SUB-SECTION II.
When we turn to Egypt we find remarkable evidence of the same thing
there also. Justin, as we have already seen, says that "Ninus
subdued all nations, as far as Lybia," and consequently Egypt.
The statement of Diodorus Siculus is to the same effect, Egypt being one
of the countries that, according to him, Ninus brought into subjection
to himself. * In exact accordance with these historical statements, we
find that the name of the third person in the primeval triad of Egypt
was Khons. But Khons, in Egyptian, comes from a word that signifies "to
chase." * Therefore, the name of Khons, the son of Maut, the
goddess-mother, who was adorned in such a way as to identify her with
Rhea, the great goddess-mother of Chaldea, * properly signifies "The
Huntsman," or god of the chase. As Khons stands in the very
same relation to the Egyptian Maut as Ninus does to Rhea, how does this
title of "The Huntsman" identify the Egyptian god
with Nimrod? Now this very name Khons, brought into contact with the
Roman mythology, not only explains the meaning of a name in the Pantheon
there, that hitherto has stood greatly in need of explanation, but
causes that name, when explained, to reflect light back again on this
Egyptian divinity, and to strengthen the conclusion already arrived at.
The name to which I refer is the name of the Latin god Consus, who was
in one aspect identified with Neptune, * but who was also regarded as "the
god of hidden counsels," or "the concealer of
secrets," who was looked up to as the patron of horsemanship,
and was said to have produced the horse. * Who could be the "god
of hidden counsels," or the "concealer of
secrets," but Saturn, the god of the "mysteries,"
and whose name as used at Rome, signified "The hidden
one"? * The father of Khons, or Khonso (as he was also
called), that is, Amoun, was, as we are told by Plutarch, known as "The
hidden God;" * and as father and son in the same triad have
ordinarily a correspondence of character, this shows that Khons also
must have been known in the very same character of Saturn, "The
hidden one." If the Latin Consus, then, thus exactly agreed
with the Egyptian Khons, as the god of "mysteries,"
or "hidden counsels," can there be a doubt that Khons,
the Huntsman, also agreed with the same Roman divinity as the supposed
producer of the horse? Who so likely to get the credit of producing the
horse as the great huntsman of Babel, who no doubt enlisted it in the
toils of the chase, and by this means must have been signally aided in
his conflicts with the wild beasts of the forest? In this connection,
let the reader call to mind that fabulous creature, the Centaur,
half-man, half-horse, that figures so much in the mythology of Greece.
That imaginary creation, as in generally admitted, was intended to
commemorate the man who first taught the art of horsemanship. * But that
creation was not the offspring of Greek fancy. Here, as in many other
things, the Greeks have only borrowed from an earlier source. The
Centaur is found on coins struck in Babylonia , * showing that the idea
must have originally come from that quarter. The Centaur is found in the
Zodiac , * the antiquity of which goes up to a high period, and which
had its origin in Babylon. The Centaur was represented, as we are
expressly assured by Berosus, the Babylonian historian, in the temple of
Babylon, * and his language would seem to show that so also it had been
in primeval times. The Greeks did themselves admit this antiquity and
derivation of the Centaur; for though Ixion was commonly represented as
the father of the Centaurs, yet they also acknowledge that the primitive
Centaurus was the same as Kronos, or Saturn, the father of the gods. *
But we have seen that Kronos was the first King of Babylon, or Nimrod;
consequently, the first Centaur was the same. Now, the way in which the
Centaur was represented on the Babylonian coins, and in the Zodiac,
viewed in this light, is very striking. The Centaur was the same as the
sign Sagittarius, or "The Archer." * If the founder
of Babylon's glory was "The mighty Hunter," whose
name, even in the days of Moses, was proverb--(Gen. x. 9.
"Wherefore, it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before
the Lord")--when we find the "Archer" with
his bow and arrow, in the symbol of the supreme Babylonian divinity, *
and the "Archer," among the signs of the Zodiac that
originated in Babylon, I think we may safely conclude that this
Man-horse or Horse-man Archer primarily referred to him, and was
intended to perpetuate the memory at once of his fame as a huntsman and
his skill as a horse-breaker.
Now, when we thus compare the Egyptian Khons, the "Huntsman,"
with the Latin Consus, the god of gorse-races, who "produced
the horse," and the Centaur of Babylon, to whom was attributed the
honour of being the author of horsemanship, while we see how all the
lines converge in Babylon, it will be very clear, I think, whence the
primitive Egyptian god Khons has been derived.
Khons, the son of the great goddess-mother, seems to have been
generally represented as a full-grown god. * The Babylonian divinity was
also represented very frequently in Egypt in the very same way as in the
land of his nativity--i.e., as a child in his mother's arms. * This was
the way in which Osiris, "the son, the husband of his
mother," was often exhibited, and what we learn of this god,
equally as in the case of Khonso, shows that in his original he was none
other than Nimrod. It is admitted that the
secret system of Free Masonry was originally founded on the
Mysteries of the Egyptian Isis, the goddess-mother, or wife of Osiris.
