Upon this subject the same writer remarks thus:
"Agreeably to the mystical notion so familiar to the Hindoos,
that the self-triplicated Great Father yet remained but one in
essence, the Peruvians supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in
three, and three in one: and in consequence of the union of hero
worship with the astronomical and material systems of idolatry
they venerated the sun and the air, each under three images and
three names. The same opinions equally prevailed throughout the
nations which lie to the west of Hindostan. Thus the Persians
had their Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman: or, as the matter was
sometimes represented, their self-triplicating Mithras. The
Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares. The Egyptians had
their Emeph, Eicton, and Phtha. The Greeks and Romans had their
Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number, though one in
essence, and all springing from Cronus, a fourth, yet older God.
The Canaanites had their Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal.
The Goths had their Odin, Vile, and Ve, who are described as the
three sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious cow, and the
Celts had their three bulls, venerated as the living symbols of
the triple Hu or Menu. To the same class we must ascribe the
triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools; each
of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the
old Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy."[43]
[43] Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book vi., ch. ii., p. 470.
The history of the catastrophe known as the deluge, which, it is
claimed, took place either in Armenia, at Cashgar, or at some
other place in the East, is observed, in later ages, to furnish a
covering beneath which have been veiled the mythical doctrines of
the priests. Of the catastrophes which from time to time have
visited our planet, and of the belief which has come to be
entertained by ecclesiastics that the earth will be destroyed by
fire, Celsus writes:
"The belief has spread among them, from a misunderstanding of the
accounts of these occurrences, that after lengthened cycles of
time, and the returns and conjunctions of planets,
conflagrations, and floods are wont to happen, and because after
the last flood, which took place in the time of Deucalion, the
lapse of time, agreeably to the vicissitude of all things,
requires a conflagration; and this made them give utterance to
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