The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-16
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MIXED RELIGIONS.
People who worship Snakes, Rivers
and other Unconventional Gods.

and other Unconventional Gods.
From the London Daily News
We are apt 20 bee very proud of our re-
ligious liberation, forgetting that this is
quite new idea among ourselves. As
the religious statistics of the Puniab
seem to show, il must be a very odd idea
in the east. Only $40 years have passed
since the mild sect Of Episcopaliaus were
prosecuted in Scotland Only 22o years
have gone by since Mr. James Guthrie PEE
tltiOued King Charles to prosecute every
one who did not agree with him, Mr..
Guthrie, whereupOn they hanged Mr.
Guthrie, pour eucouTager les autres.
Now, in the dusky orient, liberation
must have been more prevalent, or the
Punjab could scarcely rejoice in so many
religions Sir Alfred Lyau has shown
that almost any man who can preach and
work miracles may found a new sect, and
these gifts are, or are esteemed to be,
very common in the east. Thus, in Mr.
McClagan's estimate, he rcckons about
10000 believers in Hogism. Their tcnetS
are very contrary to those with which
the Bad Squire informed the mind of Mr.
Robert Elsmere. In the miracles of the
New Testament they see nothing won
derful, as being persuaded that miracles
are matters of common occurrence. Out
side the circle of contributors to The
journal of Physical Research this doe
trine is not held by 10000 English people.
If the YOgis are so accomplished as
they declare, it is to be regretted
that they do not come over and work a
few miracles under test conditions. If IL
Yogi sealed up in bag, with Mr., Myers
eye upon him, can make tables walk about
the room, then we are prepared to admit
that there is something in Nogism, A
miracle win be all the more miraculous if
performed in unhappy climatic conditions.
Besides even if the Yogis find it too cold
for miracles, mediums do not. De Foe re-
marks, with misplaced confidence, that
I'VE don't find our houses disturbed as
they used to be, and the stools and chairs
walking about out of one room into an
other, as formerly" But we do find all
this occurring, in printed books, which
ought to be a great encouragement to
YOgis.
Compared with Yogis, river worship
ers are only a small sect. In this Coun-
try they would be beating the rivers with
iron chains, like Xerxes, be cause the riv-
ers i'll this dry spring are very provoking
to their adorerS. Not trout can be in
duced to rise while the barometer does
nothing else, and salmon streams are
mere collections of dry boulders at 100
guineas a month. The man who has paid
that sum, and whose sole occupation is
whistling for south wind and rain,
would be rather apt to burn few river
worshipers if liberation had not obtain
ed such a hold on our manners. Most of
the river worshipers belong to the Cd
sect The DDS always wear a black
blanket, not to save washing in the sa-
cred rivers, but to put them in mind of
their latter end, and of the fact that they
must 90 in mourning till a food in the
Ganges, which at present seems extreme
ly unlikely to occur. They might get
their friends, the Yogis, to cause flood
by the occult power of the will, and If
Yogi really can do this, then Sutherland
is the county where a Yogi would be sim
ply adored But if he cannot do it in the
Ganges he is not likely to succeed in the
Oykel or the Helmsdale. There is some
thing very proving in the contrast be-
tween what the Yogis say they can do
and what they actually perform.
Snake worshipers are more numerous
than river worshipers. They have al
ways been large denomination in
heather countries. Why they worship
snakes is "a problem that has been fire.
quently discussed to no particular pur-
pose But people who worship owls, bats,
Holsters, rats and mice, will worship any
thing, and perhaps snake worshipers are
so common merely because snakes are so
widely distributed, and so far from eXclu-
sive in their habits. If man worships
an Opossum, or an ornithOrhyncus, he
must go TO Australia to do so. but SER
penis are everywhere. So is the Earth
(PrithD and the Earth, as Hertha,
Demeter, and under many other
names has never wanted adOrers. Even
the mtutOred Pawnees are earth worship
ers, and bury objects by wayof sacrifice
which is more economical than burning
them, as they can be dug up again. The
ancestral mound is a good deal adOred
in the Puniab. In Scotland it became
the fairy hill, as at AberfOyle, and was
treated with conspicuous respect in times
comparatively modern. The church was
usually built as near it as possible, per-
haps to cOunteract the influence of the
ancestral mound, or to acquire any local
sacredness that might be going. There
are said to be thirty-three crores of gods
in the Hindoo Pantheon, and putting the
crore at a million, even allowing for the
depreciation of the rupee, this is a large
supply In the British Puniab there
are said to be only 1000 sun worshipers,
a statement painful to believers in the
solar theory of myth. For it is plain that
serpents, rivers, the earth, andancestors,
not to speak of Yogis, must supply more
mythology than the sun, if the figures be
correct At all events, all these demon
nations live very peacefully together,
and do not burn each other for their very
striking differences Of theological opinion.
This proves that they are wiser than our
recent ancestors No Cd would put
fellow-creature TO the torture dixie Arch
bishop Spottiswoode with Father OgilVie)
for being a sweep. Yet sweeps differ as
much from DDS as EpiscOpalians from