PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT INDIA. 25] 
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOIN G PAPER. 
The Rev. F. A. Watxer, D.D., F..S., remarks in regard to 
Appendix B, (‘On Comparative Mythology,”) para. 1 :—The cult 
of Dionysos celebrated in Greece, especially in Athens, where four 
annual festivals were held, would appear to have been oriental, and 
not to have commenced in Greece; and this for many reasons. 
First—the fact that the tiger, lynx and panther (all Eastern 
animals), were among the creatures sacred to him, and he hated 
the sight of an owl, the sacred bird held in special reverence in 
Greece. Secondly, the so-called Theban Bacchus is often seen, in 
ancient art, seated on one of these Eastern animals. Thirdly, 
he is represented as a manly god with a beard long and soft, 
is commonly called the Indian Bacchus, and is represented as 
an oriental monarch, clad in Lydian robes richly folded. Fourthly, 
Smith’s Classical Dictionary says the extraordinary mixture of 
traditions respecting the history of Dionysos seems evidently to 
have arisen from the traditions of different times and countries 
referring to analogous divinities, being transferred to the Greek 
Dionysos. The worship of Dionysos was no part of the original 
cult of Greece, and his mystic worship is of comparatively late 
origin. Fifthly, the same authorities referring to the deity’s 
legendary history, that before his return to Europe, (when he visited 
Thrace, Thebes, Argos, and the Island of Naxos in succession, 
where he incited the inhabitants of those places to frenzy, discredit- 
able orgies, and acts of violence) he went to Egypt, where he was 
hospitably received by King Proteus; he then proceeded through 
Syria, where he flayed Damascus alive for opposing the introduc- 
tion of the vine; he then traversed all Asia, teaching the inhabi- 
tants of the different countries of Asia the cultivation of the vine, 
and introducing among them the elements of civilisation. The 
most famous part of his wanderings in Asia was his expedition to 
India, which is said to have lasted several years. Sixthly, another 
great argument for the Indian origin of the worship of the Wine- 
God is the fact that after the time of Alexander’s expedition to 
India, the celebration of the Bacchic festivals assumed more and 
more their wild and dissolute character. Seventhly, at the theatre 
of Dionysos, in Athens, in its lowest tier, sixty chairs or more of 
marble, were reserved for the priests of the different shrines, while 
the populace all sat in lower seats above—the larger central chair 
being reserved for the priest of Dionysos; this chair rests on lion’s 
paws, as an emblem of the god. The lower portion of its front is 
carved with two figures, clearly in Hastern dress, and throttling two 
winged lions, an additional proof that the worship of Dionysos 
was imported from the Hast. I may add that there is no possi- 
bility of mistaking the said lions for those of African species. 
