SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY, &c. 



customs observed at Christmas are remnants of 

 the heathen festival of Freyr, held at the winter 

 solstice or turn of the year, to celebrate the return 

 of the god of sunshine and fertility, who had been 

 threatening to forsake the earth. The blazing 

 Yule log, and the holly and other greenery hung 

 round, were symbols of the bright summer sun 

 -and the green vegetation that were looked for- 

 ward to. ' The procession of the boar's head ' is 

 -also connected with Freyr, to whom the boar was 

 sacred. In some places, cakes were baked in the 

 shape of boars, and eaten. 



SUN AND FIRE WORSHIP THE PARSEES AND 

 PERUVIANS. 



There is every reason to believe that the chief 

 deities in all polytheistic religions were, originally 

 at least, personifications of particular influences 

 of the Sun. The actual sun, however, still con- 

 tinued an object of worship ; more especially as 

 jn the abstract, and more strictly personal gods, 

 moral and intellectual qualities came to pre- 

 dominate over the physical The worship of the 

 5un was more or less closely associated with that 

 of Fire his representative on earth. The keep- 

 ,ing up of sacred fires is common to all polytheistic 

 isystems. Especially sacred and endowed with 

 purifying virtue was fire produced by rubbing two 

 pieces of wood, called need-fire. In the Veda, 

 the sacrificial fire is always lighted in this way. 

 Until quite recent times, the practice lingered 

 if it does not yet linger in many places, both 

 in these islands and on the continent of Europe, 

 of lighting a fire by this means, and driving the 

 cattle through it in order to prevent or drive 

 -away pestilence among them. One of the animals 

 was sometimes sacrificed on the occasion. The 

 Beltane or Bealteine fires of the Celtic nations, 

 lighted on May-day and in November, and the 

 bonfires of St John's or Midsummer-eve, as well 

 as of Easter-eve, common to the Teutonic nations, 

 are clearly relics of sun-worship (see KEY TO THE 

 CALENDAR). In some parts of Germany, a great 

 wheel* is made, and wrapped round with straw ; 

 this being lighted, the wheel is set a-rolling down 

 a hill an emblem of the sun. Among some 

 nations, the sun bodily, and his terrestrial repre- 

 sentative, fire, continued to be the chief objects 

 of worship. This was particularly the case among 

 the ancient Persians and the native Peruvians. 

 The religion of the Persians we know only as it 

 was modified by Zoroaster at a very early period. 

 Zoroaster developed the system of dualism, as it 

 is called that is, he concentrated all the benefi- 

 cent powers in one principle of light and good, 

 whom he personified as Ormuzd, with a number 

 of spirits or ministers of kindred nature in grada- 

 tion under him ; and all the adverse powers into 

 one principle of darkness and evil, personified as 

 Ahriman. Between the powers or kingdoms of 

 .light and darkness an unceasing contest went on. 

 The direct objects of worship were the sun, light, 

 and fire, as manifestations or abodes of the good 

 principle or power. The Persians had neither 

 temples nor statues, and offered their sacrifices on 



* In the Edda the sun is called fagrahvel fair or bright wheel ; 

 and this word hvel, Ang.-Sax. hveol, is believed to be identical 

 with the Greek !ul(ios}, Teut. Sauil, Lat Sol, the sun. The 

 Scandinavian form of hvel is hjul, and this furnishes the most 

 iprobable derivation of the Swedish and Danish //, Eng. Yule a 

 festival connected with the sun. 



the tops of mountains. The priests formed a 

 separate caste, called Magi. Many of the later 

 Jewish notions about good and evil angels, not 

 to be found in the earlier books of the Old Testa- 

 ment, were derived from contact with Zoroastrian- 

 ism during the captivity in Babylon ; and in par- 

 ticular, there is reason to believe that the concep- 

 tion of a prince or ruler of evil spirits is derived 

 from that source in other words, that Satan is 

 a Hebraic form of Ahriman. 



When the religion of Zoroaster was overthrown 

 by Mohammedanism, some of its faithful adher- 

 ents retired to the deserts in the south-east of 

 Persia, where they are known by the Arabic name 

 of Guebres, the same word as Kaffirs that is, 

 unbelievers ; others took refuge in the north-west 

 of India, about Bombay and Surat, where their 

 descendants, called Parsees, form a numerous and 

 wealthy section of the population. The great 

 object of their system is purity, moral and cere- 

 monial ; the latter is carried to an absurd excess. 



The most complete system of sun-worship that 

 we have any account of is that existing in Peru, 

 when discovered by the Spaniards (1526). An 

 interesting account of this and other religions of 

 South and Central America, drawn from notices 

 left by the Spanish conquerors and missionaries, 

 is to be found in Helps's Spanish Conquest in 

 America; from which we take the liberty of 

 giving the following, chiefly in the author's words : 

 ' Our northern natures can hardly comprehend 

 how the sun, and the moon, and the stars were 

 imaged in the heart of a Peruvian, and dwelt 

 there ; how the changes in these luminaries were 

 combined with all his feelings and his fortunes ; 

 how the dawn was hope to him ; how the fierce 

 mid-day brightness was power to him ; how the 

 declining sun was death to him ; and how the 

 new morning was a resurrection to him ; nay, 

 more, how the sun, and the moon, and the stars 

 were his personal friends, as well as his deities ; 

 how he held communion with them, and thought 

 that they regarded every act and word ; how, in 

 his solitude, he fondly imagined that they sym- 

 pathised with him ; and how, with outstretched 

 arms, he appealed to them against their own 

 unkindness, or against the injustice of his fellow- 

 man.' 



The Incas, as the Peruvian monarchs were 

 called, claimed to be children of the sun, and his 

 representatives on earth. Their government was 

 a despotic theocracy, of which the Inca was both 

 high-priest and king. In Cuzco, the capital, stood 

 a splendid temple to the sun, all the implements 

 of which were of gold. On the west end of the 

 interior was a representation of the sun's disc and 

 rays in solid gold, so placed that the rising sun, 

 shining in at the open east end, fell full upon the 

 image, and was reflected with dazzling splendour. 

 In the place or square of the temple a great 

 annual festival was held at the summer solstice. 

 The multitude, assembled from all parts of the 

 empire, and presided over by the Inca, awaited 

 in breathless solemnity the first rays of their deity 

 to strike the golden image in the temple, when the 

 whole prostrated themselves in adoration. Sacri- 

 fices, similar to those of the Jews, were offered on 

 the occasion, and bread and wine were partaken 

 of in a manner strikingly resembling the Christian 

 communion. 



' It must not be supposed that the sun alone 



437 



