image of the sacred Yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is
to pass."

Thus at the time Nicodemus is said to have queried concerning the
mysteries of the new birth, it is observed that the outward forms
of regeneration had long been in use among the pagans. In passing
themselves through these apertures, the applicant for regeneration was
supposed to represent the condition of one "issuing from the womb to a
new scope of life."

According to the testimony of various writers upon this subject, there
are still extant, not alone in oriental countries, but in Ireland and
Scotland as well, numerous excavations or apertures in the rocks
which by an early race were used for the same purpose. Through the
misconception, bigotry, and ignorance of the Roman Catholic missionaries
in Ireland, these openings were designated as the "Devil's Yonies."
Although these emblems typified the original conception of one of their
most sacred beliefs, namely, the "new birth," still they were "heathen
abominations" with which the devotees of the new (?) faith must not
become defiled.

The people who executed these imperishable designs, and who have left in
the British Isles innumerable evidences of their religious beliefs,
are supposed by some writers to belong to a colony which, having been
expelled from Persia on account of their peculiar religious beliefs,
settled in the "White Island," the "Island of the Blessed." This subject
will, however, be referred to later in this work.

When we closely examine the facts connected with the evolution
of religion, there can be little doubt that the Persians laid the
foundation for that great moral and intellectual awakening which a
century or two later is represented by Confucious, Gotama Buddha, and
Pythagoras. From the Persians, doubtless Jew and Gentile alike received
the little leaven of spirituality which in later ages crept into their
gross conception of a Deity.

By the Persians, the Hindoos, and other nations of the East, it was
believed that the end of each cycle of six hundred years, at which
time a new sun or savior was to come, would mark a new era of religious
development. At the close of each of these cycles it was devoutly
expected that the "golden age" of the past would be restored, and that
mankind would again be freed from the ills which had overtaken them. As
many of these cycles had passed, numerous deliverers, saviors, or solar
incarnations had appeared in India, Got