This is wrongly called a key by Mr. Sharp in his Egyptian Mythology (p. 54). The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," in Genesis, is the "tree of life," or "phallic pole," denoting the knowledge which dawns on the mind with the first consciousness of the difference in the sexes. The modern 'maypole" is another (innocent) reproduction of the phallic pole. The Hindu Brahma was an androgynous creator. This god is shown in the diagram, one half being male and the other female; the Crux Ansata is placed where the conjoined triad and yoni are shown in the original, but which are two gross for reproduction. The thumb and fingers form a triad with the serpent, in the male hand, while in the female hand is the germinating seed indicative of reproduction. The whole stands upon a lotus flower, the symbol of double sex, or androgyneity. The next diagram is from an

Egyptian wall picture, and represents two Egyptian deities at worship before the sacred triad, or phallus, each holding in faithful homage the Crux Ansata, the symbol of life and fecundity.

In connection with Phallic worship

KIN

arose the idea of offering the virginity of maidens to certain gods. The Babylonian women were compelled to offer themselves once in their lifetime to the goddess Astarte, or Mylitta (the Assyrian Venus). Sitting in the Temple, they waited till some passer-by of the opposite sex threw money into their laps, when they prostituted themselves "for the sake of Mylitta." No man was ever refused.

THE FEAST OF THE MATRIX.

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Many women, not so inviting in appearance as others, would thus remain waiting their turn for years.

"That sacred prostitution went on in Jewish temples, as we know from Herodotus, Strabo, and Lucian was the custom both in Babylon and Syria, we have evidence in the word kadesh, signifying 'harlot' and 'holy one,' a 'consecrated person,' and a 'sodomite.' References to them are found in Gen. xxxviii. 21; 1 Kings xiv. 23, 24; XV. 12; xxii. 46; 2 Kings xxii. 7; Hos. iv. 10-19; v. 14." The Jewish law did not prohibit them, but only insisted that they should not be of the house of Israel; the slaves of desire must be of another tribe (Deut. xxiii. 1). “In the precincts of the Temple were the houses of prostitute priests." The Nethinim of Ezra ii. and Neh. vii. were the children of the sacred prostitutes, and were attached to the temples for the same purposes. Though not as a religious rite, we read (Pennant's London; 1790) that even in modern times an establishment called the "Bordello," or Stews," was kept up in Southwark, filled with "Froes," or "Bawds of Flanders," for the use of the celibate clergy and others, "to prevent the debauchery of the wives and daughters of citizens," and it was not suppressed till the reign of Henry VIII. It had for its sign a Cardinal's Hat.

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Though the exact nature of the early Christian "love feasts" is not known, it is not improbable that gross immoralities took place, for the unnatural practices are mentioned by Eusebius (books vii.-xi.); but whether by the term “unnatural" he is referring to the new worship and the neglect to the old gods, or to indiscriminate intercourse, it is impossible to say decisively, though other evidences to the same incline us to the latter view. The Nazarites of Syria, up to the end of the seventeenth century, celebrated annually the festival of the "Matrix," the commemoration of the creation of the human sexes. "On the Day of Circumcision, which begins their year, they assembled all the women in the Hall of Sacrifice, and, having shut the windows and extinguished the lights, the men entered, each one taking that woman whom he first laid hands upon. The chief officer of the law assisted, with his wife, who mixed in the

crowd with the rest."* It is impossible to form an opinion at this day as to how far the severe measures adopted by the imperial authors of what are called the Christian "persecutions were justified. The followers of this new sect were composed of the lowest and most illiterate of the people, principally slaves and beggars, who were in the habit of meeting in secret, and who were suspected of sedition and immoral practices. But were these Pagan Roman Emperors any more cruel to their victims in casting them to wild beasts than were the Christian Inquisitors of a later day, who, in carrying out the precept of the O. T., "she who is a witch shall be burned" (and a heretic came in the same category), burned their victims with fire? Both classes of victims were convicted of heresy—i.e., of holding religious opinions contrary to established usage. Of the two forms of death, who is there who would not choose the former pagan and much more humane one? Better to die fighting than linger in agony, fastened to a stake? There would be some excitement in the former, but none in the latter.