But what could have led to the union of a Masonic body with these
Mysteries, had they not had particular reference to architecture, and
had the god who was worshipped in them not been celebrated for his
success in perfecting the arts of fortification and building? Now, if
such were the case, considering the relation in which, as we have
already seen, Egypt stood to Babylon, who would naturally be looked up
to their as the great patron of the Masonic art? * The strong
presumption is, that Nimrod must have been the man. He was the first
that gained fame in this way. As the child of the Babylonian
goddess-mother, he was worshipped, as we have seen, in the character of
Ala mahozim, "The god of fortifications," Osiris, in
like manner, the child of the Egyptian Madonna, was equally celebrated
as "the strong chief of the buildings." * This strong
chief of the buildings was originally worshipped in Egypt with every
physical characteristic of Nimrod. I have already noticed the fact that
Nimrod, as the son of Cush, was a negro. Now, there was a traditional
Egypt, recorded by Plutarch, that "Osiris was black,"
* which, in a land where the general complexion was dusky, must have
implied something more than ordinary in its darkness. Plutarch also
states that Horus, the son of Osiris, "was of a fair
complexion," * and it was in this way, for the most part, that
Osiris was represented. But we have unequivocal evidence that Osiris,
the son and husband of the great goddess-queen of Egypt, was also
represented as a veritable negro. In Wilkinson may be found a
representation of him * with the unmistakable features of the genuine
Cushite or negro. Bunsen would have it that this is a mere random
importation from some of the barbaric tribes; but the dress in which
this negro god is arrayed tells a different tale. That dress directly
connects him with Nimrod. This negro-featured Osiris is clothed from
head to foot in a spotted dress, the upper part being a leopard's skin,
the under part also being spotted to correspond with it. Now the name
Nimrod * signifies "the subduer of the leopard." This
name seems to imply, that as Nimrod had gained fame by subduing the
horse, and so making use of it in the chase, so his fame as a huntsman
rested mainly on this, that he found out the art of making the leopard
aid him in hunting the other wild beasts. A particular kind of tame
leopard is used in India at this day for hunting; and of Bagajet I., the
Mogul Emperor of India, it is recorded that in his hunting establishment
he had not only hounds of various breeds, but leopard also, whose "collars
were set with jewels." * Upon the words of the prophet
Habakkuk, chap.i.8, "swifter than leopards," Kitto
has the following remarks:--"The swiftness of the leopard is
proverbial in all countries were it is found. This, conjoined with its
other qualities, suggested the idea in the East of partially training
it, that it might be employed in hunting..... Leopards are now rarely
kept for hunting in Western Asia, unless by kings and governors; but
they are more common in the eastern parts of Asia. Orosius relates that
one was sent by the king of Portugal to the Pope, which excited great
astonishment by the way in which it overtook, and the facility with
which it killed, deer and wild boars. Le Bruyn mentions a leopard kept
by the Pasha who governed Gaza, and the other territories of the ancient
Philistines, and which he frequently employed in hunting jackals. But it
is in India that the cheetah, or hunting leopard, is most frequently
employed, and is seen in the perfection of his power." * This
custom of taming the leopard, and pressing it into the service of man in
this way, is traced up to the earliest times of primitive antiquity. In
the works of Sir William Jones, we find it stated from the Persian
legends, that Hoshang, the father of Tahmurs, who built Babylon, was the
"first who bred dogs and leopards for hunting." * As
Tahmurs, who built Babylon, could be none other than Nimrod, this legend
only attributes to his father what, as his name imports, he got the fame
of doing himself. Now, as the classic god bearing the lion's skin is
recognised by that sign as Hercules, the slayer of the Nemean lion, so
in like manner, the god clothed in the leopard's skin would naturally be
marked out as Nimrod, the "leopard-subduer." That
this leopard skin, as appertaining to the Egyptian god, was no
occasional thing, we have clearest evidence. Wilkinson tells us, that on
all high occasions when the Egyptian high priest was called to
officiate, it was indispensable that he should do so wearing, as his
robe of office, the leopard's skin . * As it is a universal principle in
all idolatries that the high priest wears the insignia of the god he
serves, this indicates the importance which the spotted skin must have
had attached to it as a symbol of the god himself. The ordinary way in
which the favourite Egyptian divinity Osiris was mystically represented
was under the form of a young bull or calf--the calf Apis--from which
the golden calf of the Israelites was borrowed. There was a reason why
that calf should not commonly appear in the appropriate symbols of the
god he represented, for that calf represented the divinity in the
character of Saturn, "The HIDDEN one," "Apis" being
only another name for Saturn. * The cow of Athor, however, the female
divinity corresponding to Apis, is well known as a "spotted
cow," * and it is singular that the Druids of Britain also
worshipped "a spotted cow." * Rare though it be,
however, to find an instance of the deified calf or young bull
represented with the spots, there is evidence still in existence, that
even it was sometimes so represented. The accompanying figure represents
that divinity, as copied by Col. Hamilton Smith "from the
original collection made by the artists of the French Institute of
Cairo." * When we find that Osiris, the grand god of Egypt,
under different forms, was thus arrayed in a leopard's skin or spotted
dress, and that the leopard-skin dress was so indispensable a part of
the sacred robes of his high priest, we may be sure that there was a
deep meaning in such a costume. And what could that meaning be, but just
to identify Osiris with the Babylonian god, who was celebrated as the "Leopard-tamer,"
and who was worshipped even as he was, as Ninus, the CHILD in his
mother's arms?
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