Note 56 — XXI. AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE RITES CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR.

Among the Chinese and Hindus an identical partition of responsibility will be found ascribed to the deities. It would require a special disquisition to enumerate these gods and their functions, so far as known to us, but such an enumeration would do no good, because the accuracy of the statement will be admitted without dispute.

A clipping from the “Times,” of India, copied in the “Sunday Herald,” of Washington, D. C., June 2, 1889, bears upon this point:

“The general public are not aware of a ludicrous custom still followed in Hindu households of Bengal. The last day of Falgoon, that fell on the 12th ultimo, was observed in worshipping Ghantoo, the god of itches and the diseases of the skin which afflict the natives. Very early in the morning of the day the mistresses of the families, changing their nocturnal attire, put a useless, black earthen vessel outside the threshold of their back doors, with a handful of rice and masoor dal, four cowries, with a piece of rag smeared with turmeric. Wild flowers appearing in this season are offered in worship. (These flowers are called Ghantoo fool.) The young boys of the family stand in a semicircle before the mistress, with cudgels in their hands. When the conches are sounded by the female worshippers, as the signal of the poojah being over, the boys break the vessels into atoms. The mirthful children, in their anxiety to strike the first blow, sometimes break the fingers and hands of the matrons. The piece of rag is preserved over the doors of houses in the zenana. In the evening of the day, the boys of the lower order of the villages sing the songs of the occasion from door to door for pice.”

Although the adoration of Flatulence cannot be found among the Chinese, religious customs equally revolting have been ascribed to them. “The Chinese are addicted to the abominable vice of Sodomy, and the filthy practice of it they number among the indifferent things they perform in honor of their idols.”—(“The Travels of Two Mahomedans through India and China,” in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 195.) These Mahomedans travelled in the ninth century.

“The negroes of Guinea have a god of the small-pox.” See “Fetichism,” by Father P. Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 74.

According to the Guinea negroes, “Every man has three genii, or protecting spirits. The first is Eleda, who dwells in the head, which he guides.... This second genius (Ojehun) has his habitation in the region of the stomach.... Ipori, the third protecting genius, takes up his abode in the great toe.”—(Idem, p. 43.)

“The Samoans supposed disease to be occasioned by the wrath of some particular deity.... The friends of the sick went to the high priest of the village.... Each disease had its particular physician.”—(Turner, “Samoa,” London, 1884, p. 140.) See, in this connection, Banier’s “Mythology,” English translation, vol. i. p. 196, et seq.

“They (the ancients) had gods and goddesses for all the necessaries of our life, from our cradles to our graves; viz., 1. for sucking; 2. for swathing; 3. for eating; 4. for drinking; 5. for sleeping; 6. for husbandry; 7. for venery; 8. for fighting; 9. for physic; 10. for marriage; 11. for child-bed; 12. for fire; 13. for water; 14. for the thresholds; 15. for the chimneys.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 27.)

Consult, for the Chaldeans, “The Chaldean Account of Genesis,” George Smith, New York, 1880, pages 11 and 125. Dibbara, the god of pestilence, has the title of “The Darkening One,” which recalls the passage in Psalm xci. 6, “The pestilence that walketh in darkness.” ... “Each of the Babylonian gods had a particular city.” (Idem, p. 46.) “The Chaldeans had twelve great gods.” (Idem, p. 47.) See, also, “Chaldean Magic,” Lenormant, 35. It was written of the deceased (Egyptian), “There is not a limb of him without a god.” (“Ritual of the Dead,” cap. xliii., idem.) See “Le Moyen Age Médical,” Dupouy, for the list of saints and shrines to cure all afflictions, in Europe, Minor’s translation, p. 83. Those possessed claimed to be in the power of a demon, who entered their body by one of the natural passages, sporting with their persons. (Idem, p. 50.) The Church recognized the truth of these beliefs (idem, p. 40); see, also, notes taken from Turner’s “Samoa.”