THE

ROUND TOWERSOF

IRELAND ;OR

THE MYSTERIES OF FREEMASONRY, OF SABAISM,AND OF BUDHISM,

FOR THE FIRST TIME UNVEILED .

11 PRIZE ESSAY" OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, ENLARGED,AND EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS .

BY

HENRY O'BRIEN, ESQ. A.B.

" Ilic sacra, hie genus, hic majorum multa vestigia ."CICERO.

were of fame,And had been glorious in another day .

BYRON .

LONDON :WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE-MARIA LANE ;

AND J. CUMMING, DUBLIN .MDCCCXXXIV .

LONDON :Printed by WILLIAM CLOwcs,

Duke Street, Lambeth .

TO

THE LEARNED OF EUROPE,

TO THE HEADS OF ITS SEVERAL UNIVERSITIES

TO THE TEACHERS OF RELIGION AND THE LOVERS OF HISTORY,

MORE ESPECIALLY

TO THE ALIBENISTIC ORDER OF FREEMASONS,

TO THE FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY,

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,

TO THE FELLOWS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES,

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ARCILEOLOGIA SCOTICA,

TO THE COMMITTEES OF THE SOCIETIES FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THEGOSPEL AND THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE,

AND

TO THE COURT OF THE HONOURABLE THE EAST INDIA COMPANY,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,

AS A NOVEL EXPOSITION OF LITERARY INQUIRIES IN WHICH THEYARE SEVERALLY INTERESTED,

AND AS AN INTIMATION OF RESPECT FROM

THE AUTHOR,

PREFACE .

IN Fraser's Magazine for the month just expired, therehas appeared an article headed the " Arcana of Free-masonry," which will save me the trouble of anintroductory dissertation . The style is quaint, butthat will be overlooked : its author is evidently a truemason and a good man ; and initiated, as he is, in allthe fundamentals of his fraternity, he will be themore ready to recognize the truth of my disclosures,as well as to admit the originality of the proofs whichI adduce. To him, therefore, whoever he is, do Iwith confidence refer .

" In the spirit of the mighty dead," says he, " thegreat ones of the earth, that seem ever and anon tolook down through the clouds, of this murky atmo-sphere, and to beckon us heavenward, nothing strikesmore keenly, in our conviction, than that passion fordivine truth which burned unquenchably within them .With what hallowed devotion they worshipped it,with what intense aspirations they loved it, we mustremember but too painfully, when we converse withmen as they are, and read the writings they applaud .

" Yes-it must be so ! The first and noblest object

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to which the ambition of man can aspire is the dis-covery and propagation of truth, on which the felicityof all created thinkers absolutely depends ; and, for-tunately, the glory of its discovery is nothing superiorto the joy of its communication . And therefore havethe finest and freest souls, that have caught thebrightest glimpses of truth's eternal radiation, evermost earnestly sought to lead their brethren andkindred to the same difficult and solitary height fromwhich they themselves first witnessed the dawningsof the prophetic dayspring .

" How many illustrious names, however venerable,have from time's eldest records sought out with in-defatigable assiduity the relics of divinest Wisdom !How often beneath her charmed inspirations theywandered forth, exulting over the boundless fields ofmetaphysical and physical science--endeavouring bythe things that are manifest to retrace the hiddenDivinity-to look through nature up to nature's God !And if happily they discover some strange and stir-ring indications of the Almighty's elaborating hand,or some bright testimony of his vivifying, though im-palpable Spirit, have they not hastened with glowinghearts, and souls overcharged with adoration, to whis-per the mystery in secret, or to proclaim the marvelto the world?

The history of Freemasonry being, in fact, thehistory of the gradual progression of devotion andphilosophy in the youth, maturity, and declension ofour planet's millenary circle, is intensely interesting

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Vii

to the philosophic mind, as the ages of the one havea thousand mystic correspondences with the ages ofthe other . After taking a luminous survey of theadvances of human intelligence, as revealed in Scrip-ture, it traces the perpetual tradition of divine wisdomamong the hierophantic academies of classic me-morial . None understand so well the essential truthof their theo-astrological mythologies and their sym-bolical mysteries . They track every subtle declensionof lofty and bright-souled truth into the shadowycircumference of hostile error ; and thus, establishingtheir minds on the deepest foundations of history,they continually build up superstructures of all thatis precious in literature or elegant in art .

In thus eulogising Freemasons, we, of course,allude to Freemasons initiated into the deep spirit ofdivine philosophy, and not mere nominal professors .True masons,-those who are made free by their freedevotion to God's spiritual service, and accepted byemulating the self-immolation of their celestial proto-type of heaven and earth for just and disciplinedworthies,-we would discourse of these and thesealone. It would be as unfair to judge of Freemasonryin its hidden sanctuary within the veil, by its irregularmembers, as to judge of its religious illustration with-out the veil by merely nominal Christians .

' , .But for true, or free, or speculative masons . Theseare the men who, attached to their celestial Saviourwith filial enthusiasm incommunicable, and to eachother by fraternal sympathies that melt them into

Vill

PREFACE.

beautiful unanimity of immortal emulation ; these arethe men who feel a more especial and endearing in-terest in the whole history of mankind . To them,whatever is ' wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best,' inall the records of humanity, hath a kind of kindredfamiliarity of association unknown to others ; for inall true men they recognize their ancestry or theirbrotherhood, and they watch the broad line of theirgenealogical descent with the reverent fondness of alineal and loyal progeny. In their history they loveto contemplate the magnificent economy of Providencefor the gradual perfectionising of all lapsed intelli-gences. In this they view every variation of churchesand states with tranquil and unbroken satisfaction,and from it they look forward to the future with thatfine, free, and fearless confidence . which Christianphilosophy alone inspires .

11 In the present times, these relations to societyhave assumed a somewhat deeper and still morethrilling intensity ; they know well enough that oldage bath come upon the earth, and that the latter dayis at hand ; and that the prophecies relating to herdissolution and bright regeneration are, ere long, tobe accomplished in their fulness .

11 They confess, with rejoicing, the vast spread ofintellectual light and freedom that now gilds the con-cluding pages of our planet's history. They believethat the true and venerable principles of church andstate will be confirmed and illustrated in their breadthand length, and height and depth, by the last and

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ix

prophetic experience of pious and patriot sages,ere the kindling judgment breaks out upon the asto-nished world .

Such is the position of Freemasons in society atpresent . And when we consider the extent of thischosen band of good and wise men, bound togetherby the fellowship of indissoluble benevolence, andscattered over every kingdom and republic, we cannotbut observe their influences with peculiar scrutiny ofattention ; for, by keeping fast their own counsel, andpreserving mutual good faith, they ever possess astrong, though secret, domination of philanthropyover all the affairs of church and state . In herpeaceful and inviolable retirement, Masonry is, as itwere, the primum mobile and mainspring of society,-unseen herself, but urging the whole visible mechan-ism into harmonious and musical action .

44 In the present times, Freemasons cannot but feelthat a terrible responsibility is committed to theircharge . The ancient interests and ambitions ofchurches and states are coming into perpetual andjarring collision with the new . The ebb-tides ofbigotry and despotism are clashing with the ad-vancing currents of enthusiasm and dissolute passion .The spray of the whirling eddies already whitens thedeep, and the roar of the conflicting breakers is heardfar away upon the wind . God saith, I will overturn,overturn, overturn, until He shall come whose rightthe kingdom is ;' and the sea and the waves are roar-ing upon every shore, and men's hearts fail them

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for fear, and for looking on those things which arecoming on the earth . To true Masons is intrustedthe hazardous charge of piloting the vessel athwartthe boiling whirlpools . They will save, if they can,earth's latest age from indecent strife and confusion,and struggle hard against the unfilial . and disloyalapostates, that would bring down her grey hairs withsorrow to the grave * ."

Here I would willingly close my introduction ; butas it may seem strange that a work, which bearsupon its title-page the character of Prize Essay,"should not have been published by the Society thathave awarded it the prize, I am obliged to open up astatement of facts which I had rather have concealed ;yet, in doing so, I shall take care, now that all vexa-tion has passed over, that no symptoms of asperityshall escape my pen ; all the colouring of language Ishall equally avoid ; nay, even inferences, howeverobvious, I shall not press into observation, but confinemyself strictly to a matter-of-fact detail as to theconduct of the party in the case in question .

In December, 1830, the Royal Irish Academy, aftermany fruitless efforts to obtain information on thesubject of the Round Towers, proposed a premium ofa gold medal and fifty pounds to the author of anapproved Essay, in which all particulars respectingthem were expected to be explained . This intimationI never saw . The stipulated time for the compositionof treatises-viz., a full twelvemonth-expired, and

* Fraser's Magazine, Nov . 1, 1833 .

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Xl

the several candidates sent in their works . After aperusal of two or three months, the Council agreedupon giving the premium to one of them ; but his workbeing deficient in some of the conditions required 1`,it was furthermore resolved, that he should be allowedsome additional interval for the supplying of thesedefects, and this determination they put into practiceby the following advertisement :-

ROYALROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE,

"DUBLIN, February 21, 1832.

'° It having appeared to the Royal Irish Academy that none

of the Essays given in on the subject of the ' Round Towers,'

as advertised in December, 1830, have satisfied the conditions

of the question, they have come to the following Resolutions :-

•

Ist.-That the question be advertised again as follows :-

• , The ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY hereby give notice that they

will give a Premium of Fifty Pounds and the Gold_ Medal to

the Author of an approved Essay on the Round Towers of

Ireland, in which it is expected that the characteristic archi-

tectural peculiarities belonging to all those ancient buildings

now existing shall be noticed, and the uncertainty in which

their origin and uses are involved be satisfactorily removed .'" 2nd.-That the time be extended to the 1st of June next,

for receiving other Essays on said subject, and for allowing the

Authors of the Essays already given in to enlarge and improve

•

The " characteristic architectural peculiarities" belonging to eachof the Towers was the omission required to be supplied, and for thisalone three months were extended. During that time I wrote my entireEssay, and of course did not omit this requisite . But, as these couldgive no interest to the general reader, I have omitted them in the presentenlarged form . If called for, however, I shall cheerfully supply them,as an Appendix to another work which may soon appear .

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them ; for which purpose they will be returned, on applicationat the Academy House.

"All Essays, as usual, to be sent post-free to the Rev.J . H. SINGER, D.D., Secretary, at the Academy House, 114,Grafton-street, Dublin ; each Essay being inscribed with somemotto, and accompanied with a sealed billet, superscribed withsame motto,. in which shall be written the author's name andaddress ."

A few days before this appeared I heard, for thefirst time, of the subject having been for competition .Wishing to ascertain whether it was decided or not,I availed myself of a pretext for calling upon Dr .M'Donnell, one of the Secretaries to the Academy,when the following conversation took place betweenus

"I wish to know, Sir," said I, "whether the Councilwould patronise a Translation of' Ibernia Phoenicia,'which I have just embarked in, with Dr. Villanueva'sconsent?"

" The Council have already subscribed to theoriginal, and I believe they feel no difficulty in under-standing it in that form,"-was the reply .

" I do not at all question their competency," I re-joined : " but to the public, Doctor, it is a sealedvolume ; and I cannot think it foreign from the spirit ofyour institution to countenance such an idea . Besides,it is not a mere echo of the original that I intend togive . I purpose to enlarge it by many additions ofmy own, accompanying it all through with notes andillustrations ."

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" To what points in particular will those additionsrefer ?"

" To the development of the mystery which over-hangs the Round Towers ."

" Oh! on that head the Academy have alreadymade up their minds . What is your theory aboutthem ?"

44 Surely, Doctor, if the Academy have already madeup their .minds upon the subject, my information canbe to you of no value ! Good morning."

If my disappointment at this interview was great,my delight, a few mornings after, was incomparablygreater, on beholding the advertisement above intro-duced ; and though the shortness of the time allowed,with the positiveness of the assertion so recently andreluctantly extorted, made me suspect at once thatthere was some management in the business, yet, hav-ing thoroughly assured myself, from the wording ofthat manifesto, that I was entitled to enter the lists,I plunged into the discussion without further delay,and day and night, in sorrow and in difficulties, Ilaboured, until I finished my Essay against the ap-pointed day, when I sent it in accordingly to awaitits chance .

Four days, however, had only passed over, whenthe Council, having perceived that they had beentaken at their word, by the appearance of a tiew can-didate, allowed their friend to take back his Essayfor one month more, to render it more perfect ! Andin the exercise of their discretion, they had the mo-

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desty to advertise, by a document precisely similar tothat already inserted, that their object in so doing was _to 11 obtain new Essays on said subject ."

This last advertisement was not published for some' days after their friend had removed his work fromthe Council Board ;; so that there were no more thanabout three week's remaining, for the inditing of newworks upon a subject, for which lives have been foundinadequate, and for which their friend had already beenallowed a period nearly approaching to two years !

Soon as informed of this manoeuvre, I called uponDr. Singer, as the Secretary, and entreated of him,with much ardour, that he would put a stop to thoseproceedings ; stated, that I was myself the author ofone of the Essays, which I would not further parti-cularise ; and that, as I had reason to apprehendsomething wrong was in contemplation, I would feelobliged if he exerted himself to have the Essaysdetained, and determined upon by their merits asthey then stood . He asked me to explain the groundof my apprehensions . I complied :, whereupon heassured me that I was mistaken in that quarter, as° 4 the individual," says he, " at whose request wehave extended the time, is one for whom we all havea regard, and is, by no means, the person on whomyour suspicions light ! "

It was but little consolation to me that theperson in whose favour all this partiality was exertedwas " not the person on whom my suspicionslighted!" I remonstrated, but in vain. Every syl-

11

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XV

lable that transpired afterwards tended only to showthat the decision was already pronounced-that thepremium was already awarded . I then hinted at theinjustice of seducing me into the competition, atthe very risk of my life, upon so short a notice, andnot vouchsafing now so much as to examine myproduction . This had some effect, and I left theDoctor with an assurance, that I should, at allevents, get a hearing."

The day for the reception of the amended Essaysagain came, and mine again made its appearance . Inthe interim was started a periodical, under the directionof some members of the Council, the most prominentof whom was the favoured individual himself. . In thesecond number of this periodical, on the Saturdayafter the last sending in of the Essays, there appearedan article, written by the Rev . Caesar Otway, amember of the Council, under the assumed name ofTerence O'Toole, in which, half playfully and halfmysteriously, he lets the cat out of the bag, andactually asserts, as the event verified, that the pre-mium was already determined to a member of theirown body !

Here are his words :-cc Round Tower, to the right, is a prodigious

puzzler to antiquarians . Quires of paper, as tall asa tower, have been covered with as mui ink asmight form a Liffey, in accounting for their originand use . But all these clever and recondite conjec-tures are shortly, as I understand, to be completely

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overthrown, and the real nature of these RoundTowers clearly explained, for the first time, in a PrizeEssay, presented to the Royal Irish Academy, by anaccomplished antiquarian of our city f."

Notwithstanding the disguise, here assumed, ofas I understand," and so forth, the writer of this

announcement had, at this moment, not only perusedhis colleague's Essay, but actually registered his votein its favour! And as to his pretending that the deve-lopement was a discovery, by saying for the firsttime," lie betrays therein the extreme either of un-truth or of ignorance, as the theory alluded to is butthe echo, in all particulars, of Montmorency's book,every sentence in which I prove erroneous in theearly chapters of the present volume ! I could nolonger, however, be ignorant as to the identity of theperson in whose favour Dr . M'Donnell had told me theCouncil had " made up their minds"-casually cor-roborated afterwards by Dr. Singer!-I saw at once,that the " accomplished antiquarian of our city" wasMr. Petrie, the antiquarian artist of the Royal IrishAcademy-himself a member of their Council !

However, Dr. Singer had promised that I "shouldget, at all events, a hearing ! " And this was per-formed with a vengeance . Three months was thetime devoted to the examination of all the formerEssays . 'It remained, therefore, only publicly toannounce what was privately resolved upon . But asmy Essay, the only new one, was at all taken in, it

* Dublin Penny Journal, July 7, 1832 .

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xvii

was indispensable but that they must read it, andsix long months did they appropriate thereto ! Atthe end of this period, they saw that the positionassumed was right, and that I was entitled to thepremium. But they had already pledged themselvesto give it to. their friend, whose theory was the directopposite of mine ; and, consequently, every sentencein it, or in mine, must be wrong-a discrepancy, how-ever, which they thought 'to reconcile, by leaving theoriginal prize undisturbed, and voting me a separateone !

Had they the candour to avow that this was theirdilemma, I should never have murmured, but quietlysubmitted to the issue : instead of which, however,they worded their resolution in such a form, as ledthe public to think that there were two premiums allalong intended: and that ._the first. . of these was givento the best composition, and the second< to that whichapproached it in quality !

It was as follows :--

" ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE.°° On Monday, December 17, a meeting of the Council of

the Royal Irish Academy was held, for the purpose of decid-ing on the merits of Essays received, pursuant to advertise-ment, On the origin and use of the Round Towers of Ireland,when the following Premiums were adjudged : viz.-

- Fifty Pounds and the Gold Medal to George Petrie ." Twenty Pounds to Henry O'Brien, Esq .

Now, be it observed, that it was not only of theb

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PREFACE.

gold medal and fifty pounds that I was deprived bythis manoeuvre, but of the one hundred additionalpounds which Lord Cloncurry had offered upon thesame subject. Of this the Academy were also thedispensers, on the understanding, that whoever shouldget their gold medal and fifty pounds-the only pre-mium which they had offered-should also get hisLordship's hundred ; so that by this stratagem, theyassigned to their friend not only their own, but hisLordship's, patronage !

I was in London at the time, and signified my dis-satisfaction by letter. Several were interchanged, inone of which I gave them to understand, that I wouldsubmit to the injustice, if they would but publish mywork in their Transactions simultaneously with Mr.Petrie's . This they declined ; assuring me that theywould publish it, but not simultaneously, and not untilafter ! No comment is necessary for this!

Meanwhile their periodical, which, from the firstmoment of its starting, whenever reference was madeto the Round Towers, unqualifiedly asserted that theywere Christian, and only coeval with the monas-teries *, thought proper now to change its tone ; but

* " Killmallock has been a place of some distinction from a veryremote period, and like most of our ancient towns is of ecclesiasticalorigin, a monastery having been founded here by St . Maloch, in the sixthcentury, of which the original Round Tower still remains .''-DublinPenny Journal, vol . i. p . 65 .

" These (the Ruins of Swords) consist of a fine and lofty RoundTower, COEVAL with the foundation of the original monastery ."-DublinPenny Journal, vol . i . p . 177 .

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XIX

as an open acknowledgment of error would be tooself-abasing for academicians, they only put forth afeeler, as if implying doubt on the matter ; whichwould have the two-fold effect of screening the"Council's" verdict-as the result of doubt or am-biguity-and of preparing the public mind for thealtered and novel conclusion to which all, I trust, willere long, as well as themselves, have arrived.

My eye, however, was on their plans, though sepa-rated by a 0° roaring sea ." I knew that where therewere so many windings to mature the plot, theremust be as many to prevent its detection ; and, ac-cordingly, the very first move they made, in thesetheir new tactics, I check-mated, at once, by the follow-ing letter :--

(No. 1 .)" London, March 16, 1833 .

"DEAR DR. SINGER,

" The Dublin Penny Journal of February 23d, on thearticle ` Devenish Island,' contains this sentence, viz ., ` whetherthe towers are the accompaniment to the churches, or thechurches to the towers, is a question not yet decided .'

" Now, this-coupled with the circumstance of the com-mittee having awarded two premiums, to two, as I understand,conflicting ascriptions ; and that when only one was originallyproposed-induces me, with all deference, to offer this me-morial, through you, to the Academy .

" As the development of truth in the elucidation of history, isthe object of the antiquarian-and as the `labourer is worthyof his hire,' I take the liberty respectfully to ask, whether, if

b 2

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PREFACE .

I make my ascription of the Round Towers a mathematicaldemonstration, with every other incident relating to theirfounders, comprehending all the antiquities of Ireland, as con-nected therewith-and this by all the varieties and modes ofproof-whether, I say, in that event, will the Academy awardme the gold medal and premium? or, if that cannot be recalled,an equivalent gold medal and premium?

My intercalary work, substantiating all the above, is nowfinished, and can be forwarded to the committee by return ofthe same post which will favour me with your answer .

" I have the honour to be, dear Sir," Your obedient, &c .,

" HENRY O'BRIEN ." Rev. Dr . J. H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy ."

By the above proposal I must not be understood asadmitting that my original Essay " was not sufficientlyconclusive ;" but as I had more arguments still inreserve, I wanted to elicit from the Academy theadmission that it was truth they sought after . Afterwaiting, however, more than three weeks, and gettingno reply, I forwarded some other .proofs, accompaniedby a letter, of which the following was the conclu-sion, viz.-

(No. 2.)

" These are but items in the great body of discoveries whichthis intercalary work will exhibit . In truth, I may withoutvanity assert, that the whole ancient history of Ireland, 8rc . i stherein rectified and elucidated-what it never was before .

" Am I, therefore, presumptuous in appealing to the Royal

Irish Academy-the heads of Irish literature and the avowedpatrons of its development-for the reward of my labours?

I shall, with confidence, rely upon their justice.`~ I have the honour to be, with sincere regard, &c .,

" HENRY O'BRIEN .To the Rev . Dr. J . H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy ."

" To H. O'Brien, Esq ."

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(No. 3.)

" Royal Irish Academy House, April 16, 1833 ." SIR,

11 Your improved Essay and letter were yesterday laidbefore council ; and as Dr. Singer is at present confined withthe gout, it devolves on me to communicate to you the followingextract from the minutes .

Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to reply to Mr .O'Brien, and to state that any alteration or revocation of theiraward cannot, be made, whatever may be the merits of anyadditional matter supplied to them after the day appointed byadvertisement ; but, if Mr. O'Brien be willing that the newmatter be printed along with the original Essay, the councilwill have the same perused in order to ascertain the expe-diency of so enlarging their publication .''

`~ By order,`° RicH. Row,

" Clerk to the Academy .

(No. 4.)" London, April 18, 1833.

" SIR,

" Had I a notion that the Academy's reply would besuch as your letter has this day imparted, I would never havesat down to indite those additions, much less have forwardedthem for their perusal. For why did I write to the Secretarythree weeks ago, but to ascertain whether or not, in the event

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of my doing so and so, would the Academy act so and so ? andthus repair that injury which they had before inflicted ? Whatcould be more easy than to give me a categorical answer, oneway or the other? Instead of which, however, they left me tomy own conclusions, which-as usual, in such circumstances-leading me to construe silence into acquiescence-I trans-mitted my documents on the tacit faith, that though the Aca-demy would not pledge themselves by a written promise, theywould, notwithstanding, if my researches proved adequate, re-ward my industry by a suitable remuneration .

" Now, however, when my papers have been received, andmy developments communicated, I am told that, be their meritswhat they may, the award is irrevocable ; and I have no alter-native, in the writhings of my mortification, but the consolationof being injured and duped at the same time .

11 You will say, perhaps, that my new evidences have notyet been read ; and that, therefore, my property is secure andsacred. But has not the accompanying letter been read? Andwhat was that but a programme of their contents"I had thought that the Royal Irish Academy were not only

a learned, but a just and a patriotic society . I had thoughtthat having marshalled themselves into an institution, with theavowed object of resuscitating from death the almost despaired-of evidences of our national history, they would not alone fosterevery advance toward that desirable consummation, but showerhonours, and acclamations, and triumphs upon him, who hasnot only infused a vital soul into those moribund remains, butmade the history of Ireland, at this moment, the clearest, themost irrefragible, and withal, the most interestingly compre-hensive chain of demonstrational proofs in the whole circle ofuniversal literature * .

* If this appear oversanguine, I trust it will be attributed to its onlycause, a strong- sense of injustice expressed in the moment of warmth,and without ever expecting that this expression should see the light .

, PREFACE.

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" But it is not alone the being deprived of my reward that Icomplain of, and the, transferring of that reward to another, everysentiment of whose production must inevitably be wrong ; but itis the suppression of my labours, and the keeping them backfrom the public eye, in deference to my opponent's work, lestthat the discernment of the public should bestow upon methose honours which the discretion of the Academy has thoughtproper to alienate, that affects me as most severe .

« Indeed, it has been stated from more quarters than one,that the withholding of the medal from me, in the first instance,and the substituting thereinstead a nominal premium of twentypounds, originated from a personal pique against me individually .Such a report I would fain disbelieve, and yet it is hard not togive it some credence, seeing that the irresistible cogency of mytruths, and the indubitable value of my literary discoveries, arenot only not rewarded, but kept back from publication, untilsome one else more fortunate, or rather, more favoured, shallrun away with the credit of my cherished disclosures * . Iwish-I desire-I most intensely covet-that the Academywould convince me that this is not an act of the most aggra-vated injustice .

" You will please lay this before the council, and tell themfrom me, respectfully, that I do not want them either to ' alter'or ` revoke' their award ; but simply to vote me ' an equivalentgold medal and premium' for my combined essay, or, if theyprefer, the new portion of it . Should this be refused, I willput my cause, &c. &c .

°` I have the honour to be, &c . &c ." HENRY O'BRIEN .

" To the Rev . Rich. Row, Clerk to the Academy ."

* That this was not gratuitous, I pledge myself to prove, even fromcircumstances that have already transpired .

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They bestowed some days in consultation upon theabove, meanwhile the transmission of the " DublinPenny Journal" to London was countermanded ; andnot a copy of it was allowed, for some months after-wards, to come within hundreds of miles of the placeof my residence . In the interim, the ingeniousauthor of the " Celtic Druids," and who had beenpartly in possession of my development of the" Towers" for some time previously, favoured me witha visit, during which we conversed principally onhistorical questions . The next day I addressed hima note, a copy of which, with its answer, I take leaveto subjoin, for the sake of the terminating clause of thelatter, being the self-convicting acknowledgment of the"Academy's" disingenuousness .

(No. 5.)" May 2, 1833 .

"DEAR SIR,'~ I hope you will not feel displeased at the frankness of

this question which I am about to propose to you, viz., haveyou any objection to show me in manuscript, before you sendto print, the terms in which you speak of me, in reference tothose points of information which I intrusted to your confi-dence-such as the ancient names of Ireland and their deriva-tion, the Towers and founders, dates, &c.

.' Should you think proper to consent to this feeling ofanxiety on my part, I shall . b e most willing to share with youthose other "points" which I exclusively retain .

" To the full extent you shall have them . The only con-dition I require is, the credit of originality-which 1 have labo-

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riously earned . Please to drop me a line in reply to this, andallow me to subscribe myself, with great respect,

Dear Sir,Your obedient, .

" HENRY O'BRIEN ." Godfrey Higgins, Esq ."

(No. 6.)" May 3, 1833.

fQ MY DEAR O'BRIEN," You may be perfectly assured I shall print nothing

which I have learnt from you without acknowledging it . ButI have really forgotten what you told me, because I consideredthat I should see it in print in a few days . Any thing Ishall write on the subject, will not be printed for years afteryour books have been before the public . You did not tell methe name of Buddha, but I told it you, that it was Saca, orSaca-sa *, which I have already printed a hundred times, andcan show you in my great quarto, when you take your tea withme, as I hope you will to-morrow . Sir W. Betham told meof the Fire Towers being Phallus's, last night, at the Anti-quarian Society .

11 Yours, truly,G. HIGGINS ."

* It is true Mr. Higgins has told me this, and I listened, with politesilence, to what I had read " in print" a thousand times before . Butour chronicles call the name Macha, and I abide by them . Enough,however, has occurred, between the date of this letter and the present,to quiet the most ardent disposition as to the pursuit of earthly eclat.Its author is no more ! He has reached that " bourne whence no tra-veller returns ." And the warning, I confess, is to myself not a littlepointed, from the unremitting perseverance with which this inquiry hasbeen prosecuted, and the vexatious opposition with which its truths havebeen met .

XXVL

PREFACE .

Who, now, can pretend to think that the neutralizingaward of the " Council" was the effect of scepticismor .legimate doubt? Here Sir William Betham,-theUlster King at Arms ! the Goliah of Antiquaries !as he is, undoubtedly, of Pedigrees !-being himselfa member of the " deciding tribunal," proclaims, inthe midst of a venerable literary assembly, that mysolution of the Round Tower enigma is accurate ; andyet, in the teeth of this confession, and of the convic-tion which extorted it, he joins in voting away mymedal to a compilation of errors, and in substitutingthereinstead Twenty Pounds !

(No. 7.)" London, May 2, 1833.

" DEAR DR. SINGER," I exceedingly grieve to hear of your ill health .-Its

announcement, I assure you, made me look within myself, andfor a moment., lose sight of my own hardships . I hope, how-ever, that you are now so far recovered as to send me a favour-able answer to this my last appeal .

" Taking it for certain that the Academy's having notreplied to the tenor of my late intimation, arose from the cir-cumstance of there having been no ` Council Day' since ;and, as I anticipate, that on Monday next my question will befinally disposed of, I am anxious, for the good of all parties,and for the triumph of truth, to show you in one view how Ihave amputated the last supports of error, and covered itsadvocates with ignominy and shame .

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *" Thus every leafunfolds evidences to the realization of my

victory . I took my stand at the outset on the pedestal of

PREFACE .

XXVii

truth ; and I challenge scrutiny to insinuate, that, in the mul-tiplied developments which I have since revealed, I havedeviated from my grand position one single iota .

" Let me not be supposed, in the observation with which Iam now about to conclude, that I mean anything disrespectfulto the Council of the Academy . Many years have not passedsince I knew several of them in a different relation ; and, how-ever little effect College Associations may produce on otherminds, I find not their influence so fleeting or transient . It iswith extreme reluctance, therefore, that I would split with abody who have lectured me as tutors . But time has advanced ;I am now right, and they are wrong ; and the cause whichthey patronise will not do them much credit .

" I do not, however, yet give up my hopes but that theAcademy will wisely retrace their steps : revocation of theformer medal I do not require-much less the exercise of asingle grain of partiality-My demand merely is, as myformer letters have indicated, the substitution of justice.

11 Please receive the assurance of my consideration, and inconfident reliance that you will use your influence in thismatter, and favour me with the upshot instantly after Mon-day's Board.

`° I remain, ever sincerely, yours," HENRY O'BRIEN."

(No. 8 .)" London, May 9, 1833 .

" DEAR DR. SINGER,My appeals are over-and, I regret to say, that they

have not been attended to . The virtuous and enlightenedpart of the Academy, therefore, cannot blame me, if in the

XXviii

PREFACE .

assertion of my honest right, I try the effect of a public remon-strance .

°° In the interim, I transmit to you by this night's post someadditional • leaves, which-in the anxiety of despatch, as well,indeed, as from -fear that they would not be inserted, becausethey overwhelm .for ever the antiquarian pretensions of theDublin Penny Journal *, I have omitted to copy . However,I will now forward them, and claim that they may be printedalong with those already sent, in the original Essay .« * * * * * * I have exhausted all the forms of

blandness and conciliation, in the vain hope of inducing theCouncil to redeem themselves from disgrace, by doing mecommon justice . I have strove in the mildest terms of con-scious rectitude, invigorated by a phalanx of overwhelmingproofs, to make them re-consider their course, and spare methe unpleasant task of exposing a deed which I am loth tocharacterize by its proper designation . But ° the heart ofPharaoh' was hardened-the ' voice of the charmer' not lis-tened to-and to my soft importunities nothing was returned,but the coldness of obduracy and disregard .

" The Rubicon, therefore, is crossed-my patience feelsinsulted-and the only consideration I value, in the resolve towhich I have at last been driven, is, that you had nothing todo with the 'job' of the Round Towers .

Little did the Academy know what arguments I couldadduce in elucidation of certain mysteries.-As little do theynow dream what proofs I can summon-though you cannothave forgotten one of them, while I promise I shall makeDr. Me. Donnell recollect anoth€r-and would not the Rev .Ccesar Otway, with whom I have never so much as exchangeda look, be surprised at my quoting him as a reluctant third

* I wish the reader to keep this in mind ; its effects will be manifestedby and by .

PREFACE .

XXIX

witness-to show that the gold medal and premium were pre-determined to Mr. Petrie, before ever I became a candidate ;and that, consequently, the advertisement under which I wasinvited to contend, but from which the Council never expectedan intruder, was but a specious delusion !

" In this determination, I violate no act of private regard,nor set light by the claims of individual acquaintance . Youknow yourself how earnestly I struggled before the consumma-tion of this nefarious proceeding, to stem the agency of thatdespicable under-current which I had just detected . I knewthat fraud, of some kind, was at work ; and though unable, atthe moment, to fix upon the person in whose favour it was seta-going-nay, though mentally fastening the blame thereof uponanother, whose name, however, I never let slip, and to whom,1 rejoice to say, I have since made more than recompense forthis ideal injury-yet could I not be persuaded but that some-thing sinister was designed : and to 'frustrate the influence ofsuch prominent deceit, you know how vehement was my ad-dress. I implored you, I besought you, and all but upon myknees, and with tears, I invoked, you, by your regard to justice,and your fear of a Creator, to check this trickery, and allowmerit, alone and anonymous, to decide the issue .

°° I now, in the same spirit of solemn self-composure, adjurethe ' Council' through you-in the name of that God beforewhom they and I shall one day appear-that they will havemy cause redressed, and make me reparation, not only for thesubstantial injury, but for the mental disquietude and agonywhich this ' business' has occasioned . If they do not, restsatisfied, that my path is already chalked . All the evolutionsof the Council, as displayed upon the ' Towers,' and withwhich I am but too familiar, shall be immortalized in letter-press : and I do not yet despair of the hereditary fairness ofmy country, but that it shall register its dissent from the deci-sion of that tribunal, which could have had, at once, the obtuse-

XXX

PREFACE .

ness of intellect and the perverseness of conduct, to stultifytheir own verdict by a contradictory award, and-after inveig-ling me into a competition which they never meant to remu-nerate-deprive me of the fruits of my indubitable triumph,in the pursuit of which I had almost lost my life, and cut shortmy existence in the very spring of my manhood .

a I mean no offence, individually or collectively, to the Aca-demy, or its members ; but as they have been deaf to the justiceof my private ° appeals,' I shall try the effect of a publicremonstrance ;' and as to ulterior consequences, I greatly

err, else the upshot will show, that the motto *, adopted as myfictitious signature in the ` Essay,' was not the randomassumption of inconsiderateness or accident, but the true indexto the author's resources ." My proposal is this-my unshaken position from which I

will not swerve or retract-a gold medal and premium equiva-lent to those originally advertised .

" I am, dear Sir," Yours sincerely,

" HENRY O'BRIEN ." To the Rev. Dr . J. Singer,

" Secretary to the Academy ."

(No. 10 .)

" May 13, 1833, Grafton-street, Dublin ." DEAR SIR,

" I have been directed by the Council of the RoyalIrish Academy to reply to your last letters on the subject ofyour Essay, and the additional matter recently sent over . Asto the latter, I am directed to say, that the Council hadengaged to examine, and publish, if approved, some small

* 1'OIYf] IV Tf] eQnkm .

PREFACE.

Xxxi

additions to your former Essay ; but the papers you havesent are so large, as to be nearly equal in bulk to the originaldissertation ; under these circumstances, the Council cannotpublish them as additional to, or incorporated with, the Essayto which they awarded Twenty Pounds prize, as thereby itscharacter might be so altered, that it would not appear` inprint the same Essay on which they had formed their opinion .The Council, therefore, wishes to know how they may trans-mit to you the papers you have sent. When the gentlemen,to whom your Essay has been submitted for examination,report, you shall be made aware of the extent of alterationthey suggest ; and if you think that your paper requires theadditions you have sent, and would, therefore, wish to publishit with them yourself, I have no doubt the Council will enter-tain any notice to that effect .

~° I am, dear Sir,°° Your most obedient .

" J. H . SINGER .11 H. O'Brien, Esq :'

(No. 11 .)" London, May 20, 1833 .

" DEAR Da. SINGER,I do not quite understand the closing observation of

your last letter. If the Academy mean me a kindness, Ishould trust that my nature is too sensible of such advancesnot suitably to acknowledge it : and I should be sorry that,either from obscurity in the diction, or want of quickness inmy perception, I were to lose the opportunity of making agrateful return.-Let me, therefore, put the following interro-gatory to set myself right, viz.-°° Will the Academy procure me a publisher for my

enlarged work ? And will they advertise, that having pre-

Xxxii

PREFACE .

viously done me injustice, by the transfer of my medal, theynow, on being convinced of their error, adopt this; as the onlymode of reparation, the award itself not being to be re-called ?

1° Without some such course as this, it is obvious that theoffer which they make, instead of being a kindness would be amockery ; and instead of making amends for oppression, wouldbe adding insult to persecution ! For who, let me ask, wouldpublish a work, which a jury have branded with the stamp ofinferior, doling out their surreptitious Twenty Pounds as aneleemosynary deodand, while the darling of their adoption,though disfigured by all the imperfections of blindness, lame-ness, and untruth, and recommended only by a few paintedyew-paws, which never entered into the requisites of the ori-ginal advertisement, will pass current in Dublin, amongst thecreatures of party !

11 I have already applied to Mr . -, and he, intimidatedby the vicious state of society in Ireland, declined my proposal ;but though his apprehensions were sufficient to deter him fromthe speculation, they were totally unfounded ; for, despite ofall corruption, all chicanery, and all cabals, the &c . &c. &c .

" This complaint, observe, does not refer to the new papersonly, but extends itself equally to the original Essay . Whydo the Academy keep it back? Believe me, it is in vain forthem to defer ' the evil day' of their exposure . Their doomwas sealed the very moment they did me injustice ! I havewatchfully reconnoitered their course, and have prooos of theintricacies of their internal machinery, ample as those beforeadduced for the solution of the Round Tower enigma, to effecttheir overthrow ; and if the present generation be not virtuousenough to redress my cause, it shall be no fault of mine if anyfuture age `shall be ignorant of the names of the individuals whoconstitute the present council, and in what light they shall beconsidered, their own consciences can furnish them with a tole-rable foretaste !

PREFACE .

XXXIII

" Was it not a cruelly perverse thing of them, after deter-mining beforehand to award the medal to Mr . Petrie, to in-veigle me into the competition by a deceptious advertisement ?And then, after signally beating them under all disadvantages,to manccuvre me off by a beggarly cheat? Shame! foul shame,for ever, upon the Academy !

" Why, Sir, the very terms of your letter show their self-conviciedness, though they have not honesty enough to avowit overboard ! What do they mean by saying that the newmatter would ' make my Essay not appear, in print, the sameas that on which they formed their opinion?' Are they afraidthat it would make it appear worse? Not at all ; they wouldrejoice at the pretext, and publish it instanter, as a cloak totheir verdict ! But as they have, in spite of them, admittedthose additions to be an improvement *, why do they, I ask,who have advertised for truth, again repress its ef fulgence ?

« It is now easy to see what they designed by the clausesof ' expediency,' ' if approved,' and ' subject to revisal ;' viz .,if false, we will insert them in self-vindication ; but if true, wewill not, as being too great a victory over our own ignoranceand favouritism !" My Essay, however, does not want those new papers : the

Council therefore will please have them sealed, and handedover to the custody of Mr . Tims, my bookseller, in Grafton-street . The only additions which I shall insist upon beinginserted, are those contained in my letters, in appropriateplaces, as I shall point out .

°' I conclude by giving notice that I shall claim Lord Clon-curry's premium : nor do I despair of recovering that, as Ishould think that his Lordship is too honest a man to sacrificethe interests of literature to the intrigues of a faction !

" I have the honour to be, &c ." HENRY O'BRIEN ."

* See letter No. 3 .C

XXXiV

PREFACE .

(No. 12 .)

Royal Irish Academy House, Dublin, May 27, 1833 ." SIR,

"I am directed by the Council of the Royal Irish Academyto inform you, that they feel themselves compelled, in conse-quence of your late letters, to decline the publication of yourEssay, or the maintaining any further correspondence with youon the subject .

`° Your Essay and the additional matter will be sent, as youdesire, to Mr. Tims, Grafton-street, as soon as a copy of theformer can be taken .

" I am, Sir, your most obedient," J. H . SINGER, Secretary .

" H . O'Brien, Esq."

The discontinuance of the correspondence was to

be expected, but their declining the publication of

my Essay in their Transactions, merely because of

my giving utterance to some unpalatable truths, was

an excess of magnanimity, which I did not think that

even the " Council" would personify .

However, you suppose that they, at all events, re-

turned me my Essay, as promised ? Far from it ! In

violation of all honour, and of the written engage-

ments of their Secretary, they have detained it ever

since in their hands, thereby putting me to the vast

expense of procuring new plates, instead of those

which the original contained ; an inconvenience, I

must affirm, which they had hoped I could never

have surmounted ; while in the interim, they should

push out their banding upon the public, secure

PREFACE .

XXXV

in the consciousness of having cushioned my work,that they should ride over the market without a rival .

They should have known, however, that the personwho; at three months' notice, undertook to solve the'Powers," and then kept them at bay for six months

before they could chouse him out of his prize, was notto be deterred by such an obstacle as the above. Andthe reader may be satisfied that, though it has occa-sioned me some hardship, he is, in no respect, thereby aloser.

I have stated that the effect of my letter No . 1, wasto interrupt the transmission of the " Dublin PennyJournal" to London ; I have now to point out the resultof the menace conveyed in Letter 8, of my determiningto expose-as I enclosed the proofs that I could re-fute-the antiquarian errors of their organ, it was thatthey instantly took the hint, and sold their interest inthe concern ! And its new proprietor, edified, nodoubt, by a friendly lesson at their hands, very wiselyintimates in his opening number, that he shall foregoantiquities, and make literary jobbing no part of itsmanagement .

Here are his words,-" From the concluding para-graph of the last number of this little publication, itsreaders will be aware that it is now in the handsof a new Editor and Proprietor ; and they will natu-rally expect that in the present number somethingshould be said relative to its future management .` DEEDS, not WORDS,' has ever been the motto of its(present) conductor ; and he will therefore merely say

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PREFACE.

that it is his intention to give his readers good valuefor their money-that the DUBLIN PENNY JOURNALshall not be a mere ` catchpenny,' depending uponthe number and excellence of its woodcuts for ex-tensive circulation ; but containing, as he considers apublication of the kind should do, such a variety ofinteresting and useful matter as shall render it reallyvaluable . In future, therefore, while the antiquitiesof the country will not be neglected, the work shallexhibit a more general character in the subjects of itscontents * ."

* Dublin Penny Journal, Aug . 3, 1833 .

N.B. As I am a member of no club, belong to no literary society, andhave not facilities otherwise for watching periodicals, whether news-papers, magazines, or reviews, I shallfeel obliged if any gentleman whoin the exercise of a free judgment should think proper to dissent fromme, and to express such dissent in inoffensive language, would bepleased to forward me a copy of the work wherein his strictures mayappear, and I promise that I shall reply to them with deference andperhaps satisfaction. I also trust that, from the singularity of my posi-tion, I do not expect too much, when I express a hope, that any pub-lication which speaks against me, will allow me to reply through thesame medium-a request certainly which cannot be refused, unless thedesign be hostile and factiously malicious . Any suggestions for im-provement, with a view to a second edition, I very cheerfully court .

All communications addressed to me, to the care of my Publisher, Mr.WHITTAKER, Ave-Maria Lane, St . Paul's, London, will reach and beattended to.

THE

ROUND TOWERS,

CHAPTER T.

" A lively desire of knowing and recording our ancestors so generallyprevails, that it must depend on the influence of some common prin-ciple in the minds of men . We seem to have lived in the persons ofour forefathers ; our calmer judgment will rather tend to moderatethan suppress the pride of an ancient and worthy race . The satiristmay laugh ; the philosopher may preach ; but reason herself willrespect the prejudices and habits which have been consecrated by theexperience of mankind* ."

OF all nations on the globe, the Irish, as a people,are universally admitted to possess, in a pre-eminentdegree, those finer sensibilities of the human heart,which, were they but wisely controlled, would exaltman above the level of ordinary humanity, and makehim, as it were, a being of another species . Thenumerous instances adduced in all periods of theirhistory, of ardent and enterprising zeal, in every casewherein personal honour or national glory may beinvolved, are in themselves sufficient to establish thisassertion . But while granting their pre-eminence asto the possession of those feelings, and the capabilityof the feelings themselves to be refined and sub-limated to the very acme of cultivation, we may stilldoubt whether the mere possession of them be notless a blessing than a curse-whether, in fact, their

* Gibbon's Memoirs .B

2

THE ROUND TOWERS .

quick perception of disquietudes and pains be notmore than a counterpoise to their keen enjoyment ofdelight or pleasure .

Foremost, however, in the train of the many virtueswhich flow therefrom, is that 11 amor patriae," or loveof country, which, unsubdued often by the mostgalling miseries and the most hopeless wants, throwsa halo round the loneliness of their present despair inthe proud retrospection of their former buoyancy. Thisspirit it is which, despite of obvious advantages to bederived from emigration, has riveted the Irish peasantso immutably to his home, that any effort on his partto dissolve those local fetters would be equivalent tothe disruption of all the ties and attachments whichnature or habit had implanted within him .

" The lofty scenes around their sires recall,Fierce in the field and generous in the hall ;The mountain crag, the stream and waving tree,Breathe forth some proud and glorious history-Urges their steps where patriot virtue leads,And fires the kindred souls to kindred deeds.They tread elate the soil their fathers trod,The same their country, and the same their God ."

But it may be said, that this is a day-dream ofyouth-the hereditary vanity of one of Iran's sons,arrogating antiquity and renown for an inconsiderablelittle island, without a particle of proof to substan-tiate their assumption, or a shadow of authority togive colour to their claims . Why, sir, cast youreye over the fair face of the land itself, and doesnot the scene abound with the superfluity of itsevidences? What are those high aspiring edificeswhich rise with towering elevation towards thecanopy of the "Most High? "'1~ What are those stu-

* The Budhist temples .

THE ROUND TOWERS .

3

pendous and awful structures of another form-thestudy at once and admiration of the antiquarian andthe philosopher, to be found on the summits of ourvarious hills * as well as in the bowels t of the earthitself ?-what are they but the historical monumentsof splendour departed-surviving the ravages of timeand decay, not as London's column, to " lift theirheads and lie," but to give the lie and discomfitureto those, who, from the interested suggestions of anilliberal policy, or the more pardonable delusions of abeclouded judgment, would deny the authenticity ofour historic records, and question the truth of ourprimeval civilisation ?

It is true, the magnificence, which those memo-rials demonstrate, is but the unenviable grandeur ofdruidical, as it is called, idolatry and unenlightenedpaganism,-when man, relinquishing that supremacy,consigned to him at his creation, or rather divestedthereof in punishment for the transgression of his dege-nerate disposition, lost sight of that Being to whomhe owed his safety and his life, and bent himself inhomage before perishable creatures that crawl theirephemeral pilgrimage through the same scene withhimself : granted ; yet that cannot well be objectedto us as a disgrace, which, co-extensive in its adoptionwith the amplitude of the earth's extension, equallycharacterised the illiterate and the sage ; and if, amidstthis lamentable prostration of the human understand-ing, any thing like redemption, or feature of supe-riority may be allowed, it must be, unquestionably, tothe adherents of that system, which, excluding theobjects of matter and clay, recognised, in its worshipof the bright luminaries of the firmament, the purity

The Cromleachs .

t The Mithratic Caves.11 2

4

THE ROUND TOWERS .

and omnipotence of that Spirit who brought all intoexistence, and who guides and preserves them intheir respective spheres ;-and when I shall haveproved that the intent and application of thoseSabian * Towers,-or, to speak more correctly, thoseprimitive Budhist Temples,-which decorate our land-scape and commemorate our past renown, appertainedto this species of purified idolatry, which worshippedonly the host of heaven, the moon and the solar body,which gives vigour to all things, I shall, methinks,have removed one obstacle from the elucidation ofour antiquities, and facilitated the road to furtheradventure in this interesting inquiry .

Let me not be supposed, however, by the precedingremarks to restrict their destination to one single pur-pose . All I require of my readers is a patient perusalof my details ; and I deceive myself very much, andoverrate my powers of enunciation, else I shall esta-blish in their minds as thorough a conviction of thedevelopment of the Towers," as I am myself satisfiedwith the accuracy of my conclusions . I shall onlyentreat, then, of their courtesy that I be not antici-pated in my course, or definitively judged of by iso-lated scraps, but that, as my notice for this competi-tion has been limited and recent, allowing but littletime, for the observance of tactique or rules, in theutterance of the novel views which I now venture toput forward, the proofs of which, however, have beenlong registered in my thoughts, and additionally con-firmed by every new research, the merits of the pro-duction may not be estimated by parcels, but by thecombined tendency of the parts all together .

To begin therefore . The origins I have heard* Job i .

THE ROUND TOWERS .

assigned to those records of antiquity,-however invi-dious it may appear, at this the outset of my labours,to assume so self-sufficient a tone, yet can I not avoidsaying that, whether I consider their multiplicity ortheir extravagance, they have not more frequentlyexcited my ridicule than my commiseration . Thatspecimens of architecture, so costly and so elegant,should be designed for the paltry purposes of purgato-rial columns or penitential heights, to which criminalsshould be elevated for the ablution of their enormi-ties-while the honest citizen, virtuous and unstained,should be content to grovel amongst lowly terrestrials'mid the dense exhalations of forests and bogs, in amud-wall hut, or at best a conglomeration of wattlesand hurdles-is, I conceive, an outrage upon humanreason too palpable to be listened to .

Not less ridiculous is the idea of their having beenintended for beacons ; for, were such their destination,a hill or rising ground would have been the proper sitefor their erection, and not a valley or low land, whereit happens that we generally meet them .

The belfry theory alone, unfounded in one sensethough it really be, and when confined to that appli-cation equally contemptible with the others, is, not-withstanding, free from the objection that would lieagainst the place, as it is well known that the soundof hells, which hang in plains and valleys, is heardmuch farther than that of such as hang upon eleva-tions or hills : for, air being the medium of sound,the higher the sonorous body is placed, the more rare-fied is that medium, and consequently the less propervehicle to convey the sound to a distance . The objec-tion of situation, therefore, does not apply to thistheory ; and, accordingly, we shall find that the exer-

6

THE ROUND TOWERS .

cising of bells-though in a way and for an objectlittle contemplated by our theorists-constituted partof the machinery of the complicated ceremonial ofthose mysterious edifices .

The truth is, the " Round Towers" of Ireland werenot all intended for one and the same use, nor anyone of them limited to one single purpose : and this,I presume, will account for the variety in their con-struction, not less perceptible in their diameters andaltitudes than in other characteristic bearings . For,I am not to be told that those varieties we observewere nothing more than the capriciousness of taste,when I find that the indulgence of that caprice, in oneway, would defeat the very object to which one partywould ascribe them, whilst its extension, in a differentway, would frustrate the hopes of another set of spe-culators .

But what must strike the most cursory as irresis-tibly convincing that they were not erected all withone view, is the fact of our sometimes finding two ofthem together in one and the same locality .

Now, if they were intended as beacons or belfries,would it not be the most wasteful expenditure of timeand wealth to erect two of them together on almostthe same spot ? And when I mention expenditure,perhaps I may be allowed, incidentally, to observe,that, of all species of architecture, this particular form,as it is the most durable, so is it also the most diffi-cult and the most costly .

Need I name the sum of money which Nelson'smonument has cost in modern times ? or that imper-fect testimonial in the Phoenix Park which comme-morates the glories of the hero of Waterloo? No ;but I will mention what Herodotus tells us was the

THE ROUND TOWERS.

7

purport of an inscription upon one of the pyramids ofEgypt, the form of some of which, be it known, wasnot very dissimilar to our Irish pyramids, while theirintent and object were more congenial ; viz., thatno less a sum than 1600 talents of silver, or about400,0001. of our money, had been expended uponradishes, onions and garlic alone, for 360,000 men,occupied for twenty years in bringing that stu-pendous fabric, that combined instrument of religionand science, to completion !Our " Round Towers," we may well conceive, must

have been attended, at the early period of theirerection, with comparatively similar expense : andassuredly the motive, which could suggest such anoutlay, must have been one of corresponding import,of the most vital, paramount, and absorbing consi-deration .

Would the receptacles for a bell be of such moment?And that too, whilst the churches, to which, of course,they must have appertained, were thought worthy ofno better materials than temporary hurdles, and, so,leave behind them no vestiges of their local site,-noevidence or trace of their ever having existed ! And,indeed, how could they?-for existence they never had,except in the creative imagination of our hypotheticalantiquaries .

Ruins, it is true, of chapels and dilapidated cathe-drals are frequently found in the vicinity of ourRound Towers ;' but these betray in their materials

and architecture the stamp of a later age, havingbeen founded by missionaries of the early Christianchurch, and purposely thus collocated-contiguous toedifices long before hallowed by a religious use,-to,at once, conciliate the prejudices of those whom they

8

THE ROUND TOWERS.

would fain persuade, and divert their adoration to amore purified worship .

And yet, upon this single circumstance of proximityto ecclesiastical dilapidations-coupled with the bas-relief of a crucifix which presents itself over the doorof the Budhist temple of Donoghmore in Ireland, andthat of Brechin in Scotland-have the deniers of theantiquity of those venerable memorials raised thatsuperstructure of historical imposture, which, pleaseGod, I promise them, will soon crumble round theirears, before the indignant effulgence of regeneratedveracity.

It might be sufficient for this purpose, perhaps, totell them, that similar ruins of early Christian churchesare to be met with, abundantly, in the neighbourhoodof Cromleachs and Mithratic caves, all through theisland ; and that they might as well, from this vicinity,infer, that those two other vestiges of heathenishadoration were contrived by our early Christians asappendages to the chapels, as they would fain makeout-by precisely the same mode of inference-thatthe 11 Round Towers " had been !

But this would not suit ; they could find no ascrip-tion, associated with Christianity, which cave or crom-leach could subserve ; and, thus, have the poor mission-aries escaped the cumbrous imputation of havingthose colossal pagan slabs, and those astounding gen-tile excavations, affiliated upon them .

Not so fortunate the " Towers." After ransackingthe whole catalogue of available applications, apper-taining to the order of monastic institutions, withwhich to Siamise those temples, Montmorency has, atlast, hit upon the noble and dignified department ofa "{dungeon-keep " or " lock-up !" as the sole use andintention of their original erection !

THE ROUND TOWERS .

9

As I intend, however, to unravel this fallacy in itsproper quarter, I shall resume, for the present, thethread of my discourse .

Besides the absurdity, then, of bestowing such mag-nificence upon so really inconsiderable a thing as abelfry, while the supposed churches were doomed todwindle and moulder in decay, is it not astonishingthat we find no vestiges of the like fashion, or struc-tures of the like form, in any of those countries wherethe people, to whom the advocates of this theoryascribe their erection, have since and before exercisedsway?

The Danes had dominion in Britain longer andmore extensively than they ever had in this island ;and yet, in the whole compass of England, from oneextremity to the other, is there not one fragment ofarchitecture remaining to sanction the idea of identityor resemblance !

Nay, in all Denmark and Scandinavia, the originalresidence of the Ostmen and Danes, there is not asingle parallel to be found to those columnar edi-fices!

Ireland, on the contrary, exhibits them in everyquarter ; in districts and baronies where Danishauthority was never felt ; and surely our forefatherswere not so much in love with the usages and habitsof their barbarian intruders, as to multiply the numberof those stately piles, solely in imitation of such de-tested taskmasters .

But what renders it demonstrative that those pro-fessional pirates had no manner of connexion with theIrish ` Round Towers,' is the glaring fact, that in thetwo cities of Wexford and Waterford-where theirpower was absolute, their influence uncontrolled-

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there is not a solitary structure that could possiblybe ascribed to the class of those which we now dis-cuss !

In Scotland alone, of all European countries be-sides Ireland, do we meet with two of them :-one atBrechin, and the other at Abernethy ;-but they aresmaller than the Irish, and, with other characteristics,seem to have been built, after their model, at a com-paratively recent period, by a colony from this coun-try, ~° as if marking the fact," to use Dalton's acciden-tally'* appropriate phrase, " of that colonization hav-ing taken place when the rites, for which the I RoundTowers' were erected, in the mother-country, were onthe decline ."

But, forsooth, they are called cloghachd " by thepeasantry, and that, without further dispute, fixestheir destination as belfries ! Oh ! serf studiorumquine difficile putetis ?

That some of them had been appropriated in lattertimes, nay and still are, to this purpose, I very rea-dily concede ; but, 11 toto coelo," I deny that such hadever entered into the contemplation of their construc-tors, as I do, also, the universality of the very name,which I myself know, by popular converse, to be butpartial in its adoption, extending only to such as hadbeen converted by the moderns to the purpose de-scribed, or such as may, originally, have had a clogh,or bell, of which I admit there were some, as part oftheir apparatus .

The first bells of which we have any mention, arethose described by Moses, as attached to the gar-

* I say accidentally, because he foundered as well upon the actual co-lony, who erected those temples, as upon the nature of the rites for whichthey were erected .

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ments of the high-priest . From these, the Gentiles,as they affected to rival the Israelites in all theirceremonies, borrowed the idea, and introduced itsexercise into the celebration of their own ritual . ByIsraelites," however, I deem it necessary to explain

that I do not understand those who, in strictness ofspeech, are so denominated as the descendants ofIsrael, i . e., Jacob, who, in fact, were a comparativelymodern people ; but I particularize that old stock ofpatriarchal believers which existed from the Creation,and upon which the Israelites, rigidly so called, wereafterwards engrafted .

Our Irish history abounds with proofs of the`` ceol," and " ceolan," the bell and the little bell,having been used by the pagan priests in the ministryof their religious ordinances ; and to the fictitioussanctity which they attributed to this instrument maywe ascribe that superstitious regard, which the illite-rate and uneducated still continue to entertain for themusic of its sound .

From the Sabian ceremonial-succeeded by theDruidical-it unquestionably was that the Christianmissionaries in Ireland first adopted the use of bells,wishing, wisely, therein to conform as much as pos-sible to the prejudices of the natives, when they didnot essentially interfere with the spirit of their divinemission . I shall hereafter relate the astonishmentexcited in England, at the appearance of one of thosebells, brought there in the beginning of the sixth cen-tury by Gildas, who had just returned after finishinghis education in Ireland ; and this, in itself, shouldsatisfy the most incredulous, that the Britons, as wellpagan as Christian, were ever before strangers tosuch a sight ; and no wonder, for they were strangers

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also to such things as Round Towers," to which 1shall prove those implements properly and exclu-sively belonged .

Clogad" is the name, and which literally signifiesa « pyramid," that has led people into this " belfry"mistake . To conclude, therefore, this portion of ourinvestigation, I shall observe, in Dr. Milner's words,1 1 that none of these towers are large enough for asingle bell, of a moderate size, to swing about in it ;that, from the whole of their form and dimensions,and from the smallness of the apertures in them, theyare rather calculated to stifle than to transmit to adistance any sound that is made in them : lastly, thatthough, possibly, a small bell may have been acciden-tally put up in one or two of them at some late period,yet we constantly find other belfries, or contrivancesfor hanging bells, in the churches adjoining to them ."

I fear greatly I may have bestowed too much painsin dispelling the delusion of this preposterous opinion .But as it had been put forward with so much confi-dence by a much-celebrated " antiquarian,"--thoughhow he merited the designation I confess myself at aloss to know,-I thought it my duty not to contentmyself with the mere exposure of the fallacy, withoutfollowing it up with proofs, which must evermore, Itrust, encumber its advocates with shame : and therather, as this great champion of Danish civilisationand proclaimer of his country's barbarism, is at noordinary trouble to affect ridicule and contempt fora most enlightened and meritorious English officer,who, from the sole suggestion of truth, promoted byobservation and antiquarian research, stood forwardas the advocate of our ancestral renown, to makeamends, as it were, for the aspersions of domesticcalumniators .

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Both parties are, however, now appreciated as theyought ; and though Vallancey, certainly, did not under-stand the purport of our Round Towers," his viewof them, after all, was not far from being correct ;and the laborious industry with which he prosecutedhis inquiries, and the disinterested warmth withwhich he ushered them into light, should shield hismemory from every ill-natured sneer, and make everychild of Iran feel his grateful debtor .

Having given Milner a little while ago the oppor-tunity of tolling the death-knell of the belfry hypo-thesis, I think I could not do better now than giveLedwich, in return, a triumph, by demolishing thesymmetry of the anchorite vagary .

« It must require a warm imagination," says thiswriter,-after quoting the account given by Evagrius,of Simeon Stylite's pillar, upon which Richardson,Harris, and Milner after them, had founded the an-chorite vagary,-" to point out-the similarity betweenthis pillar and our ' tower :' the one was solid, andthe other hollow-the one square, and the other cir-cular : the ascetic there was placed without on thepillar ; with us inclosed in the tower. He adds,these habitations of anchorites were called inclusoria,or arcti inclusorii ergastula, but these were very diffe-rent from our round towers ; for he mistakes Raderus,on whom he depends, and who says, ` The house ofthe recluse ought to be of stone, the length andbreadth twelve feet, with three windows, one facingthe choir, the other opposite, through which food isconveyed to him, and the third for the admission oflight-the latter to be always covered with glass orhorn .'

11 Harris, speaking of Donchad O'Brien, Abbot of

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Clonmacnois, who shut himself up in one of thesecells, adds, `I will not take upon me to affirm that itwas in one of these towers of Clonmacnois he wasinclosed .' It must have been the strangest perver-sion of words and ideas to have attempted it . Is itnot astonishing that a reverie thus destitute of truth,and founded on wilful mistakes of the plainest pas-sages, should have been attended to, and even be, forsome time, believed?"

Thus have I allowed him to retaliate in his ownwords ; but in order to render his victory complete,by involving a greater number within his closingdenunciation, he should have waited until he hadseen a note appended to the fourteenth of Dr . Milner'sLetters, which, unquestionably, would deserve a simi-lar rebuke for its gross perversion of a " cell " into atower ."It is this :-- We learn from St. Bernard, that St .

Malachy, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, in thetwelfth century, applied for religious instruction, whena youth, to a holy solitary by name Imarus, who wasshut up in a ` cell,' near the cathedral of the saidcity, probably in a Round Tower." Risum teneatis ?

But I am tired of fencing with shadows and specialpleading with casuists . And yet, as I would wishto render this Essay systematically complete, I amforced, however reluctant, to notice the conjecture,which others have hazarded, of those " Round Towers"having been places of retreat and security in theevent of invasion from an enemy ; or depositories andreservoirs for the records of state, the church utensilsand national treasures !

To the former, I shall reply, that Stanihurst'sdescription of the " excubias in castelli vertice," upon

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which it would seem to have been founded, does not,at all, apply to the case ; because, while the castella"have vanished, the "Round Towers,"-which never be-longed to them,-do, many of them still firmly, main-tain their post ; and as to the latter, the boldness withwhich it has been put forward, by its author beforenamed,* requires a more lengthened examination thanits utter instability could otherwise justify .

* Colonel Montmorency .

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CHAPTER II .

THIS chivalrous son of Mars, more conversant, Ishould hope, with tactics than with literary disquisi-tions, has started with a position, which he is himself,shortly after, the most industrious to contradict ;namely, " that the gods, to punish so much vanityand presumption, had consigned to everlasting obli-vion the founders, names, dates, periods, and allrecords relating to them* ."

Surely, if they were intended for the despicabledungeons, which the colonel would persuade us wastheir origin, there existed neither " vanity " nor " pre-sumption" in that humble design ; and when to thiswe add the nature of that security, which he tells usthey were to establish, one would think that thisshould be a ground for the perpetuity of their regis-tration, rather than for consigning their history to`c everlasting oblivion ."

But secure in the consciousness of the whole historyof those structures, and satisfied that truth will neversuffer any thing by condescending to investigation,I will, to put the reader in full possession of thisadversary's statement, here capitulate his argumentswith all the fidelity of an honourable rival .

His object, then, being to affix the " Round Towers"to the Christian era, lie begins by insisting that, as

* Pliny, Lib . 1xvi . cap . 12 .

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"the architects of those buildings were consummatemasters in masonic art," it follows, that " a. people soadmirably skilled in masonry, never could have expe-rienced any impediments in building substantialdwellings, strong castles, palaces, or any other struc-tures of public or private conveniency, some fragmentsof which, however partial and insignificant, wouldstill be likely to appear, in despite of the corrodingbreath of time or the torch of devastation ."

His next argument is, 11 that the busy and fantasticbard,-whose occupation led him to interfere in privateand public concerns,-who, in truth, (he adds,) is ouroldest and most circumstantial annalist,-on the subjectof the Pillar Tower, is dumb and silent as the dead ;"whence he infers the "non-existence of those Towersduring the remote ages of bardic influence,"-" and oftheir being utterly unknown to them, and to our ances-tors, anterior to the reception of the Christian faith ."

His third proposition is, that as "Strabo, Pompo-nius Mela, Solinus, Diodorus Siculus, and other writersof antiquity, have represented the condition of Irelandand its inhabitants to be barbarous in their days,-incommon with their neighbours the Britons, Gauls,and Germans, to whom the art systematically tomanufacture stone had been unknown,-ergo, thosebarbarians could not be set up as the authors of thePillar Tower ."

His fourth premise is, that " wherever we chanceto light upon a cromleach, we seldom fail to find nearit one of those miserable caves"-and which he hasdescribed before as " surpassing in dreariness every-thing in the imagination of man ;"-whereas in thevicinity of the Pillar Tower no such thing is seen,unless some natural or accidental excavation may hap-

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pen to exist unaccountably in that direction ." Hisinference from which is, that " although the cromleachand the cave do claim, the first a Celtic, the second aPhoenician origin, and happen here to be united, thePillar Tower, nevertheless, disavows even the mostdistant connexion with either of them ."

His fifth is a continuation of the foregoing, with anerroneous parallelism, viz ., " at Bael Heremon, inIndia, not far from Mount Lebanon, there stood a templededicated to Bael, near to which were many caves, ofwhich one was roomy enough to admit into it fourthousand persons ." " The size of those temples," headds, " was regulated according to the extent oramount of the local population, being spacious andmagnificent in large cities, and small and simple inthe inferior towns and villages ; but nowhere, norin any case, do we meet an example of a lofty spiraltower, internally too confined to admit into it at once adozen bulky persons, denominated a temple ."

« An edifice," he resumes, " like the Pillar Tower,might easily serve for a belfry ; and there are in-stances where it has been converted, in modern times,to that use ; on the other hand a temple, properlyspeaking, gives an idea of a spacious edifice, or of onecalculated to accommodate, withinside its walls, a cer-tain congregation of devout people, met to pray .Should the building, to answer any partial or privateuse, be constructed upon a diminutive scale, like thelittle round temple at Athens *, called Demosthenes'

* This incomparably beautiful object, constructed of white marble, inthe days of Demosthenes, in the second year of the one hundred andeleventh Olympiad, 335 years before Christ, and in the year 418 of Rome,was erected in honour of some young men of the tribe of Archamantide,victors at the public games, and dedicated, it is supposed, to Hercules .

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the edifice," he continues, " in that case, obtains itsappropriate shape, yet differing in plan, size, and ele-vation, from the Irish Pillar Tower, to which it can-not, in any one respect, be assimilated ."

Moreover," he says, "the ancients had hardly anyround temples . Vitruvius barely speaks of two kinds,neither of which bears the slightest resemblance to atower. Upon the whole," concludes he, " if we willbut bestow a moment's reflection on the geographicaland political condition of primitive Ireland, and theavowed tardy progress towards civilization, and anacquaintance with the fine arts, then common to thosenations not conveniently placed within the enlightenedand enlivening pale of Attic and Roman instruction,it will be impossible not to pronounce Vallancey'sconjectures respecting the Pillar Tower, as recep-tacles for the sacred fire, altogether chimerical andfabulous."

Before I proceed to demolish, seriatim, this tissueof cobwebs, I wish it to be emphatically laid downthat I do not tread in General Vallancey's footsteps .To his undoubted services, when temperately guarded,I have already paid the .tribute of my national grati-tude ; but, pitying his mistakes, while sick of hiscontradictions, I have taken the liberty to chalk outmy own road.

Now for Montmorency . As to the first, then, ofthose objections against the antiquity of our RoundTowers, it is readily repelled by explaining that, inthe early ages of the world, masonic edifices, of archi-tectural precision, were exclusively appropriated, - asa mark of deferential homage, to the worship of theGreat Architect of the universe ; and with this view itwas that the science was, at first, studied as a sort of

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religious mystery, of which, there can be requiredno greater possible corroboration than the circum-stance of that ancient and mysterious society whodate the existence of their institution from Noah him-self, and it is incomparably older, still retaining-amid the thousand changes which the world has sinceundergone, and the thousand attempts that have beenmade to explore and explode their secrets-themystic denominational ligature of " Free and Accepted

axons ."The absence, therefore, of any vestiges of other

coeval structures, for private abode or public exhibi-tion, should excite in us no surprise ; more especiallywhen we recollect that in the East also,-whence allour early customs have been derived,-their mud-builthouses present the greatest possible contrast betweenthe simplicity of their domestic residences, and themagnificence and grandeur of their religious con-venticles-Verum illi delubra deorum pietate, domossua gloria decorabant .

But though this my reply is triumphantly subver-sive of the Colonel's first position, I shall dwell uponit a little longer, to hold forth, with merited retalia-tion, either his disingenuousness or his forgetfulness ;because the same inference which he deduced fromthe non-appearance of coeval architecture of any otherclass, would apply as well to the period which hewishes to establish as the era of the erection of the

* The first name ever given to this body was Saer, which has threesignifications-firstly, free ; secondly, mason ; and thirdly, Son of God.In no language could those several imports be united but in theoriginal one, viz ., the Irish . The Hebrews express only one branch ofit by aliben ; while the English join together the other two .

4. Sallust, Cat . Con .

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Towers,-and of which era, he admits, no other archi-tectural monuments do remain,-as to that which Ishall incontrovertibly prove was their proper epoch .

Then, without having recourse to the impossibility-of which all travellers complain-to ascertain even thesituation of those gigantic cities which in other partsof the globe, at equally remote periods of time, werecried up as the wonders of the age-the master-pieces of human genius, making their domes almostkiss the stars-without betaking myself, I say, tothose, the only memorials of which are now to befound in that of the echo, which, to your affrightedfancy, asking inquisitively and incredulously, " Whereare they ?" only repeats responsively, " Where arethey ?"-passing over this, I tell him that, more highlyfavoured than other countries, we possess, in Ireland,ample evidences of those remnants which he so vaunt-ingly challenges . Traverse the isle in its invitingrichness, over its romantic mountains and its fertilevalleys, and there is scarcely an old wall you meet, oran old hedge you encounter, that you will not find-imbedded among the mass,-some solitary specimens ofchiselled execution, which, in their proud, aristocraticbearing, afford ocular and eloquent demonstration oftheir having once occupied a more respectable post .

Not less futile than the foregoing is his secondobjection, arising from what he represents as thesilence of the busy and fantastic bard ." Doubtlesshe reckoned upon this as his most impregnable bat-tery ; and I readily believe that most of his readersanticipate the same result ; but this little book willsoon shiver the fallacy of such calculations, and ad-duce, in its proper place,-from the very head andprincipal of the bardic order, no less a personage than

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Amergin himself,-its towering refutation ; as well asthe final, incontrovertible appropriation of those struc-tures to their actual founders .

In the interim, I must not let the opportunity passof vindicating our ancient bards from the false im-putations of busy and fantastic."

If pride of descent be a weakness of Irishmen, it isone in which they are countenanced by all the nationsof the globe who have had anything like pretensionsto support the claim ;-and I fearlessly affirm, that themore sensitive a people prove themselves of their na-tional renown, their hereditary honour, and ancestralsplendour, the more tenacious will they show themselves,in support of that repute,-whether as individuals ora community,-in every cause involving the far higherinterests of moral rectitude, of virtue, and of religion .In the legitimate indulgence of this honourable emo-tion, the Irish have ever stood conspicuously high .No nation ever attended with more religious zeal totheir acts and genealogies, their wars, alliances, andmigrations, than they did : and while no people everexcelled them in enterprise or heroism, or the wisdomand administration of their legislative code, so werethey surpassed by none in the number and capabilityof those who could delineate such events, and impartto reality the additional charm of imagery and verse .

The Bards were a set of men exclusively devoted,like the tribe of Levi amongst the Israelites, to thesuperintendence of those subjects . Their agency inthis department was a legitimately recognized andgraduate faculty ; and, in accuracy of speech, the onlyone which merited the designation of learned ; beingattainable only after the most severe novitiate of preli-minary study, and rigid exercise of all the mentalpowers.

The industry and patience bestowed on such acourse were not, however, without their reward . Ina classical point of view this exhibited itself in thehigh estimation in which they were held, -bothamongst foreigners and natives,-as poets, as prophets,and as philosophers ; while the dignity and emolumentattached to their situation, and the distinguished rankassigned them, at the general triennial assemblies ofthe state, at Tara,-with the endowments conferredupon them by the monarch and the several provincialkings,-were sure to render it, at all times, an objectof ambition and pursuit, to members of the noblestfamilies throughout the various parts of the realm .

The moral deportment and personal correctness ofthose literary sages contributed still further to add totheir esteem ; and, probably, I could not succeedbetter, in depicting the almost sanctity of their generalbehaviour, than by transcribing a stanza, descriptiveof the qualities which won to them, as a society, themingled sentiments of veneration and of awe . It istaken from a very ancient Irish poem, and runs thus :-

Iod na laimh lith gan ghuin,Iod na beorl gan can neamhuib,Iod na foghlama gan can ghes,Is iod na lanamh nas .

That is,-Theirs were the hands free from violence,Theirs the mouths free from calumny,Theirs the learning without pride,And theirs the love free from venery.

In later times, I admit there was a lamentable de-generacy in the bardic class ;-or rather the innumer-able pretenders to the assumption of the name, andthe 11 fescennine licentiousness " with which they vio-

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lated the sanctity of domestic seclusion,-in exposingthe objects of their private spleen,-tended not a littleto bring their body into disrepute, and subject themadditionally to the salutary restrictions of legisla-tive severity . They were not less extravagant in thelavishment of their fulsome commendations ; so thatone can hardly avoid drawing a parallel between themand those poetasters, formerly, of Italy, whom Horaceso happily describes in those remarkable hexameters,viz.-

" Fescennina per hunt invecta licentia morem,Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit,*

*

*

quin etiam lexPcenaquelata malo quae mallet carmine quenquam,Describi *."

You would imagine the Roman poet was speakingof the Irish bards in the night of their decline ; butthe description by no means applies to the originalinstitution,-whose object it was to perpetuate thehistory and records of the nation, and preserve itshistory from the intrusions of barbarism . To this endit was, that they met for revision at the senatorialsynod ; and the importance of this trust, it was, thatprocured to their body the many dignities before de-scribed,-giving them precedence above the aggregateof the community at large, and investing them withan authority little short of royalty .

Rhyme was the vehicle in which their lucubrationswere presented ; verse the medium selected for theirthoughts . To gain perfection in this accomplishment,their fancies were ever on the stretch ; while thevarieties of metre which they invented for the purpose,and the facility with which they bent them to each

* Lib . xi . Epist . i i .

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application and use, were not the least astonishingpart of their arduous avocations, and leave the cata-logue of modern measures far away in the shade,

Music is the sister of poetry, and it is natural tosuppose that they went hand in hand here. In allcountries, the voice was the original organ of musicalsounds . With this they accompanied their extempo-raneous hymns ; with this they chanted the honours oftheir heroes . The battle-shout and the solemnity ofthe hour of sacrifice were the usual scenes for theconcerts of our ancestors . Singing the glory of formerwarriors, the combatant was himself inspired ; andwhile the victim expired on the altar of immolation,the priest sung the praise of the deity he invoked.

The introduction of the Christian truths gave a newand elevated scope to the genius of the bards . Anew enthusiasm kindled up their ardour-a newvitality invigorated their frames ; and they who, butthe moment before, were most conspicuous in up-holding the dogmas of the pagan creed, became nowthe most distinguished in proclaiming the blessingsof the Christian dispensation . Fiech, Amergin,Columba, Finan, &c., are glorious examples of thistransmuted zeal .

About the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, however,a change burst forth for the destinies of this order .Verse ceased to be used in their historical announce-ments . Prose succeeded, as a more simple narrative ;and from that moment the respectability of the bardsprogressively evaporated .

The jealousy of the English government at themartial feeling excited by their effusions, and the in-trepid acts of heroism inculcated by their example, ifnot the actual cause of this national declension, pre-

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ponderated very largely amongst its component ingre-dients .

In the height of the battle, when the war-cry wasmost loud, and the carnage most severe, those poeticenthusiasts would fling themselves amongst the ranksof the enraged contenders, and determine the victoryto whatever party they chose to befriend .

When, too, under the pressure of an untoward fate,and the disheartening yoke of-what they deemed-atreacherous subjugation, the nobles would seem dis-pirited at the aspect of circumstances, and all but sub-scribe to the thraldom of slavery, the bards wouldrouse the energies of their slumbering patriotism, and,as Tyrtueus used the Spartans, enkindle in theirbosoms a passion for war . We must not be surprised,therefore, to find in the preamble to some of the actspassed in those times for the suppression of this bodyof men, the following harsh and depreciating allu-sions ; viz ., " That those rymors do, by their dittiesand rymes made to divers lords and gentlemen inIreland, in the commendacyon and high praise of ex-tortion, rebellyon, rape, raven, and outhere injustice,encourage those lords and gentlemen rather to followthose vices than to leave them ."

For two centuries after the invasion of Henry II .,the voice of the Muse was but faintly heard in Ireland .The arms of Cromwell and William III . completelyswept away her feudal reminiscences . As it wastheir country's lustre that inspired the enthusiasm ofthe bards, so, on the tarnishing of its honour, did theybecome mute and spiritless . They fell with its fall ;and, like the captive Israelites, hanging their untunedharps on the willows, they may be supposed to ex-claim, in all the vehemence of the royal psalmist,-

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Now while our harps were hanged soe,The men whose captives there we layDid on our griefs insulting goe,And more to grieve us thus did sayYou that of musique make such show,Come, sing us now a Zion lay .-Oh! no, we have nor voice nor handFor such a song in such a land :'

Montmorency's third objection against the antiquityof the " Round Towers,"-founded on the statementsof those Greek and Latin writers above named, re-specting the " barbarous " condition of the then Irish,-I thus dissipate into thin air .

The inhabitants of Ireland, at the time in whichthose authors flourished, had nothing to do with theerection of the Round Towers . Those edifices werehoary with antiquity at that moment . They belongedto an sera and to a dynasty, not only of a more ancientbut of a more exalted character in every sense of theword, and whose religious ceremonials, for the cele-bration of which the Round Towers were constructed,the then inhabitants did not only abhor, but did all intheir power to efface and obliterate . Nor was it thereligion alone, of this inoffensive and sacred tribe, thatthis new and devastating race of militants laboured toextirpate ; but, what was far more to be deplored,they, for a season, extinguished their literature also ;until at length, fired by the moral ether which thelessons of their now slaves had inspired, their soulsgot attuned to the sublimity of such studies, and theysat themselves down accordingly to emulate their in-structors .

As to the puny detractions, therefore, of eitherGreece or Rome, they might well have been spared,as they knew less than nothing of our real history .

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When they were lowly and obscure, and immersed inthe darkness of circumambient benightment, our highcareering name, synonymous with civilization, waswafted by the four winds of heaven to all the quartersof the world which that heaven irradiates . The com-merce of the whole east pressed tumultuously to ourshores-the courts of the polished universe (not in-cluding Greece or Rome amongst the number) sent usembassies of congratulation ; while the indomitable ar-dour and public-spirited zeal of the " islanders" them-selves launched them abroad over the bosom of the widewatery circumference ; exploring in every region thegradations of civil institutes, as well as the master pro-ductions of N4ture herself ; civilizing life with theresults of their discoveries, and garnishing their houses,like so many museums, with the fruits of their re-search, for the benefit, at once, and entertainment oftheir less favoured, though not less ambitious brethrenat home .

Think you that the testimony of Festus Avienus,who wrote before the Christian light, and who, avow-edly, only compiled his treatise from other moreancient authorities-think you, I say, that his desig-nation of this island as " sacred,"-and which he sayswas the appropriate denomination by which the stillgreater ancients used to call it,-was an idle sobriquetor an arbitrary adjective ? Amongst the many dis-coveries which will develop themselves in succession,before I shall have done with this little book, I pledgemyself to the public incontrovertibly to prove, thatthe word " Hibernian,"-so grossly abused and somalignantly vilified, and which Avienus has recordedas the name of the islanders at the period in which hewrote, as it is still to this day-signifies-in its com-

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ponent essence, and according to the nicest scrutiny ofetymological analysis, independently altogether of his-torical corroboration-an inhabitant of the sacred isle ;and has nothing on earth to do with Heber or Here-mon ; or Mar, the west ; or iberin, extremes ; or anyother such outlandish nonsense !

Now comes the Colonel's fifth and last objection ;viz ., that because there existed at Baal Heremon, inIndia, a temple sacred to Baal, the capacity of whichwas sufficient to accommodate four thousand persons,therefore the Round Towers, which are " internallytoo confined to admit into them, at once, a dozen bulkypersons, could not be denominated a temple ."

Does not the Colonel know that there existed aplurality of those Baals ? that, in fact, they were asinnumerable as the stars in the firmament, resolvingthemselves-according to the character of every distinctcountry, and of every minor subdivision and canton inthat country-into the specific and gentile classifica-tions of Baal Shamaim, Baal Pheor or Phearagh, BaalMeon, Baal Zephon, Baal Hemon, &c . ; while underthe veil of all, the learned ever understood to have beensolely personated, the sun and moon . C° Howbeitevery nation made gods of their own, and the men ofBabylon made Succoth-Benoth * ."

In accordance with the different views under whicheach people considered the bounties of those lumi-naries, so did their temples assume a correspondingshape ; and it shall be my lot, in the progress of thislitigated research, to show why the followers of oneof those Baals, namely, Baal Phearagh, gave theirtemples this erect, narrow, and elevated roundness .

I have thus annihilated those visionary ramparts,* 2 Kings xvii . 29, 30 .

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

which my opponent had flattered himself he had raisedagainst the intrusion of long-suppressed truth ; andby the help of which, as a military bastion, he hadfondly hoped he might link together the church andthe sword in one cemented bond of anachronism . Letus see, however, how he would bring about the match,with the articles of intermarriage, and so forth .

His assumption is, that " the founders of thoseTowers were primitive Ccenobites and Bishops, muni-ficently supported in the undertaking by the newly-converted kings and toparchs ; the builders andarchitects being those monks and pilgrims who, fromGreece and Rome, either preceded or accompaniedour early missionaries in the fifth and sixth cen-turies ;" which he pretends to substantiate in thefollowing manner.

Having discovered, by a most miraculous effort ofpenetration, that one hundred and fifty Greek andRoman religionists had accompanied St . Ahhan onhis return from imperial Rome,-whither lie had goneto complete his theological studies, towards the end ofthe fifth century,-and not knowing how to occupythose strangers in this then pagan land, the Colonel,with his industrious habits, well aware that " idlenessis the mother of mischief," sets them, at once, aboutbuilding the Towers .

But as it would be too lavish a display of knight-errantry to waste their time and strength without someostensible purpose, he must, of course, find out forthem a pretext, at least, for such ; and so, in the eager-ness of his milito-monastic zeal, he flies off, at a tangent,to the top of mount Colzoum, near the desert of Gebel,"a short day's journey from the Red Sea,"-where hethinks he has got, in the monasteries of the Egyptian

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31

monks, a direct, immediate, and indubitable proto-type .

Reader, you shall be the judge . Here is his owntranslation of Bonnani's description of the place, viz .

There are three churches, of which St. Anthony's,which is small and very old, is the most distinguished ;the second is dedicated to the apostles Peter andPaul ; and the third church is raised in honour of St .Macaire, who has been a lay brother in this convent .All of the cells stand separately from each other ; theyare ill built, the walls being composed of clay, coveredin with flat roofs, and diminutive windows only onefoot square . Close to the refectory, which is darkand dirty, the monks have added a rather decent apart-ment, in their wonted hospitality, destined to thereception of visiters .

« Within the central court-yard, an isolated squaretower of masonry, which is approached by a drawbridge,holds a formidable station. Here the Cophtes preservewhatever wealth or precious objects they possess ;and if assailed by the plundering Arabs, defend them-selves with stones . There are four more celebratedmonasteries in the desert of St . Macaire, distant aboutthree days' journey from Grand Cairo . The first isthe convent of St . Macaire, which is ancient and in -aruinous state-the bones of the founder are enshrinedin a stone coffin, placed behind an iron gate, en-veloped in a chafe or pluvial (a sort of church orna-ment), formed into a canopy . A square tower ofstone, which you enter by a drawbridge, is the onlysolid building belonging to the Abbey that remains .The friars store their books and their provisions, andobstinately defend themselves in this hold, wheneverthe wild Arabs come to pay them a predatory visit .

32

THE ROUND TOWERS .

There are similar (square) towers attached to thethree other monasteries in the desert, the doors ofwhich, and of the convent of St . Macaire, are alikecovered with iron plates," &c . &c .

To the candid and dispassionate reader,-who hasgone through this extract, and who is told that this isthe basis upon which Colonel de Montmorency buildshis superstructure of monastic appropriation,-to suchI fearlessly appeal whether he will not scout the in-dignity with intellectual scorn .

Here are edifices spread, in numbers, over ourisland, in unity of design and elegance of execution,admitted by this writer himself as the most imposingobjects of antiquity in all Christendom," and 11 placedby an almost supernatural power to brave the stormywinds and the wrath of time ;" yet, in the same breath,made the counterparts of afew trumpery, temporary, andcrazy old piles, which were originally erected as mili-tary stations, totally distinct from religion or religioususes-similar to those erected by Helena, mother toConstantine the Great, on the coast of Syria, againstpiratical incursions, and analogous to what we findin India, viz., a whole fortress converted into a con-ventual establishment . The thing is absurd,-it isrevolting to common sense,-and bears on its foreheadits own discomfiture .

33

CHAPTER III .

OBSERVE, then, the structures which he compares arealtogether different ; one being square, and the otherround . Nor, in the whole compass of possible analo-gies, is there a single feature in which the two classesof edifices could be said to correspond, but thatthey both have their doors-which, by the way, aredifferent in their form-at a distance from the ground .The Pyramids of Egypt bear the same correspondence,-their entrance being one-third of the height from thesurface-and why does not the Colonel bestow themalso upon the monks? No ; those poor, denuded,inoffensive, exemplary, unearthly victims of maceration,were incapable of, either the masonic acme, or,-at theera which Montmorency particularises,-of the corpo-rate influence and pecuniary or equivalent supplies,indispensable for the erection of either " pyramid" or" tower ; "-contenting themselves rather with theirlowly cells, whence they issued out, at all seasons,to diffuse the word of " life," than in raising may-poles of stone, within which to garrison their inexpres-sible treasures .

But to reconcile this discrepancy in exterior outfit,he has recourse to a miracle, which he thus conjuresup. " Doubtless, in the beginning, when first thoseCoenobites settled in the desert, the convent-towerwas round ;" then, by a single word, prcesto,-or

n

3 4

THE ROUND TOWERS .

doubtless "-right-about face, takes place a meta-morphosis, from round to square !-the more miracu-lous, in that the former round ones left behind themno vestiges ! Upon which, again, a counter miracleis effected ;-" The square ones having subsequentlyfallen into disuse, the round tower, in after ages,"-hesays, appears to have acquired a degree of increasedcelebrity, especially in Europe, during the preponder-ance of the feudal system, when every baronial castlein Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, &c ., wasfurnished with one or more ." Now, has he not beforetold us, and told us truly, by chance, that the PillarTower scorns all kind of affinity with those " barba-rians ;" whereupon I shall merely observe with thepoet, that-

IfIf people contradict themselves, can IHelp contradicting them * ?"

But, if intended as a place of shelter for eitherperson or property, why build them of such an alti-tude ? Above all things, why not build them of suchinternal capacity as to accommodate the whole numberof inmates in each convent, in case of an attack,-as, infact, those square towers in the desert used ; whereas," a dozen bulky persons" could not squeeze togetherinto one of our Round Towers ; and accordingly, withthe inconsistency inseparable from error, our authorhimself proclaims, that " it has frequently occurredthat the barbarian, on finding that he had been foiledin his search after treasures, though he burned theabbey, and perpetrated all the mischief he was able,sooner than retire empty-handed, the pirate seized onthe abbot, or most prominent member he found be-

* Byron .