OURANISM, or planetary worship, was engrafted upon the older ancestor worship of primeval days. The fathers of astronomy were the ancient Akkadians, Persians, and Egyptians; but the Indians, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans each had their zodiacs, which, however, differed very little from each other; and each had their legends connected with the passage of the sun through the various zodiacal signs or houses, and the moon in her different phases. Primitive man believed that the heavenly bodies possessed a "ruling" influence over human and mundane affairs, and their priests fostered their credulity by all sorts of cunning devices and practices, constituting themselves messengers between the people and the gods, and pretending to hold consultations not only with the planets and stars, but also with the dead. Magic and fortune-telling by stars (astrology), palmistry, dreams, and sorcery-from which was evolved miracleworking-were every-day practices. The priests thus, as we have seen, possessed great power, and were the magi, or magicians, we read of in the Bible. Individual temperaments were ascribed to the planet under which a particular

* J. M. Wheeler, Footsteps of the Past.

birth took place, as “saturnine" from Saturn, "jovial" from Jupiter, "mercurial" from Mercury; and the virtues of herbs, gems, and medicines were believed to be due to their ruling planets. The idea of ruling is to be found in the legend of Creation in Genesis, where the sun is said to "rule the day," and the stars to "rule the night."

The Book of Astrology was carried by the priests of Egypt in procession. The four sacred animals led in these processions were emblems of the four cardinal points which determine the seasons at the equinoxes and the tropics, and which divide the annual progress of the sun into four parts.

The moon-the "wife of the sun" and the "mother of the world"—was held in great estimation by the shepherd Akkadian tribes of the early pastoral ages-and reasonably so, for this planet would be looked upon as the friend of the shepherd watching his flocks by night, her reflected light. enabling him to guard them against the attacks of wild beasts; whereas the sun, burning the cattle and the pasture with his powerful Eastern heat during the day, from which there would be little or no shelter, would be considered a source of evil. We find the moon occupying a very important position among the ancient Akkadians, by whom she was known as Alh and Ai. In Assyria she was known as Sin, from which the mountain Sin-Ai derives its name; this was a sacred spot, being the object of pilgrimages many centuries before Moses, and was said by the Egyptians to be the birthplace of Osiris. As a goddess, the moon was believed to be older than the sun, because "darkness existed before light." This planet occupied a chief position in the Tower of Babel, which consisted of seven stories, each one being a temple dedicated to the moon, sun, and five planets (the seven lights of the earth)—the topmost (domeshaped) being to the moon, the middle one to the sun, and the others to the remaining planets. Each temple was coloured differently.

The moon was worshipped in her different phases, each lasting seven days. Sacrifice and feast at each new phase causing the people to rest from work, the seventh day gradually became "sacred," and work on a sacred day was inauspicious; and so arose the sabbath idea. The creation of the world took place (according to the legend) during one complete phase of the moon (seven days). The number seven thus

also became sacred, and had a special deity assigned to it. Besides the seven days of the Creation legend and the seven temples of Babel, we find the number seven in the seven sons of Job; the seven sleepers; the seven wise men; the seven wonders of the world and the seven spirits of destruction; the seven-headed serpent; the seven lights of the earth; the seven day festivals of the Passover; Jacob's bowing seven times and serving seven years; the seven sprinklings with sacrificial blood; the seven pairs of clean animals taken into the ark; seven pairs of each kind of bird; the seven days between the announcement of the deluge and the descent of the rain; seven days before the first sending out of the dove and the second, and between the second and the third. The ark was entered on the seventeenth day of the month, and it rested on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. Noah is made to leave the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the month, and commenced his seventh century when the deluge subsided. Lamech is said to have lived 777 years. Then we have the seven trumpets, candlesticks, churches, and seals of the Apocalypse; and the seven sacraments of the Christians; and the seven devils said to have been cast out of Mary Magdalene.

All the lunar deities were horned, in the shape of the phallic crescent, the symbol of modern Islamism, and a symbol which was used in connection with the worship of the moon as the "Queen of Heaven" and the "pale sun of ghostland," represented by the Babylonian Astarte (Ashtaroth) and the Egyptian Isis, the early models of future Madonnas. Thoth and Chons were the lunar divinities of the Egyptian underworld, and Aah was the lunar divinity who presided at the renewal of things, represented in classical mythology by Selene (Hecate, Artemis, Luna, and Diana). The sun and moon were looked upon as husband and wife, who brought forth the earth. The moon was a great divinity with the Arabs, as with all pastoral tribes, and is worshipped now as chief god by many African and Indian native tribes, the Delaware Indians, Redskins, the hairy Ainos of Yesso, Siberians, etc.

During the early agricultural ages the sun occupied the chief position, and sun worship ("Shammanism," from Shamas, he who shines brightly) is the origin of all the gods