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beings of fire; would be the celestial bodies, far beyond the reach of mortal man, but always living and moving, some influencing in fact the economy of Nature, and the others believed to influence it, if not in an apparent, yet in some occult mode. The widespread worship of the sun has been already referred to, and will not be further examined here: we have seen how Bel was the sun, became identified with Baal, and degenerated into Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. A similiar track was followed by Duzi, or Damuzi, the sun that has set, who became known in Biblical times as Tammuz, and to the Sabeans as Taus, and who is now worshipped under the name of Taous, in the form of a peacock, by the Yzedis, the so-called devil worshippers of Mesopotamia. The Syrian Tammuz and the Greek Adonis (Syrian Adonai, Lord) have long been recognized as identical; and Apollo, Helios, Phoebus and Dianysos have all in turn been sun-gods, and their identity and attributes have been overlapped and interchanged, past unravelling. The Phoenix, periodically dying and reviving, and the mythical Rokh of Arabian mythology, no doubt owe their origin to a common source with the deified peacock Taous.

We have seen how Izdhubar-Nimrod, the mighty hunter, and Hercules, and the host of other heroes and demigods, who labour through a cycle of varied toils and journeys, timed to the zodiacal signs, like

descended upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, did so in the form of tongues of fire.

The spirits of earth, living in the cavernous depths, are not of this refulgent type; they are still of fire, but heavier, duller, more lurid: they are accordingly composed of red fire, and not white. Thor, the Scandinavian god of fire, of agriculture, and of the domestic hearth, was a red-haired and red-bearded man; and fire-gods generally were red or had red beards the history of Esau, the Hebrew Satyr, is tinged with red throughout; the heifer which was to be the whole burnt offering in the Mosaic ritual was to be red, and its red hide was specially directed to be burnt; a South Pacific legend makes a red pigeon the means of procuring fire from the subterranean fire-demon; the dwarfs and fairies, the successors of the ancient fire-worshippers, generally have red caps, which are their means of preserving the spiritual attribute of invisibility; the kobolds, or goblins, are fiery imps who sport red jackets; and finally Mephistopheles would certainly not be recognized in any but a scarlet garb :

Here as a youth of high degree,

I come in gold lac'd scarlet vest.*

Intimately associated with the idea of supernatural

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beings of fire; would be the celestial bodies, far beyond the reach of mortal man, but always living and moving, some influencing in fact the economy of Nature, and the others believed to influence it, if not in an apparent, yet in some occult mode. The widespread worship of the sun has been already referred to, and will not be further examined here: we have seen how Bel was the sun, became identified with Baal, and degenerated into Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. A similiar track was followed by Duzi, or Damuzi, the sun that has set, who became known in Biblical times as Tammuz, and to the Sabeans as Taus, and who is now worshipped under the name of Taous, in the form of a peacock, by the Yzedis, the so-called devil worshippers of Mesopotamia. The Syrian Tammuz and the Greek Adonis (Syrian Adonai, Lord) have long been recognized as identical ; and Apollo, Helios, Phoebus and Dianysos have all in turn been sun-gods, and their identity and attributes have been overlapped and interchanged, past unravelling. The Phoenix, periodically dying and reviving, and the mythical Rokh of Arabian mythology, no doubt owe their origin to a common source with the deified peacock Taous.

We have seen how Izdhubar-Nimrod, the mighty hunter, and Hercules, and the host of other heroes and demigods, who labour through a cycle of varied toils and journeys, timed to the zodiacal signs, like

the sun, have probably a common origin. The events of ages have brought these doughty heroes down through Odin, and the wild huntsman of German folk-lore, a demon who hunts with a pack of hellhounds, to the blue-fire fiend of English legends, Herne the hunter.

All these were personifications of the sun, the powerful focus of celestial fire, who for ages reigned as the supreme god of the universe; whose rising through the golden portals of the eastern sky could furnish a figure in sublimest language of the coming of Jehovah Himself: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in, . . . . the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And even, the ideal bridegroom of mythology, Tammuz-Adonis, as the sun in the heavens, is made to declare the glory of Jehovah to every nation throughout the world for he is "As a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Nothing was hid from the heat of the sun, and his heat was not lost when he passed through the caverns under the earth, between his setting and his rising again; and subterranean

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heat and fire, and fructifying warmth were associated with, if not produced by, the sun in the course of his circuits of perpetual activity: realizing the figure of the husband, the bridegroom of the earth.

Another form of fire could not fail to impress man with the greatest awe. Thinking man might be brought to conclude that the sun could not be a god, or he would not pursue his monotonous journey like a mill-horse, but would show some signs of independent action. But this idea would not attach to the lightning and thunder. The storm-clouds gathering over some devoted spot, according to no apparent law of Nature, flashing down their lightning at unequal intervals, striking hither and thither with destructive force, and roaring all the time with a stupendous voice, which drowns all other sounds besides, filling the mind with a profound sense of human impotence; became the ideal of gods of power and independent action. Dyaus-pitar (heaven father), the Aryan god of the expanse of heaven, Indra, his Hindu counterpart, Zeus, the Greek divinity, and Jupiter, the Latin god of heaven, all wielded the thunderbolt, and executed speedy judgment on any who became the object of divine wrath.

The discovery of fire had been an epoch in the history of man, the use of metals was hardly less important as an acquisition. Tubal-cain, whether this name be that of an individual or of a tribe, who

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