It will be convenient, in tracing the history of pilgrimages, to begin with those which belong to the various forms of heathenism, ancient and modern, as pertaining, whatever be their actual date, to an earlier stage of mental evolution than the Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan ones.

The first pilgrimages, then, of which we have any trustworthy knowledge, are those of ancient Egypt. The mythology of the Egyptians is even yet but imperfectly understood, but it is at any rate clear that, just as the votaries of Vishnu and of Siva keep apart in modern Hindustan, so the chief deities of the Egyptian pantheon had cults which were as often rival as complementary, and that the emulation of the competing temples took the form of bidding against each other for popular favour by the splendour of their chief yearly festivals. We are obliged to have recourse to Herodotus and Plutarch for information as to the general cycle of feasts nationally observed; for, although local calendars and rubrics of festivals have been discovered in several places, nothing cognate with Ovid’s Fasti has yet been found in Egypt. Herodotus notices that, instead of having but one yearly national festival (πavηyvρc<i), the Egyptians had six, the principal of which was that of Artemis (i.e., Bast or Sekhet) at Bubastis, to which the pilgrims went in boats crowded with both sexes, playing on castanets and flutes, and singing to this accompaniment. They landed at every town along the river to perform orgie dances, and at Bubastis itself offered great sacrifices, besides feasting copiously, in particular consuming vast quantities of grape-wine. He states the numbers assembling on this occasion, exclusive of children, to average 700,000. Next to this ranked the festival of Isis at Busiris, attended with ceremonies of mourning, most probably in memory of the sufferings of Osiris. Third in order was the feast of Athene (Neith) at Sais, celebrated at night, with illuminations. Fourth was the festival of the Sun (Ra) at On or Heliopolis; fifth that at Buto in honour of Latona (Buto or Uat). These two were attended with simply sacrificial rites, and there were no symbolical ceremonies in addition. Last came the festival of Ares (Har-tash, the Hertosi of Cedrenus) at Papremis, at which there was a rough tussle, symbolizing war, between the temple-attendants and the pilgrims, in which lives were sometimes lost. There was another high festival, that of Apis at Memphis, not included by Herodotus in his list, perhaps because not of yearly recurrence, besides the much frequented oracle of Ammon at Thebes, whither it had been transferred from Meroe, its first seat in Egypt. And it is noticeable that there was no pilgrimage at all to the most sacred spot in Egypt, the island of Philae, the burial-place of Osiris, because its very sanctity made it “tabu” to lay folk. The mysteries, in like manner, being rigidly confined to a few, did not form an occasion of pilgrimage.

As regards the great Mesopotamian empires, our knowledge does not yet enable us to say that pilgrimages entered into their religious system, though we may not unreasonably infer so from the size and wealth of several temples, notably those of Ishtar, from the Assyrian custom of imposing their own deities upon conquered nations, and from the example of one great religious assembly from all the provinces of the Babylonian empire, recorded in Daniel iii. There may, perhaps, be indirect proof of Babylonian pilgrimages in what Cyrus states in his cylinder-inscription, namely, that Nabonidus had offended the gods by transporting their images to Babylon, and thus, as it were, making them perform pilgrimage.

The ancient Zend creed of the Medes and Persians, having no temples for worship, had no pilgrimages; but in its later Mithraic form, the initiation of neophytes by the Magians into the mysteries, through a painful course of purgation (curiously resembling one prevalent in Ireland far within the present century), in a cavern or grotto at Babylon, necessitated a pilgrimage thither on the part of those who desired to become experts; and Lucian has left some account of its rules in his Menippus. x

Amongst the Phoenicians there are clear traces of at least two great pilgrimages in honour of Ashtoreth, one to Aphaca (probably the Aphek of Scripture), celebrated for a yearly miracle of a ball of fire appearing on the mountain summit, and thence falling into the sea. The obscene rites for which this temple was infamous led to its destruction by Constantine the Great (Euseb., Vit. Const., iii. 56). The other great Ashtoreth pilgrimage was to Hierapolis in Syria, frequented by votaries from all the Semitic races except the Jews. Antioch was also a great centre of this cult, as also of that of Thammuz, but, ^tPictly speaking, there is no proof of a Thammuz pilgrimage, nor of one in honour of Melkarth, though his worship was carried from Tyre, its chief seat, into all the Phoenician colonies, and the famous oracle of his temple at Gades drew crowds of inquirers annually. · In Palestine proper, though the cults of Baal, Ashtoreth, Moloch, Dagon, and Beelzebub were widespread and persistent, and though the name Jericho probably, and Ashtaroth-Karnaim certainly, point to a seat of moon-worship, as Bethshemesh does to one of sunworship, there is no direct evidence of organized pilgrimages to these places.

