to enable us to determine them with even approximate accuracy.'
From the foregoing it is apparent that the great festival of the winter
solstice has been celebrated during past ages, and in widely separated
lands, in honour of the birth of a God, who is almost invariably alluded
to as a 'Saviour,' and whose mother is referred to as a pure virgin. The
striking resemblances, too, which have been instanced not only in the
birth but in the life of so many of these Saviour-Gods are far too
numerous to be accounted for by any mere coincidence."[182]

In the case of the Lord Buddha we may see how a myth attaches itself to
a historical personage. The story of His life is well known, and in the
current Indian accounts the birth-story is simple and human. But in the
Chinese account He is born of a virgin, Mayadevi, the archaic myth
finding in Him a new Hero.

Williamson also tells us that fires were and are lighted on the 25th
December on the hills among Keltic peoples, and these are still known
among the Irish and the Scotch Highlanders as Bheil or Baaltinne, the
fires thus bearing the name of Bel, Bal, or Baal, their ancient Deity,
the Sun-God, though now lighted in honour of Christ.[183]

Rightly considered, the Christmas festival should take on new elements
of rejoicing and of sacredness, when the lovers of Christ see in it the
repetition of an ancient solemnity, see it stretching all the world
over, and far, far back into dim antiquity; so that the Christmas bells
are ringing throughout human history, and sound musically out of the
far-off night of time. Not in exclusive possession, but in universal
acceptance, is found the hallmark of truth.

The death-date, as said above, is not a fixed one, like the birth-date.
The date of the death is calculated by the relative positions of Sun and
Moon at the spring equinox, varying with each year, and the death-date
of each Solar Hero is found to be celebrated in this connection. The
animal adopted as the symbol of the Hero is the sign of the Zodiac in
which the Sun is at the vernal equinox of his age, and this varies with
the precession of the equinoxes. Oannes of Assyria had the sign of
Pisces, the Fish, and is thus figured. Mithra is in Taurus, and,
therefore, rides on a Bull, and Osiris was worshipped as Osiris-Apis, or
Serapis, the Bull. Merodach of Babylon was worshipped as a Bull, as was
Astarte of Syria. When the Sun is in the sign of Aries, the Ram or Lamb,
we have Osiris