THE PRIMITIVE IDEA OF GOD. 257 



god, regarded by some as the "brother of him of 

 the sun. 



In most cases among the Americans the sun was a 

 beneficent god, associated with light, fertility, and hap- 

 piness, as was also the case among the Indo-European 

 and Semitic races of the Old World ; and he connects 

 himself in some respects with the ideas of a mediator 

 or redeemer. This last thought centres around the 

 great fundamental tradition of the first mother, which 

 figures in all the American mythologies. We may take 

 the Iroquois version of it as given by the early Jesuits 

 and by Schoolcraft. Neo,* equivalent to Anu of the 

 older eastern theologies, is the Great Spirit ; Atahocan 

 is the Master of Heaven ; Tarenyawogan, or the Great 

 Hare (of whom more hereafter), is the Keeper of 

 Heaven. From this trinity originates Atahensic, the 

 first woman, and the American equivalent of Alytta 

 and Astarte of the East, Persephone and Artemis of 

 the Greeks, and the mother-goddess of so many other 

 ancient nations. f Married to one of the six first 

 created men, who seem to represent the six creative 

 days, and expelled from heaven, she produces twins, 



* Supposed by some to be a corruption of the French Dieu, 

 bub more likely allied to Mexican Teo. 



f In Smith's translation of the Assyrian account of the 

 Deluge, as given on the clay tablets in the British Museum, 

 Ishtar (Astarte) is introduced as appealing to the gods on 

 behalf of men, as the children she has brought forth, and as 

 weeping over their calamities (lines 110 to 120). This fact, 

 which I noticed after the above was written, affords an abso- 

 lute confirmation of the idea that the original Astarte is iden- 

 tical with the biblical Eve and the American Atahensic. 



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