The daily enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1884, 1883-07-05
TIE SACRED UUOAS.

TIE SACRED DU0As.
The Religious Instincts Of the VorI,-Ths
| Sacred Books Of Different Religions.
Every religion has its Bible. The
best known of these books, save tho
Jewish and Christian. is the Koran OF
Mohammed. The title of this means
"The Reading" from the Arabic verb
for "to read" Other names are AL Ki-
tai, or the book; Al Moshaf, the volume;
AL Dhikr, the admonition or reminder;
and AL Fcrhan, or the salvation. The Ia
suras or chapters of the Koran We're
professedly given to Mohammed durin.;
the twenty-three years of his residence
at Mecca and Medina, by the Angel Ga-
! briel in human form, as an inspiration
from Aleah, or the Aim ghty. They
were written upon leaves, bits Of
leather or paper, shoulder-blades of
mutton and whatever csc was at
hand, and thrown loosely into q box,
from which they were taken the year
after the prophets death ard put to-
gether, with equal looseness and disre-
gard to connection of topics, in vol
umes. Not only is the God of the
Christians recognized, but also Je us,
though not as the Son of God, and
Abraham, Jacob and Mary and the Old
Testament worthless. The style of the
Koran is of singular elegance and
beauty, constituting it the classic OF
Arabic speech.
A much more ancient collection of
writings is the Vedas, the Oldest books
in the Hindoo literature, and dating far
back of the time of Christ Tie Oldest
hymn of the Oldest book, the r gVeda,
is thought to date from B. c.. 24CO.
The Upanishads, or treatises of theolo-
ogy, are later, and are almost the only
part of the Vedas now read. Tie four
divisions of the Vedas contain in all
1,U1O hymns, which every Brahlnin
must learn by heart. They are recog-
nized in the laws of Maun, which form
the textbook of Brahminism. They
were written in twelve books ten to
nine centuries before Christ. The
mythology of the Hindoos is comprised
manly III two great epic poems, the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, con-
tI-niug respectively $4,000 and 100, ,O0G
nes, and together filling eighteen large
:; lumes. these are now almoot ex-
l;isively read as the sacred books OF
Iuu,a, with the Puranas, of s;milat
character but much later date. Tbs
ia ters or Shastras ("books") is gen
s:ral term for all the authoritative reig-
Gus and legal works of the Hindcos.
The Buddhist sacred books are also
Very numerous, but l find no name for
IT,, m except the "Pitchas," or Buddhist
scripture, in the Pale language, found
in Ceylon.
The Zend-Avesa &. e., the text or
scripture with a zend, or commentary
is the Bible of the ancient Parsees OF
fre-worshipers. It is supposed to have
been written in Bactria OF Eastern Per-
sia, -, to 1890 B. c., by Zoroaster or
Zarathustia. Unlike most other sacred
books, it is not body of divinity OF
dogmatic religion, but it is a liturgy, a
collection of hymns, prayers, invoca-
tions and thai kSgivings to many deities.
It is manual Of uorship, to be recited
by the priest in public and read private
ly by the laity. The Bunde-Nesch is q
later book of the same religion, and de-
tails the Parsee doctrine from old texts
now lost.
Th religion Of Coufucius, the prin-
cipal faith of China, is taught in the
five and four books OF the Kings.
King" in Chinese, means simply
web of cloth, oc the warp that holds
threads of cloth in their place. Tie
five Kings contain history, poetry AMI
rites of religion. They seem to hava
been in existence before Confucius,
whose last years were devoted to its
editing. His own teachings are other
wise embodied in the four Kings, which,
were promulgated after his death. Tha
last of these includes the works of Men
cius, another Chinese reformer. Taoism,
or the religion founded by Lao-tze, in
the same age with Confucius, rests upon
the books called the Tse-Lao, or "Old
Teacher" and the Tav-te-king, which
specially represents the notions Of the
illustrious Lao-tze. It is an interesting
fact that the Tae Ping rebels of l863-64,
although not protesting to be Jews or
Christians, took our Biple Tor their
book, and proclaimed that if their iu-
succeeded it would be sub
stituted for the writings of Confucius
and lao-tze.
The ancient Egyptians had forty-two
sacred books, in five classes, containing
hymns in praise of the gods, instrnc-
ions in morals, religious rites, the
,ducation of priests and related mat
ers.
The Greek and Roman mythology had
10 sacred books, unless certain poetical
works may be taken for such.
The two Eddas set forth the myth
,logy of the Norsemen, or ancieit
They originated in
celand the poetic or elder Edtla, COM