MOOK VI.

singular distinctness, even in the remote island of Otaheitè: for, as the inhabitants of that country have a sacred ark and venerate a triplicated god; so, in exact correspondence with their mode of worship, they have an ancient tradition respecting a man born from the sand of the sea, who married his own daughter, who by her became the parent of three males and three females, and who through them replenished the desolated earth with inhabitants'.

That the origin of the pagan triads was such as I have supposed it to be, is yet further evident from the circumstance of their being composed of goddesses as well as of gods. As the great father multiplied himself into three sons; so the great mother, in a similar manner, multiplied herself into three daughters: and the latter are described, as being sisters and wives of the former. Of this we have an instance in the Otaheitean legend, which has just been noticed: nor does it by any means stand single. The Devi or White Goddess of the Hindoos is believed to have triplicated herself: and the three goddesses thus produced are the wives of those three chief gods, who become incarnate at the beginning of each world in the three sons of the ark-preserved Menu. Analogously to this dogma, though not so distinctly expressed, the three great divinities of Greece and Rome have each his proper consort: while Diana, who is clearly the Devi of Hindostan and the three-fold Triglaf of the Goths, is universally acknowledged to be a triple divinity. We have however both the triads, male and female, very curiously combined in the persons of the Cabiric deities, as enumerated by Pherecydes. Vulcan or Phtha espouses Cabira, the offspring of the oceanic Proteus: and by her he becomes the parent of the three Cabiri and the three Cabira. Here the whole primeval family, comprizing a father, a mother, a triad of sons, and a triad of daughters, amounts precisely to eight persons: and, as these eight persons are cer

'Miss. voyage to south. pacif. ocean. p. 344. The form of this tradition proves, that they could not have borrowed it from the missionaries and then have passed it off as their own. The birth of the man from the sea, and his incestuous union with his own daughter, are in the genuine style of pagan fiction. Had the legend been stolen from the missionaries, it would have been modelled into an entirely different shape.

2 Strab. Geog. lib. x. p. 472.

tainly the same as the eight navicular great gods of Egypt, so must they clearly be identified with the eight Noëtic mariners of the Ark. We again recognize the female triad in the three Nights or triplicated black Venus of the Orphic theology, and in the three Gwenhwyvars or Ladies on the summit of the water who are said to have been the consorts of the diluvian British Arthur'.

VI. But, although the world was divided among the three sons of Noah, and although at the period of the dispersion their children retired to the several countries allotted to them according to their families and their nations, there seems to have been a peculiarity in their mode of emigrating from Shinar, which (so far as I am aware) has not hitherto been noticed.

Since the Cushim established the first great empire at Babel; since they acquired and preserved their rule by the institution of castes; since this institution was in effect the origin of the feudal system; since that system necessarily required, that the sacerdotal and military castes should pervade the whole empire, dispersed among, though not blending with, the inferior castes which were composed of their vassals; and since the general history of the tower sufficiently proves the immense influence, both secular and ecclesiastical, which this enterprizing family had acquired over all the other descendants of Noah: since, in a word, they had made themselves sovereigns of the entire community; it seems highly improbable, that in a moment their universally-pervading authority should be overturned, that they themselves should suddenly be separated from the people among whom as lords they were intermixed, and that the several families now accustomed to their sway should instantaneously throw it off and retire into their various settlements without their wonted leaders. We have seen, that such of the Cushim as remained in Iran lost not their sovereignty, but still continued for the space of fifteen centuries to govern the subject houses of Ashur and Aram and Elam and Arphaxad: whence from them the whole empire was styled the Scuthic empire; and the whole country, how

1

Orph. Hymn. ii. Fragm. apud Herm. Comm. in Plat. Phædr. p. 406. Davies's Myth.. p. 187.

.BOOK VI.