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35

longing to the community, and hurried away the un-fortunate individual on board his ship, holding him indurance, till, overcome by ill-usage, he besought hisbrethren to come to his relief with a heavy ransom forhis freedom." 11 It has also often happened," he adds," that, unable to comply with the tyrant's exorbitantdemands, the monks resigned the captive to his fate ."

Surely, if they had those keeps to fly to, the " un-fortunate " abbot need not allow himself to be seizedat all : and surely, also, if they had all those treasuresupon which the Colonel insists, they would not leavethe father of their CP community " unredeemed from soexcruciating a degradation . And hence we may con-clude with Dr . Lanigan, " What little credit is dueto the stories of some hagiologists, who talk of greatestates granted to our monasteries and churches inthose and even earlier times *." Indeed, for the twofirst centuries subsequent to the arrival of St . Patrick,such a thing was incompatible with the nature of the

political compact " in Ireland .I do not deny, however, but that the ecclesiastics of

this time did possess some articles of value appertain-ing to the altar, and that these were objects of unholycupidity to the Danes : nay further, I admit that, toescape from the insatiability of those virulent marau-ders, they used to fly to the belfries, which-from thatmistaken regard attached to these edifices, as the re-ceptacles of those sonorous organs to which super-stition has ever clung t-they had hoped would prove

* Vol. iii. p . 78-Note.t The tolling of a bell was supposed to have had miraculous effects-

to keep the spirits of darkness from assaulting believers-to dispel thun-der, and prevent the devil from molesting either the church or congre-gation ; and hence they were always rung, in time of storm or other

n 2

36

THE ROUND TOWERS .

an asylum from their pursuits,-but in vain-neitherreligion nor superstition opposed a barrier to the North-men, while the frail materials whereof those belfrieswere constructed afforded a ready gratification to theirappetite for destruction .

The Ulster Annals, year 949, furnish us with thefollowing fact : " Cloicteach Slane do loscadh do GallAthacliath . Bacall ind Erlamha, 7 clot badec docloccaibh, Caenechair Ferleghinn, 7 sochaide mor inbido loscadh." That is, The belfry at Slane was set fireto by the foreigners (the Danes) of Dublin . Thepastor's staff or crozier, adorned with precious stones,besides the principal bells, and Canecar the lecturer,with a multitude of other persons, were burned in theflames. The Annals of the Four Masters, noticing thesame event, use nearly similar words :-" CloicteachSlaine do loscadh can a tan do mhionnaibh 7 deghdhaoninibh, im Chaeinechair Fearleighinn Slaine, Bachallan Eramha 7 clocc ba death do chloccaibh ." That is,The belfry at Slane was burned to the ground, alongwith several articles of value which were therein, andnumbers of individuals, besides the Slane praelector, thepatron's staff, and all the bells, which were there ofmost worth

Now take notice that within those " belfries " amultitude of persons" used to have been collected,

attack, to paralyze the fiend, whether the elements or mortal man, bythe hallowed intonation . Each was dedicated to a particular saint,-dulybaptized and consecrated ; and the inscriptions which still remain on theold ones that have come down to us proclaim the virtue of their capabi-lities . The following distich will be found to sum them up, viz . :-

Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum,Defunctos plero, pestem fugo, festa decoro .'

And the very syllables of this which follows form a sort of tuneful gal-loping, viz . :-

" Sabbata pango, funera piango, solemnia clango ."

THE ROUND TOWERS .

37

whereas the Round Towers could not accommodateabove " a dozen " at one time . The belfries also arerepresented to have been reduced to ashes by the con-flagration, which accords with the description givenby both Ware and Colgan, of the wooden substancewhereof they were composed ; whereas the RoundTowers are made of stone, and cemented by a bond ofsuch indurated tenacity, that nothing short of light-ning or earthquake has been known to disturb them :-and even though other violence may succeed in theiroverthrow, yet could it not be said with any accuracythat they were reduced by fire to cinders. But, aboveall, those very Annals which I have above quoted,when recording a greater and national calamity,place the belfries and the Round Towers in the samesentence, contradistinguished from one another,-theformer characterized by their appropriate name ofCloicteach, as exhibited before, and the latter underthe still more apposite denomination of Fidh-nemeadh,as we shall explain elsewhere .

Again, if designed as fortresses for the monks, andreceptacles for their riches, is it not strange, that inthe isle of Hy,-which was literally a nest of ecclesi-astics, and which Columb Kill himself evangelized atthe time when Montmorency was,-in a dream,-em-ploying him and his coadjutors at the erection ofthe Round Towers,-is it not strange, I say, that thislittle isle, the most defenceless, as it is, and forlorn, of al llands that ever projected above the bosom of the sea,should yet, in the allotment of monastic artillery, beleft totally destitute of an aerial garrison ?

And yet, notwithstanding the absence of such de-fences, the monks still continued to make it theirfavourite abode ; of which we have but too cogent an

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

evidence in the record of the Four Masters, under theyear 985, stating that the abbot and fifteen of hisbrethren were slain by the Northmen on Christmas-day, just as they were preparing to celebrate thenativity of their Redeemer .

But those monks spread themselves, in shoals, overEngland also ; and we know that that country waseven more infested than our own with both Northmenand Danes . Is it not astonishing, therefore, that theEnglish convents were not protected against the sacri-lege of those savages by telescopic steeples of Baby-lonish cement ?

This, it may be said, is applying a steam-engine tocrush a flapwing ; yet, as that flapwing has beensomewhat troublesome, and has contrived to blindfoldsome searchers after antiquarian truth, I may be ex-cused if, to frustrate any efforts at impotent revivals,I shall continue decapitating the hydra, until he dis-appears in his own sinuosities .

He tells us, then, with all the calculation of an en-gineer, and the gravity of a physician, that a stonelet fall from the top of one of those towers wouldcrush the " barbarian " to atoms . True, it would,and the civilian also . A little pebble let fall from aneagle's beak, as he cuts his aerial passage through thecloudy regions, or soars aloft into the empyreal ofinterminable space, would have a similar effect ; butit would puzzle the shrewdest engineer in Christen-dom to place a ballast-man, with a big stone on hislap, on either the top or the sloping sides of theconical " caubeen " which graces the summit of ourcareering cylinders . This, to use the Colonel's ownwords, " will be admitted to be contrary to all that isadmissible in the rules of architectural proportions ."

DEVENISH .

[Toface page 38 .

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39

Next, remark that the Colonel keeps those 150" volunteers" at work upon the " Round Towers," inthe midst of a raging war ;after he had beforeaffirmed that they could only be erected in a seasonof profound peace-for a complete century . Duringthis whole time they must, of course, have availedthemselves of the assistance of the inhabitants ; andis it not marvellous that, during that long time, " theancient Irishman,"-and " Pat's nae stupid fellow,"as the Colonel himself avows,-should not have beenable to pick up a single insight into the arcana of themasonic art ?-but that, soon as ever the dear externsexpired,-who at the period of their arrival must havebeen, at least, over twenty years of age, each, and who,to accomplish Montmorency's miracle, must have,every one of them, lived just one hundred years more,and then died, all in one day!-is it not petrifying, I say,that soon as ever this appalling catastrophe occurred,every vestige of those " fairy " masons should havevanished along with them ?-and the country, in a pa-ralysis, have forgotten to associate them with theTowers," as if stupified with the incantation of a

wizard or a talisman !And yet this was not the greatest injustice of which

the poor Coenobites got reason to complain ; but it isthat, when the people had recovered from the deli-rium of their late trance, and began to look abroadfor some " authors " on whom to father those edifices,they unanimously, though unaccountably, agreed tolay them at the door of the " O'Rorkes " and the" Mac Carthy Mores!"

It so happens that the last of the Mac Carthy Moreswas my own maternal grandfather ; and he, venerableand venerated old gentleman, apt as he was, in the

40

THE ROUND TOWERS .

evening of his faded life, to revert to the mutabilityof worldly possessions, never, for a moment, bestoweda solitary thought upon the alienation of the propertyof those columnar masonries . Often used he to men-tion the castles of Palace and of Blarney : Castlemainand Glenflesk used still oftener to grace his talk ; butoftener still, and with more apparent delectation,would he dilate on the Castle of Macroom and theAbbey of Mucruss,-all, as the creation of immediateor collateral branches of his family ; but never, in thecatalogue of his patrimonial spoliations, did he enu-merate a " Round Tower," or lay a shadow of claimto their construction .

To the point, however .-The great miracle, after all,is, that after the decease of those fairy " masters,no one of their native helpmates could be found ableto join together, with mechanical skill, two pieces ofhewn stone with the intermediate amalgam of adhe-sive mortar ! The thing is so absurd as to make theColonel himself, in his honesty, to exclaim, Is thissimple process that mighty piece of necromancywhich, according to some authors (forgetting that hewas one of those himself), that lively people wereunable to comprehend ? " It is amusing to see howencomiastic and commendatory he is of the " Hiber-nians," when it answers his views ; and how vitu-perative and condemnatory, when it is equally to hispurpose.

The last assumption of this writer, and which Ihave purposely reserved until now, is an affectedparallel of the Irish Culdees with the EgyptianCophtes . " Their great piety, austerity, and hospi-tality announce," he says, " the existence of one kindof discipline, and of kindred religions, between the

THE ROUND TOWERS .

4 1

Cophtes and the Irish Coenobites." That is, becausethey are both pious, austere, and hospitable, they mustboth necessarily correspond in religious opinions andin Church forms! The Indian Brahmins, say I, arealso pious, austere, and hospitable ; and why are theynot incorporated in this holy identification ? No,Colonel, it will not do ; I see what you are at . Youwant to insinuate our obligation to the Greeks for theblessings of the Gospel . A false zeal for mentalemancipation,-subsequent to the dislodgment ofspiritual encroachment,-has forced into mushroomexistence this spurious abortion . Aloof from thethraldom of Roman or other yoke, the Irish, withinthemselves, cultivated the principles of the Christianverity ; but it is, in the extreme, erroneous to say, thatthey derived their faith in that verity through emissa-ries of the Grecian church, from whom they differedas substantially as light does from darkness .

I think it very probable indeed, that the glad tidingsof revelation were first imparted to Ireland by the lipsof St. Paul himself * . We have the names of manyChristians existing amongst us before the arrival ofeither Pelagius or Patrick . The very terms of thecommission, which pope Celestine gave to the former,being addressed " ad Scotos in Christum credentes,"to the Irish who believe in Christ,-prove the good seedhad been laid in the soil before his pontificate . Thenation, however, was yet too much immersed in its

* uxtQ Tot nztarav 5raet"A''ta'i rag zaa.00'atYai BBITavrxap y,oout .Euseb. in Praep . Ev. 1. 3 .

Egyptum et Libyam sortitus est alius Apostolorum, extremas verooceani regiones, et Insular Britannicas alius obtinuit .

Nicephor ., 1 . 2, c .40.

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

old idolatries-and the fascinations of their formercreed had so spell-bound the inhabitants, as a com-munity--that those who singled themselves out asconverts to the new faith were obliged, from persecu-tion, to betake themselves to other countries . Andyet this is the moment, when paganism was omnipotentthroughout this island, that Colonel de Montmorencyhas the modesty to tell us that the " Round Towers "were erected as magazines for the monks !

To the Patrician Apostle, the beloved patriarch ofIreland, was reserved the glory of maturing the fruitwhich his predecessors had planted . His constitu-tional zeal and absorbing devotion, in the service ofhis Creator, were but the secondary qualificationswhich pre-eminently marked him out for so hazardousan enterprise . The primary and grand facility whichthis true hero possessed for the attainment of his greatdesign, was his intimate converse with the mannersand language of the natives,-obtained during his cap-tivity not long before,-which making way at once tothe hearts of his auditory, was an irresistible passportto their heads and their understandings .

In the sequel of this volume it will be fully shown,that when St . Patrick entered upon his prescribed task,-towards the close of the fifth century,-the monarchand his court were celebrating their pagan festival, orpreparing for it, on the hill of Tara . Can a nation becalled Christian where the sovereign and court arePagan? Or will a few exceptions from the mass ofthe population be indulged with fortresses of im-perishable architecture, while the nation at large tookshelter within wattles and walls of clay?-and that, too,at a moment when Christianity was considered a name

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of reproach, and its few solitary abettors constrained toexile or to degradation !

No sooner, however, were the simplicities of Chris-tianity expounded to the natives through the mediumof their native tongue, than the refined organism ofthe Irish constitution, habituated by discipline to sub-lime pursuits, took fire from the blaze of the sacredscintilla, and enlisted them as its heralds, not only athome but throughout Europe .

Precisely at this instant it was that all the ancientnames of places in the island-recorded by Ptolemyfrom other foreign geographers,-were changed andnew-modelled-the converts-"ut in nova deditione,"-not thinking it sufficient to abandon the forms oftheir previous belief, and adopt the more pure one, ifthey did not obliterate every vestige of nominal asso-ciation, which could tend to recall their fancies to thereligion which they relinquished . Accordingly fromthe names of Juernis, Macollicon, Rhigia, Nagnata,Rheba, &c ., sprung up the names of Killkenny, Kill-malloch, and the thousand other names, commencingwith " Kill," to be met with in every district and sub-division throughout the country .

Every corner was now the scene of Christian zeal ;and every neophyte strove to surpass his neighbourin evincing devotion to the newly-revealed religion .,, Kills," or little churches-from the Latin cella, nowfor the first time introduced-were built in the vicinityof every spot which had before been the theatre ofpagan adoration-whether as cromleachs, as mi-thratic caves, or as Round Towers . These were thememorials of three distinct species of paganism, andwere, therefore, now singled out as appropriate sitesfor the erection of Christian " Kills," the ruins of

44

THE ROUND TOWERS .

which are still to be traced, contiguous to each ofthose idolatrous reminiscences,-disputing with thefalse divinities the very ground of their worship, anddiverting the zeal of the worshippers from the creatureto the Creator.

Nay, to such a pitch did the crusaders, in theirconflict, carry the principle of their enthusiasm, thatmany of them adopted the names of their late idols,and intertwined those again,-now christianly appro-priated,-with the old favourite denominations of manyof the localities . For instance, St . Shannon assumedthat name from the river Shannon, which was an ob-ject of deification some time before ; and St. Mallochadopted this name from the city of Malloch, that is, theSun, or Apollo,-the supreme idol of pagan Ireland'sadoration,-from which again, with the prefix Kill,"he made the name Kill-malloch,-the latter alone hav-ing been the ancient name of the place, converted byPtolemy into "Macollicon ;" which is only giving hisGreek termination, icon, to the Irish word . Malloch, andtransposing, for sound sake, the two middle syllables .

Chaildee was the pious but appropriate epithet bywhich those patriarchs of Christianity thought fit todistinguish themselves . The word means associate ofGod. Having obtained the gospel from the see ofRome, they adhered implicitly, yet without con-ceding any superiority,-to the Roman connexion-agreeing in all the grand essentials of vital belief,and differing only as to some minor points of eccle-siastical discipline .

This variance, however, has afforded handle to somelovers of controversial doubt, to maintain that Irelandwas never beholden to Rome for the gospel . Thefallacy is disproved by the fact of all our early neo-

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phytes betaking themselves, for perfection in themysteries of revelation, to the Roman capital . Onone of which occasions it was that Montmorencyhimself brought over his hundred and fifty volunteers,to accompany back one of those converted students,who had gone there to learn the very minuteness ofthe doctrine which the Romans inculcated .

It was not, remember, for ordinary or secular edu-cation that they betook themselves to Rome . Theacademies of Ireland far surpassed it in splendour .It was solely and exclusively to learn the particularsof their faith ; and having once obtained this insight,they continued in spiritual unison with the tenets ofthat church, as to all fundamental points of doctrinenever surrendering, however, the independence of theirjudgment, nor bowing before the " ipse dixit " of anytribunal,-where reason was to be the guide,-untilforced by the conspiracy of Pope Adrian IV. and hiscountryman Henry II .

How contemptible, therefore, is the effort, in theteeth of this exposure, to identify the Irish Chaildeeswith the Egyptian Cophtes ! There was no one pointin which they may be compared, except their mutualpoverty ; which, however, Montmorency overlooks, orrather contradicts, making them both wealthy, andhave banks even for their riches . As, however, I lookupon Dr. Hurd * as somewhat a better authority, youshall have what he says upon the subject :-

,, the Ethiopians, there are still to be foundsome monks, called Coptics, who first flourished inEgypt, but, by no difficult sort of gradation, madetheir way into Ethiopia . They profess the utmost

$ Religious Rites and Ceremonies, published under his name .

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contempt for all worldly things, and look upon them-selves as a sort of terrestrial angels . They are obligedto part with all their possessions before they can enterupon a monastic life ."

Their discrepancy in doctrine is even still morenotorious, agreeing with the Chaildees only in a singleinstance also ; namely, in both denying the supre-macy of the Pope. Here are the Doctor's words :-- They deny the papal supremacy, and, indeed, mostparts of the popish doctrine, particularly transubstan-tiation, purgatory, auricular confession, celibacy of theclergy, and extreme unction ;" all which, save the first,the Irish Chaildees maintained in common with the seeof Rome .

And now, on the point of education, I will contentmyself with Montmorency's own testimony, which isto this effect, viz . :Only on the score of erudition,it must be acknowledged that the Irish theologian, ashistory asserts, did not only excel the modern Greekand Egyptian, but his profound acquaintance with thesciences, arts, and laws of his country, gave him anunrivalled superiority in the literary and civilizedworld."What, Colonel ! are those the " barbarians?" Is

this what you mean by not being conveniently situatedwithin the enlightened and enlivening influence ofGreek and Roman refinement ? Alas ! you knew butlittle of the real statement of the case :-whilst theillustrious Fenelon, himself a descendant of thisboasted Rome, thus more accurately avows, " that,notwithstanding all the pretended politeness of theGreeks and Romans, yet, as to moral virtue and reli-gious obligations, they were no better than the savagesof America."

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I have been thus hurried on by the train of mythoughts, without observing much of order or metho-dical arrangement . As my object is, however, theelucidation of truth,-not idle display, or vain-glo-rious exhibition,-I am sure my readers will scarcemurmur at the course by which I shall have led themto that end ; in a question, moreover, where so manyadventurers have so miserably miscarried .

So much the rather, thou celestial light,Shine inward, and the mind through all her powersIrradiate . There plant eyes ; all mist from thencePurge and disperse ; that I may see and tellOf things invisible to mortal sight* .

* Milton .

48

CHAPTER IV .

HAVING thus disposed of the word " Cloic-teach,"which Dr. Ledwich so relied upon, as determiningthe character of these antique remains, I take leave,evermore, to discard the misnomer, and draw atten-tion to a name which I have never seen noticed, asapplied to any of those pyramidal edifices . Thatwhich I allude to is " Cathoir ghall," which means theCathedral or temple of brightness" (` 1 and delight* ;")

not, I must premise, from any external daubing, withwhich modern Vandalism may have thought proper toincrust it,-as happened to that at Swords,-but inevident reference to the solar and lunar light,-thesources of life and generation,-therein contemplated,at once, and interchangeably venerated .

The particular Tower to which this epithet hadbeen assigned-and which it obtained, by way ofeminence, for its colossal superiority-is not nowstanding f . It rose about half a mile distant fromthe old castle of Bally Carbery, in the barony ofIveragh, and county of Kerry ; a place where onewould hope that the true designation of such phe-nomena would be preserved most pure, being alooffrom the influence of exotic refinements, and, thus

* This latter to be explained hereafter .I- The ruins, to the height of ten feet, still remain .

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far, free from that maudlin scepticism and laboureddoubt which a " little learning" too frequently super-induces.

Dear, lovely bowers of innocence and ease,-Seats of my youth, when ev'ry sport could please,-How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,When humble happiness endeaFd each scene !How often have I paused on every charm,-The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm !While all the village train, from labour free,Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree *.

No combination of letters could possibly approachcloser, or convey to a discerning mind greater affinityof meaning to anything, than does the above name tothe description given of them in the 12th century byGiraldus Cambrensis, who calls them " turres eccle-siasticas, quze, more patriae, arctee sunt et alts, nee nonet rotunda." This definition, vague as it may seem,affords ample illumination, when compared with theepithet which I have above adduced, to penetrate thedarkness of this literary nebula . The word "turres"points out their constructional symmetry, and " eccle-siasticas " their appropriation to a religious use ; andwhat can possibly be in stricter consonance with thetenour of this idea than " Cathaoir ghall," or theTemple of Brightness, which I have instanced aboveas the vernacular appellation of one of those sanctu-aries ?

Should it be asked, why did not Cambrensis, atthe time, enter more fully into the minutia of theirdetail ? I shall unhesitatingly answer, it was becausehe knew nothing more about them . The Irish had atthat moment most lamentably dwindled into a de-

* Goldsmith .E

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generate race . The noble spirit of their heroic an-cestors, which had called forth those pyramids, for thetwofold and mingled purpose of religion and science,had already evaporated ; and all the historian couldglean, in prosecuting his inquiries, as to their era andcause, was, that their antiquity was so remote, thatsome of them may be even seen immersed beneath thewaters of Lough Neagh', which had been occasionedmany ages before by the overflowing of a fountaint .

Let us now turn to the annals of the " Four Mas-ters," which record the destruction of Armagh, A.D .995, by a flash of lightning, and see under what namethey include the " Round Towers" in the generalcatastrophe . Here is the passage at full length, asgiven by O'Connor : - t0 Ardmaeha do lose do tenesaighnein, ettir tighib, 7 T Domhuliacc, 7 Cloic teacha,7 Fiadh-Neimhedh :"-that is, Armagh having beenset on fire by lightning, its houses, its cathedrals, itsbelfries, and its .Fiadh-Neimhedh, were all destroyed .

The Ulster Annals have registered the same event'in the following words :-" Tene diait do gabail Aird-maeha conafarcaibh Dertach, na Damliacc, na h Erdam,na Fidh-Nemead ann cen loseadh :"--that is, Lightningseized upon Armagh, to so violent a degree, as toleave neither mansion, nor cathedral, nor belfry, norFidh-Nemead, undemolished .

Here we find Fiadh-Nemeadh to occur in bothaccounts, while the belfries are represented in oneplace as Cloic teacha, and in the other as Erdam,-andin both are opposed to, and contradistinguished from,

* Top. Dist . ii . c . 9, p . 720.i In the reign of Txiaeha Labhruine, A.M . 3177 ; B .C . 827 .+ This mark (7), in the Irish language, is an abbreviation for agus,

i .e. and.

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the Fiadh-Nemeadh. Our business now is to investi-gate what this latter word conveys ; and though I donot mean, for a while, to develop its true interpretation,-of which I am the sole and exclusive depositary,-yet must I make it apparent, that by it,-whatever wayit must be rendered,-all before me have understood,were emphatically designated our Sabian Towers .Thus Colgan in his 11 Acts," page 297, referring tothese words of the Four Masters, says, " Anno 995,Ardmaeha cum Basilicis, Turribus, aliisque omnibused~flciis, incendio ex fulmine generato, tota vastatur ."

O'Connor also, wishing to wrest its import to hisfavourite theory of their having been gnomons, whileignorant of its proper force, indulges in a conjectureof the most lunatic ostentation, and translates Fiadh-Nemeadh by celestial indexes .

But though the word does not literally signifyeither G0 Towers,"-as Colgan, for want of a betterexposition, has set forth,-or " celestial indexes,"-as O'Connor, equally at a loss for its proper mean-ing, has ventured to promulgate,-yet is it indis-putable that it stood as the representative of thoseenigmatical edifices, as well as that both writers hadthe same structures in view as comprehended underthe tenor of this mysterious denomination'.

These annals I look upon, in three different lights,as invaluable documents :-firstly, as they prove theexistence of those edifices at the date above assigned ;secondly, as they show that they were distinct thingsfrom the belfries-whether cloicteach or erdam-which shared their disaster ; and, thirdly, becausethat, even admitting of O'Connor's mistranslation, it

* The Annals of Inisfallen, also, page 148, call them by the samename of Fiadh-Nemeadh .

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gives us an insight into their character more for-tuitous than he had anticipated . Celestial indexes* !Could any one be so silly as for a moment to supposethat this was a mere allusion to the circumstance oftheir height ? No ; it was no such casual epithet,or witty effort of hyperbole ; but it was, what Sallusthas so truly said of the Syrtes, " nomen ex re inditum ."

The identity between this island and the " InsulaHyperboreorum" of Hecatoeus being to be completelyestablished in an ensuing chapter,-the bungling ofnatives and the claims of externs notwithstanding,-I shall not hesitate to assume as proved, that ours wasthe " island" described .

Allow me then to draw your attention to an extractfrom Diodorus's report thereof :-" They affirm also,"says he, " that the moon is so seen from this island,that it appears not so distant from the earth, and seems

to present on its disk certain projections like the moun-tains of our world . Likewise that the God Apollo inperson visits this island once in nineteen years, inwhich the stars complete their revolutions, and returninto their old positions ; and hence this cycle of nine-teen years is called, by the Greeks, the great year ."

Who is it that collates this description with thecelestial indexes 1 " above produced, that is not, at

once, struck with the felicity of the coincidence ?On earth, what could celestial indexes mean but suchas were appropriated to the contemplation of theheavenly bodies? just as the name of " Zoroaster,"-which, in the Persian language, signifies "ceelorumobservator," that is star-gazer, or observer of the

* Rer. Hib. Scrip . Vet . iii . p . 52 7 .+ Fidh-Nemeadh certainly admits of this interpretation, but in a very

different sense from what its author had supposed .

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heavens,-was given to Zerdust, the great patriarchof the Magi, from his eminence and delight in astro-nomical pursuits .

Now, " the moon being so seen from this islandthat it appears not so distant from the earth," is soobvious a reference to the study of astronomy that itwould be almost an insult to go about to prove it ;but when it is said that " it presents on its disk cer-tain projections like the mountains of our world," itnot only puts that question beyond the possibility ofdispute, but argues furthermore a proficiency in thatdepartment, which it is the fashion now-a-days toattribute only to modern discoveries .

But have we any evidence of having ever hadamongst us, in those " olden times," men who bytheir talents could support this character? Hearwhat Strabo says of Abaris, whom " Hecataeus andothers mention" as having been sent by his fraternityfrom the "island of the Hyperboreans" to Delos, inGreece, in the capacity of a sacred ambassador, wherehe was equally admired for his knowledge, polite-ness, justice, and integrity . " He came," says Strabo,

to Athens, not clad in skins like a Scythian, but witha bow in his hand, a quiver hanging on his shoulders,a plaid wrapt about his body, a gilded belt encirclinghis loins, and trowsers reaching from the waist downto the soles of his feet . He was easy in his address,agreeable in his conversation, active in his despatch,and secret in his management of great affairs ; quickin judging of present occurrences, and ready to takehis part in any sudden emergency ; provident withalin guarding against futurity ; diligent in the quest ofwisdom ; fond of friendship ; trusting very little tofortune, yet having the entire confidence of others,

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and trusted with everything for his prudence . Hespake Greek with a fluency, that you would havethought he had been bred up in the Lyceum, andconversed all his life with the Academy of Athens' ."

This embassy is ascertained to have taken placeB.c . 600 ; and from what shall be elsewhere said ofthe " island of the Hyperboreans,"-coupled with thecircumstance of the orator Himerius having calledthis individual a Scythian, which Strabo would seemto have insinuated also,-we can be at no loss intracing him to his proper home .

" Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame,By nature blessed, and Scotia is her name ;An island rich-exhaustless is her storeOf veiny silver and of golden ore ;Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow,Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow,Her waving furrows float with verdant corn,And Arms and Arts her envied sons adorn ."

Such is the description of Ireland given by Do-natus, bishop of Etruria, in 802 ; and I have se-lected it among a thousand other authorities of simi-lar import, to show that Scotia or Scythia was one,and the last, of the ancient names of this country t ;

* A German writer, contemporary with the Emperor Charles the Great,says of another Irishman, named Clement, at a much later period, " Thatthrough his instructions the French might vie with the Romans and theAthenians . John Erigena, whose sirname denoted his country, (Eri orErina being the proper name of Ireland,) became soon (in the ninth cen-tury) after famous for his learning and good parts, both in England andFrance . Thus did most of the lights, which, in those times of thickdarkness, cast their beams over Europe, proceed out of Ireland. Theloss of the manuscripts is much bewailed by the Irish who treat of thehistory and antiquities of their country, and which may well be deemeda misfortune, not only to them, but to the whole learned world ."

'F Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, says,-" Scotia eadem etHibernia, ' that is, Scotia and Ireland are one and the same-an identity,however, of locality, not of signification . And Orosius of Tarracona

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while the name of 11 Hyperborean" was the distinctivecharacter assigned thereto, not only as descriptiveof its locality towards the north, but as worshippingthe wind Boreas .

Did I not apprehend it might be considered irrele-vant to the scope of this work, I could easily provethat the amity, said by Hecatwus to have been ce-mented on the occasion of the visit above alluded to,was not that of a mere return of courteous civilitiesfor a casual intercourse, but one of a far more tenderand, familiar nature, viz ., the recognition on both sidesof their mutual descent from one common origin ; thesame people who had settled in this country, andimported the mysteries of their magic priesthood,being akin to the first settlers on the coasts ofGreece, which they impregnated with similar initia-tion . I am anticipated, of course, to have meant thePelasgi, who, under another name, belonged to thesame hive as the Indo-Scytbee, or Chaldean Magi, orTuath-de-danaan,-as the head tribe thereof were called-who, having effected an establishment on this happyisle, aloof from the intrusion of external invasion orinternal butcheries, were allowed to cultivate thestudy of their favourite rites, the fame and eminenceof which had obtained for its theatre, of all nations,the designation of " sacred." But I fear it would beencroaching upon the patience of my readers, and

still earlier, in the fifth century, avers, that " In his own time, Irelandwas inhabited by the nations of the Scoti ." And were further evidencerequired as to the point, it would be found in the fact of one of our Chris-tian luminaries, whose name was Shane, i . e . John, being called by theLatin historians indifferently by the epithets of Johannes Scotus andJohannes Erigena-the former signifying John the Irishman, and thelatter, John the Scotchman .

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besides anticipating, in point of order, what may byand by follow .

An inconsistency, however, appears in the details,which I cannot here well overlook . It is this . Hi-merius has called this our ambassador a " Scythian ;"and Strabo has affirmed, that he was " not clad likea Scythian ." How, then, shall I cut this knotThus . Abaris, as his name implies, was one of theBoreades, . or priests of Boreas, belonging to theTuath-de-danaan colony in this island, who were sub-dued, about six hundred years before this event, bythe Scythians, whose dress, as well as manners, dif-fered in all particulars from those of their religiousand learned predecessors.

But though the Scythians, from state policy, hadsuppressed the temple-worship when they deposedfrom the throne their antecedent Hyperboreans, theywere but too sensible of their literary value not toprofit by their services in the department of education .Hence it came to pass, that the Boreades were stillindulged with their favourite costume, while the infe-rior communities were obliged to conform to the rulesand the fashions of the ascendant dynasty. In a shorttime, however, the Scythian Druids superseded theDanaan' Boreades, by the influence of their own in-struction ; and the consequence was, that of thatgraceful garb, in the folds of which our ancient high-priests officiated at the altar, or exhibited in the senate,not a single vestige is now to be traced, except in theword God, Phearagh, whom I shall, anon, intro-duce, and in the highlands of Scotland, where a rem-nant of those Hyperborean or Danaan priests tookshelter from the ruthless Picts, resigning to those

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remorseless and intolerant persecutors the ground ofthe only two temples which they were able there toraise, as the last resort of their hopes, and the solaceof their exile* .

Nor is it alone as accounting for the circum-stance of costume that the above explanation deservesthe reader's regard. An additional insight is afforded,by its enabling us to account for that boundless supe-riority which the Irish Druids, possessed over all otherbodies of the same denomination all over the world .Originally, the Druids were an humble set of men,without science, without letters, without pretensionsto refinement ; but having succeeded here to the fra-ternity of the accomplished Danaan Boreades, who,in the revolution of affairs, were forced to communi-cate their acquirements to the opposite but prevailingpriesthood, those latter so far profited by the ennoblingopportunity, as to eclipse all other Druids, as well inEurope as in Africa.

Caesar, in his Commentaries, bears direct testimonyto their astronomical research ; saying, " Multaproeterea de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundiac terrarum magnitudine, de rerum natura ac deorumimmortalium vi ac potestate disputant ac juventutitransdunt."-De Bel. Gal., lib. 1-6 . c. xiv . Pom-ponius Mela, also confirming the fact, says, " Hiter a mundique magnitudinem ac formam, motus coeliac siderum, ac quid Dii velint scire, profitentur."-DeSitu Orbis, lib . 3. c . ii . These two latter authorities,I admit, were more immediately directed to the Druidsof Britain ; but as it is agreed on all hands that that

* The Scots first drove them from Ireland to what is now called Scot-land, and the Picts afterwards chased them from the lowlands to thehighland fastnesses.

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body of religionists had received the seeds of theirinstruction from the Irish Magi, who were infinitelytheir superiors in all literary accomplishments, I thinkwe may be warranted in extending the commendationto Ireland also, as the writers indubitably included itunder the general name of Britain .

But were all external testimonies silent on thematter, and mercenary vouchers even assert the reverse,the internal evidence of our language itself-a lan-guage so truly characterised as " more than threethousand years old," would afford to the ingenuousand disinterested inquirer the most convincing proofof the ground which I have assumed . In that lan-guage,-and the writer of this essay ought to knowsomething of it,-there is scarcely a single term apper-taining to time, from la, a day, derived from liladh,to turn round,-in allusion to the diurnal revolution-up to bleain, a year, compounded of Be], the sun,and Ain, a circle,-referring to its annual orbit,-that does not, in its formation and construction,associate the idea with the planetary courses, andthereby evince not only an astronomical taste, butthat astronomy was the ruling passion" of thosewho spoke it .

" The Irish language," says Davies, an intelligentand respectable Welsh writer, appears to havearrived at maturity amongst the Iapetidae, while theywere yet in contact with Aramaean families, and formeda powerful tribe in Asia Minor and in Thrace . Itmay, therefore, in particular instances, have moresimilitude or analogy to the Asiatic dialects than whatappears in those branches of the Celtic that werematured in the west of Europe. Those who used thislanguage consisted partly of Titans, of Celto-Scythians,

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or of those Iapetidte who assisted in building the cityof Babel, and must have been habituated, after thedispersion, to the dialects of the nations through whichthey passed, before they joined the society of theirbrethren." We thank this learned author for theflattering notice which he has been pleased to take ofus ; and though, in his subsequent remarks, he steersfar wide of our true pedigree, yet a concession soimportant as that even here adduced, must commandat least our becoming acknowledgments .

The splendid examples which we have had ofprimitive preachers of Christianity in this kingdom,and whom Ledwich himself, reluctant as he was toafford ordinary justice to Irish merit, is obliged topraise,-were not more remarkable for the sanctifiedzeal and enthusiastic devotion with which they pro-pagated the Gospel, than they were for the diversifiedrange of their literary acquirements, and the moralsublimity of their ideas and conceptions* . Speakingof a production belonging to one of these worthies,Ledwich remarks ; " In this tract we can discoverCumman's acquaintance with the doctrine of time,and the chronological characters. He is no strangerto the solar, lunar, and bissextile years, to the epactaldays, and embolismal months, nor to the names ofthe Hebrew, Macedonian, and Egyptian months . Toexamine the various cyclical systems, and to point but

* Henricus Antisiodrensis, writing to Charles the Bald, says,-" Whyneed I mention all Ireland, with her crowd of philosophers?" " Thephilosophy and logic," says Mosheim, a German historian, " that weretaught in the European schools in the ninth century, scarcely deservedsuch honourable titles, and were little better than an empty jargon .There were, however, to be found in various places, particularly amongthe Irish, men of acute parts and extensive knowledge, who were per-fectly well entitled to the appellation of philosophers ."

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their construction and errors, required no mean abili-ties : a large portion of Greek and Latin literaturewas also necessary* ."

Here I would have it distinctly noticed, that theabove-mentioned individuals who shone in the galaxyof our early Christian constellations, had been but justconverted from paganism by St. Patrick, and conse-quently were not indebted for this " learned lore " tothe Romish missionaries, but to the more elevatedgenius of their native institutions . This it , was thatenabled them to make those astronomical observationswhich our annals commemorate ; and who can say,amidst the decay of time, the ravages of persecution,and the fury of fanaticism, what tomes of such labourshas not the world lost? Some few, however, remain,of which we shall adduce some by way of specimen.Solar eclipses of 495-664-810--884-Lunar of673-717-733-807-877-Solar and Lunar 864-A comet 911--are recorded in our annals .

Those of the 16 Four Masters " additionally recordcertain extraordinary celestial phenomena in 743 :-'1 Visae sunt stellae quasi de coelo cadere ." Again, in744, they observe, ` 1 Hoc anno stellm item de coelofrequentes deciderunt ;" while it cannot be too dili-gently noted, " that, when the rest of Europe, asVallancey so justly remarked, through ignorance orforketfulness, had no knowledge of the true figure ofthe earth, in the eighth century, the rotundity andtrue formation of it should have been taught in theIrish schools," which we shall by and by morepointedly advert to .

It thus appears manifest that the Irish must, at one

.r Antiq., p . 108 .

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time, have not only possessed, but excelled in, thescience of astronomy. How did they acquire it? isthe next question . Ad illa mihi pro se quisqueacriter intendat animum ." In that passage of Dio-dorus, to which I have already referred, we find thefollowing appropriate characteristic . It is affirmedthat Latona was born there, and that, therefore, theworship of Apollo is preferred to that of any otherGod ; and as they daily celebrate this deity withsongs of praise, and worship him with the highesthonours, they are considered as peculiarly the priestsof Apollo, whose sacred grove and singular templeof round form, endowed with many gifts, are there ."

Now, it is universally known that Apollo, which,~° according to the learned Pezron, is no other thanAp-haul, or the son of the Sun," was understoodby the ancients only essentially to typify that power-ful planet, " which animates and imparts fecundityto the universe, whose divinity has been accordinglyhonoured in every quarter by temples and by altars,and consecrated in the religious strains of all nations"and all climes.

His being peculiarly worshipped in this island onlyshows the intimate knowledge it possessed of themysteries of the solar system ; and that near conversewhich we have been already told it possessed with themoon, is confirmation the most positive of this ex-planation .

Let me here again recall to the reader's mindthe name of Cathaoir Ghall, or temple of brightness,which I have before adduced, and when we compareall with the celestial indexes recorded in our annals, theconclusion is inevitable, that the Round Towers of Ire-land were specifically constructed for the twofold purpose

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of worshipping the Sun and Moon,-as the authors ofgeneration and vegetative heat,-and, from the nearerconverse which their elevation afforded, of studying therevolutions and properties of the planetary orbs . Letme, however, before elucidating the era of their actualerection,-with their Phallic form and their furtheruse,-revert to the Mosaic history for the groundworkof my development .

And chiefly thou, 0 Spirit ! that dost preferBefore all temples th' upright heart and pure,Instruct me, for thou know'st ; thou from the firstWast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,And mad'st it pregnant . What in me is dark,Illumine ! what is low, raise and support !That to the height of this great argumentI may assert eternal Providence,And justify the ways of God to man* .

* Milton .

6 3

CHAPTER V.

NIMROD, the son of Cush, " the mighty hunter beforethe Lord," was the first person *, according to Vos-sius j , who introduced the worship of the sun as adeity . Disgusted with the roving character of hisprevious life, and tired of peregrination, he resolvesto build himself a permanent abode, and persuadeshis followers to embark in the design, " lest theybe scattered abroad upon the face of the wholeearth t." Mankind had already relapsed into thefollies of their antediluvian ancestors . The awfullesson of the watery visitation was read to themin vain, and again they verified what God had beforethat memorable epoch with sorrow declared, ", thatevery imagination of the thoughts of their hearts wasonly evil continually §."

In Babel, the city thus agreed upon to be built-asthe anchor of their stability and the basis of theirrenown,-we find a " Tower " mentioned, " whosetop may reach,"-says our version, (but should it notrather be-point ?)-towards Heaven .

What was the object of this architectural elevation ?

* I will show, however, that it was much older.1 De Orig . et Progress . Idolat ., ii . 61 .

$ Genesis xi . 4 .

§ Genesis vi . 5 .

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Not certainly, as some have supposed, as a place ofrefuge in apprehension of a second deluge ; for inthat case, it is probable, they would have built iton an eminence, rather than on a plain, whereas thebible expressly tells us they had selected the latter .

Much less could it be, what the poets have ima-gined, for the purpose of scaling the celestial abodes,and disputing with Jehovah the composure of hissovereignty .

What, then, was it intended for?Undoubtedly as an acknowledgment, however viti-

ated and depraved, of dependence upon that Being,whose acts shine forth in universal love, but whosespiritual adoration was now partially lost sight of, ormerged in the homage thus primarily tendered to thelucid offspring of his omnipotent fiat .

This Tower, so erected by Nimrod, in oppositionto the established system of religious belief, andwhich, therefore,-but from a nobler reason than whatwas generally imagined, viz ., his researches in astro-nomy, and the application thereto of instruments-procured him the appellation of rebel, from nemh,heaven, and rodh, an assault-was, I hesitate not tosay, a temple constructed to the celestial host, thesun, moon, and stars, which constituted the substanceof the Sabian idolatry 1 .

* On the top was an observatory, by the benefit of which it was thatthe Babylonians advanced their skill in astronomy so early ; whenAlexander took Babylon, Callisthenes the philosopher, who accompaniedhim there, found they had observations for 1903 years backward fromthat time, which carries up the account as high as the hundred andfifteenth year after the flood, i . e ., within fifteen years after the tower ofBabel was built .

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Shinaar, in Mesopotamia, was the theatre of thisdread occurrence-this appalling spectacle at once ofman's weakness and God's omnipotence :-Here theNoachidae had been then fixed ; and the name bywhich this innovation upon their previous usages istransmitted, viz ., Ba-Bel, corroborates the destinationabove assigned*.The word " Baal," in itself an appellative, at first

served to denote the true God amongst those whoadhered to the pure religion ; though, when it becamecommon amongst the idolatrous nations, and appliedto idols, He rejected it . " And it shall be in that daythat you shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no moreBaali f." Another name by which the Godhead wasrecognized was Moloch . The latter, indeed, in accu-racy of speech was the name assigned him by theAmmonites and Moabites-both terms, however, cor-responded in sense, Moloch" signifying king, and" Baal" Lord, that is, of the heavens ; whence trans-ferring the appellation to the Sun, as the source anddispenser of all earthly favours, lie was also calledBolati, i. e ., " Baal the bestower," as was the moon,Baaltis, from the same consideration : whilst the directobject of their internal regard was not, undoubtedly,

* I stop not to inquire whether or not this may have been the samewith that which stood in the midst of the temple of Belus, afterwardsbuilt around it by Nebuchadnezzar . The intent I conceive similar inall, whether the scriptural Tower, Birs Nimrod, or Mujellibah ; and therather, as Captain Mignan tells us of the last, that on its summit thereare still considerable traces of erect building, and that at the westernend is a circular mass of solid brick-work sloping towards the top, andrising from a confused heap of rubbish ; while Niebuhr states that BirsNimrod is also surmounted by a turret . My object is to show that thesame emblematic design mingled in all those ancient edifices, thoughnot identical in its details .

1' Hosea, ch. ii . v . 16 .F

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that globe of fire which illumines the firmament andvivifies terrestrials, but, physically considered, nature atlarge, the fructifying germ of universal generativeness .

The Sun, it is true, as the source of light and heat,came in as representative for all this adoration, Thusviewed, then, it would appear that the origin of theinstitution may have been comparatively harmless .God being invisible, or only appearing to mortalsthrough the medium of his acts, it was natural thatman, left to the workings of unaided reason, shouldlook on yon mysterious luminary with mingled senti-ments of gratitude and awe . We have every reason,accordingly, to think, that solar worship at first wasonly emblematical, recognizing, in the effulgence of theorb of day, the creative power of Him, the

Father of all, in every age,In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,Jehovah, Jove, or Lo?-d"-

who sent it forth on its beneficent errand .As such, originally they had no temples dedicated

to the occasion ; they met in the open air, without theprecincts of any earthly shrine : there they poured forththeir vows and their thanksgivings, under the aerialcanopy of the vaulted expanse ; nor can it be deniedbut that there was something irresistibly impressive insuch an assemblage of pious votaries, paying theiradoration to the throne of light in the natural templeof his daily splendours * .

The degeneracy of man, however, became manifestin the sequel, and, from the frequency of the act, the

* St. Stephen, the first martyr who suffered death for Christ, saidbefore the Jewish Sanhedrim, " God dwelleth not in temples made withhands." Acts vii . 48 .

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type was substituted in room of the thing typified ." Solum in ceelis deum putabant solem," says Philo-bibliensis, in his interpretation of Sanchoniathon .Nor did it stop here, but, proceeding in its progressof melancholy decay, swept before it the barriers ofreason and moral light; and, from the bright monarchof the stars, who rules the day, the seasons, and theyear, with perpetual change, yet uniform and iden-tical, bowed before the grosser element of materialfire, as his symbol or corporeal representative .

But the worst and most lamentable is yet untold .The sign again occupied the place of the thing signi-fied, and the human soul was prostrated, and humanlife often immolated, to propitiate the favour of earthlyfire, now by transition esteemed a god . They had, itis true, from a faint knowledge of the sacred writings,and a perverted exercise of that inspired authority,something like an excuse for, at least, a decent at-tention in the ordinary management of that usefularticle . In Levit. vi. 13, it is said, " the fire uponthe altar shall ever be burning, it shall never go out ."This injunction given by the Lord to Moses, to re-mind his people of the constant necessity of sacrificeand prayer, the Gentiles misconstrued into reverencefor the fire itself, and " quoniam omnes pravi docilessumus," hence the ready admission with which thedoctrine was embraced, and the general spread of thatwhich was at first but partial and figurative .

Indeed we find that God himself had appeared toMoses in a " flame of fire in the midst of a bush,"Exod. iii. 2, and in presence of the whole Israel-itish host. Exod . xix. 18 . " The Lord descendedupon Mount Sinai, as the smoke of a furnace ;" whilein Exod. xiii . 21, it is declared that " the Lord went

F 2

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before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and bynight in a pillar of fire, to give them light ." So ac-cordingly we find Elijah, 1 Kings xviii . 24, whenchallenging the priests of the false divinities, proposea decision by fiery ordeal . Call you on the nameof your gods," he says, and I will call upon thename of the Lord, and the God that answereth by fire,let him be God, and all the people answered, it is wellspoken ."

The infidels, therefore, who could not concede anysuperiority to the religion of the Hebrews, and yetcould not deny those manifestations of divine support,thought they best proved their independence by insti-tuting a rivalship, and got thereby the more confirmedin their original idolatry . Their bloody sacrificesthemselves originated, we may suppose, in some simi-lar way . God must, undoubtedly, have prescribedthat rite to Adam, after his fall in Paradise, else howaccount for the " skins" with which Eve and he hadcovered themselves? The beasts to which they be-longed could not have been slain for food ; for it wasnot till a long time after that they were allowed to eatthe flesh of animals . We may, therefore, safely inferthat it was for a sin-offering they had been immo-lated ; and the subsequent reproof given to Cain bythe rejection of his oblation, evidently for the non-observance of the exact mode of sacrifice prescribed,coupled with the command issued to Abraham, to tryhis obedience, by offering up his own son, are unde-niable proofs of the truth of this inference .

In " Ur" of the Chaldees, a name which - literallysignifies " fire," the worship of that element firstoriginated . Thence it travelled in its contaminatingcourse, until all the regions of the earth got impreg-

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nated therewith . In Persia, a country with whichthis island had, of old, the most direct communication,we also find a city denominated Ur ;" and who doesnot know that the Persians, having borrowed thecustom from the Chaldean priests, regarded fire withthe utmost veneration ? Numerous as were thedeities which that nation worshipped, fire," on everyoccasion, in every sacrifice-like the Janus of theRomans-was invoked the first . Their Pyrea, inwhich they not only preserved it ever burning, butworshipped it as a deity, have been noticed by Bris-son-but without the necessary adjunct of their beingan innovation .

Even the ordinary fire for culinary or social pur-poses participated in some measure in this hallowedregard ; as they durst not, without violating the mostsacred rules, and stifling the scruples of all theirprevious education, offer it the least mark of impiousdisregard, or pollute its sanctity by profane con-tact .

It was, however, only as symbolical of the sun, thatthey, like the Chaldeans, paid it this extraordinaryreverence-a reverence not limited to mere religiousrules, but which exercised control over, and biassedthe decisions of, their most important secular trans-actions . Accordingly we learn from Herodotus, lib .vii., as quoted by Cicero in Verrem, that when Datis,the prefect of Xerxes' fleet, flushed with the result ofhis victory over Naxos, and the city of Eretria, inEubcea, might easily have made himself master of theisland of Delos, he, however, passed it over un-touched, in honour of that divinity before whom hiscountry had bowed, having been sacred to Apollo, orthe sun, and reputedly his birth-place .

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But do I mean to say that the " Round Towers " ofIreland were intended for the preservation of thesacred fire ? Far, very far, indeed, from it . That somefew of them were therewith connected-I say con-nected, not appropriated-may, I think, be well al-lowed ; nay, it is my candid belief, so far as belief iscompatible with a matter so unauthenticated . Buthaving all through maintained that they were not allintended for one and the same object, I must havebeen understood, of course, by the numerous sup-porters of that fashionable proposition, as includingfire-worship within the compass of my several views .I put it, however, frankly, to the most ardent sup-porter of that theory, who for a moment considers thedifferent bearings and peculiarities of those_ severalstructures, comparing them first with one another, andthen with the description of fire-receptacles which weread of elsewhere, whether he can dispassionatelybring himself to say that all our Round Towers, orindeed above two of those at present remaining, couldhave been even calculated for that purpose ?

Where, let me ask, is it they will suppose the fireto have been placed ? In the bottom ? No ; the in-tervening floors, of which the GREATER PORTION re-tain evident traces, would not only endanger theconflagration of the whole edifice, as it is most pro-bable that they were made of wood, but would alsoprevent the egress of the smoke through the fourwindows at the top, for which use, they tell you, thoseapertures were inserted .

But I am answered that the tower of Ardmore,which has within it no vestiges of divisional com-partments, could offer no hinderance to the ascent ofthe smoke, or its consequent discharge through the

ARDMOltE .

[To face page 71 .

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four cardinal openings . To which I rejoin, that ifthere had ever been a fire lighted within that edifice,and continued for any length of time, as the sacredfire is known to have been kept perpetually burning,it would have been impossible for the inner surfaceof that stately structure to preserve the beautiful andwhite coating which it still displays, through themystic revolutions of so many ages . The same con-clusion applies to the tower of Devenish, which,though it has no inside coating, yet must its elegantpolish have been certainly deteriorated, if subjectedto the action of a perpetual smoke .

The instance which is adduced of the four templesdescribed by Hanway, in his " Travels into Persia,"proves nothing . It certainly corresponds with thearchitectural character of some of our Round Towers,but leaves us as much in the dark as to the era anduse of both, as if he had never made mention of anysuch occurrence .

To me it is as obvious as the noon-day sun thatthey too, on examination, would be found of a morecomprehensive religious tendency than what couldpossibly relate to the preservation of the sacred firefor it is well known that when temples were at allappropriated to this consecrated delusion, it waswithin a small crypt or arched vault-over which thetemple was erected-that it was retained . TheGhebres or Parsecs, the direct disciples of Zoroaster,the reputed author of this improved institution," build their temples," says Richardson *, " over sub-terraneous fires."

Whenever a deviation from this occurred, it was infavour of a low stone-built structure, all over-arched,

* Asiatic Researches .

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such as that which Hanway met with at Baku, andcorresponding in every particular with the edifices ofthis description to be seen at Smerwick, countyKerry, and elsewhere throughout Ireland .

The fire-house which Captain Keppel visited at alater period at Baku, in 1824, was a small squarebuilding, erected on a platform, with three ascendingsteps on each side, having a tall hollow stone columnat every side, through which the flame was seen toissue, all in the middle of a pentagonal enclosure-com-prising also a large altar, whereon naphtha was keptcontinually burning .

Now could anything possibly correspond more mi-nutely with Strabo's description of the Pyratheia,than does this last account? They are," he says,G0 immense enclosures, in the centre of which waserected an altar, where the Magi used to preserve, aswell a quantity of ashes, as the ever-burning fire it-self." And could anything possibly be more oppositeto our " Round Towers " than all these accounts ?

When, therefore, we are told 1' that at the city ofZezd, in Persia-which is distinguished by the ap-pellation of Darub Abadat, or seat of religion-theGhebres are permitted to have an Atush Kidi, or fire-temple, which they assert had the sacred fire in itsince the days of Zoroaster, we must be prepared tounderstand it as corresponding in architectural pro-portion with one or other of the instances just now

* It is most unaccountable how Hanway, after seeing this evidence ofan actual fire-temple, should, notwithstanding, commit the egregiousblunder of calling the Round Towers-which differed from it as muchas a maypole does from a rabbit-hole-fire-temples also . Yet has hebeen most religiously followed by Vallancey, Beauford, Dalton, &c ., whocould not open their eyes to the mistake .

t Pottinger's Belochistan.

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detailed ; and in truth, from recent discovery, I haveascertained-since the above was composed-that itis nothing more than a sorry hut .

But Pennant's view of Hindostan is brought for-ward as at once decisive of the matter . What saysMr. Pennant, however? "All the people of thispart of India are Hindoos, and retain the old religion,with all its superstition ; this makes the Pagodashere much more numerous than in any other part ofthe peninsula ; their form too is different, beingchiefly buildings of a cylindrical or round tower shape,with their tops either pointed or truncated at the top,and ornamented with something eccentrical, but fre-quently with a round ball stuck on a spike : this ballseems intended to represent the sun,. an emblem of thedeity of the place ."

To this ascription of this learned traveller I mostfully, most heartily respond . Pagoda is a name in-vented by the Portuguese, from the Persian LQ Peut-gheda," meaning a temple of idols, in which theysupposed them to abound, but which in reality wereonly so many figures or symbols of the " principle oftruth," the " spirit of wisdom," the " supreme es-sence," and other attributes of the Godhead, which, Ibelieve, they in a great measure spiritually recog-nized . Those structures, therefore, as the very wordimplies, had no manner of relation to the sacred fire,but they had to the sun and moon, the supposedauthors of generation and nutrition, of which firewas only the corrupt emblem, and the differentforms of their constructural terminations, similar tothose elsewhere described by Maundrell, some beingpointed, and some being truncated, harmonizes mostaptly with the radial and hemispherical representa-

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tions of the two celestial luminaries, as well as withthat organ of human procreation which we shall here-after more particularly identify . These are the twoBaals dwelt so largely upon in the Scriptures-Baalmasculine, the sun, and Baal feminine, the moon,from both of which the Hindoos derive their fabulousorigin . Indeed it was from their extreme venerationfor the " queen of night" that they obtained theirvery name ; Hindoo meaning, in the Sanscrit lan-guage, the moon ; and accordingly we find amongthem Hindoo-Buns, that is, children of the moon, aswe do Surage-buns, children of the sun, the otherparent of their fanciful extraction .

Here then, methinks, we have at once a clue tothe character of those Round Towers so frequentthroughout the East, of whose history, however, theOrientals are as ignorant as we are here of our11 rotundities." Caucasus abounds in those columnarfanes, and it must not be forgotten that Caucasus hasbeen claimed as the residence of our ancestors . OnTeric banks, hard by, there is a very beautiful andlofty one as like as possible to some of ours . Thedoor is described as twelve feet from the ground, leveland rather oblong in its form . Lord Valentia wasso struck with the extraordinary similitude observablebetween some very elegant ones which he noticed inHindostan and those in this country, that he couldnot avoid at once making the comparison . The in-habitants, he observes, paid no sort of regard to thosevenerable remains, but pilgrims from afar, and chieflyfrom Jynagaur, adhering to their old religion, used an-nually to resort to them as the shrines of their ancientworship . Yet in the ceremonies there performed wesee no evidence of their appropriation to the sacred

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fire-however tradition may have ascribed them asonce belonging to the Ghebres ! Franklin mentionssome he has seen at Nandukan, as do other writers inother sites . In short, all through the East they areto be met with, and yet all about them is obscurity,doubt, and mystery, a proof at once of the antiquityof their date, and of their not being receptacles forfire, which, if the fact, could be there no secret .

Yes, I verily believe, and I will as substantiallyestablish, that they were, what has already beenaffirmed, in reference to . those in Ireland, viz.,-temples in honour of the sun and moon, the pro-creative causes of general fecundity,-comprising incertain instances, like them, also the additional andblended purposes of funeral cemeteries and astro-nomical observatories . The Septuagint interpreterswell understood their nature when rendering the11 high place of Baal *" by the Greek 6T7~T-~ Tou

Oaa?,, or Pillar of Baal, that is, the pillar conse-crated to the sun ; while the ancient Irish themselves,following in the same train, designated those struc-tures Bail-toir, that is, the tower of Baal, or the sun,and the priest who attended them, Aoi Bail-toir, orsuperintendent of Baal's tower . Neither am I with-out apprehension but that the name " Ardmore,"which signifies " the great high place," and where asplendid specimen of those Sabian edifices is stillremaining, was in direct reference to that religiouscolumn ; but this " en passant."

In the sepulchral opinion I am not a little fortifiedby the circumstance of there being found at Benarespyramids corresponding in all respects, save that ofsize, to those in Egypt, having also subterranean

* Numbers, chap . xxii ., ver . 41 .

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passages beneath them, which are said to extend evenfor miles together . A column also, besides a sphinx'shead, which has been discovered not long since indigging amid the ruins of an ancient and unknowncity, on the banks of the Hypanis, bearing an inscrip-tion which was found to differ on being comparedwith Arabic, Persia, Turkish, Chinese, Tartar, Greek,and Roman letters ; but bore " a manifest and closesimilarity with the characters observed by Denon onseveral of the mummies of Egypt," gives strength tothe idea of the identity of the Egyptian religion withthat of the Indians, as it does to the identity of desti-nation of their respective pyramids .

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CHAPTER VI .

Now if there be any one point of Irish antiquitywhich our historians insist upon more than another,it is that of our ancestral connexion with the Egyptiankings . In all their legends Egypt is mixed up-inall their romances Egypt stands prominent, whichcertainly could not have been so universal withoutsomething at least like foundation, and must, therefore,remove anything like surprise at the affinity ourancient religion bore, in many respects, to theirs, sincethey were both derived from the same common origin .

I have already intimated my decided belief of theapplication of the Egyptian pyramids to the com-bined purposes of religion and science . The depart-ment of science to which I particularly referred wasastronomy, the cultivation of which was inseparablyinvolved in all their religious rites ; for despite of thereverence which the Egyptians sewed to pay to cro-codiles, bulls, and others of the brute creation, inthose they only figured forth the several attributes,all infinite, in the divinity ; as their worship, like thatof the ancient Irish, was, purely planetary, or Sabian .

The Indians too have images of the elephant, horse,and other such animals, chiselled out with the moststudious care, and to all intents and purposes appearto pay them homage ; but if questioned on the sub-ject, they will tell you that in the sagacity of the

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former, and the strength and swiftness of the latter,they only recognise the superior wisdom and mightof the All-good and All-great One, and the rapiditywith which his decrees are executed by his mes-sengers .

If questioned more closely, they will tell you thatthe Brahmin is but reminded by the image of theinscrutable Original, whose pavilion is clouds anddarkness ; to him he offers the secret prayer of theheart ; and if he neglects from inadvertence the ex-ternal services required, it is because his mind is sofully occupied with the contemplation of untreatedexcellence, that he overlooks the grosser object bywhich his impressions were communicated . Thenwith respect to their subterranean temples or Mi-thratic caves, of which we have so many specimensthroughout this island, they affirm that the mysterioustemple of the caverns is dedicated to services whichsoar as much above the worship of the plain and un-instructed Hindoo, as Brahma the invisible Creatoris above the good and evil genii who inhabit theregion of the sky . The world, whose ideas are baseand grovelling as the dust upon which they tread,must be led by objects perceptible to the senses toperform the ceremonial of their worship ; the chosenoffspring of Brahma are destined to nobler and sub-limer hopes ; their views are bounded alone by theages of eternity .

These specimens, though brief, will prove that thespirit of the religion of ancient India and Egypt wasnot that farrago of mental prostration which somehave imagined . No, the stars, as the abode or imme-diate signal of the Deity, were their primary study,and even to this day, depressed and humiliated as the

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Indians are, and aliens in their own country, they arenot without some attention to their favourite pursuit,or something like an observatory to perpetuate itscultivation . In May, 1777, a letter from Sir RobertBaker to the President of the Royal Society of Lon-don, was read before that body, which details acomplete astronomical apparatus found at Benares,belonging to the Brahmins .

Such is the remnant of that once enlightenednation, the favourite retreat of civilization and thearts, which sent forth its professors into the mostdistant quarters of the world, and disseminated know-ledge wherever they had arrived . " With the firstaccounts we have of Hindostan," says Crawford, amighty empire opens to our view, which in extent,riches, and the number of its inhabitants, has not yetbeen equalled by any one nation on the globe . Wefind salutary laws and an ingenious and refinedsystem of religion established ; sciences and artsknown and practised ; and all of these evidentlybrought to perfection by the accumulated experienceof many preceding ages . We see a country abound-ing in fair and opulent cities ; magnificent templesand palaces ; useful and ingenious artists employingthe precious stones and metals in curious workman-ship ; manufacturers fabricating cloths, which in thefineness of their texture, and the beauty and durationof some of their dyes, have even yet been but barelyimitated by other nations ."

" The traveller was enabled to journey throughthis immense country with ease and safety ; thepublic roads were shaded with trees to defend himfrom its scorching sun ; at convenient distances build-ings were erected for him to repose in, a friendly

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Brahmin attended to supply his wants ; and hospitality

and the laws held out assistance and protection to all

alike, without prejudice or partialityWe after-wards see the empire overrun by a fierce race of men,who in the beginning of their furious conquests en-deavoured, with their country, to subdue the minds ofthe Hindoos. They massacred the people, torturedthe priests, threw down many of the temples, and,what was still more afflicting, converted some of theminto places of worship for their prophet, till at length,tired with the exertion of cruelties which they foundto be without effect, and guided by their interest,which led them to wish for tranquillity, they wereconstrained to let a religion and customs subsist whichthey found it impossible to destroy . But duringthese scenes of devastation and bloodshed, the sci-ences, being in the sole possession of the priests, whohad more pressing cares to attend to, were neglected,and are now almost forgotten ."

I have dwelt thus long upon the article of India,from my persuasion of the intimate connexion thatexisted at one time as to religion, language, customs,and mode of life between some of its inhabitants andthose of this western island . I have had an additionalmotive, and that was to show that the same causewhich effected the mystification that overhangs ourantiquities, has operated similarly with respect totheirs, and this brings me back to the subject of theRound Towers," in the history, or rather the mys-

tery, of which, in both countries, this result is mostexemplified .

As to their appropriation, then, to the sacred fire,though I do not deny that some of them may havebeen connected with it, yet unquestionably too much

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importance has been attached to the vitrified appear-ance of Drumboe tower as if necessarily enforcingour acquiescence in the universality of that doctrine .11 At some former time," says the surveyor, " verystrong fires have been burned within this building, andthe inside surface towards the bottom has the appear-ance of vitrification ."

I do not at all dispute the accident-but while thevitrified aspect which this . tower exhibits is proofirresistible that no fire ever entered those in which nosuch vitrification appears, I cannot but here too ex-press more than a surmise that it was not the sacredfire," which, when religiously preserved, was not al-lowed to break forth in those volcanos insinuated ;but in a lambent, gentle flame, emblematic of thatemanation of the spirit of the Divinity infused, aslight from light, into the soul of man .

Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-bornOr of th' Eternal co-eternal beam !May I express thee unblamed ? Since God is light,And never but in unapproached lightDwelt from eternity ; dwelt then in thee,Bright effluence of bright essence increate !Or hear' st thou rather, pure ethereal stream,Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun,Before the heavens, thou wert, and at the voiceOf God, as with a mantle, didst investThe rising world of waters dark and deep,Won from the void and formless infinite *.

But to prove that they were not appropriated tothe ritual of fire-worship, nay, that their history andoccupation had been altogether forgotten when thatritual now prevailed, I turn to the glossary of Cor-mac, first bishop of Cashel, who after his conversion

* Milton .G

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to Christianity, in the fifth century, by St . Patrick,thus declares his faith :-

" Adhram do righ na duileDo dagh bhar din ar n' daoneLeis gach dream, leis gach dineLeis gach ceall, leis gach caoimhe ."

That is,°' I worship the King of the Elements,Whose fire from the mountain top ascends,In whose hands are all mankind,All punishment and remuneration ."

No allusion here to " towers," as connected withthat fire so pointedly adverted to . And lest thereshould be any doubt as to the identity of this firewith the teligious element so frequently referred to,we find the same high authority thus critically ex-plain himself in another place : ` 1 dha teinne soin-mech do gintis na draoithe con tincet laib moraibforaib, agus do bordis, na ceatra or teamandaib cachabliadhna ;"-that is, the Druids used to kindle two im-mense fires, with great incantation, and towards themused to drive the cattle, which they forced to passbetween them every year.

Nay, when St . Bridget, who was originally a paganvestal, and consequently well versed in all the solem-nities of the sacred fire, wished, upon her conversionto Christianity, A.D. 467, to retain this favouriteusage, now sublimated in its nature, and streaming ina more hallowed current, it was not in a " tower "that we find she preserved it, but in a cell or lowbuilding " like a vault," " which," says Holinshed,whose curiosity, excited by Cambrensis's report', hadinduced him to go and visit the spot, " to this daythey call the fire-house ." It was a stone-roofed edi-

* Top. Dist. ii . c . 34.

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fice about twenty feet square, the ruins of which arestill visible, and recognized by all around as once thepreservative of the sacred element . When Cam-brensis made mention of this miraculous fire of St .Bridget, why did he not connect it with the RoundTowers, which he mentions elsewhere? He knewthey had no connexion, and should not be associated .

But, forsooth, the Venerable Bede has distinctlymentioned in the Life of St. Cuthbert, that there werenumerous fire receptacles, remnants of ancient pagan-ism, still remaining in this island !-Admitted . Butdoes it necessarily follow that they were the RoundTowers *? No : here is the enigma solved-theywere those low stone-roofed structures, similar to whatthe Persians call the 11 Atash-gah," to be met with socommonly throughout all parts of this country, suchas at Ardmore, Killaloe, Down, Kerry, Kells, &c . &c .The circumstance of St . Columbe having for a timetaken up his abode in this last-mentioned one, gaverise to the idea that he must have been its founderbut the delusion is dispelled by comparing its archi-tecture with that of the churches which this distin-guished champion of the early Christian Irish churchhad erected in Iona f, whose ruins are still to be seen,and bear no sort of analogy with those ancient re-ceptacles . Struck, no doubt, with some apprehensionslike the foregoing, it is manifest that Miss Beaufort

* Had Bede even asserted that the Round Towers were fire receptacles,it would not obtain my assent, as they were as great an enigma in thatvenerable writer's day, as they have been ever since, until now that theirsecret is about to be unveiled .

t The derivation of this word not being generally known, I may beallowed to subjoin it. It is the Irish for dove, as columba is the Latin,and was assigned to the above place in honour of St . Columbe, who wassurnamed Kille, from the many churches which he had founded .

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herself, while combating most strenuously for theRound Towers as fire receptacles, had no small mis-giving, nay, was evidently divided as to the securityof her position . " From the foregoing statements,"she observes, " a well-grounded conclusion may bedrawn that these low fabrics are seldom found but inconnexion with the towers, and were designed for thepreservation of the sacred fire ; in some cases the loftytower may have served for both purposes* ." Thelofty tower, I emphatically say, was a distinct edifice .Again when St. Patrick, in person, went round the

different provinces to attend the pagan solemnitiesat the respective periods of their celebration, we findno mention made of any such thing as a "tower,"occupying any part in the ritual. of their religiousexercises . When he first presented himself near thecourt of Laogaire, not far from the hill, of Tara, onthe eve of the vernal equinox, and lit up a fire beforehis tent in defiance of the legal prohibition, the appealwhich we are told his druids addressed to the monarchon that occasion was couched in the following words" This fire which has to-night been kindled in ourpresence, before the flame was lit up in your palace,unless extinguished this very night, shall never beextinguished at all, but shall triumph over all thefires of our ancient rites, and the lighter of it shallscatter your kingdom ." In this notification, as Itranslate it from O'Connor's Prolegomena, i. c. 35,there occur two terms to which I would fain bespeakthe reader's regard ; one is the word kindled, whichimplies the lighting up of a fire where there was nonebefore ; the second is the word palace, which is moreapplicable to a kingly residence or private abode,

* Trans. Roy . Ir . Acad . vol. xv .

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than to a columnar structure, which would seem todemand a characteristic denomination .

Another objection more imposing in its character,and to the local antiquary offering no small difficultyto surmount, is that those above-mentioned low struc-tures must have been erected by our first Romanmissionaries, because that they bear the strongestpossible affinity to the finish and perfection of theearly Roman cloacae or vaults . This difficulty, how-ever, I thus remove : no one in this enlightened agecan suppose that those stupendous _ specimens ofmassive and costly workmanship, which we read ofas being constructed by the Romans in the very in-fancy of their state, could have been the erectionof a rude people, unacquainted with the arts . Thestory of the wolf, the vestal, and the shepherd is nolonger credited ; Rome was a flourishing and thrivingcity long before the son of Rhea was born, and theonly credit that he deserves, as connected with itshistory, is that of uniting together under one commonyoke the several neighbouring communities, many ofwhom, particularly the Etrurians, were advanced inscientific and social civilization, conversant not onlywith the researches of letters, and - the arcana ofastronomy, but particularly masters of all manualtrades, and with none more profoundly than that ofarchitecture .

But who, let me ask, were those Etrurians ? noneothers, most undoubtedly, than the Pelasgi or Tyrseni,another branch of our Tuath-de-danaan ancestors,who, as Myrsilus informs us, had erected the ancientwall around the acropolis of Athens, which is there-fore styled, by Callimachus, as quoted in the Scholiato the " Birds " of Aristophanes, " the Pelasgic Wall

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of the Tyrseni ." It is now a point well ascertainedby historians that what are termed by ancient writersCyclopean walls-as if intimating the work of a race ofgiants, while the true exposition of the name is to befound in the fact of their having been constructed bya caste of miners, otherwise called arimaspi, whoselamp, which perhaps they had fastened to their fore-heads, may be considered as their only eye--wereactually the creation of those ancient Pelasgi, and, aswill shortly appear, should properly be called Irish' .Mycenae, Argos, and Tiryns, in Greece, as well asEtruria and other places in Italy, the early residencesof this lettered tribe, abound in relics of this ancientmasonry . In all respects, in all points, and in allparticulars it corresponds with that of those abovementioned low, stone-roofed, fire-receptacles, so com-mon in this island ; which must satisfactorily and forever do away with the doubt as to why such featuresof similarity should be observed to exist betweenour antiquities and those of ancient Greece and Rome ;not less perceptible in the circumstance of those edi-ficial remains than in the collateral evidences of lan-guage and manners .

The sacred fire, once observed with such religiousawe by every class, and in every quarter of thisisland, was imported from Greece into Italy by thesame people who had introduced it here . Let me notbe supposed to insinuate that the people of the lattercountry, modernly considered, adopted the usage fromthose of the former country, moderns also ; no, therewas no intercourse between these parties for manyyears after the foundation of the western capital .

' This adjective is not here applied to our western 17-in, i.e., Ireland,but to the eastern Iran, i.e ., Persia.

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Indeed it was not until the time - of Pyrrhus that theyknew anything of their respective existences, whereaswe find that the vestal fire was instituted by Numa,A. u . c. 41 . What I meant therefore to say was, thatthe same early people, viz ., the Pelasgi, who hadintroduced it into Greece, had, upon their expulsionfrom Thessaly by the Hellenes, betaken themselves toLatium, afterwards so called, and there disseminatedtheir doctrines not less prosperously than their do-minion .

Numa was in his day profoundly skilled in all themysteries of those religious philosophers ; and hisproffered elevation to the Roman throne was but themerited recompense of his venerable character . Hiswhole reign was accordingly one continued scene ofdevotion and piety, in which pre-eminently outshonehis regard to Vesta *, in whose sanctuary was pre-served the Palladium, the fated pledge of Romanauthority," and which too, by the way, ever connectedas we see it was with the worship of fire, would seemto make the belief respecting it also to be of Orientalorigin. This eastern extraction additionally accountsfor that dexterous state contrivance of client and patronestablished in the early ages of the Roman govern-ment, corresponding to our ancient clanship-bothevidently borrowed from the same Indian castes .

I now address myself to another obstacle which hasbeen advanced by an Irish lady, and of the most de-served antiquarian repute, whose classic and elaboratetreatise on this identical subject, though somewhatdifferently moulded, has already won her the applauseof that society whose discriminating verdict I now

* Virginesque Vestae legit, Alba oriundum sacerdotium, et genti con-ditoris haud alienum. Livy, lib. i . cap. xx .

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respectfully await . But as my object is truth, di-vested as much as possible of worldly considerations,and unshackled by systems or literary codes, I con-ceive that object will be more effectually attained bysetting inquiry on foot, than by tamely acquiescingin dubious asseverations or abiding by verbal am-biguities .

What elicited this sentiment was Miss Beaufort'sremark on the enactment at Tara, A.D . 79, for theerection of a palace in each of the four proportionssubtracted by order of Tuathal Teachmar, from eachof the four provinces to form the present county ofMeath. Her words are as follow : --" Taking thelanding of Julius Caesar in Britain, in the year 55before Christ, as a fixed point of time, and countingback fifty years from that, we shall be brought toabout one hundred years before the Christian era, atwhich time the introduction of the improvements andinnovations of Zoroaster, and that also of fire towers,may, without straining probability, be supposed tohave fully taken place . That it was not much earliermay be inferred from the before-mentioned ordinanceof the year 79 A .D., to increase the number of towersin the different provinces ."

With great submission I conceive that the errorhere incurred originated on the lady's part, from mis-taking as authority the comment in the StatisticalSurvey, vol . iii. p. 320, which runs thus :-f' It isquite evident from sundry authentic records, thatthese round towers were appropriated to the preserva-tion of the Baal-thinne, or sacred fire of Baal : first atthe solemn convention at Tara, in the year of Christ79, in the reign of Tuathal Teachmar, it was enacted,that on the 31st of October annually, the sacred fire

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should be publicly exhibited from the stately tower ofTlactga, in Munster, from whence all the other repo-sitories of the Baal-thinne were to be re-kindled, incase they were by any accident allowed to go out .It was also enacted, that a particular tower shouldbe erected for that purpose in each of the other fourprovinces, Meath being then a distinct province . Forthis purpose the tax called Scraball, of three-penceper head on all adults, was imposed ."

Well, for this is quoted " Psalter of Tara, byComerford," page 51 ; on referring to which I find thetext as thus : °G He (Tuathal) also erected a statelypalace in each of these proportions, viz ., in that ofMunster, the palace of Tlactga, where the fire ofTlactga was ordained to be kindled on the 31st ofOctober, to summon the priests and augurs to con-sume the sacrifices offered to their gods ; and it wasalso ordained that no other fire should be kindled inthe kingdom that night, so that the fire to be used inthe country was to be derived from this fire ; forwhich privilege the people were to pay a scraball,which amounts to three-pence every year, as an ac-knowledgment to the king of Munster . The secondpalace was in that of Connaught, where the inhabitantsassembled once a year, upon the first of May, tooffer sacrifices to the principal deity of the islandunder the name of Beul, which was called the con-vocation of Usneagh ; and on account of this meetingthe king of Connaught had from every lord of amanor, or chieftain of lands, a horse and arms . Thethird was at Tailtean, in the portion of Ulster, wherethe inhabitants of the kingdom brought their childrenwhen of age, and treated with one another about theirmarriage. From this custom the king of Ulster de-

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manded an ounce of . silver from every couple marriedhere. The fourth was the palace of Teamor or Tara,which originally belonged to the province of Leinster,and where the states of the kingdom met in a parlia-mentary way."

I now leave the reader to decide whether the word" palace" can be well used to represent an " eccle-

siastical tower," or indeed any tower at all ; orwhether it is not rather a royal residence- for theseveral provincial princes, that is meant to be con-veyed ; as is evident to the most superficial, from theclosing allusion to the palace of Tara, °° where thestates of the kingdom met in a parliamentary way ."The impost of the scraball, I must not omit to observe,has been equally mis-stated in the survey .; for it wasnot for the purpose of erecting any structures, but asan acknowledgment of homage and a medium ofrevenue that it was enforced, as will appear mostclearly on reverting to the original, and comparing itwith the other means of revenue, which the otherprovincial kings were entitled to exact . But what

gives the complete overthrow to the doctrine whichwould identify those palaces with columnar edifices, isthe fact that there are no vestiges to be found ofRound Towers in any, certainly not in all of those fourlocalities specially notified. Wells and Donaghmoreare the only Round Towers now in the county Meath,and these are not included among the places abovedesignated .

9 1

CHAPTER VIII.

To wind up the matter, steadily and unequivocally Ido deny that the "Round Towers" of Ireland werefire receptacles . I go farther, and deny that any ofthose eastern round edifices which travellers speakof, were ever intended for fire receptacles : that theywere all pagan structures-and temples too-conse-crated to the most solemn and engrossing objects ofhuman pursuit, however errroneously that pursuit mayhave been directed, I unhesitatingly affirm . Whatthen, I shall be asked, was their design? To this Ibeg leave to offer a circumlocutory answer . Squeam-ishness may be shocked, and invidiousness receive apretext, but, the spirit being pure, the well-regulatedmind ' will always say " Cur nescire pudens pravequam discere malo * ?"

Then be it known that the " Round Towers " ofIreland were temples constructed by the early Indiancolonists of the country, in honour of thatfructifyingprinciple of nature, emanating, as was supposed, fromthe sun, under the denomination of Sol, Phoebus,Apollo, Abad or Budh, &c . &c . ; and from the moon,under the epithet of Luna, Diana, Juno, Astarte,Venus, Babia or Butsee, &c . &c. Astronomy wasinseparably interwoven with this planetary religion ;while the religion itself was characterized by en-forcing almost as strict a regard to the body after

* Horace.

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death, as the body was expected to pay to a SupremeEssence before its mortal dissolution . Under thisdouble sense then of funereal or posthumous regard,as well as active and living devotion, must I be under-stood to have used the expression, when previouslydeclaring that our Sabian rotundities were erectedwith the two-fold view of religious culture and thepractice of that science with which it was so amal-gamated .

To be explicit, I must recall to the reader's mindthe destination which the Brahmins assigned to theEgyptian pyramids, on hearing Wilford's descriptionof them-viz., that they were places appropriated tothe worship of Padma-devi*. Before I proceed,however, I must state that I do not intend to makethis the basis of what I shall designate my disclosures .It would be very foolish of me, if hoping to dislodgea world of long-established prejudice, to use, as mylever, a ray shot transversely from a volume whichhas been tarnished by forgery . I need no suchaid, as the sequel will show ; and yet were it requi-site, no objection would be valid, as the "Pundit"could have had, no motive, either of interest or ofvanity, such as influenced his transcriptions, here tomislead his victim . It was the mere utterance of acasual opinion, without reference to any deduction .Besides it was not the statement of the knave at all, butthat of a number of religious men of letters, who allagreed -in the ascription above laid down . Theyspoke, no doubt, from some traditionary acquaintancewith the use of those tall round buildings which somuch baffle antiquarians, not more in Ireland thanthey do in Hindostan ; but the explanation of this

* Asiatic Researches, Dissert . Up. Egypt and Nile .

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their answer will be a happy inlet-and as such onlydo I mean to employ it-to the illustration of what wehave been so long labouring at .

The word Padma-devi * means " the deity of desire,"as instrumental in that principle of universal gene-rativeness diffused throughout all nature . Do I meanthat gross suggestion of carnal concupiscence ?-thatmere propensity of animal appetite which is commonto man with the brute creation? No ; it becameredeemed; if not justified, by the religious complexionwith which it was intertwined, derived, mayhap, ori-ginally from that paradisiacal precept which said,increase and multiply ;" while the strain of metaphor

under which it was couched, and the spiritual ten-dency by which the ceremony was inculcated, pre-vented offence even to the most refined taste-the mostsusceptible fancy-or the most delicate sensibility.

The love of offspring has ever been a powerfulingredient in man's composition . The fair portion ofthe human species, as every age and experience canprove, have shown themselves not more exempt fromthe control of the same emotions or the influence ofthe same impulses It was- so wisely instituted bythe great Regulator of all things; rw- is the abuse ofthe principle any argument against its general utilityor sanctified intent . Search the records of all earlystates, and you will find the legislator and the priest,instead of opposing a principle so universally domi-nant, used their influence, on the contrary, to bring itmore into play, and make its exercise subservientto the increase of our species ; the law lent its aid toenforce the theme as national, and religion sanctifiedit as a moral obligation .

* Literally, " the goddess of the lotos . '

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In India this fervor was particularly encouragedfor " as the Hindoos depend on their children for per-forming those ceremonies to their manes, which theybelieve tend to mitigate punishment in a future state,they consider the being deprived of. them as a severemisfortune and the sign of an offended God * ." Theyaccordingly had recourse to all the stratagems whichingenuity could devise to recommend this passion tothe inner senses, and dignify its nature by the studiedimagery of metaphor and grace . In conformity withthis sentiment we are favoured by Sir William Joneswith the copy of a hymn, which they were in thehabit of addressing to the above-mentioned Padma-devi," or " Mollium mater seeva cupidinum," whichhe thus prefaces with her figurative descent :-

It is Camadeva, that is, the god of desire, the oppo-site sex he speaks of, but the principle is the same .

" Peor, his other name, when he enticedIsrael in Sittim, on their march from Nile,To do him wanton rites, which cost them sore t ."

~~ According to the Hindu mythology, he was theson of Maya, or the general attracting power ; thathe was married to Ritty, or Affection ; and that his

* Craufurd's Sketches.

. Milton .t Maya also signifies illusion, of which as an operation of the Deity,

the following remark, extracted elsewhere from Sir William, may not beunseasonable :- The inextricable difficulties," says he, " attending thevulgar notion of material substances, concerning which 'we know thisonly, that we know_ nothing ; induced many of the wisest among theancients, and some of the most enlightened among-the-moderns, to be-lieve that the whole creation was rather an energy than a work, by whichthe Infinite Being who is present at all times and in all places, exhibitsto the minds of his creatures a set of perceptions, like a wonderfulpicture or piece of music, always varied, yet always uniform ; so that allbodies and their qualities exist, indeed, to every wise and useful purpose,but exist only as far as they are perceived-a theory no less pious thansublime, and as different from any principle of atheism, as the brightestsunshine differs from the blackest midnight ."

bosom friend is Vassant, or the Spring : that he isrepresented as a beautiful youth, sometimes convers-ing with his mother, or consort, in the midst of hisgardens and temples : sometimes riding by moon-light on a parrot, and attended by dancing girls,or nymphs, the foremost of whom bears his colours,which are a fish on a red ground : that his favouriteplace of resort is a large tract of country round Agra,and principally the plain of Mathra, where Kreshenalso, and the nine Gopia usually spend the nightwith music and dance : that his bow is of sugar-caneor flowers, the sting of bees, and his five arrows areeach painted with an Indian blossom of an healingquality." Tedious and diffuse as has been the dis-sertation already, I cannot resist the inclination oftranscribing the hymn also.

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What potent god, from Agra's orient bowers,Floats through the lucid air ; whilst living flowers,With sunny twine, the vocal arbours wreathe,And gales enamoured heavenly fragrance breathe

Hail, Power unknown ! for at thy beckVales and groves their bosoms deck,And every 1auCl iug blossom dresses,With gems of dew, his`musky tresses.

I feel, I feel thy genial flame divine,And hallow thee, and kiss thy shrine.

Knowest thou not me?-Yes, son of Maya, yes, I knowThy bloomy shafts and cany bow,

Thy scaly standard, thy mysterious arms,And all thy pains and all thy charms .

Almighty Cama ! or doth Smara bright,Or proud Aranga, give thee more delight?

Whate'er thy seat, whate'er thy name,Seas, earth, and air, thy reign proclaim ;All to thee their tribute bring,And hail thee universal king .

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Thy consort mild, Affection, ever true,Graces thy side, her vest of glowing hue,And in her train twelve blooming maids advance,Touch golden strings and knit the mirthful dance.

Thy dreadful implements they bear,And wave them in the scented air,Each with pearls her neck adorning,Brighter than the tears of morning .

Thy crimson ensign which before them flies,Decks with new stars the sapphire skies .God of the flowery shafts and flowery bow,Delight of all above and all below !Thy loved companion, constant from his birthIn heaven clep'd Vassant, and gay Spring on earth,

Weaves thy green robe, and flaunting bowers,And from the clouds draws balmy showers,He with fresh arrows fills thy quiver,(Sweet the gift, and sweet the giver,)

And bids the various warbling throngBurst the pent blossoms with their song . .He bends the luscious cane, and twists the string,With bees how sweet ! but ah, how keen their stingHe with fine flowrets tips thy ruthless darts,Which through five senses pierce enraptured hearts .

Strong Champa, rich in od'rous gold,Warm Amer, nursed in heavenly mould,Dry Nagkezer, in silver smiling,Hot Kiticum, our sense beguiling,

And last, to kindle fierce the scorching flame,Loveshaft, which gods bright Bela name.Can men resist thy power, when Krishen yields,Krishen, who still in Mathra's holy fields,Tunes harps immortal, and to strains divine,Dances by moonlight with the Gopia nine ?Oh ! thou for ages born, yet ever young,For ages may thy Bramiri s lay be sung ;And when thy Lory spreads his emerald wings,To waft thee high above the tower of kings,

Whilst o'er thy throne the moon's pale lightPours her soft radiance through the night,And to each floating cloud discoversThe haunts of blest or joyless lovers,

Thy milder influence to thy bard impart,To warm, but not consume his heart."

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Amongst the fables thatt are told to account for theorigin of this amorous devotion, Sir William tellsus, is the following, viz .--

Certain devotees in a remote time had acquiredgreat renown and respect ; but the purity of the artwas wanting ; nor did their motives and secretthoughts correspond with their professions and ex-terior conduct . They affected poverty, but were at-tached to the things of this world, and the princesand nobles were constantly sending them offerings .They seemed to sequester themselves from the world ;they lived retired from the towns ; but their dwell-ings were commodious, and their women numerousand handsome . But nothing can be hid from thegods, and Sheevah resolved to expose them to shame .He desired Prakeety * to accompany him ; and as-sumed the appearance of -a Pandaram of a gracefulform. Prakeety appeared as herself, a damsel ofmatchless beauty . She went where the devoteeswere assembled with their disciples, waiting the risingsun, to perform their ablutions -r and religious cere-monies . As she advanced, the refreshing breezemoved her flowing robe, showing the exquisite shapewhich it seemed intended to conceal . With eyes castdown, though sometimes opening with a timid but atender look, she approached them, and with a lowenchanting voice desired to be admitted to the sacri-fice. The devotees gazed on her with astonishment .The sun appeared, but the purifications were for-gotten ; the things of the Poojah T lay neglected ; nor

* Nature.h The Hindoos never bathe nor perform their ablutions whilst the

sun is below the horizon .T Poojah is properly worship .

H

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was any worship thought of but that to her. Quittingthe gravity of their manners, they gathered round heras flies round the lamp at night, 'attracted by itssplendour, but consumed by its flame . They askedfrom whence she came ; whither she was going?Be not offended with us for approaching thee ; for-

give us for our importunities . But thou art incapableof anger, thou who art made to convey .bliss ; to thee,who mayest kill by indifference ; indignation and re-sentment are unknown . But whoever thou mayestbe, whatever motive or accident may have broughtthee amongst us, admit us into the number of thyslaves ; let us at least have the comfort to beholdthee .'

Here the words faltered on the lip ; the soulseemed ready to take its • flight ; the vow was for-gotten, and the policy of years destroyed .

,, Whilst the devotees were lost in their passions,and absent from their homes, Sheevah entered theirvillage with a musical instrument in his hand, playingand singing like some of those who solicit charity .At the sound of his voice the women immediatelyquitted their occupations ; they ran to see from whomit came. He was beautiful as Krishen on the plainsof Matra *. Some dropped their jewels withoutturning to look for them ; others let fall their gar-ments without perceiving that they discovered thoseabodes of pleasure which jealousy as well as decencyhas ordered to be concealed . All pressed forwardwith their offerings ; all wished to speak ; all wishedto be taken notice of ; and bringing flowers and scat-tering them before him, said= Askest thou alms !

* Krishen of Matra may be called the Apollo of the Hindoos .

