opinions which to this day have governed the world, originating from chance, propagated in obscurity, admitted without discussion, accredited by a love of novelty and imitation, have usurped their empire in a clandestine manner. It is time, if they are well founded, to give a solemn stamp to their certainty, and legitimize their existence. Let us summon them this day to a general scrutiny, let each propound his creed, let the whole a.s.sembly be the judge, and let that alone be acknowledged as true which is so for the whole human race.

Then, by order of position, the representative of the first standard on the left was allowed to speak:

"You are not permitted to doubt," said their chief, "that our doctrine is the only true and infallible one. FIRST, it is revealed by G.o.d himself--"

"So is ours," cried all the other standards, "and you are not permitted to doubt it."

"But at least," said the legislator, "you must prove it, for we cannot believe what we do not know."

"Our doctrine is proved," replied the first standard, "by numerous facts, by a mult.i.tude of miracles, by resurrections of the dead, by rivers dried up, by mountains removed--"

"And we also have numberless miracles," cried all the others, and each began to recount the most incredible things.

"THEIR miracles," said the first standard, "are imaginary, or the fictions of the evil spirit, who has deluded them."

"They are yours," said the others, "that are imaginary;" and each group, speaking of itself, cried out:

"None but ours are true, all the others are false."

The legislator then asked: "Have you living witnesses of the facts?"

"No," replied they all; "the facts are ancient, the witnesses are dead, but their writings remain."

"Be it so," replied the legislator; "but if they contradict each other, who shall reconcile them?"

"Just judge!" cried one of the standards, "the proof that our witnesses have seen the truth is, that they died to confirm it; and our faith is sealed by the blood of martyrs."

"And ours too," said the other standards; "we have thousands of martyrs who have died in the most excruciating torments, without ever denying the truth."

Then the Christians of every sect, the Mussulmans, the Indians, the j.a.panese, recited endless legends of confessors, martyrs, penitents, etc.