THERE: is in Hindostan an emblem of great sanctity, which is known as the Linga-Yoni. It consists of a simple pillar in the center of a figure resembling the outline of a conical ear-ring, or an old-fashioned wooden battledore. Dr. Inman says:

Fig. 4.

Concha Veneris, which was therefore worn by devout persons of antiquity, as it still continues to be by the pilgrims of many of the common people of Italy" ("On the worship of Priapus," p. 28). If Asher, the conspicuous feature of the male Creator, is supplied with types and representative figures of him self, so the female feature is furnished with substitutes and typical imagery of herself.

Fig. 5.

fountain sealed" (Song of Sol. iv, 12). The sistrum, we are told, was only used in the worship of Isis, to drive away Typhon (evil).

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Equivalent to Iao, or the Lingham, we find Ab, the Father, the Trinity, Asher, Anu, Hea, Abraham, Adam, Esau, Edom, Ach, Sol, Helios (Greek for Sun), Dionysius, Bacchus, Apollo, Hercules, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Jupiter, Zeus, Aides, Adonis, Baal, Osiris, Thor, Oden, the cross, tower, spire, pillar, minaret, tolmen, and a host of others; while the Yoni was represented by Io, Isis, Astarte, Juno, Venus, Diana, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hera, Rhea, Cybele, Ceres, Eve, Frea, Frigga, the queen of heaven, the oval, the trough, the delta, the door, the ark, the ship, the chasm, a ring, a lozenge, cave, hole, pit, Celestial Virgin, and a number of other names. Lucian, who was an Assyrian, and visited the temple of Dea Syria, near the Euphrates, says there are two phalli standing in the porch with this inscription on them, "Those phalli I, Bacchus, dedicate to my step-mother Juno."

Fig. 8.

From time immemorial to our day, it is, to be noticed the man is put first and foremost, the woman next. He is three; she is one. Christians have perpetuated the triune male God as Abba, father, but left out the mother altogether, except among the Catholics. The sacred four "dignitaries"--of which Rev. Cotton Mather said "the Devil is one"--are only made up by adding Satan, the Typhon or Dagon of antiquity.

Our singular Fig. 8 has, in some measure, descended

aish or esh, means "fire, heat," and dod means "love, to love," "boil up," be agitated," the whole signifying "the heat of love," or "the fire which impels to union." Could not those people exclaim, Our "God is love?" (I. John iv, 8). The amatory drift of Solomon's Song is undisguised, though the language is dressed in the habiliments of seeming decency. The burden of thought of most of it bears direct reference to the Linga-Yoni. He makes a woman say, "He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts" (S. of S. i, 13). Again, of the phallus, or linga, she says, "I will go up to the palm-tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof" (vii, 8). Palm-tree and boughs are euphemisms of the male genitals. Solomon, like the ancients before him, worshiped at the high sanctuary of sex.

COLOR OF GODS.

ONE would naturally suppose the color of a Deity would be the same as the complexion which belonged to the worshipers of it. Black Gods and Goddesses were met with among the Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks and Romans--yes, in Europe.) In explanation of these facts, Dr. Inman remarks that "the female generative structure in some countries is of a dark or black color; that Buddha and Brahma were as often painted black as white." There was a black Venus at Corinth. Osiris, Isis and her child Horus, were black. A black Virgin and black child are to be seen at St. Stephens, in Genoa; at St. Francisco, in Pisa; at St. Theodore, in Munich; and in other places. These Somber facts seem to explain a passage in the Song of Solomon, where a woman is made to Say, "I am black, but comely" (i, 5).

Fig. 9.

Further generous light is thrown upon the subject of male sanctities and female worship by a religio-historic gem unearthed at Nineveh. Fig. 9 is a copy of that keepsake. It is an Egyptian seal, copied from Layard ("Nineveh and Babylon," p.156). On it is engraved the Egyptian God Harpocrates seated on the mystic lotus in profound adoration of the Yoni, or havah, the "Divine Mother of all," which is set in the field before him.

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death" (Sol. Song viii, 6). Solomon's seal was in outline the shape of the unit in the field of Fig. 9. The same lozenge-shaped figure was the symbol of Astarte, the Celestial Virgin, wherefrom Solomon may have obtained it. Layard and others state that such homage as is here depicted in the above seal is actually paid, in some parts of Palestine and India, to the living symbol, the worshiper, on bended knees, offering to it bread before he eats it, with or without silent prayer. A corresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem of the Sheik, or Patriarch, which is devoutly kissed by all the women of the tribe on one solemn occasion during the year, when the old ruler sits in state to receive the homage. The emblem is, for many, of greater sanctity than the crucifix. Such homage is depicted in Picart's "Religious Ceremonies of all the People of the World," plate 71.