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thou who art made to govern hearts ! Thou whosecountenance is fresh as the morning! whose voice isthe voice of pleasure ; and thy breath like that ofVassant °* in the opening rose ! Stay with us and wewill serve thee ; nor will we trouble thy repose, butonly be jealous how to please thee .'

" The Pandaram continued to play, and sung the'loves of Kama fi, of Krishen, and the Gopia, andsmiling the gentle smiles of fond desire, he led themto a neighbouring grove that was consecrated topleasure and retirement. Sour began to gild 'thewestern mountains, nor were they offended at theretiring day .

" But the desire of repose succeeds the waste ofpleasure. Sleep closed the eyes and lulled the senses .In the morning the Pandaram was gone . Whenthey awoke they looked round with astonishment, andagain cast their eyes on the ground . Some directedtheir looks to those who had been formerly remarkedfor their scrupulous manners, but their faces werecovered with their veils . After sitting awhile insilence, they arose, and went back to their houseswith slow and troubled steps . The devotees re-turned about the same time from their wanderingsafter Prakeety . The days that followed were days ofembarrassment and shame . If the women had failedin their modesty, the devotees had broken their vows .They were vexed at their weakness ; they were sorryfor what they had done ; yet the tender sigh some-times broke forth, and the eye often turned to wherethe men first saw the maid, the women the Pandaram .

" But the people began to perceive that what the

* Vassant, the spring .

1 Kama, the god of love .ii 2

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devotees foretold came not to pass . Their disciplesin consequence neglected to attend them, and theofferings from the princes and the nobles became lessfrequent than before . They then performed variouspenances ; they sought for secret places among thewoods, unfrequented by man ; and having at last shuttheir eyes from the things of this world, retiredwithin themselves in deep meditation, that Sheevahwas the author of their misfortunes . Their under-standing being imperfect, instead of bowing the headwith humility, they were inflamed with anger ; in-stead of contrition for their hypocrisy, they soughtfor vengeance . They performed new sacrifices andincantations, which were only allowed to have effectin the end, to show the extreme folly of man in notsubmitting to the will of heaven .

" Their incantations produced a tiger, whose mouthwas like a cavern, and his voice like thunder amongthe mountains . They sent him against Sheevah, who,with Prakeety, was amusing himself in the vale . Hesmiled at their weakness, and killing the tiger at oneblow with his club, he covered himself with his skin .Seeing themselves frustrated in this attempt, thedevotees had recourse to another, and sent serpentsagainst him of the most deadly kind ; but on ap-proaching him they became harmless, and lie twistedthem round his neck . They then sent their cursesand imprecations against him, but they all recoiledupon themselves . Not yet disheartened by all thesedisappointments, they collected all their prayers, theirpenances, their charities, and other good works, themost acceptable of all sacrifices ; and demanding inreturn only vengeance against Sheevah, they sent aconsuming fire to destroy his genital parts . Sheevah,

• CLONDALKIN .

[To face page 101 .

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incensed at this attempt, turned the fire with- in-dignation against the human race ; and mankindwould have been soon destroyed, had not Vishnou,alarmed at the danger, implored him to suspend hiswrath . At his entreaties Sheevah relented . But itwas ordained that in his temples those parts shouldbe worshipped which the false devotees had impiouslyattempted to destroy * ."

But what was the form under which this deity wasrecognized? " Look on this picture and on that ;"and the answer presents itself t . The eastern vota-ries, suiting the action to the idea, and that theirvivid imagination might be still more enlivened bythe very form of the temple in which they addressedtheir vows, actually constructed its architecture afterthe model of the membrum virile, which, obscenityapart, is the divinely-formed and indispensable me-dium selected by God himself for human propaga-tion and sexual prolificacy .

This was the Phallus, of which we read inLucian j, as existing in Syria of such extraordinaryheight, and .which, not less than the Egyptian Pyra-mids, has heretofore puzzled. antiquaries,- littledreaming that it was the counterpart of our . RoundTowers, and that both were the prototypes of thetwo "Pillars" which Hiram wrought before the templeof Solomon .

Astarte was the divinity with whose worship itwas thus associated, and by that being understood

* Translated from the Persic, and read before the Oriental Society inIndia .

h The reason why the Egyptian Pyramids, though comprehending thesame idea, did not exhibit this form, will be assigned hereafter .$ In his treatise " De Dea Syria"

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the moon *, it was natural to suppose that the studyof the stars would essentially enter into the ceremo-nial of her worship . Another name by which thisdivinity was recognized, was Rimmon, which, signify-ing as it does pomegranate, was a very happy emblemof fecundity, as apples are known to be the most pro-lific species of fruit .

Lingam is the name by which the Indians de-signated this idol j- . Those who dedicate themselvesto his service swear to observe inviolable chastity .They do not, however," says Craufurd, " like the

priests of Atys, deprive themselves of the means ofbreaking their vows ; but were it discovered that theyhad in any way departed from them, the punishmentis death . They go naked ; butt being considered assanctified persons, the women approach them withoutscruple, nor is it thought that their modesty shouldbe offended by it . Husbands, whose wives are bar-ren, solicit them to come to their houses, or sendtheir wives to worship Lingam at the temples ; andit is supposed that the ceremonies on this occasion, ifperformed with the proper zeal, are usually productiveof the desired effectt ."

* Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns,To whose bright image nightly by the moon,Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs."-MILTON.

4' Les Indiens ont le Lingam qui ajoute encore quelque chose al'infamie du Phallus des Egyptiens et des Grecs : ils adorent le fauxdieu Isoir sous cette figure monstreuse, et qu'ils exponent en processioninsultant d'une maniere horrible a la pudeur et a la crcdulitd de . lapopulace .-La Croze, p . 431 .

1 We can now see how it happened that the Irish word Toradh, i. e.," to go through the tower ceremony," should signify also " to be preg-nant ;" and we can equally unravel the mylhos of that elegant littletale which Sir John Malcolm tells us from Ferdosi, in his History ofPersia. " It is related," says he, " that Gal, when taking the amusementof the chase, came to the foot of a tower, on one of the turrets of which

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Such was the origin and design of the most ancientIndian pagodas, which had no earthly connexion withfire or fire-worshippers, as generally imagined .-Andthat such, also, was the use and origin of the Irishpagodas is manifest from the name by which they arecritically and accurately designated, viz ., Budh, which,in the Irish language, signifies not only the Sun, asthe source of generative vegetation, but also the maleorgan of procreative generativeness, , consecrated, ac-cording to their foolish ideas, to Baal Phearagh orDeus-coitionis, by and by to be elucidated . Thisthoroughly explains the word " Cathoir-ghall," or"temple of delight," already mentioned as appropriatedto one of those edifices, and is still further confirmedby the name of Teaumpal na greine," or " temple ofthe sun," by which another of them is called ; whilethe ornament, that has been known to exist on thetop of many of them, represents the crescent ofSheevah, the matrimonial deity of the Indians, agree-ably to what the Heetopades states, viz ., " may heon whose diadem is a crescent cause prosperity to thepeople of the earth ."

But you will say that my designating these struc-tures by the name of Budh is a gratuitous assumption,for which I have no authority other than what imagi-nation may afford me ; and that, therefore, howeverstriking may be appearances, you will withhold yourconviction until you hear my proofs . Sir, I advancenothing that I cannot support by arguments, andhe saw a young damsel of the most exquisite beauty . They mutuallygazed and loved, but there appeared no mode of ascending the battle-ment. After much embarrassment, an expedient occurred to the fairmaiden . She loosened her dark and beautiful tresses, which fell inringlets to the bottom of the tower, and enabled the enamoured princeto ascend . The lady proved to be Noudabah, the daughter of Merab,king of Cabul, a prince of the race of Zohauk."

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should not value your adherence were it not earnedby truth . This is too important an investigation toallow fancy any share therein . It is not the meresettlement of an antiquarian dispute of individual in-terest or isolated locality that is involved in its adjust-ment,-no, its bearings are as comprehensive as itsinterest should be universal ; the opinions of trankindto a greater extent than you suppose will be affected byits determination ; and I should despise myself if, byany silly effort of ingenuity, I should attempt to leadyour reason captive, or pander to your credulity,rather than storm your judgment .

This being premised, I shall not condescend, here orelsewhere, to apologize for the freedom with which Ishall express myself in the prosecution of my ideas .The spirit that breathes over the face of the work willprotect me from the venom of ungenerous imputation .Freedom is indispensable to the just developmentof the subject . Nor do I dread any bad results canaccrue from such a course, knowing that it is thevicious alone who can extract poison from my page-and they could do it as well in a museum or picturegallery-while the virtuous will peruse it in thepurity of their own conceptions, and if they rise notimproved, they will, at least, not deteriorated .

My authority for assigning to the Round Towersthe above designation is nothing less than thoseannals before adduced * . Where is it there? youreply . I rejoin in Fidh-Nemphed ; which, as it hasheretofore puzzled all the world to develop, I shallunfold to the reader with an almost miraculous result .Fidh, then-as the Ulster Annals, or Fiadh, as thoseof the Four Masters spell it-is the plural of Budh,

* Chapter IV . p . 48 .

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i. e., Linga.m ; the initial F of the former being onlythe aspirate of the initial B of the latter, and com-mutable with it * ; and Nemphed is an adjective, sig-nifying divine or consecrated, from Nemph, the heavensso that Fidh-Nemphed, taken together, will import theConsecrated Lingams, or the Budhist Consecrations .

Celestial INDEXES, cries O'Connor ; following whichterm-but with a very different acceptation-the readermust be aware how that, in the early part of ourjourney, I ascribed to this enigma an astronomicalexposition ; but herein I was supported not only byexpediency but by verity, having, all along, not onlyconnected Solar worship, and its concomitant surveyof the stars-which is Sabianism-with Phallic wor-ship-beginning with the former in order to preparethe way for the latter,-but shall proceed in detailuntil I establish their identity .

The Egyptian history, then, of the origin of thisdeification is what will put this question beyond thepossibility of denial, viz ., that " Isis having recoveredthe mangled pieces of her husband's body, the geni-tals excepted, which the murderers had thrown intothe sea, resolving to render him all the honour whichhis humanity had merited, got made as many waxenstatues as there were mangled pieces of his body .Each statue contained a piece of the flesh of the deadmonarch . And Isis, after she had summoned in herpresence, one by one, the priests of all the differentdeities in her dominions, gave them each a statue,

* Syncellus accordingly spells Budh, even in the singular number, withan F; and Josephus, from the Scriptures, additionally commutes thefinal d into t . We shall see more inflections anon .

4,ov8 4 ov reweX iTai.-Syncellus, p. 47.Fut was the founder of the nations in Libya (Africa), and the people

were from him called Futi.-Josephus, Ant. lib . i . c . 7 .

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intimating that, in so doing, she had preferred them toall the other communities of Egypt ; and she boundthem, ,by a solemn oath that they would keep secretthat mark of her favour, and endeavour to prove theirsense of it by establishing a form of worship, andpaying divine honours to their prince . But that partof the body of Osiris which had not been discovered,was treated -with more particular attention by Isis, andshe ordered that it should receive honours more solemn,and at the same time more mysterious, than the othermembers *."

Now as Isis t and Osiris-two deities, by the way,which comprehended all nature and all the gods ofthe ancients-only personated the Sun and Moon, thesources of nutrition and vegetative heat, it is veryeasy to remove the veil of this affectionate mythology,and see that it means nothing more than the mutualdependence and attraction of the sexes upon, and to,each other ; while the fact of the Egyptian " Osiris t,"which in their language signifies the Sun, and theIrish Budh," which in our language signifies thesame planet, being both represented by the, same em-blematic sign § ; and the name of that sign in bothlanguages signifying as well sign as thing signified,gives a stamp to my proof which I defy ingenuity tooverthrow .

'' Vide Plutarch, de Isi et Osiri .h Eas, in Irish, also means the moon .Literally the Son of the Sun, and should properly be written

O'Siris, like any of our Irish names, such as O'Brien-and meaningsprung from.

§ These are the indexes for which Mr. O'Connor could find no otheruse than that of dials !

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CHAPTER IX.

WHAT is it, then, that we see here elucidated ? Justconceive . For the last three thousand years andmore, the learning of the world has been employedto ascertain the origin of the doctrine of Budhism.The savants of France, the indefatigable inquirers ofGermany, the affected pedants of Greece and Rome,and the pure and profound philosophers of ancientIndia and Egypt, have severally and ineffectuallypuzzled themselves to dive into the secrets of thatmystic religion * .

The conflicting opinions," says Coleman, 11 whichhave prevailed among the most intelligent orientalwriters, respecting the origin and antiquity of thisand the Jaina sects, and the little historical light thathas yet been afforded to disperse the darkness thatages have spread over them, leave us, at the end ofmany learned disquisitions, involved in almost asmany doubts as when we commenced upon them."

" There was, then," adds Gentil, in those parts ofIndia, and principally on the coast of Choromandel andCeylon, a sort of worship the precepts of which we arequite unacquainted with . The god Baouth, of whom

* Les mysteres de 1'antiquite nous sont demeures presqu'interdicts ; lesvestiges de ses monuments manquent le plus souvent de sens pour nous,pareeque, de siecle en siecle, les savants ont voulu leur attribuer unsens.-Ds SACY .

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at present they know no more in India than the name,was the object of this worship ; but it is now totallyabolished, except that there may possibly yet be .found some families of Indians who have remainedfaithful to Baouth, and do not acknowledge the re-ligion of the Brahmins, and who are on that accountseparated from and despised by the other castes . . . .I made various inquiries concerning this singularfigure, and the Zamulians one and all assured methat this was the god Baouth, who was now no longerregarded, for that his worship and his festivals hadbeen abolished ever since the Brahmins had madethemselves masters of the people's faith."

11 The worship of Budha," says Heeren, 11 concern-ing the rise and progress of which we at presentknow so little, still flourishes in Ceylon ." Again, "° Allthat we know with certainty of Budha is, that he wasthe founder of a sect which must formerly have pre-vailed over a considerable part of India, but whosetenets and forms of worship were in direct oppositionto those of the Brahmins, and engendered a deadlyhate between the two parties, which terminated inthe expulsion of the Budhists from the country s ."

* To this declaration of Mr . Heeren, as I cannot now bestow uponit a separate inquiry, I must be allowed briefly to intimate that if suchbe all that he " knows with certainty" on the topic, he had better notknow it at all, for, with the exception of that part which avows the gene-ral ignorance concerning its rise and progress, as well as its expulsion'bythe Brahmins from the East, all the rest is inaccurate. In the first placeit does not "flourish" at present in Ceylon . It has sunk and degene-rated there into an unmeaning tissue of hideous demonology, if we mayjudge by a reference to a large work published here some time ago, byMr. Upham, which is as opposite from real Budhism as truth is fromfalsehood . In the second place its tenets were not " in direct oppositionto those of the Brahmins," anymore than those of the Catholics are fromthe tenets of the Protestants ; yet have the latter contrived to oust the Ca-

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" The real time," say the Asiat . Res ., viii . p. 505," at which Buddha propagated the doctrines ascribedto him, is a desideratum which the learned knowledgeand indefatigable research of Sir W . Jones have stillleft to be satisfactorily ascertained ."

" If the Budhaic religion," says the WestminsterReview of January, 1830, " really arrived at pre-dominance in India, its rise in the first place, and moreespecially its extirpation, are not merely events of stu-pendous magnitude, but of impenetrable mystery."

It will soon appear, that however impenetrable here-tofore, it is so no longer . Indeed a great deal of theprinciple of their faith has been at all times under-stood, but under different associations . It was thatwhich Job alluded to when he said, " If I gazed uponOrus (the sun) when he was shining, or upon Jarecha(the moon) when rising in her glory ; and my heartwent secretly after them, and my hand kissed mymouth (in worship), I should have denied the Godthat is above."

So far all have arrived at the discovery of thiscreed ; and accordingly, if you look into any encyclo-pedia or depository of science for a definition of theword Budhism, you will be told that " it is the doc-trine of solar worship as taught by Budha ." Therenever was such a person as Budha-I mean at theoutset of the religion, when it first shot into life, andthat was almost as early as the creation of man . Inlater times, however, several enthusiasts assumed thename, and personified in themselves the faith they

tholics, their predecessors, as the Brahmins did the still more antecedentBudhists . And this will be sufficient to neutralize that insinuationwhich would imply that Budha was an innovator and a sectarian, untilI show by and by that the reverse was the fact.

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represented . Butt the origin of the religion was anabstract thought, which while Creuzer allows, yet hemust acknowledge his ignorance of what that thoughtwas.

The sun and moon were the great objects of re-ligious veneration to fallen man in the ancient world .Each country assumed a suitable form to their pro-pensities and peculiarities ; but all agreed in center-ing the essence of their zeal upon those resplendentorbs to whom they were indebted for so many com-mon benefits . Those mysteries of faith to which the"initiated" alone had access, and which were dis-guised in the habiliments of symbols and of veils,were neither more nor less than representative formsof generation and production . These were the themewhich made the canopy of the firmament to ring withtheir songs-; and these the spring which gave vigourand elasticity to those graceful displays which, underthe name of dances, typified the circular and semi-circular rotations of those bright objects of their re-gard * .

The Eleusinian j rites themselves were essentiallyof this kind ; for though the benefits of agriculturewere said to be chiefly there commemorated, thisafter all resolves itself into the above : for, as theprocess of the earth's bearing is similar to that of ourown species, and indeed of all creatures that rest

* The Jews themselves, so early as the time of Moses, adopted thepractice as an act of thanksgiving .

" And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel inher hand ; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels, and withdances.

" And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath tri-umphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into thesea."-Exod. xv. 20, 21 .t The origin of this word shall be explained hereafter .

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upon her-no seed bringing forth fruit until, as theApostle has affirmed*, it first dies-the representa-tion of this miracle of nature's vicissitudes led themind to the contemplation of general fecundity. Andhence the culture of the ground, and the propagationof human beings, being both viewed in the samelight, and sometimes even named by the same epithet,viz ., tillage ; were inculcated no less as beneficialexercises than as religious ordinances. Did a doubtremain as to the accuracy of this connexion betweenthe worship of the ancients and their sexual cor-respondence, it would be more than removed byattending to the import of the terms by which theymystified those celebrations, and which, with thesanctity attached to the parts themselves, will comeconsecutively under our review . One of them, how-ever, is too apposite to be omitted here, and that isthe term by which they designated a certain cere-mony still practised on the coast of Guinea, and whichneither the blandishments of artifice nor the terrors ofmenace could ever prevail upon them to divulge . Thisceremony they call Belli-Paaro . The meaning theyassign to it is regeneration, or the act of reviving fromdeath to a new state of existence ; and when we' seethat the name itself is but an inflection of the Baal-Peor of the Scriptures, the Baal-Phearagh of ourforefathers, and the Copulative deity of the amativeuniverse, it will not be hard to dive into its character,though so shrouded in types .

But the Budhists, not content with this ordinaryveneration, or with paying homage in secret to that

* " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into theground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth muchfruit"-John xii. 24 .

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symbol of production which all other classes of idola-tors equally, though privately, worshipped-I meanthe Lingam-thought they could never carry theirzeal sufficiently far, unless they erected it into an idolof more than colossal magnitude-and those idolswere the Round Towers . Hence the name Budhism,which I thus define, viz., that species of idolatry whichworshipped Budh (i . e., the Lingam) as the emblemof Budh (i . e ., the Sun)-Budh signifying, indiscrimi-nately, Sun and Lingam .

Such was the whole substance of this philosophicalcreed, which was not-as may have been imagined-a ritual of sensuality, but a manual of devotion, assimple in its exercise as it was pious in its intent-aSabian veneration and a symbolical gratitude . I shallnow give a summary of their moral code, couched inthe following Pentalogue, as presented by Zarado-beira, chief Rahan at Ava, to a Catholic bishop, whoexpressed a wish, some years ago, to be favoured witha brief outline of their tenets ; it is this :-

1 . Thou shalt not kill any animal-from the meanestinsect up to man himself.

2. Thou shalt not steal .3. Thou shalt not commit adultery .4. Thou shalt not tell any thing false .5. Thou shalt not drink any intoxicating liquor .The extension of this first commandment from the

crime of homicide to the deprivation of life of anybreathing existence, arose from their doctrine of thetransmigration of souls, which they believed shouldcontinue ever in action, and, after release from onetenement of earthly configuration, enter into someother of a different species and order .

In this incessant alternation-which was to be one of

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ascent or of descent, according to the merits of the body,which the spirit had last animated, and which wasall considered as a sort of lustral crucible, for the re-fining of the vital spark against its reunion with theGodhead, whence it had originally derived - it ismanifest that such tenderness for the entire animalcreation arose from the apprehension of slaying somerelation in that disguise .-Or, did we ascribe it to nohigher motive than a sympathy with fellow-creatures,which, if not equally responsible, are at all eventssusceptible of anguish and of pain, this in itselfshould teach us to suppress all ebullitions of irre-verent sarcasm, and, if we yield not our acquiescence,to extend to it at least our commiseration ." Pain not the ant that drags the grain along the ground,It has life, and life is sweet and delightful to all to whom it belongs *-

The good works which they were additionally en-joined to perform were classified under the two headsof Dana and Bavana . By "Dana" was meant thegiving of alms, and hence the whole fraternity werecalled Danaans or Almoners t . By " Bavana " was

* We are told,-says Sir John Malcolm-in a Persian work of celebrity,the Attash Kuddah,-that a person dreamt he saw Ferdosi composing,and an angel was guiding his pen : he looked near, and discoveredthat he had just written the above couplet, in which he so emphaticallypleads for humanity to the smallest insect of the creation .

fi Another Almoner was an epithet they assigned to God, which eventhe Brahmins retained after they had seceded from them, as may beseen in Wilkins' translation of a Sanscrit inscription on a pillar nearBuddal, published in the first volume of the " Asiatic Researches ."This inscription, I must observe, as it escaped that learned orientalistto perceive it, as it equally did the acumen of the president, his anno-tator, is, with the column on which it appears, nothing else than a recordof the triumphs obtained by a hero of the Braminical party in exter-minating the Budhists . The frequent allusion to the " lustful ele-

I

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understood the thoughtfully pronouncing those threewordsi Anuzza, Docha, and Anatta : of which thefirst implies our liability to vicissitude ; the secondto misfortune, and the third our inability to exemptourselves from either * .

The exposition of the terms Tuath and de, as pre-fixes to Danaans, forming with it the compound Tuath-de-danaan, I shall reserve for a more befitting place .

phants,"-such as'" whose piles of rocks reek with the juice exudingfrom the heads of intoxicated elephants,"-and " Although the prospecthidden by the dust arising from the multitude of marching forcewas rendered clear from the earth being watered by constant andabundant streams flowing from the heads of lustful elephants of variousbreeds,"-and still: more that beautiful and pathetic sentiment whichoccurs in the original of the preceding paper, omitted by Mr. Wilkins,but supplied by the president, viz ., by whom having conquered theearth as far as the ocean, it was left as being unprofitably seized-sohe declared ; and his elephants weeping saw again in the forests theirkindred whose eyes were full of tears,"-make this a demonstrationyet would the beauty of the image be lost to some of my readers, were Inot to explain that the Budhists treated with a sort of deified reverencethe tribe of elephants, which now bewailed their extermination as abovedescribed .

* From Bavana was named the village of Banaven, in Scotland,whither some of the Tuath-de-danaans had repaired after their retreatfrom Ireland-a very appropriate commemoration of their recent sub-version ; and a particular locality within its district, where St . Patrickwas born, was called Nemph-Thur, that is, the holy tower, correspond-ing to Budh-Nemph, i . e., the holy Lingam, from the circumstance ofthere having been erected on it one of those temples which time hassince effaced . Tor-Boileh upon the Indus, which means the Tower ofBaal, is in exact consonance with Nemph-Thur and with Budh-Nemph ;and there can be no question but that there also stood one of those edi-fices, as the ruins even of a city are perceptible in the neighbourhood .Mr. Wilford, however, would translate this last name, Tor Boileh, byBlack Beilam : and, to keep this colour in countenance, he invents a newname for a place called Peleiam, " which," he says, " appears to havebeen transposed from Ac Beilam, or the white Beilam, sands or shores,and now called ` Hazren .' " I am not surprised at the discredit broughtupon etymology .

Tlir, ROUND TOWERS .

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Meantime I hasten to redeem my " pledge" as to theelucidation of the import of the name Hibernian.

In the wide range of literary disquisition there is noone topic which has so engrossed the investigation ofstudious individuals as the origin of the word Hiber-nia . The great Bochart, the uncertain Vallancy, thespiteful Macpherson, the pompous O'Flaherty, and the" antiquary of antiquaries," Camden himself,-with athousand others unworthy of recognition,-have beenall consecutively shipwrecked upon its unapproachablesand-banks . But the most miserable failure of all isthat of a namesake of my own, the author of a Dic-tionary upon the language of his country ; who, in hismad zeal for an outlandish conceit, foists into his booka term, with which our language owns no kindred, andthen builds upon that a superstructure which " wouldmake even the angels weep ."

This gentleman would fain make out'* that, becausethose islands have been denominated the Cassiterides,or Tin Reservoirs, therefore Eirin, our own one of them,must have been so called as an Iron Store! forgettingthat the genius of our vocabulary has never had a termwhereby to express that metal at all-that by whichwe now designate it, namely iarun, being only a moderncoinage from the English word,-as the general voiceof antiquity speaks trumpet-tongued on the point, andthe fragments of our Brehon laws give it insuperableconfirmation, that iron was the last metal which man-kind has turned to profit, or even known to exist, whilewith us it was an exotic until a very recent period .'

* And this, too, after he had admitted that " the name is certainly ofthe pure Iberno-Celtic dialect, and must have had some meaning foundedin the nature of things in its original and radical formation ."

* All our ancient swords were made of brass .

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But admitting that Eirin or Erin did signify the Landof Iron, then its Greek formation lerne must conveythe same idea, and so must Hibernia, their Latin inflec-tion ; and it would afford me a considerable portion ofmerriment to behold any champion for this iron-casedknight buckle on his etymological armour, and analyzethese two last terms so as to make them indicate theland of iron .

Yet pitiable as this appears, for the author of anIrish Dictionary, its ingenuity, at all events, mustscreen it from contempt . But how will the publicestimate the brightness of that man's intellect, whowould state that Erin is but a metempsychosis of theword Green? Will it be believed that such is thesober utterance of the author of the " Decline andFall of the Roman Empire?" But lest I should mis-represent, I shall let him speak for himself : viz . " Ire-land, from its luxuriant vegetation, obtained the epi-thet Green, and has preserved, with a slight alteration,the name Erin."

So that a country which piques itself on its Irishry,has remained ever without a cognomen, until the Eng-lish language has been matured ; and then, in compli-ment to her sister, Britain,-has borrowed an adjectivefrom her rainbow, which, however, she had not thegood manners to preserve pure, but allowed to dege-nerate so far, that the sagacity of a conjurer couldnot trace any resemblance between this vitiationand the original epithet which pourtrayed her verdure !

Have we not here the solution of that general disbe-lief which attaches to proofs deduced from etymology ?It is so in all professions, when quacks break into thefold, and usurp the office of the legitimate practitioner.

* Gibbon, vol. ii . p . 527 . 4to. 1781 .

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Etymology, in itself, is an exalted science, and anunerring standard ; but the mountebanks that haveintermeddled with her holy tools, and disjointed thesymmetry of her fair proportions, knowing no more ofthe foundation of languages than they do of the originof spirit, have sunk it into a pandemonium of hackling,mangling and laceration, at which " the satirist," per-.haps, may laugh, but "the philosopher," who has anyregard for the right thinking of society, and the im-planting in the tender mind a correct . idea of words, ata moment when impressions are so wrought as to beineffaceable, will feel differently on the subject ; and, ifhe cannot reform, do all that he can to expose it !

How opposite has been the conduct of the learnedAbbe Mac Geoghegan as to the origin of this abstruseword ! After reviewing, in his able work*, the opi-nions offered by the several persons who wrote beforehim upon the question, and none of them giving himsatisfaction, he freely acknowledges, when unable tosupply the deficiency, that " the derivation of thisname is unknown ." He was right : but the spell is atlast broken .

As a sequel to this avowal, I must be allowed toquote at full length the extract from Avienus, whichhas been already referred to .

Ast hinc, duobus in Sacram-sic InsulamDixere prisci-solibus cursus rati est ;Ha;c inter undas multum cespitem jacit ;Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit,Propinqua rursus insula Albionurn patet, '-

that is, two days' sail will take you thence (from theSorlings) to the Sacred Island ; as so denominated by

;< Histoire d'Irelande, vol . i . cap . 7 .

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the men of old . A rich gleby soil distinguishes thisfavourite of the waters ; and the race of the Hiber-nians cultivate it in its wide extent . Close by, again,is situated the isle of the Albiones .

Without dwelling upon the importance which heattaches to this Sacred Island," while he disposes ofEngland in one single line, I ask any person, at all con-versant with letters, whether it was as a vernacularepithet, or not rather in compliance with his hexame-ters, and the rules of metrical versification, whichrendered inconvenient the exhibition of the name it-self, that the poet paraphrased its meaning, and gaveinsula sacra as its equivalent ?

Is not the country inhabited by the Gauls calledGallia ; that occupied by the Britons, Britannia ; thatpossessed by the Indians, India ; that peopled by theGermans, Germania ; and that tenanted by the Arca-dians, Arcadia ? Consequently, the land inhabited bythe people styled Hibernians must, by universal ana-logy, be denominated Hibernia. And if this signifies" Sacred Island," of course "Hibernian" must mean99 an inhabitant of the Sacred Island ."

Avienus wrote about the three hundredth year ofthe Christian era, and cites the authorities, whence hederived his information, to the following purpose, viz .-

" Himilco, the Phoenician, has recorded that hehas himself traversed the ocean, and with his owneyes and senses verified those facts. From theremote annals of the Phoenicians, I copy the same,and present them to you as handed down from anti-quity ."

Himilco, be it remarked, flourished six hundredyears before the name of Christianity was mentionedin the world ; and when his acquaintance with this

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isle, and that of his countrymen in general, is thusirrefutably premised, we shall be the more ready to dojustice to that observation made by Tacitus, when, inhis " Life of Agricola," talking of Ireland relativelyto England, he affirmed that " her coasts and harbourswere better known, through commerce and mercantilenegotiation," than those of the latter country* .

Why do I introduce this notice here? To show thatit was not to the Latins Avienus was indebted for hisinsight into that term, which we thus pursue . TheRomans knew nothing even of the situation of theplace that bore it, until their avarice and their rapacitybrought their eagles to Britain ; and, after effecting thesubjugation of that heroic island, it is no small incen-tive- to our vanity, to see their historian constrained toconfess, that the exhibition of a similar project againstthe liberties of Ireland was more with a view to over-awe, than from any hopes of succeeding* ; while theignorance which he evinces in another clause of thatvery sentence, whence the above extract has beenquoted,-placing Ireland midway between Spain andEngland,-is proof incontrovertible of the positionwhich has been assumed .

But it is to me immaterial whether Avienus wasaware or otherwise that " Hibernia" and " SacredIsland " were convertible and synonimous . It is notby his authority that I mean to establish the fact ; foreven admitting his cognizance of the identity of thesetwo terms, he must yet of necessity be unacquaintedwith the root whence they both had sprung,; and,accordingly, I have only put him here in the fore-

* Melius (Hiberniae quam Britanniae) aditus-portusque per commerciaet negociatores cogniti . Tacit ., vit . Agricol. 499 .i Plus in metum quan in spem .

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ground-as has been the plan all through-" to breakthe ice," as it were, for the exordium of the promiseddenouement .

Iran, then, and Irin, or, as more correctly spelled,Eirean and Eirin, with an e prefixed to each of theother vowels, as well initial as intermediate, is thecharacteristic denomination which all our ancientmanuscripts affix to this country. There is no excep-tion to this admitted rule . From the romance to theannal, the observation holds good ; it is an inalienablelandmark, and of inviolable unanimity .

Dionysius of Sicily, who wrote about fifty yearsbefore the Advent, and who cannot be suspected ofmuch partiality towards our forefathers, calls the landthey inhabited by the name of Irin* . Nor will the cir-cumstance of his applying to it, in another place, thevariation Iris, detract from this fact ; as it is evi-dent that he only manufactured this latter, havingoccasion to use a nominative case, which he thoughtthat Irin would not well represent, and so, with thelubricity of a Greek, ever sacrificing sense to sound,he gave birth to a conception which strangled theoriginal .

# "aooree xa1 rmv BesTravmu Tou, a4xovrac r,n ovCFea~aF.tEV,7v IQw .Diod. Sic. lib . v.

t In proof of this, I aver that I could go through the whole range oftheir language, and prove that in its fabrication, so punctilious was theirregard to euphony, they scrupled not to cancel, or otherwise obnebulatethe essential and significant letters of the primitive words : so that, in afew generations, their descendants were unable to trace the true roots oftheir compounds. Hence that lamentable imperfection which pervadesall our Lexicons and Dictionaries, and which can never be rectified butby the revisal of the whole system, and that by a thorough adept in thelanguage of the Irish .

I I say strangled, because Irin is a compound word, embracing withinits compass two distinct parts, of which Iris could give but the spirit ofone .

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In the " Life of Gildas," an early and eminent Eng-lish ecclesiastic, we find it called Iren, when the bio-grapher, talking of the proficiency made by his subjectin literary pursuits, says ' that he betook himself toIreland, which he designates as above, in order toascertain, by communion with kindred teachers, thevery utmost recesses of theology and philosophy .*

Ordericus Vitalis, in his " Ecclesiastical Historyt,"having occasion to mention the Irish, calls them by thename of Irenses, equivalent to Iranians, that is, inha-bitants of Iran, Iren, or Irin, whichever of them youhappen to prefer . And as these are now establishedas the basis of our general search, I shall address, my-self, without further digression, to their syllabic ana-lysis .

To do this the more effectually, and at the same timeto comprise within one dissertation what otherwismight encroach upon two, it is to be noticed that thecountry, known in the present day as Persia, and whi-ther our labours will be directed at no distant hour,was by its primitive inhabitants called Iran also, andspelled as ours, with an initial E. The prefixing ofthis letter, in both instances of its occurrence, whetherwe regard the Eastern or the Western hemisphere, wasneither the result of chance, nor intended as an opera-tive in the import of the term. It was a mere dialectaldistinction, appertaining to the court-language of thedynasty of the times, and, what is astoundingly mira-culous, retains the same appellation, with literal pre-cision, unimpaired, unadulterated, in both countries, upto the moment in which I write .

* Iren perrexit ut et aliorum Doctorum sententias in philosophicis at-que divinis litteris investigator curiosus exquireret . Vita Gildae, cap . 6.

t Lib. x. Anno 1098 .

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Palahvi * is the appellation of this courtly dialect inPersia, and Palahver is the epithet assigned to it inIreland ; and such is the softness and mellifluence ofits enchanting tones, and its energy also, that to soothecare, to excite sensibility, or to stimulate heroism, itmay properly be designated as " the language of thegods."

Thus we see that Ireland and Persia were both calledIran ; that both equally admitted of the change ofthis name to Eiran ; and that the style of this variationwas similarly characterised in both . How, then, willthe empyrics of etymology recover their confusionthey who would persuade us that Ireland was so de-nominated from Iar, the West-unless, indeed, theycan substitute East for West, and show that Persia wasdenominated from Iar also.- Entangled in this di-lemma, the amiable old General Valiancy, without in-timating, however, that it was what extorted hisremark-after rigidly maintaining, through a series ofvolumes, that the word had its origin in the above ex-ploded Western Will o' the Wisp-exclaims, in a sen-timent of unconscious self-conviction, that " nothingmore can be said of this derivation than that the namewas common to that part of the globe whence they(who imported it) originally came."

Arrived, then, at length, at the fountain-head of ourinquiry, how shall we account for it in " that part ofthe globe whence we originally came?" I have seenbut two efforts to develop the word, as applied to that

* Modern writers upon Persia, who would refine upon the matter, haveperverted this word to Pehlivi ; but look you into the early numbers ofthe " Asiatic Researches," and there you will find it spelled as above .

fi. Besides, to speak accurately, this is not a western country at all, oronly so relatively to Britain, Gaul, and that particular line .

* Collect . de Rob . Hib . vol. iv.

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quarter : one by Professor Heeren, of the GottingenUniversity ; the other by " a learned priest of theParsees," as recorded by Sir John Malcolm, the latelamented author of a history of the place itself . Andas the former of these is rather humorous, and as thelatter contains in it a small ingredient of truth, it isworth while to parade them in the tail of our in-spection ." Anciently," says the professor, "they were called

by the Orientals themselves by the common term ofIran, and the inhabitants, inasmuch as they possessedfixed habitations and laws, were styled Iranians, inopposition to the Turanians, or wandering hordes ofcentral Asia*."

I wonder did the German historian take his* cuefrom the conjecture of the Irish lexicographer? It isliterally marvellous if he did not ; for, by a most unac-countable coincidence, while tracing the foundation ofa name, descriptive of two localities at opposite pointsof this mundane ball, one boldly asserts, and the othermore than insinuates, that its root is to be found inone and the same English word!-and this, too, whenthose countries were blazing in glory, before threewords of the English language were broken into train !

A difference, however, breaks out amongst thosepartners, which seems to sever the prospects of theirmetallic union . It is, that though each would makeiron to be the substratum of their respective hobbies,yet would my namesake have his so called as aboundingtherein ; whereas the professor, who betrays a re-spectable insight into geology, and fearing that thewomb of Persia could not conceive so hard an ore,wishes us, at once, to believe that it acquired its

Antiq. Research . Pers . vol, i . p. 137 .

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ancient epithet from the fixedness of that metal ; andthus would one ex abundantia, and the other ex simi-litudine, have the common name of Iran for Irelandand for Persia be derived from an English word, whichwas not concocted for many centuries after the decayof those two regions, when the very metal it repre-sented first grew into use's!

Moullah Feroze, an excellent Palahvi scholar, tellsme," says Sir John Malcolm, "that Iran is the plural ofEir, and means the country of believers ." And again,when he had occasion to consult his oracle, he statesthe answer as follows :-

I gave this inscription t to Moullah Feroze, alearned priest of the Parsees, at Bombay, and beassured me that the" translation of De Sacy was cor-rect . JFerose explained the word An-Iran to meanunbelievers . Eer, he informed me was a Pehliviword, which signified believer ; Eeran was its pluralin Pehlivi, the a or an prefixed, is a privative, as inGreek or Sanscrit ; and consequently, An-Eeran meantunbelievers . The king of Eeran and An-Eeran he in-

* If I have taken a wrong view of the Professor's phraseology, I shallfeel most happy to be set right ; but I submit to the critic whether-I amnot justified in understanding him as I do .

1h To be met with at a place called Tauk-e-Bostan. Silvestre deSacy, a member of the Institute at Paris, had made the ; followingtranslation of it, which is divided into two parts .

The first :" This figure is that of a worshipper of Hormuzd, or God ;the excellent Shahpoor ; king of kings ; of Iran and An-Iran ; a celestialgerm of a heavenly race, the son of the adorer of God ; the excellentHormuzd ; a king of kings ; of Iran and An-Iran ; a celestial germ ofa heavenly race ; grandson of the excellent Narses ; king of kings ."The second :-" This figure is that of a worshipper of Hormuzd, or

God ; the excellent Varaham ; king of kings ; king of Iran and An-Iran ;a celestial germ of a heavenly race ; son of the adorer of God ; the excel-lent Shapoor ; king of kings ; of Iran and An-Iran ; a celestial germ ofa heavenly race ; grandson of the excellent Hormuzd ; king of kings ."

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terpreted to mean king of believers and unbelievers ; ofPersia and other nations . It was, he said, a titlelike king of the world . This, however," adds SirJohn, of himself, is like all conjectures founded onetymology, very uncertain ."

It was natural enough that Sir John should ex-press himself slightingly as to a mode of proof, theprinciple of which he must have seen violated in somany instances ; and, independently of this, it is aninfirmity in human nature to affect disregard for anyknowledge which we do not ourselves understand . Ido not mean, however, to vindicate Feroze's interpre-tation ; on the contrary, I purpose to show that it isnot only imperfect, but incorrect ; yet while doing so,I am bound to acknowledge, that, if he has not hitoff the whole truth, he has a part of it ; and even thisis such a treat, in the wilderness through which wehave been groping for some time back, that I welcomeit as an oasis, and offer him my thanks thus before-hand .

To prove, however, that he is in error, I need butconfine myself to the unravelling of his own words .At first he affirms that Eeran is the plural of Eer, andmeans the country of believers ; if so, the singularmust mean the country of a believer ; but he tells usafterwards, that Eer signifies a believer alone, conse-quently Eeran must believers alone, without any con-,sideration of the word country . And the same in-consistency, which manifests itself here, applies withequal strictness to An-Eiran also .

Should these papers ever reach the observance ofthis distinguished foreigner, whom I appreciate evenfor his approximation to the precincts of the thought,they will, I doubt not, readily disabuse him of a radical

1 26

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misconception . Eeran is not a plural at all, but acompound word : its constituents being Eer and An*,of which the former signifies Sacred and the latter aTerritory . So that the united import will be theSacred Territory ; and An-Eeran, of course, is but itsnegative .

This exposition I gain from the Irish language,which I take to be the primitive Iranian or Persiclanguage . By it I am furthermore enabled to informthe German "professor" that Turan, though now in-habited by 11 Nomad tribes," obtained not its name fromthat circumstance, but from a widely different one .Tur f means prolific, whether as regards population orrural produce ; and An, as before, a territory-thewhole betokening a prolific territory $ . And he shouldremember, what he is not at all unconscious of, thateastern denominations are not varied by recent occu-pants, but continue in uninterrupted succession, fromage to age, as imposed at the outset .

* This An, the original name for country, was modified afterwards,according to clime and dialect, into tan, as in Aqui-tan-ia, Brit-tan-ia,Mauri-tan-ia, &c . ; and into Stan, as in Curdi-stan, Fardi-stan, Hindu-stan, &c .t From this was formed the English word tower, the very idea re-

maining unchanged.-As was also the English word bud, meaning thefirst shoot of a plant, a germ, from the Irish budh, i . e., the organ ofmale energy.

$ The present bleak and sterile aspect of this region militates nothingagainst this view, when we consider the thousand alterations which ithas undergone, under the thousand different tribes that have consecu-tively possessed it .

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CHAPTER X.

THUS far have Ireland and Persia kept companytogether, both equally rejoicing in the common nameof Iran . But now, when we descend to particulars,this harmony separates . Ireland being an island, sur-rounded on all sides by water-which Persia is not-it was necessary it should obtain a denominationexpressive of this accident ; or, at all events, whenthe alteration was so easily formed as by the changeof the final an into in-an meaning land, and inisland-the transition was so natural as at once torecommend its propriety .

Hence it is that though we occasionally meet withIran, as applied to this country, yet do we more fre-quently find Irin as its distinctive term ; whereas thelatter is never, by any chance, assigned to Persia, theformer alone being its universal name . And this isall conformable to the closest logical argumentation,which teaches that every species is contained in itsgenus, but that no genus is contained in its species ;Irin, therefore, which is the specific term, may alsobe called Iran the generic, while Iran-except as inour instance, where the extension of both is identical,could never be called Irin : and so it happens thatIreland is indifferently called by the names of Iranor Irin, the latter alone marking its insular character-istic ; whereas Persia, not being so circumstanced, ismentioned only by the general form of Iran.

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

To simplify this reasoning I must repeat that Iransignifies the SacredLand, and Irint, the Sacred Island ;now every island is a land, but every land is not anisland : Persia, therefore, which is not an island, couldnot be called Irin, whereas Ireland, which is, may aswell be called one as the other T.

Irin, then, is the true, appropriate, characteristic andspecific denomination belonging to this island , :-andthe words Ire, Eri, Ere T, and Erin, applied alsothereto, are but vicious or dialectal modifications ofthis grand, original, and ramifying root .

The import of this appellative having spread itselfover the globe before Rome was ever known, underthat name, as a city, and when Greece was but justbeginning to peep into the light, the Pelasgi-whowere partly Budhists, allied somewhat to them inreligion, and still more akin in birth and endowments-conveyed, in conjunction with the Phoenician mer-chants, to the early Greek inhabitants § ; and they,by a very easy process, commuted Irin to Ierne, whichis but a translation of the word-iqos, signifyingsacred, and vriog an island .

Of this Greek form, lerne, there were again variousinflections and depraved assimilations, such as Iernis,Iuernia, Ouvernia, Vernia, &c . And from one 11 ofthose, the Latins, without, perhaps, exactly knowing

* From Ir or Eer, sacred, and an a land.+ From Ir or Eer, sacred, and in an island.

Iran or Irin, i. e ., Eeran or Eerin .Each of these three preceding words means religion or revelation .

And from them Era, denoting a period of time-which with the ancientswas a sacredreckoning-has been so denominated ; as well as Eric, which,in law phraseology, indicates a certain penalty attachable to certaincrimes, and equivalent to Deodand, or a religious restitution-all Irish.

§ I mean the " Grceci vetustissimi," not the " Grceculi esurientes."R Namely, Ivernia .-u, v, and b are commutable .

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what it meant, conjured up Hibernia, but which, how-ever, with soul-stirring triumph, retains uninjured ouroriginal root-the initial H being nothing more thanthe aspirate of the Greek iepog, sacred ; v~og, island,remaining unaltered ; and the letter 6 only interposedfor sound-sake ' .

So that, whether we consider it as Irin, lerne, orHibernia, or under the multiplied variations which di-verge, almost interminably, from those three originals,in the several languages which they respectively re-present, they will be found, each and all, to resolvethemselves into this one, great, incontrovertible positionof the " ° Sacred Island ."

Thus, under heaven, have I been made the humbleinstrument of redeeming my country from the asper-sions of calumniators . I have shown to demonstrationthe real origin of its sanctified renown. I have tracedfrom the Irish, through all the variations of Greekand Latin capricios, its delineatory name ; and haveproved, beyond the possibility of rational contradic-tion, that in all those different changes regard wasstill held to the original epithet .

Where, then, are the sneers-of " hallucination,"-of 11 lunacy,"-and of °1 etymological moonshine?"These are very cheap and convenient terms for gen-tlemen to adopt, as cloaks to their ignorance of the

purport of denominations imposed at a time whenevery word was a history. In the early ages ofthe world whimsicality never mingled with the cir-

* Should you hesitate as to this mode of accounting for the letter b,I can show you that the Greeks spelled Albion indifferently with or with-out a b ; as they indifferently used b or v in one of the above names forIreland ; for instance-"A, BeiraWSE, swi h, vno ', OuEevia xa, ATAUro, , r,, BEevra xxi AX/3i w .

Eustath . ad Dion . Perieg .K

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cumstantial designation of either person or locality .Every name was the sober consequence of deliberatecircumspection ; and was intended to transmit thememory of events, in the truest colours, as well as inthe most comprehensive form, to the latest generation .

Will this be considered the vapouring of conceit?Is it the spouting of self-sufficient inanity? Letthe heartless utilitarian, unable' to appreciate themotives which first enlisted me in this inquiry, andwhich still fascinate my zeal, at an age when,-did notmy love for truth and the rectification of my country'shistory rise superior to the mortification of alienatedhonour,-I should have flung from me letters and lite-rature in disgust, and betaken myself, an adventurerfor distinction as a soldier-let such, I say concealwithin himself his despicable worldly-mindedness, andleave me unmolested, if unrewarded, to posterity .

Come, thou, my friend, my genius, come along,Thou master of the poet and the song,And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends,To man's low passions, or his glorious ends,Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise,To fall with dignity-with temper rise ;Formed by thy converse happily to steerFrom grave to gay, from lively to severe ;Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease ;Intent to reason, or polite to please."

The origin of the term 11 Sacred Island," being nowfor ever adjudicated, the reader will at once see thatit belonged to an era long anterior to Christianity . Inassigning to it this date *, I pretend not to be unique ;and, as I should not wish to deprive any brow of the

* It is only the date, however, that I will share with any one . Thederivation of the .word, and its true exposition, are exclusively my own .

THI: ROUND TOWERS .

1 3 1

laurels which it has earned-more especially, wherean undisputed enjoyment has amounted to prescrip-tion,--I shall register, in express words, my prede-cessor's own expose, which is, that " the isle musthave been so named because of its nurturing no ve-nomous reptile* " !!! Who will not smile ?

No, sir, the imposers of this name were too sensibleof its value, and too jealous of its use, to expose it toambiguity. It pourtrayed the sanctity of the occu-pying proprietors ; and lest there should be any mis-conception as to the species of worship whence_ -that" sanctity " had emanated, they gave this scene of its

exercise three other names, viz . Fuodhla, Fudh Inis,and Inis-na-Bhfiodhbhadh t-which at once associatethe " worship" with the profession of the worshippersfor f, or ph, being only the aspirate of b, and com-mutable with it, Fuodhla-which is compounded ofFuodh and ila, this latter signifying land-becomesBuodhla-that is, Budhland T . Fudh Inis, by thesame rule, is reducible to Budh Inis, of which thelatter means island, that is, Budh-island § ; while Inis-na-Bhfiodhbhadh requires no transposition, being clearand obvious in itself, as the Island of Budhisnn .

Now, " to make assurance doubly sure," go toKeating's History of Ireland," p . 49, and you will

there find " the female deities,"-an incorrect expres-sion for the deities worshipped by the females-of

* " Quod nomen ob beati solum ingenium, in quo nullum animal ve-nenosum vitale, facile assentior attributum ." Ogyg. part i . c . 21 . Sogratifying, however, has this been to the obsequious wisdom of subse-quent historians (?), as to be echoed from one to the other with the mostcommendable fidelity . " 0 imilatores, servum pecus Z"

i- Pronounced Fiodhvadh-copied literally from the old manuscripts .* This corresponds to lr-an, the Sacred Land .§ This answers to Ir-in, the Sacred Island,

K 2

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the Tuath-de-danaans, to have been Badhha, Macha,and Moriagan .* Of these the first needs no exposition,*~.he second I shall reserve for another place, but thethird :I will here develope . He was the military deityof this 11 sacred" colony, and a personification ofBudh, under the designation of Farragh t, i . e . Copu-lation ; and, accordingly, the Scythians, who incor-porated with them, after first dethroning them, adoptedthis term as their exhilarating war-shout, while underthe veil of the epithet was really meant the sun,whose aid they invoked to give strength to their loinsand vigour to their arms T.

And yet this is the name which Spenser wouldderive from that of Fergus king of Scotland ! Fifteenhundred years and more before Fergus was born,which, by the way, was not until the sixth centuryof the Christian era, the Irish basked in the sun-shine of their resplendent war-god, who, under an-other and equivalent denomination-namely Buodh,abbreviated into Boo §, and thus with the prefixa, implying to, or under the auspices of- assumedby the different septs as their distinctive watch-words, branched out into the national and spirit-r * The reader will see that, in quoting Dr . Keating, I do so from norespect for his discrimination or sagacity . Whenever he has attemptedto exert either, in the way of comment or deduction, he has invariablyerred : fortunately he has offered none in this instance . Yet is his booka most valuable compilation ; and I now cull out of it those three names,as one would a casket of jewels from a lumber-room... This Farragh, otherwise Phearragh, is the Peor of the Scriptures,

and the Priapus of the Greeks .* " Priapus, si physice consideretur idem est ac sol ; ejusque lux primo-

genia unde vis omnis seminatrix. ' Diod. Sic. lib. i . See also Numb. xxv.ver . 4 ., where you will see that " Peor ' remotely meant the sun .

§ I shall not trouble myself in reciting the absurd attempts that havebeen heretofore made to expound this word : it is enough to say thatthey were all wrong .

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stirring acclamations of O'Brien a-Boo's ! O'Neil-a-Boo! &c . &c . ; which the early English settlers, whowould fain become Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores, after-wards imitated : such as Butler a-Boo ; Shanet-a-Boo ; Grasagh a-Boo ; Crom a-Boo, &c. ; the lasthaving been that adopted by Fitzgerald, duke of Lein-ster, and still retained as the motto of his armorialescutcheon .

It is worth while to listen to Spenser's gratulation,while chuckling himself with the idea of his fancieddiscovery : " This observation of yours," he says tohimself, 11 is very good and delightful, far beyond theblind conceits of some, who upon the same word Far-ragh have made a very blunt conjecture ." Oh patria !Oh mores ! how little is known of Ireland ! But I amnot" surprised at foreigners, when the very natives, thedescendants of the actors in those glorious scenes, areignorant of its history !

Take up any document, purporting to give anaccount of this country, and you will find it to be com-posed, either of absurd and nauseous exaggerations onthe one hand, or of gross and calumnious detractions onthe other. But though the wildness of the formercannot fail to generate, in the intellectual amongst allreaders, an unfavourable impression ; and in those of adifferent nation, already prejudiced, or mayhap inca-pable of separating the gold from the baser metal, in-credulity and contempt ; yet the true Irish searcher,versed in the antiquities, not only of his own dear11 father-land," but of the kindred East, which main-tained in the old world a religious and incessant com-

* The motto, also, of this family, viz. Lamh laider a-Boo ; i . e. " Thestrong arm from Boo," now changed to Vigueurdu dessus, is in keepingwith the same idea .

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munication with this " Sacred Isle," will glean in thedistortion of those maniac effusions, the glimmeringsof that truth whence they originally emanated-whilethe injustice of the calumniators must, of itself, bringdismay, with the whole train of confusion and dis-honour, upon the mercenary instruments of those foulabuses, as well as upon the heartless abettors -whocould have enlisted their vassalage !

Truth, notwithstanding, obliges me to say that theblame should not altogether be laid upon the his-torians . They did as much as, under the circum-stances, could be expected at their hands . Two suc-cessive invasions having passed over, and swept away,in the whirlwind of their desolating:' fury, all thosemonuments of learning to which the world 'had bowedjust before---one from innate antipathy ',to 'the thingitself ; the other from apprehension that the contentsof those memorials, acting upon the sensibilities of ahigh-hearted and proud race, should stimulate theirardour to the recovery of their lost rights, and theconsequent ejectment of the party who had usurpedthem'-the patriot had little more , to g ide 'him insupplying the deficiencies thus created,' than the rudeimaginings of his own brain, or the oral traditions ofthe village" schoolmaster and genealogist .

The rigour, however, of penal observances began, intime, gradually to relax ; and the people ventured toconfess that they had still in their possession suchthings as manuscripts, illustrative - of their lineage andancestral elevation . This was the signal to some liberal

* This is the mere utterance of an historical transaction, without refer-ence to sect, creed, party, or politics. No feelings of bitterness mingletherein . The author disclaims all, such, as much as he would deprecatethem in others.

THE ROUND TOWERS . 135

individuals to prosecute an inquiry for additional me-morials ; and the- result was, that they rose from thepursuit, if not with a connected aggregate of demonstra-tional evidence, at least with a conviction on their minds,that those treasured visions of primeval lustre, here-ditary and inborn within the breast of every Irishman,and impossible to be eradicated, were not yet, late aswas the . hour, without something like a basis to restupon.

I would be unjust did I not furthermore avow, thatit was not their enemies alone that waged this unge-nerous warfare with the literature of the Irish . St .Patrick himself was the individual who, in pursuance,as he conceived, of his apostolic charge, may be saidto have perpetrated the greatest outrage upon our an-tiquities ; having set fire, in a paroxysm of pious zeal,to no less than one hundred and eighty volumes, whichhe selected from the great mass of the records of thenation, as embodying the tenets of Budhism and As-trology . The rest, relating to the notification ofnational or personal achievements, he left untouchedand secure .

Yet, . will it be believed that this was the severestinfliction, so far as letters are concerned, which wehave sustained, after all? For as the religion of theancient Irish was intermingled with their history, andas the wide diffusion of their celebrity arose from theeminence of their religious creed, the flames of thatconflagration have inflicted a loss upon the antiquarianwhich fifteen centuries of study have not been able torepair

Despite, however, the united inroads of suspicionand mistaken piety, the Irish have still materials,ample and authentic, for the completion of a history,

13G

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not only of insular, but, if properly handled, of almostuniversal elucidation * : and of this Toland himselfwas, in some measure, aware, when he said that 11 not-withstanding the long state of barbarity in which thatnation hath lain, and after all the rebellions and warswith which the kingdom has been harassed, they (theIrish) have imcomparably more ancient materials ofthat kind for their history, to which even their mytho-logy is not unserviceable, than either the English, orthe French, or any other European nation with whoseancient manuscripts I have any acquaintance ."

But though resources most unquestionable thusnotoriously still abounded, yet has it not been the for-tune of Ireland, hitherto, to meet with any historiangifted with the widely comprehensive, philosophical

* In the Library of Trinity College, Dublin are several such, collectedin the beginning of last century, by Lhuyd, author of the "Arches-ologia," and restored by Sir John Seabright, at the instigation ofEdmund Burke . I am credibly informed also, that there have beenlately discovered in the Library at Copenhagen certain documents re-lating to our antiquities, taken away by the Danes, after their memor-able defeat at Clontarf, by King Brian, A . D . 1014 . Lombard hasalready asserted the same ; and that the King of Denmark entreatedQueen Elizabeth to send him some Irishman, who could transcribe them ;that Donatus O'Daly, a learned antiquarian, was selected for the pur-pose, but that his appointment was afterwards countermanded, for poli-tical reasons.

There are, besides, in mostly all the public libraries of Europe-with-out adverting to those which are detained in the Tower of London-divers Irish manuscripts, presented by the various emigrants, who fromtime to time have been obliged to fly their country, to seek amongstrangers that shelter which they were denied at home ; taking with them,as religious heirlooms, those hereditary relics of their pedigree and race.

One of the most beautiful and pathetic pieces of Irish poetry remaining,written by Macleog, private secretary to Brian, after the demise of thatmonarch, and beginning with this expression of his sorrow : " Oh! Cen-coradh (the name of his patron's favourite palace), where is Brian?" waspicked up in the Netherlands, in 1650, by Fergar O'Gara, an Augustinianfriar, who tied from Ireland in the iron days of Cromwell .

TIfE ROUND TOWERS . 137

views and suitable education calculated to do her jus-tice : so that, by the untoward hand of fate, and theiniquitous operation of the old political stroke, theknowledge of the character in which those papers arecouched has become already so almost extinct, thatthey lie on the shelves, to all intents and purposes adead letter* .

I now beg leave to introduce this identical war-god,in his military costume and hyperborean philebeg,in which, as before observed, the Scythians never in-vested themselves ; and hope the reader will enjoy a,hearty laugh at the expense of those blunderers, who,in their preposterous, 1 had almost said repentant, de-votion to monastic refinements, would rob the Pagansof this long-cherished idol, and convert his godshipinto a Christian nonentity !

You will find him-name and all corresponding-described fully in the " Rites and Ceremonies of allNations," as similarly officiating and worshipped in theEast. 1 1 There is," says the author, in the provinceof Matambo, an idol whose priests are sorcerers or ma-gicians ; and this image stands upright, directly overagainst the temple dedicated to his peculiar service, ina basket made in the form of a bee-hivet ."

* I rejoice to state, that the present Administration, under the benigndirection of our patriot King, have resolved, so far as in them lies, toatone for former depredators . There is now a vigorous revisal of thosedocuments going on, with a view, as I understand, to their immediatepublication .

+ The antiquarian luminaries of the Royal Irish Academy would fainmake out that this was a Christian warrior . Their high priest haslately proclaimed the fact, in their" collective wisdom ." It is astonishinghow fond they have suddenly become for the memory of the monks ; theywould now father every thing like culture in the country upon them . Itused not to have been so

1 38 THE ROUND TOWERS .

'1 To this deity in particular they apply themselvesfor success when they go out a hunting or _ fishing, andfor the relief of all such as are indisposed * ! Miramba

* This image was found under the root of a tree dug up in Roscom-mon. It is about the size of the drawing ; is made of brass, once gilt,the gilding, however, now almost worn off ; and may be seen in the Museumof Trinity College, Dublin .

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1 39

always marches at the head of- their armies ; and he ispresented with the first delicious morsel, and the firstglass of wine that is served up at the governor's orking of Matambo's table ."

But a living traveller, in a very interesting work justlaunched from the press, and without expecting thereinto become my auxiliary, decides this ascription withoutfurther pains. This village," says our author (nearRampore, on the Himalaya range), °`instanced the carewhich the sacerdotal orders in the East take for theircomfort and good . It was a neat, clean, and substan-tial place, in all acceptations of the word . TheseBrahmin villagers pay no rent of any kind to the statethey live on the granted lands, but are obliged to keepthe temples in repair, to furnish all the implements,and to take care of the godships within it-these aresmall brass images, with nether garments in the shapeof petticoats. They are carried in procession, on cer-tain occasions, and the ceremonies belonging to themare performed twice a-day. Mahadeo is the great godof the mountains ."

But if the advocates of modernism have cause to beannoyed at my depriving them of this specimen of°° the Fine Arts in Ireland," which they thought theyhad appropriated to the prejudice of truth, how muchgreater must not be their chagrin at my wrenchingfrom their grasp another exceedingly curious " and« richly-ornamented" ecclesiastic fi ?" Ecclesiastic,11

indeed ! Yes ; but reverenced and revered, by many abeating heart, as the head of all ecclesiastics, for cen-turies upon centuries, before the name of monachism,as connected with Christianity, was ever articulated !

*Major Archer's Travels in Upper India, vol . i . pp . 383, 384 . Lend. 1833.1 So the " collective wisdom," in the true spirit of Christian resti-

tution and penitential contrition, have lately pronounced him ! It is

1 4 0 THE ROUND TOWERS .

delightful to see this solicitous zeal with which, when it suits a privatepurpose, they cherish the memory of the monks, being no longer in theway of their secular perquisites : but if the poor monks could speak,or send a voice from the tomb, it would be to say that they did notchoose to be encumbered with such meretricious flattery ; and that,having laid no claim to those relics, or to the towers which they decorated,during their lifetime, they now in death must repudiate the ascription ." Timeo Danaas et dona ferentes," would be their answer .

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This, Sir, is no less a personage than Mr. Budha him-self, or rather the personified abstract, in the possessionof one of the last queens of the Tuath-de-danaans, atthe moment of the inundation of the Scythian dynasty .I hope that, after so long an obscuration, and the un-courtly treatment he has received during the humi-liating interval of revolving centuries, you will-nowthat he chooses to reveal his proper character, avowhis delegation, and acknowledge the supremacy ofthat power by which his empire had been overthrown,-treat him as an Irishman, with generous cordiality,and impute not to him a crime which belonged onlyto his followers .

But his dress is like a Christian . So much thebetter, man : we ought to like him the more for that .But to be serious,-although, as my friend Horace for-merly told me, ` 1 what hinders one laughing fromspeaking truth ?"-all our ecclesiastical ritual, as wellof ceremony as of costume, has been borrowed from theJewish, and that again from the Pagans, with suchalterations only as the allwise Jehovah thought neces-sary to recommend . Besides, we have the authorityof Dr. Buchanan for stating that " Samona is a titlebestowed on the priests of Godama (Budha), and islikewise applied to the images of the divinity, when re-presented, as he commonly is, in the priestly habit* ."

* Asiatic Researches, vol . vi . ; where it will be observed that theDoctor was not writing for me. He did not 'even suspect the existenceof this figure. It is, like the preceding one, of bronze .

1 42

CHAPTER XI .

PHARAOH', the titular appellation of the monarchs ofEgypt, being but the local modification of this ourIrish Phearagh, the mind is instinctively directed to-wards that great storehouse of bygone consequence .And as the best authority that we can command in

gaining any insight into its reverses is through themedium of its own historians, let us hear what Ma-netho, a priest of the country, thus transmits :-

" We had formerly," says he, " a king named Ti-

maeus, in whose reign, I know not why, but it pleasedGod to visit us with a blast of his displeasure ; when,on a sudden, there came upon this country a largebody of obscure people from the East, and with greatboldness invaded the land, and took it without oppo-sition. Their behaviour to the natives was very bar-barous ; for they slaughtered the men, and made slavesof their wives and children. The whole body ofthis people were called Huksos, or Uksos ; that is,Royal Shepherds : for the first syllable, in the sacred

* The Egyptian sovereign assumed this title, as the highest that lan-guage and imagination could bestow . It signifies literally the act ofcopulation, of which it would represent him as presiding genius-thesource whence all pleasure and happiness can flow-and is but faintly re-echoed in the Macedo-Syriac regal epithet of EvspysT*u, Benefactor,"or even that by which we designate our king as the fountain of goodness .There being no such letter as ph in the ancient alphabets, all those words-viz. Pheor, Pharaoh, and Pharagh-should properly be spelled Feor,Faraoh, and Faragh .

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dialect, signifies a ' king,' as the latter, in the popularlanguage, signifies ' a shepherd .' These two com-pounded together constitute the word Huksos .' Thesepeople are said to have been Arabians ."

The Vedas, or Sanscrit records of Hindustan, fur-thermore state that these invaders were the °1 Pali,"or shepherds, a powerful, warlike, and enterprisingIndian tribe . While the deadly aversion whichexisted in the minds of the Egyptians against thename and office of a shepherd in Joseph's day, is alasting memorial of their visit and their severity' .

They did not go, however, without leaving behindthem other signs . The pages of Herodotus affordample evidence of the resemblance between the Egyp-tian customs and those of the more remote East . Byhis description of the rites and ceremonies, the modeof life, &c ., of the priests of Egypt, they are at onceidentified with the Brahmins of India. China stillcelebrates that festival of lamps which was formerlyuniversal throughout the extent of Egypt fi ; and 11 wehave the most indubitable authority for stating thatthe sepoys in the British overland army from India,when they beheld in Egypt the ruins of Dendera, pro-strated themselves before the remains of the ancienttemples, and offered up adoration to them ; declaring,upon being asked the reason of this strange conduct,

* Gen. xlvi . 34 .t " On the fifteenth day of the first month every year . Every person

is obliged, on the evening of that day, to set out a lantern before hisdoor, and these are of various sizes and prices, according to the differentcircumstances of those to whom they belong . During this festival, theyhave all sorts of entertainments, such as plays, balls, assemblies, music,dancing, and the lanterns are filled with a vast number of wax candles,and surrounded with bonfires."

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that they saw sculptured before them the Gods of their"country

But the most stupendous and appalling memento oftheir dominion and science was the three great pyra-mids of Geeza, the erection of which, Herodotusassures us, (B . ii . § 128), though the priests wouldattribute to Cheops, Cephrenes, and Mycerinus, threeEgyptian kings, " yet the people ascribed them to ashepherd named Philitis, who at that time fed his cattlein those places ;" so consonant with the invasion aboveauthenticated. This is additionally confirmed by theSanscrit records already referred to, informing us ofthree mountains, Rucm-adri, " the Mount of Gold,"Rajat-adri, " the Mount of Silver," and Retu-adri," the Mount of Gems ;" having been raised by thatIndian colony who had conquered Egypt ; which isonly a figurative denotation of those factitious heights,those astounding monuments of religion and ostenta-tion, which were originally cased with yellow, white,and spotted marbles, brought from the quarries ofArabia, until stripped by the rapacity of succeedingcolonies .

Belzoni's testimony is decisive on this point, as hisdrawing of the second pyramid represents the upperpart of its casing remaining still entire, about a thirdof the distance from the summit to the base down-wards . We meet with other pyramids, it is true,chiefly dispersed about the Libyan deserts, but theyare much inferior to the fore-mentioned three, exceptone near the mummies, whose dimensions and struc-ture are very nearly the same with the largest Gezite

* Barker.-The same is mentioned by Captain Burr, in reference tothe Indian followers who had attended him to the temple of Isis .

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one. This latter, according to Greaves, is 693 feetsquare at the base ; its perpendicular height 499 feet ;that is, 62 feet higher than St. Peter's at Rome, and155 feet higher than St . Paul's in London ; while theinclining height is 693 feet, exactly equal to thebreadth of the base ; so that the angles and base makean equilateral triangle * . Belzoni measures them alldifferently, and gives to the second even greaterdimensions than are usually assigned to the first orlargest ; viz., base, 684 ; perpendicular height, 456 ;central line down front, from apex to base, 568 ; coat-ing, from top to where it ends, 140 .

The variation arises from the circumstance of thelatter gentleman's measurement having been takenafter the base had been cleared away of all sand andrubbish ; while those of his predecessors applied onlyas taken from the level of the surrounding heap . Thesmall ones above noticed are some quadrilateral, someround, terminating like a sugar-loaf, some rising witha greater and some with a lesser inclination . Allcommence immediately south of Cairo, but on theopposite side of the Nile, and extend, in an unin-terrupted range, for many miles in a southerly direc-tion, parallel with the banks of the river ;

After what has been said above, I need scarcelyallude to the ridiculous supposition of those havingbeen built by Joseph as granaries for his corn ! Theirform and construction, ill adapted to such an occasion,refutes that absurdity, as it does the derivation uponwhich it has been founded ; viz., the Greek words* Mr. Greaves's diagonal, in proportion to his base of 694 feet, is 991

feet nearly ; the half of which is 495 1, feet, for the height of the Pyramid ;for as the radius is to the tangent of 45°, so is half the diameter to halfthe diagonal, or as 7 to 10, or 706 to 1000 . Say, 7 : 10 : : 694 =495,1 .-Dissertation upon the Pyramids .

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7rupog, wheat, and almorcu, I gather ; as if, forsooth, anEgyptian structure, erected before the Greek languagewas ever known to exist, should wait for a designationuntil Greece should be pleased to christen it . Stillmore disposed must one be to discard with contemptthe usual derivation given them, of au?, fire ; as thisnot only labours under the weakness of the former,but betrays an ignorance of the correct idea of theGreek word 7rueyos, of which Trop, fire, is the truederivation, " quia flammae instar in acutum tendit * ;"intimating its continually tapering until it ends in apoint ; whereas the top of the Egyptian pyramidsnever does so end ; that of the largest above describedending in a flat of nine stones, besides two wanting atthe angles, each side of this platform being aboutsixteen feet ; so that a considerable number of peoplemay stand on it, and have, as from most of ours, oneof the most beautiful prospects imaginable .

Wilkins's derivation from pouro, a king, and misi,a race, would seem plausible enough, being a purelyCoptic or Egyptian analysis ; but when we considerthe general ascription of them by the people to theshepherd Philitis, whether as one of the Pali,-that is,shepherds-or Uksi, which meant the same,-king-shepherds above adduced ; or as emphatically theshepherd, the son of Israel ~, it argues a dispositionon the part of the people to assign the honour-iftaken in the latter light-to the workmen employed ;if in the former, to a prince of a different dynasty fromthose whom the Egyptian priests would fain associatewith them . This derivation, therefore, will not stand ;and we have only to betake ourselves to the ingenious

* Scliiudl .

i Gen. xlvii .

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conjecture of Lacroze *, which, perhaps, may givemore satisfaction respecting the etymology of the wordpyramid. Lacroze derives it from the Sanscrit termBiroumas, and traces an analogy between Brahma,Birma, (which the Indians of Malabar pronounceBiroumas) and the word Piromis, which means thesame thing, namely, a virtuous and upright character-Piromia meaning, according to him, in the languageof Ceylon, man in general .

Herodotus states I', that the priests of Egypt keptin a spacious building large images of wood, repre-senting all their preceding high priests, arranged ingenealogical order, every high priest placing his imagethere during his life . They mentioned to Hecataeus,the historian, when they were showing this edifice tohim, that each of the images he saw represented aPiromis, begotten by another Piromis, which word,says Herodotus, signifies, in their language, a virtuousand honest man . A passage from Synesius, the cele-brated bishop of Cyrene, in his treatise " on Provi-dence," at once coincides with, and is illustrative of,this anecdote . The father of Osiris and Typhon,"says he, " was at the same time a king, a priest, anda philosopher . The Egyptian histories also rank himamong the gods ; for the Egyptians are disposed tobelieve that many divinities reigned in their countryin succession before it was governed by men, and be-fore their kings were reckoned in a genealogical orderby Peirom after Peirom ."

The Japanese celebrate an annual festival in honourof one Peirun, who, they say, was many ages agoking of Formosa, and who, being disgusted with the

* Hist. Christ. des Indes, p . 429 .'h Lib . ii . p . 4 .

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abandoned morals of his subjects-wealthy traders-consigned himself solely to the worship of thegods. Forewarned in a dream, he took flight fromthe impending visitation, and had scarcely sailed erethe island, with its inhabitants, sunk to the bottom ofthe sea . As for the good king, he arrived safe inChina, whence he went over to Japan, where he hasbeen ever since honoured by the above commemora-tion .

The true Coptic name for those edifices, is Piremonc-which signifies a sunbeam *-not so much inallusion to their form, as to their appropriation, whichwe shall make the subject of a separate inquiry .

It has, I trust, satisfactorily been proved that theerection and nomination of those wondrous edificeswere not of native growth . It has, I trust, additionallyappeared that both were essentially Indian . It maynot now be ungermane to the matter," if we wouldfor a moment digress, to consider the era of theirprobable date, as introductory to the character oftheir probable destination .

Josephus expressly informs us, that the Israeliteswere employed in the construction of the pyramids . Isthere any reason why we should doubt so respectablean authority? Oh 1 yes, it is said the Scriptures areagainst it,-the task of the Israelites during theirbondage being exclusively confined to the making ofbrick . I deny that the Scriptures either allege orinsinuate any such thing . On the contrary, we mayfairly infer, from Exod . ix. 8, 10, that they were en-gaged in other servile offices ; as also from Psalmlxxxi. 6, where it is said, " I removed his shoulder

* Xve, generally rendered fire, is not so, however, in the true import ofthe word, but the Sun ; fire is only a secondary sense of it .

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from the burden, and his hands were delivered fromthe mortar-box,"-not pots, as our translation has it ;and such rendering is supported by the Septuagint,Vulgate, Symmachus, and others ' .

This ascription receives further countenance from apassage in Diodorus, i . 2, where, referring to thoseimmense piles, and the ideas of the Egyptians them-selves respecting them, he adds, they say the firstwas erected by Armaeus, the second by Amosis, thethird by Inaron ." Who is it that pronounces the lasttwo names, if only spelled, aMosis and inAron, andrecollects, at the same time, what the Scriptures tellus of Moses and Aaron, that is not at once struck withthe similarity of the sound ? And as to Armaeus, whyit bears so evident an affinity with Aramaeus or Ara-mean, that one cannot avoid connecting it with the« Aramite ready to perish," the very name given to

Jacob, Deut. xxvi . 5 fi. Nothing, then, prevents, sofar as I can see, our concluding one of those structuresat least-I say one at least, to conciliate the brick-

party ; and I think, besides, I have read somewhere,that one of the pyramids, the smaller ones no doubt,was built of such material-to have been the work ofthe sons of Israel . And the rather as it was consonantwith the uniform practice of the ancient Oriental na-tions to employ captive foreigners on servile and labo-rious works .

The usual time, too, assigned to the slavery of theIsraelites corresponds very nearly with that generallyallotted to the erection of those masses . The stay ofthe sons of Israel in the land of Egypt is generallyunderstood to have been two hundred and fifteen

years-of these Joseph ruled seventy-forty is a fair* Barker .

7• Ibid .

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average for the generation that succeeded-which,added to his seventy, leaves one hundred and fiveyears to the Exodus . Now, we learn from Herodotus,that Cheops, the reputed founder of the first or greatestof these pyramids, was the first also of the Egyptiankings who oppressed, or in any way tyrannized over,his subjects . His reign is stated to have been fiftyyears . Cephrenes, who succeeded, showed himself inevery respect his brother, barring, as the other beforehim, the approach to every temple, stopping the per-formance of the usual sacrifices, and keeping hissubjects all the while employed in every species ofoppressive task and laborious drudgery . The periodof his reign is stated to have been fifty-six years,which, added to the preceding fifty, make one hundredand six, exactly answering to the above calculation .

The Exodus, besides, is stated to have occurred B . C .1791 ; and Herodotus and Diodorus together, whileacknowledging their ignorance of the actual date ofthe pyramids, and the impossibility, on their part, toascertain it, declare also their conviction, that theymust have been built at least about that period .

I have thus, I trust, done honourable justice to thetestimony of Josephus . I have done so for many rea-sons : firstly, because of the importance of the subjectitself ; secondly, from my respect for the merits of thewriter ; and, thirdly, because that I think it very pro-bable indeed, that the Israelites may have been occu-pied in the erection of some of the minor and laterpyramids . But insuperable obstacles stand in the wayof our associating them with the structure of them all ;and of these one is, the improbability that the victo-rious invaders would single out the inoffensive Israel-ites as particular objects of their oppression, when

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policy should suggest to them a directly differentcourse in securing their adherence in opposition tothe native residents. By Josephus's account, however,it would appear that the Israelites alone were engagedupon those edifices ; and the Scriptures themselvesconfine the intimation of drudgery to the Israelitishrace : it therefore is manifest that the Egyptian nativeswere favoured by the then existing dynasty, while it ison all hands agreed, that the new comers had treated,during the whole period of their dominion, the entireEgyptian nation with indiscriminate rigour and chas-tisement .

Besides this, that deadly animosity existing in theEgyptian mind to the name and profession of shep-herds, above alluded to, at once identifies theircharacter with that of the " Uksi," or King-shep-herds," to whom we have before referred, and provesthe date of their invasion anterior in point of time toIsrael's introduction into the land of Egypt . Josephwas well aware of the particulars of this invasion, andof the sting it left behind it in the mind of the Egyp-tians ; and accordingly he acquaints his brothers,whose 11 trade also had been about cattle," that" every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyp-tians *."

Manetho himself, the Egyptian priest, is my voucherfor this deduction, when he says, that " After these-the shepherd-kings-came another set of people, whowere sojourners in Egypt, in the reign of Amenophis .These chose themselves a leader, one who was a priestof Heliopolis, and whose name was Osarsiph ; andafter he had listed himself with this body of men, hechanged his name to Moses ."

* Gen. x1vi . 34 .

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But this, it will be said, is at variance with Moses'own account, which states that he obtained his nameon being rescued from a watery cradle by Pharaoh'sdaughter. Not in the least, I reply ; for it is more thanprobable that, after his slaying the Egyptian, and con-sequent flight, he dropped this name to ensure conceal-ment, and only resumed it on being invested with hisdivine commission . Or, what is more likely still, and,perhaps, the truth, that Osarsiph was the name whichhis " mother " had given him, and which adhered tohim until "he grew up,"-a term in Scripture whichexpresses mature age,-until when it was not that theprincess had designated him as Moses .

Strong, too, as my veneration is for Josephus, Icannot conceal either from myself or from the reader,that his testimony in this instance is rather of a du-bious character . The idea of interpolation I altoge-ther.waive-it is, at all times, a contemptible subter-fuge. I will take for granted that the text is genuine ;and, on the very face of it, it bears the impress-inthe first place, of inaccuracy, confounding the periodof his countrymen's servitude with that of their actualsojourn in Egypt ; and, in the second place, of indis-tinctness, attaching a term of obloquy to those edifices,without condescending to offer therefor any cause .Here are his own words :-" When time had oblite-rated the benefits of Joseph, and the kingdom ofEgypt had passed into another family, they inhu-manely treated the Israelites, and wore them down invarious labours : for they ordered them to divert thecourse of the river (Nile) into many ditches, and tobuild walls, and raise mounds, by which to confinethe inundations of the river (Nile) ; and, moreover,vexed our nation in constructing FOOLISH PYRAMIDS,

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forced them to learn various arts, and inured them toundergo great labours ; and after this manner didthey, for four hundred years, endure bondage ; theEgyptians doing that to destroy the Israelites byovermuch labour, whilst we ourselves endeavoured tostruggle against all our difficulties ."

Now, it is not a little remarkable, as connecting theerection of the pyramids with the " royal shepherdrace," the former occupants of the above fertile ter-ritory, that those immense edifices happen to be situ-ated in the very vicinity of Goshen . Geeza, wherethe three great ones stand, is universally allowed tohave been the site whereon Memphis once stood ; andas a west wind took away the locusts, and cast theminto the Red Sea (Exodus x . 19), Goshen, which wefind, by Genesis xlv . 10, cannot have been far fromJoseph's own residence, will be more aptly fixed inthe vicinity of this spot, within the Heliopolitan nome,than within any other nome or praefecture, particularlythe Tanitic, << where the same wind," as has beenjustly remarked by Dr. Shaw, " would not haveblown those insects into the Red Sea, but into theMediterranean, or else into the land of the Philistines ."Goshen, then, was that part of the land of Rameses,"" the best of the land," (Gen . xlvii. 6-11,) which layin the neighbourhood of Cairo, but on the oppositeside of the Nile, where, as already observed, thepyramids are first met with, and whence they proceedin a continued line along the banks of the river, in asoutherly direction, for many miles together .

After reading these details, it will be impossible, Iconceive, for any dispassionate mind to remain longerin suspense as to the origin of the pyramids . Thedoubt, too, and obscurity in which they have been

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heretofore enveloped can be explained with similarease, if we but remember the execration in which theirCushite founders were held by the Egyptians, andtheir consequent disinclination to associate their namewith such splendid memorials . With this view, in-deed, it is not at all improbable but that active legis-lative measures were adopted to cancel and suppressevery vestige of proof which could tend to perpetuatethe memory of the obnoxious erectors . So that wemust not wonder if, after a lapse of years, their historywas as great a riddle to the Egyptians themselves asthat of our pyramids is to the Irish nation .A collateral cause for this universal ignorance of their

use and origin was the probable absence of letters onthe part of the Egyptians, until now, for the first time,introduced by those learned Arabians ; and thoughany one who is acquainted with the oriental disquisi-tions of Wilfrid, and the coincidences he establishesbetween the ancient history of Egypt and the accountgiven of the customs and dynasties of that kingdom,as drawn from the Hindoo Puranas, will at onceadmit that there must have been a period when aHindoo power had reigned in Egypt by right of con-quest," and established therein the peculiar rites oftheir religion, with the elements of literature andsocial civilisation, yet is it probable that, during theirsojourn, which, we have seen, was a continued seriesof warfare, they kept themselves aloof from all inter-course with the natives, and checked, as much aspossible, the circulation of their science among them .Some sparks of it, however, must inevitably have

transpired ; and the Egyptian intellect was too finelyconstituted to be insensible to its value, or allow it toextinguish without food ; so that, in the time of

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Moses, and long after, their learning and accomplish-ments were courted by the philosophers of the day,and were so eminently conspicuous, as to become aproverb, (Acts Apost . vii . 22.) Homer, we all know,visited that favoured land-so did Pythagoras-sodid Solon, Thales, Plato, and Eudoxus ;-in short, allthe sages of antiquity, of whom we read so much, andwhom we peruse with such recuperative pleasure,either finished their education in that favoured school,or conversed with those who had themselves done so .

The Egyptians are said to have been the first whobrought the " rules of government," with the art ofmaking " life easy" and a people happy,"-the trueend of worldly politics-to a regular system . Butmuch as they excelled other nations in scientific lore,in nothing was their superiority so conspicuous as inthat magic art which enabled them to cope, for so longa time, and under such trying varieties, even with theprophet and ambassador of God himself.

These exhibitions are too stubbornly authenticatedby scriptural proofs, as well in the Old as in the NewTestament "`, for any one to affect disbelief in themwithout at the same time disbelieving the authenticityof the Scriptures themselves . Yes, I implicitly sub-scribe to the truth of the narration ; and as I mean tobring home their initiation in the art, as well as intheir other several accomplishments, to the Chaldeandiviners, or Aire Coti shepherds-a branch of theTuath-de-danaan colonists of this our western isle-from whom, or their relatives, under the designationof Uksi, Indo-Scythm, or Cushite shepherds-who, ifnot all one and the same, were at least mixed and incor-

* Exod . vii. 11, &c., and 2 Tim . iii . 8 .

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porated-the Egyptians had imbibed it-this, I trust,will plead my excuse for obtruding its notice here, aswell as for dilating so much at large upon the earlyhistory of Egypt* .

* America also has had her ancient pageantry . Antonio de Solisgives the following description of the Mexican shrine :- The site ofthat temple devoted to the worship of the Sun, and its altar for humansacrifices, was a large square environed by walls, cloisters, and gates ;in the centre was raised a high tower of a pyramidical form, broad at thebase, and narrowed towards the top, having four equal sides in a slopingdirection ; in one of which was a flight of one hundred and fifty steps tothe top, covered with the finest marble, with a square marble pavement,guarded with a balustrade : in the centre stood a large black stone, inmanner of an altar, placed near the idol . In the front of this tower,and at a convenient distance from its base, stood a high altar of solidmasonry, ascended by thirty steps : in the middle of it was placed alarge stone, on which they slaughtered the numerous human victimsdevoted for sacrifice ; the outside being set with stakes and bars, onwhich were fixed human sculls."

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I COME now, with the same view, to consider thedestination of their famous °C Pyramids*." In thispursuit the first thing that strikes us is the uniformprecision and systematic design apparent in theirarchitecture . They all have their sides accuratelyadapted to the four cardinal points, as the four aper-tures near the summit of most of ours indicate asimilar regard to fidelity to the compass . In six ofthem which have been opened, the principal passagepreserves the same inclination of 26° to the horizon,being directed towards the polar star . And I doubt not,were the ground within and around all of ours suffi-ciently explored, there would be found, in some atleast, regular vistas to correspond with this de-scription . Their obliquity too being so adjusted asto make the north side coincide with the obliquity ofthe sun's rays at the summer's solstice, has, combinedwith the former particulars, led some to suppose they

* The regular pyramid is a section of the cube, whose altitude is equalto half the diameter of the base, and is contained within a semicircle .The great pyramid is not of this precise order ; its height or altitudebeing found more than half the diameter of its base . A second order isthat whose altitude is equal to half the diagonal of the base, and isalso bounded and contained within a semicircle ; and consequently,if the diagonal be given at 1000, the altitude will be 500 : but the trueheight of the Egyptian Pyramid being determined at less than half itsdiagonal, is therefore found to be not exactly of this order, but nearlyapproaching to it, and probably aimed at in the original design, thoughfailing in the execution . Dissertation upon the Pyramids .

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were solely intended for astronomical uses ; and cer-tainly, if not altogether true, it bespeaks, at all events,an intimate acquaintance with astronomical rules*,as well as a due regard to the principles of oeometryt.

No one, I believe, has ever questioned the latterfact . Some, induced thereby, have thought them tobe erected for the purpose of establishing the exactmeasure of the cubit ; of which they happen to con-tain both in breadth and height a certain number ofmultiples . But as they were evidently constructedby persons well versed in all the niceties of exactmeasurement, and who consequently had no occasionfor such colossal reference to refresh their memories,like the Lancasterian apparatus, it is ridiculous tosuppose them erected with this view, nor should Ihave alluded to it but to expose its weakness . Othershave fancied them intended for sepulchres ; and as

*Astronomy began very early to be cultivated among the Egyptians ; andto them is attributed the discovery of the magnitude of the solar year, or,as it is distinguished, the Egyptian year of 365 days ; which discoveryappears to be noticeable, and memorialized in the construction of theirGreat Pyramid . The ancient measure of length being the cubit, and thatmeasure being determined common with the Hebrews and Egyptians, asnearly as Dr . Cumberland could determine it, and reduced to Englishmeasure, a certain standard is obtained : but we find also another, calledthe longer cubit, to have obtained, on which we may with equal proprietycalculate the measures of the Egyptian Pyramid, on which to infer thenumber of days contained in the solar year ; the measures of the base ofthe Great Pyramid being found, if not exactly, yet nearly approximatingto it.Dissertation upon the Pyramids .

1 I have not the least doubt but the ancient Egyptians measured bythe cubit, whatever it then was ; that the number of cubits was de-signedly fixed upon by them in laying the base of the Pyramid ; andthat if we divide the ascertained sum of 752 feet by 2, the quotient willbe 376, which is a number exceeding 365 by 11 : consequently, if weestimate their ancient cubit at 2 feet U

of an inch, that measure willbe ascertained, and found to approximate nearly to the longer Hebrewcubit ; and so will the measures of the Pyramid be found to agree withthe number of days in the solar year.Dissertation upon the Pyramids .

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the Egyptians, taught by their ancient Chaldean victors,connected astronomy with their funereal and religiousceremonies, they seem not in this to be far astray, ifwe but extend the application to their sacred bullsand other animals, and not merely to their kings, asHerodotus would have us suppose .

The immense sarcophagus lying in the interior ofthe first or Great Pyramid, with the bone found bythe Earl of Munster* in the second, must put thisquestion beyond the possibility of doubt ; as SirEverard Home, after a laborious examination of theproperties of this relic, found it accurately to agreewith the lower extremity of the thigh-bone of an ox,while it corresponded with that of no other. animal .

