Paradise Found: Part Fifth: Chapter III. The Eden Zenith

. . . The shrine where motion first began, 1
And light and life in mingling torrent ran,
From whence each bright rotundity was hurled,
The Throne of God,.—the Centre of the World.
Campbell’s Pleasures of Hope.

El walketh in the Chug of heaven.—Book of Job.

To the first men, on the hypothesis of an Arctic Eden, the zenith and the north pole of the heavens were identical. Such an aspect of the starry vault the humanity of our late historic ages has never seen. Under such an adjustment of the rotating firmament, how regular and orderly would nature appear! What profound significance would of necessity attach to that mysterious unmoving centre-point of cosmic revolution directly overhead! As intimated on page 50, that polar centre must naturally have seemed to be the top of the world, the true heaven, the changeless seat of the supreme God or gods. "And if, through all the long life-time of the antediluvian world, this circumpolar sky was thus to human thought the true abode of God, the

oldest postdiluvian peoples, though scattered down the sides of the globe half or two thirds the distance to the equator, could not easily forget that at the centre and true top of the firmament was the throne and the palace of its great Creator."

The religions of all ancient nations signally confirm and satisfy this antecedent expectation. With a marvelous unanimity they associate the abode of the supreme God with the North Pole, "the centre of heaven," or with the celestial space immediately surrounding it. No writer on Comparative Theology has ever brought out the facts which establish this assertion, but the following outline of them will suffice for our present purpose:—

First. The Hebrew Conception.—In so pure and lofty a monotheism as that of the ancient Hebrews, we must not expect to find any such strict localization of the supreme God in the circumpolar sky as we shall find among polytheistic peoples. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" is the language of Jehovah. Nevertheless, as the Hebrews must be supposed to have shared, in some measure, the geographical and cosmological ideas of their age, it would not be strange if in their sacred writings traces of these ideas were here and there discernible. Some of these traces are quite curious, and they have attracted the attention of not a few Biblical scholars, to whom their origin and rationale are entirely unsuspected. Thus a learned writer on Hebrew geography, after blindly repeating the common assumption that "the Hebrews conceived the surface of the earth to be an immense disk, supported, like the flat roof of an Eastern house, by pillars," yet uses such language as this: "The North appears

to have been regarded as the highest part of the earth's surface, in consequence, perhaps, of the mountain ranges which existed there." 1

Another, touching upon the same subject, says, "The Hebrews regarded what lay to the North as higher, and what lay to the South as lower: hence they who traveled from South to North were said to 'go up,' while they who went from North to South were said to 'go down.'" 2

In Psalm seventy-fifth, verse sixth, we read, "Promotion cometh not from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South." Why this singular enumeration of three of the points of the compass, and this omission of the fourth? Simply because heaven, the proper abode of the supreme God, being conceived of by all the surrounding nations, if not by the Hebrews themselves, as in the North, in the circumpolar sky, that was the sacred quarter, and it could not reverently be said that promotion cometh not from the North. 3 It would have been as offensive as among us to say that promotion cometh not from above. Therefore, having completed his negative statements, the Psalmist immediately adds, "But God is the judge; He putteth down one, and setteth up another."

A curious trace of the same conception appears in the book of Job, in the eighth and ninth verses

of the twenty-third chapter. In Old Testament times, the Hebrews and the Arabians designated the cardinal points by the personal terms, "before" for East, "behind" for West, "left hand" for North, and "right hand" for South. Thus Job, in the passage indicated, is complaining that he can nowhere, East or West, North or South, find his divine judge. 1 But, in speaking of one of these points, he adds this singular qualification, "where God doth work." This is said of the left hand, or North. It seems to be inserted to render peculiarly emphatic the declaration, "I go . . . [even] to the left hand where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him." If at first blush such an apparent localizing of the divine agency seems inconsistent with Job's splendid descriptions of God's omnipresence in other passages, it should be remembered that we, too, speak of the omnipresent deity as dwelling "on high," and address Him as "Our Father which art in Heaven."

A natural counterpart to this idea of a northern heaven would be a belief or impression that spiritual perils and evils were in a peculiar degree or manner to be apprehended from the right hand, or South, as the proper abode of demons,—the quarter to which Asmodeus fled when exorcised by the angel. 2 We cannot positively affirm that such a belief consciously

prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, but, holding the possibility in mind, we find passages of Scripture which seem to stand out in a new and striking light. Thus, in case there was such a belief, how great the force and beauty of the expression, "Because [the Lord] is at my right hand [the side exposed to danger] I shall not be moved." 1 With this may be compared the confident expressions of the one hundred and twenty-first Psalm: "The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand." So also in the ninety-first it is on the right hand that destruction is anticipated: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and [or even] ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." Again, in the one hundred and forty-second it is said, "I looked on my right hand, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." Notice also the imprecation, "Let Satan stand at his right hand" (Ps. cix. 6), and the vision of Zechariah, where the great adversary makes his appearance on the right of the one whom he came to resist (Zech. iii. 1).

