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Worshipping the Cobra
In order to induce the people to worship this dangerous enemy, the Hindoos have filled their books with tales concerning it. Figures of it are often to be seen in the temples, and on other buildings. They seek out their holes, which are generally to be found in the hillocks of earth which are thrown up by the white ants; and when they find one, they go from time to time and offer milk, plantains, and other good things to it.
Many of the natives call the Cobra Capella nulla paampu, that is, good snake. They are afraid to call it a bad snake, lest it should injure them. The following is the prayer which is offered before the image of this snake. O, divine Cobra, preserve and sustain us. O, Sheoh, partake of these offerings, and be gracious unto us.
62 visits
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Image 11922
67 visits
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Juggernaut
63 visits
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Juggernaut's Chariot
At every large temple, there is at least yearly one grand procession. The idol is brought out from its inclosure, and placed in a great car or chariot, prepared for this express purpose. This stands upon four wheels of great strength, not made like ours, of spokes with a rim, but of three or four pieces of thick, solid timber, rounded and fitted to each other. The car is sometimes forty or fifty feet high, having upon it carved images of a most abominable nature. I must not tell you any thing about them. The car, when finished, presents somewhat the shape of a pyramid
82 visits
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The universe, as it came from the mundane egg, is generally divided into fourteen worlds: seven inferior or lower worlds, and seven superior or upper worlds. The seven lower worlds are filled with all kinds of wicked and loathsome creatures. Our earth, which is the first of the upper worlds, it is said, is flat. The figure will give you some idea of it.
51 visits
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The mask of Ahole, who flogs the children during the Powamû celebration, has the same two lateral horns and representation of radiating feathers over the crown of the head, but instead of sagittaform marks on the forehead there is a colored band from ear to ear across the face.
223 visits
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Image 10700
221 visits
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Image 10701
231 visits
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Image 10698
232 visits
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The symbolism of Alósaka is shown in a rude drawing made by one of the Hopi to illustrate a legend, and it represents this being on a rainbow, on which he is said to have traveled from his home in the San Francisco mountains to meet an Awatobi maid. Above the figure of Alósaka is represented the sun, which is drawn also on the screen above described, for Alósaka is intimately associated with the sun, as are all the other horned gods, Ahole, Calako, Tuñwup, and the Natackas.
219 visits
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Interior of a Mosque
To form a proper conception of the ceremonials of the Friday-prayers, it is necessary to have some idea of the interior of a mosque. A mosque in which a congregation assembles to perform the Friday-prayers is called “gámë’.” The mosques of 68Cairo are so numerous, that none of them is inconveniently crowded on the Friday; and some of them are so large as to occupy spaces three or four hundred feet square. They are 69mostly built of stone, the alternate courses of which are generally coloured externally red and white. Most commonly a large mosque consists of porticoes surrounding a square open court, in the centre of which is a tank or a fountain for ablution. One side of the building faces the direction of Mekkeh, and the portico on this side, being the principal place of prayer, is more spacious than those on the three other sides of the court.
196 visits
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Prof. Swing is one of the leading personalities of the religious life of the city. He is a man of exceedingly plain exterior but his sermons are sound and forcible. It would be difficult to analyze his creed or that of the people who go to hear him.
416 visits
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“Do the spirits eat the food?” I asked. I had seen my grandfather set food before the two skulls of the Big Birds’ ceremony.
“No,” said my grandfather, “They eat the food’s spirit; for the food has a spirit as have all things. When the gods have eaten of its spirit, we often take back the food to eat ourselves.”
817 visits
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“Once in Five Villages,” my grandfather went on, “there lived a brave man who owned a gun. One day a storm blew up. As the man sat in his lodge, there came a clap of thunder and lightning struck his roof, tearing a great hole.
“This did not frighten the man at all. Indeed, it angered him. He caught up his gun and fired it through the hole straight into the sky. ‘You thunder bird,’ he shouted, ‘stay away from my lodge. See this gun. If you come, I will shoot at you again!’”