In conformity with this conclusion were the dis-coveries of Belzoni, some time before, in Upper Egypt,which abounds in specimens of the most splendidantiquities, in a catacomb amongst which, calledBiban el Moluk," that is ` 1 the gates of the king"-meaning thereby the universal king of the ancients, thegenerating principle of vegetation and life, of whichApis and Mnevis, Osiris and Typhon, were but therepresentatives among the Egyptians, as othernations had adopted equivalent forms and names,according to the genius of their climes and languages-I mean the Sun-well, in one of the numerouschambers of this catacomb, Belzoni discovered an ex-quisitely beautiful sarcophagus of alabaster, nine feetfive inches long, by three feet nine inches wide, andtwo feet and an inch high, covered within and withoutwith hieroglyphics, and figures in intaglio, nearly ina perfect state, sounding like a bell, and as transpa-rent as glass : from the extraordinary magnificence of

* Then Major Fitzclarence, March 2nd, 1818 .

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which, he conceives, it must have been the depositoryof the remains of Apis ; in which idea he is themore confirmed by having found the carcass of a bullembalmed with asphaltum, in the innermost chamber .

The passage in Herodotus, to which I before re-ferred, appears to throw some light on the intricatesubject which we are now pursuing. In lib . ii .p. 124, &c . " the father of historians" tells us that thetwo kings, who succeeded each other on the throne ofEgypt, after the happy reign of Rhampsinitus and hispredecessors, and to whom "the building of those pyra-ramids was reputedly ascribed, had shown themselvesindeed brothers, not more by affinity of blood than bythe similar- outlines of their cruelty and intolerance .No species of oppression was by them left unattempted ;no extreme of rigour or rapacious plunder by themunenforced : but what peculiarly characterized thehardship of their tyranny was the restraint they putupon the religion and pious exercises of their subjects ;closing the portals of 'the temples where they werewont to adore, and preventing the oblation of theirusual sacrifices .

Though Herodotus has been justly honoured withthe designation of " Father of Historians," he has also,perhaps, not so very justly been called " the Fatherof Errors ;" and, as he himself admitted his incapabilityof obtaining any satisfactory insight into the originalof those structures, may we not fairly conclude that,in the extract now cited, he either confounds thoseprinces with the foreign dynasty which we have al-ready established, or else, from the ignorance superin-duced to obliterate their memory, mistakes the erectionof some of the minor and later ones, which this " parnobile fratrum " may, indeed, have devised, in imitation

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of the three " mountains" built by the Uksi . What hestates, however, is of value, as it points to a previousform of worship, and a system of government by analien house . The prohibition of sacrifices, and theclosing the temple doors, make this as clear as wordscan delineate any thing . All we want, then, is to beinformed what the particular temples, alluded to, wereand that they were the pyramids, will, I think, be con-ceded by every one, who has carefully perused thearguments here set down, and who has not his judg-ment warped by favourite plans of literary systems andspeculative hypotheses .

This conclusion receives additional force from theconversation which Wilford, in his " Dissertation uponEgypt and the Nile*," tells us he had with several learnedBrahmins, when, upon describing to them the formand bearings of the great Egyptian pyramid, one ofthem asked if it had not a communication under groundwith the river Cali ? Being answered that such com-munication was spoken of as having once existed, andthat a well was still to be seen, they unanimouslyagreed that it was a temple appropriated to the worshipof Padma-devi, and that the supposed tomb was atrough, which, on certain festivals, her priests used tofill with the sacred water and lotos-flowers .Mr. Davison, British Consul to Algiers, when

accompanying Mr. Wortley Montague to Egypt, in1763, discovered here a chamber, before unnoticed,and descended, to a depth of 155 feet, the three succes-sive reservoirs . The principal oblique passage has,since then, been traced by the very enterprising masterof a merchant vessel, Captain Caviglia, 200 feet far-

Asiatic Researches .91

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ther down than by any former explorer, and found tocommunicate with the bottom of the well, which isnow filled with rubbish. A circulation of air beingthus procured, he was emboldened to proceed 28 feetfarther, which brought him to a spacious hall, 66 feetby 27, unequal in altitude, and directly under thecentre of the pyramid . In no instance yet recordedhas any appearance presented itself of human remainswithin those apartments, nor indeed was there anypossibility of conveying such thither, unless placedthere before the erection of the pile itself ; for theextremities of the gallery, which leads into the greatchamber, are so narrow and circumscribed, that it iswith difficulty one can effect an entrance into it, even bycreeping upon his belly .The symbolical anatomy prefigured in this con-

trivance, and which equally exhibits itself in all thetemples of the ancients, as well under as over ground,is such as almost to have tempted me to make this theoccasion on which I should uncover another secret oftheir mystic code . But a more concentrated oppor-tunity will occur as we advance, and for which thisintimation will answer as a prelude ; meanwhile, Iwould have the reader soberly to bethink himself, whatpossible use could dead bodies have of wells of water?Is not such the type, as it is also the accompaniment, of.life and activity? And does not this, of itself, subvertthe absurdity of those temples having been erected asmere mausoleums for kings?

I have already hinted my confident belief that ifthe ground all, within, and around our pyramids weresufficiently examined, there would not be wanting indi-cations of subterraneous passages . I am the moreconfirmed in this my belief from the appearances that

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presented themselves on the demolition of that atDownpatrick, in 1790, " to make room for the rebuild-ing of that part of the old cathedral next which itstood, and from which it was distant about 40 feet .When the tower was thrown down," continues Dubour-dieu, in his ` 1 Statistical Survey " of the county, " andcleared away to the foundation, another foundationwas discovered under it, and running directly acrossthe site of the tower, which appeared to be a con-tinuation of the church wall, which, at some periodprior to the building of the tower, seemed to have ex-tended considerably beyond it ." With great defer-ence, however, to the authority of so respectable awriter, I hesitate not to proclaim that the second foun-dation so discovered was not a " continuation of thechurch wall," but the remnant of some pagan structure,appertaining to the tower itself-in fact a Vih&r, orcollege for its priests-or else the vestige of somelarger temple, and connected therewith, previouslyexisting on the same locality .

That this announcement is correct will be apparent,from the superiority of masonic skill exhibited in thisfoundation, as well as in its having been upon alarger scale and ampler dimensions than what theChristian " Cathedral had ever occupied ; "0 in thewalls of which," says my authority, " there are manypieces of cut stone that have evidently been used insome former building . The same circumstance mayalso be observed in several of the ruined churches atClonmacnoise .* "

Nor ought this relict of an ancient pagan edifice toexcite our surprise, when we are told that the temple

* Scientific Tourist through Ireland, p.33.

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of the Syrian goddess," which existed in the days ofLucian, was not that which was originally erected byDeucalion, but one built many ages after, on the samesite, by Attis, Bacchus, or Semiramis .

With the church, therefore, or other Christian edi-fice, this foundation " had no relation . St. Patrickwas the first who erected one in that vicinity, to whichhe gave the name of Sgibol Phadruig, or Patrick'sGranary ; having been built on the identical spot onwhich Dichu, son of Trichem, of the tribe of the Dal-fiatachs, and lord of the territory of Lecale, had agranary constructed to preserve his corn, before thathis gratitude for the saint, by whom he was just con-verted, induced him to consecrate the place wherethat event occurred, by raising thereon a house to theGod of nature and of harvests.

Its situation, be it observed, was " two miles fromthe city of Down * ;" different, therefore, from that ofthe cathedral, as was also its form : having been builtfrom north to south, at the solicitation of Dichu him-self, agreeably to the plan of the former store-house .

This took place in 433-4 ; and though, for conces-sion sake, I may admit,-what yet is far from being myconviction,-that some of our Round Towers may havebeen erected subsequently to the Christian era, yetpositive I must be that no one of them was after thesuccessful mission of the Apostle of Ireland ; and theexplosion of the doctrines with which even the mostmodern of them may happen to be associated,-whilethe majority, and the real ones, I shall prove, belongto an infinitely earlier date .

As a further inducement to explore for cavities be-

* Ushers Primord . c . xvii . p. 846 .

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neath, and connected with, our Round Towers, I begleave to bring under review what Maundrel relates oftwo Round Pillars, which he met with in his journeyfrom Aleppo to Jerusalem, on the sea-coast, a little tothe south of Aradus, in the neighbourhood of Tripoli .He describes one of them as thirty-three feet high,composed of a pedestal, ten high and fifteen square,surmounted with a tall cylindrical stone, and cappedwith another in the form of a pyramid. The secondwas not quite so high-thirty feet two inches-itspedestal, which was supported by four lions, rudelycarved at each corner, was in height six feet, beingsixteen feet six inches square ; the superstructureupon which was one single stone cut in the shape ofa hemisphere . Each of these pillars, of which hegives accurate drawings, has under it several cata-combs or sepulchral chambers, the entrances to whichlie on the south side . He pronounces a third whichhe met with, as " a very ancient structure, and pro-bably a place of sepulchre * ."

With the opinion of this judicious traveller I alto-gether concur, provided only, as said before, in refer-ence to the pyramids, that the application be extendedto the sacred bulls and crocodiles, serpents, dragons,and heifers, with the whole train of bestial divinities,which both Indians and Egyptians, and all the otherpolished nations of antiquity, thought proper to adoptas objects of their regard, and treat with the ho-mage-though only commemorative, as they will tellyou-of the One Great Supreme fi .

* Journal, pp . 21, 23 .t Neither can I, with him, restrict their object to Tombs alone ; their

Phallic shape bespeaks another allusion ; as does the style of archi-tecture indicate an affinity of descent, though not an identity of designwith that of our Towers.

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This extension of the use will at once afford asolution of the otherwise unaccountable and unneces-sary size of those cavities, and is further supported bySavary's remark, made on occasion of his searching forthe Egyptian Labyrinth, viz ., that " amidst the ruins ofthe towns of Caroun, the attention is particularly fixedby several narrow, low, and very long cells, whichseem to have had no other use than that of containingthe bodies of the sacred crocodiles ; these remains canonly correspond with, the labyrinth." While Hero-dotus's declaration, of his not being allowed to enterits vaults, on the score of their containing withinthem the bodies of the fifteen kings, together with thesacred crocodiles," should afford it a determination nolonger liable to doubt.

Archer, also, when mentioning a very ancientHindoo temple, at the south end of the fort ofGualior, resembling in shape those on the Coromandelcoast, and decorated with much carving, says that11 there was a subterranean communication with theplain at the north end, but the passage has been solong neglected as to be impassable."

Am I not justified, therefore, in the conviction, fromwhat I have already intimated, as to the complicateddesign of those sacred piles, that our Round Towerswould be found similarly furnished with subterraneanchambers ? I do respectfully urge that such is myfirm belief, and that it would be well worth the whileof the learned community to investigate the accuracyof the surmise here put forward .

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CHAPTER XIII .

ANOTHER characteristic, to which I would fain attractthe reader's regard, is the circumstance of their beingerected in the vicinity of water . At Glendalough,what a magnificent lake salutes the Tower? InDevenish and at Killmalloch, is not the same thecase ? In other parts of the country, also, we findthem similarly located . And even where nature hasnot been so lavish of her inland seas, yet is water, ofsome shape, always to be seen contiguous to ourtowers .

What use, it will be asked, do I mean to make ofthis argument ? or how seek support from the acci-dental propinquity of this element? Remember myremark upon the article, before, in connexion with theEgyptian Pyramids. Captain Mignan, besides, tells usthat a tradition, handed down from time immemorial,says that C° near the foot of the ruin of El Mujelle-bah," which lie takes to be that of the Tower of Babel,

is a well, invisible to mortals ;" and, as all Easternheathenism, whence ours was deduced, partook insome degree of the same usages and properties, Ithink it very probable the correspondence will applyin this as well as in other peculiarities ; and therather as from symptoms of vaults, which have al-ready appeared, and the hollow sounds, or echoes,which invariably accompany, the proposition does not

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come unwarranted, however singly put forth, or with-out something like argument to recommend its trial .

We know that in Hieropolis, or the " Holy city," inSyria, where a Temple, with a Tower, was erected toAstarte, there stood adjacent a lake, were sacred fisheswere preserved, in the midst of which was a stonealtar, which was said, and really appeared, to float ;whither numbers of persons used to swim every dayto perform their devotions . Under this temple theyshowed the cleft where it was said the waters drainedoff after Deucalion's flood, and this tradition broughton the extraordinary ceremony now about to be nar-rated, something similar to which our ancestors mustformerly have practised here .

« I have," says Lucian *, " myself seen this chasm,and it is a very small one, under the temple . Whetherit was formerly larger and since lessened I cannottell, but that which I have seen is small . In com-memoration of this history they act in this mannertwice in every year water is brought from the sea tothe temple, and not by the priests only, but by allSyria and Arabia . Many come from the Euphratesto the sea, and all carry water, which they first pourout in the temple, and afterwards it sinks into thechasm, which though small, receives a prodigiousquantity of water, and when they do so, they say,Deucalion instituted the ceremony as a memorial ofthe calamity above named, and of his deliverance fromi t."

Twice a year a man went up to the top of thePriap, and there remained seven days . His mode ofgetting up was thus :-He surrounded it and himselfwith a chain, and ascended by the help of that and

* In his treatise " De Dea Syria."

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certain pegs, which stuck out of its sides for the pur-pose, lifting the chain up after him at each restinginterval-a method of ascent which will be readilyunderstood by those who have seen men climb up the

palm trees of Egypt and Arabia . Having reachedthe summit he let down the chain, and by meansthereof drew up all necessaries in the way of food,and withal prepared him§elf a seat, or rather neston his aerial tabernacle .

View him now mounted on his sacred tower,He looks around with conscious sense of power .

On these occasions crowds used to come with offer-ings, and the custom was for each to declare hisname to the priests ; upon which one below criedit out to him on the top, who thereupon muttered a

prayer, which, in order to arrest the attention of thecongregation, and enliven their devotion, he all thewhile accompanied by striking a bell .

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One way of their sacrificing was as shocking asit would be otherwise ridiculous . They crownedvictims with garlands, then drove them out of thetemple-court, on one side whereof was an abruptsteep, where falling they thereby perished . Nay,some tied up their very children in sacks, and thenshoved them down, reproaching them as wild beasts,miserably to perish .

This whole proceeding, only under -a mythologicalgarb, was in direct harmony with the directions givenand the practice pursued by God's own people . Theman ascending to the top of the tower had a parallelin that declaration of the Lord recorded in Exodusxxiv. 1, 2, 3, viz ., " And he said unto Moses, comeup unto the Lord, thou, .and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu,and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship yeafar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord ;but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the peoplego up with him . And Moses came and told thepeople all the words of the Lord, and all the judg-ments ; and all the people answered with one voice,and said, ` All the words which the Lord hath said,will we do*.' "

His staying there seven days corresponded withLevit . viii. 33, 34, 35" And ye shall not go outof the door of the tabernacle of the congregationin seven days, until the days of your consecration beat an end : for seven days shall ye consecrate you .As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath com-manded to do, to make an atonement for you . There-

* Of this distant adoration we may still see traces in the practice ofthe Irish peasantry, almost preferring to say their prayers outside theprecincts of the chapel, or mass-house, than within it, unconsciouslyderived from this service of the Afrion, or benediction-house, i .e ., theRound Towers.

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fore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle ofthe congregation day and night seven days, and keepthe charge of the Lord, that ye die not ; for so I amcommanded." And again, Ezekiel xliii . 25-".Sevendays shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin-offering : they shall also prepare a young bullock anda ram out of the flock, without blemish . Seven daysshall they purge the altar, and purify it ; and theyshall consecrate themselves ."

The enrolment of their names was also sanctionedby divine command, as Exodus xxviii . 29-" AndAaron shall bear the names of the children of Israelin the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, whenlie goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial beforethe Lord continually ." Whilst the ringing of the bellis particularly enforced by a triple repetition, Exodusxxviii. 33, 34-" And beneath upon the hem of itthou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple,and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof ; andbells of gold between them round about. A golden belland a pomnegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate,upon the hem of the robe round about ."

This last-cited text is of the most inconceivableadvantage in the development of the subject whichwe thus pursue . The most superficial must havenoticed how that, in the tracing of this analogybetween the ceremonies of the Gentiles and theHebrews, I have studiously guarded against its ap-pearing an imitation, on the part of the former, fromthe ritual of the latter . The priority in point of datewill certainly appear on the Gentile side . Mean-while, ere other links of conformity crowd upon ourpath, it will he well to take heed to the frequency ofthe word pomegranate, as occurring in the Scriptures .

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It has already appeared that one of the names of theSyrian goddess, in whose honour the HieropolitanPriaps were erected, was Rimmon. This epithet youhave had before expounded as expressive of thatfruit ; and as we see that, both in the Jewish and thePagan formulae, it occupied so prominent a position ',it must occasion you no surprise if, by and by, I dis-cover it amongst the mouldings t of our consecratedand venerable Round Towers .

As to their devotions at the lake, and the propin-quity of the lake itself to the temple, it is in directsimilitude to the " molten sea," mentioned 1 Kings viii .23, 24, 25, 26, " the brim whereof was wrought likethe brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies," &c . ;-whilethe cruel and shocking sacrifice with which the wholeterminated, was the exact respondent of the Mosaicalscape-goat ~ .

Let it not be wondered at, therefore, if on the sum-mit of one of our Round Towers are to be foundthe traces of the apparatus for a bell . For indepen-dently of what Walsh and others inform us of, viz .,that the Irish-enjoying tranquillity and repose afterthe expulsion of the Ostmen, and so recalling theirattention to the cultivation of Christianity, after theirrelease from that scourge-converted those structuresof exploded paganism, to the only obvious use to

* The Ghabres to this day chew a leaf of it in their mouths, whileperforming their religious duties round the sacred fire .

t Those are what Montmorency would fain make out to have beenroses imported from the Vatican .

j A similar sacrifice is described by Major Archer as still practised inthe mountains of Upper India, which he himself witnessed . " An un-fortunate goat," says he, " lean and emaciated, was brought as anoffering to the deities ; but so poor in flesh was he that no crow wouldhave waited his death in hopes of a meal from his carcass ."

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which they could then be made subservient, namely,that of belfries, for the summoning together of thepeople to public worship, some remnants of which itis but natural may yet remain-independently, I say,of this, have I not here shown that bells entered essen-tially into the code of the Pagan ceremonial, fromwhence it is more than probable, nay, a downrightcertainty, that the first Christian ecclesiastics adoptedthe use, as the Mahomedans, in their minarets, did solikewise * .

The instance to which I have referred in an earlypart of this volume, of astonishment created in theEnglish minds, on their first beholding one of thoseimplements, was that of Gildas, who, having finishedhis education at Armagh, and returned to Britainabout the year 508, was engaged by Cadoc, abbot ofthe church of Mancarban, to superintend the studiesof his pupils during his absence for a twelvemonth .Having done so most successfully, and without accept-ing of any remuneration for his labour, we find, in an

* " Round the tee or umbrella at the top (of the Dagobs at Ceylon) aresuspended a number of small bells, which with these form tees of a greatquantity of smaller pagodas that surround the quatine, being set inmotion by the wind, keep up a constant tinkling, but not unpleasingsound."-COLEMAN .The temples of Budh in the Burmese empire are also pyramidical,

the top always crowned with a gilt umbrella of iron filagree, hung roundwith bells.-" The tee or umbrella is to be seen on every sacred buildingthat is of a spiral form ; the rising and consecration of this last and in-dispensable appendage, is an act of high religious solemnity, and aseason of festivity and relaxation . The present king bestowed the teethat covers Shoemadoo : it was made at the capital . Many of the prin-cipal nobility came down from Ummerapoora to be present at the cere-mony of its elevation . The circumference of the tie is fifty-six feet ; itrests on an iron axis, fixed in the building, and is further secured bylarge chains strongly rivetted to the spire . Round the lower rim of thetee are appended a number of bells, which agitated by the wind make acontinual jingling ."-SvmEs .

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ancient life of Cadoc, in the Tinmouth MS ., Lam-beth observe that " Cadoc, returning to his monastery,found Gildas a noble scholar, with a very beautifullittle bell, which he brought with him from Ireland ."

Those bells, then, we may be sure, appertainedexclusively to the service of the Round Towers * .Having none of these in England, of course they hadno bells, and hence the surprise manifested on theabove occasion. In Ireland, too, they must have been,now, comparatively obsolete t. And hence we find,according to Primate Usher, that their (restored) usewas not general in the churches here before the latterend of the seventh century ; while another writerassures us that it was not until the ninth centurythat large ones were invented for the purpose ofsuspension $ .

The shape of the Irish pagan bells was precisely

* " It is remarked that in China they have no Pyramids, but Pagodas,raised by galleries, one above another, to the top : the most celebratedof these is that called the Porcelain Tower in Nankin, said to be twohundred feet high, and forty feet at the base, built in an octagonal form .These Pagodas seem to have been designed for altars of incense, raisedto their aerial deities, with which to appease them ; and their hangingbells, with their tintillations to drive away the demons, lest they should,by noxious and malignant winds and tempests, disturb their serene atmo-sphere, and afflict their country."-Dissertation upon the Pyramids .

1 The reason of this will appear hereafter ; while in the interim Imust observe that this new appropriation of them to Christian purposeswas what occasioned that error on the part of a writer, some centuriesafter, who opined that it was Sanctus Patricius who first presented oneto Sancto Kierano . I make no question of the present : but does pre-sentation imply invention?: Cambrensis tells rather a curious story about St . Finnari s bell :-There is," says he, " in the district of Mactalewi, in Leinster, a certain

bell which, unless it is adjured by its possessor every night in a particu-lar form of exorcism shaped for the purpose, and tied with a cord (nomatter how slight) it would be found in the morning at the church ofSt. Finnan, at Clunarech, in Meath, from whence it was brought ; and,adds he, " this has sometimes happened."

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the same as of those in the present day . They werecalled crotals, or bell-cymbals . Oblong square ones,some of bell-metal, some of iron, from twelve toeighteen inches high, with a handle to sound themby, have been, also, dug up in our various bogs . Ofthese the museum of the Dublin Society possessesone ; another is preserved by the Moira family . Thewriter of this article not having seen either of theserelics, is rather diffident in the conjecture which he isnow about to express ; but from the account receivedof that in the possession of the house of Moira, he feelsstrongly disposed to identify its origin with the wor-ship of the above-mentioned deity, Astarte . Lucianexpressly tells us that under the veil of this goddesswas really meant the moon ; and that " the host ofheaven,"-including sun, moon, and stars, and ty-pifying the fulgor of that Omniscient germ whencethey all had emanated-constituted the object of theancient Irish adoration, no one, I believe, can longerquestion . Now in ce Hall's Tour through Ireland,"1813, I see this bell described as having "a holein one of its sides like a quarterly moon ;" and notknowing whether this is the effect of accident or cor-rosion, or a symbolical property in its original shape,I trust I shall not be deemed fanciful if I ascribe itas a reference to that planet in whose vain solemnitiesit had been primarily exercised .

Whether this exposition prove eccentrical orotherwise-and, by inspection, it can be readily as-certained-I cannot presume to determine ; nor in-deed does it value much * . With one thing, however,* A communication from Mr . Hall himself, just imparted, assures

me that, as far as he could judge, the aperture was coeval with the in-strument, and by no means accidental .

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1 am gratified, that in "Archer's Travels in UpperIndia," published, as before observed, within the lastfew weeks, I find that distinguished soldier andshrewd observer, delineate a piece of architecturesimilar in all particulars to this Syrian Priap-theallusion to which has recalled me to ring this secondchime upon the bells-and as the notice is of valueI shall give it in his express words :-" A curiousstructure," says he, " is at the bottom of the hill(Dutteah). It consists of five conical pillars, withgreen painted tops, in a line from east to west ; thetwo larger ones in the centre : the pillars have tilesstuck in them resembling steps . We could not learnwhat was its meaning or use . The village is whollyJain, and is named Serrowlee ."

It is not difficult to understand why no informationcould be obtained, from the present inhabitants, as tothe object of those edifices . Their remote antiquityis a sufficient reply . But I flatter myself that thereader, who has accompanied me from the outset ofthis antiquarian voyage, can now supply the defect,and explain that they were a series of Round Towers,or Phalli, erected by the aboriginal Budhists, of whomthe Jaina are only the wretched remains ; and thatthose " tiles," which are " stuck in them, resemblingsteps," were for the purpose of ascending by the aid ofa hoop, such as we have shown at Hieropolis . Theprojecting stones in our Priaps, or the cavities thatappear after their removal, are thus also accountedfor .

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THE universal ignorance which prevails throughoutthe East, as to the origin of those antiquities whichexcite the wonder of every traveller, makes it neces-sary that we should, again, direct our course towardsthat hemisphere, to redeem, if possible, its venerableremains from that moral night which successive ageshave accumulated around them .

Persia* was the source which poured its vivifyinglight into the mental obnubilation of our Europeanancestors . By a reverse of those casualties fromwhich no condition can be exempt, Persia has, in herturn, been made the theatre of darkness : and though,under the fostering auspices of British institutions, themist has, to a large amount, been dispelled, yet is theproudest era of her splendour left still unexplored, and

* "This word is generally supposed to be derived from Fars, or Pars, adivision of the empire of Iran, and applied by Europeans to the whole ofthat kingdom . It is certainly a word unknown, in the sense we use it,to the present natives of Iran, though some Arabic writers contend thatPars formerly meant the whole kingdom . In proof of this assertion, apassage of the Koran is quoted, in which one of Mahomet's companions,who came from a village near Isfahan, is called Telman of Fars or Pars .We have also the authority of the Scripture for the name of this king-dom being Paras or Phars . The authors of the Universal History, onwhat authority I know not, state that the word Iran is not a generalname of Persia, but of a part of the country . This is certainly erro-neous : Iran has, from the most ancient times to the present day, beenthe term by which the Persians call their country ; and it includes, inthe sense they understand it, all the provinces to the east of the Tigris,Assyria Proper, Media, Parthia, Persia, and Hvrcania or Mazenderan ."---Sir John Malcolm .

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that is the epoch which called forth into life thosemonuments of literature and philosophical eminence,,which, resisting the corrosion of time and the assaultsof war, still proudly elevate their heads towardsthose orbs, with whose pompous ceremonial they wereessentially connected, and whose generative proper-ties they typically symbolized-I mean the RoundTowers .

This was the moment of Persia's halcyon pridethis the period of her earthly coruscation : to thishave all the faculties of my ardent mind with vigourbeen addressed ; and while, in the humble conscious-ness of successful investigation, I announce its issue tohave far exceeded my hopes, I shall avail myself ofthe industry of preceding inquirers to throw lightupon the intervals, of value, which intervene ; but,lest I should intrude upon the province of their well-earned honours, I shall, in every such case of borrowedassistance, allow the writers themselves to speak ; bywhich it will additionally appear that, with muchgood taste, and with historical honesty, they haveleft a vacuum in their researches, for which thepublic mind has been long athirst, and which myexclusive resources could alone supply .

"The Persian empire'-," says Heeren, "owed itsorigin to one of those great political revolutions whichare of such frequent occurrence in Asia, and the riseand progress of which we have already considered ingeneral . A rude mountain tribe, of nomad habits,rushed with impetuous rapidity from its fastnesses,and overwhelmed all the nations of southern Asia,

* These quotations from the professor's book are not given consecu-tively as he wrote them ; but brought together from detached sectionsand chapters.

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(the Arabians excepted,) from the Mediterranean tothe Indus and laxartes . The mighty empires whicharose in Asia were not founded in the same mannerwith the kingdoms of Europe . They were generallyerected by mighty conquering nations, and these, forthe most part, nomad nations . This important consi-deration we must never lose sight of, when engagedin the study of their history and institutions ."

"Not only is Persia f Proper memorable on ac-count of its historical associations, but also for thearchitectural remains which it continues to present .The ruins of Persepolis are the noblest monumentsof the most flourishing era of this empire, whichhave survived the lapse of ages. As solitary intheir situation as peculiar in their character, they riseabove the deluge of years, which for centuries hasoverwhelmed all the records of human grandeur,around them, or near them, and buried all traces ofSusa and of Babylon . Their venerable antiquityand majestic proportions do not more command ourreverence, than the mystery which involves theirconstruction awakens the curiosity of the most unob-servant spectator . Pillars which belong to no knownorder of architecture ; inscriptions in an alphabetwhich continues an enigma ; fabulous animals whichstand as guards at the entrance ; the multiplicityof allegorical figures which decorate the walls,-allconspire to carry us back to ages of the most remoteantiquity, over which the traditions of the East sheda doubtful and wandering light ."

11 The Persians have taken more pains than almostany other nation to preserve their records in writing ;

Pars is the Persian, Fars the Arabic, pronunciation of the word .N

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yet it has been their fate, in common with most othernations of antiquity, to be indebted for the stabilityof their fame to foreign historians . Notwithstandingthe pains they took to register the acts of theirgovernment, the original documents of their history,with a few accidental exceptions, have altogetherperished . And the inscriptions of Persepolis, likethe hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, will, in a manner,have outlived themselves, unless a complete key bediscovered to the alphabet in which they are com-posed."

Now, as a set off to these extracts, it will benecessary to remark that, though true in substance,they are only so as descriptive of a particular epoch .Empire after empire rolled over, in succession, beforethat which the historian here delineates, and whichwas but the motley combination of a rugged swarmof mountaineers, who stalked with ferocious insensi-bility over the consecrated relics of monumental glory .

Herodotus and Arrian were the authorities thatseduced him into this mistake, the former of whomstates that " the Persians originally occupied a smalland craggy country, and that it was proposed in thetime of Cyrus that they should exchange this for onemore fertile ; a plan which Cyrus discouraged aslikely to extinguish their hardy and warlike pursuits ;"and the latter, that " the Persians, when, under Cyrus,they conquered all Asia, were a poor people, inhabit-ing a hilly region* ;" but those writers were as misin-formed, as to all events and particulars relating to this

* I should have observed, that Plato also, speaking of those modernPersians, says, they were originally a nation of shepherds and herdsmen,occupying a rude country, such as naturally fosters a hardy race ofpeople, capable of supporting both cold and watching, and, when needful,of enduring the toils of war.-Plato de Leg . iii . op . ii . p . 69 .5 .

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locality, anterior to the time specified above, as anyof their contemporaries ; and when we reflect how veryrecent an era in the history of the world was that inwhich Cyrus appeared, it will be seen how fragile asubstratum was that which the professor had adoptedfor the erection of his materials . We read accord-ingly, in Terceira's Spanish history of that country,that there was not at that time (A . D . 1590) oneman in Persia (these were the direct descendants ofCyrus's men) that understood their ancient letters, forhaving often seen some plates of metal with ancientinscriptions on them, I made inquiry after the mean-ing of them ; and men well versed in their antiquities,and studious, told me that was Fars kadeem, ancientPersian, after the old fashion, and therefore I shouldfind no man that understood it ."

Indeed the reasonings of Heeren himself,-andlearned I cheerfully acknowledge them,-would seemto make him rise above the narrowness of his Greciansupporters .

" Even previous," says he, " to the time when theArabs, with the sword in one hand and the Koran inthe other, overran and subdued Persia, they werethe more open to settlers from the north and east,from the circumstance that Persia was situated on thegreat highway of nations, by which the human racespead itself from east to west . All that is meantto be asserted is, that the various races who succes-sively had dominion in these parts, all belonged to thesame original stock .

" This fact, which the observations of the bestmodern travellers tend to confirm, may explain how ithas come to pass that many districts, anciently cele-brated for their fertility, are at present barren and

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unproductive . A single invasion, by destroying thewater-courses, is sufficient to reduce, in a short time,a fertile and flourishing country to an arid desert ;and to how many such disastrous contingencies hasnot Persia at all times been exposed!"

" Another fact, suggested by the languages of Asiaand the ancient dialects of Persia, is too important tobe passed over in silence . Not only in the Persianterritory but in other parts of Eastern Asia, particu-larly the two Indian peninsulas, we find languageswhich still subsist, mixed up with others which arepreserved to us only in a few written names . To thisclass belongs, in Persia, the Zend and Pehlivi, alreadymentioned ; in Hindostan, the celebrated Sanscrit, aswell as the Pall in the Burman peninsula .

" Accordingly, we shall venture to consider as thesame parent stock the race which bore rule in Iran,comprehending all the inferior races, and which maybe termed in general the Persian or Medo-Persian,inasmuch as the countries in its occupation weretermed, in a wider sense, the land of Persia .

" They have been denominated by Rhode (Heiligesagen, &c .) the people of Zend, not improperly, if weconsider the Zend as the original language of allthe race . . . not confined to Persis, properly so called,but extending over the steppes of Carmania and tothe shores of the Caspian . Even at the present daythey are comprised under the general name of Persia,though Farsistan, the original country of the Persians,forms a very small part of this territory .

The Semitic and the Persian were, therefore, theprincipal languages of Asia ; the latter being spokenas far as the Indus . Our knowledge of the languagesprevalent on the other side of that river is as yet too

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defective to enable us to speak with any thing likecertainty . Possibly it may be reserved for our ownage to arrive at important conclusions on this subject,if the affinity between the Zend and the Sanscrit, thesacred languages of Persia and Hindostan, should beestablished,-if the spirit of discovery, which charac-terizes the British nation, should succeed in rescuingfrom oblivion some more remains of ancient Indianliterature, and a second Anquetil Duperron presentthe public with the sacred books of the Brahmans,with the same success that his predecessor has illus-trated those of the Parsees ."

Though I cannot avoid concurring in the laudablehope that " our own age" may witness importantconclusions on this subject, still it strikes me,-and Iearnestly urge it as worthy the notice of a ReformMinistry, that until the Irish Language be raked fromits ashes, no accuracy can ever be obtained either inthe Zend, Pahlavi, or Sanscrit dialects, which are butemanations from it, or in the subject matter, historicalor religious, which they profess to pourtray .

" In the interior of these districts is situated a con-siderable lake, called the lake Zevora, unquestionablythe Aria Palus of antiquity. A large river, ancientlybearing the same name, at present called the Ilmend,empties itself into this inland sea from the deserts tothe south-east, and Christie fell in with another streamfarther to the north, called the Herat, near a town ofthe same name .

" I consider (with Kinneir) the city of Herat to besame with the ancient Aria, or, as it was also called,Artacoana. We are told that Alexander on his marchto Bactriana inclined to the south to visit Aria . Wemust carefully distinguish between the terms Aria

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and Ariana, as used by the Greeks . The former wasapplied to a province which we shall have occasion todescribe in the sequel . The latter is equivalent toIran, and appears to have been formed from the an-cient term in the Zend language, Eriene . The wholeof Iran composes a sort of oblong, the Tigris andIndus forming its sides to the east and west ; thePersian Gulf and Indian Ocean bounding it to thesouth ; and the Caspian, with Mount Taurus and theriver Oxus, shutting it in to the north . These werealso the limits of the ancient Ariana ; (see Strabo,p . 1048 .) except that, towards the west, its boundarywas an imaginary line separating it from PersiaProper. Of this more extensive district, Aria (accord-ing to Strabo) formed only a part, distinguished by itssuperior fertility. Herodotus appears to have beenunacquainted with the term Aria ; he merely men-tions the Arii as a nation allied to the Medes .

" Aria, lying to the east of Media, derived its namefrom the river Arius, the modern Heri : and the Ariansand Medes were originally the same race ; the Medes,according to Herodotus, having originally borne thename Arians. It is apparent, from the same place,(Herod. vii. 62 .) that what were called the Medianhabits were not confined to Media Proper, but ex-tended to the countries lying eastward, and as thesetouched on Bactria, we cannot be surprised at the con-formity which prevailed ."

These latter quotations I have thought fit to intro-duce to show the ignorance of the modern Greeks,-those of Cyrus and Herodotus's days-compared withtheir Pelasgic predecessors-Iran, the real name for allthose countries of higherAsia as far as the Indus *, being

~` E7rsxrsiiEral as iov"vopaa rn; Aeiavn; pesxei poseov ; rrva, xar naeowy xxi M,, wr x&t

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called, in the Zend, Eriene, the Greeks, whose inter-course with the East now for the first time began, with-out troubling their brains to ascertain what the word ineither form, meant, transmuted this latter into Ariana,whereas their forefathers, the Pelasgi, a literary anda religious tribe, changed its namesake in the West,our own Iran-which, in the Pahlavi dialect, was calledErin, and in the Zend, would also be called Eriene-into lerne, thereby evincing their knowledge of theimport of the term, and registering their subscriptionin its sacred attributes *.

The following, however, is more to the point, and,in itself, sufficient to redeem the professor's entire workfrom any occasional inclination to Grecian subserviency .

11 It cannot be doubted that, at some remote period,antecedent to -the commencement of historical records,one mighty race possessed these vast plains .

" The traditions of this race preserve some very im-portant particulars respecting their descent, theirancient abodes, and their gradual disseminationthrough the land of Iran . These traditions are pre-served in the beginning of the Vendidat, the mostimportant, and it is probable, the most ancient of alltheir sacred books, the collection of which is styledthe Zendavasta, to which we shall have occasionto refer hereafter . The two first chapters of thiswork, entitled Fargards, contain the above traditions,sTt T-v areoraexTav Baxrom,v xat Iayllavn,v . ua •i yae a'ms xxi efa-yA" ' ' 7raQa /uxQov .

-Strabo, p. 1094 .* All the other variations are thus similarly accounted for ; being but

offshoots of the same radix, such as I have already shown, page 128,in reference to Ireland-while the careful reader will of himself seethat the name of that lake in Persia, of which the Greeks and Romans,conjointly, manufactured Aria Palus, corresponds to our Lough Erne,and must doubtless have been so called in Persia also, for Palus is evi-dently but the translation of Lough .

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not wrapt up in allegory, but so evidently historicalas to demand nothing more than the application ofgeographical knowledge to explain them . With theexception of the Mosaical Scriptures, we are ac-quainted with nothing which so plainly wears thestamp of remote antiquity, ascending beyond thetimes within which the known empires of the Eastflourished ; in which we catch, as it were, the lastfaint echo of the history of a former world, anteriorto that great catastrophe of our planet, which is at-tested in the vicinity of the parent country of theselegends, by the remains of the elephant, the rhino-ceros, and the mammoth, and other countries pro-perly belonging to the countries of the south . Itwould be a fruitless labour to attempt to assign datesto these remains, but if the compiler of the Vendidathimself, who was long anterior to the Persian, and aswe shall have occasion to show, probably also to theMedian dynasty, as known to us, received them as theprimeval traditions of his race, our opinion of theirimportance may be fully justified .

These legends describe as the original seat of therace, a delicious country, named Eriene-Veedjo, whichenjoyed a climate singularly mild, having sevenmonths summer and five of winter . Such was thestate at first, as created by the power of Ormuzd ;but the author of evil, the death-dealing Ahriman,smote it with the plague of cold, so that it came tohave ten months of winter and only two of summer .Thus the nation began to desert the paradise they atfirst occupied, and Ormuzd successively created fortheir reception sixteen other places of benedictionand abundance, which are faithfully recorded in thelegend .

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" What then was the site of the Eriene referred to?The editors and commentators on the Zendavesta areinclined to discover it in Georgia, or the Caucasiandistrict ; but the opinion must necessarily appear un-satisfactory to any one who will take into account thewhole of the record, and the succession of placesthere mentioned as the abodes of the race . On thecontrary; we there trace a gradual migration of thenation from east to west, not as this hypothesis wouldtend to prove, from west to east . The first abodewhich Ormuzd created for the exiled people wasSoghdi, whose identity with Sogdiana is sufficientlyapparent ; next Moore, or Maroo, in Khora.san ; thenBakhdi, or Balkh (Bactriana), and so on to Fars itself,and the boundaries of Media or India . The originalcountry of Eriene must therefore lie to the east ofLeed, and thus we are led, by the course of tradition,to those regions which we have already referred to,as the scene of the traditions and fables of the nation,viz., the mountainous tracts on the borders of Bu-charia, the chain of Mustag and Beloor-land, as faras the Paropamisan range on the confines of Hindo-stan, and extending northwards to the neighbourhoodof the Altain chain . This savage and ungenial regionenjoys at present only a short summer, at the sametime that it contains the reliques of an ancient world,which confirm, by positive proof, the legend of theVendidat, that anciently the climate was of a totallydifferent character . When the altered nature of theiroriginal seats compelled the race to quit them, Or-muzd prepared for them other places of repose andabundance, within the precincts of that territorywhich has preserved to the present day the appellation

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o f Iran ; the nation carrying with them the name ofEriene, which is obviously the same with Iran .

" Jemshid, the father of his people, the mostglorious of mortals whom the sun ever beheld . Inhis day animals perished not : there was no wanteither of water or of fruit-bearing trees, or of animalsfit for the food of mankind . During the light of hisreign there was neither frost nor burning heat, nordeath, nor unbridled passions, nor the work of theDeevs . Man appeared to retain the age of fifteen ;the children grew up in safety as long as Jemsliidreigned the father of his people * .

" The restoration of such a golden age was the endof the legislation of Zoroaster, who, however, built hiscode on a religious foundation agreeably to the prac-tice of the East ; and the multifarious ceremonies heprescribed had all reference to certain doctrines inti-mately associated with his political dogmata ; and itis absolutely necessary to bear in mind their alliance,if we would not do injustice to one part or other ofhis system .

11 On these principles Zoroaster built his laws forthe improvement of the soil by means of agriculture,by tending of cattle and gardening, which he per-petually inculcates, as if he could not sufficiently im-press his disciples with a sense of their importance .

"According to his own professions he was only therestorer of the doctrine which Ormuzd himself hadpromulgated in the days of Jemshid : this doctrine,however, had been misrepresented, a false and de-lusive magia, the work of Deevs, had crept in, which

* Zendavesta, i . 14 .

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was first to be extinguished, in order to restore thepure laws of Ormuzd .

" Even Plato, the first Grecian writer who mentionsZoroaster, speaks of him as a sage of remote antiquity ;and the same is established by the evidence of Hermip-pus and Eudoxus, which Pliny has preserved . Thesecond Zoroaster, supposed by Toucher to have flou-rished under Darius Hystaspes, is the mere figment ofsome later Grecian authors of little credit .

" On the whole, we are compelled to carry backZoroaster to the period when Bactriana was an inde-pendent monarchy, a period anterior to the very com-mencement of the Median empire, as related by Hero-dotus, ascending beyond the eighth century before theChristian era . Whether we must refer him to a stillmore ancient epoch, prior to the Assyrian monarchy,the chronological notices we have already given areall that can be afforded, except we be prepared totransport the sage beyond the utmost limits of recordedhistory."

As I have no longer occasion, however, for thesage than to show that he was a reformer ; andthough at least " eight (more likely eighteen) hun-dred years before the Christian era,"-yet was heeven then, comparatively, a modern,-I shall nowturn to other sources to ascend to the dynasties thathad preceded him .

11 The rare and interesting tract on twelve reli-gions," says Sir W . Jones, entitled the Dabistan,and composed by a Mahomedan traveller, a native ofCashmere, named Moshan, but distinguished by theassumed surname of Fani, or Perishable, begins witha wonderfully curious chapter on the religion ofHushang, which was long anterior to Zeradust (Zo-

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raaster), but had continued to be secretly professed bymany learned Persians, even to the author's time ; andseveral of the most eminent of these dissenting, in manypoints, from the Gabrs, and persecuted by the rulingpowers of their country, had retired to India, wherethey compiled a number of books, now extremelyscarce, which Moshan had perused, and with the writersof which, or with many of them, he had contractedan intimate friendship . From them he learned that apowerful monarchy had been . established for ages inIran, before the accession of Cayemurs ; that it wascalled the Mahabadean dynasty, for a reason whichwill soon be mentioned ; and that many princes, ofwhom seven or eight only are named in the Dabis-tan, and among them Mahbul, or Maha Beli, hadraised the empire to the zenith of human glory . Ifwe can rely on this evidence,-which to me appearsunexceptionable,-the Iranian monarchy must havebeen the oldest in the world ."

Sir John Malcolm had some scruples as to theauthenticity of this production, and entered upon avery severe analysis of its contents ; merely becausethe idols which the ancient Persians are therein statedto have adored, and the mode of their adoration, weredissimilar to those of India! Was it necessary thatthey should be alike? It is true, that from Persiaeverything Indian flowed ; but there, on its importa-tion, it partook of the peculiarities of the soil andclimate ; while, even in Persia itself, a great dege-neracy occurred ; and the deterioration and morallaxity, thus superinduced, was what the virtuousZerdust so deplored, and what kindled his

,fervour

to new model the system .But

the introduction of the angel Gabriel," he

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says, " appears of itself enough to discredit thewhole work ." Was Sir John sure, that this render-ing was literal? He himself admits that lie was" following a Mahomedan author, who has certainlymade a free translation of the Pahlavi text ." And,if so in one case, why not in another? But evenadmitting that there was no freedom at all used inthe matter ; and that Gabriel is the rigid version ofthe name of the messenger employed, this should not,in the least, affect our reliance upon the Dabistan, asI shall adduce a greater coincidence than this, nay, adownright identity, not only of name but of essence ;between the divine dispensation in all previous ages,and the spiritual form of it with which we are at pre-sent blessed .

But you will say, perhaps, that Moshan Fani'sauthorities were, in a great measure, floating, anddependent upon histories of a merely oral stamp,which-wanting as they do, the impress of letteredperpetuity, and subject, as they are, to variation,both of curtailment and of addition, besides the colourof depreciation or enhancement, which they mustfurthermore undergo, according to the nature of thesuccessive media through which they pass,-cannot,after repeated transfusions, retain much similaritywith the original truth, nor afford to a rational andthinking mind, however they may gratify selfish ornational love, much stability for conviction or satis-factory acquiescence?

To the first I shall reply that it seems not correct,as the manuscripts by which he was guided appearstill in existence ; and this was not without its influ-ence on Sir John's own scepticism, when he declares,that 1 1 The doubtful authority of this work has

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received some support from the recent discovery of avolume in the ancient Pehlivi, called the Dussadeer,or Zemarawatseer, to which its authors refer ."

Then, as to the vanity alluded to, the compilermay well be acquitted of any, as being of a differentcreed, and proverbially intolerant, he could not, didnot truth oversway, have felt much communion of plea-sure in celebrating the glories of a defunct religion .And though I concede that that species of information,which arises from the traditions of successive races ofmen, cannot be so satisfactory as that which is stereo-typed in alphabetic characters ; nay, that, accordingas it diverges from its first outlet, it is likely todiverge also from exactness ; still I do insist, that theprevalence of those traditions, wherever they occur,argues some alliance with fact and reality ; just asidolatry itself, in all its ramifications, is but the cor-rupt transmission of original pure religion .

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CHAPTER XV .

THE objections against the Dabistan being thussuperseded ; and the idea of its being an °' inven-tion *," having never crossed any one's thoughts, Ishall now give a bird's-eye view of its tenour in SirJohn's own summary thereof.

It has been before observed," says he, " that theidolatrous religion which Mohsin Fani ascribes tothe ancient Persians, bears no resemblance to theworship of the Hindoos : it seems nearest that whichwas followed by a sect of Sabians, who, we are told,believed in God, but adored the planets, whom theydeemed his vicegerents, that exercised an influence overall created things in the world. This sect of Sabianswere said to follow the ancient Chaldeans, and toinherit their skill in astronomy, a science built uponthe same foundation as the adoration of the planets, .And this leads us to remark, that the very title of thework from which Mohsin Fani gives an account ofthis worship, appears more like that of a treatise

* " And what would hardly appear possible, as we cannot discoverwhat purpose such a finished fable of idolatrous superstition would bemeant to answer ."-Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, vol . i . p . 191 .

1' Yet in Hindoostan, also, as we learn from Major Archer, 11 anastrologer is a constituted authority in all the villages, and nothingpertaining to life and its concerns is commenced without his sanction ."

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upon astrology, than upon religion . He calls itAkheristan, or the region of the stars . It is, however,impossible to enter into any minute comparison of thereligion he ascribes to the ancient Persians, and thesect of Sabians that have been noticed, because wehave only a very general account of the tenets of thelatter."

As to the impossibility here complained of, it isobvious that there is none : whoever has digestedeven the early part of this essay will own it was butideal . With this I should have contented myself, butthat I feel called upon to correct another misconcep-tion, which the above may have produced .

That Sabaism meant idolatry in the way there insi-nuated, I utterly and altogether repudiate . It wasthe religion of the early Greeks before their degene-rate mythology had loaded it with so many absurdi-ties * ; and that it was so, is evident from the termin their language, which expresses " to worship," viz.,6egotuat, an evident derivation, from which is angli-cised, Sabaismt . The object of this religion was thehost of heaven, meaning the sun, moon, and stars .The names assigned to the reputed idols, viz ., Ura-nus, i . e. Heaven, and Gea, i . e. Earth, with theenergies of the sky and nature typified under thenames of the Cyclops" and " Giants," incontro-vertibly demonstrate the truth of this position .

* Tout, dans le systeme primitif de la religion des Grecs, atteste latransposition des traditions comme des principes ; tout y est vague,sombre et confus.-DE SACY.

1 The Sabians themselves boasting the origin of their religion fromSeth, and pretending to have been denominated from a son of his calledSabius, as also of having among them a book, which they called theBook of Seth.-Prideaux, part i . book iii.

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I have said that the name Cyclops, in this religiouscode, was meant to figure forth the energies of theatmosphere ; I need but mention their denominationsto establish my proof. They are " Steropes," fromTTEp0W- , lightning ; Argues, from apy-% quick-flash-ing ; and Brontes, from (3pov.r', thunder. Even thecelebrated name of Hercules * himself, and the twelvelabours poetically ascribed to him,-who, we mustobserve, many ages before the Tirynthian hero isfabled to have performed his wonders, or his motherClymena to have been born, had temples raised tohim in Phoenicia and Egypt, as well as at Cadiz andthe Isle of Thasos-are nothing more than a figura-tive denotation of the annual course of the solarluminary through the signs of the Zodiac .

In support of this I shall quote the authority ofPorphyry, who was himself born in Phoenicia, andwho assures us that " they there gave the name ofHercules to the sun, and that the fable of the twelvelabours represents the sun's annual path in theheavens." Orpheus, or the author of the hymns thatpass under his name, says that Hercules is " the godwho produced time, whose forms vary, the father ofall things and destroyer of all ; he is the god whobrings back by turns Aurora and the night, and whomoving onwards from east to west, runs through thecareer of his twelve labours ; the valiant Titan, whochases away maladies, and delivers man from the evilswhich afflict him ." The scholiast on Hesiod like-wise remarks, "The zodiac in which the sun per-forms his annual course is the true career whichHercules traverses in the fable of the twelve labours ;

This is only a corruption from the Irish word Ercol, the sun .o 2

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and his marriage with Hcebe, the goddess of youth,whom he espoused after he had ended his labours,denotes the renewal of the year at the end of eachsolar revolution ." While the poet Nonnas, advertingto the sun as adored by the Ty rians, designates himHercules Astrokiton, (a6TOoX1T(mv,) or the god clothedin a mantle of stars ; following up this description bystating that " he is the same god whom differentnations adore, under a multitude of different names-Belus, on the banks of the Euphrates-Arnmon, inLibya-Apis, at Memphis-Saturn, in Arabia-Ju-piter, in Assyria-Serapis, in Egypt-Helios, amongthe Babylonians - Apollo, at Delphi - IEsculapius,throughout Greece," &c . &c .

Even the father of history himself, the great Co-lossus of the Greeks, whilst claiming for his country-men the honour of instituting their own theogony,evinces in the attempt more of misgiving and doubtthan was consistent with the possession of authenticinformation . His words are these :-- As for thegods whence each of them was descended, or whetherthey were always in being, or under what shape orform they existed, the Greeks knew nothing till verylately. Hesiod and Homer were, I believe, aboutfour hundred years older than myself, and no more,and these are the men who made a theogony fdr theGreeks ; who gave the gods their appellations, de-fined their qualities, appointed their honours, anddescribed their forms ; as for the poets, who are saidto have lived before these men, I am of opinion theycame after them."

But even this assumption, were it conceded to theutmost, would not militate against the doctrine whichI have laid down ; for Homer's education was received

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in Egypt, and India was the medium which illumi-nated the latter country ; nothing, therefore, pre-vents our yielding to the stream of general authorityin ascribing the introduction to the Pelasgi . Theword x?ovog itself, or the father of Jove," was nothingmore than an equivalent with the Latin tempos ; andfor the very best possible reason, because the revolu-tions of this planet, as of the other celestial orbs,came, from their periodical and regular appearances,to be considered the ordinary measurements of theparts of duration or time .

It must, no doubt, appear a contradiction thatChronos,-the " son of Uranus, and Terra," as wewere told at school, and the first person, as somewhereelse stated, who was honoured with a crown,-shouldbe called an " orb," and have periodical appear-ances ;" and that those appearances should regulateour estimate of days, weeks, years, and seasons . Thedifficulty, however, will cease, when we consider thatthough the sun, moon, and stars were the primaryobjects of false worship, the deification of dead men,deceased heroes, afterwards crept in, the consequenceof which was a mixed kind of idolatry, consisting ofstars and heroes, or heroines, deceased-a planet beingassigned to each as the greatest possible honour." That whom men could not honour in presence, be-cause they dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit ofhis visage from far, and made an express image ofa king, whom they honoured, to the end that by theirforwardness they might flatter him that was absent,as if he was present*."

Let us now see bow the religion of the ancientIrish harmonizes with that of the Dabistan, as illus-

* Wisdom of Solomon, xiv . 16, 17 .

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trated in the composition of some of our ancientnames . Here Baal or Moloch, and Astarte are ob-viously in the foreground ; whilst the popular andvernacular names for those luminaries amongst thepeasantry themselves, namely, Grian for the sun,Luan for the moon, Righ for king, and Rea for queen,in their appropriation to several localities throughoutthe country, indicate, but too plainly, the melancholytale of their former deification .

To instance some few of those names, that strikeme as demonstrative of this Sabian worship, I shallbegin with

Baltinglas * .-This name of a town and mountain" To this exactly corresponds, as well in import as in appropriation,

the name of one of the hills upon which Rome was built, that is, Pala-tines, which-no doubt, to the amazement of etymological empirics-isnothing less than a compound of Baal and tinne ; that is, Baal's fire-the initial B and P being always commutable . And Aven-tinus, theepithet of another of the Seven Mounts, is derived from Avan, a river ;and tinne, fire, meaning the fire-hill, near the river . And as the formerwas devoted to the sun, so the latter was to the moon ; in confirmationof which it got another name, viz ., Re-monius, of which the componentparts are Re, the moon ; and moin, an elevation .The Pru-taneion, also, amongst the Greeks, was what? A fire-hill .

Startle not, it is a literal truth . But the Dictionaries and Lexicons saynothing about these matters ? nay, offer other explanations f mystifica-tions, Sir, if you please, whereby they implicate, as well themselves astheir readers, in absurdities ; which could not be expected to be otherwise,uninstructed, as their authors necessarily were, in the elements of thatlanguage whence all those words have diverged .

Pru-taneion, then, is compounded of Bri, a mount, and tinne, fire ; theB, as before observed, being commutable with P, particularly amongstthe Greeks, who indifferently called Britain Be ravsxn and IIQsravixn (vncofbeing understood) . Every community had, of old, one of those Bri-tennes, or fire mounts, natural or artificial . The guardian of the sacredelement therein was called, Bri-ses ; and the dwelling assigned him,hard by, Astu . The number of those latter Cecrops reduced, in Attica,from one hundred and sixty, to twelve . Of these Theseus appointed theprincipal station at Cecropia, the name of which he changed, by way ofeminence, to Astu ; and hence this latter word, which originally butrepresented the abode of the Sacerdos, came ultimately to signify a cityat large ; as Prutaneion did a Common Council Hall .

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in the county of Wicklow, and province of Leinster,is equivalent to Baal-tinne-glass, that is, 11 Baal's-fire-green," alluding to the colour of the grass at the springseason. These igneous betrayals of human frailty andsuperstition were celebrated throughout Ireland atboth the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, in honour ofthe twin divinities so often adverted to in the courseof this book . The eve of the vernal one was calledAiche Baal-tinne, that is, the night of Baal's fire, theeve of the autumnal, Aiche Shamain, that is, the nightof the moon's solemnity ; on both which occasionsfires were lighted on all " the high places" dedicatedto their worship .

The return of these respective seasons gaverise to various superstitions amongst the illiteratepopulace, one of which was that of borrowing apiece of money at the first sight of the new-moon, ifthey had it not themselves, as an omen of plentythroughout the month * . And their praying to thatluminary, when first seen after its change, is so wellknown as to be mentioned even by a French writer,whom Selden, " De Diis Syriis," quotes in thesewords :-- Se mittent a genoux en voyant la lunenouvelle, et disent en parlant a lune, laise nous ausisains que to nous as trouve * ."

The new moon nearest to the winter solstice was

* To this day, the most kindly wish, and ordinary salutation, of the Irishpeasant, continues to be Bal dhia duit, Bal dhia ort, that is the god Baalto you, or the god Baal upon you .i The Irish mode of expressing it is Slan fuar to sin, agus clan adfaga

to sin . The Caffres who reside all round the Cape, pay their adorationto the moon, by dancing to her honour when she changes, or whenshe is at the full . They prostrate themselves on the ground, then riseup again, and, gazing at her orb, with loud acclamations, make the fol-lowing address :-" We, thy servants, salute thee . Give us store of milkand honey ; increase our flocks and herds, and we will worship thee ."

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celebrated with peculiar ceremonies . On that nightthe chief Druid, attended by crowds of the people,used to go into the woods, and cut with a goldensickle a branch of the mistletoe of the oak, which hewould carry in procession to the sacred grove . Thisgolden sickle or crescent, corresponded in form andnature with that which Aurelius Antoninus, the Ro-man emperor, wore at his coronation, to intimate hisadherence to the Phoenician doctrines in which hehad been early instructed-his adopted name stillfurther intimating that he had been, what it literallysignifies, Heliogabalus, that is, priest of the sun * .The crescent itself is the favourite badge of Sheevah,the matrimonial deity of the Indians, which he is re-presented as wearing in front of his crown .

After the introduction of Christianity, its firstpreachers wishing to defer to the prejudices of theinhabitants, yet not so as to interfere with the cele-bration of Easter at the vernal equinox, with an ac-commodating policy, retained the Baal-tinne ceremo-nial, only transferring it to the saints' days ; thusdiverting their attention from their former devotion,and fixing it upon those who, in their zealous propa-gation of the gospel truths, may be considered asChristian stars ;-conformably to that gracious cha-racter of " a burning and shining light," which ourSaviour himself applied to his precursor, St. John .

Iii honour of this Apostle, June 24th, the day ofhis nativity, was substituted, in the old ecclesiasticalcalendar, for the pagan solstice festival, and calledsolstitium vulgi, the vulgar solstice .

The intention of the transfer was, however, lostsight of by the illiterate ; and when they would

* The word is more mysterious, as I shall explain elsewhere .

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kindle their, fires on the tops of mountains on thoseoccasions, they used to blend with them the featuresof the pagan institution, by passing children andcattle between them for the purpose of purification .

The propriety, therefore, of thus subserving todeep-rooted prejudices, has by some been impugned ;but " surely," after all, to use the words of a veryable writer, " they were much wiser and, better who,in those early times, grafted the evangelical upon thedruidical culture, than they who, in subsequent times,instituted a system of extirpation in order to regene-rate."

The other pagan solemnities were similarly meta-morphosed, and partook of similar transmutations .The first of May alone retained the name and charac-teristics of its original appropriation, being still called11 La-Beuil-tinne," that is, the day of Baal's fire, asfamiliarly as the name of Christmas is given to the25th of December . On it, too, fires are kindled on" high places," as before ; and children and cattlepurified by passing between them ;-

- ,, Yet, oh ! rememberOft I have heard thee say, the secret heartIs fair Devotion's temple : there the saintEven on that living altar lights the flameOf purest sacrifice, which burns unseen,Not unaccepted.*"

I next turn to Killmalloch, the ancient name ofwhich, as given by Ptolemy, was Macollicon,-a me-tathesis for Mallochicon ; and the final, icon, which isonly a Greek termination, being taken away, leavesMalloch, that is, Moloch, the Apollo or great divi-nity of the ancient universe .

To divert the natives from this misplaced enthu-siasm, one of the early converts to Christianity as-

* Hannah More .

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sumed to himself the name of Maloch ; and then pre-fixing to it the adjunct Kill, made it the church ofMaloch, instead of the city of Moloch .

Here is still to be seen, careering towards the skies,one of those " singular temples of round form,"-of theexistence of which Vitruvius was so ignorant, but whosedogmatic enunciation of °Q monopteres" and " perip-teres," sounds as feebly in my ears, as Montmorency'sassumption that the Round Towers were dungeons !-and the violence which this structure has latterlyundergone-by the effort made to incorporate it withthe Christian cathedral, built beside it in rivalship,after an interval of nearly three thousand years-is oneof the most triumphant evidences which truth canproduce in suppression of error . My soul burnedwith earnestness to visit this hallowed scene, uponwhich I had revolved so much, and which I associatedin my fancy with the recorded glories of Apollo . Ihave, at last, seen it ; and he must be indeed a slaveto faction, or the dupe of prejudice, who will not sub-scribe to that evidence which the very stones pro-claim .

Apollo's Temple, or the Round Tower, stands atthe corner of the cathedral, subsequently built half-around it : and, as you ascend the parapet of thelatter, by an intermural staircase, having to pass, after-wards, from one side of this parapet to the other, justat the very corner by which the Tower is girt, thepass being very narrow, and almost terrific in dimen-sions, wholly defenceless besides, on the right handwhich looks down into the body of the cathedral, theconstructors of this latter edifice were obliged, in theirdesire to intermarry Christianity with paganism, toscoop off, or rather to file, about six inches of theancient rotund structure, all along, on the left, to the

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height of the human figure, so as to allow more room ;yet even thus mutilated, I could not but reverenceand bow down before the Tower .

" For, even the faintest relics of a shrine,Of any worship, wake some thoughts divine* ."

After this transformation, Kilmalloch assumed anentirely Christian aspect ; and the monastic buildingsthat crowded the town surpassed, in their style, anything similar throughout the island . The materials,however, of which those were constructed, beinginferior in quality to the Tuathan composition, did notlong keep place ; so that now, whilst the RoundTower still maintains its bold pre-occupancy, theChristian churches exhibit but a pile of ruins !

The dreariness of this once imperial site is a movinginstance of worldly vicissitudes ; and one can scarcelyavoid, when passing by the loneliness of its dilapi-dated mansions, applying the apposite and melan-choly apostrophe attributed to Ossian, " Why dostthou build the hall, son of the winged days? Thoulookest from thy towers to-day ; yet a few years, andthe blast of the desert comes, it howls in thy emptycourts ."

Ard-Mulchan, the name of a village in the baronyof Duleck, county Meath, comes from Ard, the highplace, or mound, Mulchan of Moloch . And, howeverextraordinary it may appear to some readers, I cannotbut hazard my opinion, that the name of the indi-vidual to whom St. Patrick had been sold during hiscaptivity in this island, viz ., Milco-Mac-Huanan, thatis, Milco, the son-of-Huanan, originated in the cir-cumstance of the family's devotion to the service ofthis idol ; and if a doubt remained as to the justness

* Byron .

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of this conclusion, it will, methinks, be removed,when we consider the close of his mortal career, andthe unfortunate blindness with which he clung to hisfatuity .

He was a petty prince of that part of the country,afterwards called Dalruadia, or the principality of theDalruads, from the prevalence of that demi-tribe, inUlster ; and when Patrick,-in prosecution of thatmission of grace, to which he had been deputed bydivine interposition ; and impelled, perhaps, moreover,by a compassionate zeal and Christian recollectionof his previous bondage,-undertook, amongst otherconversions, that of his former master, we find thatthe sentiment was not reciprocated on his part ; butthat, either ashamed of allowing himself to be per-suaded, in his old age, to abandon the religion inwhich he had been early initiated ; or marked outby Providence as an awful victim to the prevailingsuperstition, he plunged himself into a fire which hadaccidentally broke out in his castle, and so was con-sumed by that element which he had before wor-shipped as his God !

Athlone,-or as anciently and correctly writtenAtli-luain,-the name of a town situated on the riverShannon, where it is fordable, bounding Leinster inWestmeath, and Connaught in Galway, is com-pounded of the words Ath, which signifies a ford ; andluain, of the moon . The common people still call itBlah-luin, an evident corruption of Baile-ath-luin, thatis, the village of the ford of the moon ; equivalent toMoon-ford-town. This name establishes the analogyof the Syrian Astarte with the worship here paid tothe " queen of night," and the many lunettes, or goldcrescents, found buried in the neighbourhood, are44 confirmation gstron" of the inference deduced .

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The moon, whose course through the heavensregulated the months of the early lunar year, andwhose influence was regarded by the ancients, incommon with that of the sun, as one of the,fertilizingprinciples of nature, and as exerted chiefly amid wildsand woods, at a distance from the crowded abodes ofman, had in this spot, apparently, a peculiar claimfor her special appropriation . For, here the agedmajesty of the river Shannon, the Ganges of Ireland-as we find reciprocally that Shannon is one of theGangian names, and Saor, or Suir, the name ofanother Irish river, meaning sacred" water, belongsalso to the Indus itself-displays its imposing gran-deur in all the varieties of sublime and delightfulscenery . Not far off is one of those beautiful lakesinto which this monarch of waters expands himself, tobask, as it were, in repose, from the tiresome gazeattending the crowded path of his ordinary travels ;

The' deep, yet clear ; tho' gentle, yet not dull ;Strong without rage ; without o'erflowing full* ."

Lough Rea is the name of the lake above referredto, which, from its proximity to Athlone, gives con-current sanction to the derivation above assigned .For Rea, in Irish, corresponds to Malcoth, or Astarte,i. e., queen, that is, Shamaim, of the heavens ; as Righdoes to Baal, or Molock, master, or king of thesame ; and both re-echoed in the regina and rex ofthe Latins 1- .

I should further notice, that in the Barony ofCastle-reagh,--a name which, though prefaced by a

* One superstition of the Pagans never fails to assert its influenceupon spots like this-the genius loci is always ascendant.-DEANS ..r Ab-roch also, the official title of Joseph, when appointed regent ofEgypt, signifies father of the king .

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modern adjunct, still testifies its devotion, at one time,to the moon-there has been, some years ago, dugup one of those beautiful plates of gold, shaped likea half-moon, at once confirmatory of the proprietyof the local name, and of the nature of the worshipof its primitive incumbents having been lunar orSabian. This relic is now in the possession of theDownshire family .

In reference to Shannon, to which I have beforeadverted, as being one of the names of the Ganges,it is not a little curious that Durga, the supposeddivinity of this water, and whose festival is annuallysolemnized all through Hindoostan, should be repre-sented by Derg, the supposed divinity of the Shan-non, and should have its name still more perpe-tuated in the Irish word Dearg-art, that is, the abodeof Derg, in Lough Derg, the lower lake upon thisriver .

From its mouth to its source this noble stream ischaracterized with relics of primeval worship, cor-responding, in form and tendency, with those onthe banks of its Indian namesake . Scattery Island,or as it should more properly be called, Inis Catty,situated very near where it discharges itself into thesea, retains a beautiful Round Tower, to which hasbeen afterwards appended, in the Christian times,the mystical number of seven churches, and theruins of which are still perceptible. The circumstanceof an early professor of our heaven-taught religionhaving taken up his secluded residence within the pre-cincts of this spot, has led many moderns to supposethat the river obtained its name from him, whereasthe word Shannon is derived from Shan Aoun, thatis, the aged river ;" and the saint received his name

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from that pious policy before explained, as well asfrom the constancy of his abode in its vicinity-notvice versa * .

Killeshandra, the name of a town in the county ofLeitrim, on the borders of the county of Cavan,signifies, in Irish, the temple of the moon's cycle,"or circle . In Sanscrit, which is a dialect of theaboriginal Irish fi, it denotes exactly the same . Wefind besides Herodotus making mention, B . xi. c . 98,of a city in Egypt, during the Persian dominion,called Archandra, that is, " the city of the moon ."He asserts that it is not Egyptian, neither derivedfrom the wife of Danaus, the daughter of Archanderyet the opposite may be well supported, withoutat the same time injuring this derivation, for thedaughters of Danaus were certainly initiated in thePhallic rites ; nay, they were the persons who firstimported them into Attica : and it is eminently worthnotice, that this was the very spott where the Tuath-de-danaan kings happened to be stationed upon thefirst Scythian deluge ; the word " Kill " having been

* The Himalaya are the peculiar abodes of the gods of the Hindoos ;the rivers, issuing from the eternal snows, are goddesses, and are sacredin the eyes of all . Shrines, of the most holy and awful sanctity, are atthe fountain heads of the Ganges and Jumna ; and on the summit ofKedar Nauth, Cali, that goddess of bloody rites, is supposed to havetaken up her residence . One, among the numerous proceedings of hervotaries, is to scramble as high up the mountain as they can attain,taking with them a goat for an offering : the animal is turned loose witha knife tied round his neck ; the belief is, that the goddess will find thevictim, and immolate it with her own hand.-ARCHER .

i This adjective I apply indiscriminately to Persia or to Ireland .$ It lies in the district of Ins-oin, which means the abode of Ma-

gicians ; corrupted now to Inis-owen, which would import Eugene'sisland. An aggravated blunder-the place being in the very centre ofthe country, with which such an imaginary chevalier was never as-sociated .

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prefixed to it only upon the introduction of Chris-tianity .

Granard, the name of a town in the county ofLongford, is compounded of the words Grian, thesun, and ard, a height, that is, the sun's high-place . Nor, I suspect, will it be deemed an over-effort of criticism, if I repeat, that in our IrishGrian is to be found the root of that epithet of Apollo,Grynwus *, which was also the name of a city of AsiaMinor, consecrated to his worship, and favoured, asStrabo informs us, with a grove, a temple, and an oracleof that deity. The river Granicus, too, was derivedtherefrom, because its source lay in Mount Ida, sacredto Grian, or the sun, whereon was situated the Ideanstone, upon which, we are told, Hector was wontto sacrifice ; and corresponding to the Cromleachs, socommon throughout this island . The word Carne,also, meaning a heap of stones, on which an inferiororder of clergy, thence called Carneach, used to offi-ciate, belongs to the same root, as both Ovid andMacrobius declare that it was called, by the ancients,Grane t .As Lough Rea had been dedicated to the moon, so

was the other luminary also honoured with a lake,-His His tibi Gryna i nemoris dicatur origo,Ne quis sit lucus, qua se plus jactet Apollo .

VIRG . Eel. 6 .h Granem dixere priores .-OvID .

Although those heaps are now but signals of accidental or violentdeath, for which each passenger bespeaks his sorrow by adding a smallstone, yet we see that in their origin they were more religiously de-signed ; and while this latter practice is observed also in India, it ap-pears that they have retained there more correctly the primitive idea, asmay be inferred from these words of Major Archer :" On the rightand left are several cairns of stones, erected by parties of travellers asthey cross, in acknowledgment to the deities or presiding spirits fortheir protection ."

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called after his name,-which we find in the adjoiningcountry, where Lough Grant' signifies the Lake ofthe Sun ; as we do also Beal-ath, or Ath-en-righ, thatis, the Ford of Baal, or the Ford of the King, i . e., theSun ; coresponding to Ath-lone, or Ford of the Moon .

The above are but a few of those imperishablememorials intertwined round those haunts which ourforefathers have trod ; the import of which, however,has been so perverted by modern scribblers, as to giveoccasion to O'Flaherty to give up their solution indespair, and, as a cover to his retreat, to pronouncethem " as outlandish in their sound, as the names ofthe savages in some of the American forests*." In thisrhodomontade, however, he was much more fortunatethan he had intended, or, as the Englishmen say ofour countrymen, " he blundered himself into theright." Little did he suspect how near a connexionthere existed between the two people whom heaffected, thus ridiculously, to associate ; and any onewho attends to the position which I subjoin, inde-pendently of many others that could be brought insupport of it, will admit the happiness of this unin-tional coincidence . The Algan Kinese are the mostinfluential and commanding people in the whole ofNorth America ; their name in Irish "indicates asmuch, viz ., Algan-Kine, or Kine Algant, a noble com-munity . The language of this people is the masterone of the whole country ; and, what is truly remark-able, understood, as Baron de Humboldt asserts, byall the Indian nations except two. What then arewe to infer from this obvious affinity ? Most

Ogyg. seu Rer . Iber . Chron ., part i . p. 16 .h One of the ancient names of Ireland is Inis Algan, that is, the

Noble Island.1 ,

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undoubtedly, that a colony of the same people whofirst inhabited Ireland, and assigned to its severallocalities those characteristic names, which so discon-certed the harmony of Mr . O'Flaherty's acoustic organs,had fixed themselves, at an early date, in what hasbeen miscalled the New World .

Small, however, as is the number of the nameshere selected, they are enough, I flatter myself, toestablish the prevalence of our Sabian ritual . Butwhat puts this matter beyond anything like a ques-tion is the inscription upon a stone, still extant, inthe county of Dublin, evidently a symbol of the Sunand Moon, which, like Osiris and Isis of Egypt, wereconsidered by the ancient Irish as united in matri-mony.

11 God, in the nature of each being, foundsIts proper bliss, and sets its proper boundsBut as he framed a whole the whole to bless,On mutual wants built mutual happiness ;So from the first, eternal order ran,And creature linked to creature, man to man .Whate'er of life all quickening ether keeps,Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps,Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feedsThe vital flame, and swells the genial seeds .Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,Each loves itself, but not itself alone,Each sex desires alike, till two are one ."-POPE .

TILE ROUND TOWERS .

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN, the poetry of Nature," says an elegantwriter of the present day, " has ever been the themeof the minstrel, and the idol of the poet's devotion .The only ideas we entertain of a celestial nature areassociated with her ; in her praise the world has beenexhausted of its beauties, and she is linked with thestars and the glories of the universe, as if, thoughdwelling in a lowlier sphere, she belongedto a supe-rior world ."

This deification of the female character was thetrue substance of those imaginary goddesses, so sadlydisfigured by the circumscribed stupidity of Greekand Roman mythologists . Juno, Baaltis, Diana,Babia, Venus, Aphrodite, Derceto, Militta, Butsee,Semiramis, Astarte, Io, Luna, Rimmon, Lucina, Geni-talis, Ourania, Atargatis, &c., &c ., were all but ficti-tious and ideal forms, resolving themselves into oneand the same representation of that sweetest ornamentof the creation, woman ; and the same terms beingapplied to the moon, with the same symbolic forceand the same typical significance, illustrates the apti-tude of that tributary quotation, with which thischapter has commenced, and to the beauty of whichthe heart of every "man that is born of woman" mustfeelingly respond .

Europa itself, now geographically appropriated, asa denomination, to one of the quarters of the globe,

r 2

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was, originally, synonymous with any of the above-mentioned names ; and partook in the acquiescencepaid by adoring millions to the all-fascinating objectof so refined an allegory .

Of all those various epithets, however vitiated bytime, or injured by accommodation to different cli-mates and languages, the import,-intact and un-damaged,-is still preserved in the primitive Irishtongue, and in that alone ; and with that fertility of con-ception whereby it engendered all myths, and kept thehuman intellect suspended by its verbal phantasma-

goria, we shall find the drift and the design, the type

and the thing typified, united in the ligature of oneappellative chord, which to the enlightened and thefew, presented a chastened, yet sublime and micro-scopic, moral delineation ; but to the profane and themany was an impenetrable night, producing submis-sion the most slavish, and mental prostration themost abject ; or, whenever a ray of the equivoque didhappen to reach their eyes-perverted, with that pro-pensity which we all have to the depraved, into themost reckless indulgence and the most profligatelicentiousness.

In the limits here prescribed for the developementof our outline,-which even the most heedless musthave observed, instead of being compressed, asintended, within the compass of one volume, couldmore easily have been dilated to the magnitude offour,-it cannot be supposed that I could dwell, withmuch minuteness, upon the several collateral particu-lars to which I may incidentally refer . As, however,that twofold tenour to which I have above alluded,may require something more in the way of illustra-tion, I shall take any two of the aggregate of names

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there collected, and in them exemplify what has beensaid .

Suppose then to be Militta and Astarte . Of these,then, the first means appetency, such as is naturalbetween the sexes ; and the second dalliance, of thesame mutual sort ; and while both, alike, typify thedelights of love, they both, equally, personate themistress of the starry firmament, whose influencewas courted for the maturity of all such connexion,as the season of her splendour is the most suitablefor its gratification .

From Astarte (ATTapr ), the Greeks formed Aster(Aor p) a star, thereby retaining but one branch ofthis duplicity.-The Irish deduced from it the well-known endearment, Astore ; and I believe I do notexaggerate, when I affirm, that, in the whole circuitof dialectal enunciations, there exists not anothersound, calculated to convey to a native of this coun-try so many commingling ideas of tender pathos,and of exalted adventure, as this syllabic representa-tion of the lunar deity ~ .

Such was Sabaism,-composed of love, religion,and astrology : such too was Budhism, as I havealready shown ; and Phallism, being but anothername, equivalent with this latter, it follows that thewhole three-Sabaism, Budhism, and Phallism-are,to all intents and purposes, but identically one.

This being about to be demonstrated, a 'few pagesforwards, as the oldest species of worship recognizedupon earth, it were needless, one would hope, toenter into a comparison, in point of antiquity, between

* The children gathered the wood, the fathers kindled the fire, andthe women kneaded the dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven .-Jerem . vii . 18 .

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it and any of its living derivatives . But as manylearned men, misled by that cloud which heretoforeenveloped the subject, have promulgated the beliefthat Brahminism was the parent stock, whence Bud-hism, with its adjuncts, diverged as a scion, I shall,omitting others, address myself to the considerationof Mr. Colebrooke's arguments, which I select fromthe mass, in deference to a character so honourablyinterwoven with the revival of eastern literature .

`~ The mythology of the orthodox Hindus," saysthis venerable and good man, " their present chrono-logy, adapted to astronomical periods, their legendarytales, and their mystical allegories, are abundantlyextravagant, but the Jains and the Bauddhas surpassthem in monstrous exaggerations of the same kind .In this rivalship of absurd fiction it would not be un-reasonable to pronounce that to be the most modernwhich has outgone the rest ."

His second position is, that " the Greek writerswho mention the Bramins, speak of them as a flourish-ing society, whereas the Budhists they represent asan inconsiderable handful : therefore," &c .

To the first I shall oppose Dr. Buchanan's testi-mony, who states that " however idle and ridiculousthe legends and notions of the worshippers of Bouddhamay be, they have been in a great measure adoptedby the Brahmins, but with all their defects monstrouslyaggravated."

And even, had we not this rebutting evidence, theinference, in itself, is decidedly weak ; for it would goequally to establish that Romani.sm is more recentthan Protestantism, as containing a greater number ofceremonial observances than this latter does : whereasthe reverse is what reason would lead us to conclude,

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viz., that ritual multiplications are the growth of lon-gevity, and that the retrenchment of their number iswhat reformation aspires to .

I make a free-will offering, unrestricted and unim-peded, of all the value that can belong to Grecianhistorians-the Greeks, whom their own country-man, Lucian, so justly banters as distinguished fornothing so much as a total indifference to truth !But admitting them to be as veracious as theywere notoriously not so, the intercourse, of the veryearliest of them, with India and its dependencies,was much too modern, to allow their statements to befurther conclusive, than as refers to the time beingand I am very ready to allow that, at the particularmoment described, the Budhists were in the wane,while the Brahmins ruled ascendant-nay, that therewere but a few straggling votaries of the former creedthen existing at all in that country, the latter, thoughschismatics from the ecclesiastical root, having, bygaining over the civil power on their side, effectedtheir expulsion many ages before .

The subterranean temples of Gyah, Ellora, Salsette,Elephanta, and those other monuments of piety andcivil eminence which still shed a lustre over India,and which no subsequent state of the arts couldrival, much less eclipse, owe their existence to anera anterior to this catastrophe . The Budhists werethe architects when in the zenith of human power .The sculptures and devices establish this fact : forof the whole list of deities personated in those in-scriptions, the Brahmins have retained none but suchas suited their purpose. These, in all conscience,were numerous enough ; and as the Brahmins, whenat the helm, permitted not the introduction of

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" strange gods," it is evident that those, which theyhave in common with the Budhists, are but cull-ings from the " mother-church," ill-understood andworse interpreted ; the similarity, however, being stillso great as, after a lapse of centuries, to give riseto the question of, whether the stem or the branch,the sire or the offspring, had the priority in point oftime

` 0 J'ai remarque," says the philosopher Bailly,"que les Brames aimaient a etre appelles Paramenes,par respect pour la memoire de leurs ancetres, quiportoient ce nom ." Monsieur Gebelin is moreexplicit . " Pausanias nous dit, que Mercure, le memeque Butta, ou Budda, un des fondateurs de la doc-trines des Paramenes, on Brames, est appelle Para-mon t."

This Paramon, who had seceded from the Budhistdoctrine, and placed himself at the head of that sectwho still bear his name, was the son of Budh-dearg, areligious denomination, most painfully inexplicable toinquirers into those matters, but which one, at least,from his acquaintance with the Irish language, shouldhave better known . " I think," says Vallancey, "deargis a contraction for darioga, rex supremus, which cor-responds with the Chaldaean darag, dux, an epithetgiven to Budya !"

All those words, in fact, dearg, darioga, and darag,are one and the same, adjuncts, it is true, of Budya,but meaning neither dux, rex, nor supremus, except inas much as they were his epithets, the correct render-ing being red, which, added to Budh, signifies theRed Lingam, the Sardana-palus, the Eocad, the Penis

Lettres sur les Sciences, p . 202 .Hist. du Calendrier, pref. p . 14 .

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sanctus, the god of nature, the ruber palus, the Helio-go-balus, the corporeal spirit, the agent of production,the type of life, as it is also the concurrent symbol ofuniversal dissolution .

These several terms, which are, each and all, con-vertible, pourtray not only the procreative powers ofthe male world personified, but likewise its symbols,which were the Round Towers ; and not these only,but Obelisks * also, and naturally erect stones t, which,though not circularly fashioned, yet typified, in theirascension, the upward bent of all vegetable growth . ,

This is the true solution of those enigmatical lithoi,by which the ancients represented the bounty of Pro-vidence . Maghody was the name appropriated tohim under this character ; and the import of thisword conveying, literally, the idea of the Good God,shows the philosophic feeling, no less than it does thereligious seriousness, of the grateful contrivers I . Andwhile reminded by the thought, perhaps I may be per-

* Obeliscum Deo soli, speciali munere, dedicatum fuisse.-AMMIANU3.Chinenses et Indi, praeter imagines in pagodis et delubris, prm-

grandes aliquando etiam integras rupes, presertim si natura in pyrami-dalem formam vergebant, in idola formari solebant.-HYDE .

* Is it not pitiable, therefore, to hear Mr . Deane, in the last volume ofthe Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries, London, ascribe theerection of those obelisks which he met in Britanny, to the followingtext? viz.,-" Behold Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and hisspear stuck in the ground at his bolster ."-l Sam . xxvi. 7 .

When Captain Pyke landed in the island of Elephanta, near Bombay,he found in the midst of a Gentoo temple a low altar, on which wasplaced a large polished stone, of a cylindrical form, standing on its base,the top rounded, or convex ; they called it Mahody,-that the name ofthe inconceivable God was placed under it aloof from profanation.

Launder, in his Voyage to India, p . 81, saw one erected in a tank ofwater . Herodian tells us he saw a similar stone, round at the bottom,diminishing towards the top in a conical form, at Emessa, in Phoenicia,and that the name they gave it was Heliogahalus .-VALLANCEY .

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mitted, with humble deference, to suggest to literarygentlemen occupied in the translation of Easternmanuscripts, that whenever they meet with any pro-per name of the inconceivable Godhead, or of anyplace or temple devoted to his use, and beginningwith the word Magh ; such as Magh-Ball i-Pura * ;they should not render Magh by great-which hithertohad been the practice-but by good ; as it is not thepower of the divinity that is thereby meant to besignified, but his l'ounty : such as his votaries chieflysupplicated, and such as was most influential toensure their fealty .

« Christnah, the Indian Apollo, is the darling,"says Archer, " of the Hindoo ladies ; and in hispranks, and the demolishing pitchers of milk, or milk-pitchers, has acquired a fame infinitely surpassingthat enjoyed by the hero of the agreeable ditty en-titled Kitty of Coleraine !"

I confess I do not understand the levity of tempe-rament which betrays itself in this witticism . Formy part I cannot contemplate any form of religionwithout a sensation of awe . There may be muchimposture, much also of hypocrisy, and no small shareof self-delusion amongst individuals of every sect, butsincerity will be found in the aggregate of eachand where certainty is not attainable by finite com-prehensions, nay, where unity is incompatible withfreedom of thought and will, it would more becomeus, methinks, to make allowance for each other'sweaknesses, than to vilify any worship, which, afterall, may only differ from our own as to mode . Chris-tianity, beyond a question, does not inculcate suchintolerance . The true_ follower of that faith recog-

* i . e. the Good-Baal-Peon .

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nizes in every altar an evidence of common piety ;perceives in every articulation of the name of Lord, amutual sense of dependence and a similar appeal forsuccour ; and taking these as inlets into the characterof the supplicant, he traces an approximation to thathope whereby he is himself sustained, and rejoices inthe discovery . yet is it no less true, that, when, super-added to these generalities, he beholds the " image"of his Creator, acknowledging the mission of thesecond Godhead, and by reliance on the all-fulnessof his immaculate atonement, immersed in the watersof regenerating grace, his bosom expands with more,gladness, and lie welcomes the stranger as a brother .

That the rebuke here intended is not gratuitous oruncalled for, I refer to the testimony of Sir WilliamJones, who, with some infusion, I regret, of the sameirony and incredulity, offers the following portrait, theresult of tardy conviction, of the super-human quali-fications of this identical Christnah, viz.,-" Theprolix accounts of his life are filled with narrativesof a most extraordinary kind, and most strangelyvariegated. This incarnate deity of Sanscrit romancewas not only cradled, but educated among shep-herds . A tyrant, at the time of his birth, ordered allthe male infants to be slain . He performed amazingbut ridiculous miracles, and saved multitudes partlyby his miraculous powers, and partly by his armsand raised the dead, by descending for that purposeinto the infernal regions. He was the meekest andbest tempered of beings ; washed the feet of theBrahmans, and preached indeed sublimely, but alwaysin their favour . He was pure and chaste in reality,but exhibited every appearance of libertinism . Lastly,he was benevolent and tender, and yet fomented andconducted a terrible war ."

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Mahony, also, is a reluctant witness to the sameeffect . " The religion of Bhoodha," says he, " as faras I have had any insight into it, seems to be foundedon a mild and simple morality . Bhoodha has takenfor his principles wisdom, justice, and benevolence ;from. which principles emanate ten commandments,held by his followers as the true and only rule oftheir conduct . He places them under three heads,thought, word, and deed ; and it may be said that thespirit of them is becoming and well-suited to him,whose mild nature was first shocked at the sacrifice ofcattle * ."

I have already shown that Budha is but a title,embodying an abstract ; that, therefore, it was notlimited to one individual, but applied indiscriminatelyto a series . As I shall soon bring this successionnearer to our own fire-hearths, and in a way, perhaps,which may, else, electrify over-sensitive nerves, it maybe prudent that I should premise another citation,descriptive of an answer, made by a dignitary of theircreed, to the last-mentioned author upon his enunci-ating a principle of the Hindoo doctrine . " The Hin-doos," rejoined the priest, " must surely be little ac-quainted with this subject, by this allusion to onlyone (incarnation) . Bhoodha, if they mean BhoodhaDhannan Raja, became man, and appeared as suchin the world at different periods, during ages beforehe had qualified himself to be a Bhoodha. Thesevarious incarnations took place by his supreme willand pleasure, and in consequence of his superiorqualifications and merits . I am therefore inclined

* Wilford, in like manner, after a more mature acquaintance with thesystem, says, " I beg leave here to retract what I said in a former Essayon Egypt, concerning the followers of Buddha ."

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to believe, that the Hindoos, who thus speak ofthe incarnation of a Bhoodha, cannot allude tohim whose religion and law I preach, who is now aresident of the hall of glory, situated above thetwenty-sixth heaven."

Now it is stated in the Puranas, that a giant, namedSancha-mucha-naga in the shape of a snake, with amouth like a shell, and whose abode was in a shell,having two countenances, was killed by Christnah ;and as this irresistibly directs our reflection to theearly part of the book of Genesis, I shall adduce whatMr. Deane has set forth on this latter head .