But as Satan here reveals himself from beneath and from the South, so to Ezekiel the true God reveals himself from above and from the North (Eze. i. 4). In that quarter was God's holy mountain (Is. xiv. 13), the city of the Great King (Ps. xlviii. 2), the land of gold (Job xxxvii. 22, marg.), the place where divine power had hung the earth upon nothing (Job xxvi. 7). 2 Hence the priest officiating at

the altar, both in the tabernacle and later in the temple, faced the North. According to the Talmud, King David had an Æolian harp in the North window of his royal bed-chamber, by means of which the North wind woke him every night at midnight for prayer and pious meditations. 1 Probably it is not without significance that in Ezekiel's vision of the ideal temple of the future the chamber prepared for the priests in charge of the altar was one "whose prospect was toward the North." 2 (Eze. xl. 46.)

[paragraph continues] Second. The Egyptian Conception.—The correspondence of the ancient Egyptian conception of the world and of heaven with the foregoing would be remarkable did we not know that Egypt was the cradle of the Hebrew people. The ancient inhabitants of the Nile valley had the same idea as to the direction of the true summit of the earth. To them, as to the Hebrews, it was in the North. This was the more remarkable since it was exactly contrary to all the natural indications of their own country, which continually ascended toward the South. As stated in a previous chapter, Brugsch says, "The Egyptians conceived of the earth as rising toward the North, so that in its northernmost point it at last joined the sky." 1 In correspondence herewith the Egyptians located their Ta-nuter, or "land of the gods," in the extreme North. 2 On this account it is on the northern exterior wall of the great temple of Ammon at Karnac that the divinity promises to King Rameses II. the products of that heavenly country, "silver, gold, lapis-lazuli, and all the varieties of precious stones of the land of the gods." Hence, also, contrary to all natural indications, the northern hemisphere was considered the realm of light, the southern the realm of darkness. 3

[paragraph continues] The passage out of the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid was pointed precisely at the North Pole of the heavens. All the other pyramids had their openings only on the northern side. That this arrangement had some religious significance few students of the subject have ever doubted. If our interpretation is correct, such passages from the burial chamber toward the polar heaven intimated a vital faith that from the chamber of death to the highest abode of life, imperishable and divine, the road is straight and ever open. 1

Third. The Conception of the Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Indians, and Iranians.—After what has been said in former chapters respecting the location of Kharsak Kurra, Sad Matâti, Har-Moed, Su-Meru, and Harâ-berezaiti, no further proof is needed that all the peoples above named associated the true heaven, the abode of the highest gods,

with the northern celestial pole. 1 In each case the apex of their respective mounts of the gods pierced the sky precisely at that point. To this day the Haranite Sabæans—the most direct heirs of the religious traditions of the Tigro-Euphratean world—construct their temples with careful reference to the ancient faith. 2 Their priests also, in the act of sacrifice, like all ancient priesthoods, face the North. 3

In the Rig Veda, ii., 40, I, we read of the amṛ́tasya nâ´bhim, "the Navel of the Heavens." The same or similar expressions occur again and again in the Vedic literature. They refer to the northern celestial Pole, just as the expression nâ´bhir pṛthivyâ´s, "Navel of the Earth," R.V. iii., 29, 4, and elsewhere, signifies the northern terrestrial Pole. To each is ascribed preëminent sanctity. The one is the holiest

shrine in heaven, the other the holiest shrine on earth. That no translator has hitherto caught the true meaning of the terms seems unaccountable. 1

In Buddhism, the heir and conservator of so many of the ancient ideas of India, the same notion of a world ruler with his throne at the celestial Pole lived on. 2 Very curiously, if we follow the authority of the Lalitavistara, the first actions and words ascribed to the infant Buddha on his arrival in our world unmistakably identify the North with the abode of the gods, and its nadir with the abode of the demons. 3 Even the modern relics of the non-Aryan aboriginal tribes of India, as for example the Gonds, have retained this ancient ecumenical ethnic belief. 4

[paragraph continues] Fourth. The Phœnician, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Conception.—That the Phœnicians shared the general Asiatic view of a mountain of the gods in the extreme North appears from Movers’ learned work upon that people. 1

The evidence that in ancient Hellenic thought, also, the heaven of the gods was in the northern sky is incidental, but cumulative and satisfactory. For example, heaven is upheld by Atlas, but the terrestrial station of Atlas, as we have elsewhere shown, is at the North Pole. Again, Olympos was the abode of the gods; but if the now generally current etymology of this term is correct, Olympos was simply the Atlantean pillar, pictured as a lofty mountain, and supporting the sky at its northern Pole. 2 In fact, many writers now affirm that the Olympos of Greek mythology was originally simply the north polar "World-mountain" of the Asiatic nations. 3