736 visits
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Image 9042
830 visits
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This cut is much better designed than the generality of those which we find in books typographically executed from 1462, the date of the Bamberg Fables, to 1493, when the often-cited Nuremberg Chronicle was printed. Amongst the many coarse cuts which “illustrate” the latter, and which are announced in the book itselfII.11 as having been “got up” under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth, Albert Durer’s master, and William Pleydenwurff, both “most skilful in the art of painting,” I cannot find a single subject which either for spirit or feeling can be compared to the St. Christopher. In fact, the figure of the saint, and that of the youthful Christ whom he bears on his shoulders, are, with the exception of the extremities, designed in such a style, that they would scarcely discredit Albert Durer himself.
To the left of the engraving the artist has introduced, with a noble disregard of perspective what Bewick would have called a “bit of Nature.” In the foreground a figure is seen driving an ass loaded with 48a sack towards a water-mill; while by a steep path a figure, perhaps intended for the miller, is seen carrying a full sack from the back-door of the mill towards a cottage. To the right is seen a hermit—known by the bell over the entrance of his dwelling—holding a large lantern to direct St. Christopher as he crosses the stream. The two verses at the foot of the cut,
Cristofori faciem die quacunque tueris,
Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris,
may be translated as follows:
Each day that thou the likeness of St. Christopher shalt see,
That day no frightful form of death shall make an end of thee.
542 visits
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In the year 596 Augustine with forty other priests landed in Kent. The name of the king of that part was Ethelbert, whose wife Bertha was a Christian. Ethelbert allowed Augustine to preach before him in the open air ; and very soon he saw how wrong it was to worship idols, and was baptized in the Christian faith. The Britons soon followed the good example shown them by Ethelbert, and gave up their false gods, and became Christians.
391 visits
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ALTHOUGH these Britons did not worship images, they believed that there were many gods and their religion was very different from that which is taught us in the Bible. They had priests who were called DRUIDS, who lived mostly in the forests, and taught the people that the Oak was a sacred tree. They worshipped the mistletoe, a plant which grows on the branches of the oak and on other trees. This mistletoe was cut off every year, with a golden knife, by the chief Druid, amid great rejoicing, and was very carefully preserved. The priests wore white linen robes, and let their beards grow very long to distinguish them from the rest of the people. The savages obeyed them because they knew more than anybody else, and tried to find out medicines to cure those who were ill. They used various means to make the people give them presents. On a certain day, at the beginning of winter, they obliged all persons to put out their fires, and light them again from the fire of the sacred altar, telling them, that by so doing they would have good fortune throughout the year; but if any one did not act as they wished, they would not allow him to enter their temples, and his friends were forbidden to give him any help.
408 visits
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In this city Pinto met, apparently for the first time, with Master Francis Xavier, general superior or provincial of the order of the Jesuits in India, in all parts of which occupied by the Portuguese he had already attained a high reputation for self-devotion, sanctity, and miraculous power; and who was then at Malacca, on his return to Goa, from a mission on which he had lately been to the Moluccas
521 visits
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Image 8600
539 visits
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Matthew 7:25
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
425 visits
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The Sky as a cow, supported by Shu and other gods. Across her body are the stars, and the barks of the sun. (Tomb of Seti I)
572 visits
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Size of the original engraving, 4⅛ × 3¼ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Berlin
Chief among the engravers who show most clearly the influence of the Master of the Playing Cards is the Master of the Year 1446, so named from the date which appears in the Flagellation. His prints present a more or less primitive appearance, and were it not for this date, one might be tempted, on internal evidence, to assign them to an earlier period. In the Passion series, in particular, many of the figures are more gnome-like than human. Such creatures as the man blowing a horn, in Christ Nailed to the Cross, and the man pulling upon a rope, in the same print, recall to our minds, by an association of ideas, the old German fairy tales.