"The tradition of the serpent," says he, " is achain of many links, which, descending from Para-dise, reaches, in the energetic language of Homer,

Toaadv evEeO' drew, o6ov oveavos svr' aZo yair~s,

but conducts, on the other hand, upwards to the pro-mise, that ' the seed of the woman should bruise theserpent's head .' . . . . The mystic serpent entered intothe mythology of every nation, consecrated almostevery temple, symbolized almost every deity, wasimagined in the heavens, stamped upon the earth,and ruled in the realms of everlasting sorrow . . . . Thisuniversal concurrence of traditions proves a commonsource of derivation, and the, oldest record of thelegend must be that upon which they are all founded .The most ancient record of the history of the serpent-tempter is the book of Genesis ! In the book ofGenesis, therefore, is the fact from which almost everysuperstition, connected with the mythological serpent,is derived a."

That " the oldest record of the legend must be that

* Observations on Drakontia. London, 1833 .

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upon which they are all founded," no one can gainsay,inasmuch as the parent is always senior to the off-spring : but it is not quite such a truism that " themost ancient record of the history of the serpent-tempter is the book of Genesis ." Before a line of itwas ever written, or its author even conceived, theallegory of the serpent was propagated all over theworld. Temples, constructed thousands of years priorto the birth of Moses, bear the impress of its history ." The extent and permanence of the superstition,"says the erudite ex-secretary of the Asiatic Society,now Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Ox-ford, " we may learn from Abulfazl, who observesthat in seven hundred places there are carved figuresof snakes, which they worship . There is, likewise,reason to suppose that this worship was diffusedthoughout the whole of India, as, besides the nume-rous fables and traditions relating to the Nagas, orsnake gods, scattered through the Puranas, vestigesof it still remain in the actual observances of theHindus."

To explore the origin, however, of this Ophiteveneration, all the efforts of ingenuity have hithertomiscarried : and the combination of solar symbolswith it, in some places of its appearance, has, insteadof facilitating, augmented the difficulty . " Theportals of all the Egyptian temples," observes theGentleman's Magazine, are decorated with the samehierogram of the circle and the serpent . We find italso upon the temple of Naki Rustan, in Persia, uponthe triumphal arch at Pechin, in China ; over thegates of the great temple of Chaundi Teeva, in Java,upon the walls of Athens, and in the temple ofMinerva, at Tegea-for the Medusa's head, so com-

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mon in Grecian sanctuaries, is nothing more thanthe Ophite hierogram, filled up by a human face .Even Mexico, remote as it was from the ancientworld, has preserved, with Ophiolatreia, its universalsymbol * ."How would Mr . Deane account for this commix-

ture ? 11 The votaries of the sun," says he, havingtaken possession of an Ophite temple, adopted someof its rites, and thus in process of time arose the com-pound religion, whose god was named Apollo."

But, sir, the symbols are coeval, imprinted togetherupon those edifices, at the very moment of their con-struction ; and, therefore, " no process of time " wasrequired to amalgamate a religion whose god (it istrue) was Apollo, but which was already insepa-rable, and, though compound, one .

I have before established the sameness of design

which belonged, indifferently, to solar worship and to

* The Mexican hierogram is formed by the intersecting of two greatserpents which describe the circle with their bodies, and have each ahuman head in its mouth .

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phallic . I shall, ere long, prove that the same cha-racteristic extends, equally, to ophiolatreia ; and if theyall three be identical, as it thus necessarily follows,where is the occasion for surprise at our meetingthe sun, phallus, and serpent, the constituent symbolsof each, embossed upon the same table, and groupedunder the same architrave?

11 Here," says a correspondent, in the Supplementto the Gentleman's Magazine of August last, 1 1 wehave the umbilicated moon in her state of oppositionto the sun, and the sign of fruitfulness . She wasalso, in the doctrines of Sabaism, the northern gate,by which Mercury conducted souls to birth, as men-tioned by Homer in his description of the Cave of theNymphs, and upon- which there remains a commen-tary by Porphyry . Of this cave Homer says :-

Fountains it had eternal, and two gates,The northern one to men admittance gives ;That to the south is more divine-a wayUntrod by men--t' immortals only known .'

11 The Cross, in gentile rites, was the symbol ofreproduction and resurrection . It was, as Shawremarks, ` the same with the ineffable image ofeternity that is taken notice of by Suidas.' TheCrescent was the lunar ship or ark that bore, in Mr .Faber's language, the Great Father and the GreatMother over the waters of the deluge ; and it wasalso the emblem of the boat or ship which took aspi-rants over the lakes or arms of the sea to the SacredIslands, to which they resorted for initiation into themysteries ; and over the river of death to the man-sions of Elysium . The Cockatrice was the snake-god. It was also the basilisk or cock-adder . ' Habet

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caudem ut coluber, residuum vero corpus ut gallus ."The Egyptians considered the basilisk as the emblemof eternal ages : ° esse quia vero videtur ~o4s xupiezei vxat' Oavcrou, ex auro conformatum capitibus deorumappingebant IEgyptii.' What relation had this withthe Nebustan or Brazen Serpent, to which theIsraelites paid divine honours in the time of Heze-kiah? What is the circle with the seasons at theequinoxes and solstices marked upon it ?-the signsof the four great Pagan festivals celebrated at thecommencement of each of these seasons? The cornerof the stone which is broken off, probably containedsome symbol . I am not hierophant enough to un-riddle and explain the hidden tale of this combina-tion of hieroglyphics . We know that the sea-goatand the Pegasus on tablets and centeviral stones,found on the walls of Severus and Antoninus, werebadges of the second, and the boar of the twentiethlegion ; but this bas-relief seems to refer, -in somedark manner, to matters connected with the ancientheathen mysteries . The form of the border aroundthem is remarkable . The stone which bears themwas, I apprehend, brought in its present state fromVindolana, where, as I have observed, an inscriptionto the Syrian goddess was formerly found . The sta-tion of Magna, also, a few years since, produced along inscription to the same goddess in the Iambicverse of the Latin comedians ; and a cave, containingaltars to Mithras, and a bust of that god, seatedbetween the two hemispheres, and surrounded by thetwelve signs of the Zodiac, besides other signa andayaalu.a-ra of the Persian god, was opened at Borco-vicus only about ten years since . These, therefore,and other similar remains, found in the Roman sta-

Q

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tions in the neighbourhood of Vindolana, induce me tothink, that the symbols under consideration, and nowfor the first time taken notice of, were originallyplaced near the altars of some divinity in the stationof the Bowers-in-the-Wood . I know of no establish-ment that the Knights Templars had in this neighbour-hood ."

The modesty of " V. W." is not less than his dili-gence ; and both, I consider, exemplary and great .But he will excuse me, when I tell him, that theCross, the Crescent, and the Cockatrice, are stillmaiden subjects after his hands . Neither Faber,Shaw, nor Suidas, pretend even to approach thosematters, save in their emblematic sense ; and, as everyemblem must have a substratum, I, for one, cannotcontent myself with that remote and secondary know-ledge, which is imparted by the exoteric type, but mustenter the penetralia, and explore the secrets of theeisoteric temple .

As an old serpent casts his scaly vest,Wreaths in the sun, in youthful glory dress'd ;So, when Alcides' mortal mould resign'd,His better part enlarg'd, and grew refin d ;August his visage shone ; almighty JoveIn his swift car his honour'd offspring droveHigh o'er the hollow clouds the coursers fly,And lodge the hero in the starry sky * ."

* Ovid .

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CHAPTER XVII.

{` CHILLY as the climate of the world is growing-artificial and systematic as it has become-and un-willing as we are to own the fact, there are fewamongst us but who have had those feelings oncestrongly entwined around the soul, and who have felthow dear was their possession when existing, andhow acute the pang which their severing cost .Fewer still were the labyrinths unclosed in whichtheir affections lay folded, but in whose hearts thename of woman would be found, although the roughcollision with the world may have partially effaced it ."

This instinctive influence, which the daughters ofEve universally exercise over the sons of Adam, isnot more irresistible in the present day, than itproved in the case of their great progenitor . Love,however disguised-and how could it be more beauti-fully than by the scriptural penman?-love, in itsliteral and all-absorbing seductiveness, was the simplebut fascinating aberration couched under the figureof the forbidden apple .

All the illusions of fancy resolve themselves intothis sweet abyss . The dreams of commentators may,therefore, henceforward be spared ; the calculationsof bookmakers, on this topic, dispensed with : what-ever be my fate, one consolation, at least, awaits me,

o, 2

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that, in addition to the Towers, I shall have expoundedthe mysteries of Genesis .

To begin with the Tree of Knowledge-what, doyou suppose, was it, in actual earnest? Verily, neithermore nor less than the all-enchanting Budh ! and thatverbal phantasmagoria, to which I have some timeago alluded, can be illustrated, nowhere better, thanin that refined, and hitherto inexplicable, allegory towhich this term gave birth .

In the Irish language, which, as being that ofancient Persia, or Iran, must be the oldest in theworld, and of which the Hebrew, brought away byAbraham, from Ur of the Chaldees, is but a dis-tant and imperfect branch,-well, in this primordialtongue, the nursery at once of science, of religion,and of philosophy, all mysteries, also, have been ma-tured : and it will irrefutably manifest itself, thatin it was exclusively woven that elegantly-wroughtveil, of colloquial illusiveness, which shrouds thenature of our first parents' downfall .

How, think you, was this accomplished ? Byassigning to certain terms a two-fold signification, ofwhich one represented a certain passion, quality, orvirtue, and the other its sensible index . To the latteralone had the multitude any access ; while the sanctityof the former was guarded against them, by all theterrors of religious interdicts .

For instance, in the example before us, Budh,or Fiodh-which is the same thing -means, pri-marily, lingam, and, secondarily, a tree . Of these, thelatter, which was the popular acceptation, was onlythe outward signal of the former, which was the in-ward, mystified, passion, comprehended only by theinitiated . When, therefore, we are told that Eve

[To face page 229 .

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was desired not to taste of the tree, i . e ., Budh, weare to understand that she was prohibited what Budhmeant in its true signification, viz ., lingam : in otherwords, that when cautioned against the Budh, itwas not an, insensible tree, its symbolic import, thatwas meant thereby, but the vital phallus, its animateprototype :-that, in short, missis ambagibus," theword Budh was to be taken, not figuratively, butliterally .

Again, in this cradle of literary wonders-the Irishlanguage-every letter in its alphabet expresses someparticular tree ; but its second, Beth,-whence theBeta of the Greeks, and a formative only of Budh, theradix-signifies-in addition to the tree which itrepresents 'k-knowledge, also ! And here, obvious aslight, and impregnable to contradiction, you have thetree of knowledge, in natural nakedness, divested of allthe mystery of pomiferous verbiage, and identified inattributes, as in prolific import, with the name and essenceof the sacred Budh !

But what had the serpent to do with the business?Only as an actor in the general symbolisation : theintroduction of him being but an allegorical mode ofsaying that the Budh, i. e., the sensual propensity-of which the serpent is the most expressive type,being notoriously the most lustful of living creatures-had made her deviate from the paths of purity f.

* The Betula, or birch-tree .+ Were additional proof required that this is the true solution of the

Mosaic myth, respecting the forbidden apple, it is irresistibly offered toany one who will see that relic of Eastern idolatry, presented by Lieu-tenant Colonel Ogg to the Museum of the East India Company, Lon-don, which consists of a tabular frame of white marble, furnished with afountain, and emblematically stored with religious devices ; the mostextraordinary of which is a representation of the Lingam and Poni in

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Here then we have, at length, arrived at thefoun-tain head and source of the mystery of Budhism . Eveherself, I emphatically affirm, was the very first Bud-hist. And, accordingly, we find that, in formerages, women universally venerated the Budh, andcarried images of it, as a talisman, around their necksand in their bosoms .

But if Eve was the first Budhist, the first priest ofthe Budhist order was her first-born, but apostate sonCain : and in his acknowledging the bounty of Budh,the sun, who matures the fruits of the earth,-andthereby recognising Jehovah only as the God ofnature and of increase,-rather than in looking forwardby faith to the redemption by blood, as a differentsacrifice would have intimated, consisted " the wholefront and bearing" of his treason and offence* .

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?And if thou doest not well, a sin-offering lieth at thedoor"-the means of propitiation are within yourimmediate reach .

conjunction, around the bottom of which, in symbolical suggestion, iscoiled a serpent ; while the top of another Lingam, placed underneath,is embossed towards the termination, conical and sunny, with four heads,facing the cardinal points, and exactly corresponding with those whichgrace the preputial apex of the " Round Tower" of Devenish . Thosefour heads represent the four gods of the Budhist theology, who haveappeared in the present world, and already obtained the perfect state ofNirwana ; viz., Charchasan, Gonagon, Gaspa, and Goutama . And theentire coincidence between this Lingam and the characteristics of ourRound Towers is such as to convince the most obdurate sceptic, evenhad I not put the question beyond dispute before, that they were uni-form in design, and identical in purpose .

* The offerings made at the present day are precisely of the samekind . " Boiled rice, fruits, especially the cocoa-nut, flowers, naturaland artificial, and a variety of curious figures made of paper, gold leaf,and the cuttings of the cocoa-nut kernel are the most common ."-SYMES .

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The endearing tone, in which this is conveyed,bespeaks an appeal to some usage familiar to theparty . It betokens, indisputably, that, on previousoccasions, when Cain had acted " well," he had metwith no rejection .-And for the truth of this, Jeho-vah refers to the defendant's own experience andself-convincing consciousness .

Cain, therefore, was a priest under a former dis-pensation ; and a favoured one too ; and his beingdeprived of this office, or, in other words, `' cast offfrom the presence of the Lord," was the great sourceand origin of his present wretchedness .

But if a priest, he must have been so to a largercongregation than his father, mother, and brotherand besides he, as well as Abel, must have hadwives ; but the Scriptures do not tell us that Adamand Eve, as individuals, had any daughters ; it fol-lows, therefore, that the consorts of the two brothersmust have sprung from some other parents . There,then, were more men and women on the earth thanAdam and Eve : and this is still further confirmedby the apprehensions expressed by Cain himself,after the murder of Abel, lest he might be slain bysome one meeting him .

Yes, in the paradisaical state, before " sin enteredinto the world," the earth was as crowded with popu-lation as it is at present ; and Adam and Eve are onlyput as representatives, male and female, of the entirehuman species, all over the globe ~ .

* Methinks I hear some wiseacre start up here and say, this cannotbe, because man in an uncivilised state occupies more space than whenrestricted by social usages . Pray, sir, who told you that man was thenuncivilised P Then, in fact, it was that he may be called truly civiliseas more recent from the converse of his Creator .

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Here I cannot do better than set the reader rightas to the rendering of a subsequent text, whichsays, that " God set a mark upon Cain lest any onemeeting him should kill him ;" nor can I recollectanother instance wherein human ingenuity, whilestruggling after truth, has been more directly instru-mental in the dissemination of error .

One would suppose that the setting " a markupon" a person, instead of allaying his fears of beingmolested by those meeting him, should, on the con-trary, aggravate them, from its extraordinary aspect .Besides, in the innumerable fantasies which com-mentators have conjured up, as specifications of this" mark," no vestige whatsoever has been yet traced, onthe human form, to justify the inference .

We are obliged, therefore, at last, to recur to thetruth ; and it fortunately happens, that this is acces-sible, by only translating the original as it should pro-perly be, thus, viz ., " And God gave Cain a sign lestany meeting him, should kill him ."

The only question now is, what that sign waswhich God gave to Cain? And to resolve this, wehave but to bethink ourselves of his dereliction,-namely, the offering worship to Budh, i . e., nature,or the sun : and his refusing to sacrifice, in conse-quence-of such devotion, anything endowed with life,of which Budh, i. e. Lingam,-according to the doubleacceptation of the word,-was the type, as it is alsothe sign of Budh, the sun,-and we have infalliblydeveloped the answer and the secret .

Stamping the nature of his crime, and at the sametime indicating that, in the now fallen condition ofnan, this badge of his revolt would be rather asecurity against trespass, and a passport to accept=

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anee, than an inducement to annoyance, God showsto Cain, as much in derision as in anger, the substan-tial image of that deity to which he had but just be-fore done homage, viz ., Budh ; and thereupon Caingoes, and, on "the land a wanderer," he erects thissign •into a deified Round Tower.

Perhaps the reader would like to have some col-lateral proofs for these startling interpretations . Ishall give them, as convincing as the solution itselfis irrefutable and true .

The Maypole festival, which the Rev. Mr. Mauricehas so satisfactorily shown to be but the remains ofan ancient institution of India and Egypt, (he shouldhave added Persia, and, indeed, placed it first,)was, in fact, but part and parcel of this RoundTower worship . May the first is the day on whichits orgies were celebrated ; nor is the custom, evennow, confined to the British isles alone, but as natu-rally prevails universally throughout the East, whenceit emanated, of old, to us . Lest, too, there should beany mistake, as to the object of adoration, we are toldin the second volume of the Asiatic Researches, in aletter from Colonel Pearce, that Bhadani, i . e., Astarte,i . e., Luna, i . e., Venus, i. e ., " Mollium mater cupi-dinum," was the goddess in whose honour those fes-tivities were raised .

Now as astronomy was connected with all the cere-monies of the ancients, the sun's entrance into Taurus,which in itself bespeaks the vigour of reanimatedproductiveness, at the vernal equinox, was the sym-bol in the heavens associated by the worshippers withthis allegorical gaiety . But this event takes place alittle earlier every year than the preceding one, byreason of what astronomers call the precession, so that

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at present, it occurs at a season far more advancedthan it did at first .

Theory and observation both concur in establish-ing, that 72 years is the period which the equinoxwill take to precede one degree of the 360, into whichthe heavens are divided-2160 years, thirty degrees,that is, one sign,-and 25,920, 360 degrees, or thetwelve signs of the zodiac . If, therefore, we compute,at this rate, the precise year at which the vernalequinox must have coincided with the first of May,-which must certainly have been the fact at the originof the institution,-it will prove to have been aboutthe 4000th before the Christian era, which exactly cor-responds with the time of Cain, and irrefutably con-firms the origin, which I have assigned, to the wor-ship of the Budh, Tower, Phallus, or Maypole .Mr. Maurice's position deserves to be remarked . `° I

have little doubt, therefore," says he, " that May-day,or at least the day on which the sun entered Taurus,has been immemorially kept as a sacred festival, fromthe creation of the earth and man, originally intendedas a memorial of that auspicious period, and that mo-mentous event ."

It is with extreme reluctance that I would dissentfrom a writer who has contributed so largely, as thegentleman before us, towards the restoration of lite-rature ; but since we agree as to the era of the originof the festival, and substantially as to its design, Ihave the less hesitation in recording my belief thatit was not the creation of the earth, or of man, that wasintended to he commemorated, but the commence-ment of a new dispensation, consequent upon man'sdefection * .* In fig . 1, Plate 33, of Mr . Coleman's book, " is a four-headed

Linga, of white marble, on a stand of the same, surrounded by Parvati,

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Lord, from the Shaster, quotes the following ab-stract, marking the opinion of the Easterns themselves,as to Adam and Eve having had many contempo-raries . This relates an interview between a differentcouple . « Being both persuaded that God had ahand in this their meeting, they took council fromthis book, to bind themselves in the inviolable bondof marriage, and with the courtesies interceding be-tween man and wife, were lodged in one another'sbosoms : for joy, whereof the sun put on his nuptiallustre, and looked brighter than ordinary, causing theseason to shine upon them with golden joy ; and thesilver moon welcomed the evening of their repose,whilst music from heaven, as if God's purpose inthem had been determinate, sent forth a pleasingsound, such as useth to fleet from the loud trumpet,together with the noise of the triumphant drum .Thus proving the effects of generation together, theyhad fruitful issue, and so peopled the East, and thewoman's name was Sanatree."

This Maypole ceremony, under the name of Phallica,Dionysia, or Orgia, which last word, though some-times applied to the mysteries of other deities, belongsmore particularly to those of Bacchus*, was cele-

Durga, Ganes, and the Bull Nandi, in adoration . The size of thestand or tablet is about two feet square, and the whole is richly paintedand gilt. On the crown of the Linga is a refulgent sun." In fig. 2 ofsame " is a Panch Muckti, or five-headed Linga, of basalt, of whichthe fifth head rises above the other four, surmounted by the hoodedsnake. Each of the heads has also a snake wreathed around it, as wellas around the Argha. The Bull Nandi is kneeling in adoration beforethe spout of the Yoni.* And Bacchus, in reality, was but another name for one of the

various Budhas . Even under the name of Dionysos we find him, to thishour, amongst ourselves . " On Sliabh Grian, or the Hill of the Sun,"says Tighe, " otherwise called Tory Hill, in the county Kilkenny, is a

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brated, at one time, throughout Attica with all theextravagance of religio-lascivious pomp . Archer, inhis ` 0 Travels in Upper India," arrived at a villagejust a few hours only after the May gaieties wereover, and found the pole still standing. The occa-sion," says he, " was one of festivity, for all hadstrings of flowers about their heads, and they spokeof the matter as one of great pleasure and amuse-ment." As, however, he did not come in for theactual' observances, I shall supply the omission bydetailing the form of its celebration in our owncountry .

" Anciently," says M'Skimin, in his History ofCarrickfergus, " a large company of young menassembled each May-day, who were called May-boys . They wore above their other dress white linenshirts, which were covered with a profusion ofvarious coloured ribbons, formed into large andfantastic knots . One of the party was called King,and the other Queen, each of whom wore a crown,composed of the most beautiful flowers of the sea-son, and was attended by pages who held up thetrain. When met, their first act was dancing to musicround the pole, planted the preceding evening ; afterwhich they went to the houses of the most respect-able inhabitants round about, and having taken ashort jig in front of each house, received a voluntaryoffering from those within . The sum given wasrarely less than five shillings . In the course of thisramble the King always presented a rich garland of

circular space, sixty-four yards in circumference, covered with stones .In this stands a very large one, and on the east side another, rearedon three supporters, and containing an inscription, which in Romanletter would exhibit " Beli Dinose ."

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flowers to some handsome young woman, who washence called ' the Queen of May' . till the followingyear."

With this compare the description given by theauthor of the " Rites and Ceremonies of all Na-tions," of a similar worship as celebrated amongstthe Banians. - U Another god," says he, " muchesteemed and worshipped by these people, is calledPerimal, and his image is that of a pole, or the largemast of a ship. The Indians relate the followinglegend concerning this idol . At Cydatnbaran, a cityin Golcondo, a penitent having accidentally prickedhis foot with an awl, let it continue in the wound forseveral years together ; and although this extrava-gant method of putting himself to excessive torturewas displeasiug to the god Perimal, yet the zealotswore he would not have it pulled out till he saw thegod dance . At last, the indulgent god had compassionon him, and danced, and the sun, moon, and stars dancedalong with him, During this celestial movement, achain of gold dropped from either the sun or the god,and the place has been ever since called Cydam-baran . It was also in memory of this remarkabletransaction, that the image of the god was changedfront that of an ape to a pole, thereby intimating,(adds the good-natured expositor of himself,) thatall religious worship should reach up towards heaven,that human affections should be placed on thingsabove."

Now, this mysterious Peri-Mal is but an euphonyfor Peri-Bal, that is, the Baal-Peor before explainedand when you remember the destination which I havethere assigned him, you will perceive the proprietyof his having been represented by a mast or May-

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pole . As to the Indian legend, it only shows theantiquity of the rite, superadded to that religiousinvestment which was meant as a shield against profa-nation .

Vallancey also mentions the following additionalcustom, which he himself witnessed in the county ofWaterford-" On the first day of May, annually, anumber of youths, of both sexes, go round the parishto every couple married within the year, and obligethem to give a ball. This is ornamented with goldor silver coin . I have been assured, they some-times expended three guineas on this ornament. Theballs are suspended by a thread, in two hoops placed atright angles, decorated with festoons of flowers . Thehoops are fastened to the end of a long pole, and car-ried about in great solemnity, attended with singing,music, and dancing ."The mummers, in like manner, who went about

upon this day, demanding money, and with similarsolemnities, as if for the moon in labour, were derivedfrom the same origin . In Ceylon this practice is con-fined to " women alone "", who, as the editor of the

Rites and Ceremonies," &c., informs us, 00 go fromdoor to door with the image of Buddu in their bands,calling out as they pass, ' Pray, remember Buddu t .'The meaning is, that will enable them to sacrifice tothe god. Some of the people give them money, others

* " There are in India (also) public women, called women of the idol,and the origin of this custom is this : when a woman has made a vowfor the purpose of having children, if she brings into the world a prettydaughter, she carries it to Bod,-so they call the idol which they adore,and leaves it with him. "-Renaudot's Anc . Rel . p . 109.

1 It is generally known, that the religion of Boudhou is the religionof the people of Ceylon, but no one is acquainted with its forms and pre-cepts.-JOINMLLE.

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cotton thread, some rice, and others oil for the lamps .Part of these gifts they carry to the priests of Buddu,and the remainder they carry home for their own use ."

The money collected in Ireland, on the same occa-sion, would appear to have been somewhat similarlyexpended, having been " mostly sacrificed to thejolly god ; the remainder given to the poor in theneighbourhood."

Here, for a while, my proper cares resigned,Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind ;Like yon neglected shrub, at random cast,That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast * .

* Goldsmith .

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CHAPTER XVIII .

WHEN I cast back my eye upon this narrative, throughthe long perspective of ages which it involves, I con-fess I feel incommoded by some misgivings of self-distrust. When I consider the mighty individuals, oftranscendant powers and almost inexhaustible resources,who, having reconnoitred its coast, either perished inthe impotency of effecting a landing, or, more wisely,receded from it as impregnable, I am thrown back, asit were, upon myself, and impeded by the comparisonof my own littleness .

But if God has often chosen the small things ofthe earth to confound the great ; " and if success inpast undertakings be any guarantee against the allu-siveness of inward promise ; if the roads be allchalked, the posts lighted, and the sentinels faithful,why, then, allow the influence of petty fears to mar,at all events, the project of an ennobling enterprise ?

In that cherished volume, whence our first lessonsupon religion have been deduced, and which, asembodying the principles of our happiness here, andour hopes hereafter, has been honoured with the pre-eminent and distinctive appellation of the Bible, orBook, there occur numerous phrases of mysteriousimport, but pregnant significancy, which pious men,unable to solve, have contented themselves withclassifying as under the head of " above reason"-

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« contrary," and " according to," being the twoother constituents of their predicamental line .Those conventional terms which expediency alone

has invented, are, to say the least, arbitrary ; andas all men have an equal right to form a specifica-tion of their subject-matter, I shall, without discon-certing the order of the above division, endeavour,only, to rescue the points to which I refer, from im-mersion in the first class * ; or-if allowed the lati-tude of parliamentary elocution-to take them outfrom the condemnation of Schedule A.

To begin, then, with the following text, viz ., Thesons of God saw the daughters of men that theywere fair, and they took them wives of all which theychose f."

What do you understand by the expression 11 sonsof God?"

His peculiar people, you reply ; such, for instance,as called upon his name $ ; or, perhaps, Seth's de-scendants in opposition to those of Cain, the un-righteous .

Turn, sir, to the beginning of the first and secondchapters of Job, and read what you are there in-formed of.

" Now there was a day when the sons of Godcame to present themselves before the Lord, andSatan came also among them ." And " Again, therewas a day, when the sons of God came to presentthemselves before the Lord, and Satan came alsoamong them to present himself before the Lord ."

Well, what is your answer now? or will it not bedifferent from what it was before? Can you seriously

* That is, "above reason ."t Genesis vi . 2 .

* Ibid ., iv . 26 .

IL

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imagine that it was any race of ordinary humanbeings that was thus denominated? And are younot compelled to associate the idea, with some oneof the other superior productions, of omnipotentagency?

I will make you, sir, if you have candour in yourconstitution, acknowledge the fact . Listen-- Wherewast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?Declare if thou hast understanding : when the morn-ing stars sang together, and all the sons of Godshouted for joy * ."

Here allusion is made to a period antecedent tothe existence of either Gain or Seth. The myriads ofrevolving ages suggested by the interrogatory set evenfancy at defiance ; nor are their limits demarked bythe vague and indefinite exordium of even the talentedand otherwise highly-favoured legislator, Moses him-self j' . And yet, in this incomprehensible inane oftime, do we see the sons of God shouting for joy,before the species of man,-at least, in his degeneratesinfulness,-had appeared upon this surface !

It is manifest, therefore, that some emanation ofthe Godhead, distinct from mere humanity, is couchedunder the phrase of `` the sons of God ;" and accord-ingly we perceive, that, when they " went in unto thedaughters of men, and they bare children to them,"it is emphatically noticed, as an occurrence of unusualimpress, that " the same became mighty men, whichwere of old, men of renown t ."

At the commencement of the verse, whence the lastextract has been taken, you will find the name of giant

* Job xxxviii .t In the beginning God created, &c . Gen . 1 . i .

;; Genesis vi . 4 .

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mentioned ; and instantly after, as if in juxta position,nay, as if synonymous with it in meaning, is repeated" the sons of God :" thereby identifying both innature and in character, and proving their samenessby their convertibility .

The Hebrew word from which giant has been trans-lated, signifies to fall : and what, do you suppose,constituted this apostacy ? In sooth, nothing else thanthat carnal intercourse, which they could not resistindulging with the « daughters of men," when theirsenses told them they were lovely* . Thus do bothnames corroborate my truth ; while both reciprocallyillustrate each other .

" It may seem strange," says Wilford, " that theposterity of Cain should be so much noticed in thePuranas, whilst that of the pious and benevolentRuchi is in a great measure neglected . But little issaid of the posterity of Seth, whilst the inspired pen-man takes particular notice of the ingenuity of thedescendants of Cain, and to what a high degree ofperfection they carried the arts of civil life . Thecharms and accomplishments of the women are particu-larly mentioned. ` The same became mighty men,which were of old, men of renown .' "

And again,-" We have been taught to considerthe descendants of Cain as a most profligate andabominable race . This opinion, however, is notcountenanced, either by sacred or profane history .That they were not entrusted with the sacred deposit

* Dr. Gill, very innocently, would account for it otherwise, viz .either because they made their fear fall upon men, or men through

fear to fall before them, because of their height and strength-or ratherbecause they fell and rushed on men with great violence, and oppressedthem in a cruel and tyrannical manner ! ! ! "

R 2

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of religious truths, to transmit to future ages, is suf-ficiently certain . They might, in consequence of this,have deviated gradually from the original belief, andat last fallen into a superstitious system of religion,which seems, also, a natural consequence of the fear-ful disposition of Cain, and the horrors he must havefelt, when he recollected the atrocious murder of hisbrother Abel ."

This, so far as it goes, is satisfactory enough ; butit is groping in the dark, and without a pilot . A fewpages, in the distance, will, however, bring us to theright understanding of these points also : meanwhile,I return to the Mosaical record, for the insight thereinafforded into the history of Cain .

We are told, then, that he knew his wife, andshe conceived and bare Enoch :" and as this namesignifies initiation in sacred rites, as well as it does anassembly of congregated multitudes-in which lattersense, it was accurately applied to the " city" whichhe had " builded "-it shows that the new religionbade fair for perpetuity .

Irad, the name of Enoch's son, proves the crown-ing finish of the matured ceremonial, for intimating,as it does, consecrated to God, we are naturally led toconnect its bearer with the profession of that worshipwhich his name represented .

As Irad signifies consecrated to God, so Iran doesthe land of those so consecrated ; and, accordingly, wemay be assured, that it was in that precise region thatthe Budhists had first established the insignia of theirempire * .

* Philosophers will ultimately repose in the belief, that Asia has beenthe principal foundry of the human kind ; and Iran, or Persia, will beconsidered as one of the cradles from which the species took their de-

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Let us, now, inquire what light will the Dabistanafford to our labours . It is known that Sir JohnMalcolm was no ready convert to its merits ; hisabridgement of it, therefore, cannot be suspected ofany colouring ; and, as I like the testimony of re-luctant witnesses, I shall even make him the inter-preter of its recondite contents .

" In almost all the modern accounts of Persia," sayshe, " which have been translated from Mahomedanauthors, Kaiomurs is considered the first king of thatcountry : but the Dabistan, a book professedly com-piled from works of the ancient Guebrs, or worship-pers of fire, presents us with a chapter on a successionof monarchs and prophets who preceded Kaiomurs .According to its author the Persians, previous to thereign of Kaiomurs, and consequently long before themission of Zoroaster, venerated a prophet called Mah-abad, or the Great (rather the Good) Abad, whomthey considered as the father of men . We are toldin the Dabistan that the ancient Persians deemed itimpossible to ascertain who were the first parents of thehuman race . The knowledge of man, they alleged,was quite incompetent to such a discovery : but theybelieved, on the authority of their books, that Mah-abad was the person left at the end of the last greatcycle, and consequently the father of the presentworld . The only particulars they relate of him are,that he and his wife, having survived the former cycle,were blessed with a numerous progeny, who inhabitedcaves and clefts of rocks, and were uninformed ofparture to people the various regions of the earth .-Dr. Barton, Trans .Phil . Soc . Philad . vi . p. 1 .

It follows that Iran or Persia, (I contend for the meaning, not thename,) was the central country which we sought .-Sir W . Jones, AsiaticResearches.

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both the comforts and luxuries of life : that theywere at first strangers to order and government, butthat Mah-abad, inspired and aided by Divine Power,resolved to alter their condition ; and, to effect thatobject, planted gardens, invented ornaments, andforgedweapons . He also taught men to take the fleecefrom the sheep, and to make clothing ; he built cities,constructed palaces, fortified towns, and introducedamong his descendants all the benefits of art andcommerce.

1° Mah-abad had thirteen successors of his own fa-mily ; all of whom are styled Abad, and deemedprophets . They were at once the monarchs and thehigh priests of the country ; and during their reigns,the world, we are informed, enjoyed a golden age,which was, however, disturbed by an act of Azer-abad, the last prince of the Mahabadean dynasty,who abdicated the throne, and retired to a life ofsolitary devotion .

" By the absence of Azer-abad, his subjects wereleft to the free indulgence of their passions, and everyspecies of excess was the consequence. The empirebecame a scene of rapine and of murder . To use theextravagant expression of our author (the Dabistan),the mills, from which men were fed, were turned by thetorrents of blood that flowed from the veins of theirbrothers ; every art and science fell into oblivion ; thehuman race became as beasts of prey, and returned totheir former rude habitations in caverns and mountains .

11 Some sages, who viewed the state of the empirewith compassion, intreated ly-Affram, a saint-like,retired man, to assume the government . This holyman, who had received the title of ly (pure), from hispre-eminent virtues, refused to attend to their request,

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till a divine command, through the angel Gabriel, ledhim to consent to be the instrument of restoringorder, and of reviving the neglected laws and insti-tutions of Mah-abad . ly-Affram founded a newdynasty, which was called the ly-abad ; who, aftera long and prosperous reign, suddenly disappeared,and the empire fell again into confusion . Order wasrestored -by his son, Shah Kisleer, who was withdifficulty prevailed upon to quit his religious retire-ment to assume the reins of government . His suc-cessors were prosperous till the elevation of the lastprince of the dynasty, whose name was Mahabool .This monarch, we are told, was compelled, by theincreasing depravity of his subjects, to resign hiscrown .

" He was succeeded by, his eldest son, Yessan, who,acting under divine influence, supported himself inthat condition which his father had abandoned. Thisprince founded a new dynasty, which terminated inhis descendant, Yessan-Agrin . At the end of hisreign the general wickedness of mankind exceededall bounds, and God made their mutual hostility themeans of the Divine vengeance, till the human race wasnearly extinct . The few that remained had fled towoods and mountains, when the all-merciful Creatorcalled Kaiomurs, or Gilshah, to the throne ."

We only now want a key to unlock the portals ofthis Magh-abadean household ; and I flatter myselfthat this, which I am about to tender, will consum-mate, to an accuracy, that very desirable purpose .

Cain's immediate progeny are they which areincluded under the above denomination . Their faithand worship are exactly symbolised under its deriva-tive dress . Magh, as before explained, is good ; and

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Abad, an unit ; that is, when combined, the GoodOne, or Unit, the author of fruitfulness and produc-tiveness-in which light alone, as all-bountiful andall-generous, was he recognised by this family .

This unity of the Godhead was what was reli-giously comprehended under the Phallic configurationof the Round Tower erections ; and this, furthermore,elucidates that, heretofore enigmatical, declaration ofthe Budhists themselves, viz., that the pyramids, inwhich the sacred relics are deposited, " be their shapewhat it will, are an imitation of the worldly temple ofthe Supreme Being*."

But if Magh-abadean was the name adopted bythem with this spiritual tendency, Tuath-de-danaanwas that which pictured them a sacerdotal institu-tion . The last member of this compound I havealready expounded . It remains that I develope whatthe two first parts conceal .

Tuath, then, is neither more nor less than a dia-lectal modification for Budh, which, according to thelicense of languages, transformed itself, otherwise, andindifferently, into Butt, Butta, Fiod, Fioth, Thot, Tuath,Duath, Suath, Pood, Woad ; and in the two lastforms-of which one is Gothic, and the other Ta-mulic-admitted a final syllable,-which was but aninsignificant termination,-namely, en, making Pood-en and Woad-en ; or Poden and Woden .

In these several variations, and the innumerableothers, which branch, therefrom, while the sensibleidea is preserved underneath, there is superinducedanother of a more refined complexion . Thus, Budh,

* An edifice of this kind, in which the relics of Budha were kept,near Benares, is described by Wilford as about fifty feet high, of acylindrical form, with its top shaped like a dome,

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while it primarily represents the sun, its type, thepenis ; and again, its sign, a tree, expresses, also, theattributes of magic, science, divination, and wisdom .

These were the consequences of that mysteriousgarb in which the priests invested the true elementsof their religion . Being themselves the sole pos-sessors of its inward secrets ; and all literature anderudition going hand in hand, also, therewith, it wasso dexterously managed, that a sort of reverentialfeeling attached, not only to those qualities in theabstract, but to the consecrated personages who weretheir depositories . Hence, while Budh came to sig-nify divination and wisdom, Budha, its professor, did adivine and wise man ; and Tuath, being only a modi-fication of the former epithet, Tuatha is the corre-sponding transmutation of the latter .

Tuatha, therefore, signifies magicians* ; and so wehave the first component of Tuath-de-danaans elu-cidated . The second requires no U dipus to solve it,De being but the vernacular term whereby was ex-pressed the Deity ; and as I have previously esta-blished the import of Danaans to have been Almoners,it follows that the aggregate tenour of this religious-compound-denomination is the Magician-god-almo-ners, or the Almoner-magicians of the Deity .

* " Tuatha Heren tarcaintaisDos niefead sith laitaith nua ."

That is,The magicians of Ireland prophesiedThat new times of peace would come .

I would point your attention to this stanza, not only as confirmatory ofthe solution above given for the word Tuatha, but as furnishing anotherlink in that great chain of analogy, which I have traced between thenames of Ireland and ancient Persia . Haran, in Mesopotamia, is butthe prefixing of an aspirate to Bran, the Pahlavi variation for Iran, theoriginal name for that Sacred Land.

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As from Budh was formed Fiodh, so from Fiodharose Fidhius ; and as t have before shewn that Her-cules and Deus were synonymous terms, and bothpersonifications of the Sun, so, accordingly, we findthat this symbolical adjunct was reciprocally appro-priated to one as to the other .

I dwell upon those terms with the more impressiveforce, because that the spirit of no one of them hasever before been developed . Me Deus Fidhius, and MeHercules Fidhius, we were taught at school to consideras appeals to the God of Truth, and the Hercules ofHonour. Most assuredly those virtues are compre-hended under the radix of the great mysterious Ori-ginal ; but the dictionaries and lexicons that gave usthose significations, knew no more of what that Ori-ginal was, than they did of the connexion betweensoul and body .

Deus Fidhius, then, means God the Budha, and assuch the All-wise, the All-sacred, the All-amiable, andthe All-hospitable ; and Hercules Fidhius, that is,Hercules the Budha, is, in sense and meaning, exactlythe same .

The Latin word Fides, and the English Faith, arebut direct emanations from the same communion . Athousand other analogies must suggest themselvesnow in consequence . In a word, if you go throughthe circle of natural religion and artificial science,-ifyou analyse the vocabulary of conventional taste andof modish etiquette, you will find the constituentparticles, of all the leading outlines, resolve them-selves into the physical symbolization of the radicalBudh .

What inference, I ask my reader, would he drawfrom the above facts ? Unquestionably that at the

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outset of social life, mankind at large had used butone lingual conversation ; and as the Irish is the onlylanguage in which are traced the germs of all thediverging radii-nay, as it is the focus in which allamicably meet-it follows, inevitably, that it musthave been the universal language of the first humancultivators-the nursery of letters, and the cradle ofrevelation.

How charming is divine PhilosophyNot harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,But musical as is Apollo's lute,And a perpetual feast of nectared sweetsWhere no crude surfeit reigns ."

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CHAPTER XIX .

THE Tuath-de-danaans, or Mahabadeans, . being thusfar proved as the first occupiers of Iran, it may beasked, how happens it that no Persian historians,anterior to Mohsan Fani, have noticed their exist-ence ? In the first place, I answer that they all havementioned them, however unconsciously by them-selves, or inadvertently by others . And even had thisnot been the fact-had not a single syllable beenrecorded, bearing reference to their name, the remoteera, in itself, of their detachment from that country,would be the best possible apology for the omission .

The professed writers upon Persia belong all toa recent period ; and the magazines which they con-sulted, for the scanty information which they furnish,were either Arabs or Greeks-the former a body ofpredatory warriors, whose only insight into lettersarose from the opportunities which their rapines hadsupplied them ; and the latter, a community who,insensible to the beauties of moral truth, took delightin distorting even the most commonplace occurrences,into the most unnatural incredibilities and misshapenincongruities .

But independently of these causes, another morepowerful one had, long before, co-operated . A rivaldynasty, starting up from amongst themselves, suc-ceeded, by the issue of a religious revolution, to effecttheir expulsion ; and that once ascertained-the doors

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of admission ever after closed against their return-thevictors were not satisfied with the monopoly of civilpower, but they must wreak their vengeance stillmore, by the erasure of every vestige of the formersway.

In this devastating course, the Round Towers, asthe temples of their figurative veneration, were par-ticularly obnoxious ; and, accordingly, we may beassured, that it was owing to the durability of thoseedifices, and not to the clemency of the assailants,that any one of them has been able to survive thehurricane .

Who, you will ask, were those destroyers? Theywere the Pish-de-danaans . And so energetically didthey prosecute their extinguishing plan, aided, be-sides, by the antiquity of its remote occurrence, thatall writers upon that country, before the compilers ofthe Dabistan, have set them down as its first dynasty,making the Kaianians, the Askanians, and the Sassa-nians, their successors .

Here I am obliged, in compliance with the justiceof my subject, to expose an error of a gentleman,whom I would rather have overlooked .

11 The Tuatha-dadan of the Irish," says Vallancey,are the Pish-dadan of the Persians ;' which he pre-

tends to prove as follows :-" First, then," says he," Tuath and Pish are synonimous in the Chaldee, andboth signify mystery, sorcery, prophets, &c . : they areboth of the same signification in the Irish ; thereforeby Pish-dadan and Tuatha-dadan, I understand theDadanites, descended of Dedan, who had studied thenecromantic art, which sprung from the Chesdim, orChaldeans."

Of a piece with this was his assertion that Nuagha

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Airgiodlamh of the Irish, was Zerdust of the Per-sians ! And wherefore, think you, reader? Because,forsooth, Airgiodlamh signifies silver-band, and Zer-dust, gold-hand ! Yes, but he made out anotheranalogy, and it is worth while to hear it ; viz ., thatNuagha had his hand cut off by a Fir-Bolg general ;while Zerdust's life was taken away by a Turanianchieftain!!!

This is but an item in that great ocean of incerti-tude, in which that enterprizing etymologist had, un-fortunately, been swallowed up. Having perceivedby the perusal of the manuscripts of our country, thatthere must have been a time, when it basked in thesunshine of literary superiority ; yet unable tangiblyto grapple with it, having no clue into the origin ofits sacred repute, or the collateral particulars of itsdate, nature, or promoters, he was tossed about by theferment of a parturient imagination, without thesaving ballast of a discriminating faculty .The General's work, accordingly, is one which

must be read with great reserve ; not because that itdoes not offer many valuable hints, but because thatits plan is so crude, and its matter so ill-digested-thesame thing being contradicted in one place, which wasaffirmed in another, or else repeated interminably,without regard to method or to style-that when youhave waded through the whole, you feel you, havederived from it no other benefit, than that of whettingyour avidity for a correct insight into those subjects,of which the author, you imagine, must have had someidea, but which also, it is evident, however indefa-tigable he was in the attempt, he had not, himself,the power to penetrate .

The great praise, therefore, which I would award

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to this writer, is that, with one leg almost in thegrave, he sat down, in the enthusiasm of a youth-ful aspirant, to master the difficulties of the Irishtongue, which, mutilated though it be, and begrimedby disuse, he knew was, notwithstanding, the onlysure inlet to the genius of the people, as well as tothe arcana of their antiquities, the most precious, asthey are, and fruitful, of any country on the sur-face of the globe .

But though his perseverance had rendered himthe best Irishian of his age, and of many ages beforehim, yet has he committed innumerable blunders,even in the exposition of the most simple words ;and the question now in point will verify this decla-ration, with as much exactitude as any other thatcould be adduced .

Tuath, then, and pish are by no means synony-mous ; neither do they signify mystery or prophets,except in a secondary light . In their originalacceptation, they are the antipodes of each other, asmuch as male is to ftmale, and as relative is to cor-relative * .

They are the distinctive denominations for thegenital organs of both sexes, respectively-Tuath sig-nifying Lingam ; and Pish, Yoni.

-I have already explained that Tuath is but a modi-

fication of the word Budh-the final dh of the latterhaving been changed into the final th of the former,only for euphony ; because that prefixed to de-danaanthe collision of the two d's,-as Bud-de-danaan-would not sound well ; it was, therefore, made Buth-

* General Vallancey was equally ignorant as to the meaning of theadditional words De-danaan .

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de-danaan ; and,-the initials b and t being alwaysconvertible,-hence became Tuath-de-danaan .

The case was exactly opposite with respect topish : I mean so far as the alteration of two of itsletters is concerned . Pith is the usual method ofpronouncing that term : nor is it, except when fol-lowed by a d, that it assumes the other garb . Butas dh, in the former instance, was commuted into th,so th, in this latter, is still farther into sh ; there-fore, instead of Pith- de-danaan, we make it Pish-de-danaan .

To screen those two ligaments of sexual familiarityfrom the peril of profane and irreverent accepta-tions, all the investiture of magic was shroudedupon them . The vocabulary of love and of religionbecame one and the same : mystery and enchantmentwere identified, and the negotiations of the earth,and the revolutions of the heavens, were blendedwith the witchery of amative sway.

In this universality of domain, no one of thosedear helpmates had a greater portion of honourassigned to it, than the other . They were equal inpower, and alike in attributes . And to set thisequality beyond the contingencies of doubt, it waswithal arranged, that while each, primarily, retainedits distinct sexual interpretation, they should both,secondarily, harmonise under another mutual exposi-tion ; and, what more appropriate one could bedevised, than that of the influence which they exer-cised? and of the veil with which they were guarded ?

Magic, therefore, and mystery, were the two se-condary imports, in which both were united ; and theambiguity thus occasioned, was what cast Vallancey

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upon that shoal, which proved similarly fatal to manya preceding speculator.To exemplify-Budh, or Tuath, in its literal and

substantive acceptation, implies the Lingam ; collate-rally, magic ; and by convention, mystery, prophets,legislators, &c. Pish, in like manner, or Pith, de-notes, literally, the Yoni ; collaterally, magic ; andby convention, mystery, prophets, legislators, &c . Andthe offshoots of either, in an inferior and deterioratedview, such as Budh-og from the former, and Pish-ogfrom the latter, intimate, indiscriminately, witchcraft,wizard, or witch .Now the words De-danaans, having been already

illustrated as meaning God-Almoners, if we prefix tothem, severally, Tuath and Pish, they will becomeTuath-de-danaans, and Pish-de-danaans ; the formerexpressing, literally, Lingam-God-Almoners ; and thelatter, literally, Yoni-God-Almoners ; and both equally,by convention, Magic-God-Almoners .

As we have had exhibited numerous representationsof the homage paid to the paternal member of thistheocracy, perhaps I may be permitted to adduce asingle quotation demonstrative of the honours shownto his maternal colleague .

" The Chinese," says the author of I Rites andCeremonies,' " worship a goddess, whom they callPuzza, and of whom their priests give the followingaccount :-They say that three nymphs came downfrom heaven to wash themselves in a river, but scarcehad they got into the water before the herb Lotosappeared on one of their garments, with its coral

* The Lotos was the most sacred plant of the ancients, and typifiedthe two principles of the earth's fecundation combined-the germ stand-ing for the Lingam ; the filaments and petals for the Yoni.

S

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fruit upon it. They were surprised to think whenceit could proceed ; and the nymph, upon whose gar-ment it was, could not resist the temptation of in-dulging herself in tasting it . But by thus eating someof it, she became pregnant, and was delivered of aboy, whom she brought up, and then returned toheaven . He afterwards became a great man, a con-queror and legislator, and the nymph was afterwardsworshipped under the name of Puzza v."

And thus we see that Budh and Pith were theactual regulators of the solar universe .

Time, however, dissolved the chain which linkedtogether those mysterious absolutes : or, rather, thezealots of each contrived to sever an attachment,which was intended, by nature, to be reciprocal andmutual f. War, devastating, desecrating war, spreadabroad over the plain ! Human energies were evokedinto an unknown activity ! Men's passions, alwaysinflammable by the jealousy of partisanship, werehere furthermore stimulated by the rancour of re-ligion ! And hearts were lacerated, and countrieswere depopulated in sustainment of the consequencesof a physiological disquisition!!!

But what do you conceive to have been the topicat issue ? Verily, it was whether the male or the femalecontributed more largely to the act of generation !-those who voted for the female side, ranging them-selves under the banners of Pish, and those for themale under the standard of Budh, while both equally

* This Puzza is nothing more than our Irish Pish : and, what ismiraculously coincident, the title of the enthusiast who annually killssomebody in honour of her, under the name of the goddess Manepa, atTancput, is Phut, or Buth ; that is, the Budh of the Irish !

t Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shallcleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh.-Genesis xi . 24.

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appealed to heaven for adjudication of their suit, byarrogating to themselves the adjunct of De-danaanv,or God-Almoners .

" Not but the human fabric from its birthImbibes a flavour of its parent earth,As various tracts enforce a various toil,The manners speak the idiom of the soil .'

Whether or not, however, the result is to be con-sidered as decisive of the matter in dispute, one thingat least is certain, viz ., that the Pi.rh-God-Almonersobtained the victory ; and the Budh-God-Almonerswere thrown upon the ocean ; over whose bosom,wafted to our genial shores, they did not only importwith them all the culture of the East, with its ac-companying refinement and polished civilization ; butthey raised the isle to that pinnacle of literary andreligious beatitude, which made it appear to thefancies of distant and enraptured hearers, more theday-dream of romance, than the sober outline of anactual locality .

I shall now illustrate a part of those truths by theIndian history of the circumstances, as copied fromtheir Puranas, by one who had no anticipation of mydifferently-drawn conclusions, and one, in fact, whodid not know either the scene or the substance of theoccurrence which he thus transcribes .

" Yoni, the female nature, is also," says . Wilford,derived from the same root (yu, to mix). Many

Pundits insist the Yavanas were so named from theirobstinate assertion of a superior influence in thefemale over the linga or male nature, in producing aperfect offspring . It may seem strange, that a questionof mere physiology should have occasioned not onlya vehement religious contest, but even a bloody war ;

s 2

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yet the fact appears to be historically true, thoughthe Hindu writers have dressed it up, as usual, in aveil of historical allegories and mysteries, which weshould call obscene, but which they consider asawfully sacred .

'1 There is a legend in the Servarasa, of which thefigurative meaning is more obvious . When Sati, afterthe close of her existence as the daughter of Dascha,sprang again to life in the character of Parvati, orMountain Spring, she was re-united in marriage toMahadeva . This divine pair had once a dispute onthe comparative influence of the sexes in producinganimated beings, and each resolved, by mutual agree-ment, to create apart a new race of men * . The raceproduced by Mahadeva were very numerous anddevoted themselves exclusively to the worship of themale deity ; but their intellects were dull, theirbodies feeble, their limbs distorted, and their com-plexions of many different hues . Parvati had, at thesame time, created a multitude of human beings, whoadored the female power only, and were all wellshaped, with sweet aspects and fine complexions . Afurious contest ensued between the two races, andthe .Lingajas were defeated in battle ; but Mahadeva,enraged against the Yon6as, would have destroyedthem with the fire of his eye, if Parvati had notinterposed and spared them t ; but he would spare

* " There is a sect of Hindus, by far the most numerous of any, who,attempting to reconcile the two systems, tell us, in their allegorical style,that Parvati and Mahadeva found their concurrence essential to theperfection of their offspring, and that Vishnu, at the request of the god-dess, effected a reconciliation between them ; hence the navel of Vishnu,by which they mean the os tint-, is worshipped as one and the samewith the sacred Yoni . 't She " made use of the same artifice the old woman, called Baubo,

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26 1

them only on condition that they should instantlyleave the country, with a promise to see it no more ;and from the Yoni, which they adored as the solecause of their existence, they were named Yavanas ."

It is evident that a mistake has been committed inthe above narrative, making the victors the personswho were obliged to quit ! and we know from testi-mony, adduced upon a different occasion, that in-stances of such confusion were neither unfrequentnor uncommon *. But even admitting it to be accu-rate, the apparent contradiction is easily reconciled ;as it is probable, that the contest was protracted for along period of time, before it was ultimately decided infavour of one party ; and, in the alternations of suc-cess, one side being up to-day, and another upper-most to-morrow, what could be more natural thanthat a colony of the Yavanas, or Pish-de-danaans,-which is the same,-should have fled for shelter toIndia, before that the auspices of their arms, propelledby the fair cause which they vindicated, had, at length,accomplished the overthrow of their adversaries .

This object, however, once obtained-full mas-ters of their wishes-and sole arbiters of Iran-theywere not satisfied with the mere extinction of all thesymbols of their predecessors,-save and except theTowers which stood proof to their attacks-but theyestablished there instead a code, as well political asmoral, more consonant with their own prejudices :and the wonder would be great, indeed, if, after this

did to put Ceres in good humour, and showed him the prototype of theLotos . Mahadeva smiled and relented ; but on the condition that theyshould instantly leave the country ."

* But such is the confusion and uncertainty of the Hindu records,that one is really afraid of forming any opinion whatever .-WILFORD.

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triumphant assertion of female power, gratitude andreligion should not both combine in making the typeof that influence-the sacred crescent, or yoni-thepersonification of their doctrines ; and woman herself,all lovely and all-attractive, the concentrated templeof their divinity upon earth !Such was the commencement of the Pish-de-

danaan dynasty in Persia ; and its influence still ope-rating, after a long interval of time, is what the his-torian unconsciously describes in the following terms,viz . . -

G° If we give any credit to Ferdosi, most of thelaws of modern honour appear to have been under-stood and practised with an exception in favour ofthe ancient Persians, whose duels, or combats (whichwere frequent), were generally with the most distin-guished among the enemies of their country or thehuman race. The great respect in which the femalesex was held was, no doubt, the principal cause ofthe progress they had made in civilization . Thesewere at once the cause of generous enterprise and itsreward . It would appear, that in former days thewomen of Persia had an assigned and honourableplace in society ; and we must conclude, that anequal rank with the male creation, which is securedto them by the ordinances of Zoroaster, existed longbefore the time of that reformer, who paid too greatattention to the habits and prejudices of his country-men, to have made any serious alterations in so im-portant an usage . We are told by Quintus Curtius,that Alexander would not sit in the presence of Sisy-gambis till told to do so by that matron, because itwas not the custom in Persia for sons to sit in pre-sence of their mothers . There can be no stronger

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proof than this anecdote affords, of the great respectin which the female sex were held in that countryat the period of . his invasion* ."

Without thee, what were unenlightened man?A savage roaming through the woods and wildsIn quest of prey ; and with the unfashioned furRough clad ; devoid of every finer art,And elegance of life. Nor happinessDomestic, mixed of tenderness and care,Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss,Nor grace, nor love, were his t.

# Sir John Malcolm, vol. i . p . 270.. t Thomson.

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CHAPTER XX.

BUT you will say that I have ventured nothing likeproof, of the paradoxical affirmation propounded ashort while ago, as to the Tuath-de-danaans havingbeen mentioned, by all Eastern writers, in connexionwith Persia ; and yet unnoticed, the while, by them-selves, not less than unheeded by their readers?

True : I but awaited the opportunity which hasjust arrived .

Are you not aware, then, how that all orientalwriters, when referring to Budha, who was born atMaghada, in South Bahar, state that he was the sonof Suad-dha-dana ? And have I not already shownyou. that Suadh and Tuath were but disguises of eachother, and both resolvable into Budh ?

Those first components, therefore, in each beingthe same, look at the entire compound words, Tuath-de-danaan, and Suad-dha-dana, and are not the rest,also, infallibly identical ?

Admitting this, you reply, how could they, in thatearly age, make their way to Ireland ? which, from itsextreme position, must have been the very last placethey would have thought of!

If the question refers to the route pursued, I de-cline its solution, as not necessary for my design .°° A piece of sugar, or a morsel of pepper, in a neg-lected corner of a village inn, would be a certain

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proof," says Heeren, 11 of the trade with either Indies,even if we possessed no other evidences of the com-merce of the Dutch and English with those countries."And when I have already made the coincidences be-tween the two Irans and their inhabitants, their formsof worship, their language and mode of life, to behistorical axioms, I surely cannot be expected towaste labour upon such a trifle, which sinks intonothing against evidences of the actual fact' .

But if the length of the voyage be the obstacleinsinuated, then would I find some difficulty to-dowhat?-keep my muscles grave : as if, forsooth,the adventurous sons of man could only, slowly andimperceptibly, and like so many ants pushing a loadbefore them, introduce themselves, inch by inch, andin measured succession, into the diversified terra-queous globe spread abroad for their enjoyment !-when we have direct demonstration that such wasfar from having been the case, in the instance of acolony, which starting from Tyre, and leaving be-hind, on all sides, the most inviting and deliciouscountries, planted itself down, perhaps, from themere spirit of romance, in the circumscribed littleisland of Cadiz, long before Carthage or Utica hadexistence even in name !No, sir, we must not be so fond of derogating

from the ancients all participation in those embellish-ments which promote society . Asia was the cradleof the whole human race ; and thence, as its popu-

* When history fails in accounting for foreign extraction of anypeople, or where it is manifestly mistaken, how can this extraction bemore rationally inferred and determined, or that mistake rectified, thanfrom the analogy of languages? And is not this at once sufficientlyconclusive, if nothing else was left them ?-Eugene Aram .

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lation overflowed, migratory herds in different statesof civilization, and with different forms of religiousculture; poured in their successive colonies with multi-tudinous inundation into the other "continental lands ;but, with more zeal, and with stronger preference,into those compact little nests which have been sig-nificantly denominated the " Isles of the Gentiles ."

Vessels rode over the briny surges with as prouda canvas as now receives the gale * . The model ofthe ark would be lesson sufficient, to instruct an en-terprising generation in the science of naval archi-tecture : and we may well suppose that, of all pur-suits cultivated by human art, this would have occu-pied the very foremost regard, by a people justrescued, through its salutary instrumentality, fromthe desolating scourge of an all-swallowing abyss .

11 Well, then, at all events,"-I fancy I hear youexclaim,-" you admit the story of the deluge?"

Certainly and that of Noah, and the ark, and thedove, and the raven . But did I not, also, concedethe story of the giants, and of the serpent? of the sonsof God, and of the tree of knowledge? Nay, have Inot put the truth of those particulars beyond the possibi-lity of scepticism, much more of denial ? But, believeme, that the liquid which composed this " deluge"was more of the colour of claret than it was of water;-that there was no more of wood or timber in theconstruction of this " ark" than there was in that ofthe " tree of knowledge"-that those two latter were

* The merchants of Magadha formed not only a particular class, butalso a particular tribe . It seems that they were bold, enterprising, and,at the same time, cautious and circumspect ; hence they are said to bemerchants by the fathers', and warriors by the mothers' side, accordingto Mr. Colebrook's account of the Hindu classes .-Asiat. Res . ix. p . 79 .

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congenial and correspondent to each other, in theirconfiguration and intention,---and that flesh and bloodwere the elements of which they were both com-posed.

For all that meets the bodily sense, I deemSymbolical, one mighty alphabetFor infant minds

Could the coincidence of measure ' between thegreat Egyptian pyramid, at its base, and that of theNoachic ark, in ancient cubits t, have been acciden-tal, do you imagine? And if not, what communityof purpose, do you think, had been subserved by suchnumerical analogy ?The triangle, in the old world, was a sacred form .

It represented the properties-capacity and dilata-tion-of the female symbol. Lucian, in his " Auc-tion," states the following dialogue as having occurredbetween Pythagoras and a purchaser, viz .PYTH. How do you reckon?PUR. One, two, three, four .PYTH. Do you see? What you conceive four,

these are ten ; and a perfect triangle, and our oath .* See " A Dissertation on the Antiquity, Origin, and Design of the

principal Pyramids of Egypt," &c . &c.t Mersennus writes thus :-" I find that the cubit (upon which a

learned Jewish writer, which I received by the favour of the illustriousHugenius, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, supposes the dimensionsof the temple were formed) answers to 231 of our inches ; so that itwants } of an inch of two of our feet, and contains two Roman feetand two digits, and a grain, which is a of a digit." The Paris foot, withwhich Mersennus compared this cubit, is equal to 16 0 of the Englishfoot, according to Mr. Greaves ; and consequently is to the Roman footas 1068 to 967 . In the same proportion, reciprocally, are 23; and25-sa?o . That cubit, therefore, is equal to 25 68 unci€e of the Romanfoot, and consequently falls within the middle of the limits 25150, andfoa~ with which we have just circumscribed the sacred cubit ; so that Isuspect this cubit was taken from some authentic model, preserved in asecret manner from the knowledge of the Christians .-Sir ISAACNEWTON .

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Now, Pythagoras, though a Samian, was edu-cated in Egypt ; and the religious mysteries, withwhich he had been there imbued, are what is so pro-fanely ridiculed by this infidel scoffer .

It is not my province to justify the ceremonial ofthe Egyptians, any further than as indicative of gra-titude to the Godhead but the reflection must sug-gest itself to every observant mind, that they arenever called idolaters in any part of the Pentateuch ;and Plutarch, in addition, positively asserts, that'° they had inserted nothing into their worship with-out a reason,-nothing merely fabulous,-nothingsuperstitious ; but their institutions have referenceeither to morals or something useful in life, and beara beautiful resemblance, many of them, to some factsin history, or some appearance in nature."

If we investigate the secret of this Pythagoreanasseveration, we shall find that the numbers 1, 2, 3,4, thrice joined, and touching each other, as it were,in three angles, in this manner-

•

•

constitute an equilateral triangle, and amount also, incalculation, to ten . While the inward mystery,couched under its figure, embraced all that was so-lemn in religion and in thought, being, in fact, theindex of male and female united-the unit, in thecentre, standing for the Lingam .

Look now at the form of the great Egyptian pyra-mid ; and is it not precisely that of the above tri-angle-? Is there not, also, an aperture into it, about

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the middle as here * ? And when to all, we add thenotion of wells of water withinside, is not the demon-stration complete ; that the goddess of the Lotos, thesoft promoter of desire, the arbitress of man, 'and thecompeer of the angels, was the honoured object ofits symbolical erection t?

In 1 Pet. iii. 20, it is asserted that only " eightpersons" were preserved in the ark . Let us supposethem to have been Noah and his wife, with his threesons and their wives . At a comparatively short inter-val, after the date assigned to this event,-at mostbut 352 years,-on Abraham's arrival in the land ofEgypt, we find a flourishing kingdom, an organisedpolice, a systematic legislature, and comprehensiveinstitutions, diffused over its surface. All the otherparts of the world, we must be ready to presume, ifnot equally enlightened, were, at least, as populous ;and I put it to your good sense to decide, whethereight individuals could, within that period, not onlyprocreate so plentifully as to replenish the wholeearth, but enlighten it, additionally, with such a corus-cation of science, as no subsequent era has beensince able to eclipse ?

Indeed, the Scriptures themselves give us, else-where, to understand that St . Peter did not correctlyinterpret this history . 11 Come thou," says Genesisvii. 1, " and all thy house, into the ark ! " This gra-

* And he brought me to the door of the court ; and when I looked,behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig nowin the wall ; and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door : and hesaid unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they dohere . So, I went in, and saw ; and, behold, every form of creepingthings, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel,pourtrayed upon the wall round about .-EzsuuEL.

t " Inter omnes eos, non constat a quibus factor sint, justissimo casuobliteratis tantee vanitatis authoribus."-PLIN.

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cious invitation, at so critical a juncture, wouldhave been too welcome a proffer, to be lost sight of byany one, who could make it available ; and must notwe suppose that the domestics to whom the extensionwas addressed, with their several dependents andcollateral offspring, would have been glad and happyto grasp at it with delight ?

But the name of the type itself is worth a hundreddeductions from equivocal premises . The coffer ofthe law, the coffin of Joseph, the money chest ofthe temple, are all severally translated ark, and re-corded in Hebrew by the word it7K iron : but the" ark of Noah *," and Moses's " ark of bulrushes'"are peculiarly designated, nsn Thebit, or man tebah l .

What is the meaning of these mysterious terms?" Quo spectanda modo, quo sensu credis, et ore?"

As the Tau of the Hebrews is, indifferently, inpower, T and Th, Thebit has as good a right to bespelled with, as without, an h, at the end of it,-and, indeed, a better right, considering the elementswhereof it is compounded . Thebith, then, is the pro-per and true sound, and the mystery of its import Ithus unravel .

Its first syllable, The, signifies sacred or conse-a,v -Im ,yy non -O Twyrr i-n , r rn tnt w~yhW24 Ptmafl 1=s Y1RT.31 rMomm rnrto w5w rum rnvynMH 0 wary 1-011M -T1114

r1nrr t3+hun r rnGen. vi . 14 .

h Exod. ii . 3 .The Septuagint translators, not perceiving any difference, ren-

dered all, similarly, by the word u w . ic !

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crated* ; and since the letters b and p are commutable---bith is the same as pith, that is, Cteis or Yoni. Thewords The-bith, then, together, in all the attraction oftruth, intimate the consecrated Cteis ; or the sacredYoni fi !

But Pith, itself, is only a conversion of Fidh,--theinitial letters P and F being always interchangeable,and not more so -than the penultimates t and d. AndFidh, in its abstract and original position, such aswe have early seen . it, is masculine, the plural ofBudh, conveying variously the significations of Bin.,gams, trees, and bulrushes. Here, however, where itis feminine, its sex reversed, and the anatomy of naturepourtrayed by the physics of language, the idea ofthe bulrushes alone presents itself ; and the basketin which Moses was saved from the waters, andwhich was made of such reeds, was appropriatelydenominated by this mysterious symbol, as a type ofthe virginity in which the Messiah was to be incar-nated, not less than of the redemption which was toaccrue from his sufferings .

Another stage has been thus advanced ; and lo!the beautiful union which subsists, as to design, be-tween the results of our discoveries, and the consolingassurances of pure Christianity

Let us now proceed a little farther in this course---" Sanctos ausi recludere fontes

and connect these truths with the Tuath-de-danaansand the Pish-de-danaans .

* As does also Tha, To, Ti, Tho, Thu, with their several commu-tables, derivatives, formatives, &c .

t And the Valley of To-phihh, in which human victims were sacri-ficed, thus discloses, in the symbolic secret of its shape, that the propitia-tion of this instrument was the grand object of the sacrificers .

$ Virgil.

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" Noah was a just man," observes the scripturalhistorian, " and perfect in his generations ; and Noahwalked with God s."

The name of this patriarch implies literally aboat .• the character assigned him is not so well un-derstood .

To succeed in the investigation we must haverecourse to the context : and here, the first thingthat strikes us is the observation that the earth wascorrupt before God, and filled with violence ; for allflesh had corrupted his way upon the earth t ."

A passage in the New Testament will be the bestcomment upon this subject, where the patience ofGod with the iniquities of mankind being at lengthexhausted, it is said, that he " gave them over to areprobate mind," " to dishonour their own bodies be-tween themselves V"

But Noah did not participate in those unhallowedabominations, and he, accordingly, " found grace inthe eyes of the Lord § ."

We now, therefore, see the propriety of the nameassigned to his ark Is-and the intimation of approvalconveyed by the divine command of " Come thouand all thy house into it," was but another form ofthe injunction elsewhere conveyed, to the same effect,in the words, " Be ye fruitful and multiply ¶' ."

Noah, then, and Kaiomurs ** were one and the sameperson, the reformer of the human species, and the

* Genesis vi . 9 .

1 Genesis vi . 12 .

: Romans i . 20-24 .§ Genesis vi. 8 .

11 The-bith .

Q Genesis ix . 1 .** This king is stated to have reclaimed his subjects from a state of

the most savage barbarity . ae was, we are told by our author, the sonof Yussan-Ajum, while others call him the grandson of Noah ; allagree in acknowledging him as the founder of a dynasty, which areknown in history as that of the Paishdadian .-SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

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first monarch of the Pish-de-danaan dynasty . Ya-vana was another name appropriated to him, andequivalent with Noah, excepting only that the formeris literal, and the latter figurative . An advantage,however, arises from this difference, for when weknow that Yavana means the yoni, and Noah aboat, and that both were equally characteristic ofthe same individual character, we conclude thatthe latter denomination was but the symbol of theformer,-that, in fact, it was the lunar boat *, or thecrescent, the concha Veneris, and the type of comfort tthat was veiled under the mystery of this ambiguousdevice .

This fact once explained, you have the immediate

solution of those " semicircular implements" so uni-* The Irish name for a boat is baudh, which is only a formative of

pitta .F Genesis v . 29.

T

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versal throughout this island, and which Ledwichacknowledges have created more trouble to theantiquarians to determine their use, than all theother antiquities put together ."

These are all made of the finest gold, and, asemblems of the yoni, which was the Roman palla-dium, used to have been worn as breast-plates by thepriests and sovereigns . They would sometimes, also,exhibit them as ornaments to the head-dress : andwhen so designed, the two terminating angles usedto have been furnished with circular cups, wherebythey would better adhere to the part : of such, like-wise, we have the following specimen .

Yun is the usual mode of pronouncing Yavanna ;

* If the reader will now turn to page 223, will he not think it probablethat the symbol contained on the broken-off portion of the stone, thererepresented, must have been the phallus?

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and as the veneration of posterity for the virtuesof this legislator, at a moment when vice hadthreatened a general decay,--led them to considerhim a god, he hence obtained the prefix of Deo orDeu, which along with that of Cali, whose championhe showed himself, make up the romantic, emblematic,and nominal representation of Deucaliyun t .

Safe o'er the main of life the vessel rides,When passion furls her sails, and reason guides ;Whilst she who has that surest rudder lost,Midst rocks and quicksands by the waves is test ;No certain road she keeps, nor port can find,Toss'd up and down by every wanton wind i."

The struggles for ascendancy between contendingparties are not the growth of a day ; still less arethey unstained by the effusion of blood . Deluge wasno very extravagant hyperbole to apply to such acarnage ; for, independently of our knowing thatevery visitation, whether by fire, water, or sword, wasso denominated by the easterns, we have the Scrip-tures themselves illustrating this use of the term, inapplying it to the description, at a far later period,of an equally severe and no less distressing cata-strophe .

« Now, therefore, the Lord bringeth upon him thewaters of the river, strong and many, even the Kingof Assyria and all his glory ; and he shall come upover all his channels, and go over all his banks . Andbe shall pass through Judah ; he shall overflow and

* Who can forget the fable in Ovid, de jactibus lapidibus 2h But as his descendants gave him his right as to the title of Deva,

and decreed divine honours to be paid to him, we shall henceforth callhim Deva-cala-Yavana ; or, according to the vulgar mode of pronouncingthis compound word, Deo-cal-Yun, which sounds exactly like Deu-calionin Greek .-WILFORD.

* Fielding .T 2

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go over, he shall reach even to the neck ; and thestretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth ofthy land, 0 Immanuel * ."

But how, you ask, account for the marine strata,and other remains, found within the earth's re-cesses?

I answer, they were there, imbedded and inani-mate, before ever man was placed above them as adenizen .

It is clearly ascertained," says Cuvier, " that theoviparous quadrupeds are found considerably earlier,or in more ancient strata, than those of the vivipa-rous class . Thus the crocodiles of Harfleur and ofEngland are found immediately beneath the chalk .The great alligators and the tortoises of Maestrichtare found in the chalk formation, but these are bothmarine animals . This earliest appearance of fossilbones seems to indicate, that dry lands and freshwaters must have existed before the formation of thechalk strata ; yet neither of that early epoch, norduring the formation of the chalk strata, nor evenfor a long period afterwards, do we find any fossilremains of mammiferous land quadrupeds . We beginto find the bones of the mammiferous sea animals,namely, of the lamantin and of seals, in the course ofshell limestone which immediately covers the chalkstrata in the neighbourhood of Paris . But no bonesof the mammiferous land quadrupeds are to be foundin that formation ; and notwithstanding the mostcareful investigations, I have never been able to dis-cover the slightest trace of this class, excepting inthe formations which lie over the coarse limestone

* Isaiah viii . 7-8 .

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strata : but on reaching these more recent formations,the bones of land quadrupeds are discovered in greatabundance.

" As it is reasonable to believe, that shells and fishdid not exist at the period of the formation of theprimitive rocks, we are also led to conclude that theoviparous quadrupeds began to exist along with thefishes, while the land quadrupeds did not begin toappear till long afterwards, and until the coarse shell-limestone had been already deposited, which containsthe greater part of our genera of shells, although ofquite different species from those that are now foundin a natural state . There is also a determinate orderobservable in the disposition of those bones withregard to each other, which indicates a very remark-able succession in the appearance" of "the differentspecies .

" All the genera which are now unknown, as thePalaeotheria, Anapalwotheria, and with the localitiesof which we are thoroughly acquainted, are found inthe most ancient of the formations of which we arenow treating, or those which are placed directly overthe coarse limestone strata . It is chiefly they whichoccupy the regular strata which have been depositedfrom fresh waters, or certain alluvial beds of veryancient formation, generally composed of sand androunded pebbles .

" The most celebrated of the unknown species be-longing to known genera, or to genera nearly alliedto those which are known, as the fossil elephant,rhinoceros, hippopotamos, and mastodon ; are neverfound with the more ancient genera, but are onlycontained in alluvial formations . Lastly-the bonesof species which are apparently the same with those

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that still exist alive, are never found except in lightand alluvial depositions ."

From all which, this philosopher draws the follow-ing just conclusion, viz ., Thus we have a collectionof facts, a series of epochs anterior to the presenttime, and of which the successive steps may beascertained with perfect certainty, though the periodswhich intervened cannot be determined with anydegree of precision. These epochs form so manyfixed points, answering as rules for directing our in-quiries respecting this ancient chronology of theearth ."

To return God said unto Noah, the end of allflesh is come before me ; for the earth is filled withviolence through them ; and, behold, I will destroythem with the earth

Now, we see that the earth has not been destroyed,and this single circumstance, in itself, ought to havebeen enough to show us that the whole register wasbut figurative . The raven and the dove were indis-pensable auxiliaries to the structure of the allegorythe former typifies the massacre that prevailed duringthe period of the contest ; and the latter, in its meekand its tender constancy, the invariable attendant,besides, of Venus and the boat, characteristically pour-trays the overtures made for an accommodation, until,after a second embassy, the olive-branch of peace wassaluted, and the cessation of hostilities was the con-sequence 1- .

Behold, then, the folly of those dreamers whowould make Thebith so called, as if the ark hadrested upon it ! Why, Sir, in the entire catalogue of

* Genesis vii. 2 .

-f Genesis viii . 10-11 .

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local names, there is no one half so common as thatof Thebith and Thebw ! And surely you will notclaim for your ideal man-of-war, in addition to otherproperties, that of ubiquity also, by making it perchupon all those places, at one and the same time

No, these scenes have been all denominated fromthe form of religion which they recognized, and ofwhich the Pith, Yoni, or sacred Boat, was the conven-tional sign : as the countries of Phut, that is, But,and Buotan, were so designated, likewise, from theiradopting the opposite symbol, viz ., the Budh, Phallus,or sacred Lingain !

Perplexed in this entanglement, and tossed aboutin " a sea of speculation," Mr . Jacob Bryant, in somerespects a clever man, after a fatiguing cruise ofsomewhat more than half a century, fell at last avictim in the general shipwreck .

" Your wise men don't know much of navigation .

The Gentiles, says he, worshipped Noah's ark! Yesthey did ; but not in the sense in which he under-stood it * .

Another axiom of his is, that the deluge must havereally happened, because that the tradition of it is

* The following is an abstract of the Hindoo version of this allegory,as copied from their Puranas :" Satyavrata, having built the ark, andthe flood increasing, it was made fast to the peak of Nau-baudha, witha cable of a prodigious length. During the flood, Brahma, or thecreating power, was asleep at the bottom of the abyss : the generativepowers of nature, both male and female, were reduced to their simplestelements, the Linga and the Yoni. The Yoni assumed the shapeof the hull of a ship, since typified by the Argha, whilst the Lingabecame the mast. In this manner they were wafted over the deep,under the care and protection of Vishnu. When the waters had retired,the female power of nature appeared immediately in the character ofCapoteswari, or the dove, and she was., soon joined by her consort, inthe shape of Capoteswara ."

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universal ! To this, also, I chime in my affirmativeresponse, and proclaim, yea . But the tradition of thetree of knowledge is equally universal. And thoughthe ground-work of both occurred, and was substan-tively true, yet was the description of neither more thana graceful allegory ; while the salutary alarm im-parted under this guise, and the monitory lessonsuggested by its horrors, in amusing the fancy, edifiedit, at the same moment, by keeping before it a pictureof that spiritual desolation, which sin leaves in thecitadel of the soul * .

C' Moses," says the Apostle, " was learned in allthe wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty inwords and in deeds i ."

Now Strabo assures us that the Egyptians of hisday were as ignorant, as he- was himself, of the originof their religion, of the import of their symbols, andof their national history. They pretended to retainsome evanescent traces thereof in the time of Dio-dorus ; but so scrupulously exact were they in theconcealment of their tenour, that to pry into them,profanely, was morally impossible .

Herodotus himself, who neglected no channel ofinformation, found it no easy matter to glean a fewinitiatory scraps from them. And even these wereaccompanied with such solemn denunciations, thathis embarrassment is betrayed when but alluding totheir tendency .

If, during Moses's residence at Pharaoh's court,his opportunities of insight were greater, it is still self-evident that the accomplishments which he obtainedwere more of a secular character than of a religious

* See page 63 .

•F Acts vii. 22 .

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cast-that the courtier was the first object of theyoung princess's directions, and the qualifications ofthe statesman her next ambition for her charge . Themysteries of the priests were too awful, and too sanc-tified, to be debased to the routine of a school-boy'srehearsal ; and even when ripening age did bespeaka more chastened mind, the communication of theircontents was obscured by the interposition of analmost impenetrable umbrage .

Thus palliated by types, Moses did, however, im-bibe from the Egyptians all the knowledge whichthey then possessed of the nature of their ceremonies ;and the record of the fall, the deluge, and the creation,are the direct transcripts of the instruction so con-veyed . But though it is undeniable, from theirsymbols, that the Egyptians must have been wellapprised of the constitution of those rites, yet am I assatisfied as I am of my physical motion, that the fold-ings of that web, in which they were so mysticallydoubled, was lost to their grasp in the labyrinths ofantiquity .

Moses, therefore, could not have learned from theEgyptians more than the Egyptians themselves hadknown. He related the allegory as lie had receivedit from them : and it is, doubtless, to his ignorance ofits ambiguous interpretation, accessible only throughthat language in which it was originally involved, thatwe are indebted for a transmission, so essentiallyIrish .

The Pish-de-danaan dynasty which rose upon theruins of the Tuath-de-danaans, in Iran, was itself, inafter ages, ejected from that country . Egypt was theretreat of their shattered fortunes ; and there, duringtheir abode, under the name of the Shepherd-kings,

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they erected the Pyramids, in honour of Pith, orPadma-devi, but at an age long anterior to what maybe presumed from Manetho * .

Previously, however, to their arrival in Egypt,Shinaar in Mesopotamia afforded them an asylum .Here it was that Nimrod broke in t : and, as I havebefore but transiently glanced at that circumstance, Ishall now revert to it with more precision .

Between the - tenets of the Pish-de-danaans andthose of their Tuath-de-danaan predecessors, therewas but a single point of dissentient belief . Thelanguage, the customs, the manners and modes oflife of both were the same . To all intents and pur-poses they were one identical people .

But as the former had imagined that the Yonialone was the author of procreation, while the othersclaimed that honour for their own symbol, theLingam, an animosity ensued, which was not allayedeven by the consciousness, that each, secretly, wor-shipped the type of the other's creed .The goddess, however, prevailed in the struggle,

and her glories in Iran were great and far spread .Monarchs bowed at the nod of her omnipotence, andthe earth swelled with the gestations of her praise 1.* The date of those Uksi was not the only misconception this historian

has committed . He was equally in the dark as to the place whencethey came, and, for want of a better name, 'called them, at a venture,Arabians

'h Seepage 64 .* Most of the oracles in the ancient world were but personifications

of this influence-the goddess invariably being the sacred Yoni . Andthe priestesses so far prevailed upon the credulous worshippers as tomake them believe that she actually spoke ! The oracle of Delphi, themost venerable in all Greece, obtained its name from the very thing-the first syllable De, signifying divine or sacred ; and the second phi,i . e., phith, yoni : the letter l having been inserted only for euphony .Even in the Greek language this import is not yet lost .

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" Sed ultima dies semper homini est expectanda ." Arude and a lawless swarm of stragglers, headed by anadventurer of commanding abilities and determinedheroism, deluged, in turn, the Boatmen, or the Noa-chidw *, and swamped them in a flood, as sanguinaryand as disastrous, as that which they had, themselves,before, brought upon the adversaries of their zeal .

But it was not the bloodshed of the scene thataffected them half so much as the insult offered bythe erection of- the Tower f And as no clue can beso adequate for the analysis of this enigma, as thatwhich they themselves have bequeathed-for it wasfrom the Yavanas or Pish-de-danaans that Moses hadbeen taught the fact-I shall place such before youreyes, in all the eloquence of a self-interpreting dis-syllable .

S-y1ri is the name by which the scriptural record

* As Noah was himself named from the symbolical boat, so was hiseldest son Japheth, from its sanctified prototype . Ja-Phith signifiesconsecrated to Pith, or the Yoni . And again, his son's name, Ja-van,means consecrated to woman .1 " In the city of Babylon there is a temple with brazen gates, con-

secrated to Jupiter Belus, being four square ; and each side being twofurlongs in length. In the midst of this holy place there is a solidtower, of the thickness and height of a furlong ; upon which there is an-other tower placed, and upon that another ; and so on, one upon another,insomuch that there are eight in all . On the outside of these there aresteps or stairs placed, by which men go up from one tower to another .In the middle of these steps there are resting-places ; and rooms weremade for the purpose, that they who go to the top may have conveniencesto sit down and rest themselves.'-HEROnoTUS.

1"Tis a tower exactly round, in form of a cone, or round pyramid ; thediameter, or thickness at the base, being 81 feet ; the circumference, orway round, 2541 feet ; the height perpendicular likewise 81 feet, equalto the diameter ; the height likewise, oblique, 901 feet ; and the anglesof the sides equal to those of the former design : the whole likewise amass of brick and bitumen work, amounting to 140,589 cubic feet,upon 5207 square ."-MARK GREGORY.

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perpetuates this structure * . If you put this intoEnglish letters, and read them regularly, from left toright, it will be Lidgam . But the Hebrews read inthe opposite direction, from right to left ; and thatis the very cause of the appearance of the d in theword ; for as Magnil-reading backwards-wouldproduce a cacophony, the n of the original was leftout, and d substituted, making Magdil : reinstate,therefore, the n, and enunciate the Hebrew word,as you would the Irish or the Sanscrit, and it willnot only unmask the secret of this long disputededifice, but be, sound, and personate, in all the nicetyof accentuation, Lingam, and thus prevent all furthercontroversy about the character of the Tower ofBabel .

The waies through which my weary steps I guide,In this researche of old antiquitie,

Are so exceeding riche, and long, and wyde,And sprinkled with such sweet varietie,

Of all that pleasant is to eare and eye,That I, nigh ravisht with rare thought's delight,

My tedious travel quite forgot thereby ;And when I gin to feel decay of might,

It strength to me supplies and cheers my dulled spright t .

* Genesis xi . 4.'h Spenser's Faerie Queene .

2 8 5

CHAPTER XXI.

I HAVE stated that it was from the Pish-de-danaansor Yavana philosophers of Egypt that Moses hadlearned the-allegories of the Deluge and of the Fall .I now add, that it was by them also he had beeninstructed in that consolatory assurance which told himthat the " seed of the woman should bruise theserpent's head * ."

In truth, it was this very promise made to theancestors of those people in Paradise, which is butanother name for Iran fi, that gave rise to the schismbetween them and the Tuath-de-danaans . .

11 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiplythy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shaltbring forth children ; and thy desire shall be to thyhusband, and he shall rule over thee $ ."

The nature of the crime is here clearly denoted bythe suitableness of the punishment § . But the sameover-ruling Judge, who, in conformity with his justice,could not but chastise the violation of his injunctions,yet, in mercy to man's weakness, and seeing that" he also is flesh," condescended to promise that the

s Shiloh is an Irish word, literally meaning seed, and additionallyshowing that it was in our sacred language all those occurrences wereoriginally named.

t Both words equally signify the happy country, or the sacred land.$ Genesis iii . 15 .§ See chap. xvii., page 229 .

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instrument of his seduction should be also the vehicleof his redeeming triumph .

<< I will put' enmity between thee (the serpent) andthe woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; itshall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise hisheel *."

Pinning their faith upon the literal fulfilment ofthese terms, which told them that the female, assuch, would be the unaided author of a being, whosehealing effects would restore them to the inheritanceso heedlessly forfeited, their veneration for thatsymbol of divine interposition became correspond-ingly unbounded ; and their enthusiasm, for the prin-ciple of its strict verification, was what engenderedthe thought, that, in the general procreating scheme,the yoni was the vivifier .

The Tuath-de-danaans, or Lingajas, on the otherhand, were not less satisfied in their security ; butlooking upon the terms with a more spiritual inter-pretation, and led by the operation of ordinary phy-sics, to consider the question as a deviation from thegeneral rule, they erected the symbol of male capabilityas the standard of their doctrine . And thus whilethe zeal of both parties shook the very frame-work ofsociety, yet did they concur in all the essentials oftheir respective religions ; and even the particularsof that prospect by which they were both sustained,instead of operating as an exception to the univer-sality of this truth, only confirm its import .

The Jews, who were but newly brought forwardupon the stage, and who, in the inscrutable councilsof heaven, were selected as the objects of God's

•

Genesis iii . 15 .

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immediate superintendence, being informed of thetenour of the Paradisaical hope, abused it more wan-tonly than ever did the Pish-de-danaans or the Tuath-de-danaans .

Unable to comprehend, from their narrow mentalcalibre, any agency in the form of a divine emanation,and yet fancying, each of them, that she wouldherself be the mother of the expected Redeemer,their women indulged in all the lusts of desire, and,where no opportunity offered for licensed gratification,revelled in the arms of incest .

This alone can apologize for that intensity ofpassion, exceeding even the dictates of natural thirst,and unrestrained by the consideration of decency orconsanguinity, whereof we read in the Old Testament,respecting the Israelitish daughters * ; while it alsodemonstrates, that the carnality of their souls did notallow them, thoroughly, to understand the precisenature of the favour designed .

Far otherwise the case with the intellectual races,which they were now appointed to supersede .

`< In order to reclaim the vicious, to punish theincorrigible, to protect the oppressed, to destroy theoppressor, to encourage and reward the good, and toshow all spirits the path to their ultimate happiness,God has been pleased to manifest himself, say theBrahmins, in a variety of ways, from age to age, inall parts of the habitable globe . When he actsimmediately, without assuming a shape, or sendingforth a new emanation, when a divine sound is heardfrom the sky, that manifestation of himself is calledacasavani, or an etherial voice : when the voice pro-

* Genesis xix. 31, 32, 33, 34 .

