UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

moon had a temple at Carrhae in Caria, which enjoyed the greatest fame (1). The Diana of Ephesus was nothing other than the moon. Strabo speaks of a priesthood established in her honor in Pisidia (2); of a temple raised to the God-month between Laodicea and Carura (3); of another built at Cabira in Cappadocia (4), under the invocation of the month Pharnaces, as well as a temple of the moon similar to those found in Phrygia and Albania. Indeed, the peoples of Albania and Iberia referring to the Caucasus region, not the peninsula, inhabiting the most beautiful soil in Nature and placed as if in a garden of delights, worshiped the two stars that seemed to influence vegetation the most and contribute to the hatching, nourishing, and ripening of the productions of which the earth seemed so prodigal for them. "They honor as
Gods," says Strabo (5), "the sun and the
moon, and particularly this lat-
ter planet. She has a magnificent
temple on the borders of Albania
and Iberia, served by a priest
whose priesthood is the first
dignity after the royalty."

The Turks established around Mount Caucasus had a great respect for fire, air, water, and earth, which they celebrated in their sacred hymns (6). The Scythians or Tartars who live to the east of the Imaüs, or the Mogul-Tartars, worship the sun, light, fire, earth, and water (7), and offer them the first fruits of their food, especially in the morning. The ancient Massagetae, according to Herodotus, had the sun as their sole divinity, to whom they offered horses, because it was fitting,

they said, to offer to the God who is fastest in his course the animal that most imitates him in his swiftness (8). Strabo attests to the same thing (9); and we effectively see in Justin that Queen Thomyris swears by the sun, the great God of the Massagetae (10). The Derbices, a people of Hyrcania, rendered worship to the earth (11). All the Tartars in general have the greatest respect for the sun; they regard it as the father of the moon, who holds her light from him (12); they do not begin any important operation except at the new or full moon; it is their guide, and they consequently call it their great General. They also have an idol of the earth, which they revere under the name of Matagai an earth goddess or spirit in Central Asian tradition (13).

One reads in the "Edifying Letters" that all the peoples of Tartary still make libations to the elements; they begin their feast by throwing a few drops of liquid onto the idols of their Gods (14); they pour them three times toward the south in honor of fire, and three times toward the west in honor of water; these two elements are regarded by them as the primary generative principles in Nature.

If we advance toward the middle of Asia, to the east of the Tigris and the Euphrate, in those vast plains that extend south of the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, and which were inhabited by the ancient Persians, we will find the worship of the sun, water, and especially fire established everywhere.

Herodotus tells us that the ancient

(1) Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History book 3, chapter 2; Ammianus Marcellinus page 240.
(2) Strabo book 12, page 577.
(3) Ibid. 580.
(4) Ibid. 557.
(5) Strabo book 11, page 501.
(6) Theophylact Simocatta book 7, chapter 3.
(7) Hyde, On the Religion of the Ancient Persians, page 149.
(8) Herodotus, Clio chapters 211 and 216.
(9) Strabo book 11, page 513.
(10) Justin book 2, chapter 2.
(11) Strabo book 11, page 529.
(12) Hyde page 232.
(13) Kircher, Oedipus volume 1, page 411.
(14) Edifying Letters volume 26, page 449.