The Egyptians honor’d the Name of Osiris, whom some will have to be the same with Misraim, or Chamszoon, the first Founder of the Egyptian Monarchy.
In Egypt also was famous amongst many other Cities that of Heliopolis, which signifi’d The City of the Sun; where the Ox Mnevis or Menapis being Consecrated to the Sun, was religiously worshipp’d. This Image is describ’d by Macrobius.
The Moors made likewise great Offerings to their Assabin, for so they call’d the Sun; and allow’d their Priests onely the priviledge to gather Cinamon, and that with this Proviso, That they should first Offer forty four Oxen, besides Goats and Rams, to Assabin, nor should fetch the least Stick of Cinamon either immediately before or after Sun-set: The Cinamon brought altogether, was to be divided by the Chief Priest, and the rest having each their Portion assign’d, that which remain’d was sold to the Merchants, to Trade with into Foreign Parts; but if the Sun chanc’d to set the Cinamon on fire, then they concluded they had not dealt justly.
The Greeks, according to Proclus, hung a long Pole full of Laurel and Flowers on every seventh day of the Moneth; on the top thereof was a great Copper Ball, from which hung others still lesser and lesser; about the middle of the Pole hung three hundred and sixty five Garlands; and the bottom thereof was cover’d with a Womans Garment of a yellow colour: The uppermost Ball represented the Sun, the lesser the Stars, and the Garlands the Days of the Year; in which manner they worshipp’d the Sun.
Why Divine Worship so generally given to the Sun.
The same Luminary the Massagetes and old Germans ador’d in antient times; and to this day the People in the utmost North, Japanners, Chineses, Tartars, and the East and West-Indians, pay their chief Devotions to the Sun; the reason of which may easily be made out: for it is the common Opinion of all Men, as Aristotle, Simplicius, Themistius, and other Heathens witness, to place the Omnipotent Godhead in the uppermost Orb, which surrounds the Earth; wherefore those that Pray, lift up their Hands to Heaven: but because the rest of the Heavens appear not so resplendent as the Sun, therefore they take the Sun for the onely chief God, whether for its exceeding lustre and glory, or for its being a hundred and sixty times bigger than the Earth; or for its swift Course, in running ten hundred thousand Leagues in so short a time, or for its nourishing and genial Warmth, which gives Life to all things, or for its necessary Light, by which all worldly Affairs are manag’d, or for its measuring the Days by its moving from East to West, and the Seasons of the Year, by a Course from the South to the North; for all these excellent qualities being well consider’d by the most Learned Heathens, or observ’d by those of lesser Judgment, have made them shew that Honor to a visible Creature, which is onely due to the invisible Creator.
These and such like Arguments induc’d the Caribbeeans to go to Bemarin, where the Feast of the Sun was to be kept.
The Apalachites and Caribbeans make an Offering to the Sun on the Mountain Olaimi.
Part of the Caribbeans revolt from the Apalachites.
They people the Caribees and grow powerful.