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ceeds from a meteor, or a flame, it is said to be agna-rupi, or formed of fire ; but an avatars is a descent ofthe Deity in the shape of a mortal ; and an avantarais a similar incarnation of an inferior kind, intendedto answer some purpose of less moment . The SupremeBeing, and the celestial emanations from him, areniracara, or bodyless, in which state they must be invi-sible to mortals ; but when they are pratya-sha, orobvious to sight, they become sacara, or embodied,either in shapes different from that of any mortal, andexpressive of the divine attributes, as Christinarevealed himself to Arjun ; or in a human form,which Chrishna usually bore, and in that mode ofappearing, the deities are generally supposed to be bornof women without any carnal intercourse * ."

Is this repugnant to the spirit of Christianity ?No ; it is its counterpart . " I know," says Job, in themoment of inspiration, that my Redeemer liveth I%"Prophetically, you reply ; and you back the opinionby our Saviour's own appeal, that " Abraham saw hisday and was glad I."

Abraham, certainly, believed by anticipation, butJob by retrospection . And if you will not think myassertion decisive of the matter, I will produce anauthority to which you will more readily subscribe .

`c And all that dwell upon the earth shall worshiphim whose names are not written in the book of lifeof the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world § ."

It will be in vain for you to attempt to parry theevidence of this startling text . No visionary fore-sight will accomplish its defeat . no ideal substitutionswill shake its validity .

* Asiatic Researches.

-f Job xix . 25 .John viii . 56 .

§ Revelation xiii. 8.

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" How it came to pass," says Skelton, " that theEgyptians, Arabians, and Indians, before Christ cameamong us, and the inhabitants of the extreme northernparts of the world, ere they had so much as heard ofhim, paid a remarkable veneration to the sign of thecross, is to me unknown, but the fact itself is known .In some places this sign was given to men accusedof a crime, but acquitted : and in Egypt it stood forthe signification of eternal life *."

" V. W." has asserted something similar t ; butneither one nor the other has attempted to fathom its.origin .

`` The Druids," adds Schedius, " seek studiouslyfor an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up withtwo principal arms, in form of a cross, beside themain stem upright. If the two horizontal arms arenot sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten across-beam to it . This tree they consecrate in thismanner. Upon the right branch, they cut in thebark, in fair characters, the word Hesus : upon themiddle or upright stem, the word Taramis : upon theleft branch, Belenus : over this, above the going off ofthe arms, they cut the name of God, Thau : under all,the same repeated Thau i."

" The form of the great temple," observes Dr .Macculloch, " at Loch Bernera, in the Isle of Lewis,the chief isle of the Hebrides, is that of a cross, con-taining, at the intersection, a circle with a centralstone ; an additional line being superadded on oneside of the longest arms, and nearly parallel to it .

* Appeal to Common Sense, p . 45 .h See Chap . xvi. p . 224 .De Morib. German . xxiv .

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Were this line absent, its proportion would be nearlythat of the Roman cross, or common crucifix ."

And then, in reply to the supposition of its havingbeen converted by the Christians into this form, heavers that " the whole is too consistent, and too muchof one age, to admit of such ; while at the same time,it could not, under any circumstances, have beenapplicable to a Christian worship. Its essential part,the circular area, and the number of similar struc-tures found in the vicinity, equally bespeak its ancientorigin. It must, therefore, be concluded, that thecruciform shape was given by the original contriversof the fabric ; and it will afford an object of specula-tion to antiquaries, who, if they are sometimes ac-cused of heaping additional obscurity on the records ofantiquity, must also be allowed the frequent - merit ofeliciting light from darkness . To them I willinglyconsign all further speculations concerning it* .". . . " Yetit seems unquestionable that the figure of a cross wasknown to the Gothic nations, and also used by thembefore they were converted to Christianity t"

I do not know whether or not would the Doctordeem me an " antiquary," or if he did, in which classwould he assign me a place . I will undertake, not-withstanding, to solve this difficulty with as muchprecision as I have the others before it .The existence of the " cross," and its worship, an-

terior to the Christian era, being no longer liable todispute, it remains only that we investigate the causewhich it commemorates t .

* Western Islands, vol . i. p. 184, &c.'h Highlands, voL iii. p . 136 .

'° I inquired," says Mr . Martin, of the inhabitants, what traditionthey had concerning these stones ; and they told me, it was a place

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Our first aid in this research will be the notice ofits accompaniments ; and when we find that it goesever in the train of a particular divinity, are we notcompelled to connect that divinity with the idea of acrucifixion ?

Taut, amongst the Egyptians, is emblemized bythree crosses* . The Scandinavians represent theirTeutales by a cross . And a cross is the device bywhich the Irish Tuath is perpetuated .

But these are all one and the same name, variedby the genius of the different countries . The centrefrom which they diverge, as well as the focus to whichthey return, I have shown to be Budh : and as thissymbol of his worship is universally recognized, doesnot the crucifixion thus implied, identify his fate withthat of the " Lamb slain from the beginning of theworld t?"

The Pythonic allegory which the Greeks have soobscured, in reality originated in this religious trans-action. For what is their fable? Is it not that Apolloslew with his arrow the serpent Python? And asApollo means son of the Sun, is not the substance ofthe whole, that the offspring of a virgin's womb-thatis, an emanation of the Sun, or Budh-overcame by his

appointed for worship in the time of heathenism ; and that the chiefDruid stood near the big stone in the centre, from whence he addressedhimself to the people that surrounded him .

* United at the feet in this manner FT', .i . The jewel in the free-masons royal arch is thus formed. Noah was a freemason ; and beingthe inventor of that mysterious and sacredly-religious ceremony, calledthe Deluge, we may be satisfied that all the secrets of that body bearreference to my developments . I look upon their institution as mostsolemn and majestically sublime .t In the accounts transmitted to us of the various Buddhas, no term

occurs more commonly as descriptive of their innocence and their meek-ness than that of lamb .

u 2

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own death-typified by an arrow-sin and sensuality,of which the serpent, i . e. pith, is the symbol?

We are now prepared for the reception of thatchronicle, transmitted through the Puranas, andnoticed already at page 221 ; viz., that a " giant,named Sancha-mucha-naga, in the shape of a snake,with a mouth like a shell, and whose abode was in ashell, having two countenances, was killed by Christnab ."The very name of this allegoric giant " indicates

the mysterious snake-his being in the form of asnake is but the personification of sensuality-his hav-ing a mouth like a shell alludes to the concha Veneris,or the Pith--his having his abode in that shell denotesits being the seat of temptation-his having two coun-tenances implies the disguise which sin assumes-andhis being slain by Christnah denotes that the Son ofGod, by mortification and self denial, and the most rigidabstinence from all worldly pleasures, verified, in hisown person, the promise made in Paradise, and forthe minor disquietudes which guilt entails-expressedby the " heel" being "° bruised" by the " serpent,"-inflicted a blow, which laid low his empire, andstamped the signal of victory over his " head *."

"° Ye search the Scriptures," says our Saviour, " forin them ye think ye have eternal life : and they arethey which testify of me fi ."

Testification can be made only in the case of a pastoccurrence . It is never used in the way of prophecy .And in conformity with its true import, you will find,from Genesis to Revelation, the concurrent tenor ofthe Sacred Volume giving proof to the fact of Christ'sformer appearance upon the earth as man

But suppose me for a moment to descend from this* Gen. iii . 15 .

1 Luke iii . 39 .

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position, and view those previous manifestations asordinary subjects of history, then hear an outlineof what is transmitted to us respecting one of them .

Chanakya, Zacha, or, as our registers have it,Macha *, one of the personifications of Budh, thegeneral appellative of those heaven-sent devotees,was so startling a paragon of human impeccability, asto inspire his followers with the conviction, of hisbeing an incarnation of the Godhead .

He is stated to have been the son of one of themost powerful of eastern kings ; but, according totheir preconceived notions of the future Redeemer,born of his mother without any knowledge of theother sex .

The circumstances attendant upon his infantineeducation, and the precocity of his parts, favoured aninauguration upon which their fancies had been longriveted . After a laborious ordeal of pious austerity,not without miraculous proofs and other intimationsof Divine approval, he was duly admitted to thehonour of canonization, and entered, accordingly,upon his task of consigned Saviour of the world .

The encounters with which he had to contend, inthis uphill work, against flesh and blood, were thosewhich were, afterwards, again combated by theadmitted Saviour whom he had personated . Thesame faults he reprehended ; the same weakness hedeplored ; the same hypocrisy he rebuked ; and thesame virtues he inculcated . The purification of theinner spirit was the object which both professed, andthe improvement of human morals in social inter-course and relation, the evidence in practice, uponwhich both equally insisted .

See page 131 .

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If Christ promised a heaven to the votaries of histruths, Budha did a nirwana to his disciples andimitators : and though the former place, to our ima-gination, sounds replete with all delights, while thelatter is merely figured as exempt from all painfulness,yet both agree in one particular, not a little soothingto wounded hope, in being essentially such, as wherethe wicked cease from troubling, and where the

weary are at rest ."But great as was the resemblance which the per-

sonal example and the doctrinal lessons of Macha andChrist bore to one another, it was as nothing com-pared to the almost incredible similitude of theirrespective departures . They both died the inglo-rious death of the cross to reconcile man to hisoffended Creator ; and in confident dependence uponthe best authenticated assurance, exulted on theoccasion, however galling the process, of expiating,by their own sufferings, the accumulated sins ofhumanity.

Is it to be wondered at, therefore, that the traceswhich they have left behind them, in their differentages, should bear an analogy to one another ? Orwould not the wonder rather be that they did not,in all respects, harmonise?

" Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian," saysthe Rev. Mr. Maurice, " be offended at the _ preced-ing assertion, that the cross was one of the most usualsymbols among the hieroglyphics of Egypt andIndia. Equally honoured in the Gentile and theChristian world, this emblem of universal nature, ofthat world to whose quarters its diverging radiipointed, decorated the hands of most of the sculp-tured images in the former country, and in the latter

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stamped its form upon the most majestic of the shrinesof their deities * ."Thefact alone is here attested to : not a syllable is

said as to the reason why : and though I cannot butrecognise the scruples of the writer, nor withhold myadmiration from the rotundity in which the dictionhas been cast, yet the reader must have seen that, asto actual illustration, it is,-like the Rev. Mr. Deane'sflourish about the worship of the serpent-Vox et p-rty-terea nihil t ! "

~~ You do err, not knowing the Scriptures ," saida master, without pride, and who could not err . If theremark applied in his day, it is not the less urgent inours. So astounding did the correspondence betweenthe Christian and the Budhist doctrines appear tothe early missionaries to Thibet and the adjacentcountries-a correspondence not limited to merepoints offaith and preceptorial maxims, but exhibit-ing its operation in all the outward details of form,the inhabitants going even so far as to wear crossesaround their necks-that Thevenot, Renaudot, La-croze, and Andrada, have supposed, in their igno-rance of the cause of such affinity, that Budhismmust have been a vitiation of Christianity beforeplanted ; whereas Budhisnn flourished thousands ofyears before it, or Brahminism either ; and this crosswas the symbol of Budha crucified .

~~ Our second illustration," says the ` Dublin PennyJournal,' referring to what I have here introduced,11 belongs to a later period, and will give a good ideaof the usual mode of representing the Saviour, whe-

* Indian Antiquities, vol . ii. p . 361 .H See chapter xvi . p . 221 .

7 Matthew xxii . 29 .

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ther on stone crosses, or on bronze, which prevailedfrom the sixth to the twelfth century . Such remains,however, are valuable, not only as memorials of thearts, but as preserving the Celtic costume of a portion

of the inhabitants of our island in those remote ages .It will be seen that in this, as in one of the shrine-figures before given, the kilt, or philibeg, is dis-

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tinctly marked, and controverts the erroneous assertionof Pinkerton, formerly noticed, that " it was alwaysquite unknown amongst the Welsh and Irish * ."

How others may receive it, I do not know ; but formyself, I confess, I find it no easy matter to maintainthe composure of my countenance at this affectedpomposity of censorial magniloquence . The self-com-placency of the censor one could tolerate with ease, ifthe assumption of the historian had aught to supportit . But alas ! every position in the extract is thedirect opposite of truth, with the exception of thatwhich asserts another person's error ; and even thisis beclouded with such egregious obscurations as toshow, that leaving Pinkerton to Pt would beconsigning the blind to a blinder conductor .

For, in the first place, the philibeg was not a Celticcostume at all, but belonged to the De-danaan, orIranian colony T, who, on their overthrow here, tookit with them to what is now called Scotland . TheFirbolgs, who were Celts, and occupied this islandbefore the Iranians, wore another style of dress alto-gether, which, on the re-conquest of the country bythe Scythian swarms, B.C . 1000, became again thenational uniform . For the Firbolgs, having assistedthe Scythians in dislodging the Iranians from thethrone of the kingdom, and agreeing with them fur-thermore in point of worship and of garb, they didnot only make their own habits, as well of religion asof dress, universal throughout the realm, but oblite-rated every vestige of the obnoxious costume, andcancelled every symptom of its characteristic cere-

* Vol . i . page 308, on the article " Fine Arts"t The initial subscribed to the article .

* See Appendix .

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monial, except alone those Round Temples of ada-mantine strength, which defied the assailment of allviolence and batteries .

There was no remnant, therefore, of the kilt to bemet with in Ireland, either in the sixth century, or inthe twelfth, or indeed for many centuries before theChristian era at all . This effigy *, therefore, couldnot have been intended for our Saviour, wanting, be-sides, the I. N. R. I . f, and wearing the Iranian regalcrown, instead of the Jewish crown of thorns . There-fore are we justified in ascribing it to its owner,Budha, whom again we find imprinted in the samecrucified form, but with more irresistibility of identifi-cation, over the monuments of his name-over thedoors and lintels of the temples of his worship .

* Like the two former effigies, at pages 138 and 140, it is made ofbronze, and found in Ireland after the Tuath-de-danaans . Those foundafter their brethren in the East are made of the same metal . " Some-times," says Archer, " the images are of wood or stone, but these, unlesspossessing the rarity of some monkish legend, are not in such repute astheir brothers of brass ."

-h This is the only peculiar monogram of Jesus Christ-I. H. S. be-longing originally to Budha, though appropriated afterwards to him.T H z was its proper form, and it comprehended a mysterious number,as follows :-

T .H

4008

200

608Another monogram of Budha was 4, P H. It composed the same

numerical enigma, viz.-41 .

.

.

.

500P 100H . .

8

608Salve vera Deum facies, vultusque paternm,Octo et sexcentis numeris, cui litera trinaConformet sacrum nomen, cognomen et omen .

MARTIANUS CAPELLA .

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III IIllIlI

ii

r

299

Mr. Gough, describing this edifice, tells us that " Onthe west front of the tower (Brechin) are two arches,one within the other, in relief . On the point of theoutermost is a truefix, and between both, towards themiddle, are figures of the Virgin Mary and St . John,the latter holding a cup with a lamb . The outer

300

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arch is adorned with knobs, and within both is a slitor loop . At bottom of the outer arch are two beasts

couchant . If one of them, by his proboscis, was notevidently an elephant, I should suppose them the sup-porters of the Scotch arms . Parallel with the crucifixare two plain stones, which do not appear to havehad anything upon them *."

Captain Mackenzie, in his antiquities of the Westand South Coast of Ceylon, which still professes ad-herence to Budhism, tells us that " at each side of thedoorway (of the temple at Calane), inclosed in recessescut in the wall, are two large figures, the janitors of thegod (Budh) . . . . A large elephant's tooth and a smallelephant of brass form the ornament of a lampstead . . . .A female figure of the natural size, decently and notungracefully arrayed in the same garb, was repre-sented standing in another quarter, holding a lamp inthe extended hand . The gallery was entirely coveredwith paintings, containing an history of the life ofBoodhoo-one of these seemed to represent the birthof the divine child . A large white elephant made aconspicuous figure in most of these assemblies fi ."

Scotch arms, indeed ! Why, Sir, those animalswere recumbent there, in deified transfiguration,before ever Pict or Scot had planted a profane footwithin their neighbourhood . What connexion, letme ask, could this elephant and this bull have withChristianity, to entitle them to the honour of beinggrouped with our Saviour? Or, if any, how hap-pens it that we never see them enter into similarcombinations, in churches or chapels, or convents orcathedrals t ?

* Arch. Soc. Ant . Lond . vol. ii . p. 8 3 .t Asiatic Researches.

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But if they belong not to the Christian ceremonial,they do to something else . They are the grand, dis-tinctive and indispensable adjuncts of Budhism ; beingthe two animals into which, according to its doctrine ofmetempsychosis, the soul of Budha had entered after hisdeath .

This was the origin of the Egyptian Apis : andwho is not familiar with the honours lavished uponthe sacred bull ? To this day the elephant is wor-shipped in the Burman empire *, where the geniusof Budism still lingeringly tarries ; and "Lord of theWhite Elephant" is the proudest ensign of powerclaimed by the successors to the throne of Pegu .The human figures, then, of course, cannot be

intended for " St. John or the Virgin Mary." Theyrepresent Budha's Virgin Mother, along with hisfavorite disciple, Rama . And thus does the testimonyof Artemidorus, who flourished l04 years before Christ,a native himself of Ephesus, and who did not him-self understand the mystery of that Virgin whom hehistorically records, receive illustration from my proof,while it gives it confirmation in return .

His words are-" Adjacent to Britain there standsan island, where sacred rites are performed to Ceresand the Virgin, similar to those in Samothrace ."

Initiation in the principles of this Samothracianceremonial was thought so necessary an accomplish-

* " He has a separate apartment, shrouded from vulgar eyes by ablack velvet curtain, richly embossed with gold, in a splendid palace atUmmerapoor : and his whole residence is as dazzling and sumptuous asgold and silver can make it . He is furnished with a silk bed, adornedwith gold tapestry, hangings, and jewellery, and has his gold appurte-nances . Foreign ministers are introduced to his sacred person, and heranks before every member of the royal court except the king ."-SYbIES .

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ment for every hero and every prince, that no aspi-rant to those distinctions ever ventured upon his des-tination, without first paying a visit to that religiousrendezvous . The solemnity, attaching to the ritualthere performed, was not greater than the venerationpaid to the place itself. All fugitives found shelterwithin its privileged precincts, and the name ofsacred was assigned it, as the ordinary characteristicof such sanctuaries * .

" There are," says the Scholiast upon Aristo-phanes, " two orders of mysteries celebrated in thecourse of the year, in honour of Ceres and theVirgin-the lesser and the greater ; the formerbeing but a sort of purification and holy preparationfor the latter i ."

Who this Virgin was, however, none but theinitiated ever presumed to investigate, the practiceobserved in respect to her, being the same as thatwhich influenced the other ordinances of antiquityand which made Strabo himself declare, that " allthat can be said concerning the gods must be by theexposition of old opinions and fables : it being the cus-tom of the ancients to wrap up in enigma and allegorytheir thoughts and discourses concerning nature, whichare, therefore, not easily explained i."

Proclus also says, " In all initiations and myste-* It was only as an epithet that the title sacred could apply to Samo-

thrace : and as such, every other locality, wherein those mysteries werecommemorated, shared it in common . But in this our island, to whichArtemidorus above alludes, and where superior solemnity attended thecelebration, the name of sacred was no adventitious clause, but, parexcellence, the constituent essence of its proper appellation.-See pages128, 9 .

f MuoTnQI' hp

o Tsasrra4 Tou EV1auToU ; AnpunTe4 Kai Koen ; Ta p icea Ka, Tapcsyaxa. Kai sari Ta fAlKea aoxse orPOZZOaeor ; Mai sreayviuvs; Tar (<syaXar .$ Lib . x . p. 474 .

THE ROUND TOWERS . 303

ries, the gods exhibit themselves under many forms,and with a frequent change of shape ; sometimes aslight defined to no particular figure ; sometimes in ahuman form ; and sometimes in that of some othercreature s."

With the clue, however, already afforded, we neednot be deterred from approaching her fane . Theallegorical name, under which they disguised her,was that of Proserpine : whom they represent sobeautiful that the father of the gods himself becameenamoured of her, and deceived her by changing him-self into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths i' ."

This was the Greek perversion of the narrative .They had received it from the Pelasgi, under thegarb of a conception, by serpentine insinuation, in avirgin womb : and, the grossness of their intellectsnot allowing them to comprehend the possibility ofan emanation, yet giving unqualified credence tothe record, they degraded altogether the religious-ness of the thought, and supposed that the Almighty,to effectuate his design, had actually assumed thecobra di capello form !

So austere was the rule, by which those mysterieswere protected, that ./Eschylus but barely escaped dis-cerption within the theatre, for an imagined disrespectto their tendency. Nor was it but on the plea ofignorance and un-initiation, that he did ultimatelyobtain pardon 1 .

This insuperable barrier to the curiosity of theprofane, engendered in their conduct a correspond-

* u; Tnv IIoxnr. IIxsr. p . 380 .i See the article under her name in the Classical Dictionary, with all

the authorities there adduced .* Clem. Alex . Strom . ii.

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ing re-action, and, as the fox did to the grapes, whatthey could not themselves compass, they strove allthey could to vituperate !

" Virtue, however, is its own reward ;" and, asthe authority of Cicero, having been himself apriest, ought to have some weight in this discus-sion, it is no small impetus to the cause of truth, tohear this pre-eminent man assign to the efficacyof the precepts, inculcated in those mysteries,-" theknowledge of the God of nature ; the first, thesupreme, the intellectual ; by which men had beenreclaimed from rudeness and barbarism, to eleganceand refinement ; and been taught, not only to livewith more comfort, but to die with better hopes' ."

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,But looks through Nature up to Nature's God ;Pursues that chain which links the immense design,Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine,Sees that no being any bliss can know,But touches some above, and some below ;Learns from this union of the rising whole,The first, last purpose of the human soul ;And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,All end in love of God and love of man t .

* Mihi cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athena tum pepe-risse-tum nihil melius illis mysteries quibus agresti immanique vitaexculti ad humanitatem mitigati sumus : initiaque, ut appellantur, itarevera principia vitae cognovimus : neque solum cum hetitia vivendirationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliori moriendi .-De Legibus,1 . i . c. 24 .

'l Pope .

305

CHAPTER XXII.

I WOULD have my reader pause upon.the substanceof the terms with which the last section , concluded-" Not only to live with more comfort, but to die withbetter hopes ! "

Have you read them? Have you digested them?And are you not ashamed of your illiberality ?

From what pulpit in Christendom will you hearbetter or more orthodox truths ? Where will youfind the Gospel more energetically enunciated?And, with this testimony staring you in the face-in defiance of inner light-and imperiously subju-gating the allegiance of rationality-will you stillpersist in limiting the benevolence of your " Father?"and in withholding every symptom of paternalregard from his own handywork, until the begin-ning of the last two thousand years ? that is, as itwere, till yesterday ?

" I tell you, that if these should hold their peace,the stones would immediately cry out *."

49 On a bank near the shore," says Cordiner, inhis Antiquities of Scotland, " opposite to the ruins ofa castellated house, called Sandwick (in Ross-shire),and about three miles east from Ferns, a very splen-did obelisk is erected, surrounded at the base with

* Luke xix . 20 .x

'SHaAiO,L d4IlO2[ AHI 90C

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large, well-cut flag stones, formed like steps . Bothsides of this column are elaborately covered withvarious enrichments, in well finished carved • work .The one face presents a sumptuous cross, with afigure of St. Andrew on each hand, and someuncouth animals and flowerings underneath . Thecentral division, on the reverse, renders it a piece ofantiquity well worthy of preservation ; there is exhi-bited on that such a variety of figures, birds, andanimals, as seemed what might prove a curious sub-ject of investigation ; I have, therefore, given a dis-tinct delineation of them at the foot of the column,on a larger scale, that their shapes might be dis-tinctly ascertained, and the more probable conjecturesformed of their allusion ."

What, on earth, - business would St . Andrew havein company with " uncouth' animals?" What have

birds," " figures," and "flowerings" to do withChristianity? If this " obelisk" had not been erectedhere, in commemorative deification, centuries uponcenturies before the era of his Saintship's birth, whyshould the 0° cross," which " one face presents," bedecorated with " enrichments" brought all the wayfrom Egypt ?

Look at these hieroglyphics : and where will youfind anything congenial to them within the empire ofthe Romans ? Here is the Bulbul of Iran*, the boar ofVishnu, the elk, the fox, the lamb, and the dancers .All the other configurations, without going throughthem in detail, are not only, in their nature and im-

* Bulbul ofIran has a passion for the rose, and when he seesany person pull a rose from the tree he laments and cries ."-PersianPoem, quoted in Ouseley's Oriental Collections .

x2

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port, essentially eastern, but are actually the symbolsof the various animal forms under which they con-templated the properties of the Godhead. As the cross,however, is that to which we are more immediatelydirected, I shall confine myself, for the present, tothe establishment of its antiquity .

No one will question but that Venus was antece-dent to the days' of St. Andrew ; and she is repre-sented with a cross and a circle *! Jupiter also, itwill be admitted, was anterior to his time ; and wefind him delineated with a cross and a horn ! Saturnis said to have been sire to the last-mentioned god,and, by the laws of primogeniture, must have beensenior to him ; yet we find him also pictured with across and horn ! The monogram of Osiris is a cross !On a medal of one of the Ptolemies is to be seen aneagle conveying a thunderbolt with the cross ! Inshort, all through the ancient world this symbol wasto be encountered, and wherever it presented itself,it was always the harbinger of sanctity and of peace .

Can we glean from their writings any confirma-tion to my development as to the origin of the rite?Plato asserts, that the form of the letter _X was im-printed upon the universe fi . 1 know how this hasbeen interpreted as a reference to the Son of God,

* Basnage, b . iii . c. xix . s . xix.t That phenomenon in the heavens, called the " Southern Cross;'

appears to me so associated with the mystery of redemption, in all ages,that I cannot forbear drawing attention to the sign . The following isCaptain Basil Hall's description of this curious constellation .

" Of all the antarctic constellations, the celebrated Southern Cross, isby far the most remarkable ; and must in every age continue to arrestthe attention of all voyagers and travellers who are fortunate enough tosee it. I think it would strike the imagination even of a person whohad never heard of the Christian religion ; but of this it is difficult to

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and the second power of the Divinity . I will notmake use of it in any such light, preferring to avoideverything that may seem equivocal, yet am I wellconvinced that, under the philosopher's ratiocination,may be seen the twinkling trace of a previous in-carnation of the %oyog, and a crucifixion, likewise, asan atonement for the sins of humanity .

°1 Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried oursorrows : yet we did- esteem him stricken, smitten ofGod, and afflicted .

But he was wounded for our transgressions, hewas bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of

judge, seeing how inextricably our own ideas are mingled up with asso-ciations linking this sacred symbol with almost every thought, word, anddeed of our lives .

• The three great stars which form the Cross, one at the top, one atthe left arm, and one, which is the chief star, called Alpha, at the foot,are so placed a's to suggest the idea of a crucifix, even without the helpof a small star, which completes the horizontal beam . When on themeridian, it stands nearly upright ; and as it sets, we observe it lean overto the westward. I am not sure whether, upon the whole, this is notmore striking than its gradually becoming more and more erect, as itrises from the east. In every position, however, it is beautiful to lookat, and-well calculated, with a little prompting from the fancy, to stirup our thoughts to solemn purposes .

• I know not how others are affected by such things, but for myselfI can say with truth, that during the many nights I have watched theSouthern Cross, I remember on two occasions, when the spectacleinterested me exactly in the same way, nor any one upon which I .didnot discover the result to be somewhat different, and always moreimpressive than what I had looked for . This constellation, being aboutthirty degrees from the South Pole, is seen in its whole revolution, andaccordingly, when off the Cape of Good Hope, I have observed it inevery stage ; from its triumphant erect position, between sixty andseventy degrees above the horizon, to that of complete immersion, withthe top beneath, and almost touching the water . This position, by theway, always reminded me of the death of St . Peter, who is said to havedeemed it too great an honour to be crucified with his head upwards .In short, I defy the stupidest mortal that ever lived, to watch thesechanges in the aspect of this splendid constellation, and not to be, insome degree, struck by them."-Fragments of Voyages .

310 ,

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our peace was upon -him ; and with his stripes weare healed*."

This : is all in the past tense ; bearing reference,irrefutably, to a former occurrence, but including,also, in the sequel, the idea of a future reappearance.And if you look back at the effigy, page 296, will itnot sensitively prove him to have been G° a man ofsorrows and acquainted with grief t?"

11 The deity Hari," says an inscription at Budda-gaya, in India, " the lord and possessor of all, ap-peared in this ocean of natural beings at the close ofthe Devapara and beginning of the Cali Yug . Hewho is omnipresent and everlastingly to be contem-plated, the Supreme Being, the Eternal One, theDivinity worthy of mankind, appeared here, with aportion of his divine nature i."

There is no term so vernacular in the Irish lan-guage as that of Budh-gaye . It is familiar to the earsof every smatterer in letters ; and is in the mouthof every cowherd, from Cape Clear to the Giants'Causeway . Neither class has, however, had somuch as a glimpse of what it means : nor did theybusy themselves much in the pursuit, but acquiescedin that example of commendable resignation once prac-tised by Strabo-when he failed to ascertain any-thing about the Cabiri-by declaring that " the namewas mysterious ! "

A great personage, however, who was not only inhis habits wise, but was in himself wisdom, hasaffirmed, that " there is nothing covered that shallnot be revealed ; nor hid that shall not be known § ."And as every sentence recorded as emanating from

Isaiah liii. 4, 5 .

{ Isaiah liii . 3.Asiatic Researches .

¢ Matthew x . 26 .

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31l

his lips has with . me a value more than what couldserve to illustrate a momentary topic, I flatter myselfthat the result of the . confidence, thus humbly in-spired, will be additionally verified in the instancebefore us .

Budh-gaye, then of the Irish, or Budha-gaya of theHindoos, means Phallus * telluris, i . e., the generative-ness of the earth, or the earth's prolific principle . ThisI have before demonstrated to have been the object ofadoration to the ancients ; and have furthermoreshown, that one of the individuals, in whom this ideawas personified, had suffered crucifixion as a mediatorfor sin .A new' disclosure suggests itself from this . Budh

and Phallus being synonimous, if you add Gaye toeach, then Budh-gaye and Gaye phallus will be iden-tical . But, as the character, who embodied the ab-stract virtue of the former, had been crucified ;': hisname came to stand, not only for that abstract virtue,but also, for a crosst, or a crucified man ; and of course,Gaye-phallus, its equivalent, represented the same ideas .

Now, as well the primary as secondary meaning ofthose two words was liable to misconstruction ; andthey were sure to obtain such from ignorance andfrom depravity. The pure and the sublime emotions,which the religiousness of the prolific principle had

* This will explain a text in Scripture never before understood, viz .,°' Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassinggrievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will breakthe staf of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cutoff man and beast from it." Ezekiel xiv. 13. Fogh is another termequivalent to this.

This will at once appear from Varro, who, in Nonus Marcellinus, ismade to say, " We are barbarians, because that we crucify (in gabalumsuffigimus) the innocent ; are you not barbarians, when you acquit theguilty?" Compare also Selden, Syntagm . ii. c . L

31Z

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comprehended, were perverted by malice into sen-suality and debauchery ; while the idea of a man cru-cified, however innocent of -- charge, could not beseparated, by grovelling and servile dispositions, fromthe ordinary accompaniments of contempt and of crime .

Hence Budh-gaye and Gaye-phallus, after a suc-cession of ages, when their proper acceptation wasforgotten, were remembered only in their pervertedsense . And accordingly we observe, that, when aRoman Emperor who had been brought up a priestin the East, assumed, on his being appointed to theRoman sceptre, the title of Helio-ga-balus, and therebyinvested himself in all the attributes of Gaye-phallus,or Budh-gaye, that is, in other words, as the Vicegerentof the Sun, the licentiousness of his life, and theprofligacy of his demeanour, having rendered him ob-noxious to his subjects, they amputated the prefix ofhis Solar majesty, and branded him with the scorn ofGa-balus .The disdain intended in this latter abbreviation is

now, therefore, already solved . Gaye-phallus, for sound-sake, having been made Ga-phallus, this latter wasstill further-by reason of the commutability of theletters ph and b-reduced into Ga-balus .

When the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, wasdestroyed, we are told by Sozomon, that the mono-gram of Christ was discovered beneath the founda-tion. And, though neither party knew how to accountfor the sign, yet was it pleaded alike, by the Gentilesas by the Christians, in support of the heavenlinessof their respective religions .

The early Roman fathers, very pious but very illite-rate men, unable to close their eyes against the proofsof the priority of the cross to the era of the advent,

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3 1 3

did not scruple to assign it to the malicious fore-knowledge of,the prince of the lower world .

But if.this gentleman had been the author of theearly cross, is it likely that God would have em-braced it, as the signal of his protection, when dealingdestruction to the objects of his divine vengeance ?

" And the Lord said unto him, go through themidst . of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men thatsigh and that cry for all the abominations -that bedone in the midst thereof

" And to the others he said, in my hearing, go yeafter him through the city, and smite ; let not youreye spare, neither have ye pity .

Slay utterly old and young, both maids and littlechildren, and women ; but come not near any manupon whom is the mark ; and begin at my sanctuaryf."

Now this ." mark," in the ancient Hebrew original,was the cross X . St. Jerom, the most learned by farof those "fathers," has admitted the circumstance .And if this had been the device of the enemy of man,would the Author of all goodness so sanction his im-posture, as to adopt it as the index of his saving love?

" Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not thesethings TV'

But this was not the only invention which theyattributed to the devil . Tertullian gravely assuresus that he was the author of buskins also ! And why,

* Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suns .-Tertullian, de Prw-scrip . cap . xi .

t Ezekiel ix . 4, 5, 6 .~ John iii. 10 . The omission of this cross from the text of our trans-

lation may afford some handle to the enemies of religion .

3 1 4

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good reader, would you suppose?-in sooth, for noother reason than because that our Saviour said, inhis sermon upon ' the mountain, " Which of you, bytaking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature * ?". In him, also, did they find an adequate excuse forthose apertures, which I shall by and by notice, asexcavated in rocks and mounds of clay, calling them,with some compliment,: it.'must be admitted, to hisgallantry, by the mariopolizing appellation of theDevil's Yonies f.

1But of all the puerilities which sully their zeal,

there is no one half so calculated to injure vitalreligion, as the low quibbles and dishonest quotationswhich Justin Martyr had recourse to, as apologies forthe cross !

Why, Sir, the greatest persecutor with which theChristians had ever been cursed, namely, the emperorDecius, had imprinted the cross upon--some of hiscoins !

Here, again, it is upon a medal, found in the ruins ofCitium, and proved, by Dr . Clarke, in his " Travels,"

* Matthew Vi. 27 . + Cunni Diaboli.

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to have been Phoenician ! It exhibits the lamb, thecross, and the rosary 1 !

When John the Baptist first saw Jesus beyond theJordan, in Bethabara, he exclaimed ; " Behold theLamb of God, which taketh away the sins of theworld t ."

This he did not apply as a novel designation ; butas the familiar epithet, and the recognised denomina-tion of the Son of God, whose prescribed office itwas, in all the changes of past worlds, as it - was nowin this present, to redress the broken-hearted, bytaking away sin .

He adds, G0 This is he of whom I said, after mecometh a man which is preferred before me ; forhe was before met," not only in eternity, but on thisearth .

11 And I knew him not ; but that he should be mademanifest to Israel §," as he was before to othernations,-an event, which was but the fulfilment ofa prophecy, ushered in, many years before, in theseremarkable words-

" Behold, the former things are come to pass II :"

not that the predictions formerly delivered had takenplace, but the things, the events, the occurrences,which had been enacted before, were now re-enacted !that a renovation of the world was at hand, whichthe mouth-piece of the Lord commences by saying-• New things do I declare ; before they spring forthI tell you of them ."

On turning the leaf, you will see another of those

* The rosary was also anterior to Christianity .t John i . 29 . T John i. 30.$ John i . 31 .

11 Isaiah x1ii. 9 .

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pillars which grace a land of heroes, " where stoneswere raised on high to speak to future times, withtheir grey heads of moss* ;" a.ndd whose story, though" lost in the mist of years," may yet be decipheredfrom off themselves .

This costly relic of religion, erected solely inhonour of the cross, is to be seen at Forres, in Scot-land, and is thus described by Cordiner :-

On the first division, under the Gothic ornamentsat the top, are nine horses with their riders, march-ing in order ; in the next division is a line of warriorson foot, brandishing their weapons, and appear to beshouting for the battle . The import of the attitudesin the third division very dubious, their expressionindefinite .

" The figures which form a square in the middleof the column, are pretty complex, but distinct ; fourserjeants ; with their halberts, guard a canopy, underwhich are placed several human heads, which havebelonged to the dead bodies piled up at the left ofthe division : one appears in the character of execu-tioner, severing the head from another body ; behindhim_ are three trumpeters sounding their trumpets ;and before him two pair of combatants fighting with,sword and target .

" A troop of horse next appears, put to flight byinfantry, whose first line have bows and arrows ; thethree following, swords and targets . In the lower-most division now visible, the horses seem to beseized by the victorious party, their riders beheaded,and the head of their chief hung in chains, or placedin a frame : the others being thrown together besidethe dead bodies, under an arched cover ."

* Temora.

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With this compare the description given by Cap-tain Head, of the devices sculptured upon one of theEgyptian antiquities .

114 It would," says he, " far exceed the" limits ofthis work, to attempt a description of the ornamentsof sculpture in this temple . The most interesting areon the north wall, where there are battle-scenes, withinnumerable figures of military combatants, usingtheir arms, consisting of bows and arrows, spearsand bucklers-of prostrate enemies, of war-chariotsand horses . The fiery action and elegant shape ofthe steeds are remarkable . It would require a first-rate living genius to rival the variety of position, thepower of effect, and fidelity of execution, in whichmen and horses are exhibited in the dismay- of theflight, the agony of the death-:struggle,' and theexultation of the triumph ."

Let us take a view, now, of the other side of thisobelisk . The greatest part of it," says Cordiner," is occupied by a sumptuous cross, and covered overwith an uniform figure, elaborately raised, and inter-woven with great mathematical exactness ;- . of this,on account of its singularity, there is given a repre-sentation at the foot of the column . Under the crossare two august personages with some attendants,much obliterated, but evidently in an attitude ofreconciliation ; and if the monument was erected inmemory of the peace concluded between Malcvlm andCanute, upon the final retreat of the Danes, theselarger figures may represent the reconciled monarchs .

On the edge, below the fretwork, are some rowsof figures, joined hand-in-hand, which may alsoimply the new degree of confidence and securitywhich took place, after the feuds were composed,

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which are characterised on the front of the pillar .But to whatever particular transaction it may allude,it can hardly be imagined, that in so early an age ofthe, arts in Scotland as it must have been raised, so ela-borate a performance would have been undertakenbut in consequence of an event of the most generalimportance : it is, therefore, surprising, that no dis-tincter traditions of it arrived at the era when letterswere known ."

As to " the era when letters were known," I shall'bestow upon that a sentence or two by and by .For the present I confine myself to the " surprisethat no distincter traditions" of this monolith templehas been handed down to us .

It was erected by the Tuath-de-danaans on theirexpulsion from Ireland. The inscriptions upon itare the irresistible evidence of their emblematic reli-gion. After an interval of some centuries, the Pictspoured in upon their quietude ; and the barbaroushabits of those marauders, being averse as much to theritual as to the avocations of the Tuath-de-danaans,they effaced every vestige of the dominion of thatpeople, and made them fly for shelter to the High-lands .

In the days of Malcolm, therefore, and of Canute,the history of this pyramid was as difficult of solu-tion, as it was in those of Pennant and of Cordiner .And there is no question but that the two monarchslooked, with as much wonder, upon the hieroglyphicsalong its sides, as did the two antiquarians, who wouldfain associate them with them .

It is to me marvellous, how persons, in the posses-* And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house .

-Genesis xxviii. 22 .

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sion of common reason could, contrary to all the evi-dence of observation and history, look upon the Danishinvasion as the epoch of all enlightenment ! and theDanes, themselves, as the heaven-sent importers ofits blessings ! Yet, whatever may have been thecase with some hopeful scions of this order, Mr. Cor-diner, at all events, appears to have been honest, andif he missed the direction of historical verity, it wasless his fault than his misfortune .

Who can say so much for Ledwich ?The following extract will justify the tribute here

paid to the sincerity of Mr. Cordiner's investigations-" These monuments," says he, " are all said to havebeen erected in memory of defeats of the Danes, butthere does not appear any reference that the hierogly-phics on them can have to, such events . That they havebeen raised on interesting occasions there can belittle doubt, perhaps in memory of the most re-nowned chieftains and their exploits who first em-braced Christianity ."

They who first " embraced Christianity" were nochieftains ;" or such as were, had no " exploits" to

record . But it was not so with the professors of theprimeval " cross," in the revelation of Budhism, thetransmigrations of which were but typically pour-trayed on this enduring column . And in confirma-tion hereof, Mr. Gordon affirms that he has " dis-tinguished upon it several figures of a monstrous form,resembling four-footed beasts with human heads!" `

Carnac, in Upper Egypt, retains a monolith of thesame symbolic character . It is eighty feet high,composed of a single block of black granite, present-ing a beautifully polished surface on each of its foursides . The hieroglyphics upon it represent the life-

Y

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time of Thot, or Budda, until you at last see himenthroned in,heaven, at the top .

" He seems, indeed," says Hamilton, " to have

been considered either by himself, his subjects, or hissuccessors, as a peculiar favourite of heaven . He- isfrequently on his knees, receiving from Isis and Osiris,together with their blessing, the insignia of royaltyand even of divinity. The hawk is always flyingabove him. Two priests are: performing- upon himthe mysterious ceremony of pouring the cruces ansatas,or crosses with rings, over his head ; at which time hewears a common dress and close cap. Hermes andOsiris are pointing out to him a particular line in- agraduated scale, allusive it may be to the periodicalinundation of the Nile, or the administration of strict

justice : or, (combined' with `the preceding scene) tothe ceremony of ` initiation into the religious myste-ries

The number of feet in the pillar corresponds too,if I mistake not, with that of the years of his recorded

pilgrimage .Captain Head describes-, in his splendid work, the

avenue which leads to , the = temp) --to which thisbelongs, in the following terms : - Fragments ofsphinxes line the sides of the road at intervals of tenor twelve feet, and usher the visiter to the magni-ficent granite propylon, or gateway, whose grandeurfor a time monopolizes the attention, and makes himwho gazes on it at a loss to decide whether he shallretflain adoring its fine proportions, or advance andexamine the carvings which embellish its front . Is

* It is fit I should advertise that Mr. Hamilton spoke of the individualmerely as a figure, without professing to identify him in name or historyeither with Thot, Budlea, or any body else .

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this ` the land made waste by the hand of strangers,who destroy the walls, and cause the images to cease ?'The fragments of desolation that lie scattered aroundare identified with the predictions of the inspiredhistorians, by whom we are enabled to estimate thepalmy state' of this once mighty kingdom, whose

gigantic monuments fully -verify all that has beensaid or sung of its pristine splendour ."

After what has been said above, then, along withwhat may be added by and by, may I not safely pro-claim that M'Pherson's prediction, that " the historyof Caledonia, before the Roman eagles were dis-played beyond the friths, must ever remain in im-penetrable darkness 'k," has now been falsified?

What are ages and the lapse of time,Matched against truths as lasting as sublime?Can length of years on God himself exact?Or make that fiction which was once a fact P

No-marble and recording brass decay,And like the graver 's memory pass awayThe works of man inherit, as is just,Their author's frailty, and return to dust ;But truth divine for ever stands secure,Its head is guarded, as its base is sure ;Fixed in the rollingflood of endless years,The pillar of the eternal plan appears,The raving storm and dashing wave defies,Built by that Architect who built the skies •P .

* Introduction, page xciii .'h COWPER .

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A VERY industrious contributor to the " Asiatic Re-searches" has afforded scope for some jests at hisexpense, because of the attempt which he has madeto identify the British islands with certain Westernlocalities commemorated in the writings of the Hin-doos . Had he but known, however, the coincidenceof our monuments with those mysteries which thePuranas record ; how they -mutually -support anddovetail into each other, he could not only havelaughed to scorn the traducers of his services, butfixed his fame upon a pinnacle of literary pride, whichno undergrowl of envy could have subverted .

But as it is, unacquainted with the history of theplaces which he left behind him, and wading, there-fore, through an ocean, in which he had no compassfor his guide, he has, in his puerile' endeavours towrest the text of the Puranas to external preju-dices, effected more himself towards the disparage-ment of `his reputation, than what the combinedinfluence of interest and of scepticism could otherwiseaccomplish .

" There are," say the Puranas, " many manifesta-tions and forms of Bhagavan, 0 Muni, but the formwhich resides in the White Island is the primitiveone . Vishnu," says the author, " recalling all hisemanations into the White Island, went into the womb,

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The sting, therefore, of the above, if any it con-vey, must- be directed exclusively to the romancers; ofmy own country : a specimen of whom I shall giveyou in the Rev. Dr. Keating, who, venturing to un-veil the mystery of the name Muc-Inis, and accountfor its origin, tells us, with a serious face, that LQ whenthe Danaans found the Milesians attempted to land,by their magical enchantments they threw a cloud- onthe island, by which it appeared no bigger than ahog's back ! ! ! "

But Ireland, thank God, is rescued from the dri-velling of such dotards . It will hold its place, now,amongst the nations of the earth ; and the result isinevitable, however tardy your compliance, but that thetruth will be revived from one pole of the universe tothe other, that, in the primeval world, all sanctityand all happiness had here fixed their abode,-thatheaven was here personified,-and that the irra-diating focus of all moral enlightenment was herealone to be found * .

Look, Sir, what do you see before you ? The solu-tion of that all-healing arrow which Abaris wassaid to have brought with him from the' island of theHyperboreans, on his visit of religion to Greece !

Should you ever chance to travel as far as thecounty of Galway, inquire for the deserted villageof Knockmoy . Though now dreary, inconsiderable,and forgotten, it was once the theatre of soul-stirringimpressions

There, in the remnant of an ancient Tuath-de-da-naan Temple, vaulted with stone, and transformed, in

*The locale of that boar, as well as the mystery of its meaning, whichPlutarch transmitted in his allegorical war between Osiris and Typhon,is now, no longer, ambiguous.-See page 327 .

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after ages, to a Christian Abbey, you will find, aftera succession of, at least, three thousand revolvingyears, this pathetic representation of the youth Apolloslaying with his arrow the serpent Python *-in otherwords, overthrowing, by self-endurance, the dominion ofsin ! and, finally, by immolation upon a • tree, to whichyou perceive him pinioned, establishing ascendancyover the serpent and his wiles, and pointing 'out theroad to eternity beyond the grave !

In an upper range, on the same compartment, you

can trace this other line, consisting of three kings with

* I have before explained that the serpent Pyth-on means the seduc-tion of sensuality-Pith itself signifying yoni, the boat, or serpent, thefinal on being nothing but a Greek termination .

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their eastern crowns, their eastern costume, and the doveof amity entwining all of them as they superintendthe spectacle, while the solemnity of the whole isenhanced by the composure with which a Brehonsits by, in his turban of state, after reading from , the.Bans, or the Budhist gospel, the sentence of con-demnation and :of mysterious expiation, in one and thesame breath. .

« He was oppressed and he was afflicted ; yet heopened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb. tothe slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers isdumb, so he openeth not his mouth * ."

But this is not the only incident which this trea-sure of antiquity pourtrays . Beside the three mo-narchs are skeleton delineations of the three otherdivinities, .: who, before this fourth, assumed'- the formof humanity;"and went through the same ordeal ofatoning passion to reclaim our species, through agesback in the distance f !

It will readily be believed, that descriptions somysterious, relating to events so momentous, musthave attracted the observation of subsequent years .Generation after generation gazed upon them withwonder ! Generation after generation spoke theirignorance in wonder! Mr . Ledwich, of course, musthave a snap at them : and it would make a cat laugh,or Plutarch's boar dance a hornpipe, to hear thecontortions of history, the violations of nature, theperversions of fact, of date, and of philosophy,

* Isaiah liii. 7 .t 0° The gods," said the Budhist priest to the Catholic bishop before

alluded to, " who have appeared in the present world, and who haveobtained the perfect state, niebau, or deliverance from all the evils oflife, are four, Chanchasam, Gonagom, Gaspa, and Godama ."-Syme'sEmbassy to the Court of Ava .

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which this blot upon letters has strung togetherinto a melange, as if an exposition of the abovehieroglyphics !

And yet, this is he who boasts of his havingbeen " not sparing of ridicule" in those momentswhich he tells us, " he could steal from clerical anddomestic avocations,"-to tell lies of his country !

The speculation took, however, and he was fos-tered in his malice-riches and honours wereshowered upon him !

Well, he died-a monitory pause accompanies thesound-but the party must have a successor !They " have found him" amongst themselves!-

the author of the ` ` Fine Arts in Ireland ! "This fine gentleman has really exhibited some

degree of tact, which shows him not unworthy of his.appointment. He begins by denouncing, hoof andhorn, every position of his predecessor ! Calls him,as a salvo, a ` 1 learned man!" but insists upon hisbeing a `1 most unskilful antiquary ;" and thoughdogmatic," " altogether a visionary ."These, you would suppose, were great liberties to

take with the foster-child of patronage . They wereso, in appearance; not in reality : for

" Mutato nomine, de to fabula narratur-"

he is a modern *, and though of a different school, itsuits their purpose as well .

But let us see how he would decypher " the writ-ing upon the wall ."

" If we might venture a conjecture," he says, " itwould be that the living figures represent the mostdistinguished native princes, who warred with the

* I shall give you my definition for this word by and by .

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adventurers in defence of their country ; and thatthose of the deceased kings were the patriot monarchsof earlier times! "

Pray, what adventurers ? what ?-But the farce istoo absurd to bestow discussion upon it .

Come, however, to the eruct ion scene, what wouldP-" make of this?1° This appears," he says, to represent the death

of the young son of Dermod Mac Murrough, who wasdelivered up to Roderick O'Connor, as a hostage forhis father's fidelity, and who, according to Cam-brensis, and, we believe, to our own annalists, wasabandoned by that inhuman and ambitious parent tohis fate !"

After the flourish of trumpets, with which Mr. P-had proclaimed independence of Dr. Ledwich, onewould have expected a new ascription, or, at least, adifferent one, from him . This, however, is but a serviletranscript from his predecessor's work, and that too,without having the candour to quote him as hisauthority !

'° But let us view those things with closer eyes ."

Had Mac Murrough's son been put to death byO'Connor, in that awful manner above delineated,with such external parade, and such mysteriouspomp, think you that Cambrensis, who never omittedeven the most trivial feature of a narrative, would havebeen blind to a particular, which must have inte-rested all his readers? Yet, as to the reality of this-Mr. P -'s insinuation notwithstanding-Cam-brensis is silent and mute as the grave !

A fact which was thought worthy to be commemo-rated in fresco must have been equally eligible as aphenomenon in writing. The O'Connors, therefore,

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whom Mr. . P would install as the authors of thisdevice, must have retained some documentary registerthereof: and, though it is well known-, that there isnot a family in the kingdom, who have preserved therecords of their house with such industry or minute-ness as they have, yet is there not so much as thesemblance of an allusion to be traced amongst them,to this mysterious representation t

Nay, if 'O'Connor' had put to. death Mac Mur-rough's son, with such circumstances of torture andsavage insensibility, is it probable that he would him-self be the person to immortalize his disgrace, bydepicting it upon such a chronicle? And if the vir-tue of the nation were not previously outraged bythe hellishness of the crime itself, would it not nowblaze'forth-in holy indignation at the infatuated vanityof the monster, who, not satisfied with the murder ofhis innocent victim, must deluge his country also ingore, by associating it, to forthcoming ages, with thisoutline of his barbarity ?

Yes, Sir, if they were silent as to the crime, theywould be eloquent as to the painting!--And it is notonly that they would' demolish the structure withinwhich it was inscribed, but every quill within therealm would become a pen, every liquid be convertedinto inlc, and every hand be made that of a writer, torescue the island's fame from identity with the trai-tor's cause ; and confine to his own and his loathedhead the withering execrations of posterity !

Instead of which, however, not a syllable isuttered, on paper or on parchment, allusive to thetragedy ! Not a presage is imparted by mournfulbanshee ! nor elegy sung by familiar mna-caointha'!No historian records the heart-rending tale ! nor does

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gipsy retail it in itinerant ditty! But the mysteryof sorrow, and the sanctity of truth, that hallowed thescene which this temple commemorates, has, still further,exerted its protecting instrumentality, and besides themoving evidences imprinted upon its interior, has addedthose also of exclusion from without, and preventedthe iniquity of profane appropriation, by the occur-rence of any equivocal record !

The devices upon places of worship are always ofa religious kind .-Would the perpetration of a faith-less infanticide be considered an act of religion? Andif not, why emblazon it within the tabernacle ofprayer, with all the circumstances of grace and ofgrandeur around it?-solemnized by kings ! superin-tended by gods ! and executed by judges !Oh ! Sir, a dire plague of astringent benight-

ment has lain brooding over history ! and spread,like the upas, its baneful emaciation over everythingof culture that fell within its shadow ! But truth isimmortal : and, however momentarily suppressed, willultimately recover .

°° It is a pleasure," says Bacon, " to stand on theshore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea ; a plea-sure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see abattle, and the adventures thereof below ; but no plea-sure is comparable to the standing on the vantage-groundof truth, (a hill not to be commanded, and where theair is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors,and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the valebelow ; so always that this prospect be with pity, and notwith swelling or pride . Certainly it is heaven uponearth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest inProvidence, and turn upon the poles of truth ." .

The very dresses, which adorn these venerable

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delineations, are enough to .o redeem : them from theturpitude r*hichr Mr . P--= would : impute . to

them

.O'Coniia.r and : Mac: Murrough were :neither' of them,on thisfmrth, for.-at least two thousand years after thesewere in, vogue ! neither are they by any naps thehabits, which P would persuade us .that " lawswere subsequently enacted to abolish as: barbarous !"

Behold ! I show you' a mystery!

What do you see here t ? What do you make' of

* I Corinthians xv . 51 .t It will be perceived, that I do not mean this to be an-exact copy of

the Knockmoy Crucifixion-or vice versd .-The general idea is, what Imean to substantiate, and the identity of design cannot well be gain-said. This remark applies also to the kings about to be introduced byand by .

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this Mr. P-. Or do you think that O'Connor wentover into Nubia, and got the impress of his enormitycanonized there also, in the form of a cross, within thetemples and sanctuaries of the adoring Egyptians?

I copy this image from a work of great value, latelypublished in Paris by Monsieur Rifaud ; which hedesignates by the title of °C Voyage en Egypte et enNubie, et lieux circonvoisins ." The plate under noticeis but part of a larger one, which he describes as"Facade du petit temple de Kalabche (en Nubie) etses details - interieurs," and of which I shall, by andby, treat you to two more compartments, as theexact correspondents of the six crowned figures atKnockmoy .

Meanwhile I beg leave to introduce to you on thenext page, some of the sculptures on the Tuath-de-danaan cross, at old Killcullen, in the county of Kil-dare, Ireland . Here you distinguish nine Budhistpriests in the Eastern uniform, with bonnet, tunic,and trowser-nay, with their very beards dressedafter the Egyptian fashion !

Other figures I shall leave to your own research tounfold . But let me particularly fasten upon yourfaculty of comparing, the head-gear of the standingfigure, in the second division, and that of the cruci-fixion upon the Nubian temple . Are they not criti-cally, accurately, and identically the same?

Look next at the brute animals that take part inthis group ! Mind the grotesqueness of their' posi-tions, and the combination of their character with thatof man ! then lay your hand upon your breast, and,with the light now streaming in upon you, can youconscientiously believe that the cross which exhibits

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itself at the other side, was ever the work of Chris-tianity *?

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But as you cannot imagine that O'Connor had goneover to Nubia, in the twelfth century of the Christianera, to get his murdered hostage deified in a pagantemple, built, perhaps, at the very lowest, three thou-

* " We saw," says Colonel Symes, alluding to the imperfect shell ofa Budhist temple, in the Burman empire, `' several unfinished figuresof animals and men in grotesque attitudes, which were designed asornaments for different parts of the building."-Embassy to the Court ofAva .

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sated years before his time, so neither can you imposeupon us, that the Budhists stole a march upon ourChristian supineness, and, while our different sectswere fighting for who should have most, and proclaim-ing, « I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Ce-phas, and I of Christ *," imprinted their complexityupon our boasted simplicity, and then suddenly againvanished without having been once seen, felt, heard,discovered, or understood ! ! !

What entanglements will not people plunge them-selves into when supporting a bad calse ! And howeasy is the road which rectitude follows !

The Hindoo Puranas corroborate, to an iota, thisour Knockmoy crucifixion fi . Sulivahana is the namewhich they give to the deity there represented . Themeaning of the word is tree-borne, or, who . suffereddeath upon a tree . . He was otherwise called Dhan-andhara, that is, the sacred almoner . And his fame,say the Puranas, reached even to the Sacred Island,in the sea of milk, that is, of Doghda, which signifiesmilk, and which was the title of the tutelar goddessof Ireland 1 .

Avaunt, then, evermore to the humbug of back-reckoning, and the charge of imposture upon the

* 1 Corinthians i . 12 .h Asiatic Researches .T The name of Sulivan in Ireland, than which there is no one

more common, is unquestionably but the perpetuation ofthe above Suli-vahana. And I can give a proof of the fact, independently of its deri-vation, which will scare ridicule into defiance. It is that a particularbranch of that family called the O'Sulivans, of Tomies, have been everlooked upon with a feeling ofreverence by the natives, almost approachingto veneration . I have in vain strove to ascertain from them the origin ofthis indefinable sense of sanctity . It was like magic upon their mindsthey half worshipped them, and knew not why . There were but twoindividuals of this stock remaining when I was a schoolboy, a few yearsago, at Killarney.

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Brahmins ! I flatter myself, I have laid an extin-guisher, for ever, upon that pretext .

As I have before presumed to offer a suggestion tothe translators of oriental minuseripts, I shall take theadditional liberty of intimating, which I do with pro-found submission and respect, to the decypherers ofall hieroglyphics, whether in Ireland or in the , East,that those arrow-headed characters, to be met with atPersepolis, and resembling in their formation ourIrish Oghams, bear rference, both of them, to thismysterious crucifixion ! And that if Mr. Champollion,and other gentlemen interested in the prosecutionof those useful points, will attend to this my advice,they will find it a more certain key to the attainment oftheir desired -object, Nan . all the labour and outlay ofcenturies heretofo0E !

"Knowing that Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her ; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to leadFrom joy to joy : for she can so informThe heart that is within us, so impressWith quietness and beauty, and so feedWith lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor allThe dreary intercourse of daily life,Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturbOur cheerful faith, that all which we beholdIs full of blessings."-WORDSwORTH.

34 1

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE regal figures, which I promised, as belongingto the Nubian temple, and corresponding to theKnockmoy frescoes, are the following :-

You will, furthermore, observe, how that they allwear the philibeg, like our crucified effigy at page296, and our war-god, Phearagh, at page 138 . Each

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of them, also, is adorned with the cross, as the pass-port of their redemption : while the, three divinities,delineated in the Irish scenes, have these as theircounterparts in the temple of Nubia .

In

11 U) W11JT~!!T11t1M1% w

i

11

Abbe Pluche states, that 1 1 the'figures of those godsbrought from Egypt into Phoenicia, wore on theirheads leaves and branches, wings and globes, which,"he adds, " appeared ridiculous to those who did notcomprehend the signification of these symbols, ashappened to Cambyses, king of Persia, but theserepresented Isis, Osiris, and Horus ."

In the ° Gentleman's Magazine' for November,1742, is an account," says Vallancey, of two silverimages, found under the ruins of an old tower, which

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had raised various conjectures and speculationsamongst the antiquaries ; they were about threeinches in height, representing men in armour, withvery high helmets on their heads, ruffs round theirnecks, and standing on a pedestal of silver, holding asmall golden spear in their hands . The account istaken from the Dublin papers . The writer refers toMerrick's translation of Tryphiodorus, an Egyptian,that composed a Greek poem on the deltruction ofTroy, a sequel to 'Homer's Iliad,' to show that itwas customary with the ancients, at the foundationof a fort or city, to consecrate such images to sometitular guardians, and deposit them in a secret partof the building ; where he also inserts a judiciousexposition of a difficult text of Scripture on thatsubject."

The above extract was indited long before thepublication of those Nubian antiquities ; and, conse-quently, when neither the contributor to the Maga-zine, nor the quoter from its columns, had any know-ledge of their existence . Its production, therefore,must be valuable 'here, as showing not only the con-nexion of the idols with the Round Tower ceremonial,but also that the helmets of the Nubian gods hadbeen adopted in the effigies of some of thoseamongst us .

I terminate my proofs of the primeval crucifixion,by the united testimonies of the Budhists and the Free-Masons .

Though the punishment of the cross," say theAsiatic Researches, " be unknown to the Hindus, yetthe followers of Buddha have some knowledge of it,when they represent Deva Thot (that is, the godThot) crucified upon an instrument resembling a

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cross, according to the accounts of some travellers toSiam ."

" Christianity," says Oliver, " or the system ofsalvation through the atonement of a crucified Medi-ator, was the main pillar of Freemasonry ever sincethe fall ."

Let me point your notice now to some consequencesof that mysterious fact . I begin by 'asking-

, How happened it, that, of all places in the world,Ireland was that which gave the readiest counte-nance, and the most cheering support, to the Gospelof Christ, on its first promulgation ?

This question you will consider of no trivial ten-dency . It is, in itself, worth a thousand otherarguments . To solve it, I must premise, that, besidesthe many ancient appellatives, already given you, forthis country, there was one, which characterised it, asanticipating that event !

Crioch-na-Fuineadhach* was this name . Its mean-ing is, the asylum of the expectants : or, the retreat ofthose looking forward .

To what, you ask ?-To the consummation, I reply,of that prophecy, which was imparted to Israelthrough another source, saying, 1 1 the sceptre shallnot depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from betweenhis feet, until Shiloh comet."

' " That is," says Keating, " the neighbbusihg eountxy ! 1 ! " as if acountry would call itself by such a name ! Vallancey ridicules, butbungles himself still more. And while reminded by this circumstance,I had best note, that what this last-mentioned writer, elsewhere, trans-lates as "the topographical names of Ireland," (Ainim abberteach an n'Eirean) should have been " the appellative names of Ireland : ' theyare the titles of the island itself,_not descriptions of the several localitieswithin it.

'h Genesis xlix. 10 .

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Numerous intimations have, from time to time,been conveyed to man, as harbingers of an eventwhich was to crown their species with universalblessings. In the Puranas it was prophesied, that" after three thousand and one hundred years of theCaliyuga are elapsed, will appear King Saca, toremove wretchedness from the world '`."

I have given an abstract of the history of thisremarkable personage at pages "293 and 294 ; and,shortly after, at page 296, I presented you with theeffigy of his crucifixion . As to the era of his appear-ance as deducible from the Yugas, I shall confinemyself to the opinion advanced by Mr. Davis, in the" Asiatic Researches," vol . ix. page 243, where he,states, « It may further with confidence be inferred,that Mom. Anquetil du Perron's conclusion, withrespect to the late introduction of Yugas, which arethe component parts of the Calpa into the Hinduastronomy, is unfounded ; and that the invention of ,those periods, and the application of them to computa-tions by the Hindus, must be referred to an antiquitywhich has not yet been ascertained ."

In another, age was promised another Redeemer ;and, of him I copy what Mr. Wilford transmits, asfollows, viz.--

A thousand years before that event the goddessCali bad foretold him, that he would reign, or ratherhis posterity, according to several learned commenta-tors in the Dokhin; as mentioned by Major Mac-kenzie, till a divine child, born of a virgin, shouldgut an end both to his life and kingdom, or to hisdynasty, nearly in the words of Jacob, in Genesis,

* Asiatic Researches .

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chap. xlix . ver. 10. The Hindu traditions concerningthis wonderful child, are collected in a treatise, calledthe ` Vicrama Chastra ; or, History of Vicrama Ditya .'This I have not been able to procure, though manylearned pundits have repeated to me by heart wholepages from them . Yet I was unwilling to make useof their traditions till I found them in the largeextracts made by the ingenious and indefatigableMajor C. Mackenzie, of the Madras establishment,and by him communicated to the Asiatic Society ."

In truth, it was to the certainty of this manifesta-tion, that the first couplet of an Arabic elegy, pre-served by Mons. d'Herbelot, in his account of Ibnu-zaidun, a celebrated Andalusian poet, refers . InRoman letters, the lines run thus-

.E Jekad hein tenagikom dharmairnaJacdha alaina alassa laula tassina ."

That is, " The time will soon come when you willdeliver us from all our cares ; the remedy is assured,provided we have a little patience ."

The learned President of the Society of Bengal,unaware of the drift of this beautiful, stanza, andwithout ever having so much as seen the original,whence it was quoted, offers to alter its import tothe following, vi.-., " When our bosoms impart theirsecrets to you, anguish would almost fix our doom, ifwe were not mutually to console ourselves ! " Andthe only reason he assigns for this novel interpreta-tion is, that two individuals, neither of whom, he him-self admits, knew any thing about its meaning, hap-pened, or rather pretended, to put it for him, dif-ferently, into Arabic words !

On the pillar at Buddal, this emanation of thegodhead is thus characterised-" He did not exult

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over the ignorant and ill-favoured : but spent hisriches among the needy : in short, he was the wonderof all good men* ." Isaiah's prophecy of the futureMessiah would appear a verbatim, though more poeti-cal transcript of this inscription, viz ., " He shall notcry, nor lift,, up ; nor cause his voice to be heard inthe street : a bruised reed shall he not break, and thesmoking flax shall he not quench : he shall bringforth judgment unto truth- ."

At page 110 of this volume, I have promised toexplain the origin of the word Eleusinian, as applied tothe celebration of certain religious rites . I have verylittle doubt but that, when reading that declaration,the reader looked upon its offer as, to say the least,gratuitous-satisfied that the term could have nopossible other meaning, than as an adjective formedfrom the substantive Eleusis !

Well, the rashness of that judgment I very -freelyforgive ; and repay it now by the verification of mycontract .

Eleusis, the place, and Eleusinian, as descriptive ofthe mysteries therein solemnized, were both denomi-nated in honour of that Advent, which all nationsawaited ; and the fulfilment of which in the personof one of the Budhas, made him to be recognised,on one occasion, as the source of the faith of thethree epochs of the world I."

* Asiatic Researches .t Chapter xlii . verses 2, 3 .* Retiring into a still more solitary place, Gautama and his disciples

sustained triumphantly an argument with two of their bitterest ene-mies. But a severer trial exhibited his righteousness in a yet clearerlight. Four young and beautiful sisters, burning with unholy love, pre-sented themselves naked before him, and besought him to comply withtheir desires . " Who, 0 Gautame !" said they, in the rage of their

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I have already redeemed -the c~ha aster of thoseceremonies from the - sinister imputations whichattached to their secrecy . An apprehen i that theirpublication would subvert the popular- belief,. or asupposed indelicacy in their tenour, were the n}jl4 tconstructions which the unitiated -would -afo{d.-them .Though secure in the sufficiency of MY firmer proofs,I cannot avoid taking support fRpnx ..an.-article in avery talented publication of our~day in which thewriter, wholly uninstructed, while he evidently is, as tothe nature of those celebrations, yet confirms the factof their worth and their purity .

1° From the whole concurrent testimony of ancienthistory," says he, " we must believe that the Eleusi-nian mysteries were used for good purposes, for thereis not an instance- on record, that the honour of aninitiation was ever obtained by a very bad man .The hierophants-the higher priests of the order-were always exemplary in their morals, and becamesanctified in the eyes of the people . The high-priest-hood of this, order in Greece was continued .in onefamily, the Eumolpidae, for ages . In this`they re-sembled both the Egyptians and the Jews.

~° The Eleusinian mysteries in Rome took anotherform, and were called the rites of Bona Dea ; but shewas the same Ceres that was worshipped in Greece .

disappointment, " who is the lying witness who dares attest that thevirtues of all the former saints are concentrated in thee ? " Beholdmy witness," said the sage, striking the ground with his hand ; ._ and atthe moment Okintongu, the tutelar genius of the earth, appeared, pro-claiming with a loud voice-" It is I who am the witness of the truth!"The young women then fell upon their faces, and adored Gautama, say-ing, " O pure and perfect countenance, wisdom more precious than gold Imajesty impenetrable ! honour and adoration to thee, thou source ofthe faith of the three epochs of the world ! "-Abridged from Klap-roth .

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All the distinguished Roman authors speak of theserites and in terms of profound respect . Horacedenounces the wretch who should attempt to revealthe secrets of these rites ; Virgil mentions these mys-teries with great respect ; and Cicero alludes to themwith a greater reverence than either of the poets wehave named . Both the Greeks and Romans punishedany insult offered to these mysteries with the mostpersevering vindictiveness . Alcibiades was chargedwith insulting these religious rites ; . and althoughthe proof of his offence was quite doubtful, yet hesuffered for it for years in exile and misery and itmust be allowed that he was the most popular man ofhis age k."

Analogous to these were the solemnities at Car-thage, designated by the name of P-hiditia ; and theimport of which, as well in terra as in substance, hasbeen no less a riddle to antiquarians, than wasthe sanctified commemoration which it disguises .During -the 'interval of their celebration, the youthsreceived lessons from the elders of the state, as tothe regulation of their conduct in after life ; and thelustre of truth, and the comeliness of virtue, as theyshone forth in Pudha, (which solves the mystery of thename,) were the invariable ethics they propounded .

Public feasts were the scene for the delivery ofthose discourses . They found their way also toRome, 'but the spiritualiPy of Redemption not goinghand-in-hand with its doctrine, or not duly compre-hended, if accompanying, the joyousness of hope, wasthere stink-into the licentiousness of -enjoyment, andthe innocence of mirth and of moral hilarity was

* Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, October 12, 1833 .

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superseded by the uproar of riot and of vice ! Suchwere the Saturnalia .

How different was their celebration in our « SacredIreland! " The very letters : of the epithet, by whichour forefathers had solemnized them, show thespirituality of purpose which actuated their zeal .Nullog was that epithet-it is compounded of nua,new ; and log (for bullog), a belly, meaning rege-neration, or the putting aside the old leaven of sin,and the -assumption of the new investiture of right-eousness, by justification .

As everything, however, in their religious proce-dure was transacted by symbols, so, in this instance,they did not content themselves with the inner con-sciousness of a new birth*, but they must go throughthe outer form of it by typification ; and for this endit was that they excavated those apertures in thebodies of rocks, which I have noticed in page 314,as calling forth, from ignorance, the animadversion ofthe devil's yonies, in order that, bypassing themselvesthrough them, they might represent the condition of oneissuing, through the womb, to a new scope of Wet .

A nobler method of symbolisation, and confinedsolely to the initiated, was that which characterisedthe construction of their subterranean temples. Herethe sublimity of their worship breaks out' in all the

* This is the exact rendering of the name by which they called itviz . nua vreith, or the being born anew by the operation of grace,

fi It is still practised in the East .-" For the purpose of regenerationit is directed to make an image of pure gold of the female power ofnature, in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue theperson to be regenerated is inclosed, and dragged out through the usualchannel . As a statue of pure gold, and of proper dimensions, would betoo expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred Yoni,through which the person to be regenerated is to pass."-WILFORD.

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grandeur and the majesty of awe * . The narrownessof the entrance, never larger than the girth of theordinary human body, portrayed, as well the circularpassage in their regenerating type t, as the circumven-tion of temptation by which the faithful are everbeset 1 ; while the model of the cross, which regulatestheir architecture withinside, attests the mystery and theform of their master's death .

The Mithratic temple, at New Grange, is exactlyso constructed . After squeezing yourself, with muchlabour, through a long emblematic gallery, you arriveat a circular room, or rather an irregular polygon, oroctagons ; whence, at measured intervals, three other

* See page 3-78, and 162 .+ Be it remembered, that it was in consequence of his ignorance of

the principle of regeneration that our Saviour addressed Nicodemus inthese cutting words, viz . " Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest notthese things ?" thereby recognising the existence of the doctrine beforehis own manifestation to that people .

* Enter ye in at the strait gate : for wide is the gate and broad isthe way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go inthereat : because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadethunto life ; andfew there be that find it .-Matthew vii. 13, 14 .

§ " The dome (of this, what he calls a cemetery) springs at variousunequal heights, from eight to nine and ten feet on different sides, form-ing at first a coving of eight sides . At the height of fifteen or six-teen feet, the north and south sides of this coving runs to a point likea gore, and the coving continues its spring with six sides ; the eastside coming to a point next, it is reduced to five sides, the west next ;and the dome ends and closes with four sides ; not tied with a key-stone, but capped with a flag-stone of three feet ten inches, by threefeet five. The construction of this dome is not formed by key-stones,whose sides are the radii of a circle, or of an ellipsis converging to acentre . It is combined with great long flat stones, each of the upperstones projecting a little beyond the end of that immediately beneath it ;the part projecting, and weight supported by it, bearing so small a pro-portion to the weight which presses down the part supported ; thegreater the general weight is which is laid upon such a cove, the firmerit is compacted in all its parts ."-POWNALL .

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apartments diverge, forming, with the in-leading gut,a perfect cross ; and presenting, altogether, to a sus-ceptible mind, the most solemn coronation of symboli-cal mysteries * !

I wonder why do not our moderns confer thesesubterraneous cruciform edifices npon the industry ofthe early Christians, as they have strove ' .tea, claim forthem the corresponding striAotures 'o -gt• and! andwithout half the :prohability of -success!. Vgir,if it maybe stated, that the crucifixions upon the towers werean interpolation, with a view to Christianise whatbefore was devoted to Paganism, no one, at all events,would maintain that the monks had gone down intothe bowels of the earth, and after ejecting the inmatesof old Alma Mater, converted their, tabernacles into amagical cross !

Nay, a greater difficulty would still attach to thisadventure . The Pagodas j' of Benares and Mathura,the two principal ones in all India, are cruciformlybuilt ! and, in order to make both worlds harmonize,the advocates for the monks, or rather their beliers,would have to transport their mechanics to thoseregions also, and turn upside-down, and sideways,and every way, whatever was the s4pe of the ori-

* " The eight sides of this polygon are thus fumed:the aperturewhich forms the entrance, and the three niches, or tabernacles, .makefour sides, and the four imposts the other four." PowwsLL .

fi This wordI.have already derived, after the example .of other writers,from ;peutgeda,-or,house of idols, so misnamed by Europeans. I muststate, however, , that ,another explication is also assigned thereto, andthat is, a . perversion of the term bhaga-vati, or holy house . But withgreat respect to the gentlemen who incline to the latter opinion, I haveto observe that . bhaga-vati, properly signifies the sacred Yoni ..; and,therefore, that,however .applicable to, a subterraneous temple, or cave,it could by no means represent an erect building.

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ginal structures, until they moulded them, at last,into this mysterious cross !

Some blame, however, would seem attachable tothe superintendents of this vision : and it is, that, whileimprinting this mark over the head of the principalfigure, in the cave, or Mithratic temple, at Ele-phanta *, they neglected to demolish the Lingam,appertaining to the previous worship ; and whichactually presents itself but a little from it in thefront ! ! !Ta be grave-There was nothing more natural

than that those different symbols should be thusunited . I have shown, that in the various copies ofour annals, the Round Towers, or over-ground temples,are designated by the name of Fidh-nemead, themeaning of which I have elucidated to be, the conse-crated Lingarns : the Mithratic caves, or under-groundtemples, their correspondents, it was to be expected,should be known by a suitable denomination ; and,accordingly, you will find this very one at NewGrange, mentioned in the " Chronicon Scotorum,"by the title of Fiodh Aongusa ; that is, the Myste-

* "The entrance into this temple, which is entirely hewn out of astone resembling porphyry, is by a spacious front supported by twomassy pillars and two pilasters forming three openings, under a thickand steep rock, overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs . The longranges of columns that appear closing in perspective on every side ; theflat roof of solid rock that seems to be prevented from falling only by themassy pillars, whose capitals are pressed down and flattened as if by thesuperincumbent weight ; the darkness that obscures the interior of thetemple, which is dimly lighted only by the entrances ; and the gloomyappearance of the gigantic stone figures ranged along the wall, andhewn, like the whole temple, out of the living rock, joined to the strangeuncertainty that hangs over the history of this place,-carry the mindback to distant periods, and impress it with that kind of uncertain andreligious awe with which the grander works of ages of darkness aregenerally contemplated," -ERSKINE .

2 A

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rious Cavern of Budh ; while the cruci ions upon theformer, and the cruciform shape of the latter, are thereverential memorials of his atoning dissolution .

The mysteries celebrated within the recesses ofthose caverns were precisely of that character whichare called Free-masonic, or Cabiric. The significa-tion of this latter epithet is, as to written letters, a de-sideratum . Selden has missed it ; so has Origen, andSophocles . Strabo too, and Montfaucon, have beenequally astray . Hyde was the only one who had anyidea of its composition, when he declared " it was aPersian word, somewhat altered from Gabri, or Guebri,and signifying fire-worshippers ."

It is true that Gabri now stands for fire-worshippers,but that is only because that they assumed to them-selves this title, which belonged to another order oftheir ancestors . The word is derived from gabh, asmith, and ir, sacred, meaning the sacred smiths ;and Cabiri, being only a perversion of it, is, of course,in substance, of the very same import .Mount Caucasus*, also, which still, in our language,

retains its original pronunciation, of Gaba-casan, or theSmith's Path, was named from the same root ; nor isthe tradition of the reason altogether obliterated fromthose who dwell beside it, if we may judge from aceremony described by a recent traveller, as performedby them, as follows :-

" original founders of the Tartarian Munga-lian Scythians, called Cajan and Docos, got embar-rassed amongst those mountains, then uninhabited .

* " This appellation, Caucasus, at least in its present state, is notSanscrit ; and as it is not of Grecian origin, it is probable that theGreeks received it through their intercourse with the Persians ."-WI LFORD .

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After a sojourn there of 450 years, having becomeso numerous as to require other settlements, theywere at a loss to find a passage through the moun-tains, when a smith, pointing out to them a placevery rich in iron ore, advised them to make greatfires there, by which means the ore melted, and abroad passage was opened for them . In commemo-ration of which famous march, the Monguls, to thisday, celebrate an annual feast, and observe the cere-mony of heating a piece of iron red hot, on whichthe Ceann (that is the chief) strikes one blow with ahammer, and all the persons of quality do the sameafter him ."

I shall close this chapter by the description givenof the destruction of Cambyses's army in the Nubiandesert, after the insults offered by him to the Cabiripriests .

11 Gnomes, o'er the waste, you led your myriad powers,Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers ;Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ;Wave over wave the driving desert swims,Burst o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ;Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crushWheeling in air, the winged islands fall-And one great sandy ocean covers all* ."

* Darwin .

2A2

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CHAPTER XXV.

ON the east side of the river Shannon, about tenmiles distant from Athlone, in the barony of Garry-castle, and King's county, is situated the Sanctuaryof Clonmacnoise . Within the narrow limits of twoIrish acres, are here condensed more religious ruins,of antiquarian value, than are to be found, perhaps,in a similar space in any other quarter of the habit-able world .

Nine churches, built respectively by the indivi-duals whose names they bear, viz ., 1 . that of Ma-earthy More ; 2 . that of Melaghlin ; 3. that of MacDermott ; 4. that of Hiorphan ; 5. that of Kieran ;6 . that of Gawney ; 7. that of O'Kelly ; and 8. thatof O'Connor ;-independently of the cathedral,----here moulder, in kindred mortality, with the ashesof nobles, of princes, and of kings, entombed be-neath their walls ; and who, at feud, mayhap, inlife, are now content to sleep, beside each other,

their warfare o'er," in the levelling indistinction ofdeath ?

Your curiosity is, no doubt, excited to know, howso circumscribed a little spot could have been chosenas the nucleus of such ecclesiastical ambition? Theanswer is found in the circumstance of this having

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been one of the strongholds of Budhism, in the daysof its corruscations, which made it now be singledout, in common with other places memorable for thatcreed, as the appropriate locality for Christian super-incumbency.Two Round Towers, the chief object of emulation,

are, as you may have supposed, here to be encount-ered : and these are the very ones, which the reader mayrecollect have been alluded to at page 38, as ridicu-lously claimed by Montmorency for Christian-be-cause, forsooth, in the vagueness of popular titles,they are recently distinguished by the names of MacCarthy and O'Rourke !The eastern columns, denominated after Pompey

and Cleopatra fi, have been equally productive of his-torical mistakes ; until, at last, it has appeared, thatthose celebrated lovers have had no more to do withsuch erections, than have had the O'Rourkes or Mac-Carthys with our Round Towers !

Here also are three crosses, belonging to the samereligion, to one of which only shall I now direct yourobservation . It is fifteen feet high, composed of asingle stone, and sculptured with imagery of the mostelegant execution .

The devices upon this sculpture are such as youwould have expected from the authors of the Alle-

* " If perfection in art consist in affording continued pleasure, itsachievements, when contemplating this column, must be deemed insur-passable. A Corinthian capital of 10 feet is poised on a shaft of 67 :1feet, the latter resting on a base of 21-.1 feet ; the whole rises to a heightof nearly 100 feet ."-HEAD .

fi " Of the obelisks, commonly called Cleopatra's Needles, one alone isnow standing ; the other, lying down, measures seven feet square at thebase, and 66 feet in length . They are so well known, that it is notnecessary to give a very particular description of them ."-CLARSE .

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gory of the Paradisiacal Fall : and here, accord-ingly, it presents itself, just as in language they hadclothed it, in all the mysteriousness of the figura-tive tree .

Immediately over the equestrian and chariot sports,which decorate the pedestal, you see Adam and Eve

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conversing at each side of this symbol of their dearly-bought knowledge! Farther up are other emblems of .mythological allusion : while, in the centre above,you observe a Cabir priest, alias, a Free-mason, hold-ing the implements of his craft-a high honour-in

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his hand * ; and encompassed by a retinue of severalmore persons, all in the glow of joy

The other sides, though less complex, are not lessgraceful, nor less significant, than the two which Ihave introduced . In them, also, everything bearsreference to the Budhist ceremonial . Nor are themouldings and the flowerings, the net-works, and otherornaments which figure upon them, the least essentialconstituent of that fruitful code 1-,-while the perso-nation of a dog,-an invariable accompaniment, asit is also amongst the sculptures at Persepolis, andother places in the east,-would, in itself, be sufficientto fix the appropriation of those crosses, as that ani-mal can have no possible relation to Christianity,whereas, by the Tuath-de-danaans, it was accountedsacred, and its maintenance enjoined by the ordinancesof the state, as it is still in the Zend books, whichremain after Zoroaster .

To Clondalkin Tower, represented at page 101,there belongs also a stone cross, and bearing its ownhistory upon its Tuath-de-danaan countenance . InArmagh is another . I cannot afford time to point outany more, but that at Finglas is too remarkable to bequite neglected .

Every body is acquainted with the legendary tale

* In confirmation of this, you will find at page 14 of Seguin's " Thes-salonian Coins," the impression of g man with a hammer, as above, inone hand, and a key in the other, and the word Cabeiros as the in-scription.

P On all public occasions displays of this kind are still indulged inthe east . Thefloralia of the Romans were adopted from the easterns ." Every person, male and female, had festoons depending from the top ofthe cap down one side of the head . These were composed of the flowersof the wild rose and hawthorn, and other beautiful kinds, which, whilethey set off the head-piece of the lieges, literally perfumed the airwherever they went.'-ARciiR.

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of St. Patrick having banished all venomous reptilesfrom this island . Now, I am very willing, as hasbeen shown, to give this apostle all the credit whichhe deserves ; but I am a chronicler of truth, andfrom me he shall have no romances . Solinus, whoflourished A .D. 190, that is, above two centuriesbefore St . Patrick was born, has noticed the pheno-menon of there being no vipers here . Isidore hasrepeated it in the seventh century ; as has Bede inthe eighth ; and, in the ninth, Donatus, the famousBishop of Fesula. This exemption, therefore, cannotbe attributable to St . Patrick, whose honour would bebetter consulted by his religious admirers, in confin-ing themselves to facts, which are numerous enough,than in shocking credibility by their piousfrauds .

As to the local phenomenon, to which you perceivehe can have no pretensions, I cannot resist bestowingupon it a passing observation. Bede, I think, has goneso far as to say, that not only are there no snakes tobe found in Ireland, but that they would not live, ifimported : nay, that, when brought within sight ofthe shore, they expire ! I should like to see thisascertained ; if the fact be such, then the questionis solved, the air or the soil is the cause .

But if the case be otherwise, then must we ascribeit to some human instrumentality ; and, as there occurvarious texts in Scripture, allusive, it would seem,to a very prevailing opinion in the east, as to themanageableness of that species, by the power ofcharms,-such as, " I will send serpents, cockatrices,among you, which will not be charmed"-(Jeremiahviii. 17) ; and C° the deaf adder that stoppeth herear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,charming never so wisely"-(Psalm lvii . 4, 5) ;-and

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as our Tuath-de-danaans, who were an easternpeople, are recorded by all our early ecclesiasticalwriters, and with no view to encomium, as so emi-nent for incantations, that the island seemed, duringtheir sway, to have been one continuation of enchant-ment, it is past doubt, that, if practicable by man'sefficacy at all, the merit of extinction belongs solelyto them.-And it is well worth notice, that the islandof Crete, where a colony of them also had settled, issaid to be gifted with a similar exemption . 11 Theprofessed snake-catchers in India," says Johnson,

are a low caste of Hindoos, wonderfully clever incatching snakes, as well as in practising the art oflegerdemain ; they pretend to draw them from theirholes by a song, and by an instrument resembling anIrish bagpipe, on which they play a plaintive tune* ."

Every legend, however, is founded upon reality,and I will unfold to you from what has Joceline con-cocted this about St. Patrick. All the crosses of theTuath-de-danaans had snakes engraved upon them .Look back at that at Killcullent, and you will seethem there still, and more plainly, by and by, uponthat at Kells . These to the Irish were objects ofreverence, because of the passions which they symbo-lized ; and accordingly the Saint, in order to obviatethe recurrence of such contemplations, effaced them,when practicable, from off the stones I.

* Sketches of India Field-sports . Dr. Shaw and Mr . Forbes are evenmore conclusive .t Page 338 .

If you examine the Tuath-de-danaan crosses with a minute eye,you will find this exposition irrefutably verified . Though they all havethe traces of the Budhist sculpture, they have also the marks of oblite-ration ; and no one of them to a greater extent than this at Finglas,

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The same precisely was the course, but with a lesshallowed intention, which the Moslems had pursuedin the dissemination of their creed . L° Whenever,"says Archer, 11 these figures were introduced, thefanatic Moslem had hammered away all those withinhis reach ; and when this process was too slow forthe work of demolition, another mode of obliterationwas requisite . Whole compartments of sculpturewere plastered over to hide the profane imagery ! Inclearing away the rubbish, to bring these beautifulremains to light, the engineer stumbled on a longfrieze, part of which had had the destroying malletpassed over it ; but this method of despatch was notactive enough, and that portion which had escapedviolence, had been plastered over with a compositionof the colour of the stone' ."

We read also in the Puranas, as an historicalcircumstance, that the whole serpent race had beendestroyed by Janamijaya, the son of Parieshit, which,in truth, only implies, as the talented professor ofSanscrit in Oxford University has already remarked,11 the subversion of the local and original supersti-

where it is known that St. Patrick principally resided . Yet even thisretains indistinct evidence of snakes, &c . &c. &c.

" The body of the snake is not only capable of flexion, but of closeand intimate . application to every rugged inequality of a tree on theearth ; and this faculty is the result of its minute subdivisions . Thebody of the snake is never bent in acute angles, but always in flowingeasy curves or circles. From each of those distant bones, so multitu-dinous in their number, which form the vertebral column, (and in onespecies of Pythra we have counted 256, exclusive of those composing thetail,) a rib arises from each side, and both together form a great portionof a circle, so as to embrace nearly the whole circumference of the body .These ribs are restricted to the vertebrae of the body only ; they do notarise from those of the tail ."

* Travels in Northern India .

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tion, and the erection of the system of the Vedas uponits ruins ."

St. Patrick, in like manner, having establishedChristianity here, in supercedence of a religion, themost prominent symbols of which were snakes, cocka-trices, and serpents, may be truly said to have extir-pated their race from the country, but, as you see, inan acceptation heretofore unexplained .The statement given by Major Archer of the sym-

bolic representations upon one of the Indian temples,as well as the particulars of its fate, are so perfectlyin unison with what I have been describing, that Imust be excused if I give it a place here .