ever subdivided into patriarchal provinces, Cuthia or Cusha-dwip or the land of Cush or Ethiopia. This being the case, it appears natural to suppose, that, when the other families, all of which had been equally subju gated by Cush and had equally been members of his empire before the dispersion, withdrew themselves from the plains of Shinar; they would for the most part retire under those governors, military and ecclesiastical, to whose sway they had been accustomed, and who were already at their head just as the families, which remained in Iran, did not, in consequence of the confusion of tongues, throw off the yoke of those Cuthic priests and nobles, who likewise remained in the country. In fact the Scuths, even previous to the dispersion, must, on the principles of feudalism, have been so generally intermixed with the other tribes; that such as were lords of Japhet would receive the language of Japhet, such as were lords of Shem the language of Shem, and such as were lords of Ham the language of Ham. Hence, I think, it would almost inevitably follow, that fragments of the two higher castes would, with very few exceptions, go off with the retiring families to which they were already attached; that they would still continue to be their priesthood and nobility; and that, for the sake of perpetuating their dominion, they would studiously preserve themselves a distinct race and would haughtily refuse to blend with the subject multitude. That multitude however would, in each instance, so far exceed themselves in number, that the several nations would of course be called, not after their Cuthic lords, but after their patriarchal ancestors: and, as political necessity first produced a marked separation between the governors and the governed, this separation would give rise to certain mysterious distinctive names, calculated to strike the vulgar with awe and to make them feel their immeasureable distance from their rulers. It would likewise necessarily generate pride of birth, a great regard to ancestry, a careful preservation of genealogical pedigrees, an unwillingness (even when the original political necessity existed no longer) to debase a noble family by an unequal alliance, and in short all the peculiar feelings of a very ancient hereditary nobility.

1. Now it is obvious, that, if we suppose such to have been generally the mode of emigration from Iran, a distinction into castes more or less accu

t

rately defined, the priesthood and the soldiers however being always found CBAP. III. at the head of the community, would be the inevitable result. But we have already seen, that, according to the philosophy of politics, no distinction of this sort could ever emanate from an homogeneous society: for, in the progress of the human mind, there is an invariable tendency, not to introduce into an undisturbed community a palpable difference between lords and serfs instead of a legal equality of rights; but to abolish such difference, by enfranchising the serfs, by throwing open to them the means of advancement, by establishing the doctrine that the law is paramount, and by assuring to all personal liberty and freedom from baronial oppression and a clear right to undistinguishing protection. Hence, from the universal experience of history, we may be sure, that, wherever this distinction is found to exist, the society must be composed of two races of men differing from each other in point of origin; the one having obtained dominion over the other, either from time immemorial, or from recent conquest and again, where this distinction is not found to exist and where a legal equality of rights is the basis of the constitution; we may be no less sure, either that the distinction has been abolished, or that it never subsisted, the community having been homogeneous from the very beginning. Let us then inquire, where such a distinction either exists or has existed: for, in whatever country we find it, we shall have reason to believe that that country I would however premise, that is occupied by two different races of men.

dit,

it is no way essential to discover the two higher castes in a perfectly regular form. The sacerdotal branch is a mere excrescence from that of the military nobility, though for political reasons it had the precedence almost invariably ascribed to it: if therefore in any case we should be able to find only the latter, and should perceive the members of it considering themselves as an entirely distinct class and holding the subject multitude in the place of mere serfs, we may be sure that the marked difference must have arisen from the coexistence of two distinct races in the same country.

So great is the intercourse between England and Hindostan, that we are naturally led in the first instance to advert to the British empire in the east. Here, from time immemorial, the division of the community into four castes is well known to have subsisted. These are mentioned in the Institutes of

BOOK VI. Menu, which Sir William Jones rightly identifies with the Desatir of the Iranian Mahabad: and they consist of priests, military nobles, tradesmen, and labourers. The two inferior castes are variously subdivided: but they may in effect be all reduced under the single denomination of the grand mass of the people; while the two superior castes are at once closely connected with each other, and wholly distinct from the abused multitude.

This form of government has been thought so remarkable, that it is frequently spoken of as a peculiar characteristic of India. Such however is far from being the case: the very same constitution has existed elsewhere; though, in its perfect shape, it is perhaps now to be discovered in no other region.

The inhabitants of ancient Egypt, like those of modern India, were divided into regular castes. These, according to Herodotus, were seven in number; while Diodorus acknowledges only five: yet between the two accounts there is no real variation. Each historian fixes the priests and the soldiers at the head of the community: and Diodorus declares them to have been the sole landholders; for the revenue of whatever did not belong to them answered only the necessary expences of government. As for the remainder of the population, Herodotus divides it into the five castes of herdsmen, swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters, and pilots: while Diodorus arranges it under the three more general classes of shepherds, husbandmen, and artizans. In these two accounts, we have evidently nothing but a more particular and a less particular division of the bulk of the people: just as the Hindoos divide it first into the two castes of merchants and labourers, and afterwards into a considerable number of subordinate minor castes. This however is of little consequence: the great body of the governed would of course, in the progress of society be variously ramified; because there are many different trades, and many different modes of prosecuting manual labour. The genuine spirit of the constitution does not depend upon the precise number of the inferior castes, but upon the marked distinction between the governors and the governed. Now, in Egypt as in India, an hereditary priesthood and an hereditary nobility appeared at the head of the system; while the bulk of the people were eternally prevented, from emerging out of their depressed condition, and from attaining the