611 visits
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To his [Master of the Playing Cards.] latest and most mature period must be assigned the Man of Sorrows—in some ways his finest, and certainly his most moving, plate. Not only has he differentiated between the textures of the linen loin-cloth and the coarser material of the cloak; but the column, the cross with its beautiful and truthful indication of the grain of the wood, and the ground itself, all are treated with a knowledge and a sensitiveness that is surprising. The engraver’s greatest triumph, however, is in the figure of Christ. There is a feeling for form and structure, sadly lacking in the work of his successors, and his suggestion of the strained and pulsing veins, which throb through the Redeemer’s tortured limbs, is of a compelling truth.
607 visits
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Matthew 4:10, 11
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
649 visits
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Image 8092
676 visits
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Amess, Ammis, Aumuses (Latin, almecia, almucium)
A canonical vestment lined with fur, that served to cover the head and shoulders, perfectly distinct from the amice. Also a cowl or capuchon worn by the laity of both sexes.
788 visits
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Dr. Martin Luther
866 visits
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Single burglars usually come in by the skylight, closed at night by a small sliding-door, which does duty as chimney in the kitchen, or crawl under the floor which is some two feet from the ground, by tearing away the boarding under the verandah and come up by carefully removing the loose plank of the floor, under which fuel is kept in the kitchen. If the burglars are in a gang, they naturally come in more boldly than these kitchen sneaks. Once inside, the thief has the run of the house as all the rooms communicate by sliding-doors and are never locked, and the whole household is at his mercy. Since, then, houses are so easy of entry, it might be supposed that burglaries are very frequent in Tokyo; that such is not the case is probably due to the somewhat primitive methods pursued by these gentry and to the effective detective system of the police authorities.
500 visits
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Rice is the staple food of the Japanese; and no other food-stuff stands so high in popular esteem, or has a tutelary deity of its own. This rice-god has more shrines than any other deity, for he is worshipped everywhere, in town and village, and often a small shrine, no bigger than a hut, peeps amid a lonely cluster of trees surrounded on all sides by rice-paddies, its latticed door covered from top to bottom with the ex-votos of the simple peasant folk.
690 visits
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Image 6711
488 visits
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The Trimurti or three-headed deity in the caves of Elephanta.
This is a sculpture of the most remote antiquity, but the dress, the beads, the sacred cord and other religious symbols declare it to be the work of Hindoos. In anthropomorphising the Deity, men always adopt their own typical countenance for that of their God. Hence their idols betray the national features. Now, observe the profiles of Vishnu and Siva in this Trimurti.
812 visits
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The bare-legged, bare-footed figure in our sketch has travelled many a weary league in carrying on his work. His province is to beg—not for himself, but for the monastery to which he belongs.
Every large establishment of this kind has priests of different ranks and different occupations. Su-preme over all is the abbot, or superior, who has his own private apartments, dines, except on great occasions, at his own table, and enjoys a com-fortable income. His duty is to entertain distinguished visitors of the monastery, to administer its revenues, to watch over the due performance of the services of the sanctuary, and to regulate and enforce its discipline in the priests committed to his authority. In the execution of his duties, he has the benefit of an assistant, as sub-prior, who also has his own private apartments, and who attends to minor matters of detail. Subordinate to the abbot and his assistant are the ordinary priests, the greater part of whom employ their time in lounging about ; some, studiously inclined, frequent the library, and pore over its voluminous contents ; some are engaged in cultivating the fields and tending the forests with which the monastery has been endowed ; some, again, are the cooks of the establishment, and display no mean skill in the preparation of their vegetable cuisine ; others, either singly or in pairs, start forth from time to time on a begging expedition, when money is needed for the repair of the buildings, or when an unusual influx of priests or unpropitious seasons have made the inmates feel the pangs of hunger ; and all, in rotation, take part in the frequent and regular chaunted services before the colossal figures in the central hall.