« Reached " Burwah-Saugor," says he.-" Imme-diately on the right is a Hindoo temple, which I thinkone of the rarest sights, on the score of architectureand sculpture, which have gratified our curiosity .The work of the chisel would have immortalised theartist had he lived in the present day . I have neverseen its execution rivalled, although tolerably conver-sant with similar objects of art . The elegance ofdesign-the arrangement of the figures, which weretoo numerous to be computed-the position of them-the sharp and bold relief-and the elaborate orna-ments of foliage and animals, render it one of themost remarkable monuments of art it is possible toconceive . There are compartments on the lintels ofthe doors and the entablature, four deep ; figures ofthe subordinate deities in the voluminous code of Bra-mah, symbols of their attributes, sacred utensils, andanimals . Two vases are on the threshold, which, forshape and execution, would compete the palm ofexcellence with Grecian art . Wreaths of snakes,and groups of men and women, are on the columns,

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which also have their ornaments, and are well pro-portioned .

11 I could not resist a second visit to this edifice,which, at the risk of appearing opinionative, I canseriously aver, I never saw equalled for richness andtaste ; but the hand of intolerant bigotry has marredthe work of fair proportion . The fanatical Moslems,who over-ran the country in the time of Acbar, brokeand defaced every image they saw ; and, with fewexceptions, the head of every figure, of any size orimportance, has been demolished ; and nothing re-mains but relics, which attest the advance of the artsat the time the structure was reared ."

The effects of fanaticism are the same in all ages .It desecrates alike human and divine laws . St. Pa-trick was no fanatic ; and accordingly, in his course,what he could not himself comprehend, he wasresolved, at all events, to have respected . Thosecrosses, therefore, which had previously been lookedupon with an eye of veneration, though, the cause hadlong ceased to be transmitted, he literally Christianised,by removing the sculpture ; and thus were they made,in the ritual of the new religion, as hallowedlyexpressive as they were ever before .

Precisely similar was the system pursued by themissionaries in India .

The island of Salsette," says Captain Head,16 abounds in mythological antiquities and pagantemples-two gigantic figures of Buddha, near twentyfeet high, of complete preservation, which they oweto the zeal of the Portuguese, who painted them red,and converted the place they ornamented to a Catholicchapel ."

The Pantheon at Rome was new modelled in the

same manner . In a word, as Grotius has beforeaffirmed, " infinite appropriations have been made ."

But, independently of this conversion, the con-formity itself between the Christian and the Budhistreligion was so great, that the Christians, whorounded the Cape of Good Hope with Vasco deGama, performed their devotions in an Indian temple,on the shores of Hindostan ! Nay, " in many partsof the Peninsula," say the Asiatic Researches, " Chris-tians are called, and considered as followers ofBuddha, and their divine legislator, whom theyconfound with the apostle of India, is declared to bea form of Buddha, both by the followers of Brahmaand those of Siva ; and the information I had receivedon that subject is confirmed by F . Paulino."

It was not -so with those who made religion atrade, and only the auxiliary pass-word to theirselfish aggrandisement ! When the 11 abomination ofdesolation*" swept over this country, and strewedthe verdure of its surface with the indiscriminatefragments of cathedrals, of castles, and of towers, thecrosses but as little escaped the scourge !

Having had occasion to pass through Finglas, ontheir march to the siege of Drogheda, and fancyingthe cross, which stood there, to have been necessarilythe erection of obnoxious Romanism, they gave it aniconoclast blow, which broke its shaft into two ! Thusdecapitated, it fell . But the citizens, wishing toavoid further profanation, soon as ever the army eva-cuated the town, took the disjointed relic, and buriedit, very decorously, within the confines of the church-yard

Here it remained, in consecrated interment, until

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* Oliver Cromwell with his army of locusts .

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the beginning of the year 1816, when an old man ofthe parish, recounting anecdotes of by-gone times,mentioned, amongst others, the particulars of thistradition, and excited some curiosity by the narrative .The Rev. Robert Walsh was then curate of Finglas,

and this mysterious history having reached his ears,he determined forthwith to ascertain its evidences .His first step was to see the chronicler himself.-

This personage's name was Jack White . Jack, whowas himself well stricken in years, told him, that he

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had learned, a long while ago, from his father, who wasthen himself rather elderly, that he had been shown,by his still older grandfather, the identical spot wherethe cross had been concealed, and could point it outnow to any one with certainty and preciseness .

The proposal was accepted ; workmen were em-ployed ; and, after considerable perseverance, thecross was exhumed! its parts re-united by iron cramps !and re-erected, as opposite, within a short distance ofthe scene of its subterranean slumbers ! as if inrenascent triumph over the destroyer !

Let such approach this consecrated landAnd pass in peace along the magic wasteBut spare its relics-let no busy handDeface the scene, already how defacedNot for such purpose were those altars placedRevere the remnants nations once revered ;So may our country's name be undisgraced,So mayst thou prosper where thy youth was reared,By every honest joy of love and life endeared*.

* Byron.

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IT will be borne in mind, that everything hithertoadvanced, on the various topics, which we have beendiscussing, was the sheer result of internal reasoning,and of personal circumspection-that, wherever ex-trinsic aid was brought forward in support of thisunbeaten track, it was uniformly in the shape of con-clusions, deduced from the premises of reluctant wit-nesses . I rejoice, with delight unspeakable, that Ihave it, at last, in my power, to range myself, side byside, with an author, whose testimony in this mattermust be considered decisive, but which, however, bysome strange aberration of intellect, has never beforebeen understood !

Cormac *, the celebrated bishop of Cashel, andone of the first scholars who ever flourished in anycountry, when defining the Round Towers, in hisGlossary of the Irish Language, under the name ofGaill t, says, that they were " Cartha cloacha is airebearor gall desucder Fo bith ro ceata suighedseat enEire,''-that is, stone-built monuments, within whichnoble judges used to inclose vases containing therelics of Fo (i . e . Budh), and of which they had erectedhundreds throughout Ireland !

* Some say he belonged to the fifth century. All agree that it wasnot later than the ninth .

`i' Seepage 61 .

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Knowing that the Ceylonese Dagobs, a name whichliterally signifies houses of relics, were appurtenances ofBudhism, I intreated of a very intelligent native of thatisland, who attended the Vihara, at Exeter Hall, sometime ago, that he would favour me with a writtenoutline of his views of those structures . After a fewdays he very civilly obliged me with the following :-

" to the eastern countries often havetheir notice attracted by numerous buildings of asingular form and of enormous sizes, both 'in ruinsand in preserved states, about the origin and objectsof which, many inquiries have been made, and variousconclusions drawn . These are monuments raised inancient times to the memory of deified persons, andcalled Chaityas, to which places devotees used to resortfor meditation, especially those who had any particularveneration for the deceased, whose relics 'are supposedto be deposited within, and on whose virtues theyquietly reflect, availing themselves of the solitudeof such places ; and if in their own imaginations thepersonages are deified, they make offerings of lamp-light, &c .

" In' exploring the ruins of these pyramids, theinside of the globes are found to contain loose earth,merely filled up after the arches had been raised ; insuch loose earth are found ancient coins of variousmetals, supposed to be thrown in, in token of respector veneration, whilst building ; but in the very centreof the globe is always found a square well, pavedwith bricks, and the mouths covered by hewn granite,borne on granite supporters, standing in the fourcorners of the square (sometimes triangular) . In thiswell, if the monument of a king, (and if not robbed by

2 B

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ancient invaders,) will be found the urn, containingthe relics of the deceased, and treasure to a consider-able worth . Sometimes there may be discovered apiece of beaten gold, or other metal, with engravings,mentioning the name and other circumstances of thedeceased . If a Buddhist king, idols of Buddhamight be found in it-but in others, sometimesearthen or metallic lamps, and heads of cobra decapellas .

11 In similar monuments, erected for the relics ofBuddha, are three different compartments or depo-sitories ; one in the bottom of the foundation, one inthe heart of the globe, and one at the top of theglobe within the column . This column always hasits basis upon the granite covering of the well . Inmonuments of this description are, supposed to bemuch buried treasure, especially in the foundations .The Paly book, Toopahwanse, gives account of thedistribution of the Buddha's relics to the differentparts of the world, and the erection of such monu-ments over them .

« Monuments of eminent Buddhist high priests aresometimes erected very high, but no treasure is to beexpected in them, excepting sometimes books en-graved on - metal ; but the tomb of the poorest princeis never without (at least in models) a golden crown,a sword of the same metal, a pair of metallic shoes,and a similar parasol .

'° Besides having learnt from tradition and ancientdocuments, the writer has seen the discovery of thetomb of a prince, in which these articles were found,with a plate of gold, stating the name of the prince,his age, death, &c ., which he had the pleasure to

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transcribe ; the characters were in a different formfrom those now used in the same language, andhardly intelligible.

" The writer also had the pleasure of exploring theruins of a very lofty Dagob that stood opposite to theestablishment of the Church Missionaries in Ceylon .It .was found to have been the tomb of a monarch,and had the. appearance of having been robbed of thewealth it very likely contained, upwards of a centuryago, as the trees that were growing on it indicated .A large quantity of ancient coins, and metal of dif-ferent kinds, melted into various shapes, (perhapswith burning of the corpse,) were however collected .

" Ceylon contains many ancient pyramids of thekind in a preserved state, and protected by the people,which are supposed to contain much wealth, but thesuperstitious do not dare to explore, and others fearthe laws, which will permit violence to no man'sfeelings *."Having before shown how that the religion of

the ancients was interwoven with their funeral ob-servances, this ocular testimony was alone requisiteto gain credence for my proofs . I can still furtheradduce the authority of Dr . Hurd t, to show thatthe Gaurs of India, to this day, make use of theRound Towers I in their neighbourhood, as places ofburial, lifting up the dead bodies to the elevated doorby means of ladders and pullies . None of thosethree writers have attempted anything more than a

* " July, 1833 ."-This gentleman's name was Pareira .fi Religious Rites and Ceremonies .$ The Gaurs themselves did not build those towers, but finding them

to their hand, and knowing them to have been formerly reverenced, theyconverted them to this purpose .

21,2

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statement of the actualities, therefore will I beexcused if, in addition to what has been alreadydetailed, I observe that, sublime and philosophic aswas the intent of the phallic configuration of thoseedifices, applied to religion, it was incomparably moreso, considered in reference to sepulture ; for while,in the former, it merely typified the progress ofgeneration and vitality, in the latter it suggested themore ennobling hope of a future renasccnce and a ,

resurrection .That the reader, now aware of the 1 1 secret" which

directed the form and elevation of our Sabian Towers,should not be surprised at the affinity which I havebefore pointed out between them and the two "pillars"which stood at the door of Solomon's Temple*, Ishall tell him that the whole internal construction ofthis latter edifice, as well as those outer and partialornaments, bore direct relation to the anatomicalorganism of man himself.

* One called Jachen, that is, he shall establish ; and the other Boaz,or in it is strength . This was all emblematical, which,' without givingSolomon any participation therein, may be accounted for on the prin-ciple, that the building was conducted under the superintendence ofHiram, a Sidonian, who naturally had exercised the taste of his owncountry in the discretion here allowed him . Nor will the circumstanceof those pillars having been made of metal oppose any barrier-thedesign is the thing to be considered, not the material. And besides, wefind them of metal elsewhere also .

1 1 An iron pillar," says Archer, " stands in a sort of court-yard, havingthe remains of cloisters on the four sides . Its history is veiled in darkestnight . There is an inscription on it, which nobody can decipher : noris there any account, historical or traditional, except we may refer to thelatter class, a prevalent idea of all people, that the pillar is on themost sacred spot of the old city, which spot was also its centre . It isalso said, that as long as the pillar stood, so long would Hindostanflourish . This was the united dictum of the Bramins and astrologers ofthe day . The pillar is fifteen or sixteen inches in diameter."

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To instance only the most prominent of those ana- .logies, you will find the " holy" and the mostholy" bear the same relation to each other, as thecerebrum and cerebellum of the human mechanism .Nor need this at all be wondered at, seeing that,from the very faintest reflection, it must suggest itselfto the most indolent, that the divine ingenuity mostprominently _shines forth in the human anatomy ; andthat, therefore, from the exalted sentiments which thisis calculated to inspire of the Godhead, the nobleststudy of mankind is man*."

Viewing it in this light, and coupling it with thatpiety which is known to have animated the bosomof David's anointed son, I cannot pass on withoutparticipating in that sublime exclamation, whichbespoke at once his gratitude and his . humility,after the consummation of his mighty task . 11 Butwill God," said he, " indeed dwell on earth? Be-hold! the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannotcontain thee, how much less this house that I havebuilded •f' !"Now . : to :the era for the erection of our Round

Towers . . As they have neither dates nor inscrip-tions," says Sir John Ware, " and as history is silenton that head, it cannot be expected that I shouldpoint out the time when they were erected in thiscountry J."-A very cheap way, certainly, of gettingover a difficulty ! The same was the mode adoptedby him, and with equal candour, a few pages earlier,as to the development of their destination, when hesays-" I confess it is much easier to combat and

* aydewvros avTi T., vravTwv pcsTeff .-PHOTAGOl2AS .h I Kings viii . 27 .

Antiquities of Ireland, vol . ii . p . 13 .3 .

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overthrow everything that has been hitherto advancedby writers in favour of the Danish claim to thesemonuments of antiquity and the uses of them, -thanto substitute an thing solid and satisfactory in theirroom'." But inasmuch as the latter problem hasbeen solved, one is led to conclude, that the obstaclesto the former are but imaginary also .

To begin then-Camden, speaking of them, in thethirteenth century, says, he believes them to havebeen erected in the seventh, but does not know bywhom ! But I put it to any rational thinker to say,whether, if they had been a creation of the seventhcentury, it would be possible for a writer of the thir-teenth to have been ignorant of their origin, and thattoo at a time when tradition was universal? andevery father - made it a point to instil into his sonthe events and circumstances that happened in hisown day ? This writer's testimony is sufficient, atall events, to show that they existed in the seventhcentury.

Bishop Cormac, we have seen before, has recordedthem as objects of antiquity in his own time ; andthis being, at the latest, within the ninth century,they must have had existence before the seventh ; elsethey could not well be deemed ancient two centu-ries after .

The Ulster Annals record the destruction of fifty-seven of them by an earthquake, A .D. 448 ; theymust, therefore, have existed before that centuryalso . But the Royal Irish Academy say no ; becausethat tradition connects a person called the GobanSaer, and " the historical notices relative to whom

* Antiquities of Ireland, vol . ii . p . 129 .

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have been collected into Mr. Petrie's Essaywiththe erection of this (the Antrim Tower), as well asothers in the -north of Ireland* !" As every notice,therefore, respecting so important a character, mustbe eagerly sought after, I shall take leave to tran-scribe what the same high authority tells us of him,in the following words, viz .--

" I have not learned the particular period at whichhe flourished, but tradition says, that he was superiorto all his'contemporaries in the art of building ; - evenin that dark age when so little communication existed .between countries not so remotely situated, his fameextended to distant lands . A British prince, whosepossessions were very extensive, and who felt ambi-tious of erecting a splendid palace to be his regal resi-dence, hearing of the high attainments of the GobanSaer, in his sublime science, invited him to court;) andby princely gifts, and magnificent promises, inducedhim to build a structure, the splendour of which ex-celled that of all the palaces in the world . But theconsummate skill of the artist had nearly cost him hislife, for the-prince, struck with the matchless beautyof the palace, was determined that it should standunrivalled on the earth, by putting the architect todeath, who alone was capable of constructing suchanother, after the moment the building received thefinishing touches of his skilful hand .

"This celebrated individual had a son, who wasgrown up . to man's estate ; and anxious that this onlychild should possess, in marriage, a young woman ofsound sense and ready wit, he cared little for the fac-titious distinctions of birth or fortune, if he found her

* Dublin Penny Journal, July 20, 1833 .

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rich in the gifts of heaven, . Having killed a sheep, hesent the young man to sell the skin at the next markettown, with this singular injunction, that he shouldbring home the skin and its price at his return . Thelad was always 'accustomed to bow to his father'ssuperior wisdom, and on this occasion did not stop toquestion the good sense of his commands, but benthis way to town . In these primitive - times, it wasnot unusual to see persons of the highest rank en-gaged in menial employments, so the town-folk wereless surprised to see the young Goban expose asheep-skin for sale, than at the absurdity of the term,the skin and the price of it .' He could find no chap-

man, or rather chapwoman (to coin a term), for it waswomen engaged in domestic business that usuallypurchased such skins for the wool . A young womanat last accosted him, and upon hearing the terms ofsale, after pondering a moment agreed to the bargain .She took him to her house, and having stripped offall the wool, returned him the bare skin, and the pricefor which the young man stipulated . Upon reach-ing home, he returned the skin and its value' 'to hisfather, who learning, that a young woman became thepurchaser, entertained so high an opinion of hertalents, that in a few days she became the wife of hisson, and sole mistress of Rath Goban .

" Some time after this marriage, and towards theperiod to which we before referred, when the GobanSaer and his son were setting off, at the invitation ofthe British prince, to erect his superb palace, thisyoung woman exhibited considerable abilities, andthe keenness of her expressions, and the brilliancy ofher wit, far outdid, on many occasions, the acumenof the Goban Saer himself ; she now cautioned him,

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when his old father, who did not, like modern archi-tects, Bianconi it along Macadamized roads, got tiredfrom the length of the journey, to shorten the road ;and secondly, not to sleep a third night in any housewithout securing the interest of a domestic femalefriend . The travellers pursued their way, and aftersome weary walking over flinty roads, and throughintricate passages, the strength of the elder Gobanyielded to the fatigue of the journey . The dutifulson would gladly shorten the road for the way-wornsenior, but felt himself unequal to the task . Onacquainting his father with the conjugal precept, theold man unravelled the mystery, by bidding him com-mence some strange legend of romance, whose delight-ful periods would beguile fatigue and pain intocharmed attention . .Irishmen, I believe,- are thecleverest in Europe at ` throwing it over' females inforeign places, and it is pretty likely that the youngerGoban did not disobey the second precept of his be-loved wife . On the second night at their arrival atthe king's court, he found in the person of a femaleof very high rank (some say she was the king's daugh-ter), a friend who gave her confiding heart to all =thedear delights that love and this Irish experimentalistcould bestow. As the building proceeded under theskilful superintendence of the elder Goban, the sonacquaints him with the progress of his love, and theardent attachment of the lady . The cautious old manbade him beware of one capable of such violent passion,and take care lest her jealousy or caprice might notbe equally ungovernable, and display more fearfuleffects . To discover her temper, the father orderedhim to sprinkle her face with water as he washedhimself in the morning-that if she received the

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aspersion with a smile, her love was disinterested, andher temper mild ; but if she frowned darkly, her lovewas lust, and her anger formidable . The young manplayfully sprinkled the crystal drops on the face ofhis lover-she smiled gently-and the young Gobanrested calmly on that tender bosom, where true loveand pitying mildness bore equal sway .

The wisdom of the Goban Saer and .his sapientdaughter-in-law was soon manifested ; for, as thebuilding approached its completion, his lady-love com-municated to the young man the fearful intelligence,that the king was resolved, by putting them to deathwhen the work was concluded, that they should erectno other such building, and, by that means, to enjoy theunrivalled fame of possessing the most splendid palacein the world . These tidings fell heavily on the earof the Goban Saer, who saw the strong necessity ofcircumventing this base treachery with all his skill .In an interview with his majesty, he acquaints himthat the building was being completed ; and that itsbeauty exceeded everything of the kind he had donebefore ; but that it could, not be finished without a cer-tain, instrument which he unfortunately left at home,and he requested his royal permission to return forit. The king would, by no means, consent to theGoban Saer's departure ; but anxious to have the edi-ficecompleted, he was willing to send a .trusty mes-senger into Ireland for that instrument upon whichthe finishing : of the royal ; edifice depended . Theother assured his majesty, that it was of so muchimportance that he would not entrust it into thehands of the greatest of his majesty's subjects . Itwas finally arranged that the king's eldest son shouldproceed to Rath Goban, and, upon producing his cre-

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dentials to the lady of the castle, receive the instru-ment of which she had the keeping, and which theGoban Saer named ' Cur-an-aigh ;an-cuirm' Upon hisarrival_ in Ireland, the young prince proceeded tofulfil his errand ; but the knowing mistress of RathGoban, judging_ from the tenor of the message, andthe ambiguous expressions couched under the nameof the pretended instrument, that her husband andfather-in-law were the victims of some deep trea-chery, she bade him welcome, inquired closely-afterher absent friends, and told him* he should have theobject of his mission when he had refreshed himselfafter the fatigues of his long journey . Beguiled bythe suavity of her manners and the wisdom of herwords, the prince complied with her invitation toremain all might at Rath Goban. - . :But in the midstof his security, the domestics, faithful to the callof their mistress, had him bound in chains, and ledto the dungeon of the castle . Thus the wisdom ofthe Goban Saer, and the discrimination of his daugh-ter, completely baffled the wicked designs of theking, .who received intimation that his - son's -lifewould surely atone for the blood of the' architect :; .He dismissed them to their native country laden-withsplendid presents ; and, on their safe arrival at RathGoban, the prince was restored to liberty * ."

Gentlemen of England, where is your knowledge ofhistory?- which of your famed monarchs was it thatwas going to play this scurvy trick upon our Goban,and earn for himself the infamous notoriety of asecond Laornedon, by defrauding- this architect, whono doubt was a Hercules, of his stipulated salary ?

* Dublin Penny Journal, June 10, 1833 .

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Ye shades of Alfred and of Ethelbert, I pause for areply !

But this indignity, if offered to Goban, would beeven greater than that offered by Laomedon to Her-cules ; for in the latter case the crime was only thatof dishonesty-which is not uncommon in any age-superadded to a spice of impiety, in cheating a god ;but in the former case, over and above all these,would weigh a consideration which our people wouldnever forgive-namely, a violation of the laws ofgallantry, this same Goban " having been believed inthis part of this country to have been a woman* !"And yet the same vehicle that puts forth thistrash has told us, in the preceding extract, that hewas a father and a husband ! (I do not believe inhermaphrodites,) and, to crown the climax of absur-dity, gives us the following specimen of the heroism ofhis wife : viz .-

" The Goban Saer having been barbarously mur-dered, together with his journeymen, by twelve high-waymen, the murderers proceeded to his house, andtold the Goban's wife, with an air of triumph, thatthey had killed her husband. She appearing nowiseconcerned, asked them to assist her in drawing openthe trunk of a tree, which the Goban had been cuttingup into planks . They put in their hands for thepurpose, when, drawing out a wedge, she left themliterally in a cleft stick, and taking up an axe, cut offall their heads at a blow fi !"

But this is ludicrously trifling with the time of myreaders . I am alive to the fact, and I most submis-

Dublin Penny Journal, July 20, 1833 .i• Ibid . October 5, 1833 .

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sively crave forgiveness, which I doubt not I shallreceive, when I state that my sole object was to ex-pose the flimsiness of that subterfuge, by which theRoyal Irish Academy, or rather their council ! hadhoped that they could blindfold the public, as wellas they had succeeded in sequestrating my prize !

I do not deny indeed but that there may have beenin Ireland, at one time, such a person as the GobanSaer : but if ever he did belong thereto, it must havebeen at least sixteen hundred years before the epochwhich the Academy sanction-and so sanction, be itobserved, because that a weak-minded poor monk,when writing the biography of St . Abhan, and tor-turing his invention, in all quarters, for the purposeof conjuring up miracles to lay to his score, thoughtthe similarity of sound between Abhan and Gobhan soinviting, that he must contrive an interview_ betweenthe parties ; and so, with " one fell swoop," alias, dashof the pen, cutting off the centuries of separation, hetreats himself and his pupils to the following bur-lesque :-

" Quidam famossissimus in omni arte lignorum etlapidum erat in Hibernia nomine Gobbanus, cujusartis fama usque in finem sawuli erit in ea . Ipse jampostquam, aliis sanatis, in superflua artis suee mercedelumen oculorum amisit, et erat cactus . Hic vocatusest ad S. Abbanum et dixit ei : Volo aedificium inhonorem Dei aedificare, et to age illud . Et ille aitQuomodo possum agere cum sim crecus ? dixit eiSanctus, Quamdiu illud operaberis lumen oculorumhabebis, sed tibi postea non promitto . Et ita factumest, nam ille artifex apud sanctum Dei in lumine suooperatus est, et cum esset illud perfectum lumen ocu-

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lorum amisit 0 "--that is-in the true spirit of whatmy countrymen call a Steal' Feeneechtha, or Phcrnicianstory, i. e ., an entertaining lie, (a proof, by the way,that they claim no kindred with the Phoenicians, elsethey would not thus confirm the well-known epithetof Pun.ica fides) ; however to put this steal Feeneech-tha into English, it runs thus :-" Once upon a time,there lived in Erin, a man most-celebrated for his uni-versal mastery over wood and stone ; and whose fame,accordingly, will live therein, as long as grass shallgrow or purling streams flow in its enchanting scenery .This good man's name was Gobhan, who, wallow-ing in wealth from the meritorious exertions of hisabilities, yet incapacitated from enjoying it by thedeprivation of his sight, was summoned before St.Abhan, who had already healed the rest of the worldby his miraculous gifts, and who thus addresseshim := I wish to build a house to the honour of God ;and set you about it . `How can I,' says Goblian,seeing that I am blind ?' ` O very well,' says Abhan,I will settle that ; long as ever you are engaged in

the business, you shall have the use of , your eyes ;but I make no promises afterwards!' And verily itwas so, for long as ever he did work with the saint, hehad the - use of his sight, but soon as ever the workwas done, he relapsed into his former blindness! "

Well, you may laugh if you chuse, in future, at thesimplicity of the monks ; but here is one for you,who, in the very extravagance of his simplicity, andthat while bursting, almost, with risibility, himself, atthe speciousness of his conceit, has contrived tobamboozle a jury of umpires, who pique themselves

* Colgan.

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upon their contempt for everything monkish, and who,actually, in any other case, had they the sworn evi-dence of a monk, would go counter thereto ; but here,where an old doting friar is drawing upon his inge-nuity, every syllable that escapes him is taken forgospel !

Now, I1 as readily believe, as they would fain per-suade me, that long as 'Gobhan did work with Ab-haa be .had : the use of his sight," and that " soon asever the work was done, he relapsed into his formerblindness ." And why? because the two men, livingin different ages, never laid eyes upon each other atall, and thus were they both, morally and literally, blindto each other !

The Scythians, who were masters of this countryat the Christian _era, and for many centuries pre-ceding, had a sovereign contempt for everything likearchitecture . " They have no towns," says Herodo-tus, " no fortifications ; their habitations they alwayscarry with them *. The principle which actuatedthem, in this indifference to houses, was precisely thatwhich governed the Britons in a similar taste-theywere a race'of warriors, and dreaded the imputationof cowardice more than they did the inclemency of theweather. It is not without reason, therefore, that wefind Hollingshed, who wrote his Chronicles in QueenElizabeth's reign, complaining that 1 1 three thingswere altered for the worse in England-the multi-tude of chimneys lately erected, the great increase oflodgings, and the exchange of treen platters intopewter, and wooden spoons into silver and tin .Nothing but oak for building houses is now regardedwhen houses were built with willow, then had we

* Melpomene, ch . 46 .

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oaken men ; but now our houses are come to be builtof oak, our men are not only become willow, but agreat many altogether of straw* ."

St. Bernard, also, in reference to the Irish, havingmentioned that Malachy O'Morgan, archbishop ofArmagh, was the first (of the Scythian race) who haderected a stone house in the island, introduces anative upbraiding him with it, in these terms :-" wonderful work is this? why this innovationin our country? we are Scots, and not Gauls, whatnecessity have we for such durable edifices?"

St . Abhan, therefore, who belonged to the sixthcentury, at which time the Scythians had here abso-lute sway, never once dreamt of erecting a stone edi-fice, or of evoking from the grave the manes ofGobhan, who, if he ever existed, must have been amember of the former dynasty .

Those pious fabrications which the biographers ofearly saints had concocted, with a view to magnifythe reverence due to their subjects, remind me ofone which was invented for the benefit (but in realityto the detriment) of St. Patrick, and which, even atthe risk of appearing tedious, I must detail .

11 Whereas,"--you perceive the record begins withall the formalities of office,-" in the year of theworld 1525, Noah began to admonish the people ofvengeance to come by a generall deluge for thewickednesse and detestable sinne of man, and con-tinued his admonition for 120 years, building an arkefor the safeguard of himself and his family ; oneClesarea (say they), according unto others, Caisarea, a

* Oppidum vocant Britanni cum silvas impeditas vallo atque fossamunierunt. The Britons call a town an encumbered wood, fenced in witha rampart and a ditch .-Caesar's Comment . lib . 5 .

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a niece of Noah, (when others seemed to neglect thiswarning,) rigging a navy, committed herself, withher adherents, to the seas, to seeke adventures andleave the plagues that were to befall . There arrivedin Ireland with her three men, Bithi, Largria, andFintan, and fifty women . Within forty days afterher arrivall the universal flood came upon them, andthose parts, as well as upon the rest of the world, anddrowned them all ; in which perplexity of mind andimminent danger, beholding the waves overflowingall things before their eyes, Fintan is said to havebeen transformed into a salmon, and to have swoomeall the time of the deluge about Ulster ; and after thefall of the water, recovering his former shape, to havelived longer than Adam, and to have delivered strangethings to posterity, so that of him the common speechriseth, 'If I had lived Fintan's years I could saymuch.' "

Well, to make a long story short," this sameFintan, who was converted into a salmon, for the solepurpose of accounting for his appearance on the sametheatre with St. Patrick, is introduced to the saint,when, after a very diverting episode upon his sub-marine adventures, a miracle, of course, is to bewrought, and, anon, we have the contemporary ofNoah, and of Patrick, at once a salmon, a dolphin, anda man, renouncing his attachment to the waters and tothe boat, and devoutly embracing Christianity ! !

The anachronism committed in the instance of theGoban Saer was precisely of the same character ! andthe very name assigned him, which is that of a class,not of an individual, exposes the counterfeit !

Gobhan Saer means, the Sacred Poet, or the Free-2c

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mason Sage, one of the Guabhres, or Cabiri, such asyou have seen him represented upon the Tuath-de-danaan cross at Clonmacnoise . To this colony, there-fore, must he have belonged, and therefore the Towers,traditionally associated with his erection, must have beenconstructed anterior to the Scythian influx .

But we are not left to such inferences to determinethe point . A more substantial ally, the imperishablelandmarks of history stand forward as my vouchers .

To this hour the two localities-whereon theTuath-de-danaans had fought their two decisivebattles with the Fir-Bolgs, their immediate prede-ce9sors in the occupation of this island-one nearLough Mask, in the county Galway, and the othernear Lough Arran, in the county Roscommon, arecalled by the name of Moy-tura, or more correctly, inIrish, Moye-tureadh !The meaning of this compound, beyond the pos-

sibility of disputation, is The field of the Towers !And when, in both those places, are still traced theruins of such edifices, are we not inevitably forced toconnect, as well their erection as the imposition of thename, with the fortunes or with the feelings of someside of the above combatants?

You will say, then, that the Fir-Bolgs were as likelyto have originated the name, and built those struc-tures upon the site, in reliance upon their divinities,as that the Tuath-de-danaans should have been theauthors in gratitude to theirs?

Our only mode, therefore, is to consider the vestigesof their respective religions : and when we perceivethat, in the isles of Aran, whither the Fir-Bolgs betookthemselves after their first defeat, for the period in-

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tervening between those two battles, commemoratedby the above name, there appears not a vestige ofarchitectural masonry, approaching in character to aColumnar temple, while, on the contrary, they aboundin specimens of Druidical veneration, is it not evident,that they, at all events, have no claim thereto?

The worship, therefore, of the Fir-Bolus differedaltogether from that of the Tuath-de-danaans, andso they are excluded from those immortal memo-rials . Indeed the avidity with which - they hailed theapproach of a new conqueror, and tendered him theirassistance for the reduction of the island, arose notso much from any fondly-cherished hope of theirbeing themselves restored to the throne they hadlost, or even allowed therein a participation, as froman illiberal aversion to the emblematic ritual of theirtemple-serving superiors, which their ignorant pre-judices could not allow them to appreciate !

We are warranted, then, I presume, in assigningsolely to the Tuath-de-danaans the affixing of thename Moy-tureadh to those two scenes of their success .And did there even a ,doubt remain on the mind of themost incredulous, as to the accuracy of the inference,or the correctness of that reasoning, which wouldidentify this people with the erections in general ofthose rotundities, it will hide its diminished head,and vanish with self-abasement, when I bring forwardthe testimony of Amergin, brother to Heremon andHeber,-the immediate victors of this religious order,-in the following graphic and pictorial treasure, asstill religiously preserved in the Book of Leccan, viz .

Aonoch righ TeambrachTeamor Tur TuatachTuath Mac MiledhMiledh Long Libearne .'

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That is," Noble is the king of Teamor,Teamor the Tuathan Tower,Tuaths were the sons of Miledh,Miledh of the Libearn vessels."

Here, then,-a circumstance which I cannot imaginehow it could have escaped all before me!-we have thisdisputed question at length settled, and incontro-vertibly adjudicated by the very head of that body,which Montmorency bad assured us, never alluded tothose edifices as a subject of national boast-I meanthe Bards . For, whether we admit this Amergin tohave been the person above described *, the actualcontemporary and successor of the Tuatha-de-da-naans, or as the other, of that name, who belongs to theChristian age, and the time of St . Patrick, the sup-position is equally valid, to prove the existence ofthose structures anterior to their respective eras ! andthe ascription, in either case, remains unshaken, andirrefragable, which, in the word Tuathan Tower, unitesthe Tower erectors with the colony of the Tuatha!

* Of whom O'Flaherty gives this character from an Irish poem, writby one G. Comdeus 0' Cormaic, which he thus translates into Latin .

grimus Amerginus genu candidus anther JernHistoricus, judex lege, poeta, sophus .

That is,Fair-limbed Amergin, venerable sage,First graced lerne's old historic page ;Judge of the laws, for justice high approved,And loving wisdom by the muse beloved .

And he quotes this hemistich as another fragment of his poetry,Eagna la heagluis aidirAgus feabtha la flaithibh.

That is,Let those, who o'er the sacred rites preside,Take wisdom for their guardian and their guide ;Let those, whose power the multitude obey,Support by conduct their imperial sway .

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My opponents may now demolish, if they can, allmy foregoing deductions, as speedily as they please,-nay, did the destructiveness of fire or other untowardaccident, deprive me of the deductions of my pre-ceding labours, to this one stanza would I cling, as thepalladium of my truth ; to this landmark would Iadhere as my ne plus ultra" against error, in itsencroachments upon history * !

In the whole catalogue of Irish deposits, thereexists not one of more intrinsic value to the lover ofantiquities, so far as the right settlement of history isconcerned, than what those four lines present . For,in the first place, we learn that the celebrity ofTeamor - arose not from any gorgeous suit of palacesof a castellated outline . Its renown consisted inbeing the central convention for religious celebrationto all the distant provincials once in every year ; who,after attending the games in the adjoining district ofTailtine, now Telitown, adjourned, for legislativedeliberations, to the Hill of Tarah, where they pro-pounded their plans, not within the confined enclo-sures of any measured dome, but under the opencanopy of the expanded firmament .

Teamor, then, was not a Palace at all, but one ofthe "Round Towers," or Budhist Temples, belongingto the Tuath-de-danaans ; and this is further provedby the result of researches, made to explore thefoundation of an edifice, confirmatory of a regal man-sion, having all ended in the most confuting disap-

* The above stanza, I should observe, belongs to that species of poetrycalled in Irish con- a-clop, wherein the final word of each line is theinitial one of the following .t Or " Tarah, ' says the Dinn Seanchas, compiled by Amergen

Mac Amalgaid, in the year 544, " was so called from its celebrity formelody .

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pointment no vestiges could be found save those ofthe Round Tower !

The importance which attaches to the Tailtinegames above noticed, makes it necessary that I shouldbestow upon them something more than a cursoryglance. Let me, therefore, first state what other writershave said respecting them .

~° We attribute," says Abbe Mac ;Geoghegan, " toLugha Lamh Fada, one of their ancient kings, theinstitution of military exercises at Tailton in Meaththose exercises consisted in wrestling, the combatsof gladiators, tournaments, races on foot and onhorseback, as we have seen them instituted at Romea long time after by Romulus, in honour of Mars,which were called ' Equitia .' These games at Tail-ton, which Gratianus Lucius and O'Flaherty callludi Taltini,' were celebrated every year, during

thirty days, that is, fifteen days before, and fifteendays after, the first of our month of August . On thataccount, the first of 'August has been, and is stillcalled in Ireland, ' Lah Lugh-Nasa,' which signifies aday in memory of Lugha . These olympiads alwayscontinued amongst the Milesians until the arrival ofthe English . - We discover to this day some vestigesof them, without any other change than that of timeand place . Wrestling, which we call in France ' letour du Breton,' the exercises of gladiators and raceson foot, are stilll on. festivall days their common diver-sion in various districts of Ireland, and the conquerorsgenerally receive a prize."

" Tailtean," says Seward, '1 a place in the countyof Meath, where the Druids sacrificed in honour ofthe sun and moon, and heaven and earth, on the firstof August, being the fifth revolution of the moon

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from the vernal equinox . At this time the statesassembled, and young people were given in marriage,according to the custom of the eastern nations . Gameswere also instituted, resembling the Olympic gamesof the Greeks, and held fifteen days before and fifteendays after the first of August . This festival was fre-quently denominated Lughaid Naoislean, or theMatrimonial Assembly ."

" This chapter," says Vallancey, " might havebeen lengthened many pages, with the description andetymology of the various ornaments of female dress,but enough has been said to . convince the reader,,that the ancient Irish brought with them the Asiaticdress and ornaments of their ancestors, for they couldnot have borrowed these names of Spaniards, Britons,Danes, or Norwegians .

L( Thus dressed and ornamented, the youthful fe-males of Ireland appeared at Tailetan, or the mys-teries of the sun, on the first day of August in eachyear, when the ceremony of the marriage of the sunand moon took place, and the females were exposedto enamour- the swains . The day still retains thename of Luc-nasa, or the Anniversary of the Sun .And the name of the month of August, in Sanscrit,is Lukie, whom they make the wife of Veeshnu, thepreserver and goddess of plenty. So the Irish poetshave made this festival, named Lucaid-lamh-fada, i . e .,the Festival of Love, the consecration of hands, tobe the feast of Luigh-lamh-fada, or Luigh-longumans,to whom they have given Tailte for wife, who, afterhis death,- was married to Duach."

11 The Taltenean sports," says Sir James Ware," have been much celebrated by the Irish historians .They were a sort of warlike exercises, somethingresembling the Olympic Games, consisting of racing,

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tilts, tournaments, or something like them, and otherexercises . They were held every year at Talten, amountain in Meath, for fifteen days before, and fifteendays after, the first of August . - Their first institu-tion is ascribed to Lugaid-lam-fadhe, the twelfthKing of Ireland, who began his reign A .M. 2764, ingratitude to the memory of Tailte, the daughter ofMagh Mor, a prince of some part of Spain, who hav-ing been married to Eochaid, King of Ireland, tookthis Lugaidh under her protection, and had the careof his education in his minority . From this ladyboth the sports and the place where they were cele-brated took their names . From King Lugaidh thefirst of August was called Lugnasa, or the memory ofLugaidh, nasa signifying memory in Irish ."

The truth is, that those games were called Tail-tine (whence the English Tilts), and the place Tail-ton, from Tailte, which, in our language, signifies awife ;-and the sports, there exhibited, made but arepresentation of the victory which Budha gainedover Mara, the great Tempter, who had attacked himon the day of his attaining to perfection, with aninnumerable host of demons . The conflict is said tohave lasted for fifteen days, at the end of which Budhareduced them to submission, and to the acknowledg-ment of his pretensions as the Son of God .The battle-scenes, therefore, with which the Tuath-de-

danaan crosses and obelisks are decorated, bear refer-ence, all of them, to this religious achievement : and tothis hour you will find those identical games celebratedin various parts of the east, and for the same numberof days ! In Egypt, also, there was a place calledTailtal ', and named from the same cause . Nay, the

* Once occupied by a celebrated queen!- Asiatic Researches.

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name of the Eleusinian mysteries was Tailtine ! butthis the Greeks not comprehending, they bent it, asusual, to some conformity to their own language,and made Teletai of it ! and then they were at no lossin making a reason for it in like manner, viz ., thatno one could be finished until initiated therein !

But it is not alone as assigning those edifices totheir real proprietors that this "stanza" is of value ; butas giving us an insight into that mysterious personagewhom our modern chroniclers would fain represent asthe father of Heber and Heremon . A greater error,whether voluntary or accidental, was never incurred.Heber and Heremon were the sons of Gallamh, andinvaded this island at the head of a Scythian colony *,distinct in all respects, save that of language t, fromtheir Tuathan predecessors .

These predecessors were headed by three brothers,Brien, Iuchordba, and luchor, the sons of KingMiledh, a Fo-morian, by a queen of the Tuath-de-da-naan race, agreeably to this record in the book ofLeccan : viz.-

C4 D'Hine fine Fo-mora dosomh de shaorbh a athor,agus do Tuathabh Dadanann a mhathar"-that is, thefather was of the race of the Fo-morians, and themother a Tuath-de-danaan .

Again, in the Seabright Collection, this genealogyis prosecuted farther, and from it, General Vallanceytranslates some lines, which are by no means irrele-vant, as follows, viz.:" Cuill, Ceacht, and Grian,

* Heremon was the first of the Scots who held the dominion over allIreland .-Psalter of Narran .

i For, in the first place, the general tradition of the old Irish handeddown to us by all our historians and other writers, imports that whenthe Scots arrived in Ireland, they spoke the same language with that ofthe Tuath-de-danaans .--Preface to O'Brien's Irish Dictionary .

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were the children of little Touraine-and their de-scendants, Uar, Jurca, Jurcatha ; and, from Uar wasdescended Brian, who was named Touran ; and manyothers not here enumerated."

But the history of those events having been de-stroyed by time, the degenerate Pheeleas, wishing toflatter the vanity of the existing powers, did not hesi-tate to ascribe to the Spcythian, or modern Irish, fol-lowers of Heber and Heremon, those brilliant fea-tures of primeval immortality which appertainedexclusively to the Irish' of another day-the Hyper-borean or Iranian Irish !

The Tuath-de-danaans having been proved theauthors of the Round Towers, my ambition in the inves-tigation is already attained . But since we are told,that this people had claimed possession of the islandas inheritors of an antecedent and pre-occupyingeastern colony, it may be worth while to inquirewhether we can discover any traces to connectthose predecessors with any of these edifices . With-out bestowing upon it, however, more considera-tion than what the exigency demands, I will brieflyobserve, that we are likely to find such in the historyof the Fo-moraice, who are represented in our chro-nicles, by the party who had ejected them, under theobnoxious character of monsters and grants * !

It is high time to give up those abuses in the im-port of. words. Fo-moraice means literally, the ma-

* The Egyptian epithets are not very dissimilar,-" Besides these firstinhabitants of Sancha-dwipa, who are described by the mythologists,as elephants, demons, and snakes, we find a race called Shand-ha-yana,who are the real Troglodites ; they were the descendants of Abri,before named, whose history, being closely connected with that of theSacred Isles in the West, deserves peculiar attention ."-Asiatic Re-searches .

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riners of Fo, that is, of Budh : and their religion beingthus identified with that of the Tuath-de-danaans,what could be more natural than, that they shouldhave erected temples of the same shape with theirs?

This deduction will appear the more crediblefrom the unanimity of all . our historians, on the sub-ject of this people having been perfect masters ofmasonry,-as well as from the universally creditedreport in the days of Cambrensis, of some of theTowers being then visible beneath the inundation ofLough Neagh * .

I confess I am one of those persons who give faithto this tradition ; for even my experience of the vicis-situdes of all things earthly has enabled me to say,in the words of the philosophic poet, that,

Where once was solid land Seas have I seen,And solid land where once deep seas have been,Shells far from seas, like quarries in the' ground,As anchors have in mountain tops been found .Torrents have made a valley of a plain,High hills by floods transported to the main,Deep standing lakes sucked dry by thirsty sand,And on late thirsty earth now lakes do stand ."

* Nearly similar things, we find, have occurred in the East . " Thenatives of the place (Mavalepuran, in India) declared to the writer of thisaccount, that- the more aged people among them remembered to haveseen the tops of several pagodas far out in the sea; a statement whichwas verified by the appearance of one on the brink of the sea, alreadynearly swallowed up by that element."-Asiatic Researches.

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CHAPTER XXVII .

HAVING promised early in this volume to identifyour island with the Insula Hyperboreorum of anti-quity, I shall, without further tarrying, produce theextract referre dto, from Diodorus ; and, lest I may besuspected of adapting it to my own peculiar views,it shall appear minutely in Mr . Booth's transla-tion-viz .,

"Amongst them that have written old stories muchlike fables, Hecataeus and some others say, that thereis an island in the ocean, over against Gaul, as bigas Sicily, under the arctic pole, where the Hyper-boreans inhabit, so called because they lie beyondthe breezes of the north wind . That the soil hereis very rich and very fruitful, and the climate tempe-rate, insomuch as there are two crops in the year .

" They say that Latona was born here, and there-fore that they worship Apollo above all other gods ;and because they are daily singing songs in praise ofthis god, and ascribing to him the highest honours,they say that these inhabitants demean themselves asif they were Apollo's priests, who has here a statelygrove and renowned temple of round form, beautifiedwith many rich gifts . That there is a city like-wise consecrated to this god, whose citizens are mostof them harpers, who, playing on the harp, chantsacred hymns to Apollo in the temple, setting forth

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his glorious acts . The Hyperboreans use their ownnatural language, but, of long and ancient time, havehad a special kindness for the Grecians ; and moreespecially for the Athenians, and them of Delos ; andthat some of the Grecians passed over to the Hyper-boreans, and left behind them divers presents *, in-scribed with Greek characters ; and that Abarisformerly travelled thence into Greece, and renewedthe ancient league of friendship with the Delians .

They say, moreover, that the moon in this islandseems as if it were near to the earth, and represents,on the face of it, excrescences, like spots on the earth ;and that Apollo, once in nineteen years, comes intothe island ; in which space of time the stars performtheir courses, and return to the same point ; andtherefore the Greeks call the revolution of nineteenyears, the Great Year . At this time of his appearancethey say that he plays upon the harp, and sings anddances all the night, from the vernal equinox fi to therising of the Pleiadesj, solacing himself with the praisesof his own successful adventures . The sovereignty ofthis city, and the care of the temple, they say, belongto the Boreades, the posterity'of Boreas, who hold theprincipality by descent, in the direct line from thatancestor ."

When copying this narrative from the writings ofHecatoeus, it is evident that Diodorus did not believeone single syllable it contained . He looked upon itas a romance :-and so far was he from identifying itwith any actual locality, that he threw over the wholean air of burlesque . We are, therefore, not . a t allobliged for the services he has rendered-yet shall we

+ AvaOgµaTra,-things dedicated to the gods .f In March .

* In September .

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make his labours subservient to the elucidation oftruth . Little did he dream that Ireland,---which he,by and by, expressly mentions by the name of Irin,and which he calumniates as cannibal,-was one andthe same with that isle of which he read such enco-miums in the writings of former antiquaries ; and,most unquestionably, it did require no small portionof research to reconcile the contradiction which theoutline involves, and which is now further enhancedby his scepticism .

Unable to solve this difficulty, Mr . Dalton,-wishingto retain, by all means, the Hyperborean isle,-which,indeed, he could not well discard-yet not bring it incollision with the Iranian libel,-does not hesitate tothrow, at once, overboard, into the depth of the Atlantic,the island of Irin ; (alias Ireland,) and affirm-, that itnever was the place which the historian had specified .« It is not quite certain," says he, " what place Dio-dorus means by Iris * ; from the turn of the expressionit would rather appear to be a part of Britain-per-haps the Erne, for which Mr. James M,Phersoncontends in another place,-while the' island ,whichDiodorus does mention in the remarkable pages citedabove, and which so completely agrees with Ireland,is never called Iris by him, nor does the name occuragain in all his work, nor is it by any other authorapplied to Ireland

Mind, now, reader, how easily I reconcile the con-flicting fact of Diodorus's incredulity with his- positivedefamation .

At the period when he flourished as an accreditedhistorian, the occupancy of Ireland had passed into new

* See page 120 .t Trans . Roy . Ir . Acad ., vol . xvi. p. 166 .

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hands. The Scythians were the persons then pos-sessed of the soil ; and they being a warlike tribe,averse to letters, to religion, and to refinement *,-butoverwhelming in numbers,-obliterated every vestigeof that primeval renown, in which the island had oncegloried, and which afforded theme and material, to thelearned of all countries, for eulogy and praise .

Hecatoeus was one of those, who depicted in glowingcolours the primitive splendour and the ethereal hap-piness of Ireland's first inhabitants . He belonged toan age which was well called antiquarian, even in theday in which Diodorus wrote, viz ., B . c. 44 ; andwhen, therefore, this latter, looking over the pages ofhis venerable predecessor, saw them so replete withincidents,-at variance with our condition in his owndegenerate day,-he -did not' only not dream of con-sidering Ireland as the place described, but lookedupon the whole story as the fiction of a dotard .

Let us, however, despite of Diodorus, establish theveracity of the antiquarian Hecata us . Then beholdthe situation of this island, just opposite to France-in size as large as Sicily-at once corresponding tothe locality and size of Ireland, and subversive of theclaims of those who would fain make England, Angle-sea, or one of the Hebrides, the island specified .

Consider further the prolificacy of its soil, andwith that compare what the old poet has affirmed,-

" Procopius calls them anzai za, sepsxmn ror, that is, heedless and indif-ferent to all culture .

Bishop Cormac also says, that he " cannot sufficiently express . hisastonishment at the indifference which the Scottish nation evinced inhis day to literature ."

Strabo calls them, nyeiwv raxeas avAewrmv; while Mac Pherson asserts oftheir brethren, that " nothing is more certain than that the British Scotswere an illiterate people, and involved in barbarism, even after thePatriarch's mission to the Scots of Ireland ."

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and what we know to be true,-of our own country,viz . :-

" Illic his niveum tondetur vellus in annoBisque die referunt ubera tenta greges.

Then bring its propinquity to the " arctic pole," andthe high northern latitude which Strabo* and otherancients have assigned to Ireland, into juxtapositionwith 1 1 Hyperborean," the name given to its inhabitantsfrom the very circumstance of their lying so far to thenorth,-and the identity of the isle with that in whicheach true Irishman exults is infallibly complete, whenI quote from Marcianus Heracleotes-who wrote inthe third century, and who, as lie himself avows, onlydrew up a compendium from the voluminous works ofArtemidorus, who flourished in the hundred and sixty-ninth Olympiad, or 104 years before Christ-the fallow-ing description of this sacred island, viz . : " luvernia,a British isle, is bounded on the north (ad Boream) bythe ocean called the Hyperborean ; but on the east bythe ocean which is called the Hibernian ; on the southby the Virginian ocean . It has sixteen nations andeleven illustrious cities, fifteen remarkable rivers, fiveremarkable promontories, and six remarkable islands ."

Here the sea, encompassing Ireland on the north,is called the Hyperborean Oceant ; and when we aretold that the priests officiating at the round temples of

* In fact this writer had no other reason for this mistake which hehas committed, in describing it as "scarce habitable for cold,"-than hisknowledge of its Hyperborean situation . "The most remote navigationnorthward from the Celtic coast, in our days," says he, " is said to beinto Ireland (lerne), which being situated beyond Britain, is scarcehabitable for cold, so that what lies beyond that island is thought to benot at all habitable ."-Geog . lib . 2, ex vers . Gul . Xylandri .

` . Orpheus, also, calls the sea dividing the north of Scotland fromIreland, " Mare Cronium, idem quod mare saturninum et oceanus sep-tentrionalis."-VALLANCEY .

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Apollo were called Boreades, we can readily under-stand the origin of the name, as derived from Boreas,the deity who presided over the north-east wind, towhich they offered their vows,-just as we find theemperor Augustus erecting a temple ~at Rome ; manycenturies after, to the wind called Circius .

To this deification of the energies of nature, which,as before affirmed, was but part and parcel of thatform of worship called Sabaism, the author of theBook of Enoch has alluded in the following mys-terious episode=--

« Then another angel, who proceeded with me,spoke to me ; and skewed me the first and last secretsin heaven above, and in the depths of the earth : inthe extremities of heaven, and in the foundations ofit, and in the receptacle of the winds. He shewedme how their Spirits were divided ; how they werebalanced ; and how both the springs and the windswere numbered according to the force of their Spirit .He shewed me the power of the moon's light, that itspower is a just one ; as well as the divisions of thestars, according to their respective names ; that everydivision is divided ; that the lightning flashes ; thattheir Host immediately obey ; and- that a cessationtakes places during thunder, in the continuance of itssound . Nor are the thunder and the lightning sepa-rated ; neither do both of them move with one Spirit ;yet are they not separated . For when the lightninglightens, the thunder sounds, and the Spirit, at aproper period, pauses, making an equal division be=tween them ; for the receptacle of their times is whatsand is . Each of them at a proper season is re-strained with a bridle, and turned by the power of

2 n

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the Spirit ; which thus propels them according to thespacious extent of the earth ."

Yet beautiful as is the above, it is not much moreso than an almost inspired little poem, which appearedsome time ago, in one of the public prints, as ema-nating from the pen of an American lady, namedGoold, personifying this element, viz .-

"We come 1 we come I and ye feel our might,As_we're hastening on in our boundless flight ;And over the mountains and over the deep,Our broad invisible pinions sweep .Like the Spirit of Liberty, wild and free !And ye look on our works, and own 'tis we ;Ye call us the winds ; but can ye tellWhither we go, or where we dwell?

Ye mark as we vary our forms of-power,And fell the fgrest or fan the flower,When the hare-bell moves, and the rush is bent,When the tower's o'erthrown and the oak is rent,As we waft the bark o'er the slumbering wave,Or hurry its crew to a watery graveAnd ye say it is we ! but can ye traceThe wandering winds to their secret place?

And whether our breath be loud and high,Or come in, a soft'and balmy sigh,Our threat'nings fill the soul with fear,As our gentle whisperings woo the earWith music aerial, still 'tis we,And ye list, and ye look ; but what do ye see?Can ye hush one sound of our voice to peace,Or waken one note when our numbers cease?

Our dwelling is in th' Almighty's hand,We come and we go at his command ;Though joy or sorrow may mark our track,His will is our guide, and we look not back ;And if, in our wrath, ye would turn us away,Or win us in gentlest air to play,Then lift up your hearts to Him who binds,Or frees, as he will, the obedient winds !"

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And now, as to those " temples " themselves, " ofround form," sacred to Apollo, where will Borlassein his championship for England, or Rowland in hisclaims for the island of Anglesea, or Toland andCarte for the little Hebrides isles, find a single ves-tige of a rotund edifice of antiquated consecration, ap-pertain lng to the age which Hecataeus described ?-whereas, in Ireland, of the two hundred and upwards,with which its surface was, at one time, adorned, wehave not only vestiges of each and all to this day ;but, out of the sixty that survive,-after an interval ofmore than three thousand years standing,-abouttwenty still display their Grynean devotion and theirHyperborean tranquillity, and are likely so to do forthree thousand years_ more, should this world, or ourportion of it, but last so long!To give soul to the solemnization of this religious

pomp, the Irish have ever cultivated the mysteries ofmusic. The harp more particularly had enlisted theenergies of their devotional regard, and their eminencein its management made Hecatoeus well observe, thatthe inhabitants were almost exclusively harpers ."

This was a very suitable accompaniment to their wor-ship of Apollo, who was himself the reputed inventorof this instrument ; and accordingly we find that, evenin the twelfth century, broken down and obliteratedas every vestige of the real Irish then was, by the un-genial amalgamation of the Scythian and Danishintruders, the harp was still preserved as the lastremnant of their glory ; while the elegance of theircompositions and performance upon it extorted thisreluctant acknowledgment from the prejudiced Cam-brensis :-

The attention," says he, " of this people to2 D 2

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musical instruments, I find worthy of commendation ;their skill in which is, beyond comparison, superior tothat of any nation I have seen . For in these themodulation is not slow and solemn, as in the instru-ments of Britain, to which we are accustomed, but thesounds are rapid and precipitate, yet, at the sametime, sweet and pleasing . It is wonderful how, insuch precipitate rapidity of the fingers, the musicalproportions are observed, and, by their art, faultlessthroughout.

- In the midst of their complicated modulations andmost intricate arrangement of notes, by a rapidity sosweet, a regularity so irregular, a concord so discord-ant, the melody is rendered harmonious and perfect,whether the chords of the diatesseron or diapenteare struck together . Yet'they always begin in a softmood, and end in the same, that all may be perfectedin the sweetness of delicious sounds . They enter on,and again leave, their modulations with so muchsubtlety, and the tricklings of the small notes sportwith so much freedom under the deep note of thebass ; they delight with so much delicacy, and sootheso softly, that the excellency of their art seems to bein concealing it *."

Clarsech and Cruit were both' names which theIrish gave their harp, from the musical board and thewarbling of the strings respectively . But the fa-vourite designation was that of Orphean, an evidentderivation from Orpheus, the divine musician of theancients, who is said to have stayed the course ofrivers, and lulled the listening woods,-to have movedthe stones into prescribed positions, and tamed thesavage propensities of man-all by the instrumen-tality of his speaking lyre

* Gerald. Cambr., Hist . i, cap. 19 .

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s= As regards Orpheus himself," says the learnedBarker, " he is stated, - by some ancient authorities,to have abstained from eating of flesh, and to havehad an abhorrence of eggs, considered as food, froma persuasion that the egg was the principle of allbeing. Many other accounts are given of him,which would seem to assimilate his character to thatof the ancient "priests of India, or Brachmani . Theancients, however, unable to discover -any mode bywhich he could have obtained his knowledge from anyother source, pretended that he had visited Egypt,and had there been initiated in the mysteries of Isisand Osiris . This appears, however, to be a suppositionpurely gratuitous, on the part of the ancient writers,since a careful examination of the subject leadsdirectly to the belief, that Orpheus was of Indianorigin ; that he was a member of one of those Sacer-dotal Colonies, which professed the religion of Buddha ;and who being driven from their home, in thenorthern parts of India, and in the plains of Tartary,by the power of the rival sect of Brahma, moved gra-dually onwards to the west, dispensing, in their pro-gress, the benefits of civilization and the mysterioustenets of their peculiar faith ."

We know little or nothing at this remote day ofthe ancient music of the Bardic order ; that it waseminent, however, and transcendently superior to thatof all other countries, is evident from the fact of itshaving maintained its character when all our otherattributes had notoriously vanished . Caradoc admitsthat his countrymen, the Welsh, borrowed all theirinstruments, tunes, airs, and measures, from ourfavoured island . Carr additionally says, that " al-though the Welsh have been for ages celebrated for

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the boldness - and sweetness of their music, yet itappears that they were much indebted to the superiormusical talents of their neighbours, the Irish ." Sel-den asserts, that the Welsh music, for the mostpart, came out of Ireland with Gruffydh ap Tenan,Prince of North Wales, who was cotemporary withKing Stephen ." I know not whether our brethren ofScotland will be so ready to acknowledge the loan .But if any one will compare the spirit of their music,with that which pervades the melodies of our country,the identity will be as obvious, as the inference is irre-sistible .

Fuller, in his account of the Crusade, conductedby Godfrey of Boulogne, says, " Yea, we might wellthink that all the concerts of Christendom in this warwould have made no music, if the Irish harp had beenwanting."And this is the instrument which Ledwich asserts

we borrowed from the Ostmen !-Insolent presumption !-Neither Ostman or Dane ever laid eyes upon such,until they saw it in the sunny valleys of the EmeraldIsland . And had they the shadow of a claim eitherto it or to the " Round Towers,"-to which its serviceswere consecrated,-Cambrensis could not fail ascer-taining the fact from any of the stragglers of thoseuncouth marauders, who-having survived the car-nage inflicted upon their army, in the plains of Clon-tarf, under the retributive auspices of the immortalBrien-were allowed to cultivate their mercantileavocations in the various maritime cities, where theywould naturally be proud to perpetuate every iota ofdemonstrative civilization which they could pretendto have imported . Alas ! they imparted none, butexported a great deal ; and, what is more to belamented, annihilated its evidences!

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But it is not alone of the property of this nationalorgan. that the moderns would deprive us, but thevery existence of the instrument they affirm to be ofrecent date ! Why, Sir, it is as old as the hills.Open the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, andyou will find it there recorded, that " Jubal was thefather of all such as handle the harp and organ."

And now to the empirics of the " Fine Arts*," andthe deniers of their antiquity, I shall quote the nextverse, viz ., " Zillah, she also bare a son, Tubal-Cain,an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron'."And in Job xxviii . 2, it is said, that " iron is takenout of 'the earth, and brass is molten out of thestone ."

11 In the north of Europe," says Herodotus, " thereappears to be by far _the greatest . abundance of goldwhere it is found I cannot say, except that the Ar_imas-pians, a race of men having only one eye, are said topurloin it from the griffins I . I do not, however, be-lieve that there exists any race of men born with onlyone eye !"

Had this esteemed' author known the, allegoricalimport of the word Arimaspians, (from a'rima, one,and spia, an eye,) such as it has been explained atpage 86, he would not have committed himself by theobservation with which the above extract has termi-

* A series of articles written under this head, in the columns of theDublin Penny Journal, by Mr. Pebrie, antiquarian high-priest to theRoyal Irish Academyt This Tubal-Cain was evidently the person from whom the Greeks

manufactured their mythological Vul-can .* " The griffin," says Shaw, copying Ctesias, " is a quadruped of

India, having the claws of a lion, and wings upon his back . His foreparts are red, his wings white, his neck blue, his head and his beakresemble those of the eagle ; he makes his nest among the mountains,and haunts the deserts, where he conceals his gold ."

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nated . No doubt, he thought it extremely philoso-phical, because it is sceptical ! but let us see ifanother instance of his scepticism will redound - moreto his philosophy :-" I cannot help laughing," sayshe elsewhere, " at those who pretend that the oceanflows round our continent : no proof can be given ofitI believe that Homer had taken, what hebelieves about the ocean, from a work of antiquity,but it was without comprehending anything of thematter, repeating what he had read, without wellunderstanding what he had read' ! "

Now, without disputing with Siberia the honourof possessing all this ancient gold, I will take theliberty of inserting an extract from one of Mr. Ha-milton's letters on the Antrim coast, which will show,at all events, the antiquity of our mining .

About the year 1770," says he, " the miners, inpushing forward an adit toward the bed of coal, at anunexplored part of the Ballycastle cliff, unexpect-edly broke through the rock into a narrow passage,so much contracted and choked up with variousdrippings and deposits on its sides and bottom, asrendered it impossible for any of the workmen to forcethrough, that they might examine it farther . Twolads were, therefore, made to creep in with candles,for the purpose of exploring this subterranean avenue .They accordingly pressed forward for a considerabletime, with much labour and difficulty, and at lengthentered into an extensive labyrinth, branching off intonumerous apartments, in the mazes and windings of

* " The ignorance of the European Greeks in geography was extremein all respects during many ages . They do -not even appear to haveknown the discoveries made in more ancient voyages, which were notabsolutely unknown to Homer."-Mr. Gouget, Origin of Arts andSciences, tom . 7 . b . 3 .

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which they were completely bewildered and lost .After various vain attempts to return, their lights wereextinguished ;' their voices became hoarse, and ex-hausted with frequent shouting ; and, at length,wearied and spiritless, they sat down together, inutter despair of an escape from this miserable dun-geon . In the meanwhile, the workmen in the aditbecame alarmed for their safety, fresh hands wereincessantly employed, and, in the course of twenty-four hours, the passage was so opened as to admitsome of the most active among the miners ; but ~ thesituation off the two unhappy prisoners, who had' satdown together in a very distant chamber of the cavern,prevented them from hearing altogether the noiseand shouts of their friends, who thus laboured toassist them . . _ .

• 41-Fo tunately, it occurred to one of the lads, (afterhis voice had become hoarse with shouting,) that thenoise of miners' hammers was often heard at consi-derable distances through the coal works ; in conse-quence of this reflection, he took up a stone, whichhe frequently struck against the sides of the cavern ;the noise of this was at length heard by the workmen,who, in their turn, adopted a similar artifice ; by thismeans each party was conducted- towards the other,and the unfortunate adventurers extricated timeenough to behold the sun risen in full splendour, whichthey had left the morning before just beginning totinge the eastern horizon . On examining this subter-ranean wonder, it was found to be a complete gallery,which had been driven forward many hundred yardsto the bed of coal : that it branched off into numerouschambers, where miners had carried on their differentworks : that these chambers were dressed in a work-

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manlike manner, that pillars were left at properintervals to support the roof. In short, it was foundto be an extensive mine, - wrought by a set of peopleat least as expert in the business as the present gene-ration . Some remains of the tools, and even of . thebaskets used in the works, were discovered, but insuch a decayed state, that on being touched, theyimmediately crumbled to pieces . From the remainswhich were found; there is :reason to believe that thepeople , who wrought these collieries anciently, wereacquainted with the use of iron, some small pieces ofwhich were found ; it appeared as if some of theirinstruments had been thinly shod with that metal ."

There is no question but that the era when thosecollieries were before worked, was that in which theTuath-de-danaans were masters of this island . Had itbeen at any latter period, we could not fail havingsome traditions relating thereto . Iron, therefore, thelast discovered of the metals, as stated at page 115,must have been known to this people : and theabsence of any name for it in our vernacular lan-guage, is accounted for on the same principle as that,by which those excavations themselves had been solong concealed, viz ., the distaste of their successorsto such applications, or the reluctance entertained tomake them acquainted with their worth .

It is probable, however, that the little minikinfineries of life were not then in fashion-that ourloaves were not baked in tin shapes, as at present,-nor our carriages constructed in so many differentvarieties of form, excluding altogether those workedby steam,-that our gunlocks were not prepared withpercussion caps ; nor our sofas furnished with air-blowncushions,-that the routine of etiquette was differ-

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ently negotiated,-and that twenty, or more, severalhands were not employed in the finish of a commonpin, before it could be dignified with the honour ofacting a useful part in adjusting the habiliments of amodern dandy :-but in all the grand essentials oflife-in all its solid refinements and elegant utilities,the scholar will confess that those who have gonebefore us have been fully our equals ; and traces, too,are not wanting to countenance the belief, that eventhose knick-kn - frivolitieq, on which we so piqueourselves --in•the present day, have notbeen at someperiod without a prototype,-so that the majority ofthose boasted patents for what are considered disco-veries or inventions of something new, should moreproperly be for recoveries, or unfoldings of somethingold, and illustrative of the adage, as remarkable asit is correct, 11 that there is nothing new under thesun ."

* °' L'existence de ce peuple anterieur est prouvee par le tableau quiri offie que des debris, astronomie oubliee, philosophie melee a des absur-dites, physique degeneree en fables, religion epuree, mais cachee dansune idolatrie grossiere, Cet ancien peuple a eu des sciences perfec-tionnees, une philosophic sublime et sage ."-BAILLY.

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CHAPTER XXVIII .

You ask me for the proofs of this early grandeur?I point you to the gold crowns-the gold and silveringots-the double-headed paterae or censers-theanklets, lunettes, bracelets, fibulae, necklaces, &c .,which have been repeatedly found throughout allparts of Ireland, evidently the relics of that "Sacred"colony who gave their name to this island, and who,to the refined taste which" such possessions imply,united also the science which appears in their work-manship * .

But these are scanty and insufficient memorials ?Pray, what greater can you produce of ancientEgypt? Her Pyramids ? Our" Round Towers" areas old ; are likely to be as permanent ; and arereally more beautiful. What are the - vestiges ofancient Etruria ? of Assyria ? Troy? Chaldea ? nay, ofBabylon the Great, the queen of the world? A fewconsolidations of stone and mortar-disjointed rub-bish-and incrusted pottery . All these we retain, inaddition to the thousand other evidences which crowdupon the historian . And, while Britain can adduceno single vestige of the Romans-who subjugated

* Amongst our antiquities also are found nose-rings (nasc-sroin)which, stronger than any other demonstration, shows the orientalism ofour Tuath-de-danaan ancestors . Their ear-rings, also, are thus definedin Comrac's Glossary, " Are nasc-vel, a-naisc, bid im cluas-aibhna saoreland,' i . e ., a ring worn in the ears of our gentry .

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that country at their highest period of civilization-but what, in the words of my adversaries themselves,are `` only monuments of barbarism, I answer-nowonder-€or'the Romans were never to be compared tothe Iranian Buddhists, who brought all the splendourof the East to the concentrated locality of this Hyper-borean Island .. Infant colonies, forsooth, do not carry a know-ledge -of the I Fine Arts' along with them ; they areonly to be found where wealth, luxury, and powerhave fixed their abode * ." Most sapient remark ! 'butunluckily out of place ; for the authors of our RoundTowers were not " an infant colony" at all ; but thevery heads and principals of the most polished andrefined people on . the bosom of the habitable earth-the Buddhists of Iran: Aird accordingly, in their trainnot only" did ac wealth, luxury, and power" abound,but they seemed exclusively to have taken up theirabode amongst them fi .

Analogous to the above was the rhodomontade ofanother pillar of the same order . 11 I, nevertheless,"says Montmorency, " am disinclined to believe thatthose same persons, had they to choose a residencebetween Syria and Ireland, would have taken thewintry and uncultivated wilds of Fidh-Inis, in pre-ference to the sunny plains which gave them birth ."

In both those cases, of which the former is but theecho, in all opinions, of the latter, our eastern ex-traction is only objected to, considered as Phwnician ;

* Dublin Penny Journal .t Si j'ai bien prouve que Butta, Thoth, et Mercure ne sont egalement

que le meme inventeur des sciences et des arts .-BAILLY.The Buddhists insist that the religion of Buddha existed from the

beginning .Asiatic Researches.* Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1822 .

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and there, I admit that the Colonel and his pupilmay get an easy triumph 'over their adversaries. Forhad the Phwniciana'been thefereatorwof those « RoundTowers," what was to prevent their raising similarstructures in Cornwall ?-where it is indisputable thatthey had trafficked for tin . In Spain, we are certainthat they had established a home ; and why does thisappear as free from, every evidence of colu,nnaar' archi-tecture, as dog the -former place ? The same may be

,said :of "other countries whither this people resorted,Citium, Crete, Cadiz, and all the islands in theMediterranean . In no one of them is there to be founda single edifice approaching, either in design or form,the idea of a Round Tower * !

The Phoenicians, therefore, can have no pretensionsto the_houour ofthose memorials : nor, indeed-, can theirconnexion with Ireland be at all recognized, furtherthan that, as having been, at one time, masters ofthe sea, it is merely possible that the Tuath-de-danaansmay have availed themselves of their geographicalinformation, and even consigned themselves, to theirpilotage for a secure :retreat, ialoof,from the persecu-tion of intolerance.

But as we see from the stanza quoted at page 396,that the Tuath-de-danaans were themselves possessedof a navy ; and as it is indisputable that, long beforethe Phoenicians, the dynasty of the Persians had sweptthe ocean in its widest breadth, there is no need forour giving the Phoenicians credit even for this service,which it now appears could be dispensed with .

An effort, however, has been advanced, to identify

In the entire land of Phoenicia there was but one, and that com-paratively a modern one, erected no doubt after their intercourse with theTuath-de-danaans .

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their language with ours, by the analysis of thefragment of a speech which occurs in one of the playsof Plautus *. The idea was ingenious, but totallyunfounded. Affinity, undoubtedly, there does appear,-as there does between all the ancient languages,-but nothing like identity ; and the very circumstanceof its having a distinct denomination assigned to it inIreland, viz ., -Bearla-na-Fene, or dialect of the Phoe-nicians, (who traded here, it is admitted) proves it tobe different from our local phraseology-the IranianPahlavi, the polished elocution of the Tuath-de-danaans .

The Phoenicians, besides being a mercantile people,never had any monuments of literary value, whereasthe Irish are known to have abounded in such fromthe earliest erat .

* The play above alluded to is that of the P .Tnulus, or Carthaginian,in which Hanno is introduced in quest of his two daughters, who, withtheir nurse, had been stolen by pirates, and conveyed to Calydon, in. tolia. Thither the father repairs on receiving intelligence of the fact,and addresses a supplication to the presiding deity of the country, torestore to him his children unstained by pollution . He is made to speakin his vernacular tongue, just as natives of France are represented inour drama--by tapWle s =siad-so i6ntere6t ii the whale--4ndepwa-dently of the curiosity attaching to so rare a production-that I shall sub-join a portion of it for the reader.

1 .Nith al o Dim, ua lonuth secorathessi ma coin syth.An iath al a Dim, uaillonac socruidd se me com sit .0 mighty splendour of the land, renowned, powerful ; let him quiet

me with repose.2 .

,Chin lach chunyth mumys tyal mycthii bare imi schi .Cim laig cungan, muin is toil, mo iocd bearad iar mo sgil .Help of the weary captive, instruct me according to thy will, to re-

cover my children after -my fatigue .N.B. The first line in each of these triplets is Phoenician, the second

Irish, and the third, their import in English .`h " How comes it then that they are so unlearned-still, being so old

scholars ? for learning (as the poet saith) emollit mores nec sinit esse

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It is true_ that we have been denied the possessionof alphabetic characters before the time of St. Pa-trick : but by whom? - By. Bolandus ; on a false de-duction from the writings of Ward, Colgan, Nennius,&c., who state that this Apostle was the first whogave the " abjectoria," or alphabet to our nation .Who says otherwise? But what alphabet was heremeant? The Latin, certainly, and no other . - Untilthen the Irish were strangers to the Roman letters* ;but that they were not to written characters, or thecultivation of them in every variety of literature, isevident from the very fact, of St. Patrick himselfhaving committed to the flames no less than one hun-dred and eighty volumes of our ancient theology t ;as well as from the recorded instance of his disciple,Benignus,-his successor also in the see of Armagh,-having, according to Ward, written a work on thevirtues of the Saint, half Latin and half Irish, andwhich Jocelyne afterwards availed himself of, whenmore fully detailing his biography .

It has been the custom in all ages with those who

feros ; whence then, I pray you, could they -have chose latter?, Heanswers, " It is hard to say, for whether they at the first coming into theland, or afterwards by trading with other nations, learned them of them,or devised them amongst themselves, is very doubtful, but that they hadletters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England aresaid to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish .And that also appeareth from the likeness of the character, for theSaxons character is the same with the Irish .-SPENSER.* Having been always free and independent of the empire of the

Romans, they were unacquainted with the Roman language and itscharacters : there were, therefore, but two courses to adopt ; either totranslate the holy books into the language of the country, and celebratethe divine mysteries in it, which would have been contrary to the cus-tom of the church, or to teach the characters of the Roman language tothose who were to instruct others ; the holy apostle adopted the lattercourse.-Abbi Mac Geohigan .

h Book of Cashel .

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would pass as the luminaries of their respectivegenerations, to maintain that letters and their - appli-cation were but a recent discovery ! Their antiquity,however, is an historical fact, than which there can beno other better authenticated . The Bible makesfrequent allusion to the cultivation of alphabeticcyphers-thus in Exodus xxiv . 4, it is said, AndMoses wrote all the words of the Lord." And inJoshua xxiv. 26, « And Joshua; wrote these words inthe book of the law of God ."

Nor is it only to the elementary part of literature,but to the very highest and noblest department ofliterary research that we find the ancients had ar-rived . In the history of Job, an acquaintance withastronomy is quite apparent . The names of Arcturus,Orion, and---the Pleiades*, are distinctly notified inthat elaborate composition t . Could this have beenwithout the aid of written characters? Could theabstruse calculations involved in that pursuit bepossibly carried on without an intimate knowledge ofnotation and of numbers ? Or, if superior memorymay effect it in a few cases, without such characters orlegible marks, how could the results arrived at, andthe steps by which they had been attained, be forany length of time preserved, and their value handeddown to successive experimentalists, unless by theinstrumentality of expressive signs ?

We find accordingly in the same treatise T, the art* Job viii. 8, and xix . 23 .h " There is no Mahomedan of learning in Persia or India who is not

an astrologer : rare works upon that science are more valued than anyother ; and it is remarkable that on the most trivial occasions, when cal-culating nativities and foretelling events, they deem it essential to de-scribe the planets in terms not unsuited to the account which the authorof the Dabistan_has given ofthese deities."-Sir JOHN MALCOLM .

* Job xix . 23, 24 .2 E

418

THE ROUND TOWERS .

of writing expressly named, thus, 11 0 that my wordswere now written ! Oh! that they were printed in abook : that they were graven with an ~ iron pen, andlaid in the rock for ever!" And that it was of long-continued usage is evident from a preceding ehapter*,where it is said, Enquire, I pray thee, of the formerage, and prepare thyself for the search of theirfathers !"

The alphabet-which we had here, before the Romanabjectorium, is still preserved, and called Beth-leis=nion f, from the names of its three first letters, just asthe English is denominated A B C, from a similarcause ; and the Greek Alpha-bet from a like considera-tion .

Irish.

Latin .

English .I B

Beithe,

Betulla,

Birch .2 L Z Luis,

Ornus,

Wild ash.3 N

I `fNion,

Fraxinus,

Ash.

4 S

,

Suil,

Salix,

Willow .5 F J.

Fearn,

Alnus,

Alder.6 H

J 1 Huath,

Oxiacanthus,

White thorn .7 D b Duir,

Ilex,

Oak.

8 T _

Timne,

Genist, Spin .

Furze.

9 C

Coll,

Corylus,

Hazel .10 M (n Muin,

Vitis,

Vine.11 G

Gort,

Hedera,

Ivy.12 P

I`Peth-bhog,

Beite, or B mollified,13 R

Ruis,

Sambucus,

Elder.

14 A

Ailm,

Abies,

Fir tree.15 0 0 Onn,,

Genista,

Broom.16 U u Ur,

Erix, or Erica,

Heath.17 E

Eghadh,

Tremula,

Aspen.18 I

3 lodha,

Taxus,

Yew.

* Job viii . 8 .t Since I have commenced this work, a very ancient, manuscript of

the abbey of Icolm kill has fallen into my hands ; it was written by

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419

. This, you perceive, falls short, by eight letters, ofthe number of the Latin c hers, which could not haveoccurred if borrowed from that, people ; and will,therefore, stand, independently and everlastingly, aself-evident proof of the reverse .

It is well known, that long prior to the arrival ofCadmus, the Greeks were in possession of alphabeticwriting*; Diodorus states, so ; but adds, that adeluge had swept all away., One thousand five hun-dred and fifty, before the era we count by, is agreed

'H t4 T Tt' T

T~I-A I-A

Cairbre-Liffeachair, who lived six generations before St . Patrick, andabout the time of our Saviour : an exact account is given in it of Irishkings, from whence I infer, that as the Irish had manuscripts at thatperiod, we must certainly have possessed them likewise .

* 1Eschylus would seem to refer to this, when he makes Prometheussay, " I invented for them the array of letters, and fixed the memory,the mother of knowledge, and the soul of life ." -Bloomfteld's edition,v. 469 .

2 E 2

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THE ROUND TOWERS.

upon as. the year, in which Cadmus visited Greece ;and you have the authority of Pausanias, that hehimself had read an inscription --upon a monument atMegara, the date of which was 1678 before ourepoch, that is, one hundred and twenty-eight yearsbefore Cadmus's time .

Besides those ordinary letters of the Beth-luis-nion,the Irish made use of various other occult and secretforms of writing, which they called ogham *, and ofwhich I insert some specimens .

Among these you perceive the arrow-headed figureswhereof I have already advertised you ; and the mys-terious import of which reminded the initiated of thesolemn purchase of salvation by the cross .

These are all peculiar, and totally separate fromany Phoenician alliance . Instead, therefore, of mybeing adverse to the moderns as to the Phoenicianbubble, I am their auxiliary . But, Mr. Montmorency,are there not other places in the east besides Phoe-nicia? And may not a people leave the " sunny plainsthat gave them birth," from other motives than thoseof "choice?" And may not " Fidh Inis," insteadof being a name of reproach, such as you affected, byassociating it with " wintry and uncultivated wilds,"be one of distinction and of renown ? And though toyou its authors, as well as the mystery of its import,were an impenetrable secret, may it not, notwithstand-ing-what you see verified now-be made one of theengines exercised, in the recovery of truth, to provethe splendour and the refinement of our venerableancestors ?

It is to be hoped, therefore, that, after this expla-

Tov `FCawkea o`t KfXrot OrMION ov,,aa~ouvr (Dwm rv fxrxwQnv .

J ucI 4N .

THE ROUND TOWERS .

42 1

nation, we shall hear no more sarcasms upon thisfavoured spot . Nor would the anticipation be toogreat, that the whole infidel host, with the gallantcolonel himself, at their head, becoming alive to theinjustice= of their former disbelief, would now slackentheir virulence, and if they will not join in the accla-mations of regenerated history, at least decently with-draw, and let the lovers of truth, in security and hap-piness; celebrate its triumph .

The appellation of, Britain," says another goodly(?)champion of this order, " has been tortured for agesby the antiquarians, in order to force a confession oforigin and import for it . And erudition, runningwild in the mazes of folly, has eagerly deduced itfrom every word of a similar sound, almost in everyknown language of the globe. But the Celtic isobviously the only one that can lay any competentclaim to it-and the meaning of it may as easily beascertained as its origin ."-And so, accordingly, heproceeds to show, that Breatin, Brydain, or Britain,"is derived from a " Celtic word," which signifies se-paration or division* !"

It is- more than probable that I should have leftMr. Whittaker to his vagaries, or rather his clericalrecreations, if he had not been propelled by his all-illuminating reforms, to glance a ray upon us, here,across St. George's Channel .-" This," says he, " hasequally given denomination to the tribes of Ireland,the nations of Caledonia, and two or three islands onour coasts!"

4' The original word is still retained in the Welcli,Britain ; and the Irish, Breact,-anything divided or

* ZVLhittaker's Manchester .

422

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striped ; in the Irish Bricth, a fraction ; the IrishBrisead, a rupture ; and, the Welch Brig, a breach .And it was equally pronounced Brict or:Brit, (as theIcitus of Caesar, or the Itium ' of Strabo,) Bris andBrig ; and appears, with this variety of terminations,in the usual appellation of the islanders, Britanni, inthe present denomination of : the, Armoricani Britons,and their language, Bret and Brezonic and in. thename of Brigantes . Brit is enlarged into Briton, orBrit"' in the plural, and Britan-ec in the relativeadjective. And so forms the appellation Britones,Britani, and Britanici ; as Brig is either changedinto Briges, in the plural, and makes Allobroges, orAllo-broges, the name of a tribe on the continent, andof all the Belgee in the island, is altered into Briganand Brigants, and forms the'- denomination : of . Bri-gantes ." And again, " the original word appears tohave been equally pronounced Brict, Brits, andBricth, Breact, Breac, and Brig ; and appears to bederived from the Gallic Bresche, a rupture, the IrishBris, to break, and Brisead, a breach . And the wordoccurs with all this variety of teftinatiou in the IrishBreattain or'' Breatin, . Bretan , and in Breathuach,Briotnach, and Breagnach, a Briton ; in the Armori-can names of Breton, Breiz, and Brezonnec, for anindividual, the country, and the language of Armo-rica ; in the Welch Brython and Brythoneg,, the Bri-tons and their language ; ands in;thelancient; synony-mous appellations.of ;Brigantes and Britanni ."

Doubtless, the reader has been highly edified bythis Britannic dissertation ! He is, I am sure, asthorough master of the subject, now, as Mr . Whit-taker himself!-can tell how many fractures, cross-lines, and diagonals have been made upon Britain

THE ROUND TOWERS .

423

ever since Noah's flood! And as he cannot fail, inconsequence, being in love with the Reverend Author, .

I will indulge, his fondness by another spark of en-lightment .

~° At, this period," he resumes, (thve--hundredyears . before. Christ,) " many of the natives, relin-quishing -their-ancient seats to the Belgoe, found allthe central- and northern parts of England alreadyoccupied and transported themselves into the unin-habited isle of Ireland!"

I will now be understood as to the promise madesome while ago*, in reference to a definition for theword modern. A modern then, be it known, is a phi-losopher(?), who fancies that until three hundred yearsbefore Christ, the whole world was in darkness ! physicalas well as-- s to ys .cal t :that, : it :ws_:even,: in_ -a greatmeasure, uninhabited! by other than -the, brute crea-tion !-but that, suddenly, whenever any mighty featwas to be achieved, (in other words, whenever a mo-dern theory was to be bolstered up) innumerable myr-midons, armed cap-d-pie !-full accoutred, booted andspurred ! use4 to_,gzysh_ forth from some obscure cornerof the, . earth ! A miracle of production, to whicheven, Cadmus's soldiers can bear no parallel ; for,while the latter are located to a particular place,and stated to have been generated by regular seed,even though that was nothing more than the toothof a dragon t, the former . burst forward, nobodyknows whence, nor will their . machinem-condescendto tell even so much as what may have been the elements of their composition !

* Seepage 332 .+ An allegory, by the, way, which I could explain satisfactorily, were

it not that it would detain me .

424

THE ROUND TOWERS .

To whom, however, is Mr. Whittaker beholden forthis intellectual idea? Verily, to a half-senselesspoor friar *, a few centuries deceased, who was nomore competent-and no blame to him from hisresources-to analyse this question, than he was tostop the revolutions of the celestial orbs !

Yet jejune and abortive as were Cirencester's cere-bral conceptions, he was not less dogmatic in theutterance of them than was his imitator . " It is mostcertain," says he, 11 that the Damnii, Voluntii, Bri-gantes, Cangi, and other nations, were descendedfrom the Britons, and passed over thither after Divi-tiacus, or Claudius, or Ostorius, or other victoriousgenerals had invaded their original countries . Lastly,the ancient language, which resembles the old Britishand Gallic tongues, affords another argument, as iswell known to persons skilled in both languages ."

Now, by what authority, may I ask, is all this" most certain?" And by authority I do not meanany quotation from previous historians. That Iwaive, and should not here require it, if either proofor probability were tendered of . the occurrence . Butas none such is vouchsafed-as all is mere' assertion:-and as I can prove the exact contrary to have been theactual fact, is not dogmatism too mild a name to applyto the scribbler who propounds such nonsense ? Andis not servility too dignified an epithet to brand uponthe copyist, who takes such ipse dixit evidence uponso intricate a proposition as gospel truth? and thattoo when he must have absolute demonstration, and

* Oh ! Richard of Cirencester, oh! what pleasure it affords me to seethe moderns running after the chariot wheels of the monks, wheneverthey can pick out amongst their lucuhrations any stray sentences to sup-port their own fantasies !

THE ROUND TOWERS .

425

canvas every other statement, emanating from thatfraternity, with the very eye of a Lynceus !

In the first place, then, the name Damnii (to beginwith the beginning) is but a monkish Latinisation forDanaans ; and these I

.have established to have been

an eastern race, totally and universally distinct fromBritain, until upon their overthrow in Ireland, theyfled for shelter to Scotland, whither on their way,some straggling parties, reduced and humiliated, tookup their residence in the northern parts of England ;where, accordingly, to this hour we find evidences oftheir worship, such Its sculptured crosses *, and otheremblematic devices, but never a Round Tower, their im-poverished circumstances not being now adequate tosuch an expense .

The Brigantes,-again, is another -Latin metamor-phosis for the inhabitants of Breo-cean, in Spain,where the Phoenicians had fixed a colony, and whencethey doubtless had brought some portion with them towork the mines at Cornwall . This Breo-cean the Ro-mans, in conformity with the genius of their language,changed into Bri-gantia, which, however, was a veryallowable commutation, the letters c and g beingalways convertible, and tia nothing more than anordinary termination .

Seneca well knew that the Brigantes thus importedwere a very different extraction from the nativeBritons .

" llli Britannos ultra noti littora ponti,Et coeruleos Scuto-Brigantes dare R.omuleis,'

* " Near the road (at a place called Margan) is an old cross, bearingan inscription, which has been doomed to serve as a bridge for foot pas-sengers over a little rivulet ; and in the village are fragments of a mostbeautiful cross richly decorated with fretwork ."-CAMBRENSis .

426

THE ROUND TOWERS,

says he, in his satirical invective upon the death ofClaudius . Here, you will observe, that the Britonsand the Brigantes are opposed . to one another, andmarked out as distinct races . ' And to specify stillfurther the origin of the Brigantes : : is ;,the . epithetScuto *, prefixed thereto, from Scuitte, the ancient modeof spelling Scythia .

