[14] 



from the mouth of the Eternal " (Plutarch, " De Iside et Osiride "). The 

 close connection of the later Eranians with the Chaldeans no doubt 

 gave the former facilities for studying the Akkadian astronomy ; and, 

 therefore, it is fair to presume that the phenomenon of the precession of 

 the equinoxes was well understood by them, which would account for 

 the fact that Mithra is always represented in earlier times under the 

 figure of a bull, and afterwards under that of a lamb. The reason of 

 this is that, prior to about B.C. 2,200, the vernal equinoxial sign was the 

 zodiacal figure of the bull (Taurus) ; while, after that period, the figure 

 of the lamb or ram (Aries) took its place ; and as the saviour sun-god 

 Mithra was the personification of the new annual sun, born in the 

 December constellation, crossing the equator in March, and thereby 

 conquering the powers of evil or darkness, he was invariably represented 

 by the figure of that zodiacal constellation which happened to be at the 

 vernal equinoxial point at the time.* 



Having thus briefly glanced at the religious cults of the three 

 branches of the great Aryan family, and found the very same religious 

 conception of a divine and incarnate saviour, redeeming the universe 

 from the powers of darkness and evil, running through each mytholo- 

 gical system, we cannot help coming to the conclusion that, inasmuch 

 as the saviour-myth was developed into its full proportions long after the 

 separation of the families took place, and inasmuch as the development 

 followed similar lines in each separate case, there must have been some 

 common guide, and that guide was the unwritten word of nature as 

 expressed in the heavens above. 



Leaving the Aryan stream, and turning back to that division of the 

 great Iranian family which migrated to the valley of the Nile, and which 

 we call the Egyptian, we find a very similar religious system in vogue 

 among them from the very earliest times, as existed among the Aryans. 

 The first settlers in Egypt carried with them, no doubt, the primitive 

 religious conceptions of their Iranian fathers, which were derived from 

 a contemplation of the various phenomena of nature, as previously 

 stated ; and it is highly probable that, at a very early period, they gave 

 considerable attention to the movements of the heavenly bodies, for 

 from monumental inscriptions, unearthed in modern times, which geolo- 

 gists inform us must have lain sub terra for several thousands of years, 

 we learn that the Egyptians, at that remote time, well understood the 

 theory of the precession of the equinoxes, placing the zodiacal constella- 

 tion of the bull at the vernal equinoctial point in the period prior to 

 about B.C. 4300, and that of the ram in the period immediately following. 

 It is probable, therefore, that hundreds of years before this time these 



* Vide my " Popular Faith Unveiled." 



