. The serpent symbol, and the worship of the reciprocal principles of nature in America . octrine of the fiery soul of the world, by which they supposed allthings were created, animated, and governed.—{Hindu Antquities.) The Babylonians, says Daraaseius, {Corys Ancient Fragments, p. 313,) likethe rest of the Barbarians, pass over in silence the one principle of the univeise,and they constitute two, Ianthe and Apason ; the latter is the husband of Ianthe,who is the mother of the Gods. From these two proceed an only begotten son,MoTMis, wliich Damascius conceives to be no other than the intellig
. The serpent symbol, and the worship of the reciprocal principles of nature in America . octrine of the fiery soul of the world, by which they supposed allthings were created, animated, and governed.—{Hindu Antquities.) The Babylonians, says Daraaseius, {Corys Ancient Fragments, p. 313,) likethe rest of the Barbarians, pass over in silence the one principle of the univeise,and they constitute two, Ianthe and Apason ; the latter is the husband of Ianthe,who is the mother of the Gods. From these two proceed an only begotten son,MoTMis, wliich Damascius conceives to be no other than the intelligible world,proceeding from the two principles. Proclus ejaculates, in his hynm to the Sun, Apollo 1 key-keeper of the fountainof life! 42 AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES. emblem of the Greeks, worshipped by the Saivas.* This worshipmay be presumed to have been Nature, under the male and femaleforms, personified ; as Siva, the Sun (which he is equally withSurya) or fire, the genial heat which pervades, generates andvivifies all; and Bhavani, who, as the G-oddess of Nature, is also. Fig. 1. The Lingham and Yonlthe earth, the universal mother. These two active principles oflife, having been thus personified, may have been subsequentlyconverted, by the grossness of idolatry, from imaginary formsinto realities,—from the personified symbols of Nature to typicalrepresentations of the procreative powers of those symbolsthemselves. * * * ^^j^g Yo?ii or Bhag-a is the * The Lingham, corresponding to the Phallus of the Egj^ptians, is alwaj^s to befoiind in the interior and most sacred part of the temples of Siva. Sometimes itrepresents both the male and female parts of generation, and sometimes only theformer. A lamp is kept constantly burning before it; but when sacrifices aremade, seven lamps are lighted. Married women wear a small gold Linghamaround the neck or arm, and pay woiship to it, to obtain fecundity. Tliose whodedicate themselves to the service of tlie Lingham, swear to
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