In prayer the Greeks turned towards the North, and from Homer we know that when they addressed the "Olympian" gods they stretched out their hands "toward the starry heavens;" Greek prayers, therefore, must have been addressed toward the northern heavens. Entirely confirmatory of this is the account Plato gives of "the holy habitation of Zeus," in which the solemn convocations of the gods were held, and which, he explains, "was placed in the Centre of the World." 1

That this Centre is the northern celestial Pole is placed beyond question by a well-known passage from Servius Maurus, 2 where it is called the "domicilium Jovis," and where we are informed that the Etruscan and Roman augurs considered thunder and lightning in the northern sky more significant than in any other quarter, being "higher and nearer to the abode of Jove." 3 Countries in high northern latitudes shared in this peculiar sanctity. "Toward

the end of the official or state paganism," says M. Beauvois, "the Romans regarded Great Britain as nearer heaven and more sacred than the Mediterranean countries." 1 Varro and other Latin writers confirm this general representation, so that all modern expounders of the old Etruscan religion unite in locating the abode of the gods of Etruria in the Centre of Heaven, the northern circumpolar sky. 2 Niebuhr and other authorities of the highest rank assure us that the Romans shared the same faith. 3

Fifth. The Japanese Conception.—We have already seen that in the Japanese cosmogony the down-thrust spear of Izanagi becomes the upright axis of heaven and earth. Izanagi's place, therefore, at the upper end of this axis can be nowhere else than at the North Pole of the sky. 1

But we are not left to inference. So inseparably was the Creator associated with the Pole in ancient Japanese thought that one of his loftiest and divinest titles was derived from this association. Writing of the primitive ideas of this people, one of our best authorities uses the following language: "I shall do the Koji-ki, and the Shinto religion, and the Japanese philosophy, strict justice by saying that, according to them, there existed in the beginning one god, and nobody and nothing besides.

sat the god Ame-no-mi-naka-nushi-no-kami, whose name signifies The Lord of the Centre of Heaven." 2

What this Centre of Heaven is cannot well be doubtful to any careful reader of the present chapter.

Sixth. The Chinese Conception.—The oldest traceable worship among the Chinese is that of Shang-te, the highest of all gods. It is believed to have existed more than two thousand years before Christ. Shang-te is usually and correctly described

as the god of heaven. But his proper place of abode, his palace, is called Tsze-wei. And if we inquire as to the meaning and location of Tsze-wei, the native commentators upon the sacred books inform us that it is "a celestial space about the North Pole." 1

Here, as in Japan, and in Egypt, and in India, and in Iran, and in Greece, the Pole is "the centre" of the sky. A writer in the "Chinese Repository" quotes from authoritative religious books these declarations: "The Polar star is the Centre of Heaven." "Shang-te's throne is in Tsze-wei, i.e., the Polar star." "Immediately over the central peak of Kwen-lun appears the Polar star, which is Shang-te's heavenly abode." "In the central place the Polar star of Heaven, the one Bright One, the Great Monad, always dwells." 2

In accordance with this conception, the Emperor and his assistants, when officiating before the Altar of Heaven, always face the North. 3 The Pole-star itself is a prominent object of worship. 4 And how prevalent this localization of the abode of God at

the Pole remains after four thousand years may be illustrated by the following incident narrated by Rev. Dr. Edkins: "I met on one occasion a schoolmaster from the neighborhood of Chapoo. He asked if I had any books to give away on astronomy and geography. Such books are eagerly desired by all members of the literary class. . . . The inquiry was put to him 'Who is the Lord of heaven and earth?' He replied that he knew none but the Polestar, called in the Chinese language Teen-hwang-ta-te,—the Great Imperial Ruler of Heaven." 1

Seventh. The Ancient German and the Finnic Conception.—Like the ancients, when praying and sacrificing to the gods, the pagan Germans turned their faces toward the North. 2 There, in the northern heaven, at the top of Yggdrasil, the world-axis, stood the fair city of Asgard, the home of the Asen. The Eddas expressly say of it that it was built "in the Centre of the World." 3 At that point, whence alone

the whole world of men is ever visible by night and by day, stood Hlidskjálf, the watch-tower of Odin. From this "partie septentrionale du ciel" he and Frigga, like the great gods of the Etruscans, "veillaient sur toute la terre." 1

Among the ancient Finns the name of the supreme god was Ukko. In their mythology he is sometimes represented as upbearing the firmament, like Atlas, and sometimes he is called Taivahan Napanen, "the Navel of Heaven." As Castrén shows, this curious title is given him simply because he resides in the centre or Pole of heaven. 2 In the great epic of this people, the Kalevala, the abode of the supreme God is called Tähtela, 3 which word simply means "Place of Tähti: Esthonian, Täht, the Polar star."

We have not exhausted our materials in hand for the illustration of this point, 4 but surely we have presented enough. Reviewing this singular unanimity of the ancient nations, no thoughtful reader can fail to be impressed with its significance. No other explanation of it can be so simple and obvious as the supposition that the heaven which overarched the cradle of humanity was a heaven whose zenith was the northern Pole.

