BOOK V.

Agreeably to this view of the subject, the Hindoos tell us, that the new Moon, which was produced out of the churned or violently agitated ocean, was one, which would answer the purpose of living creatures whether moveable or immoveable; meaning, I apprehend, that it was suitable for their abode and adapted for their preservation. They represent it, as sheltering its votaries from danger; as floating about at random on the surface of the sea; as being a terrestrial Moon, in contradistinction to the celestial one; and as being the true and original Lunar White Island, of which each literal sacred island is but a transcript. This holy island of the Moon is composed of the Amrita or water of immortality, which was once lost, but which was afterwards recovered from the ocean. As such it is incapable of decay and, securely floating on the surface of the boundless deep, it survives with its beatified inhabitants the ruin of every successive World, with the regeneration or renovation of which it is immediately connected. To the floating Lunar Island is added another that is stable: or, as the matter is sometimes expressed, the floating island itself becomes fixed; by which is meant, that the first is rooted or attached to the second. This, which the Brahmens describe as situated far to the west, is also a terrestrial Moon: it contains or coincides with the original mountain of the Moon: within it is to be sought the Paradise of the Moon: it is the abode of the spirits of the blessed, or of those deified patriarchs who flourish at the commencement of every World: and it is the favourite residence of Crishna, who there reposes on the folds of the great navicular sea-serpent which had been the vehicle of the sleeping god over the waters of the interminable ocean 1.

It is easy to perceive, as I have already had occasion to observe, that the sacred Lunar Islands of the west are the Ark and mount Ararat; which, when the floating island became fixed at the close of the deluge, lay to the west of Hindostan and were the undoubted cradle of the Brahmenical theology*. But of these islands there were numerous transcripts: for, every sacred island being a symbol either of the floating Moon or of

Asiat. Res. vol. xi. p. 35, 36, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 90, 69, 92, • Vide supra book ii. c. 5.

د

the once sea-girt lunar mountain, what was true only of the mystic ocean- CHAP, H. born crescent and of the Paradisiacal Ararat was thence transferred to their various insular representatives.bove cat

Such being the case, we shall readily perceive, why the White Island, though pronounced to be situated in the ocean far to the west, is yet said to have been brought into various parts of India. Wherever, as in the instance of Ellora, a small island was consecrated in the bosom of a deep lake, there the White Island of the Moon was recognized and venerated: and, wherever the inhabitants of a larger island in the ocean were devoted to the worship of the floating lunette, there, as in the instance of Sumatra, we have an oriental island of the Moon. But still the same notions are found to predominate: still does the lunar White Island survive the wreck of worlds; still does it float on the surface of the boundless ocean; still is it the peculiar abode of the hero-god of wisdom; still is it the residence of the mighty ones, the paradise of the just ones, the favourite haunt of those deified mortals who are literally said to have been preserved in an ark at the period of the universal deluge.com fer el que other Agreeably to these speculations we are further told, that the Moon is the wife and daughter of the Sun, and yet that she is also the offspring of the wonderful architect Twashta. After what has already been said in the course of the present work, such a fiction can require but little elucidation. The Sun is the astronomical representative of Menu-Satyavrata, who was preserved in an ark with the seven Rishis: the floating Moon therefore, which is equally his consort and his child, can only be the Ark. In a similar manner, the sage architect Twashta, who is also declared to be the parent of the Moon, must clearly, so far as I can judge, be the wise masterbuilder; who, immediately before the war of the gods and the giants, framed the navicular lunette that received the great father within its womb and saved him from impending destruction'.

2. Exactly the same notions prevailed in other parts of the world. According to the Zend-Avesta, when the waters of the deluge retired from off the surface of the earth, the peak of mount Albordi was the first

Asiat. Res. vol. xi. p. 34, 42, 46, 97, 67, 88, 90, 91. Moor's Hind. Panth.

p. 292.

BOOK v. land that became visible. At this time the Sun and the Moon appeared upon its summit: and the latter of these is said to have received, and preserved, and purified, the seed or offspring of the second man-bull; who, with three subordinate partners, was the appointed instrument of bringing over the face of the earth an universal inundation. She is likewise de clared to have caused every thing to be born when the world was renewed after the catastrophe of the deluge; she is pronounced to be the only one of her kind that ever was formed; and she is celebrated as the general mother, from whose womb proceeded all the various descriptions of animals. The whole of this is palpably a description of the Ark: and it is no further applicable to the Moon, than as the planet was the astronomical symbol of the ship'.

