Heathen mythology Part 47

Of the many deities of the second category, the most remarkable is Ganga, who is the river Ganges personified, a river sacred alone to the Hindoos.

"A stream descends in Meru mountain, None hath seen its secret fountain; It had its birth, so sages say, Upon the memorable day When Parvati presumed to lay, In wanton play, Her hands, too venturous G.o.ddess, in her mirth, On Seeva's eyes, the light and life of earth.

Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still; The elements ceased their influences; the hours Stopt in the eternal round; motion and breath, Time, change, and life, and death, In sudden trance opprest, forgot their powers.

A moment and the dread eclipse was ended, But, at the thought of nature thus suspended, The sweat on Seeva's forehead stood, And Ganges thence upon the world descended, The holy river, the redeeming flood.

None hath seen its secret fountain, But on the top of Meru mountain Which rises o'er the hills of earth, In light and clouds, it hath its mortal birth: Earth seems that pinnacle to rear, Sublime above this worldly sphere, Its cradle, and its altar, and its throne: And there the new born river lies, Outspread beneath its native skies, As if it there would love to dwell, Alone and unapproachable."

SOUTHEY.

To perform their ablutions in its waters, to die on its brink, to be thrown after death into its waves, are the supreme happiness of {274} the disciples of Vishnu and of Brahma. The dying carca.s.ses are generally abandoned to the current of the wave.

The most famous of their places of wors.h.i.+p is that point of the peninsula, where the Ganges, suddenly abandoning the mountains, is precipitated down the plains of Hindostan. A temple is elevated in the middle of the waters, and surmounted by two cupolas.

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Here are constantly a.s.sembled a large crowd of pilgrims, and a willing contribution is paid to the Brahmins. The two s.e.xes bathe together, while the most rigid of the devotees walk to the bath escorted by two Brahmins.

"How sweetly Ganga smiles and glides Luxuriant o'er her broad Autumnal bed!

Her waves perpetual verdure spread, Whilst health and plenty deck her golden sides: As when an eagle, child of light, O'er her eyry proudly reared, Sits brooding and her plumage vast expands, Thus Ganga o'er her cherished lands, To Brahma's grateful race endeared, Throws wide her fostering arms, and on her banks divine, Sees temples, groves, and glittering towers, that in her crystal s.h.i.+ne.

"What name, sweet bride, will best allure, Thy sacred ear, and give the honour due?

Vishnupedi? mild Bhishmasu?

Smooth Suranimnaga? Trisrota pure?

By that I call; its power confess: With growing gifts thy suppliants bless, Who with full sails in many a light-oared boat, On thy jasper bosom float; Nor frown, dread G.o.ddess, on a peerless race, With liberal heart and martial grace, Wafted from colder isles remote: As they preserve our laws and bid our terror cease, So be their darling laws preserved, in wealth, in joy, in peace!"

SIR W. JONES.

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The elephant plays a prominent part in the Hindoo tales. They pretend that the world is sustained by four of these animals, who are placed at the four cardinal points. In most of their temples one of them is sure to be seen.

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His colour is white, his tusks are sometimes four in number, and all his body is covered with carpet, sparkling in the light of diamonds and precious stones.

The Hindoos revere also a large serpent as a G.o.d:

"'The G.o.d! the very G.o.d!' he cried, and howled One long, shrill, piercing, modulated cry; Whereat from that dark temple issued forth A serpent, huge and hideous. On he came, Straight to the sound, and curled around the priest His mighty folds innocuous, overtopping His human height, and arching down his head, Sought in their hands for food.

Then quitting, reared, and stretched and waved his neck And glanced his forky tongue."

SOUTHEY.

A cow, of whom the G.o.ds disputed the possession, is also wors.h.i.+pped by them; she was obtained by one of them through a stratagem very like that employed by Jupiter with Europa.

They pay homage also to peculiar divinities, such as the G.o.ddess of pleasure, and the G.o.d of war.

The former was fabled, like Venus, to have arisen from the sea when agitated by the G.o.ds.

The poetry of the East frequently alludes to fairies of great and {276} exquisite beauty, who people the air, the earth, the rivers, and the woods, and are placed by them among the inferior divinities.

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Camdeo, the G.o.d of love, takes the same standing in the East, as Cupid in the mythology of which we have already treated; though the Indian description of his person and his arms, his family, attendants and attributes, has new and peculiar characteristics.

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He is represented as a beautiful youth, sometimes conversing with his mother and consort, in the midst of his gardens and temples. His bow of sugar-cane or flowers, with a string of bees, and his five {277} arrows, each pointed with an Indian blossom of a heating quality, are allegories equally new and beautiful.

This deity is adored in India, under a great number of names, Camdeo, however, being the one by which he is best known, and under which he is most wors.h.i.+pped.

"What potent G.o.d from Agra's orient bowers, Floats through the lucid air while living flowers, With sunny twine the vocal arbours wreathe, And gales enamoured, heavenly fragrance breathe?

Hail power unknown! for at thy beck Vales and groves their bosoms deck, And every laughing blossom dresses With gems of dew, his musky tresses.

I feel, I feel thy genial flame divine, And hallow thee and kiss thy shrine.

"'Knowest thou not me?' celestial sounds I hear!

'Knowest thou not me? Ah! spare a mortal ear!

Behold--' my swimming eyes entranced I raise, But oh! they sink before the excessive blaze.

Yes, son of Maya, yes, I know Thy bloomy shafts and cany bow, Cheeks with youthful glory beaming, Locks in braids ethereal streaming, Thy scaly standards, thy mysterious arms, And all thy pains, and all thy charms.

'O thou for ages born, yet ever young, For ages may thy Brahmins' lay be sung!

And when thy glory spreads his emerald wings To waft thee high above the tower of kings, Whilst o'er thy throne the moon's pale light Pours her soft radiance through the night, And to each floating cloud discovers, The haunts of blessed or joyless lovers, Thy mildest influence to thy bard impart, To warm, but not consume his heart."

SIR W. JONES.

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SCANDINAVIA.

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The Edda, forming the mythological history of the ancient people of the North, is a complete receptacle of poetry no less than of history: and forms of itself a work of great interest.

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The most important of the G.o.ds of Scandinavia is Odin, who was in all probability one of their kings, and whose amours, as numerous as those of Jupiter, are perpetuated in a thousand legends. Like Jupiter too, he married his sister Frea, and in the sacred books of the priesthood, he is known by upwards of a hundred names, all of them high sounding and magnificent. {279}

His adventures, which are numberless, are interwoven with the whole of the Scandinavian history.

Frigga or Frea, his wife, was the most powerful of the G.o.ddesses, and by many supposed to be identical with Ceres, or the Earth; the future was as familiar to her as to Odin, with whom she is seated upon his throne, and whose government of the remaining deities she shared.

When the warriors of the land seek glory in battle, she sends an inferior G.o.ddess to watch over the safety of those whom she favours, while they who fall, are honoured by the mighty mother Frigga, herself mourning over their fate, not indeed for their sake, but for the sake of the country they would have adorned and the land for which they fought.

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One of the children of Frigga and Odin, by name Thor, presided over the works of creation, and over the variations of the atmosphere. The tempests and the apparent strife of nature, is caused by the struggle which Thor constantly has with a famous serpent, whose vast folds embrace the whole circ.u.mference of the earth.