Before concluding the present chapter, another point of considerable interest should be noticed. In reading the Edenic traditions of the ancient nations

as given in Part fourth, the question may well have suggested itself to the reader, "How is it that, with such perfect unanimity on the part of contemporary nations in respect to the north-polar position of the cradle of mankind, the traditions of the Hebrews alone should have placed it in the East?" In the facts just now reviewed we have a key to this puzzle. The only word in Genesis which connects Eden with the East is Kedem (Qedem). This term "properly means that which is before or in front of a person, and was applied to the East from the custom of turning in that direction when describing the points of the compass." 1 From Gen. xiii. 14, it would seem to have acquired this association with the East as early as the days of Abraham, but according to "the custom" of a particular time or people it could mean one point of the compass as well as another. It was simply the "front-country." In late historic times among the Hebrews it was the East, and accordingly the West was the country "behind," the North the "left hand," the South the "right," as before noticed. In Egypt, however, the usage was different,—the "front-country" being either the North or the South,—which we cannot certainly tell, as Egyptologists are divided on the question. Pierret thinks that it was South, and that accordingly the right hand was West and the left East. 2 Chabas and others, however, exactly reverse the meaning of the hieroglyphics translated "right" and "left," and hold that in designating the points of the compass the ancient Egyptian faced the North.

[paragraph continues] Among the Akkadians and Assyrians, if we may rely upon a questionable statement of Lenormant, still another adjustment prevailed: the right hand was the North, the left the South, and the "front" direction, of course, the West. 1

In view of these facts it is plain that, anterior to the fixation of Hebrew usage, that is in pre-Abrahamic times, Qedem, or the "front-country," may as well have meant the North as any other quarter. And there is much reason to suppose that it did have this meaning. We have seen that this was peculiarly the sacred quarter of the whole Asiatic and Egyptian world. Toward it faced all earliest priest-hoods and worshipers of whom we have any knowledge. 2 What so natural as that they should contemplate and designate the different quarters of the world from the standpoint of their normal posture in worship? And if once we assume that such was the usage of all the Noachidæ anterior to their dispersion, and that accordingly "the front-country" meant the North, all at once becomes plain. Genesis then unites with universal ethnic tradition in locating the cradle of mankind in the North. The record then reads, "And the Lord God planted a garden in the North country, in Eden." And, in precise agreement herewith, it is down from the mountainous heights of this North country—"from

[paragraph continues] Qedem "—that the descendants of Noah in after time come into "the plain in the land of Shinar" (Gen. xi. 2). So is cleared up simultaneously another mystery, for how to bring the first colonizers of Shinar into the Tigro-Euphrates valley, from any probable Ararat by any probable "journeying from the East," or, as the margin gives it, "eastwards," has always perplexed the commentator. 1

This interpretation harmonizes for the first time Gen. ii. 8 with Eze. xxviii. 13, both now referring to one and the same point of the compass, the sacred North. Again, the well-known difficulty of harmonizing the references to "the children of Qedem," found in the oldest of the Hebrew Scriptures, such as Gen. xxix. t, and Job i. 3, is solved at once by this interpretation. At the same time it gives us a location for "the land of Uz" exactly corresponding with the explicit declaration of Josephus: "Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus; this country lies between Palestine and Cœlosyria." 2

To most readers, this solution of the problem of the exceptional character of the Hebrew tradition will probably at once commend itself as eminently satisfactory. To some, however, it may seem a little difficult of belief that one and the same term could in successive ages have found application to different points of the compass. 3 To such the following,

written, of course, with no reference to our problem, will be of special interest: "The names of the four cardinal points, and, what is very remarkable, the hieroglyphic signs by which they are expressed, are in a certain measure the same in the Akkadian and Chinese cultures. This I intend to show in a special monograph upon the subject; but that which is here of importance to note is the displacement of the geographical horizon produced in the establishing of the 'hundred families.' The South, which was so termed on the cuneiform tablets, corresponds in Chinese to the East, the North to the West, the East to the South, making thus a displacement of quarter of a circle. It would be interesting if, on examination of the Akkadian and Assyrian names, we could find that they in their turn denoted an early displacement of which only these traces remain to us." 1

Possibly the usage of ancient Egypt may enable us to put our solution in yet simpler form. If we may accept the teachings of the learned Maspéro, the Egyptians often reduced the four quarters or directions to two, using the term East in a sense sufficiently broad to include both East and North, and the term West in a sense sufficiently broad to include both West and South. 1 If, then, Moses, who in his education was an Egyptian, wrote in accordance

with such a usage, it would be quite possible to use Qedem for a "front-country" in the North, and again, without embarrassment, to use the same term in speaking of the East. 1

Footnotes

202:1 The poet is speaking of the North Pole. The first three lines are illustrated by the closing chapters of Part third, above; the last sums up the facts to be set forth in the present chapter. A word from Menzel is here in place: "Nysa wird in vielen griechischen Mythen als im Centralpunkt bezeichnet von wo das Weltleben ausging and wohin es zurückkehrt. . . . Das ideale Nysa können wir nirgend anders als im Ausgangspunkte des Welt, im Nordpol suchen." Die vorchristliche Unsterblichkeitslehre, i. 65; also p. 42.

