The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-01-27

by nymph. Many pestilentlal
diseases have been looked upon by the
uncivilized as fends. When diseases car
ried away cattle it was said that spirit
eot in the cattle. When the cattle plague
ragged in Russia Isaw the women drive
the. cattle into small village and,
Harvesting themselves to pillow, made
single furrow around the town, When
they got around to the starting point
they buried cock, dog and cat, and
then howled all day, "Cattle plague,
cattle plague, spare our cattle, here we
offer thee cock dog and cat instead"
Fire was a great demon. The sun was
was the first god in every race OF this |
world; it was the visible deity. They |
did not 6rst worship stocks and stones
but the sun, then the moon, then the
stars, gradually descending to planets
and animals as having some relation to
the sun. because they existed beneath It's |
light All things that are now fetishes
were once ideas. But when this adored
sun under tae ascending ideal of man
began to be associated with some evil
effects, sun-stroke and scOrching heat,
then man tried to find an Internal per
sonification of the sun. There was the
god Baal, which means Lord of the sun,
but when it was seen that the heat OF the
sun scorched- them and made the land to
swarm with insects that stung and de-
voured them they made secondary per.
sonifcation which they called Baael-
zebub, which is our Beelzebub, which
means God of Flies. The lecturer here
referred to some sketchings on canvass OF
devils in various attitudes which he
truthfully remarked were not painted as
black as they ought TO be- The Assy-
rian mother used this picture Of Belize
bub to keep the flies from her cheese or
her baby. You will see how the early
man pursued logical method in this
formation of his demons. Wherever
there was great power there was both
good and evil; and he made in course OF
time perfect equation OF nature. The
primitive man reasoned that all the good
in the world proved good God, and all
the evil in the world prove an evil God,
We have long ago seen through that
reasoning. We know that because there
is sun light ball to ray out light.
there is not therefore, n dark
ball TO ray out darkness. In
Arabia and Chaldea, they wor-
ship feven planets, and these gave US our
seven days in the week, which were
named after the planets. There was the
Suusday which gave US Sunday, the
Moonsday which gave us Monday. and
Saturnsday which gave US Saturday.
Men also imagined that there were
counter spirits, whom they called the
seven evil sisters, though why they gave
them the quality of that sex do not
know. They believed if one of them en-
tered into a woman, that all of them did,
and if one was cast out, then all the
seven were. Where one went, all followed,
and this idea survives in the Russian be-
lief of the internal Trinity.
Here he referred to painting in an
old Russian Church, presenting hell on
the lower walls, and the ceiling covered
with angels, the Almighty in the centre,
the sun between his knees, and dove
upon his shoulder, while corresponding
evil deity was represented on the lower
wall. This evil power of the sun,
which found expression in the burning
desert and clouds Of flies, and
swarmng insects, was taken with
those who migrated into Northern
Europe, and far Albion into cold and
icy region, and there they invented for
that region, demons of cold: of the east
wind and at ice, TO which in their tradi-
tions is given the ZANE of "Hella," from
which is derived our term He'll, which
is very lar, as we all know, from freezing.
A black cat was supposed to be talnil-
lar of witch, and many witches were
burned when the greatest evidence against
them was that they were too fond of a
biack cat, and some people cannot
bear a black CT now. The dog
WAS regarded as sort of demon
and some people regard the bowling Of
dog as u sign of death. But, OF all things,
the serpent has been most widcl y nor
shipped as mysterious power of evil. 1t
is creditable to the observation of our
forefathers that they saw the exceptional
character of that crawling magazine of
death. There is no such thing in the
world AS the viper head; it is little IRON
clad III miniature, set on little pivot,
and can strike with as great force as is
consistent with its size. Such magazine
of destruction could not have been de-
vsed by any Imagination. The anclents
regarded the serpent as the incarnation OF
the great destructive powers of nature.
SILVA was the supreme deity of death
among the llindoo. They saw the thun-
derbolt hurled in the heavens, and as
they looked down TO the earth, they saw
the thunderbolt was death, and as the
lightnings were forked, so was the SER
penis tongue; this led to the idea that
the serpent upon the earth was the en-
bodiment and incarnation of the highest
idea of destruction SILVA. There were
demons of barren places, precipices and
poisons-bclla donna and nightshade-
bella dona nearing beautiful woman,
because a beautiful enchanted sorceress
was supposed to always hover about that
planet. The lecturer then referred to
picture representing the devil of Japan;
hiss hair supposed to be flying about, as
he is always supposed to be in gale OF
wind. In Japan, raising the wind is
exactly the same thing rs raising the
devil.
In the Hartz mountains, the worst prcC-
ipices are named after the Devil, rs the
Devils Peak" and great many
DEVILS Pulpits," and many of the most
noted hot springs are named after the
Devil, for instance in California they
have "Devils Mush Pot" Now these are
distractions in the nature of which man
finds it difficult to surmount all material
out Of which the Devil was made; it was
the result of mans moral nature As
mans idea of God grew, he could not be-
lieve that his ideal God should be
biighted or married by being responsible
for what was cruel or hard in nature, SO
he invented devil to relieve him
from all the responsibility of what he
considered to be evil.
Side by side grew up the ideal of good |