and other stories of Christ are reproduced with
astonishing similarity. One may add to this the Christmas festival,
where Krishna is born in a stable, and the use of certain
church-utensils in the temple-service. Weber has proved by collecting
and explaining these 'coincidences,'[62] that there must be identity
of origin. It remains only to ask from which side is the borrowing?
Considering how late are these Krishna legends in India[63] there can
be no doubt that the
Hindu borrowed the tales, but not the name; for the last assumption is
quite improbable because Krishna (=Christ?) is native enough, and
Vishnu is as old as the Rig Veda. That these tales are of secondary
importance, as they are of late origin, is a matter of course. They
are excrescences upon real Vishnuism (Krishnaism) and the result of
anthropomorphizing in its fullest extent the image of the man-god, who
is represented in the epic as the incarnation of the Supreme Spirit.
The doctrine of the incarnation is thoroughly Indic. It is Buddhistic
as well as Brahmanic, and precedes Vishnuism as it does Christianity.
The legends are another matter. Here one has to assume direct contact
with the Occident.[64] But while agreeing with Weber and disagreeing
with Barth in the determination of the relation of this secondary
matter, we are unable to agree with Weber in his conclusions in regard
to the one passage in the pseudo-epic that is supposed by him[65] to
refer to a visit to a Christian church in Alexandria. This is the
famous episode of the White Island, which, to be sure, occurs in so
late a portion of the Book of Peace (xii. 337. 20 ff) that it might
well be what Weber describes it as being. But to us it appears to
contain no allusion at all to Christianity. The account in brief is as
follows: Three priests with the insignificant names "First, Second,
Third,"[66] go to the far North (_dic uttar[=a]_) where, in the "Sea
of Milk," they find an Albion called 'White Island,' perhaps regarded
as one of the seven or thirteen 'islands,' of which earth consists;
and there Vishnu is worshipped as the one god by white men of
extraordinary physical characteristics.

The fact that the 'one god' is already a hackneyed phrase of
philosophy; that there is no resemblance to a trinitarian god; that
the hymn sung to this one god contains no trace of Christian
influence, but is on the other hand thoroughly native in tone and
phraseology, being as follows: "Victory to thee, t