204:1 Rev. William Latham Bevan, A.M., in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Art. "Earth," vol. i., p. 633, 634 (Hackett's ed.). McClintock and Strong's Cyclopædia, Art. "Geography," vol. iii., p. 792.

204:2 McClintock and Strong, Cyclopædia, Art. "North," vol. vii., p. 185. The Akkadians had the same idiom. Lenormant, Beginnings of History, p. 313.

204:3 "A peculiar sanctity is attached to the North in the Old Testament records." T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Isaiah. London, 1870; pp. 140, 141. [See our cut: "The Earth of the Hindus," p. 152.]

205:1 Adam Clarke, Commentary, in loc. The best explanation the oldest commentators know how to give is this: There were more human beings and more intelligent ones North of Job's country than in either of the three other cardinal directions; especially was the North the seat of the great Assyrian empire; but God desires to reside and to work preëminently among men, hence the language of the text! Matthew Poole, in Dietelmair and Baumgarten's Bibelwerk, vol. v., p. 634.

206:1 Ps. xvi. 8. The reference seems all the more unmistakable since the next two verses speak of Sheol, or Hades.

206:2 "Im Norden sind die höchsten Berge, vor allen der heilige Götterberg Is. 14, 13. . . . Vom Norden her kommt in der Regel Jehovah." p. 207 Herzog's Real-Encyklopädie, Art. "Welt," Bd. xvii., S. 678. "Like the Hindus, Persians, Greeks, and Teutons, . . . the Shemitic tribes spoke of a mountain of their gods in the far North (Is. xiv. 13; Eze. xxviii. 14); and even with the Jews, notwithstanding the counteracting influence of the Mosaic creed, traces of such a popular belief continued to be visible (Ps. xlviii.), the North being, e.g., regarded as the sacred quarter (Lev. i. 11; Eze. i. 4)." Dillmann, in Schenkel's Bibel Lexicon. Leipsic, 1879: vol. ii., p. 49.

207:1 "Daily from the four quarters of the world blow the four Winds, of which three are continually attended by the North wind; otherwise the world would cease to be. The most pernicious of all is the South wind, which would destroy the world were it not held back by the angel Bennetz." Quoted from the Talmud by Bergel, Studien über die naturwissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse der Talmudisten. Leipsic, 1880: p. 84. Compare Dillmann, Das Buch Henoch, Kap. lxxvi.; lxxvii.; xxv. 5; xxxiv.; xxxvi. W. Menzel, Die vorchristliche Unsterblichkeitslehre, Bd. ii., p. 35, 101, 168, 345. See also p. 177 of this volume.

207:2 At first view it seems strange that in the Middle Ages, in Christian Europe, the North should have come to be regarded as the special abode of Satan and his subjects, and that on the north side of some churches, near the baptismal font, there should have been a "Devil's Door," which was opened to let the evil spirit pass to his own place at the time of the renunciation of him by the person baptized. The simple explanation of this is found in the fact that the people were taught that their old gods, whom they had worshiped when pagans, were devils. Compare Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 30, 31. Conway, in his Demonology and Devil Lore (London, 1879: vol. ii., 115; i., 87), entirely misconceives the philosophy of the fact. A similar change seems to have occurred among the Iranians after Mazdeism p. 208 had transformed their ancient Daêvas from gods to demons. Hence, while in portions of the Avestan literature (generally the older) the heaven of Ahura Mazda is in the North, in other portions the North is the world of death and demons. See Bleek's Avesta, i., pp. 3, 137, 143; ii. 30, 31; iii. 137, 138, et passim. Darmesteter, Introduction, p. lxvii., lxxx. Haug, Religion of the Parsis, pp. 267 ff.

208:1 Geographische Inschriften altægyptischer Denkmäler. Leipsic, 1858: vol. ii., p. 37.

208:2 In one place Brugsch translates ta-nutar-t mahti "das nördliche Gottesland." Astronomische and astrologische Inschriften, p. 176.

208:3 "To the twelve great gods of heaven are immediately subjected p. 209 the stars dispersed in infinite number through all the ethereal space, and divided into four principal groups according to the four quarters of the world. They were then divided into two orders more elevated, the one filling the northern hemisphere and belonging to light, to the good principle, the other to the southern hemisphere, dark, cold, funeste, and to the sombre abodes of Amenti." Guigniaut's Creuzer, Religions de l’Antiquité, vol. ii., p. 836. A very curious survival of the above conception is found in the Talmudic Emek Hammeleck. See Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, Stehelin's version, vol. i., p. 181; comp. p. 255 ff.

