[174] If space permitted, we might trace to their source the developments which the primeval goddess of fecundity underwent. To the ideas embodied in her may be referred nearly all the feminine deities of antiquity.
[175] Faber, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 246.
[176] Kenrick’s “Phœnicia,” p. 307.
[177] See Faber, op. cit.; also Note at the end of this chapter.
[178] On this question, see the “Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London,” vol. ii., p. 265; also “Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus,” in the “Asiatic Researches,” vol. xvii. (1832), p. 216, et seq.
[179] This question is fully considered by Dr. Muir in his Sanscrit Texts, part iv., p. 54, et seq.
[180] Ditto, pp. 161, 343.
[181] “Rural Bengal,” p. 187, et seq., 152. This association of the mountain and the river is found also in the Persian Khordah-Avesta. See (5) Abun-yasht, v. 1-3.
[182] See “Tree and Serpent Worship,” p. 70; also Sherring’s “Benares,” pp. 75-89. Here the serpent is evidently symbolical of life. In the Mahabharata, Mahadeva is described as having “a girdle of serpents, ear-rings of serpents, a sacrificial cord of serpents, and an outer garment of serpent’s skin.” Dr. Muir, op. cit., part iv., p. 160.
[183] Op. cit., p. 70.