o
eat them suppose they were originated to commemorate the
Christian Sacrifice; but we know that the cross was a sacred symbol
with the earliest Egyptians, for it is carved upon their imperishable
records; we know too that _bun_ itself is ancient Greek, and that
Winckelmann relates the discovery at Herculaneum of two perfect
buns, each marked with a cross: while the _boun_ described by
Hesychius was a cake with a representation of _two horns_.
Incredible as it may seem to some, the cross bun in its origin had
nothing to do with an event with which it is in England identified; it
probably commemorates the worship of the moon. In passing from
China, we may also note the influence of that sexuality of which we
have spoken before. Dr. Medhurst remarks: "The principle of the
Chinese cosmogony seems to be founded on a sexual system of the
universe." [181]

Dr. Prichard tells us that among the Japanese "sacred festivals are
held at certain seasons of the year and at changes of the moon."
Also, "It appears that _Sin-too_, or original Japanese religion, is
merely a form of the worship of material objects, common to all the
nations of Northern Asia, which, among the more civilized tribes,
assumes the aspect of mythology." [182]

From Asia we come to Africa, and to Egypt, that wonderful land
with a lithographed history at least five thousand years old; a land
that basked in the sunshine of civilization and culture when nearly
the whole world without was in shadow and gloom. The mighty
pyramid of Gizeh still stands, a monument of former national
greatness, and a marvel to the admirer of sublimity in design and
perfection in execution. "The setting of the sides to the cardinal
points is so exact as to prove that the Egyptians were excellent
observers of the elementary facts of astronomy." [183] But they
went farther. Diodorus says: "The first generation of men in Egypt,
contemplating the beauty of the superior world, and admiring with
astonishment the frame and order of the universe, judged that there
were two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the sun and the
moon, the first of which they called _Osiris_, and the other _Isis_."
[184] This passage is proof that the Greeks and Romans had a very
limited acquaintance with Egyptian mythology; for the historian
was indubitably in error in supposing Osiris and Isis to be sun and
moon. But he was right in calling the sun and moon the first gods of
the Egyptians. Rawlinson sa