209:1 The association of Set with the constellation of the Great Bear, reported by Plutarch and lately confirmed by original astronomical texts (Brugsch, Astronomische Inschriften altægyptischer Denkmäler, Leipsic, 1883, pp. 82-84, 121-123), seems at first view inconsistent with the south polar location of demons and destructive divinities. But the apparent difficulty is transformed into an all the stronger proof of the correctness of our theory when it is remembered that in the most ancient times Set "was not a god of evil," but the supreme world-sovereign from whom the Egyptian kings derived their authority over the two hemispheres. "It was not till the decline of the Empire p. 210 that this deity came to be regarded as an evil demon, that his name was effaced from the monuments, and other names substituted for his in the Ritual." Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt, pp. 119, 120. The expression navel or centre of heaven, as a designation for the northern celestial Pole, so common among ancient nations, would seem to have been current among the Egyptians also. Brugsch, Ibid., p. 122, 123. In the text as translated, however, there is some obscurity. Compare p. 154.

210:1 "There can be no doubt that 'the Heaven of Anu' was the particular limited celestial region, centring in the Pole star and penetrated by the summit of the Paradisaical Mount."—Rev. O. D. Miller, The Oriental and Biblical Journal. Chicago, 1880: p. 173.

210:2 "L’église n’a que deux fenêtres et une porte qui est toujours ouverte du côté du sud, afin que celui qui y entre ait l’étoile polaire devant lui."—N. Siouffi, Études sur la Religion des Soubbas ou Sabéens, les Dogmes, leur Mœurs. Paris, 1880: p. 118.

210:3 "Cette position de la victime permet au sacrificateur, qui a le morgno appuyé sur l’épaule gauche, de se placer, pour remplir son rôle, de façon qu’il ait la figure tournée vers l’étoile polaire qui couvre Avather, tout en ayant en même temps la tête de l’animal à sa droite."—Ibid., p. 112.

211:1 In his heading to Hymn I., 185, 5, Grassman parenthetically conjectures that the Navel of the World therein spoken of may be "im Osten," but suggests no reason for its location in that or any other quarter. Not by accident, however, did the ancient bard elsewhere (X., 8z, 2) place the abode of God "beyond the Seven Rishis," in the highest North.

211:2 "The omnipotence of Amitâbha is dwelt on in some fine gâthâs. In the centre of heaven he sits on the lotus throne and guides the destinies of mortals." Arthur Lillie, Buddha and Early Buddhism. London, 1882: p. 128. Compare also p. 7: "This Pole-star (Alpha Draconis) was believed to be the pivot round which the cosmos revolved. . . . The symbol of God and the situation of Paradise got to be associated with this star."

211:3 "Le Lalitavistara, 97, rapporte ces paroles d’une manière un peu différente: 'Je suis le plus glorieux dans ce monde, etc.' Ensuite, après avoir fait sept pas dans la direction du septentrion: 'Je serai le plus grand de tous les êtres,' puis après sept pas dans la direction du nadir: 'Je détruirai le Malin et les mauvais esprits, je publierai la loi suprême qui doit éteindre le feu de l’Enfer au profit de tous les habitants du monde souterrain.'" Note to Professor Kern's Histoire du Bouddhisme dans l’Inde. Revue de l’Histoire des Religions. Paris: tom. v., nro. 1, p. 54. Compare the less explicit account in Beal's Romantic History of Buddha, p. 44.

211:4 "In burying they lay the head to the South and the feet to the p. 212 North, as the home of their gods is supposed to be in the latter direction. They call the North Deoguhr sometimes, and the South, Muraho, is looked upon as a region of terror; so the feet are laid towards Deoguhr in order that they may carry the dead man in the right direction."—Report of Ethnological Committee, quoted in Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, Div. I., Pt. 3, A., p. 36.

212:2 "Here the idea is that the gods reside above this mountain [Su-Meru], which is, as it were, the support of their dwellings. This brings to our mind the fable of Atlas supporting the heavens; the same idea may probably be traced in the Greek Olympos (Sanskrit, âlamba, a 'support')." Samuel Beal, Four Lectures on Buddhist Literature in China. London, 1882: p. 147. Compare Grill.

212:3 Compare A. H. Sayce, Transactions of Society Bib. Archæology, vol. iii., 152.—Even in the mathematical cosmos of Philolaos, though the sedes deorum seems to be placed in Hestia, at the centre of the system, there is yet a steep way leading perpendicularly to the polar summit of the heavens, by means of which the gods and holy souls attain the diviner realm of all perfection: "Dii vero, quando ad convivium pergunt, tum quidem acclivi via proficiscuntur sub summum p. 213 qui sub cœlo est fornicem (ἁψῖδα), et immortales quæ dicuntur animæ, quando ad summum pervenerunt, extra progressæ in cœli dorso consistunt, circumlatæque cum iis animabus, quæ comitari eas potuerunt, loca supra cœlum spectant, ubi pura et absoluta veritas, cognitio virtus, pulchritudo, atque omnis omnino perfectio patet" Aug. Bœckh, "De vera indole astronomiæ Philolaicæ." Gesammelte Kleine Schriften. Leipsic, 1866: vol. iii., p. 288. Compare pp. 290-292.

