622 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Bliarata, which would doubtless be considered an island by its 

 inhabitants. Its northern boundary being the Viudhya Moun- 

 tains, they might suppose what lay beyond it was probably the 

 sea, just as the sea bounded their country on its other sides. 

 This old tohnnga described the men in the neighbourhood riding 

 on beasts, and having axes with holes in them, through which 

 the handles were thrust, etc. 



But it is from Maori mythology that the strongest e"sddence 

 is to be obtained : for, not only are the names of the most 

 ancient Turanian gods of India retained, and this in but partial 

 disguise, but the old Phallo-pantheistic faith, that preceded both 

 Buddhism and Brahmanism in India, is also enmeshed with their 

 cosmological and other legends. I shall deal with the latter 

 feature first. 



In India the Deity was symbolised, even in the earliest days, 

 as a serpent. The snake formed one of the most important 

 figures of Phallo-pantheism — the first philosophical faith of 

 India ; since either as a perpendicular, or ringed, it so facilely 

 expressed the male and female principles in Nature ; these being 

 also expressed by other figures, suggestive of a like meaning. 

 The snake, the truncated tree, or monolith, alluded to the 

 generative faculty evidenced in Nature, through the instrumen- 

 tality of the generative organs. Separate from his intention to 

 create, the Deity was conceived as bi-sexed, or hermaphrodite ; 

 but in periods of creative or recreative energy, the phallic snake 

 was represented as putting its tail into its mouth, thus picturing 

 the limjhnn and yoni, (the phallos and tonbelichos of the Greek 

 pantheists,) the instruments of generation : that is to say, there 

 arose a sexual differentiation in Nature. The Hindus thus 

 looked upon the vital phenomena in creation as a begetting, even 

 from its divine origination. As may be imagined, so sensuous 

 a symbolism could not fail (being but understood in its exoteric 

 bearing by the people at large,) to lead to licentiousness ; but, in 

 its esoteric and philosophic bearing, this view simply symbolised 

 the marriage of all natural things ; a state that Manichteism 

 alone has ever reprobated : Since — 



" Nothing in this world is single ; 

 All things, by a law divine, in each other's being mingle." 



Whenever, then, we find traces of this ancient snake and tree- 

 worship, we niaj be certain the old Hindu philosophy underlies 

 it, whether in Britain, or Central America even. 



Now, that there should be no direct reference to the serpent 

 portion of the cult among the Maoris is easily accounted for, 

 as there were no snakes in New Zealand to help to keep up the 

 recollection of the old symbol. Yet, if the antiquity of the 

 rock-paintings found in the South Island be established, the 

 serpent is certainly figured there, in a rude way, among other 



