Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

into the ark was penalised by death in all countries, as shown in the Hebrew Scriptures and by the laws of all Christian countries in the middle ages. In England anyone touching it was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and I doubt if that law (of about 1400) has ever been repealed. We now see how Ruach, who, in the first chapter of Genesis, incubated life out of the fertile waters, came to be called the habitation of God. But we see that Ruach, or the Ark, or the Queen of Heaven, or the Dove was at first the Sole creator and the mother of all-to whom even the "dead returned;" but

latterly she was given a husband just as Dr Budge says of the male god, that is, man alway:

fashioned his gods in his own image and he has always given to his gods wives and offspring."

The marrying of the Queen of Heaven leads into another delightful little glade of mythology, although space forbids us to linger long there.

All over the East one of the earliest words for God was El, rendered Al, El, Il, or Ol, also Eli, Eloi (two versions given in the New Testament of the name of the god to whom Jesus cried when on the Cross), also Alé as in Alé-im, the gods of first Genesis called in Britain Elohim. Vowels are of no consequence in words, and change about even now in a few generations, and from language to language. Naturally then, when Ruach or Ark married, and the male god was not important enough to have a name, he was called the Ark-el, the husband of the Ark. This then became Arkels, Harkels, Herakles, Hercules, so the descent of the "strong man is a very ancient one. But he has held his place owing to the Greeks having decorated his name with all the SunGod myths, giving him 12 labours, which are

the characteristics of the 12 months of the year through which the sun must labour every year. So his name descends in names of towns such as Herculaneum, and in adjectives, Herculanean, to modern time; nay, he himself with his Greece-imposed sweet-heart Iole (the dove) have actually come down in pantomime to the present day. Of course, as the original source of the stage play was the church miracle play, it is quite natural that ancient religious ideas should linger on our stage. Even that is changing since I, as a boy, worshipped the beautiful Fairy Queen, a being too glorious and beautiful to be of this world, but alas, lost with much else precious in childhood. The clown as mirth-making personality was the "comic relief" from the more serious parts such as the nativity, crucifixion, or some saintly life which were the real substance of the play. But the Harlequin and Columbine seem to have been retained from a fine old pagan miracle play of Sun Worship; and we find that pagan miracle plays were acted in the Churches. in Rome as late as 1513 the time of Michael Angelo and Raphael (Rome and Its Story; Glover). Hercules was a Sun God, and the beautifully spangled dress of the Harlequinthe only dress ever seen on the stage entirely

spangled over with diverging coloured rays, which represent the darting sun and his resplendent beams. He wears a domino, because if his face were seen by anyone the refulgence of his countenance would strike the beholder blind (see Exodus xxiv., 17). Harlequin is the French Arlequin or Arquelin, the small Arkel, little husband or god of the Ark, while Columbine is the diminutive for dove from Columba, or Queen of Heaven. Now Hercules had an elusive sweetheart, Iole-the Dovewhom he was constantly pursuing, but whom he never captured, as he had always to return to his next labour. So the Harlequin dances with the Columbine, a special dance in which she eludes him with pretty steps, and finally disappears, while he remains on the stage, twitters his wand or flat sword, really a lath (see page 142), and changes the scene, or creates a new scene, or brings on the glorious transformation ("Creation"), or causes demons to spring up through traps, or does some other" miracles," as Moses did with his "Rod of God" (see Fig. 12). The sacred pillar or phallus is called a Lat or Lath in India, when constructed in one piece.

And that second verse of Genesis I. while richest in false translation has more of beauti

ful mythology packed into a few words than any other five lines in literature. "The earth

was without form and void" takes us into a world of mythology about the state of things the Greeks called chaos and the Chinese vacuum, but as that is not actual creation we will pass by this tempting gateway. Then comes, And darkness was upon the face of the deep." Here we have a whole world of