In Ethiopia, superstition was general over the entire empire.
The Ethiopians used a sacred bread, called the corban. While this
bread was being made, the baker was obliged to repeat seven
psalms. Upon every loaf there were twelve impressions of the
cross, and each cross was within a square. Ethiopian monks slept
on a mat spread on the ground, and before lying down they
stretched out their hands one hundred and fifty times in the form
of a cross. Baptism was understood by the people of this empire
to be a solemn ceremony that washed away all impurities; but the
rite was observed by nearly all the ancient nations, in memory of
the Deluge.
[Pg
40]In an account of the empire of the Great Mogul, we
find no end of superstitious observances. Each heathen Indian
tribe had a separate god. Some tribes even worshipped boiled
rice; after the same manner the Egyptians paid homage to leeks.
Indian writers say that, in the beginning, a woman, whose name
was Paraxacti (brought into existence by the great Creator), had
three sons,—the first named Bruma, who came into life with
five heads. He was endowed with the power of creating all
inferior beings. The name of the second was Vixnu, appointed lord
of providence and preserver of all things formed by Bruma. The
third was named Rutrem, whose function or inclination was to
destroy all things his other two brothers had made and preserved.
Rutrem, like his brother Bruma, had five heads. Bruma assumed the
form of a stag; and, to punish him for a serious crime he
committed when in that shape, his brothers and thirty thousand
millions of gods punished him by cutting off one of his
heads.
According to the notions of Indian heathens, Bruma writes upon
the forehead of every child an account of all that shall happen
to him in the world. It is reported of Vixnu that he
metamorphosed himself at pleasure. He first took the form and
nature of a fish, and the second form assumed was that of a
tortoise. The Indians believed there were seven seas in the
world,—one of milk, of so delicious a nature that the gods
ate butter made of it. One day, when the gods wanted to feast on
the butter according to custom, they brought to the shore of the
milk sea a high mountain of gold, which supported fourteen worlds
that composed the universe. The uppermost part of the mountain
served for a resting place, and over it was brought an adder of
monstrous size, having a hundred heads. The gods made use of this
adder as a rope, in order to get at the butter more easily; but
while they were attempting to procure the[Pg 41]
butter, the giants, who had a continual hatred against the gods,
drew the adder on the other side with so much violence that it
shook the whole universe, and sunk it so low, that Vixnu, in his
tortoise form, placed himself under it and supported it.
Meanwhile the hundred-headed adder, being unable any longer to
endure the pain the gods and giants inflicted on him, vomited
poison upon the giants, which killed many of them on the spot.
Vixnu afterwards assumed the form of a beautiful woman, and such
of the giants as remained alive fell in love with the fair being.
In this guise, he amused the giants till the gods had eaten all
the butter.
In his third incarnation, Vixnu changed himself into the form
of a hog, in consequence of the following circumstance:—One
day a contest arose between the three gods, Bruma, Vixnu, and
Rutrem, regarding the extent of their power. Rutrem undertook to
go and hide himself, and at the same time promised to submit
himself to him who should first discover his head and feet; but
if they could not find these parts, then the baffled gods were to
acknowledge him their superior. Bruma and Vixnu having agreed to
this proposal, Rutrem vanished, and hid his head and feet in
places a great distance from each other, where he imagined they
could not be found. Bruma, in the likeness of a swan, commenced
to search for the head, but, finding he could not obtain any
trace of it, he resolved to return home. Just, however, as he was
going to give up the search, he met the thistle flower, which
came and saluted him, and showed the place where Rutrem had hid
his head. Rutrem, exasperated, cursed the flower, and forbade it
ever to enter his presence. For this reason, his followers
prevented thistles being brought into their temples in any part
of the East Indies.
For the purpose of finding the feet, Vixnu transformed himself
into a hog, and went from place to place digging into the earth,
but without success. For cogent reasons,[Pg 42] Vixnu
next assumed the form of a man and lion at the same time. Rutrem,
it appears, conceived a strong friendship for one Iranien, a
mighty giant, and granted him the privilege that no one should
kill him either by day or by night. Instead of the giant proving
grateful, he became proud and overbearing, and even insisted on
being worshipped as a god. To punish the giant, Vixnu suddenly
appeared before him in the form of a cloud, and then, taking the
monster shape of a being half-man half-lion, resolved to take
vengeance on the ungrateful wretch. In the evening, when Iranien
was standing at the threshold of his door, Vixnu sprang at him,
tore him to pieces, and drank his blood. But the blood affected
Vixnu so much that he became stupid. Vixnu's fifth transformation
was into a dwarf. At that time a cruel king's subjects appealed
to Vixnu to relieve them of their oppressor, and, to carry out
the people's desire, he, in the form of a dwarf, went to the city
where the tyrant kept court. The dwarf begged from the king a
grant of three feet of ground whereon to build himself a house.