In ancient Hellas there were four classes of religious observance more or less cognate with pilgrimage, though not in any case identical therewith. First may be placed the consultation of oracles,—those of Apollo at Delphi, of Zeus at Dodona, of Trophonius at Lebadeia, and of Asclepius at Epidaurus (the last of which was resorted to also for the cure of disease) being the most famous and most frequented, while, outside Greece and its colonies, the oracle of the Libyan Ammon in the desert south of Cyrene was also in much esteem. Next come the four great national festivals and games, the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian, attended by crowds from all Greek states, not only as attractive shows, but as religious ceremonies. Thirdly may be named the more local or tribal festivals, such as the Panathenaea, the feast of the Charites at Orchomenus, that of Hera at Samos, of Aphrodite at Paphos, and of Artemis at Ephesus, which drew together many worshippers besides those who were specially bound to visit the shrines in question. But the closest parallel to the Christian theory of pilgrimage is found in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries (see Mysteries), the special likeness of which to pilgrimages of a later day lies in the notion of merit and spiritual benefit, attached to initiation, to the belief that happiness in a future state of existence would be promoted, nay, insured, by admission to the ranks of the mystae.

The Latin customs bear a certain superficial likeness to the Greek, in that local oracles, such as those of Faunus, of Albunea, of Fortuna, and of the Sibyls, were much frequented; there are traces of great tribal sanctuaries and gatherings, such as the worship of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount, of more narrowly restricted tribal cults, such as the Julian worship of Vejovis at Bovillae and the Fabian sacrifice to Hercules on the Quirinal, and of at least two temples to which regular pilgrimages seem to have been made—those of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium, and of Vesta (perhaps of all the Penates also) at Lavinium. But, apart from racial and theosophic differences of belief, there was one factor at work in Italy which tended to bring about a wholly different character of popular religion from that which was evolved in Hellas—the overmastering centralization of Rome, and the practical identification of all solemn worship (apart from the rustic ceremonies in honour of minor and little known deities) with the apotheosis of the Republic. Hence, after the chief seat of Roman worship was transferred from the Regia to the Capitol, pilgrimage proper disappeared, for the local gods of each newly absorbed city or state were added to the original triad of Roman gods, and to the other Sabine triad, moved from the Quirinal to the new sanctuary, and it becomes impossible to distinguish clearly between the purely political ceremonies performed in honour of gods viewed primarily as the tutelars of Rome and voluntary resort to the great temple for the personal cult of any particular deity enshrined there. One relic of the older custom seems to have survived till later times, namely, the pilgrimage of Roman women barefoot to the temple of Vesta in the Forum on June 9 every year.

No pilgrimages seem to have been usual in the Teutonic and Slavonic religions, though both had special temples regarded as more sacred than the remainder, and in the case of the latter we know with tolerable accuracy that Kieff, Novgorod, Rethra in Mecklenburg, Karenz, Winneta and Julin (isle of Wollin), Stettin, and lastly Arkona in the isle of Rügen, succeeded one another as the chief seat of the worship of Perun, Lada, Bielbog, and other principal Slavic deities, and were necessarily attended by much larger bodies of worshippers than temples of less account, more thinly officered, and inferior in repute for the learning and prophetic powers of their priests.

Directing our attention to an entirely different region of the world, we learn that in 1519, when Cortes entered Cholula in Mexico, he found it a great resort of pilgrims to the huge temple of Quetzalcoatl, then of unknown antiquity, as founded by a race earlier than the Aztecs, and built upon a colossal mound, vying in dimensions with the largest pyramids of Egypt. And what is yet more curious, besides this principal shrine, there were subsidiary tribal temples in the city, restricted to the uses of the several allied or kindred nations, who desired to have their own sanctuary in the holy city, precisely as churches of different nationalities are found in Jerusalem and in Rome to-day. And similarly in Peru, the great Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, with its encircling girdle of chapels dedicated to minor deities, was visited by pilgrims from all parts of the empire ; nay, it was even regarded as a misfortune to fail in accomplishing the journey.

