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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
traditions about their gods and heroes, having been handed down by oral tradition chiefly, has perished beyond all hope of recovery. Some portions of the Eddas alone give us an idea of what the religious and heroic poetry of the Scandinavians may have been. The Egyptians possessed Sacred Books, and some of them, such as the Book of the Dead, have come down to us in various forms. In Babylon and Assyria, too, important fragments of what may be called a Sacred Literature have lately come to light. The interpretation, however, of these Hieroglyphic and Cuneiform texts is as yet so difficult that, for the present, they are of interest to the scholar only, and hardly available for historical purposes.
Leaving out of consideration the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, it appears that the only great and original religions which profess to be founded on Sacred Books, and have preserved them in manuscript, are :
I. The religion of the Brahmans. 2. The religion of the followers of Buddha.
The religion of the followers of Gina. 4. The religion of the followers of Zarathustra. 5. The religion of the followers of Kung-fu-tze. 6. The religion of the followers of Lao-tze.
7. The religion of the followers of Mohammed. A desire for a trustworthy translation of the Sacred Books of these Eastern religions has often been expressed. Several have been translated into English, French, German, or Latin, but in some cases these translations are difficult to procure, in others they are loaded with notes and commentaries, which are intended for students by profession only. Oriental