The tyrant was about to comply with the request, when the morning
star, which attended the king in the character of secretary of
state, suspected there was treason in the case. It was common,
when requests were granted, for the king to take water into his
mouth and pour some of it into the hand of the suppliant, and
therefore the secretary, by the assistance of magic, slipped
imperceptibly down the prince's throat, in order to prevent the
water being thrown out. The magic had not the desired effect; for
the king, finding something in his throat, forced a sharp
instrument into it, which put out one of the secretary's eyes,
and the water gushed out, ratifying the agreement. Vixnu changed
himself into a monster so large that the whole earth was not
sufficient to afford room for his feet. He then said to the king,
"You have given me three feet of earth, and yet the whole world
can scarcely[Pg 43] contain one of my feet: where am I
to place the other?" The tyrant, seeing deserved wrath awaiting
him, laid his head down before Vixnu, who with one kick tossed it
into the lowest abyss of hell. The wretched king, finding himself
condemned to such a place of torment, begged pardon and mercy of
Vixnu, but all the favour he received was one day's respite every
year, to enable him to take part at a particular ceremony, to be
observed in commemoration of his own downfall and punishment.
Vixnu's sixth form was that of a white man. He subdued many
tyrants, and washed his hands in their blood. In this form he
destroyed many giants, and compelled all the apes in the country
to attend him. The last form Vixnu assumed was that of a black
man, in which likeness his cunning and success were not less
marked than when he was disguised in several of his former
shapes. Here is another story told of him:—There was a
great tyrant named Campsen, a violent persecutor of good men, who
had a sister called Exudi. It happened that the soothsayers, of
whom there were many in the country, having consulted the stars,
told the king that Exudi would have eight children, and that the
youngest of them would kill him. This enraged the monarch so much
that he destroyed seven of her children as soon as they were
born. Notwithstanding the natural affliction of the princess, she
became pregnant for the eighth time, but, wonderful to relate, of
no less a personage than the god Vixnu, who, unknown to her,
succeeded in finding a place in her womb. Fearing the child would
be conveyed beyond his reach as soon as it was born, the king
placed spies everywhere to prevent the young prince's escape. The
supposed father of the child succeeded in carrying him away, and
placing him under the care of shepherds far up the mountains.
Every effort was made by the baffled monarch to discover the
young prince, and at last he found him. Desiring to be the
executioner himself, he went and laid hold of the child
to[Pg
44] murder him. Just as the hand was raised to inflict
the fatal blow, the prince vanished, and in his room appeared a
little girl, whom the tyrant also attempted to kill; but she too,
after mocking the king, disappeared uninjured. Vixnu grew from
boyhood to manhood, when he raised an army against Campsen, whom
he defeated and slew with his own hands, fulfilling the
prediction of the soothsayers. Vixnu married two wives, but,
neither of them pleasing him, he divorced them and espoused
sixteen thousand shepherdesses. The people imagined that he would
appear some time or another in the form of a horse, but thought
that until that metamorphosis took place he would wallow in a sea
of milk, with his head supported by a beautiful snake.
We are informed that Rutrem, the third son of Paraxacti, was
much respected by the people, though, judging from the accounts
transmitted to us, the wonder is that he was not detested. He
married Parvardi, daughter of a king, whose dominion was in the
mountains, with whom he lived a thousand years; but his two
brothers, Bruma and Vixnu, having disapproved of the match,
gathered together the thirty thousand millions of gods, and went
in search of him. Accordingly he was found and dragged away from
his wife, which caused him to wander up and down the earth in
search of forbidden pleasures. One day the earth gave him a son
with seven heads; but as a nurse could not be got to bring up the
child, the seven stars undertook the task. Parvardi, disconsolate
at the loss of her husband, went in search of him, but could not
discover his place of abode. In her lonely state, she begged the
gods would give her a son,—a request that was complied
with, for a man-child dropped out of the sweat of her forehead.