India, however, is above all others the land of pilgrimages, for it has observed them during a longer unbroken period than any other country of which we possess sufficient records, and for frequency and multitude it would be difficult to find any parallel. The most celebrated of them are those to the temple of Jagan-nâth at Puri in Orissa, Benares, Hurd war, Ganga-Sagara, Gangotri, Jumnotri, Prayâga (Allahabad), Râmêswara, Gaya in Behar, and Ayodhya or Oudh. Apart from the motives, common to all pilgrims, of acquiring religious merit or expiating sins, these Indian shrines are frequented for the performance of sraddha ceremonies in honour of deceased ancestors or as votive acts for the recovery of the sick, or, again, to carry the ashes of deceased kindred to be scattered in the waters of some sacred or purifying river. Every great river in India, with some lakes, tanks, and springs, is regarded as permeated with the divine essence, and as capable of cleansing from all sin. Hence the favourite resorts are river sources and confluences, while Benares, as situated on the Ganges itself, is the holiest spot in Hindustan. The other most frequented shrines are usually associated with the cults of Krishna, Siva, and Râma. All these are exclusively connected with Brahman rites, for the entire extirpation of Buddhism from the Hindu peninsula has prevented any special sacredness from continuing to attach to the scenes of Gautama Buddha’s life (though the Buddhists allege that the sanctity of Benares is due to its having been the residence of Buddha himself and the scene of his earliest preachings); and it is in Ceylon only that two Indo-Buddhist pilgrimages survive,—that of Adam’s Peak, and the yet more popular one to the temple of Kandy, where the Dalada Malagawa, or tooth of Buddha, is an object of special veneration. For northern Buddhism the chief shrines are Lhassa in Tibet, the seat of the Dalai Lama, and Urga in northern Mongolia, the seat of the Tesho-Lama or Bogdo-Lama. Before the Brahman revolution, which drove Buddhism out of India, pilgrimages to the chief scenes of Gautama Buddha’s life were common; and notably Kapilavastu, his birthplace, Benares, where he began his mission, and Kasinagara, where he died, were much frequented, especially by Chinese converts. The narratives of some of these, Fa Hian, Hwai-Seng, and Sung-yun, and Hwen-T’sang, the most noteworthy of them all (see vol. xii. p. 418), who came to visit the holy places and to collect the sacred books, are still extant.

In China pilgrimages are made to several of the more sacred spots both by Buddhists and Confucianists. Wutai-shan in Shan-si is the chief resort of Buddhist pilgrims, and Tai-shan, the mountain sacred to Confucius, that of Confucianists (Williamson, Journeys in North China). In Japan both the older Shinto nature-worship and the newer Buddhist creed have their several sanctuaries and pilgrimages. The principal Shinto pilgrimages are those to Isé in the department of Watarai, and to the sacred mountain Fuji. There are two temples at Isé, ranking in sanctity first of all Shintô shrines, and the special seat of the worship of Ten-shôkô-daigin, the Sun-Goddess, from whom the Mikado is held to descend. Two great festivals are held yearly at Isé, in the sixth and twelfth months, and are known as O-barai no matsuri, “great purification feast,” being held to effect the purifying of the whole nation from the sins of the previous half year. Tickets inscribed with the names of the gods of Isé, and especially that of the Sun-Goddess, are issued at the temples and their agencies (being formerly sold by hawkers corresponding to the pardoners of mediaeval Europe), and are carefully preserved in the domestic shrine of Japanese houses, being supposed to avert all peril for six months, but requiring renewal at the end of that period. The pilgrims to Isé number many thousands yearly, and are known as they return by bundles of charms wrapped in oiled paper, and hanging from the neck by a string. The pilgrimage to Fuji takes place in summer, and the pilgrims go clad in white, and carrying bells. They ascend the mountain so as to reach the summit before sunrise, when they turn to the east, clap their hands, and chant a hymn to the Sun-Goddess. There are also many local Shintô pilgrimages of less note. Buddhism in Japan is broken up into several sects, having each of them their own pilgrimages; but the most frequented are those of the god Fudo at Narita and the sacred mountain of Oyama, each some 30 miles distant from Tokio. These both belong to the Shingou sect, the earliest introduced into Japan. The Hokke or Nichiren sect make pilgrimages to the monastery of Ikegami near Tokio, and to that at Mount Minobu, about 100 miles to the west, between which two shrines the relics of the founder are divided. Ninety miles north of Tokio are the shrines of Mount Nikko, also a great Buddhist pilgrimage, where the shoguns are buried, and where the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty is worshipped under the name of Gongen.

So much will suffice to have said concerning the various heathen pilgrimages, and we may now consider those of the Hebrew religion and its two derivatives, Islam and Christianity.

The legislation of the Pentateuch is precise in making resort to one central shrine a positive and fundamental precept, binding on the whole nation, obviously with the double object of cementing national unity and of guarding against the erection of local sanctuaries, which were liable to be diverted to idolatrous cults (see Pentateuch). Under the judges and the kings we find many traces of pilgrimage, not only to the sanctuary of the ark at Shiloh, and afterwards to Jerusalem, but to local high flaces, such as Ophrah, Mizpeh, Dan, Bethel, and Beersheba. In truth, it is not till the post-exilic period that the supremacy of one national sanctuary is assured (though a pilgrimage even after the destruction of the temple is recorded in Jeremiah xli. 5, showing that the mere site was held sacred), for the local devotion of the high places resisted all the efforts of the reforming party under Hezekiah and Josiah even in the kingdom of Judah itself. Since the final overthrow of the Jewish polity by Titus and Hadrian, no effort has been made either to establish a centre of sacrificial worship anywhere outside Palestine (as in the curious episode of the temple of Heliopolis in Egypt), or to revive it in Jerusalem itself, where, even now, the synagogues and colleges of the Sephardim and Ashkenazim are entirely separate and independent organizations, and show no tendency to coalesce into the nucleus of a national system. Hence, as the political and religious motives for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem have both dropped into abeyance, the custom itself is no longer regarded as binding, and, though it...