213:3 "Et ideo ex ipsa parte significantiora esse fulmina, quoniam altiora et viciniora domicilio Jovis." Compare Regell, "Das Schautempel der Augurn" in the Neue Jahrbücher der Philologie, Bd. cxxiii., pp. 593-637. "The Hawaiian soothsayer, or kilo-kilo, turned always to the North when observing the heavens for signs or omens, or when regarding the flight of birds for similar purposes. The ancient Hindus turned also to the North for divining purposes, and so did the Iranians before the schism, after which they placed the devs in the North; so did the Greek, and so did the Scandinavians before their conversion to Christianity." A. Fornander, The Polynesian Race. London, 1878: vol. i., p. 240.

214:1 "Sacratiora sunt profecto Mediterraneis loca vicina cœlo." Beauvois, in Revue de l’Histoire des Religions. Paris, 1883: p. 283. The statement is based upon expressions in the official panegyric of the Emperor Constantine Augustus. Compare the following: "Diodorus Siculus speaks of a nation whom he calls the Hyperboreans, who had a tradition that their country is nearest to the moon, on which they discovered mountains like those on the earth, and that Apollo comes there once every nineteen years. This period, being that of the metonic cycle of the moon, shows that if this could have been really discovered by them they must have had a long acquaintance with astronomy." Flammarion, Astronomical Myths. London: p. 88.

214:2 "Im Nordpunkte der Welt." K. O. Müller, Die Etrusker. Breslau, 1828: Bd. ii., pp. 126, 129. "Suivant eux, ceux-ci devaient habiter dans la partie septentrionale du ciel, à raison de son immobilité. C’est de la région polaire qu’ils veillaient sur toute la terre." A. Maury, in Religions de l’Antiquité, Creuzer et Guigniaut, tom. ii., p. 1217. "La théologie étrusque, accueillant une doctrine que nous avons déjà recontrée à l’état de rêve confus dans la théologie grecque, plaçait à l’extréme nord le séjour des Æsars ou dieux. Mais, tandis que l’Hellène se tourne vers les dieux pour les interroger, le Toscan imite leur attitude supposée, afin de voir l’espace comme ils le voient eux-mêmes. Ayant donc le visage tourné vers le midi, il appelle antica la moitié méridionale du ciel," etc. A. Bouche-Leclercq, La Divination chez les Étrusques. Revue de l’Histoire des Religions. Paris, 1881: tom. iii., p. 326.

214:3 "Der Wohnsitz der Götter ward im Norden der Erde geglaubt." Niebuhr, Römische Geschichte, vol. ii., Anhang, p. 702. "It is well known that the Romans placed the seat of the gods in the extreme North." The Oriental journal. Chicago, 1880: vol. i., p. 143. Niebuhr's remark, "Der Augur dachte sich schauend wie die Götter auf die Erde schauen," explains the somewhat unqualified and misleading p. 215 statement of Professor Kuntze touching the rotary posture of the Roman in prayer. Prolegomena zur Geschichte Roms.. Oraculum, Auspicium Templum, Regnum. Leipsic, 1882: p. 15.

215:2 Sir Edward J. Reed, Japan, vol. i., p. 27. Compare Léon de Rosny, in Revue de l’Histoire des Religions. Paris 1884: p. 208; also p. 211.

216:1 Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. iii., Pt. i., P. 34 n. See further, Legge, Spring Lectures on the Religions of China, London, 1880, p. 175, and the not well understood prayer in Douglas, Confucianism and Tauism, London, 1879, p. 278. From these and other references it is plain that Confucians and Tauists alike identified the northern sky with the abode of God.

216:2 Vol. iv., p. 194. So, likewise in West Mongolian thought the celestial pole and the "apex of the Golden Mountain" are identical: "Altan kadasu niken vara Tagri-dschin urkilka. Apex montis aurei, nomine Cardo Cœli, stella polaris." Uranographia Mongolica. Fundgruben des Orients, Bd. iii., p. 181.

216:3 See English Translation of the Chinese Ritual for the Sacrifice to Heaven. Shanghai, 1877: pp. 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 48.

216:4 Joseph Edkins, Religion in China, p. 115. Compare G. Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, pp. 506, 507.

217:1 Religion in China, p. 109. This title irresistibly suggests the Assyrian one, Dayan-Same, "Judge of Heaven." Transactions Society Bib. Archæology, iii. 206.

217:2 Jakob Grimm, "Betende and opferende Heiden schauten gen Norden." Deutsche Mythologie, Bd. i., p. 30.

