In his general siunmary of Mazdeism, as the worship
ORNAMATUAS TUS
450
ORNAMENT
of Ormuzd is called, after 3fazJa, the second part of the deity's name, Jlr. Kawlinsou (p. 337) points out that, besiiics their belief in a spiritual world, composed partly of i,'ood, partly of evil intelligences, the Zoroas- trians held very enlightened views with respect to hu- man duties and hopes. In their system truth, purity, piety, and industry were the virtues chiefly valued and inculcated. Evil was traced up to its root in the heart of man; and it was distinctly taught that no virtue deserved the name but such as was co-extensive with the whole sphere of human activity, including the per- fect triad of thought, word, and deed. Alan's industry was to exert itself in reclaiming the soil from the thorns and weeds and barrenness with which it had been cursed by Ahriman. Thus tillage became a re- ligious duly, in which man was a fellow-worker with Ormuzd. A\'orship consisted in the recitation of pray- ers and hymns; the offering of soma-juice, which was not allowed to ferment and become intoxicating, as was the case in India, but was drunk fresh ; and tinally in sacrifices, that of the horse being looked upon as the most acceptable. The flesh was only shown to the sa- cred lire as an act of consecration, and was then eaten at a solemn banquet by the priest and his fellow-wor- shippers.
Finally, the Zoroastrians were devout believers in the immortality of the soid and a conscious future ex- istence. They taught that immediately after death the souls of men, both good and bad, proceed together along an appointed path to " the bridge of the gather- er." Over this, from its extreme narrowness, only the souls of the good can pass, while the wicked fall from it into the gulf of punishment below. Even the good have to be assisted in their passage by the angel Serosh, but when safely over the archangel Barman rises from his throne to greet them severally with the words, " How happy art thou who hast come hither to us from mortality to immortality." After this the pious soiU goes joyfully onward to the jjresence of Ormuzd, to the immortal saints, to the golden throne, and to Para- dise. As for the wicked, when they fall into the gulf, they find themselves in outer darkness iu Ahriman's kingdom, where they are forced to remain and feed on poisoned banquets. The one dark spot, therefore, in the Zoroastrian religion was this dualism, which placed opposite to the good god Ormuzd a being of nearly equal might and activity, Ahriman, who wages with him constant war. Yet even this appears to have been a corruption of the primitive creed. The earlier portions of the Zend-Avesta are strongly monotheistic, are averse to idolatry under every form, and mark in the strongest way the opposition between good and evil. But as time went on, and men mused upon this mysterious problem of the presence and power of evil in a world made by a good god, the figure of the bad intelligence, Ahriman, began to stand out in stronger colors, till he became a god too, endowed with attri- butes well-nigh as mighty as those of Ormuzd. Then round the two there grew up a mythology of angelic beings, towards some of whom at last even a religious reverence was paid verging on idolatry ; and so the spirituality of the original creed of the Iranians was lost.
The chief authorities are Spiegel's edition and trans- lation of the Zend-Avesta ; Haug, I-Jssai/s on the Sacred Languar/e, etc., of the Parsees ; Lenormant, Manuel d'/Hstoire Ancienne de /'Orient, ii, 30()-324; liawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, ii, 322-344. See also Ilardwick, Christ and other .]f asters, ii, 383 S(j. ; Midler, Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i ; Upham, Wise Men, p. 72- 74, 82-85; Hunt, Pantheism, p. 32 sq. ; Ueberweg, Hist, of Philosophy, i, 17 sq. ; Etheridge, Introd. to Hebrew Literalnn; p. 340 sq. (R. T. S.)
Oniamatuas Tlis is the name of a spirit wor- shipped by tlie South Sea Islanders. There are suj)- posed to he several such spirits, and they are thought to reside in the world of night, and are never invoked
by wizards or sorcerers. They are a different order of beings from the gods, and are believed to be the spirits of departed relations. The natives were greatly afraid of them, and endeavored to propitiate them by present- ing offerings. '"They seem," says Mr. Ellis, in his Poly- nesian Researches, " to have been regarded as a sort of diemons. In the Leeward Islands, the chief oniamatuas were spirits of departed warriors who had distinguished themselves by ferocity and murder, attributes of charac- ter usually supposed to belong to these evil genii. Each celebrated tU was honored with an image, throui^h which it was supposed his influence wiis exerted. The spirits of the reigning chiefs were united to this class, and the skulls of deceased rulers, kept with the images, were honored with the same worship. Some idea of what was regarded as their ruling passion may be inferred from the fearful apprehensions constantly entertained by all classes. They were supposed to be exceedingly irritable and cruel, avenging with death the slightest insult or neglect, and were kept within the precincts of the temple. In the marie of Tane, at IMasva, the ruins of their abode were still standing when I last visited the place. It was a house built upon a number of large, strong poles, which raised tlie floor ten or twelve feet from the ground. They were thus elevated to keep them out of the way of men, as it was imagined they were constantly strangling or otherwise destroying the chiefs and people. To prevent this, they were also treated with great respect ; men were appointed con- stantly to attend them, and to keep them wrapped in the choicest kinds of cloth; to take them out whenever there was a pae atua, or general exhibition of the gods ; to anoint them frequently with fragrant oil ; and to sleep in the house with them at night. All this was done to keep them ])acirted. And though the oflice of calming the angry spirits was honorable, it was regard- ed as dangerous; for if during the night, or at any other time, these keepers were guilty of the least impropriety, it was supposed the spirits of the images or the skulls would hurl them headlong from their high abodes, and break their necks in the fall." The names of the prin- ciple ornamatuas were Mauri, Bua-rai, Tea-fao. They were considered the most malignant of beings, exceed- ingl}' irritable and implacable. They were not confined to the skulls of departed warriors, or the images made for them, but Avere occasionally supposed to resort to the shells from the sea-shore, especially a beautiful kind of murex, called the murex i-amoces. These shells were kept by the sorcerers, and the peculiar singing noise perceived on applying the valve to the ear was imagined to proceed from the dremon it contained. See Gardner, Faiths (fthe World, vol. ii, s. v.