But as the former had imagined that the Yoni alone was the author of procreation, while the others claimed that honour for their own symbol, the Lingam, an animosity ensued, which was not allayed even by the consciousness, that each, secretly, worshipped the type of the other’s creed.
The goddess, however, prevailed in the struggle, and her glories in Iran were great and far spread. Monarchs bowed at the nod of her omnipotence, and the earth swelled with the gestations of her praise.[310] “Sed ultima dies semper homini est expectanda.” A rude and a lawless swarm of stragglers, headed by an adventurer of commanding abilities and determined heroism, deluged, in turn, the Boatmen, or the Noachidæ,[311] and swamped them in a flood, as sanguinary and as disastrous as that which they had, themselves, before, brought upon the adversaries of their zeal.
But it was not the bloodshed of the scene that affected them half so much as the insult offered by the erection of the Tower![312] And as no clue can be so adequate for the analysis of this enigma as that which they themselves have bequeathed,—for it was from the Yavanas or Pish-de-danaans that Moses had been taught the fact,—I shall place such before your eyes, in all the eloquence of a self-interpreting dissyllable.
מנרל is the name by which the scriptural record perpetuates this structure.[313] If you put this into English letters, and read them regularly, from left to right, it will be Lidgam. But the Hebrews read in the opposite direction, from right to left; and that is the very cause of the appearance of the d in the word; for as Magnil—reading backwards—would produce a cacophony, the n of the original was left out, and d substituted, making Magdil: reinstate, therefore, the n, and enunciate the Hebrew word, as you would the Irish or the Sanscrit, and it will not only unmask the secret of this long-disputed edifice, but be, sound, and personate, in all the nicety of accentuation, Lingam, and thus prevent all further controversy about the character of the Tower of Babel.
“The waies through which my weary steps I guide,
In this researche of old antiquitie,
Are so exceeding riche, and long, and wyde,
And sprinkled with such sweet varietie,
Of all that pleasant is to eare and eye,
That I, nigh ravisht with rare thought’s delight,
My tedious travel quite forgot thereby;
And when I gin to feel decay of might,
It strength to me supplies and cheers my dulled spright.”[314]
CHAPTER XXI.
I have stated that it was from the Pish-de-danaans or Yavana philosophers of Egypt that Moses had learned the allegories of the Deluge and of the Fall. I now add, that it was by them also he had been instructed in that consolatory assurance which told him that the “Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.”[315]
In truth, it was this very promise made to the ancestors of those people in Paradise, which is but another name for Iran,[316] that gave rise to the schism between them and the Tuath-de-danaans.