Buddhism in China is not what it once was in power and influence. The monasteries which we now see were the creation of an age which believed in this religion ; some of them are the monuments of imperial zeal. But this faith seems now to be gradually dying out ; its sacred edifices are falling into decay, and no new temples are rising. The priests are generally uneducated men, and held in great contempt by the gentry. Imperial patronage, too, is wanting ; the present sovereign of the country is either unable or unwilling to raise and endow new foundations, or even to restore and maintain those which his forefathers erected. In the many monasteries which I visited, I can call to mind but few which indicated, by the care bestowed on them and the strict observance of the rules, that there was reality in the members, or which contained men of superior intelligence. Priests of earnest mind will often heave a deep sigh over the degeneracy of the present age. In Buddhism there is no distinct order of " beg-ging friars," but, as need arises, a few are chosen to travel through the country and collect subscriptions. In their journeys they are received and lodged by the brethren in other monasteries, who, by a law of the order, are bound to extend to them for a stated time such, hospitality. They visit alike the houses of the rich and of the poor, and usually bring the artillery of their arguments to bear upon the weaker sex. A wallet at their back receives the contributions of the charitable—generally in the form of a little cooked rice, all animal food being prohibited according to the terms of their religious vow. They are the most strict vegetarians in the world.
558 visits
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14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb
1018 visits
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13 - Jesus is taken down from the Cross
970 visits
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12 - Jesus dies on the Cross
957 visits
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Image 5713
962 visits
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Image 5712
1009 visits
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Image 5711
952 visits
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Image 5710
1009 visits
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Image 5709
1078 visits
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Image 5708
976 visits
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Image 5707
870 visits
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Image 5706
929 visits
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Image 5705
900 visits
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Image 5704
952 visits
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Image 5703
903 visits
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15 - Resurrected
957 visits
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Bes seems also to have been a divinity of the same class {Evil Gods]. He was represented as a hideous dwarf, with large outstanding ears, bald, or with a plume of feathers on his head, and with a lion-skin down his back, often carrying in his two hands two knives.
1015 visits
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It was a peculiar feature of the Egyptian religion, that it contained distinctively evil and malignant gods. Set was not, originally, such a deity; but he became such in course of time, and was to the later Egyptians the very principle of evil—Evil personified. Another evil deity was Taour or Taourt, who is represented as a hippopotamus standing on its hind-legs, with the skin and tail of a crocodile dependent down its back, and a knife or a pair of shears in one hand.
860 visits
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In each Lamasery there is a Faculty of Prayers, and the Grand Lama and the students of this department are often appealed to by the government to preserve their locality from calamity. On these occasions, the Lamas ascend to the summits of high mountains, and spend two whole days in praying, exorcising, and in erecting the Pyramid of Peace—a small pyramid of earth whitened with lime, a flag, inscribed with Thibetian characters, floating above.
742 visits
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MM. Gabet and Huc were impressed with the striking similarity between the Lamanesque worship and Catholicism. The cross, the mitre, the dalmatica, the cape, which the Grand Lamas wear on their journeys, or when they are performing some ceremony out of the temple; the service with double choirs, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the censer, suspended from five chains; the benedictions given by the Lamas by extending the right hand over the head of the faithful; the chaplet, ecclesiastical celibacy, spiritual retirement, the worship of the saints, the fasts, the processions, the litanies, the holy water, all these are analogous in the two modes of worship. Monasteries were founded by Tsong-Kaba, and they now contain a very large number of Lamas. The principal one is situated about three leagues from Lha-Ssa. It contains eight thousand Lamas, who devote the greater portion of their lives to study. The monastery of Hounboum is situated at the Lamanesque Mecca—the foot of the mountain where Tsong-Kaba was born.
791 visits
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Another representation of the Elephant-headed Rain god. He is holding thunderbolts, conventionalised in a hand-like form. The Serpent is converted into a sac, holding up the rain-waters.
763 visits
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Babylonian Weather God
837 visits
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A Chinese Dragon
582 visits
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The image of the sun is held up by a man in front of his face; two men blow conch-shell trumpets; another pair burn incense, and a third pair make blood-offerings by piercing their ears.
