Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/58

 the temples of their gods; trampling underfoot the sacred images, the venerated symbols of the religion of their forefathers; imposing upon them strange idols, that they said were likenesses of the only true God and of his mother — an assertion that seemed most absurd to those worshippers of the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies, who regarded Ku, the Divine Essence, the uncreated Soul of the World, as the only Supreme God, not to be represented under any shape. Yet, by lashes, torture, death even, the victims were compelled to pay homage to these images, with rites and ceremonies the purport of which they were, as their descendants still are, unable to understand, being at the same time forbidden to observe the religious practices which they had been accustomed to from times immemorial. More, their temples of learning were destroyed, with their libraries and the precious volumes that contained the history of their nation, that of their illustrious men and women whose memory they venerated, the