In the meantime Rutrem returned to his house, and, finding the
child, became exceedingly enraged. His anger, however, turned
into love on being informed of the miraculous manner in which he
was born. The[Pg 45] king of the mountains made a feast,
to which the gods were invited, but Rutrem, his son-in-law, was
not asked. This want of respect provoked him so much that he went
to the banquet, and, laying hold of one of the gods, tore off a
handful of hair from his head. From the hair a giant of enormous
size started up, whose head reached to the firmament, and struck
the sun with so great violence that all its teeth were knocked
out. For this reason, the Indians refused to offer anything to
the sun but what could be eaten without teeth. Not satisfied with
knocking out the teeth of the sun, he bruised the moon so
severely that the marks remain to the present day. He then killed
several of the guests, among whom was his step-son, created from
the sweat of his mother's forehead. Vinayaguien (that was the
youth's name) lost his head, and had it replaced with that of an
elephant. In the disfigured state into which he was turned, his
father dispatched him in search of a wife as beautiful as his
mother,—a task that proved endless, because there could not
be found a woman equal in beauty to his maternal parent.
Rutrem married the River Ganges, which was represented under
the form of a blooming woman. At that time there was a giant
named Piamejuran, who had for several years undergone a severe
penance for having offended Rutrem, but, becoming sensible of his
offence, desired to be absolved. The favour was granted him, with
the privilege of reducing to ashes everything he laid his hands
upon. The power with which he was endowed proved his death. One
day he went to the Ganges to bathe, and, lifting his hand to his
forehead, it reduced him to dust.
At their marriages, the Indians were very superstitious, and
paid great regard to omens. The consent of the parents being
obtained, and a fortunate day appointed, the parties met with the
relations, when the bridegroom[Pg 46] threw three handfuls of
rice on the head of the bride, and she cast an equal quantity at
him. Part of the marriage ceremony consisted of the fathers of
both bridegroom and bride putting a piece of money and a small
quantity of water into the bride's hand. This being done, the
bridegroom hung a ribbon, with a coin attached to it, round her
neck.
As soon as a man died, his beard was shaved, his body washed,
lime put into his mouth, and women rubbed his face with rice.
When the body was burned, the deceased's ashes were thrown into
the Ganges, for the water of that river was supposed to have a
virtuous and holy influence on whatever it touched. The Brahmins
believed that there were five different degrees of glory after
death. Bruma, with his wife Sarassuadi, was in the fourth state
attended by a large swan, on which he rode abroad, this god being
supposed to be exceedingly fond of travelling. None but the most
innocent were exalted to the fifth seat of glory.
Cows' dung was spread over the floors of Indian temples; and
such was the people's reverence for the cow, that when
sacrificing they poured milk on their altars. Their priests
pretended that their gods had oracles, by which they could
foretell future events. When several persons were suspected of
stealing anything, and the guilty one could not be discovered by
ordinary means, the priests wrote the names of the suspected
persons on different pieces of paper, and laid them down before
the altar, and invoked their oracle, after which they locked the
doors, so that no person could get in. When they returned and
found any paper removed, the person whose name was on it was
declared to be the criminal. On the priests addressing their
oracles, they became so excited that they remained for hours
seemingly in great agony. After recovering, they explained to the
people the sayings of the oracles. The Indians had tables of
astronomy which[Pg 47] they consulted. When the moon was
eclipsed, they believed she was fighting with a black devil.
The Indians supposed that by means of magic a man could change
himself into the form of a lion or any other animal he chose. We
have heard of one John Gondalez, who changed himself into the
shape of a lion, and in that form was shot by a Spaniard. The day
on which Gondalez was fired at he was reported to be sick. A
clergyman was called in to take his confession. The pious man, in
giving an account of what he saw and heard, said, "I saw
Gondalez's face and nose all bruised, and asked him how he had
received the injuries. He told me that he had fallen from a tree
and nearly killed himself. After this he accused the Spaniard of
shooting at him. The affair was inquired into by a Spanish
justice of the peace. My evidence was taken, and I told what
Gondalez had said to me regarding his fall. The Spaniard swore
that he had shot at a lion in a thick wood, where an Indian was
not likely to be."
Gondalez was examined as to how he was not seen by the
Spaniard when he went to look for the lion; to which he replied
that he ran away lest the Spaniard should kill him. As Gondalez's
dealings with the devil were well known to all in the
neighbourhood, it was held that he had received his injuries when
roaming as a four-footed beast; and therefore the justice
discharged the Spaniard.
Index | Next