725 visits
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St. Antony's Lean Persecutor
539 visits
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Image 5540
459 visits
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The Devil
1028 visits
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The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The monastic life was a recognised profession.
931 visits
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From a 14th century manuscript
899 visits
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The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a theocracy, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the Dalai-lama, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.
1373 visits
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When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All are carefully examined, and the three 86who best show the signs of being Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.
688 visits
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Anhai bowing before her father and mother. The Elysian Fields. From the Papyrus of Anhai (XXIInd dynasty)
1023 visits
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The weighing of the heart of the scribe Ani in the Balance in the presence of the gods.
1145 visits
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The soul of Rā (1) meeting the soul of Osiris (2) in Tattu, The cat (i.e., Rā) by the Persea tree (3) cutting off the head of the serpent which typified night.
1169 visits
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The Elysian Fields of the Egyptians according to the Papyrus of Nebseni (XVIIIth dynasty)
1120 visits
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The Elysian Fields of the Egyptians according to the Papyrus of Ani (XVIIIth dynasty)
1100 visits
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The god Nu rising out of the primeval water and bearing in his hands the boat of Rā, the Sun-god, who is accompanied by a number of deities. In the upper portion of the scene is the region of the underworld which is enclosed by the body of Osiris, on whose head stands the goddess Nut with arms stretched out to receive the disk of the sun.
1127 visits
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1. Isis suckling her child Horus in the papyrus swamps.
2. Thoth giving the emblem of magical protection to Isis.
3. Amen-Rā presenting the symbol of "life" to Isis.
4. The goddess Nekhebet presenting years, and life, stability, power, and sovereignty to the son of Osiris.
5. The goddess Sati presenting periods of years, and life, stability, power, and sovereignty to the son of Osir
1225 visits
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Horus, the son of Isis, leading the scribe Ani into the presence of Osiris, the god and judge of the dead; before the shrine of the god Am kneels in adoration and presents offerings.
1240 visits
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Jewish Rabbis refer their use to Genesis. xxii. 13
1259 visits
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Jesus
964 visits
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Christ
902 visits
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John Wesley, Methodist minister
1248 visits
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Trial proof of the key block of Christ on the Mount of Olives, after Bassano. National Gallery of Art
947 visits
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An altar stands before the statue of Venus. In pre-Roman times this may have been the only shrine in the city at which worship was offered to Herentas; for by that name the goddess of love was known in the native speech. Venus as goddess of the Roman colony, was represented in an altogether different guise, and had a special place of worship elsewhere
1493 visits
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From Joh. Wolfii Lect. Memorab. (Lavingæ, 1600.)
It will be seen by the curious woodcut from Baptista Mantuanus, that he consigned Pope Joan to the jaws of hell, notwithstanding her choice. The verses accompanying this picture are:—
“Hic pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virile
Fœmina, cui triplici Phrygiam diademate mitram
Extollebat apex: et pontificalis adulter.”
It need hardly be stated that the whole story of Pope Joan is fabulous, and rests on not the slightest historical foundation. It was probably a Greek invention to throw discredit on the papal hierarchy, first circulated more than two hundred years after the date of the supposed Pope. Even Martin Polonus (A. D. 1282), who is the first to give the details, does so merely on popular report.
1136 visits
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The rapid current hurried us on, not against our will, and we only paused to watch the monks haymaking in the meadows, wearing a dress which looked like a compromise between the costumes of a washerwoman and a Cape Cod fisherman. They must have suffered in the hot sun, with their gowns of heavy woollen stuff, but they suffered in silence, and did not deign to answer our greetings or even to turn their eyes upon us.
1216 visits
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Under other circumstances we would have spent a day or more at Riedlingen, where we found most interesting architecture along the river-front and saw a party of nuns at work in a hay-field. We had a little more social success with them than we did with their coreligionists, the monks at Beuron, for they turned their great, cool, flapping head-dresses in our direction, and actually seemed temporarily interested in our canoes, and in us as well.
1055 visits