3. Similar speculations may be equally traced in more western regions. We are told by classical writers, that the Moon was the mother of Bacchus. Yet Bacchus is said to have been exposed at sea in an ark, and to have been mystically born on the summit of Meru where the Ark rested after the deluge. He is also acknowledged to be the same deity as Osiris, who was set afloat in an ark shaped like the Moon. Hence it is evident, that the birth of the arkite Bacchus from the Moon is no other than the birth or egress of Osiris from the floating Moon within which he was inclosed by Typhon. As the Moon was the mother of Bacchus; so likewise was it esteemed by the Egyptians the mother of the whole World. In both cases the ground of the opinion was the very same: the great father and the rudiments of the new World were alike produced from what the old astronomical mystagogues considered as a floating Moon or as a lunar erratic island. Such also was the reason, why souls regenerated in the Mysteries and why all mortal bodies were fabled to be born from a door in the side of the Moon, and why that planet was deemed to be the confines of life and death. These apparently wild notions are perfectly intelligible, if understood of the floating Moon of Osiris; but, how they

Cicer. de nat. deor. lib. iii. c. 23.

* Porph. de ant. nymph. p. 262-264. Macrob. in somn. Scip. lib. i. c. 11.

are applicable to the literal Moon in the heavens, it is beyond the wit of man to discover.

4. The lunar ark of Osiris was deemed his coffin: and his entrance into it was considered as equivalent to a descent into the infernal regions. Hence the Nile and the Acherusian marsh, where his Mysteries were celebrated, became the river and the lake of Hades: and the floating Moon of the god was esteemed the navicular vehicle of departed souls, over which he presided by the name and in the character of Charon. What the Nile was to the Egyptian mythologists, the Ganges and the Styx were to those of Hindostan and Greece. Each had its boat and its infernal ferryman: and, as the navigator of the Styx like that of the Nile is Charon or Osiris ; so, what abundantly unfolds the import of these parallel legends, the mariner of the Ganges is Menu-Satyavrata under the name of Salivahana, that Menu, who was preserved with seven companions in an ark and was afterwards constituted the god of obsequies. Here then the floating Moon of Osiris appears as an infernal Moon, agreeably to the doctrine of the Mysteries which placed the Moon in Hades and identified it with Proserpine or Hecatè.

This will lead us to understand the import of some very curious particulars, which Plutarch mentions as being presented to the imagination of Timarchus in his vision of the infernal regions.

The friendly spirit, who acts the part of an hierophant (for the pretended vision seems evidently to describe the process of an initiation), informs him, that Proserpine is in the Moon, and that the infernal Mercury or Pluto is her companion. This Moon is wholly distinct from the celestial Moon; being what some call a terrestrial heaven or paradise, and others a heavenly Earth. It belongs to the genii or deified mortals, who tenant the Earth and it is described, as wearing the semblance of a floating island. It is surrounded with other islands, which similarly float on the bosom of the great Stygian abyss: but it is loftier than them all, and therefore not equally exposed to the destructive fury of the infernal river. In this navicular Moon or Lunar Island there are three principal caverns. The largest is called the sanctuary of Hecatè; and here the wicked suffer the punishment due to their crimes. The other two are rather doors or

CHAP. II.

BOOK V. Outlets than caverns; the first looking towards heaven, the second towards the earth. These serve for the ingress and egress of souls: for the Moon is the universal receptacle of them; into her they enter by one door, and from her they issue by the other door. She receives and gives, compounds and decompounds; and on her depend all the conversions of generation. While the Moon thus floats on the waters of the Styx, the infernal river strives to invade and overwhelm it. Then the souls through fear break forth into loud lamentations; for Pluto seizes upon many, who happen to fall off. Some however, who are plunged in the raging flood, contrive, by dint of great exertion and good swimming, to reach the shores of the Moon: but the Styx, thundering and bellowing in a most dreadful manner, does not allow them to land. Lamenting their fate, they are thrust headlong into the abyss, and are hurried away to partake of another regeneration. Many are thus disappointed, whilst almost touching the shores of the Moon; and others, who had even already gained the wished-for preserving island, are suddenly dragged again into the deep. Those however, who effect their escape, and who stand firm on the beach of this floating Moon, are crowned with the plumes of constancy'.

It must, I think, be evident, even on the most superficial view of the question, that the Moon, which is here represented as floating on the bosom of the sacred infernal river and as being the generative vehicle of souls, is no other than the luniform ark or floating Moon within which Osiris was inclosed by Typhon or the ocean: for this very ark of Osiris, which was called Baris and Argo and Theba, is the identical boat which Charon employs to ferry souls over the Acherusian lake. But the ark of Charon or Osiris is the same as the infernal Gangetic boat of Salivahana or MenuSatyavrata, who was preserved in an ark at the time of the deluge. The conclusion therefore from the whole seems to be alike obvious and inevitable. As the entrance into the Ark was considered in the light of a descent into the infernal regions; and as the quitting the Ark was viewed, as a return from those regions, or as a restoration of life to the dead, or as a mysterious new birth from the womb of a great mother: the Moon, which

'Plutarch cited by Wilford. Asiat. Res. vol. xi. p. 114-117.