with Typhon, his death and resurrection, were events appertaining to
the divine dynasties. We can only say, then, that the origin of these
symbolical ideas was _extremely ancient_, without attempting to fix
its chronology."

But when, we realize the fact that these ancient religions were built
upon the memory of an event which had really happened--an event of
awful significance to the human race--the difficulty which perplexed
Mr. Miller and other scholars disappears. The sun had, apparently,
been slain by an evil thing; for a long period it returned not, it
was dead; at length, amid the rejoicings of the world, it arose from
the dead, and came in glory to rule mankind.

And these events, as I have shown, are perpetuated in the sun-worship
which still exists in the world in many

{p. 237}

forms. Even the Christian peasant of Europe still lifts his hat to
the rising sun.

The religion of the Hindoos was also based on the same great cosmical
event.

Indra was the great god, the sun. He has a long and dreadful contest
with Vritra, "the throttling snake." Indra is "the cloud-compeller";
he "shatters the cloud with his bolt and releases the imprisoned
waters";[1] that is to say, he slays the snake Vritra, the comet, and
thereafter the rain pours down and extinguishes the flames which
consume the world.