144 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



tillage, with a ploughshare over his shoulder, and the blossoms of 

 the lotos on his head. 



It is easy to trace, even in these confused and distorted remnants 

 of ancient creeds, an identity of idea and a coincidence of purpose. 

 Brahma waking from sleep upon the bosom of the lotos, and Willing 

 the creation by a passing thought; Puzza resting his gigantic frame 

 upon the Lien-uha, or sacred lotos leaf; Orus brought back to im- 

 mortal life when he lay dead in the midst of the waters, are all em- 

 blems of the Supreme Will, which called up the worlds from night, 

 and by a thought, changed the silence of chaos into the morning 

 song of creation. 



All tradition and allegory go the same way ; and in the most per- 

 verted and sensualised of ancient symbols we may still read tiie sub- 

 lime thought ; the overwhelming truth, handed down by oral 

 tradition and sculptured emblems from one generation to another ; 

 pointing back through the dark to the great fountain of all things, 

 and telling in words and images not yet illegible, the simple story of 

 the birth of nature. Beautiful indeed are these revelations of the 

 flowers; sweet old time that, when green leaves and yellow blossoms 

 were parts of the life of man, and the fragrance of the wood-cups 

 mingled with the globules of his blood, filling his heart and hands 

 with a holy purpose, one with nature, with God, and with himself. 



Amid the luxuriance of the land of the sun, man was born into a 

 world of flowers. Nourished with the milk of a mother whose life 

 and love had flown together through those channels of religious 

 beauty ; he goes forth in his youth to the fields and the forests, and 

 kneels before the protecting lord of spirits, the adorable Ganesa, the 

 son of Siva, whose images are placed beside the highways, in the 

 jungles, and amid the pastures surrounded with green beauty, and 

 with flowers. The god himself is represented by an upright stake of 

 the plant Cacay,* which of all green herbs is most sacred to Ganesa. 

 Round this rustic image of the god, the ground is levelled and conse- 

 crated, and then the sincere worshipper kneels and makes his offering 

 of milk and honey. f When his blood, warmed into the generosity of 

 manhood and love, beats and burns in his bosom; it is Cama,J the 



* Cassia Fistula. 



t Buchanan's Journey into Mysore, i, 52. 



J Cama is the Cupid in the Mythology of the Paranas. 