217:3 Grimm, "Im Mittelpunkte der Welt." Deutsche Mythologie, p. 778. The following is from the Prose Edda: "Then the sons of Bör built in the middle of the universe the city called Asgard, where dwell the gods and their kindred, and from that abode work out so many wondrous things both on the earth and in the heavens above it. There is in that city a place called Hlidskjálf, and when Odin is seated there upon his lofty throne he sees over the whole world, discerns all the actions of men, and comprehends whatever he contemplates. His wife is Frigga, the daughter of Fjörgyn, and they and their offspring form the race that we call the Æsir,—a race that dwells in Asgard the old, and in the regions around it, and that we know to be entirely divine." Mallet, Northern Antiquities, p. 406. The expression, "from that abode work out so many wondrous things," recalls to mind Job's description of the North as the place "where God doth work.'

218:4 See, for example, Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific. London, 1876: p. 17.

219:2 Dictionnaire d’Archéologie Égyptienne. Paris, 1895: p. 191. Comp. pp. 116, 118, 187, 344, 351, 364, 371, 392, 399.

220:1 Fragments de Bérose, p. 367; also, 380, 419. But compare Chaldæan Magic, pp. 168, 169, where, by identifying the West with the point "behind the observer," he directly contradicts the account given in his Commentary on Berosus. The paragraph does not appear in the original French edition of the work.

220:2 Even among the aborigines of America and Africa we are told that "the West is the left hand and the East the right." Massey, The Natural Genesis, vol. ii., p. 231.

221:1 Of course, this interpretation proceeds upon the common assumption that Miqqedem is translocative in signification, and that the land of Shinar was in the Tigro-Euphrates basin. In another note I have indicated the possibility that the land of Shinar was in primeval Qedem, in which case Miqqedem in Gen. xi. 2 should be translated precisely as in Gen. ii. 8, "in the North country."

221:3 See diagram illustrative of the discrepancy between Euphratean and Egyptian orientations in Brown, Myth of Kirké. London, 1883: p. 222 p. 99. Comp. p. 101, bot. Mr. G. Massey, in his vast astrotypological medley, refers to the horizon-displacement, but affords no intelligible explanation. He says, "In making the change to a circle of twelve signs, the point of commencement in the North was 'slewed' round eastward. Hence the Akkadian Mountain of the World became the Mountain of the East. Mount Meru, the primordial birthplace in the North, likewise became the Mountain eastward. This may be followed in the Adamah of the Genesis; and in the Book of Enoch it says, 'The fourth wind, which is named the North, is divided into three parts, and the third part contains Paradise.' Thus Eden, which began at the summit of the Mount, and descended into the Circle of Four Quarters prepared by Yima, in the Avesta, against the coming Deluge, was finally planted in the twelfth division of the zodiac of twelve signs, as the garden eastward." The Natural Genesis. London, 1883: vol. ii., p. 263.

222:1 Terrien de Lacouperie, Early History of the Chinese Civilization. London, 1880: p. 29. On this curious matter Mr. T. G. Pinches threw some new light at a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Feb. 6, 1883. In May Mr. Terrien de Lacouperie read a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society, entitled "The Shifting of the Cardinal p. 223 Points in Chaldæa and China," which will appear in his forthcoming work on The Origin of Chinese Civilization. Similar interchanges and identifications of the North and West are referred to by Menzel, Die vorchristliche Unsterblichkeitslehre, i., p. 101. See also Asiatic Researches, vol. viii., pp. 275-284.

223:1 "J’ai exposé depuis longtemps dans mes cours au Collége de France une théorie d’après laquelle les Egyptiens auraient divisé les quatre points en deux séries groupées: Nord-Est, Sud-Ouest. . . . Ce n’est que par suite de la classification dont je viens de parler qu’on met souvent à l’Ouest les régions proprement situées au Sud, ou reciproquement au Sud les régions situées à l’Ouest. L’application de cette idée à l’Est nous mène aussi à croire que l’on a pu dire du Tanoutri qu’il était au Nord." (M. Maspéro, in a letter to the author, under date of December 20, 1882.) This usage could hardly have arisen among any people not acquainted with the spherical figure of the earth. How easily it could arise among us is illustrated by Sir John de Maundeville, who, writing in A.D. 1356, located Paradise so far to the East of England that he could no longer correctly describe the place by this term. Thus, after speaking of the Terrestrial Paradise as situate far "to the East, at the beginning of the earth," he says, "But this is not that East which we call our East, on this half, where the sun rises to us; for when the sun is East in those parts towards Terrestrial Paradise, it is then midnight in our parts on this half, on account of the roundness of the earth, of which I have told you before; for our Lord God made the earth all round in the middle of the firmament." Wright, Early Travels in Palestine. London, 1848: p. 276. The nearest way to an Eden thus located would, of course, be northward. Its location could therefore be described with equal correctness either by the term "eastward" or "northward." Still another interesting theory of its origin will suggest itself to the thoughtful student of such facts as those alluded to by Mr. Scribner in Where Did Life Begin? pp. 32, 33.

224:1 Compare the arrangement of the winds on the ceiling of the Pronaos of the temple at Dendera. Brugsch, Astronomische Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler. Leipsic, 1883: pp. 26 bot., and 27 top.

CHAPTER III.

THE EDEN ZENITH.

Footnotes