A History of Pantomime | Page 5

Isis, and the Dionysia of Bacchus, the Ark
or Ship was introduced. The Dove, by many nations, in their
celebrations, was looked upon as a special emblem of peace and
good-will. Theba, in Egypt, was originally one of the temples dedicated
to the Ark. Both priests and sooth-sayers were styled Ionah or Doves.
To Dodona, in Epirus, was brought this and the first Grecian oracle all
the rites and history of the Thebans. The priestesses of this temple were
known in the Latin as Columbae. It is from this word that we derive the
name Columbine, which means, in the Italian, "little dove." Homer
alludes to the priestesses as doves, and that they administered to Zeuth
(Noah). Nonnus speaks of Cadmus, and others of Orpheus, as
introducing into Greece the rites of Dionysus or Bacchus.
The Ancients, mentions Kennedy in his work on "Mythology," have
highly reverenced Noah, and designated him as Noa, Noos, Nous, Nus,
Nusas, Nusus (in India), Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Osiris, Prometheus,
Deucalion, Atlas, Deus, Zeus, and Dios. Dios was one of the most
ancient terms for Noah, and whence was derived Deus--Nusus
compounded of Dios and Nusos, which gives us Dionysus, the Bacchus
of the Greeks, and the chief god of the heathen world. Bacchus was,
properly speaking, Cush (the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah),
though both Dionysus and Bacchus are, by ancient writers, frequently
confounded with one another.
The resting of the Ark upon Mount Baris, Minyas, the Ararat of Moses
in Armenia, the dispersal of the flood, the multiplication of the families
of the earth, and the migration from the plains of Shinar of the
descendants of the sons of Chus or Cush (as it is sometimes written),
and called Chushites or Cushites, to different parts of the world, being

joined by other nations, particularly those of the descendants of Ham,
one of the sons of Noah. They were the first apostates from the truth,
but being great in worldly wisdom and knowledge they were thought to
be, and looked upon as a superior class of beings. Ham they looked
upon as a divinity, and under the name of Ammon they worshipped
him as the Sun, and Chus likewise as Apollo, a name which was also
bestowed by the Ancients upon Noah. The worship of the sun in all
probability originated the eastern position in our churches.
Another of the ancient deities worshipped by the Ammonians was
Meed, or Meet, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the nurse of Dionysus, and
the Soul of the World.
Nimrod, the "mighty hunter" (who possessed the regions of Babylonia
and Chaldee), and one of the sons of Cush, was the builder of that
seminary of idolatory the City and Tower of Bel, and erected in honour
of the god Bel, and another name for the sun. Upon the confusion of
tongues when hitherto "The whole earth was of one language, and of
one speech," it came to be known as Babylon, "The City of Confusion."
Homer introduces Orion (Nimrod) as a giant and a hunter in the shades
below, and the author of the "Pascal Chronicles" mentions that Nimrod
taught the Assyrians or Babylonians to worship fire. The priests of
Ammon, named Petor or Pator, used to dance round a large fire, which
they affected in their dancing to describe. Probably from this the
Dervish dances all over the East may be traced to this source.
Kennedy observes, of the confusion of tongues at Babel, that it was
only a labial failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not
an aberration in words or language, but a failure and incapacity in labial
utterance. Epiphanius says that Babel, or Babylon, was the first city
built after the flood.
The Cushites were a large and numerous body, and after their
dispersion from Babylon they were scattered "Abroad upon the face of
the earth." They were the same people who imparted their rites and
religious services into Egypt, as far as the Indus and the Ganges, and
still further into Japan and China. From this event is to be discovered
the fable of the flight of the Grecian god Bacchus, the fabulous
wanderings of Osiris, and the same god under another name, of the
Egyptians. Wherever Dionysus, Osiris, or Bacchus went, the Ancients
say that he taught the cultivation of the soil, and the planting of the vine.

Dionysus, Bacchus, or Osiris, as I have shown in a preceding page,
were only other designations for Noah.
Of the Hindu heathen deity, Vishnu, Father Boushet mentions an Indian
tradition, concerning a flood which covered the whole earth, when
Vishnu made a raft, and, being turned into a fish, steered it with his tail.
Vishnu, like Dagon, was represented under the figure of a man and fish.
Strangely enough, the