It may easily be understood that few people would be so gross as to use in religious worship true similitudes of these parts, which their owners think it shame to speak of, and a punishment or reproach publicly to show. As there is circumlocution in language, so there is symbolism in sculpture. Words and figures are adopted which are ingeniously vailed so as not to be understood by the

FISH AND GOOD FRIDAY.

THE Fish was a sacred being. Fish are found among the venerated pictures and sculptured works of the Buddhists, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phœnicians.

Fig. 10.

Figure 10 is a Buddhist emblem of the quadruple deity. The rudimentary fig-leaf at the summit is the triad or male feature. The fish yield in a fanning bias for the yoni and female person. Imagine an Oriental priest expounding the mystery of the Godhead and unfolding, the holy Trinity. While

one may be the yoni, though it be not named, neither would he name the fig-leaf triad, or fish, but all would understand that figurative language Bays one thing and means two of more.

Tell me, is it religion
To say, The Gods are three?
To attain to God, within you
Your search for him must be.
Caldwell's Indian Folk Lore.

The statue of Isis with her child Horus has a fish on her head; likewise in Fig. 12 Ardanari stands with an intrepid dolphin on his or her head--for one head seems to answer for the two persons.

The modern idea in regard to the physical influence of fish as an article of diet is, that it is specially adapted to repair waste brain tissue, on account of the phosphatic elements it contains. Phosphates are larger constituents of brain than of other portions of the body. But the ancients took to fish repasts wholly for another end, and for the support of a full vein of divine ardor. They believed it benefited the virile powers. Says Dr. Inman: "I have ascertained that eating fish for supper on Friday night is a Jewish custom. It is well known that fecundity among that people is a blessing specially promised by the Omnipotent. So it is thought proper to use human means for securing the desired end on the day set apart to the Almighty"--Almighty Asher of old. "The Hebrew Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday. Three meals are to be taken during the day, which are

Layard remarks: "In our days, indeed, the Druses of Lebanon, in their secret vespers, offer a true worship to the sexual parts of the female, and pay their devotions every Friday night--that is to say, the day which was consecrated to Venus, likewise the day in which, on his side, the Mussulman finds in the code of Mahomet the double obligation to go to the mosque and to perform the conjugal duty."

Mythology informs us that the body of Osiris, when killed by Typhon, was carried in a chest to Byblos, there found by Isis and brought back to Egypt; but the malignant demon cut up the body, and threw the places away. All were recovered but the pudenda, which were replaced by a model thereof, and this image, enshrined in an ark, became one of the symbols of the God. The missing parts are said to have been eaten by a fish. Thus we see "the Ark," "the Fish," and "Good Friday," brought into parallelism. We are also told that the holy chest (ark) of Isis was carried once in a year, in November, to the seaside; the priests, during the passage, pouring drink-offerings of water upon it from the river. The signification of this lavement must at once be apparent to those who know that the Hebrew mi in the text signifies not only "water," but "semen virile."

In the foregoing we have seen how the eroto-religious feeling of antiquity deified the male members of the body under Asher, Ann, and Hea. We here perceive the same genius has divinized the female structure. With a fish

TORTOISE.

THE Tortoise, like the elephant, ox, ram, goat, ass, serpent, fish, was an object of pious veneration. In the Hindu mythos, the tortoise was the form taken by Vishnu in his second Avatar-Incarnation. The statue of the celestial Venus stands with one foot on the tortoise. Resemblances in form, similitudes in type, constituting as they did in the Hindu mind the highest power of expression, logic was found in comparisons. A glance at

Fig. 11.

Fig. 11 enables us to understand how the tortoise came to be regarded as sacred to Venus. It represents, by the extended head and neck, the acting linga--virile member, a sustainer of creation, a symbol of regeneration, a renewer of life, a supporter of the world, a type of omnipotence, and pointing to immortal felicity.

EARTH MOTHER.

"MOTHER Earth" is a legitimate expression, only of the most general type. Religious genius gave the female quality to earth with a special meaning. When once the idea obtained that our world was feminine, it was easy to induce the faithful to believe that natural chasms were typical of that part which characterizes woman. As at birth the new being emerges

perforated stone, in the hole of which the ancient Romans are said to have placed their hands when they swore a solemn oath, in imitation, or, rather, a counterpart, of Abraham swearing his servant upon his thigh--that is, the male organ. Higgins dwells upon these holes and says: "These stones are so placed as to have a hole under them, through which devotees passed for religious purposes. There is one of the same kind in Ireland, called St. Declau's stone. In the mass of rock at Bramham Crags there is a place made for