statues
were erected in memory of her. "To the Great Goddess Nutria," is an
inscription which has been found among the ruins of a temple dedicated
to her. No doubt the Roman Church would have claimed her for a Madonna,
but most unluckily for them, she has the name "_Nutria_," in Etruscan
letters on her arm, after the Etruscan practice.

The Egyptian _Isis_ was also worshiped in Italy, many centuries before
the Christian era, and all images of her, with the infant Horus in her
arms, have been adopted, as we shall presently see, by the Christians,
even though they represent her and her child as _black_ as an Ethiopian,
in the same manner as we have seen that Devaki and Crishna were
represented.

[Illustration: Fig. No. 18]

[Illustration: Fig. No. 19]

The children of Israel, who, as we have seen in a previous chapter, were
idolaters of the worst kind--worshiping the sun, moon and stars, and
offering human sacrifices to their god, Moloch--were also worshipers of
a Virgin Mother, whom they styled the "Queen of Heaven."

Jeremiah, who appeared in Jerusalem about the year 625 B. C., and who
was one of the prophets and reformers, rebukes the Israelites for their
idolatry and worship of the "Queen of Heaven," whereupon they answer him
as follows:

"As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us, in the name of
the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly
do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn
incense unto the _Queen of Heaven_, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, _as we have done, we, and our fathers, our
kings, and our princes, in the city of Judah, and in the
streets of Jerusalem_: for then we had plenty of victuals, and
were well, and saw no evil.

"But since we left off to burn incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have
wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
the famine. And when we burned incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make
her _cakes_ to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto
her, without our men?"[332:1]

The "_cakes_" which were offered to the "Queen of Heaven" by the
Israelites were marked with a _cross_, or other symbol of sun
worship.[332:2] The ancient Egyptians also put a cross on their "sacred
cakes."[332:3] Some of the early Christians offered "sacred cakes" to