es a scene which took place after the taxes had been
paid.

Vasudeva, an acquaintance of Nanda's, "went to the wagon of Nanda, and
found Nanda there, rejoicing that a son (Crishna) had been born to him.

"Vasudeva spoke to him kindly, and congratulated him _on having a son in
his old age_.[158:4]

"'Thy yearly tribute,' he added, 'has been paid to the king . . . why do
you delay, now that your affairs are settled? Up, Nanda, quickly, and
set off to your own pastures.' . . . Accordingly Nanda and the other
cowherds returned to their village."[158:5]

Now, in regard to _Buddha_, the same myth is found.

Among the thirty-two signs which were to be fulfilled by the mother of
the expected Messiah (Buddha), the fifth sign was recorded to be, "_that
she would be on a journey at the time of her child's birth_."
Therefore, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets," the virgin Maya, in the tenth month after her heavenly
conception, was on a journey to her father, when lo, the birth of the
Messiah took place under a tree. One account says that "she had alighted
at an _inn_ when Buddha was born."[159:1]

The mother of _Lao-tsze_, the Virgin-born Chinese sage, was away from
home when her child was born. She stopped to rest _under a tree_, and
there, like the virgin Maya, gave birth to her son.[159:2]

_Pythagoras_ (B. C. 570), whose real father was the Holy Ghost,[159:3]
was also born at a time when his mother was away from home on a journey.
She was travelling with her husband, who was _about his mercantile
concerns_, from Samos to Sidon.[159:4]

_Apollo_ was born when his mother was away from home. The Ionian legend
tells the simple tale that Leto, the mother of the unborn Apollo, could
find no place to receive her in her hour of travail until she came to
Delos. The child was born like Buddha and Lao-tsze--_under a
tree_.[159:5] The mother knew that he was destined to be a being of
mighty power, ruling among the undying gods and mortal men.[159:6]

Thus we see that the stories, one after another, relating to the birth
and infancy of Jesus, are simply old myths, and are therefore not
historical.

FOOTNOTES:

[154:1] Matthew, ii.

[154:2] Luke, ii.

[154:3] Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, chs. xl., xli. and xlii.

[155:1] Protevangelion. Apoc. chs. xii., xiii., and xiv., and Lily of
Israel, p. 95.

[155:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.

[155:3] Farrar's Life of Chri