Those Seoto-Brigantes were the persons who, .hav-ing been driven froimSpain by the conquests of Sesos.-tris, poured: in with multitudinous inundation upon thequietude of . our Tuath-de-danaans, and ; wrested fromthem an island which, during their blissful reign, hadeclipsed in sanctity even their former Iran-j .-

The language which they spoke differed in nothingfrom the Tuath-de-danaan, but that it was . not quiteso refined ; ., and, this ; feature of similarity silences atonce, the conjectures of Stillingfleet, Innes, and theirfollowers, who would make those Scythians to, beScandinavians, merely because the letter S occurs asthe initial and final of either name!,

Why, sir, when the Scandinavians did really invadeIreland, which was not until the early centuries. of, theChristian era, the great obstruction to their progresswas their ignorance of our tongue ; whereas, when theScythians arrived here, many ages earlier, our legends,our traditions, our histories, and our annals, unani-

* Some copies read Scoto, the meaning, however, is the same ; 'th'eonly difference being that the latter partakes of the modern enunciationsof the word, as Scots, instead of Scuita or Scythians .

-P In the anxiety with which my translation of " Phoenician Ireland "was hurried through the press, it inadvertently escaped me that theScythians had only touched at Spain . The above will correct the over-sight ; to which I shall add that, " as for entitling the Spanish-IrishScots, there wants no authority, the Irish authors having constantlycalled the Spanish colony Kin-Scuit, or the Scottish nation ."-LHTTYDH.

THE ROUND TOWERS .

427

mously and, universally attest, that they used :the sameconversable articulation with that of the establisheddynasty * .

Where is the . wonde, then, that we should find allthe ancient : names in the north of England, correspondto a nicety with those of the Irish ? And which madeLhuydh, the author of the Archaeologia, himself -anEnglishman, declare, " how' necessary the Irish lan-guage is to those who shall undertake to write of theantiquity of the isle of Britain . ."

But if Lhuydh was thus candid in the avowal o€hisconviction, he was not equally successful in the dis-covery of the relationship . From want of the truetouchstone, he went on hypothesising ! and came at lastto the supposition .' that the Irish must at one timehave been• i#- pQasessign of those-;EV4lish localities,and thence removed themselves into Ireland l ". theexact opposite having been the fact .

To atone for my long digression from Mr . Whitta-ker, and his brealcages, I will supply to you the deri-vations, as well of Britain as of Brigantia . Theformer is: . compounded of „Bruit, tin 'P : and, tan, acountry abounding in that metal, and correspond_ ing,to Cassiteris, assigned to it by the Greeks : ; andBrigantia, as before explained, being but a formativefrom Breo-cean, is compounded of Breo, which signifiesfire ; and cean, a head or promontory, meaning thehead-land offires ; or that whereon such used to havebeen lighted for the convenience of mariners lyingout at seat .

* " Every argument of the origin of emigrant nations must, after all,be referred to language."-CAMDEN.

* The derivation of those two terms is not exclusively mine . It is butthe repetition of the received interpretation of all men of letters .

42 8

THE ROUND TOWERS .

Neither the Scythians, therefore, nor the Celts,had connexion whatsoever, either of them, with theonce-envied celebrity of this 1° island *." The latterwere the persons who, under the name of Fir-Bolgs,erected all the cromleachs spread over the country,the accomplishment of which bespeaks, it is true, anacquaintance with mechanics, of which the presentartisans are altogether ignorant . - And as the ori-ginal of- their denomination has never been eluci-dated; I embrace this opportunity of supplying theomission . It comes from bolog, which, in the Irishlanguage, signifies a paunch ; and fir, a man ; so thatFir-Bolg means the big-bellied man, being an evi-dent allusion to their bodily configuration : and tothis day Bolcaig is the epithet applied, vernacularly,to individuals of - large : - girth or corpulent robustness,exactly corresponding to what we are told by Caesar,when describing the tripartite division of Gaul, viz .,that the Belgae, who, in fact, were of the same stockas our Fir-Bolgs, were the stoutest bodied, and thebravest otherwise, of all its inhabitants .

The Scythian religion, which was Druidical, ac-corded with that of the Fir-Bolgs, which was Celtic,-not less as to modes of worship, than in mutualaversion to that of the Iranians ; and, accordingly, wefind, that when both conspired for the recovery of thiscountry from the Iranians, who had themselves wrestedit from the Fir-Bolgs, antecedently, these latter branch-ing out into the septs of Cauci and Menapii, corre-

* " For it is to be thought, that the use of all England was in theraigne of Henry the Second, when Ireland was planted with English,very rude and barbarous, so as if the same should be .now used in Eng-land by any, it would seem worthy of sharpe correction, and of newlawes for reformation, for it is but even the other day since Englandgrew civill."-SPENSER .

a

TIME ROUND TOWERS .

429

sponding to the kindred and coo-nominal tribes on thecontinent ; and who, during the occupancy of the Ira-nians,-the interval of Ireland's Hyperborean renown ;-had retired to Arran* and the northern isles,-wererestored to a partnership in the possession of theisland, in return for the assistance they lent theScythians for its conquest :-and this accounts forthat diversity of races which Ptolemy records, butwhich antiquarian luminaries, unable to comprehend,took upon them to reject -as .altogether a chimera .

As to the Iranians-the real Hibernians,-the trueHyperborean Tuath-de-danaans, or Magic-god Almo-ners--they were hurled from the throne-their sanc-tified ceremonials trampled in the dust-their sacredharps, which before used to swell to the praises oftheir Divinity,: were now desecrated for the inspirationof the Scythian warriors,-and their divine Boreades,who ere now composed canticles in adoration of Apollo ;were degraded to the secular and half-military occu-pation of Scythian Bards .

The name of the island itself, from " Irin," or the" Sacred island," was changed into Scuitte, that is,Scotia or Scythia, or the Land of the Scythians . "Norwas it until the eleventh century of the present era,that, to remove the ambiguity which arose from the cir-cumstance of there being another country also called bythis name, Ireland resumed its former name, Irin, asits people did Irenses, instead of Scoti j .

* The name of Arran was given to this island as expressive of theland of the unfaithful, in opposition to our Iran, or the land of theunfaithful : both corresponding to the Iran and An-Iran of the Persians .

f This, however, did not happen at first ; for the name of Ireland wasnot yet generally used among strangers, as Adam de Breme, who livedin the eleventh century, and Nubigensis, in the twelfth, were the firstwho mentioned it : the name of Scotland was by degrees appropriated

4 30

THE ROUND TOWERS .

Yet in the general transmutation which so great arevolution bespeaks, we behold the strictest regardpaid to the literary fame and the mental acquire-ments of those sages who had been ejected . Theywere retained as the instructors -of the new esta-blishment ; and their refined precepts tending gra-dually to soften the warlike propensities of this fero-cious group, the amalgamation became so complete,and the aristocracy of intellect -so recognised, thatwhen- . religious dissensions-were all cancelled in thegrave, many of them :were :ablee toy trace their stepsbackwards to the forfeited monarchy .

Of this number was Connachar-mor-mac-Nessan,that is, Connor the-great-son-of-Nessan, styled indif-ferently Feidlimidh and Ollai sh Fodlah, i . e., the Eruditeman (the- , Budhist) : :and :the- Doctor of Budiand ; . andBrien, who ascended the Irish throne, A. D.. 1014 ;and who, after a succession of two thousand twohundred years, was the lineal descendant of Brien,head of the Tuath-de-danaans, ; and this very extrac-tion, in the confusion of the names, was the circum-stance which occasioned, the :popular belief, not yetexploded, of his having been -the founder,, by magiccreation, in one single night, of those Round Towersof his inheritance ! The mistake, however, is of value,

to Albania, which was for some time called Little Scotland, " ScotiaMinor," to distinguish it from Ireland, which was called " Scotia Major,"whose inhabitants did not lose all of a sudden the name of Scots ; theyare so called in the eleventh century by Herman, in the first book ofhis chronicle ; by Marianus Scotus, Florentius Wigorniensis, in hisannals, in which, having inserted the chronicle of Marianus, in men-tioning the year 1028, he says, " in this year was born Marianus, probablya Scot from Ireland, by whose care this excellent chronicle has beencompiled from several histories ." We discover the same thing in a chro-nicle in the Cottonian library .Abbc Mac Geoghegan .

THE ROUND TOWERS .

43 1

as it is a collateral evidence that those edifices havebeen attributed to their real authors ; and the ana-chronism will be excused, seeing that there is nothingmore common than to assign to one Hercules theexploits of another.

Others of this colony, who could not brook theyoke, betook themselves on their downfall to Scot-land, and built there-the two round temples of Brechiaand Abernethy, besides others that have disappeared ;from thence, however, they were again , dislodged bythe barbarous .Picts, and obliged to fly for shelter tothe Highland fastnesses . These are they whom Mac-culloch and others have misrepresented as Celts .During their sway in that country, they called it alsoby the name of Iran or Eran, as the Scotch lan-guage is, to this,day, called-Irish, or Erse . The nameof Scoitte, i . e., Scotia,- was given it afterwards., by thePicts, in compliment to this island, which had fur,nished them with wives, and otherwise joined theirfraternity * .

* The Picts, confiding in the happy omen of future friendship fromthe Scots, obtained wives fro~a_them,,and thereby contracted so close analliance, that they 'seethed to form but one people ; so that the passagebetween the two countries being free, a number of Scots came andsettled amongst the Picts, who received them with joy.-BUCHANAN.

Britannia post Britones et Pictos tertiam Scotorum nationem in Pic-torum parte, recepit, qui, duce Reuda, de Hibernid progressi, vel amicitiavel ferro, sibimet inter eos sedes quas hactenus habent, vindicarunt, Aquo scilicet duce usque hodie Dalreundini vocantur .-Beda, Hist. Eccles.lib. i . cap, 1.

Cambrensis says, that in the reign of Niall the Great in Ireland, thesix sons of Muredus, king of Ulster, with a considerable fleet, seized onthe northern part of Britain, and founded a nation, called Scotia.-Topog.Hib. dirt. 3 . cap . 1 6 .

" It is certain," says Camden, "that the Scots went from Ireland intoBritain. Orosius, Bede, and Eginard, bear indisputable testimony thatIreland was inhabited by the Scots." Elsewhere he. calls the Irish theancestors of the Scotch . "Hiberni Scotorum atavi .''

432

CHAPTER XXIX .

to THE Scoto-Milesians," says Dr . Hales *, « reckontwenty-three generations from Feni an fear soid, ' thePhoenician wise man,' their ancestor, to Heber andHeremon, who established the last settlement fromSpain, as observed before ; which, at the usual com-putation of three mean generations to a century,would give 766 years from Fenius to Heber . Butwe learn from Coemhain, that the sons of Milesius(this should have' been Gallamh t) were `coeval withSolomon, and that the Gadelians came to Ireland inthe middle of the reign of this illustrious prince," B.C .1002, according to the Irish chronology . Countingbackwards, therefore, from this date, 766 years, weget the time of Fenius about B.C . 1768 . And thisagrees with sacred and profane history ; for Joshua,whose administration began B.C . 1688, according toHales's Chronology, notices " the strong city of Tyre,"Josh. xix. 29 ; which maintained its independenceeven in David's days, 2 Sam . xxiv. 7 ; and in Solo-mon's, 1 Kings ix . 11-14 . And Herodotus, that in-quisitive traveller and intelligent historian ) who visitedTyre about B .C . 448, saw there the temple of theThasian Hercules ; and another erected to him by the

* Author of the New Analysis of Chronology, and late fellow ofTrinity College, Dublin .

Seepage 376 .This should have been Scythians .

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433

Phoenicians at Thasus itself, an island on the coast ofThrace, while they were engaged in search of Europa,the daughter of Agenor, king of Tyre, who had beencarried off by some Greeks ; an event, says Herodotus,which happened five generations before the GrecianHercules, the son of Amphitryon, B. ii . § 44 ; whoflourished about 900 years before he wrote, § 145, orabout B.C . 1348, to which adding 166 years for thefive generations, we get the rape of Europa aboutB.C . 1514.

« But the deification of the Thasian Hercules musthave been after his death, which may make him con-temporary with Joshua, or even earlier . Herodotusrelates that the Tyrians themselves boasted of theremote antiquity of their city, founded, as they said,2300 years before, (B . xi . 44.) which would carry ithigher than the deluge . The high antiquity, how-ever, of Sidon and her daughter Tyre, was acknow-ledged by Xerxes, king of Persia, when he invadedGreece, B.C . 480 : and in a council of his officersallowed her ambassadors the honour of precedence ."<§ 11 .)

He adds-" In order to determine the cardinal dataof ancient Irish history, it is necessary to premise asynopsis of Coembain's System of Chronology .

In this table, the first column contains the yearselapsed between the succeeding events : thus, from

2 F

Y . B .C .Creation 1656 3952Deluge 292 2296Abraham born 942 2004David, king 473 1062Babylonish Captivity 589 589

Christian Era 3952 1

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

the creation, 1656 years to the deluge ; from thedeluge, 292 years to the birth of Abraham, &c . ; andtheir amount, 3952 years, gives the basis of the sys-tem, or the years elapsed from the creation to thevulgar Christian era . The second column gives thedates of these events before the Christian era .

David began to reign B.C . 1062 ; from whichsubducting 60 years for the amount of his wholereign, 40 years, and 20 years, the half of Solomon's,we get B .C . 1002, for the date of the expedition ofHeber and Heremon to Ireland .

This same number has been noticed by twoearlier chronologers, Marcus Anchoreta, A .D . 647 ;and Nennius, A .D . 858 ; who both date the arrivalof the Scoti in Ireland, ` 1002 years after the passageof the Red Sea by the Israelites, in which the Egyp-tians were drowned .' O'Connor, Proleg . ii. pp .15-45 . The identity of the number 1002 provesthe mistake in the reference to the exode of theIsraelites, instead of to the Christian era, whichdepresses the arrival of the Scoti five centuries toolow . For Coemhain reckons the exode 502 yearsafter the birth of Abraham, or B.C . 1502 ; from whichsubtracting 1002 years, the arrival of the Scoti wouldbe reduced to B .C . 500 ; or, following Usher's dateof the deluge, B. C . 1491 . O'Connor reduces it stilllower, to B. c . 489 .-Proleg .. ii . p . 45 . Upon thesuperior authority of Coemhain, therefore, as a chro-nologer, we are warranted to rectify this importanterror of Nennius and Marcus Anchoreta, whicheven Dr. O'Connor has failed to correct ; not ad-verting to the foregoing inference from Coemhain .But he has happily furnished himself the materialsfor proving the error .

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~° He states, that one hundred and eighteen kingsof the Scoti reigned, till the arrival of St . Patrick,B.C . 489 + A .D . 432 = 921 years in all, which,divided by 118, would give too short an average ofreigns, only 7 years a-piece ; whereas the trueinterval, B .C . 1002+A.D. 432=1434 years, wouldgive the average of reigns above twelve yearsa-piece ; which he justly represents as the standard,from Patrick to Malachy ii . viz. forty-eight reigns in590 years.-Proleg. ii. p. 45 f."

The date of the Scythian invasion, then, beingfixed as B.C . 1002, it is agreed on all hands thatthat of the Tuath-de-danaans was but two hundredyears anterior, or B .C . 1202 f, with this exactly cor-responds the time at which Marsden, Kwinpfer, andLoubere date the arrival of the Buddists at Siam, viz .,B.C . 1202 . Among the Japanese also, they arestated by Klaproth to have arrived not very distantfrom that era, or B.C . 1029 . De Guignes and Re-musat suppose 1029 as the epoch at which theyinvaded China . B.C . 1000 is the epoch assigned bySymes for their descent upon the Burman empire ;and B.C . 1029 is that fixed by Ozeray for theirentrance into Ceylon ; while the Mogul authors andthe Bagwad Amrita (Sir W. Jones) recognise theirappearance respectively at B.C . 2044 and B .C . 2099 .

Now, the extreme concordance amongst the calcu-lations of those various countries, one with the other,and their almost universal coincidence, nay, in theSiamese authorities, almost miraculous identifications,with our Irish registries, as to the influx, amongst all,

* Origin and Purity of the Primitive Churches of the British Isles .4 Various colonies of the Tuath-de-danaans had settled here : but I

talk now of the last one, immediately preceding the Scythians .2 12

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of this singular people, and their extraordinary ritual,makes us associate the phenomena with one com-mon cause, and that was the expulsion of the Bud-hists from India, the Rajas having proclaimed, at theinstigation of the rival Brahmins, that " from thebridge of Rama, even to the snow-capped Himala,no man should spare the Budhists, young or old, onpain of death ."-Guigniaud's Creuzer.

As to the Mogul dates, and those of the BagwadAmrita, they evidently bear reference to former colo-nies ; nor are we, in Ireland, without similar chroniclesof an antecedent arrival, and precisely answering tothe time of the first departure of the Tuath-de-danaansfrom the borders of Persia *.

It was, indeed, the tradition of this early invasion,long mystified by age, that we have seen so pervertedat page 385, for the sole purpose of effecting a.mi-racle ! Nor is this the only fable that fastens uponthat narrative : we have that of Partholan and ofNemedius, and a thousand other reminiscences, alldirecting towards the centre of a common nucleus .The East is the point whither they all aim, and theera they assign is invariably that of . the deluge !Is it not, therefore, inevitable, but that the object re-corded is our reception of the Tuath-de-danaans whenejected by the arms of their Pish-de-danaan rivals t ?

Amongst the Easterns themselves we find corre-sponding traditions, wrapt up, as usual, in allegory,of this primordial departure . The Phrygians, whowere one of the most ancient and considerable nationsof Asia Minor, complain of Apollo having wanderedfrom them, in company with Cybele, to the land of

,* See pages 259, 264, 5 .See pages 385, 282, and 259 .

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the Hyperboreans * . The costume of the archersupon our Knockmoy frescoes is strictly Phrygian,and confirms their testimony better than any writtenmemorial ! " Hercules," says Cedrenus, first taughtphilosophy in the western parts of the world ." This'was our Ogham, which the Gauls had borrowed fromus, as you will see by note, page 420 . " In Egypt,"says Ausonius, " they called him Osiris, but in theisland of Ogygia they gave him the name of Bacchus ."If we will remember the form under which Osiris wasworshipped, viz., that of our Round Towers t, andthen recollect that the name of Bacchus is still foundamongst our ancient inscriptions T ; and in additionto all these, bear in mind that Plutarch § expresslydesignates this island, from its extreme antiquity, asOgygia, all qualms as to the situation alluded to byAusonius must for ever evaporate !

Let us now glance at the institutions of this island,the personal appearance of its inhabitants, and theirpopular customs, as compared with ancient Persia .

To begin with the aspect, which often proves de-cisive in more interesting applications, I refer you toour regal figures at page 330, as a fair outline ofIrish contour ; with this, if you will compare whatCaptain Head affirms, in reference to the settlers atBombay, viz ., that the ancient inhabitants of Persiawere superior, not inferior, in looks, to the present,

* Euseb. Praepar. Evang . 1 . ii. 4 .t IIavTaxou h xai Avoeowropoecoy OeteSaof a'yaXo6o auxvtovety, izoediazov T ahotm,

atei To yoo uoo xai To Teoptaov .-P1ut. de Isid . et Osirid.I Seepage 265 .§ De facie in orbe lunge . Slatyr, also, an English poet, in his " Pale

Albeone," calls our island Ogygia . Rhodoganus explains the proprietyof the word when he says, " Ogygium appellant poetae tanquam per-vatis dixeres . "

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who belong to a hundred mixed races, which havepoured upon that kingdom since the overthrow ofYezdijerd," no disparity will present itself, at least inthat quarter .

As to institutions, I will instance that of our ancientclans* , and place by them in juxtaposition what SirJohn Malcolm delivers on the subject of Persia ."Jemsheed" (a prince of the Pish-de-danaan dynasty,founder of Persepolis, called after him, Tucht-e Jem-sheed, which, in Irish, signifies the Couch-of-Jem-sheed divided," says he, according to Persianauthors, his subjects into four classes . The first wasformed of learned and pious men, devoted to the wor-ship of God ; and the duty ascribed to them was tomake known to others what was lawful and what other-wise . The second were writers, whose employmentwas to keep the records and accounts of the state . Thethird soldiers, who were directed to occupy themselvesin military exercises, that they might be fitted for war.The fourth class were artificers, husbandmen, andtradesmen. The authorities on which we give thehistory of Jemsheed make no mention of Mah-abad ;but, if we are to give credit to the Dabistan, the in-stitution ofJemsheed can only be deemed a revival of thatlawgiver i- ."

* The original, in fact, of the Feodal System .t An act of daring impiety (not requiring to be added) disgusted

Jemsheed's subjects, and encouraged the Syrian prince, Zohauk, to in-vade Persia . The unfortunate Jemsheed fled before a conqueror, whowas deemed by all, the instrument of divine vengeance . The wander-ings of the exiled monarch are wrought into a tale, which is among themost popular in Persian romance . His first adventure was in theneighbouring province of Seistan, where the only daughter of the rulingprince was led, by a prophecy of her nurse, to fall in love with him, andto contract a secret marriage ; but the unfortunate Jemsheed was pur-sued through Seistan, India, and China, by the agents of the implacable

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In respect to religion, Herodotus states that, " fromhis own knowledge, the Persians had neither statues,temples, nor altars, but offered on the tops of thehighest mountains, sacrifices to Jove, by which theymeant the deity of the air ; that they adored the sun,moon, earth, fire, water, and the winds, but that theysacrificed to these only from of old, according to an-cient custom, and that they gave the preference toTrefoil, whereon they laid their offerings *."

Now, two considerations are to be observed, as in-volved in this last quotation : one is, that the historianattributes the usages of this nation to two distinctperiods of time. From ocular inspection, he avowsthat they had no temples, &c., because such were longexploded . And he knew not what to make of the RoundTowers. Part, however, of the ceremonial appertain-ing to those edifices still remained, such as the wor-ship of the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and thewinds ; and

to these," he frankly acknowledges,they sacrificed only from of old," or in deference to

the practice of their predecessors-I will not sayforefathers .

Contemplate now the reverence shown to the herbTrefoil, our national shamrock, and will you not seeanother link of that great concatenation uniting thetwo Irans, and triumphing at once over suppositionand over scepticism ? I have already deplumed St .Patrick of the serpent expulsion ; or, rather, I havedone honour to his memory, by saving it from the

Zohauk, by whom he was at last seized, and carried before his cruelenemy, like a common malefactor. Here his miseries closed ; for afterenduring all that proud scorn could inflict upon fallen greatness, he wasplaced between two boards, and sawn asunder with a bone of a fish .-SIR JOHN MALCOLM .

* Clio, chap . 130 .

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fabrications of pious impostors . I now continue mycourse of justice, by showing that he had as little todo with the veneration paid to this plant. It wasworshipped in the Emerald Island, and imported, youperceive, by the Tuath-de-danaans, centuries uponcenturies before the apostle was born : and the causeof this devotion was, not alone that it symbolizedthe Trinity, which was an article of Budhist doctrine,even before the incarnation of Christ, but becausethat it blended with it, in mystery as well as in grati-tude, the Alibenistic cross, the seal of their redemp-tion, and their passport to eternity ! Here then arethe shamrocks, or Free-masonic devices, upon the crownsof our Irish kings explained ; and those upon thePersian crowns, by and by to be inserted, are simi-larly expounded* !

Lastly, the funerals of the Persians-after the soul'sliberation from its tenement of clay, at the summonsof its God-are described by Herodotus t with sostriking a similitude, that you would imagine he hadwitnessed, and expressly referred to, the like scenesin Ireland* .

* " Now these heathens in India, believe that an atonement has beenmade for their sins," says Dr . Hurd, in his " Religious Rites and Cere-monies ." Had the Doctor, or whoever he was that assumed his name,known that this was their reliance upon the expiation "of the Lambslain from the beginning of -the world," he would have spared hisheathens, and spoken less irreverently .

fi Clio, chap . 193 .Cambrensis, in the ~twelfth century, says, the Irish then musically

expressed their griefs ; that is, they applied the musical art, in whichthey excelled all others, to the ordinary celebration of funeral obsequies,by dividing the mourners into two bodies, each alternately singing theirpart, and the whole, at times, joining in full chorus .

°° The body of the deceased, dressed in grave clothes, and ornamentedwith flowers, was placed on a bier, or some elevated spot. The relationsand keeners (singing mourners) then ranged themselves in two divisions,

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Oh ! " if the human mind can ever flatter itselfwith having been successful in discovering the truth,it is when many facts, and these facts of differentkinds, unite in producing the same result* ."

In truth, the island was altogether an OrientalAsylumt, until, for a moment, broken in upon by the

one at the bead, and the other at the foot of the corpse. The bards andcroteries had before prepared the funeral caoinan. The chief bard ofthe head chorus began by singing the first stanza in a low doleful tone,which was softly accompanied by the harp : at the conclusion, the footsemichorus began the lamentation, or ullaloo, from the final note of thepreceding stanza, in which they were answered by the head semichorus ;then both united in one general chorus . The chorus of the first stanzabeing ended, the chief bard of the foot semichorus began the second gol,or lamentation, in which they were answered by that of the head, and asbefore, both united in the full chorus . Thus, alternately, were the songand the choruses performed during the night . The genealogy, rank,possessions, the virtues and vices of the dead were rehearsed, and anumber of interrogations were addressed to the deceased : as, Why didhe die? If married, whether his wife was faithful to him, his sons duti-ful, or good hunters or warriors? If a woman, whether her daughterswere fair or chaste ? If a young man, whether he had been crossed inlove? or if the blue-eyed maids of Erin had treated him with scorn?"-Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol, iv. note 9 .* Baillie .t A particular anecdote in the Persian history has such claims upon

the feelings, and is otherwise so interesting, as being, in fact, the eluci-dation of the origin and era of the Tyrrhenians, Etrurians, or Tuscans,in Italy, that I am forced to transcribe it here at full length .

" Feridoon was the son of Ablen, an immediate descendant of Taha-murs . He had escaped, in almost a miraculous manner, from Zohauk,when that prince had seized and murdered his father . At the age ofsixteen he joined Kawah, who had collected a large body of his country-men : these fought with enthusiasm under the standard of the black-smith's apron, which continually reminded them of the just cause oftheir revolt ; and the presence of their young prince made them invin-cible. Zohauk, after numerous defeats, was made prisoner, and put toa slow and painful death, as some punishment for his great crimes .

" Feridoon's first act was to convert the celebrated apron into theroyal standard of Persia. As such, it was richly ornamented withjewels, to which every king, from Feridoon to the last of the Pehlivimonarchs, added . It was called the Derush-e-Kawanee, the standardof Kawa, and continued to be the royal standard of Persia, till the Ma-

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Fir-Bolgs, or Celts . Their usurpation, however, wasonly that of a day, amounting, by all records, but to

hometan conquest, when it was taken in battle by Saad-e-Wukass, andsent to the Caliph Omar .

A Persian poet, alluding to the victories which the youthful Feri-doon obtained over Zohauk, and to those enchantments by which thelatter was guarded, and the manner in which they were overcome by hisvirtuous antagonist, beautifully exclaims, ' The happy Feridoon was notan angel ; he was not formed of musk or of amber ; it was by his justiceand mercy that he gained good and great ends . Be then just and merci-ful, and thou shalt be a Feridoon .'" The crimes of his elder sons, which embittered the latter years of

Feridoon, have given rise to one of the most affecting tales in Persianromance ; and it is, indeed, only in that form that there remains anytrace of these events . This virtuous monarch had, we are told, threesons, Selm, Toor, and Erii. The two former were by one mother, thedaughter of Zohauk ; the latter by a princess of Persia. All thesethree princes had been united in marriage to three daughters of a kingof Arabia. Feridoon determined to divide his wide dominions amongthem. To Selm he gave the countries comprehended in modem Tur-key ; to Toor, Tartary and part of China ; and to Erii, Persia . Theprinces departed for their respective governments, but the two elderwere displeased that Persia, the fairest of lands, and the seat of royalty,should have been given to their junior, and they combined to effect theruin of their envied brother . They first sent to their father to reproachhim with his partiality and injustice, and to demand a revision of hisact, threatening an immediate attack if their request was refused. Theold king was greatly distressed ; he represented to them that his dayswere drawing to a close, and intreated that he might be allowed todepart in peace . Erii discovered what was passing, and resolved to go tohis brothers and to lay his crown at their feet, rather than continue to bethe cause of a dissension that afflicted his father . He prevailed upon theold king to consent to this measure, and carried a letter from their com-mon parent to Selm and Toor, the purport of which was, that theyshould live together in peace . This appeal had no effect, and the unfor-tunate Erii was slain by his brothers, who had the hardihood to embalmhis head, and send it to Feridoon . The old man is said to have fainted atthe sight . When he recovered, he seized, with frantic grief, the head ofhis beloved son, and holding it in his raised hands, he called upon heavento punish the base perpetrators of so unnatural and cruel a deed . ' Maythey never more,' he exclaimed, `enjoy one bright day! May the demonremorse tear their savage bosoms, till they excite compassion even inthe wild beasts of the forest! As for me,' said the afflicted old man, ' Ionly desire from the God that gave me life, that he will continue it till a

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fifty-six years* ; after which, a new army of theTuath-de-danaans, driven now, not from Persia, butfrom India, by the Brahmins, laid claim to thesceptre to which their brethren had invited them, andreinstated themselves afresh in our kindred Iran .

It is not, therefore, you perceive, our individual his-tory alone that is rectified by this investigation . Itsupplies a vacuum in the history of the world : whichcould not be said to have been correct, so long as therewas nothing known on the various topics now ex-plained t .

Professor Miller 1, in a very elaborate treatiseupon the Antiquities of the Dorians, has been pleaseddescendant shall arise from the race of Erii to avenge his death ; andthen this head will repose with joy on any spot that is appointed toreceive it.'

1 1 The daughter of Erii was married to the nephew of Feridoon, andtheir young son, Manucheher, proved the image of his grandfather ;this child becoming the cherished hope of the aged monarch ; and whenthe young prince attained manhood, he made every preparation to enablehim to revenge the blood of Erii . Selm and Toor trembled as they sawthe day of retribution approach ; they sent ambassadors with rich pre-sents to their father, and intreated that Manucheher might be sent tothem, that they might stand in his presence, like slaves, and washaway the remembrance of their crimes by tears of contrition. Feridoonreturned their presents ; and in his reply to their message, expressedhis indignation in glowing terms. ' Tell the merciless men,' heexclaimed, ' that they shall never see Manucheher, but attended byarmies, and clothed in steel .'

" A war commenced ; and in the very first battle Toor was slain bythe lance of Manucheher. Selm retired to a fortress, from whence hewas drawn by a challenge from the youthful hero, who was victorious inthis combat, and the war restored tranquillity to the empire . "-Six JOHNMALCOLM .

* " Fifty-six years the Fir-Bolgs royal line were kings, and the sceptrethey resigned to the Tuath-de-danaans ."-KEA'nNG .

t We have, as yet, no accounts of the persecution and expulsion ofthe Budhists from India ; and this circumstance, of itself, would allowus to infer, with great probability, that those events must have takenplace at a very remote period of antiquity .-Asiatic Researches.

;: Giittingen University .

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to affect astonishment, through one of his notes, thatHecataeus should have believed in the existence ofthe Hyperboreans ! It became him, unquestionably,so to do, because that the proofs of their existencewere beyond his own reach . But though their reality,as well as locality, have been already put beyonddisputation, I will, to justify the exclusiveness hereproclaimed, enter again upon the subject, and, with-out following in detail, show, by the reverse of hispositions, that his whole system of mythology isequally erroneous .

In this determination I will, of course, be acquittedof any intentional slight . Who could read ProfessorMuller's work, and not be struck with the labour andthe ingenuity which distinguish its every page? Iyield to no man in my respect for his abilities, but Iweep, from my soul, that his classic care was notbequeathed upon some other subject, rather than besplit upon a rock by an ignis fatuus . I never sawsuch a waste of letters as his book exhibits ! I neversaw such learned research so miserably thrownaway ! And how could it be otherwise, his greatobject having been to make everything square to thereveries of the Grecians !-taking them, as his clue,into a labyrinth of inextricability, through one inchof which neither conductor nor traveller could seetheir way !

Sweet pahlavi of the Hyperboreans, I will take youas my guide!

Nor be my thoughtsPresumptuous counted, if amid the calmThat soothes the vernal evening into smiles,I steal, impatient, from the sordid hauntsOf strife and low ambition, to attendThy sacred presence, in the sylvan shade,By their malignant footstep ne'er profaned *.

* Thomson .

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CHAPTER XXX.

BEFORE we descend to language, I shall collect thehistorical concordances that bear upon this investiga-tion .

Beo, a poetess of Delphi, mentions in the frag-ment of a poem, quoted by Pausanias, that three in-dividuals, sons of Hyperboreans, and named Olen,Pagasus, and Agyeu.s, had founded the oracle ofDelphi . Will it be credited that those three namesare but representatives of three several orders of ourIrish priests, viz ., Ollam, Pagoes, and Aghois * ?

At Delos the same tradition is to be encountered,with but a few local alterations : such as that ofLatona having arrived there from the Hyperboreans,in the form of a she wolf; Apollo and Diana, withthe virgins Arge and Opis, following afterwards. Twoother virgins, viz., Laodice and Hyperoche, succeeded,and with them five men, who were called peripherees,or carriers, from their bringing with them offeringsof first fruits, wrapt in bundles of wheaten straw .

But is this embassy altogether a fiction ? Thereis not a fact in all antiquity," says Carte, that madea greater noise in the world, was more universallyknown, or better attested by the gravest and mostancient authors among the Greeks, than this of thesacred embassies of the Hyperboreans to Delos, in

,.* Vallancey, Coil . vol . iii . p . 163 .

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completely authenticated by our ancient records,which narrate the circumstance, with no view todecide an historical controversy, but with indiffer-ence thereto, and as in ordinary course,-that it isinevitable but that, when the Greeks say that thisphilosopher had gone to them from the Hyyperboreans,-and when we produce proofs to show that a man ofthe same name had repaired on the errand alluded to,from our country to Greece, it is inevitable, I say, butthat, when both statements so perfectly tally, theisland of the Hyperboreans and that of the Hiberniansmust be one and the same .

I shall now subjoin from General Vallancey'sworks, as he translates it from an old Irish poem, theauthentic narrative of this our Hyperborean embassy .

" The purport of the Tuath-de-danaans journey was in quest of know-ledge,

And to seek a proper place where they should improve in Druidism .These holy men soon sailed to Greece . The sons of Nirned, son of

Adhnam,Descendant of Baoth, from Boeotia sprung . Thence to the care of

skilful pilots,This Bwotian clan, like warlike heroes, themselves committed,And after a dangerous voyage, the ships brought them to Loch Luar .Four cities of great fame, which bore great sway,Received our clan, in which they completed their studies .Spotless Taleas, Goreas, majestic Teneas and Mhuiras,For sieges famed, were the names of the four cities.Morfios and Earus-Ard, Abhras, and Lemas, well skilled in magic,Were the names of our Druids ; they lived in the reign of Garman the

Happy.Morfios was made Fele of Falias, .Earus the poet in. Gone dwelt,Samias dwelt at Mhurias, but Abhras, the Tele-fionn, at Teneas ."

A quarrel, it should seem, ensued between themand the Fir-Bolgs on their return : and the Sean-neachees, in their incapacity to separate any twoevents of a similar character from each other, con-

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founded the differences which arose herefrom withthe battles fought six hundred years before, betweenthe ancestors of both parties, on the plains of Moye-tureadh !

At page 67 I have stated that this event took placeabout B.C . 600. And this very circumstance it was-I mean the lateness of the date-which rendered theexpedition at all needful .

The Tuath-de-danaans having been for a long timehumiliated, and allowed but a mere nominal exist-ence, in a remote canton of the realm, their ritual gotmerged into that of the Druids . A correspondingdecay had vitiated their taste for letters, while 'theGreeks, in proportion, rose in the scale .

Pythagoras had by this time returned from his tourto Egypt, and' the fame of his acquirements hadreached 'the Tuath-de-danaans . Naturally solicitousto court the acquaintance of an individual who hadderived his information from the kindred of theirancestors *, they had address enough to obtain leavefrom the several states of the kingdom to repair toGreece, on the alleged plea of returning the visit,' of

* "The first origin of the Danava_s," says Wilford, talking of the primevalinhabitants of Egypt, " is as little known as that of the tribe last men-tioned . But they came into Egypt from the west of India, and are fre-quently mentioned in the Puranas, amongst the inhabitants near Cali ."

Is it not manifest that they were a colony of our Danaans ? And isnot this still more undeniable from the circumstance of a part of Egypt-doubtless that wherein the Danaans resided-having been called ofold, as you will find by the same authority, by the name of Eria ? Seepage 68 of present volume .

1 This explains what Hecatwus records, as to the ancient attachmentbetween the Hyperboreans and the Grecians-" deducing their friend-ship from remote times ." And the offerings which the latter are said tohave brought to the former were precisely of that nature (avAnaera) whichcomports with the spirit of our Budhist pentalogue .-See page 112 .

2G

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the Argonauts to our shores many ages previously*,but actually with a view to gratify their predilectionsby philosophical inquiry.When the meteors met, it is difficult now to decide

which orb it was that emitted the greater light. Butwithout being too much biassed by the links of pa-triotism, I think we may very fairly aver that ourcountryman communicated, depressed even as was hisorder at that day, as much information as he hadreceived -f- .

• Who then can any longer doubt but that this wasthe island of the Hyperboreans? Even the pecu-liarity of our language mingles in the chain ofproof ; as Diodorus states, that " the Hyperboreansuse their own natural tongue," But were all otherarguments wanting, I would undertake to prove theidentity by an admission from this transcriber him-self. " The sovereignty of this city," says he, " andthe care of the temple, belong to the Boreades I."

* As to the actuality of the visit, it is past anything like doubt, fromOrpheus, or if you prefer Onomacretus' poem, called " Argonautica ;" andhis conviction of this it was which made Adrianus Junius, quoted by SirJohn Ware, to characterize Ireland as an "insula Jasonice puppis benecognita nautis."

`h Abaris ex Hyperboreis, ipse quoque theologus fuitt ; scripsit oracularegionibus quas peragravit, qua, hodie extant ; prcedixitis quoqueterrcemotus,pestes, et similia ac ccetera . Ferunt eum cum Spartam advenisset,Lacones monuisse de sacris mala avertentibus, quibus peractis nullapoetmodum Lacedannone pestis fuerit .-Apollonius, Histor . Mirab .

They thought them gods and not of mortal race,And-gave them cities and adored their learning,And begged them to communicate their art .

KEATING, from an old Irish poem .Turn back also to page 328, 67, and 66, and see what is there stated !

An hundred and ninety-seven years completeThe Tuath-de-danaans, a famous colony,The Irish sceptre swayed ."

A spiritual supremacy of this kind prevailed in several cities of AsiaMinor,_ as, for instance, at Pessinus, in Phrygia . The origin of such

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Now, nothing ever has puzzled etymologists somuch to explore as the origin of the Irish termBards*. The guesses which they have made thereatare so exceedingly amusing, that I will take leave torefresh myself, exhausted and languid as I snow wellnigh am, with the outline of a few .

First, Bochart would derive it from parat, tospeak!!! Wilford from the Sanscrit, varta!!! But" some learned friends of his are of opinion that itcomes from bhqrdanan, to burthe.n ! ! ! because bur-thened with the'' internal management of the royalhousehold 11!"

I shall spare my readers any more of those carica-tures, and submit to his own candour to adjudicate,whether Bards could, by possibility, be anything elsethan the modern Englification for our ancient Bo-reades ?

Doubtless, Professor Miller, your astonishment hasnow subsided, as to Hecatoeus's credulity in the exist-ence of the Hyperboreans . Diodorus Siculus, who,

constitutions is uncertain; but, according to tradition, was of veryancient date. The same cities were also great resorts of commerce,lying on the highway from Armenia to Asia Minor . The bond betweencommerce and religion was very intimate . The festivals of their worshipwere also those of their great fairs, frequented by a multitude of foreign-ers ; all of whom (certain classes of females not excepted), as well aseverything which had a reference to trade, were considered as under theimmediate, protection of the temple and the divinity . The same factmaybe remarked here, which has obtained in several parts -of centralAfrica, namely, that the union of commerce with some particular modeof worship, gave occasion, at a very early period, to certain politicalassociations, and introduced a sacerdotal government .-HE EREN, vol . i.p. 121,

* This word is of uncertain etymology-their early history is uncer-tain . Diodorus (lib. v. 31), tells us, that the Celts had bards, who sungto musical instruments ; and Strabo (lib . iv.) testifies, that they weretreated with respect, approaching to veneration . The passage of Tacitus(Germ. 7 .) is a doubtful reading.-American Encyclopaedia.

2G2

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though, as Granville Penn has affirmed, he " hastransmitted to us many scattered and importanttruths," yet does the same judicious commentatoradd, that it was in a condition " intermixed withmuch idle fiction, equivocation, and anachronism *,"was herein your guide ! But the manes of _the Hyper-boreans now speak from the tomb, and vindicate theirexistence as well as their locality !

I come now to prove this by another mode .Plato, in his . .Cratylus, represents Hermogenes as

proposing several terms to Socrates for solution, whenthe following acknowledgment transpires.-

-" I think," says the philosopher, that the Greeks,especially such of them as lived subject to the domi-nion of foreigners, adopted many foreign words ; sothat, if an y one should endeavour to . resolve thosewords by reference to the Greek language, or to anyother than that from which the word was- received, hemust needs be involved in error!"The foreign extraction then, of many of the Greek

words being admitted, it devolves upon me to esta-blish this extraction to be purely Irish .To begin with Dodona-" In Eustathius and

Steph . Byzantius," says Vallancey, " we meet withthree different conjectures in regard to the derivationof the name Dodona, which, they say, owes its origineither to a daughter of Jupiter and Europa, or one ofthe nymphs, the daughter of Oceanus ; or, lastly, toa river in Epirus, called Dodon . But, as Mr. Potterobserves, we find the Greek authors all differ, bothas to the etymology of the name and the site of thisoracle . In my humble opinion, Homer and Hesiod

* See Oriental Collections.

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have not only agreed that it was not in Greece, butin Ireland, or some island, at least, as far westward ."

The passages to which the General refers in thoseancient poets, are-

&V ava aroamvalpl IIEAaoyixE Toad, Yam,Y

. W YI % j4JS-'V iuD ~EIf4Ee0U * .that is,-

Pelasgian Jove, whofar from Greece resid'stIn cold Dodona .

~arawv~Y $,rya' Tt IItxavyaY £l Yt,)r ,rxEY t.that is,-.

To Dodona he came, and the hallowed oak, the seat of the Pelasgi . -

Valuable as are those authorities, the General needednot to have had recourse to them at all, had he butbeen apprised of the origin of the word Dodona.

One of the religious names of Ireland, which Ihave purposely.- left unexplained till "now, was - Tot-dana $ . This it derived immediately from the Tuath-de-danaan#, as indeed it did all its ancient names, withthe exception of Scotia . Tuath-de-danaans I haveshown to mean the Magic-god-almoners § and Tot-

dana, by consequence, must denote the Magic-almonry I[ .

Now, the Greeks, having been initiated in all theirreligious mysteries by -the,Iris_h, did not only enrichtheir language with . the . vocabulary of . our ceremo-nial, but- adopted the several epithets of our island,

* Homer's Iliad, ax - v. 233 .

•h Hesiod, apud Strabo, 1 . 7 .See Miege's "Present State of Ireland ."

§ Seepage 257.~~ On the pillar at Buddall, before alluded to, are these words, viz .,

" He had a womb, but it obstinately bore him no fruit. One like himcan have no relish for the. enjoyments of life . He never was blessedwith that giver of delight, by obtaining which a man goes to anotherAlmoner." Upon which the learned translator (Sir Charles Wiggins)very correctly comments, that " he had no issue to perform Sradh forthe release of his soul from the bonds of sin . (See page 113 of thiswork.) By another Almoner is meant the Deity.

4 54

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as the distinctive names for their various localities,so. that our Muc-inis * became their Myc-ene, our Tot-dana their Do-dona, &c . &c. 'And even the names ofour lakes, with all their legends of . • hydras andenchantments, found their way to them also, so thatfrom our Lough-Erne was 'formed, by a crasis, theirL-Erna.

The change from Tot-dana to Do-dona is muchmore obvious than may seem at first sight . Tand D being commutable, Tot-dana was at oncemade Dot-dana ; the intermediate t was then left outfor sound sake, making it' Do-dana ; and, lastly, thepenultimate a was transformed into o for the " orerotundo t," completing the Grecism of Do-dona .

You see, therefore, from this ; that the origin ofDodona-was exclusively - Irish ! that Dodona and Ire=land were, in fact, one and the same!-- a circum-stance of which Homer was perfectly well assured,when he styled it Aw mi 8uoxe1pegos, or the Hyper-borean Tot-dana $ .

Neither was it in name only, but in sanctity also,that the Greek Myc-ene strove to imitate our Muc-inis . To this hour is to be found one of the ancientPelasgian temples, vulgarly termed the Treasury ofAtreus, from the -mere circumstance, as Dr. Clarkewell remarks, of there being found a few brass nailswithin it, and evidently for the purpose of fasteningon , something wherewith the interior surface wasformerly lined, and that many a long year before

* See page 327 .f Graiis, ingenium Graiis : dedit ore rotundo.-HORACE .* This is still more evident by his making use of the word rn ; od,, that

is, far off, meaning from Greece ! And Hesiod applies this identicaltopography to the British Islands, which he styles sacred, describingthem as wax 477X8, an immeasurable distance off, towards the northernpoint of the ancient continent !

{

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Atreus or Agamemnon!" The Doctor, however, wasperfectly astray in supposing it a sepulchre ! In formit is a hollow cone, fifty feet in diameter, and as manyin height, composed of. enormous masses of a veryhard breccia, a sort of pudding-stone, the very mate-rial whereof most of our Round Towers are con-structed, and the property of which is to indurate bytime . The Dune of Dornadella in Scotland is identi-cally the same, kind of structure, built by our Tuath-de-danaans, and for the solemn purpose `of v elil;ionalone . This is so accurately described in an article

in the Edinburgh Magazine, copied into "Pennant'sTour," that I too will make free to transcribe it .

It is," says the Reviewer, " of a circular form,and now nearly . resembling the frustum of a conewhether, when perfect, it terminated in a .ppint, Icannot pretend to guess : but it seems to have beenhigher, by the rubbish which lies round it . It isbuilt of stone, without cement, and I take it to bebetween twenty and thirty feet still . The entranceis by a low and narrow door, to pass through which,one is obliged, -to stoop much ; but, perhaps the groundmay have been raised since the first erection . , Whenone is got in, and placed in the centre, it is openoverhead . All round the sides of the walls are rangedstone shelves, one above another, like a circular beau-fait, reaching from near the bottom to the top . Thestones which compose these shelves are supportedchiefly by the stones which form the walls, and whichproject all round, just in that place where the shelvesare, and in no others ; each of the shelves is sepa-rated into several divisions, as in a bookcase . _ Thereare some remains of an awkward staircase . Whatuse the shelves could be applied to I cannot conceive .It could not be of any military use, from its situation

456 THE ROUND TOWERS .

at the bottom of a sloping hill, which wholly com-mands it . The most learned amongst the inhabitants,such as the gentry and clergy, who all speak the Irishlanguage, could give no information or tradition con-cerning its use, or the origin of its name ."

Now, our Round Towers have similar shelves, orrecesses in the wall, and " reaching, like a circularbeaufait, from near the bottom to the top !" Where-ever these do not appear, their place is suppliedby projecting stones, for the evident purpose of act-ing as supporters* . And as the Mycenian, the Cale-donian, and the Hibernian edifices thus far correspond,the only thing that remains is to explain to what pur-pose could those recesses serve .

I thus solve the question-They were as so manycupboards for containing the idols of Budha, as thestructures themselves for temples of his worship, &c .Nor is this, their use, yet forgotten, in the buildingsof the like description in Upper India, as appearsfrom the following statement by Archer . 11 In theafternoon," says he, " I went' to look at a Jaintemple . It was a neat building, with an upper story .The idol is Boadh . There is a lattice verandah of brickand mortar round the shrine, and there are smallcupboards, in which numerous figures of the idol areranged on shelves ."

Arguments crowd upon me to establish these par-ticulars ; the only difficulty is in the compression . Ishall, however, continue to prove this from anothersource, even by showing that when Ezekiel declared,in allusion to Tyre, that 11 the men of Dedan werethy merchants t," he meant the men of Ireland.

First, let me refer you to page 4, by which you

* See page 71 .

i Chapter xvii . 15 .

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467

will be reminded of our ancient possession of a navalequipment. Secondly, ' let me quote to you an extractfrom Vallancey, when directing the result to a differentapplication . His words are-" Another proof of theancient Irish being skilled in the art of navigation, Idraw from a fragment of the Brehon laws in my pos-session, where the payment, or the reward, for theeducation of children, whilst under the care of fos-terers, is thus stipulated to be paid to the ollamhs,or professors, distinguishing private tuition .from, thatof public schools . The law says, ` If youth beinstructed in the knowledge of cattle, the paymentshall be three eneaclann and a seventh ; if in hus-bandry and farming, three eneaclann and three-sevenths ; if in milrach, i . e . glais-argneadh as tear,that is, eupe for navigation,- : ` or the best kind ofknowledge, the payment shall be five eneaclann andthe fifth of an eanmaide ; if in glais-argneadhisteiin,that is, second, or inferior (branch of) navigation, twoeneaclann and a seventh .' And this law is ordained,because the pupils must have been previously in-structed_ in letters, which is the lowest -educationof all."

Thus you see, at all events, that we were qualifiedfor the duties required . Now, I will demonstrate, andthat too by the aid, or rather at the expense, of Mons .Heeren, that we were the actual persons pointed toby the prophet .

Deden," says the professor, . "-is one of theBahrein, or rather more northerly one of Cathema .The proofs, which to detail here would be out ofplace, may be found in Assemani, Bib . Orient., tom. ii .,par. ii ., p . 160, 564, 604, and 744 . Difficulties arisehere, not merely from want of maps, but also from thevariation and confusion of names . Daden, or Deden,

458

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is also frequently called Dirin ; and it may be con-jectured, that from hence arose the name of Dehroon,which is given to one of the Bahrein islands in themap' of Delisle . If that were the case, then Dedanwould not be Cathema, as Assemani asserts, but theisland mentioned above ; and this is rendered pro-bable by the resemblance of names, which is a certainguide."

If the " resemblance of names" be " a certainguide, identity of names must be still more certain_ ;and then must my proofs already prevail, and theProfessor's cocjectures fall to the ground ! Surely, hecannot say that there is any even resemblance betweenD-Irin and Dehroon ! But he admits, that the placealluded to is called indifferently Dedan * and D-Irin ;and have I . not shownn that each of those names, iden-tical and unadulterated, belonged properly to Ire-land ? Ireland, therefore, alone can be the countryalluded to by the inspired penman .

In denying, however, a Dodona to the Greeks, andan oracle also, General Vallancey was quite incor-rect . What he should have, maintained was, thatboth name and oracle had their prototypes in Irelandbut that, so remote was the date at which the transferoccurred, all insight into the mysteries had long sinceperished .

Indeed, their priests very frankly acknowledgedthe fact to Herodotus, when, in his thirst for informa-tion, he -waited- : upon ,. them at Dodoes.-`° We donot," said they, " know even the names of the deitiesto whom we make our offerings-we distinguishthem, it is true, by titles and designations ; but these

* For Dedan see last two pages ; and for D-Irin, see page 128 .The prefixing of D to the last word arose from confounding it with theformer name ; and thus it was embodied with it, as seen before in L-Erne .

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459

are all adventitious and modern in comparison-of theworship, which is of great antiquity ." Upon whichthe historian very truly concludes, " that their natureand origin had been always a secret ; and that even thePelasgi, who first introduced, them and their rites,had been equally unacquainted with their history ."

Like a true Greek, however, he must set aboutcoining an origin for them ; and so he tells-us a cock-and-a-bull story of two pigeons (Peleiai), having takenflight from Thebes in Upper Egypt, and never stoppeduntil they perched, one upon the top of Dodona,and the other God knows where ; and then he flattershimself he has the allegory solved, by imagining thatthose pigeons were priestesses, or old women, carriedoff by Phoenician pirates, and sold into the land ofGreece!

In this he has been followed by thousands ofimitators, and quoted miraculously at all the publicschools . Nay, his disciples would fain even improveupon the thing ; and Servius has gone so far as to saythat the old woman's name was Pelias !

Now, here is the whole mystery unravelled foryou.

When the Greeks established an oracle of theirDodona, subordinate to our master one, they adopted,at the same time, one of the orders of our priesthood .This was that of the Pheeleas, the meaning of whichbeing to them an enigma, they bent it, as usual, tosome similar sound in their own language *F . Thiswas that of Peleiai, in the accusative Peleias, which,in the dialect of Attica, signifies pigeons, and in that

* Or as the Rev . Caesar Otway would say, in a similar embarrass-ment," I will give (i. e . invent) you a motto and a motive for it,"-Ha, ha, ha!-See Dublin Penny Journal, July 8, 1832 .

460 THE ROUND TOWERS .

of Epirus, old women ; and so the whole metamor-phosis was forthwith adjusted !

THE ROUND TOWERS .

46 1

The very extraordinary piece of antiquity, repre-sented in the annexed wood-cut, was found," saysMr. Petrie, " in a bog at Ballymoney, county . ofAntrim, and exhibited to the Royal Irish Academy,by the Lord Bishop of Down, in March, 1829 . Itsmaterial is that description of bronze of which allthe ancient Irish weapons, &c ., are composed, and itsactual size is four times that of the representation .It is a tube, divided by joints at A and B into threeparts, which, on separating, were found to containbrass wire, in a zigzag form, a piece of which isrepresented in fig. G. This wire appears to havebeen originally elastic, but when found was-in a stateof considerable decomposition . At E and F are twoholes, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, andseem intended for rivets or' pins to hold the instru-ment together . The birds, move on loose 'pins, whichpass through the tube, and on the other end arerings . The material and style of workmanship ofthis singular instrument leave no doubt of its highantiquity . But we confess ourselves totally unable toform even a rational conjecture as to its probable use,and should feel obliged to any antiquary who wouldthrow light upon it* ."

Had the antiquarian highpriest to this magnani-mous assemblage been equally modest in former cases,and - courted instruction, instead of erecting himselfinto a Pheelea, he would not cut the figure whichhe now does . Ignorance is no fault :: it is only itsvagaries that are so ridiculous !

However, he has said-I beg pardon, he is in theplural number-well then they have said, that they

* Dublin Penny Journal, April 6, 1833 .

462 .

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would feel obliged to any antiquary who would throwlight upon the subject ."

.To be sure, I am , no antiquary . The Royal Irish

Academy have made that as- clear as . the sun at noon-day. _ Nay, they have even strove to make theirbrethren at this side of the water to think so also !-But their brethren at this side of the water are toohonest a people, and too noble in their purpose, to makehistory a trade, and to stifle truth at the unhalloweddictates of interest or partiality .No matter ; I will tell all what this piece bf anti-

quity was . It was the actual instrument throughwhich the oracle of Dodona was announced ! You seeupon it the swans by which Apollo was brought tothe Hyperboreans ! The bulbul of Iran also attendsin the train ; and the affinity of this latter bird to thespecies . of pigeons, convinced -the Greeks that they hadreally hit off the interpretation of the word Pheelea!and that pigeons were, in truth, the deliverers of theoracle .

This was the block upon which Abbe Bannier wasstumbling . Having learned from some quarter, I be-lieve from Aristotle, that there were some brass ap-pendages contiguous to Dodona, he converts thoseappendages into kettles-a worthy friend of minewould add, offish-" which," says he, being lashedwith a whip, clattered against one another until theoracle fulminated ! ! !"

As to those oracles themselves, with the registriesof which antiquity is so replete, I will here articulatemy individual belief. No one who knows me can sup-pose that I am superstitious ; and, for those who knowme not, the sentiments herein delivered will scarcelyfoster the imputation . Yet am I as thoroughly per-

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suaded as I am of my personal consciousness, thatsome prescience they did possess, conducted partlyby human fraud, and partly by spiritual co-opera-tion * .

There'is no question but that there must have beensome supernatural agency in the business ; for humanskill and human sagacity could never penetrate thedeep intricacies of doubt, and the important preg-nancies of time which they have foreshown t .

Porphyry, in his book " De Doemonibus" andIamblichus in his, K De Mysteriis," expressly men-tion that demons were in every case the authors oforacles . Without going all this length we mayreadily allow that they had perhaps a great share inthem ; neither will the ambiguity, in which theiranswers were sometimes couched, detract anythingfrom this' admission, because the spirits themselves,when ignorant of 'any contingency, would, of course ;try to skreen their defect by the vagueness of con-jectures, in order that if the issue did not correspondwith their advice, it may be supposed owing to mis-interpretation . The instance of Creesus and the Del-phian oracle was an interesting event . He sent to allthe oracles on the same day this question for solution,

* Elementorum omnium spiritus, utpote perennium corporum motusemper, et ubique vigens, ex his quee per disciplinas varias affectamus,participat nobiscum munera divinandi, et substantiales potestates ritediversa placates, velut ex perpetuis fontium venis vaticina mortalitatisuppeditant verba .-Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 21 .

1 1 They then took wives, each choosing for himself ; whom they beganto approach, and with whom they cohabited ; teaching them sorcery, in-cantations, and the dividing of roots and trees ."-Book of Enoch .

I have collected fifty words in the Irish language relating to auguryand divination : every one of them are oriental, expressing the mode ofproducing these abominable arts ; they are, in fact, the very identicaloriental words written in Irish characters .-VAL LANCEY .

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viz ., " What is Crcesus, the son of Alyattes, king ofLydia, now doing?" That of Delphi answered thus" I know the number of the sand of Libya, the measureof the ocean-the secrets of the silent and dumb lieopen to me-I smell the odor of a lamb and tortoiseboiling together in a brazen cauldron ; brass is underand brass above the flesh ."

Having heard this reply, Croesus adored the god ofDelphi, and owned the oracle had spoken truth ; forhe was on that day employed in boiling together a lamband a tortoise, in a cauldron of brass, which had acover of the same metal . He next sent, enjoining hisambassadors to inquire whether he should undertakea war against the Persians? The oracle returnedanswer, " If Croesus passes the Halys, he will put anend, to a . vast empire ."

Not failing to interpret this as favourable to hisproject, he again sent to inquire, " If he should longenjoy the kingdom ?" The answer was, "That heshould till a mule reigned over the Merles ." Deemingthis impossible, he concluded that he and his posterityshould hold the kingdom for ever . But the oracleafterwards declared that by " a mule" was meantCyrus, whose parents were of different nations-hisfather a Persian, and mother a Mede . By whichmule, says a facetious writer, the good man Croesuswas thus made an ass !

That the priests, however, used much deception inthe business, and that this deception did not escapethe notice of the learned men of the time, is evidentfrom the charge which Demosthenes had broughtagainst the Pythia, of her being accustomed to Philip-pise, or conform her notes to the tune of the Mace-donian emperor . The knowledge of this circumstance

THE ROUND TOWERS . 465

made the prudent at all times distrust their sugges-tions, whilst the rabble, without gainsay, acquiescedas blindly in the belief of their infallibility .

But it was not only as to the meaning of the wordPheelea that the Greeks were unapprized, they knewnot the import of their own name Pelargi * I It iscompounded of this same term pheelea, an augur or adiviner ; and argh, the symbolical boat, or yoni ! And,mind you, that this was the great difference betweenthe Pelargi-which is but another name for Pish-de-danaans-and the Tuath-de-danaans, that the lattervenerated the male organ of energy, and the formerthe female ; therefore in no country occupied by theformer do you meet with Round Towers, though

you invariably encounter these traces of art, whichprove their descent from one coomw origin.

As presiding over the diviners of the symbolicalboat, Jupiter was called Pelargicus fi .

Agyeus was another term in their religious vocabu-lary, as applied to Apollo, of which the Greeks knewnot the source. They could not, indeed, well mis-take, that it was derived immediately from aria, via ;but that did not expound the fact, and they were stillin ignorance of its proper import . It is merely atranslation of our Budh-a-vohir, that is, Apollo-of-thehigh-roads, not, what the Greeks understood it, asstationary thereon, but, on the contrary, as itinerant ;

* Danaus, the sire of fifty daughters, leaving those fruitful regionswatered by the Nile, came to Argos, and through Greece, ordained thatthose who erst were called Pelasgi, should by the name of Danai bedistinguished.- E URIPIDES .

f You will find in Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller's writings, thatthose boats are still called, in that country, arghs, as they were in ours,and the people who man them are styled Phut, corresponding to ourFo-morians.

2 11

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and to whom Venus the stranger corresponded on theother side ; the especial province of both being toensure the comforts of hospitality, of protection, and oflove, to all emigrants and all travellers .

Grunie was another epithet applied to Apollo, aswe may read in a hymn composed by Orpheus, whichthey could not comprehend . It is derived from Grian,one of our names for the Sun .

But, beyond comparison, the most' inexplicable ofall the epithets applied to this divinity is Lyc vus ;which, though-as has been the case, you perceive, inevery subject yet discussed-it can be explained only inthe Irish !-yet, even there, it opposes some difficul-ties to discourage, but not more than what give wayto sagacity and to perseverance.

At Glendalough, in the county Wicklow, one ofthe proudest abodes of Budhism, are found, amongstother sculptures, upon the dilapidated ruins, thosewhich you see opposite .The wolf is the most frequent in the multitude of

those hieroglyphics. His character is exhibited inmore attitudes than one-and all mysteriously signi-ficant of natural designs .

In one place you observe his tail gracefully inter-woven with the long hair of a young man's head .That represents the youth Apollo, controlling by hisefficacy,-alias, the sun's genial rays-the mosthardened hearts, and so revolutionising the tendencyof the inborn system, as from antipathy often toproduce affection and love !

Of this illustration, the practical proof is affordedin " Bakewell's Travels in the Tarentaise," to thefollowing purpose, viz.-

" By way of enlivening the description of the

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THE ROUND TOWERS .

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THE ROUND TOWERS.

structure of animals, he (M . de Candolle, Lectureron Natural History at Geneva) introduced many inte-resting particulars respecting what he called leurmorale, or their natural dispositions, and the changesthey underwent when under the dominion of man .Among other instances of the affection which wolveshad sometimes shown to their masters, he mentionedone which took place in the vicinity of Geneva . Alady, Madame M, had a tame wolf, whichseemed to have as much attachment to its mistress asa spaniel . She had occasion to leave home for someweeks ; the wolf evinced the greatest distress afterher departure, and at first refused to take food . Dur-ing the whole time she was absent, he remained muchdejected : on her return, as soon as the animal heardher footsteps, he bounded into the room in an ecstacyof delight ; springing up, he placed one paw on eachof her shoulders, but the next moment he fell back-wards, and instantly expired ."

Elsewhere you discern two wolves unmercifullytearing at a human head ! And this is symbolical ofa species of disease, of which there is published anaccount, in a work, called « The Hospitall of In-curable Fooles," translated from the Italian by Todd,to the following effect, viz . :-

" Amongst these humours of Melancholy, the phi-sitions place a kinde of madnes, by the Greeks calledLycanthropia,, termed by the Lajines Insania Lupina,or Wolves furie : which bringeth a man to this point,(as Attomare affirmeth) that in Februarie he will goeout of the house in the night like a wolfe, huntingabout the graves of the dead with great howlingand plucke the dead mens bones out of the sepulchres,carrying them about the streets, to the great feare and

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astonishment of all them that meete him : And theforesaide author affirmeth, that melancholike personsof this kinde have pale faces, soaked and hollow eies,with a weak sight, never shedding one tear to theview of the world, &c ."

And that this was epidemic amongst the Irish isproved by Spencer's testimony, when, drawing aparallel between the Scythians and the Irish of hisday, he says-" Also, the Scythians said, that theywere once a year turned into wolves ; and so it iswritten of the Irish : though Martin Camden, in abetter sense, loth suppose it was a disease, calledlycanthropia, so named of the wolf : and yet some ofthe Irish doe use to make the wolf their gossip ."

Thus it appears, that th,6 Irish were not onlyacquainted with the nature of this sickness, but alsowith the knack of taming that animal of which it borethe name . All this was connected with the worshipof Apollo, and with eastern mythology. Nay, thevery dogs, for which our country was once famous*,and which were destined as protectors against theravages of the wolf, are clear, from Ctesias, to havehad their correspondents in India .

The epithet Lyceus, I conceive, now elucidated ;

and so leave to yourself to penetrate the rest of thosedevices. But I shall not, at the same time, take leaveof the " Valley of the Two Lakes j ."

On one of the loose stones, which remain after

* "I thank you," says Symmachus to his brother Flavianus, ",for thepresent you made me of some Irish dogs (canes Scotici), which were thereexhibited at the Circensian Games, to the great astonishment of thepeople, who could not judge it possible to bring them to Rome otherwisethan in iron cages ."

t This is the meaning of the -name Glen-da-lough, and a faithful por-raiture itis of the situation .

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this wreck of magnificence, you will see a full deli-neation of The history of Dahamsonda, King ofBaranes (modern Benares), who, as his name implies,was a zealous lover of religious knowledge : and wasincarnated, in order to be tried between his attachmentto religion and his zeal for the salvation of the worldon the one side, and his love to his own life, and hisattachment to his kingdom and wealth, as well as hiskindred and friends, on the other ; for which purposethe gods had gradually and completely withdrawn thelight of religious knowledge from the world by thetime of his accession to the throne * ."

This king, in his anxiety to regain the lost condi-tion of mankind-to recover their literature and theirancient knowledge of religion, instructs his courtiersto proclaimm the offer of a casket of gold, GQ as areward to any person" who would instruct his majestyin the mysteries of the Bana t, that is, the BudhistGospel, with a view to its salutary re-propagation .

The officers proceeded in quest of such a pheno-menon ; but, in the extent of their own realms he wasnot to be found !

This excites the uneasiness of the king, who " hav-ing by degrees increased his offers to thousands andmillions of money, high titles, possessions of landand great privileges ; and, at last, offering his ownthrone and kingdom, but still finding no instructor,leaves his court, resolved to become a private traveller,and not to rest till he has found one who could commu-nicate to him the desired knowledge . Havingfor a lengthof time travelled through many kingdoms, towns, and vil-

Miniature of Budhism .h " The secret, it ivas lost, but surely it was found."--Freemason

song .

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47 1

lages, enduring hardships, he is, at last, by providen-tial interference, led through a delightful valley (whichaffords him subjects for consideration and recreationof mind) into a dismal forest, the habitation of fright-ful demons, venomous reptiles, and beasts of prey .

" Sekkraia having on the occasion come downfrom heaven, in the disguise of a Raksha, meets Bod-hesat (the king) in the wilderness, who fearlesslyenters into conversation with him, and informs him ofthe object ofhis wanderings . The disguised deityundertaking to satisfy the king, if he will sacrifice tohim his flesh and blood in exchange for the sacredknowledge, Bodhesat cheerfully ascends a steep rock,shown him by the apparition, and throws himselfheadlong to the mouth of the -Raksha . 'The king'szeal being thus proved, . Sekkraia, in his own hea-venly form, receives him in his arms, as he is preci-pitating himself from the rock," and has him initiatedin the desired information* .

Now, waiving for a moment the latter part of thislegend,-every word of which, however, is still chro-nicled in our country, though transferred by themoderns to St. Kevin and the monks,-I return to add,that, on the, above-mentioned stone, you will see arepresentation of the ambassadors offering this caskeof riches to a professor of letters seated in his " doctor'schair !!!"

This stone itself is engraved in " Ledwich's An-tiquities," where in his ignorance of its meaning, aswell as of everything else which formed the subject

* This account is found in Satdharmalankare, a very popular Bhud-dist book, being a collection of histories, &c ., from the writings of theRahats, in which the original Paly (Pahlavi) texts are ,preserved withthe Singhalese.-Miniature of Budhism.

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of his libellous farrago, he perverts it into the bribingof a Roman Catholic priest !-as if the priests wouldso emblazon themselves!-and quotes Chaucer to

prove the fact, when he says of one of them, that-He He would suffer, for a quart of wine,A good fellow to have his concubine l"

How inconsistent is error ! Elsewhere this Re-verend Doctor has asserted, and, accidentally, withtruth, that there was no such thing at all to be metwith at this place, as 11 Christian symbols ." I wonderwas he one of those who consider Roman Catholics notto be Christians?

However, again from this he diverges ! And, whencalled upon to decipher the hieroglyphics upon a stone-roofed Tuath-de-danaan chapel, of the same characteras that at Knockntoy, and discovered here a few yearsago, beneath the Christian piles which the early mis-sionaries had built over it, by way of supersedence, hethrows himself, in his embarrassment, into the arms ofSt. Kevin ! associates him with the whole ! and that,too, after he had fatigued himself, until half chokedwith spleen, in bellowing out the ideality and utter non-existence of such a personage

On the front of the cathedral erected out of thefragments of the Tuath-de-danaan dilapidations, youwill find Budha embracing the sacred tree, known inour registries, by the name of Aithair Faodha, whichsignifies literally the tree of Budha ' .

* Buddu, the god of souls, is represented by several little images madeof silver, brass, stone, or white clay, and these are set up in almost everycorner, even in caverns and on rocks, to all which piles, the devoteescarry a variety of provisions, every new and full moon throughout theyear ; but it is in March they celebrate the grand festival of Buddu, atwhich time they imagine the new year begins . At this festival they goto worship in two different places, which have been made famous by

THE ROUND TOWERS. 473

The pomegranate of Astarte-the medicinal appleof affection *-presents itself, also, in the foliage !The mouldings upon the arch of the western windowrefer likewise to her . And, to complete the union ofSabian symbolization, the serpent mingles in thegeneral tale ! while the traditional story of the adjoin-ing lake having been infested by the presence of thatreptile, has a faithful parallel in one of the lakes ofSyria !

Will it not be believed, therefore, that the valleyat which Dohamsonda had alighted, after he had tra-versed many realms far away from his own, was thatof Glendalough ? And where, I ask, would he bemore likely to obtain the object of his peregri-nation, viz ., initiation into gospel truth, than in thatcountry which, from -its . pre-eminent effulgence in its

their legendary stories concerning them . One of them is the highestmountain in the island, and called by the Christians Adam's Peak ; theother is in a place where Buddu reposed himself under a tree, whichplanted itself there for the more commodious reception of the deity, who,when he was on earth, frequently amused himself under its agreeableshade, and under that tree the pagans in Ceylon adore their Buddu,whom they really believe to be a god .-Dr. HURD .

Bodhesat,receives a few handfuls of grass presented to him by Soithia,(a Brahmin,) which grass, when strewed on the ground under the Botree, there arise from the earth miraculously a throne of diamond, four-teen cubits high, covered externally with grass ; on which Bodhesattakes his seat, reclining his back against the tree, in order to accomplishhis last act of meditations . Buddha having ascended into the air, anddisplayed his glory to all the worlds in rays of six different colours, inorder to afford the gods a proof of his perfection, stands seven days withhis eyes fixed on the Bo tree, enjoying the Dhyanes . Miniature, &c.

* " Yes, love indeed is light from heaven,A spark of that immortal fire,

With angels shared, by Alla given,To lift from earth our low desire .

Devotion wafts the mind above,But heaven itself descends in love,A feeling from the godhead caught,To wean from self each sordid thought ."-BYRON..

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beatitudes, was exclusively denominated the Gospel-land ?

This, Sir, is no rhetoric-no declamatory exaggera-tion . I will reduce it for you, in its simple elements,to the perspicuity of vision .

Bana-ba is one of the names of our sacred island,which, like all the rest of our history, has been here-tofore a mystery to literary inquirers !

The light bursts upon you!-does it not already?Need I proceed to separate for you the constituentparts of this word?

It is compounded then, be it known, of Bana, whichindicates good tidings, or gospel, and aba, land-meaning, in the aggregate, the Gospel-land ! Andaccordingly the pilgrim, when he set out upon hisjourney in quest of the Bana, very naturally, betookhimself to Bana-ba, or the land of the Bana, wherealone it was to be found !

And you presume to say that Christianity is a thingwhich only commenced last week ?

" Great God I I'd rather beA Pagan suckled in a creed outworn ;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ;Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea ;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."-WORDswoRTH .

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CHAPTER XXXI .

1° THEY shall be astonished, and shall humble theircountenances : and trouble shall seize them, whenthey shall behold the Son of Woman sitting upon thethrone of his glory . Then shall the kings, theprinces, and all who possess the earth glorify himwho has dominion over all things-him who was con-cealed : for, from the beginning, the Son of Manexisted in secret, whom the Most High preserved inthe presence of his power, and revealed to theelect *."

So speaks one of the most extraordinary produc-tions that has ever appeared in England, in the shapeof literature ! And the commentary of its translator fi'is as follows :--

`° In both these passages," says he, 11 the pre-exist-ence of the Messiah is asserted in language whichadmits not the slightest shade of ambiguity-nor isit such a pre-existence as the philosophical cabalistsattributed to him, who believed the souls of all men,and, consequently, that of the Messiah, to have beenoriginally created together, when the world itself wasformed ; but an existence antecedent to all creation, anexistence previous to the formation of the luminariesof heaven ; an existence prior to all things visible

* Book of Enoch, 1xi . 8-10 .+ Dr. Lawrence, present Archbishop of Cashel .

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and invisible, before everything concealed .-It shouldlikewise be remarked, that the pre-existence ascribedto -him is a divine pre-existence * ."

As to the pre-existence of the Messiah, in the onlyway in which the Archbishop affirms, I did not thinkthat the doctrine was so obscure as to require somuch stress ! Every body acquiesces, who acquies-ces iri Christianity-that its Founder had existenceand dominion with his Father before all worlds .And, therefore, when his Grace offers this as anillustration of our opening extract, he either uncon-sciously contradicts himself, or, else, by dealing ingeneralities, evades an exposition, which he was not atliberty to communicate !

I am quite ignorant as to whether or not Dr.Lawrence belongs to the order of Free-masons, butI confess, that when first I glanced at the above re-marks, I fancied he did . The care with which thetwo words " secret" and " concealed" were distin-guished by him in italics, led me to this conjecture .But the indefinite unsubstantiality into which he after-ward wandered, made the fact of his initiation, become,itself, a secret.

Let me, however, prove the above dilemma .His Lordship has asserted, that the uninspiration

of " the author" will admit of no dispute t : and yet

* Preface to Translation of the Book of Enoch .p " If this singular book be censured as abounding in some parts

with fable and fiction, still should we recollect that fable and fiction may,occasionally, prove both amusing and instructive ; and can then only bedeemed injurious when pressed into the service of vice and infidelity .Nor should we forget that much, perhaps most, of what we censure, wasgrounded upon a rational tradition, the antiquity of which alone, inde-pendent of other considerations, had rendered it respectable . That theauthor was uninspired will be scarcely now questioned. But, althoughhis production was apocryphal, it ought not therefore to be necessarily

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that "author," whom the Archbishop himself acknow-ledges to have written, at the very lowest, antecedentlyto the Advent, speaks of the Messiah as the G° Son ofMan," and the "Son of Woman * ."

Either, therefore, the author was inspired, speakingprospectively of an occurrence not then consummatedor else, uninspired, he historically transmits the recordof an incarnation vouchsafed before his time .

I feel perfectly indifferent as to which horn of thisalternative you may patronise . They both equallymake for me. Nor do I want either, otherwise thanto show, that else the Archbishop is already of myway of thinking, and restrained from avowing it ; orunwillingly involved in a contradictory nodus, from apartial succumbing-to education !

With this I leave Enoch ! I have hitherto donewithout him ! I shall continue still to do so ! Butwhile bidding adieu, I must disburthen myself of the

stigmatized as necessarily replete with error ; although it be on thataccount incapable of becoming a rule of faith, it may nevertheless con-tain much moral as well as religious truth, and may be justly regardedas a correct standard of the doctrine of the times in which it was com-posed. Non omnia else concedenda antiquitati, is, it is true, a maximfounded upon reason and experience ; but, in perusing the present relicof a remote age and country, should the reader discover much to eon-demn, still, unless he be too fastidious, he will find more to approve ; ifhe sometimes frown, he may oftener smile ; nor seldom will he be dis-posed to admire the vivid imagination of a writer, who transports him farbeyond the flaming boundaries of the world-

' ExtraProcessit longe ftammantia meenia mundi ;'

displaying to him every secret of creation ; the splendours of heaven,and the terrors of hell ; the mansions of departed souls, and themyriads of the celestial hosts, the seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim,which surround the blazing throne, and magnify the holy name of thegreat Lord of Spirits, the Almighty Father of men and of angels ."-ArchbishopArchbishop of Cashel .

r See page 475 .

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sentiments which his merits have inspired, and thatafter a very short personal familiarity .

Thou art then, a GOODLY and a WISE book, Enoch,stored with many and recondite truths, but " fewthey be who find" them . Better for . thee it were,however, that thou hadst slept a little longer in thytranquil retirement, than obtrude thyself, unappre-ciated, upon an ungenial world,-a cold, a calculating,an adamantine world-who fancy they know every-thing, but who, in truth, know nothing-to meet withnothing but their scorn ! It is true, Enoch, that thyface bath been tarnished by many a blemish ! Andthat the hand of time bath dealt with thee, as it dothwith the other works of man! Yet, despite of the cur-tailments thus sustained, and the exotics incorporated,thy magnificent ruin still holds within it some gleams,which to the initiated and the sympathetic afford delightand gratification .11 Sweet as the ecstatic blissOf souls that by intelligence converse !"

Doubtless, reader, you are acquainted with theGospel of St . John?-and you have a heart?-andyou have emotions?-and you have sensibilities?-and you have intellect? Well, then, tell me frankly,have not these all been brought into requisition, atthe metaphysical sublimity and the oriental pathos ofthe opening part of that production?

" He was in the world, and the world was madeby him ; and the world knew him not.-He came untohis own, and his own received him not *."

You surely cannot suppose this said in reference tothe late incarnation ! Were it so, why should the

* John i, 10-11 .

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Evangelist deliver himself in terms so pointedly allu-sive to distant times ? The interval between Christ'sdisappearance and St . John's registration was but asyesterday, and, therefore, the latter, when inculcatingthe divinity of the former, upon the belief of hiscountrymen, who were all cotemporaries, as well ofone as of the other, need not advertise them of anaddition, of which they were themselves cognisant .

But to illustrate to you as light, that it was not therecent manifestation that was meant by the abovetexts, he tells us in the sequel, when expressly nar-rating this latter fact, that " the logos was made fleshand dwelt among us*." Where you perceive that" dwelling among us" is made a distinct thing from, andposterior in eventuation to " coming unto his own," asbefore recorded $ ! -

Indeed, in the delineation, it is not only the orderof time, but the precision of words, that we see mostrigidly characteristic . The Jews, it is certain, couldnot be called his own," except by adoption ; and, Iam free to allow, that from them, as concerning theflesh, Christ came ;" but by " his own," are meant hisreal relations !-emanations from the Godhead, such ashe was himself ! beings altogether separate from fleshand blood ! and whose mysteriousness was perceptiblemost clearly to St. John, as you will perceive by theGreek words from which this is rendered, viz ., Tai8ta, having been put in the neuter gender !

But suppose them, for an instant, to have been theJews!-Then we are told that, "to as many asreceived him, gave he power to become sons ofGod I." Now, the apostles were they who did impli-

John i. 14 .

t Page 478 .$ John i. 12 .

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citly receive him : and why does not St. John refer tothose, whether living or dead, as admitted to theprivilege of becoming "sons of God?" I will tellyou :-it was because that they did not answer tothat order of beings " which were born not of blood,nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, butof God *."

These were the persons to whom Christ came before-these were " his own," because that, like him, theyalso were of God fi . These were they, who havinglapsed into sin t, and vitiated their nature, drew downthe vengeance of heaven upon them-and to thedescendants of these it was that " the elect" and " theconcealed one," in mercy was made manifest, withproposals of redemption to regain their lost state ! ! !

Oh ! the depth of the riches both of the wisdomand knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are hisjudgments, and how inscrutable his ways § !

Seest thou not now, therefore, the propriety ofSt. John's expression, when he says, " and I knewhim not, but that he should be made manifest toIsrael I1 ;" for when before " he was in the world," itwas in secret and concealed,-as still and always repre-

sented in the mysteries ! The latter, he asserts, as amatter of revelation-for the former he appeals to theexperience of his auditors, as a subject of history : andboth epochs are confirmed by the voice from 'heaven,'which replied to Christ's own prayer, as thus, " Ihave both glorified it," viz ., at thy former manifestation-and will glorify it again ¶," at this thy present !!!

I was myself twelve years of age before ever I

* John i. 13 .

fi Seepage 242 .Seepage 243 .

§ Romans xi. 33 .~~ John i . 31 .

Q John xii . 28 .

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saw a Testament in any language . The first I wasthen introduced to was the Greek . Being in favourwith my tutor, he took an interest in my progress,and the consequence was, to my gratitude and hispraise, that no deviation from the exactness of gram-matical technicality could possibly escape my obser-vation . Soon as I arrived at the text wherein Ta jamoccurs, its irregularity, at once, flashed across mymind . I sought for an explanation, but it was invain ; my imagination set to work, but it was equallyabortive . At length, in despair, I relinquished thepursuit, and never again troubled myself with it, orits solution, until recalled by its connexion with thepresent inquiry .

But it was not alone the peculiarity of gender thatexcited _ my circumspection, the phraseology, whentranslated, sounded so familiar to my ear, as toappear an old acquaintance under a new form . For,though I could then tolerably well express myself inEnglish, the train of my reflections always ran inIrish . From infancy I spoke that tongue : it was tome vernacular . I thought in Irish,-I understoodin Irish,-and I compared in Irish . My sentimentsand my conceptions were filtrated therein !

As to dialectal idioms or lingual peculiarities, Ihad not, of course, the most remote idea . Whether,therefore, the expression coming to C0 his own"were properly a Greek or an English elocution, Idid not, then, know either sufficiently well to deter-mine ; but that it was Irish I was perfectly satisfied ;my ear and my heart, at once, told me so .

I now positively affirm, that the phrase is neitherHebrew, Greek, nor English! And if you are not dis-

2x

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posed to admit the information which it conveys *,to be an immediate communication from the Omni-potent, I have another very adequate mode of account-ing for St. John's having acquired it, and expressedit too in a phraseology so essentially oriental.

The three wise men-who came from the East to

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Jerusalem, saying, " Where is he that is born Kingof the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east,and are come to worship him'"-to a mortal certaintyimparted to him the intelligence

Here you see them with crosses upon their crowns',the religious counterparts of our Irish shamrocsl !And surely, -as'Jesus was then but an infant, thosemysterious devices were commemorative of his cruci-fixion, when " he came to his own,"--and not tothat which occurred while he " dwelt among us," acatastrophe which had not yet taken place !

Nor is its, alone this single phrase (Ta esia) that Iclaim as oriental-the five first verses of this Gospel,as at present arranged, appertain also thereto . Theyspeak the doctrine .alike of the Budhists and of theEree-maasons, but In diction, and in peculiar ,, in tone,in point, and essence, they are irrefragably Irish-§ .That St. John never wrote them is beyond all

question ! but having found them to his hand, exist-ing after the circuit of centuries and ages, the com-position seemed so pure, and so consonant withChristianity, nay, its very vitality and soul, headopted it as the preface to his own production,which 'begins ` only at the sixth verse, opening with," There was a man sent from God whose name wasJohn! "

Having asserted that the preliminary part wasinalienably Irish, I now undertake to prove a radicalmisconception, nay, a derogation from the majesty of

* Matthew ii . 1, 2 .} This wood-cut is copied from one of the early block-books .,* Seepage 440.

I need not repeat to the reader, that by Irish I mean the primitivePersic, indiscriminately common as well to Iran as to Irin.

212

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the Messiah, to have crept into the text, in conse-quence of its having been translated by personss unac-quainted with that language !

The term, logos, which you render word, means toan iota the spiritual flame-log,__or Jogh, being theoriginal denomination . The Greeks, who had bor-rowed all their religion from the Irish, adopted thisalso from their vocabulary ; but its form not beingsuited to the genius of their language, they fashioned-it thereto by adding the termination os, as loghos ;and thus did it become identified in sound with thecommon logos, which they had before, and whichmerely expresses a word or term !

But though thus confounded, their philosophers, fora long time, kept both expressions distinct . Theformer they ever considered 'a foreign importation,rendering it, as we did, by the spiritual flame ; asis evident from Zeno making use of the expression,8ia rou 7ravrog Aoyos, that is, the spiritual flame, whichis diffused through, and vivifies everything .

Pythagoras is so explicit upon this spiritual flame,that you would swear . he was paraphrasing the firstfive verses of St . John .

" ° God," says he, a° is neither the object of sense,nor subject to passion, but invisible, only intelligible,and supremely intelligent . In his body, he is likethe light, and in his soul he resembles truth . He istie universal spirit that pervades and diffuseth itselfover all nature. All beings receive their life fromhim. There is but one only God, who is not, assome are apt to imagine, seated above the world,beyond the orb of the universe ; but being himself allin all, he sees all the beings that fill his immensity,the only principle, the light of Heaven, the Father of

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all . He produces everything, he orders and disposeseverything ; he is the reason, the life, and the motionof all being ."

Even the Latins having borrowed the idea fromthe Greeks, steered clear of the equivocation of theridiculous word ; and the immortal Maro, when de-scribing the ; quickening influence of this ethereal,logos through all the branches of nature, interprets itas above, literally, by the spiritual flame, I

Principio eculum ac terras, camposque liquentes,Lucentemque globum Lunce, Titaniaque Astra,Spiritus intus alit ; totamque infusa per artusMens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miseet .Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum,Et quee marmoreo fert monstra sub eequore pontus* .

Am I, therefore, presumptuous in appealing tothe community to reject this word as applied to thelogos . A meaning, it is true, has been trumped upfor this, as the communicating vehicle between Godand his creatures ! No doubt, the Saviour is all thatbut logos does not express it ; and the duration of anabuse is no reason why it should be perpetuated afterits exposure .

I have said, that it degraded the dignity of theGodhead to render this expression by the form ofword . I do not retract the charge : on the contraryI add that, independently altogether of the formerarguments, adduced to establish its inaccuracy, itit would be revolting to common sense, were it noteven thus incorrect !

For example-" In him was life," says the text,« and the life was the light of men."

Now, how could there be life in a word? exceptby the most unnatural straining of metaphor . Or, ad-

* Virgil's lEneid; ; vi . 724 .

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mitting that there was life, how could there be light,except by the same? Whereas, by substituting theproper term, then all is regular and easy ; for whatcould be more natural, than that there should be lifein spirit ? and that this life should give light to men?

You will observe accordingly, that Jesus himself,when describing his own character, exactly stateswhat I here rectify, saying, " I am the light ofthe world"-not the word of the world-or any suchnonsense. And he continues the idea by notingfurther, that he that followeth me shall not walk indarkness, but shall have • the light of life*." Thuskeeping up an uninterrupted reference to logos, or thespiritual game !

I do, therefore, humbly, but strenuously, imploreof the legislature, that they restore this epithet to itsdivine interpretation ! I entreat of the heads, as wellof church as of state, that they cancel the error ; forerror I unhesitatingly pronounce it to be,-a dero-gation from the Godhead-and a perversion of theattributes of the Messiah !

I will myself show the way-thus : In thebeginning was the spiritual flame : and the spiritualflame was with God, and the spiritual flame was God t."

How beautiful ! may I hope that it will never morebe extinguished !

Now, there is another text in the same chapter,which, though not incorrectly translated, yet loses halfits beauty, as at present understood ! It will startleyou when I recite it ! Yet here it comes . " Beholdthe lamb of God which taketh away the sin of theworld t !"

* John viii . 12 .

4 John i . L.T John i . 29 .-See also page 315 of this volume .

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By lamb, ono doubt, you mean a young sheep : butlet me ask you, what connexion can you perceivebetween a young sheep and the taking away of sin?That of immolation, you answer, as typifying thegrand ofering . Well then, why add 11 of God?"Why say, the young sheep of God, if it was an ordi-nary animal of the -mere ovine species that was in-tended ?

No, Sir, recollect the " Lamb slain from the be-ginning of the world," recorded in the Revelations, asquoted before * .A deep mystery is involved in this expression,11

which the ingenuity of man could not evolve butthrough the Irish . In that language, lambh is a wordhaving three. significations. The first is a hand ; thesecond a young sheep ; and the third a cross t . .

Let us now, in rendering the text, substitute thislatter instead of the intermediate ; and it will be," Behold the cross of God which taketh away the sinof the world!" By which you perceive that whenJohn the Baptist, by inspiration, pointed out JesusChrist as the universal Saviour of the world, his verywords establish a previous crucifixion !You now see how it happened that ten, in nume-

rals, came to be represented by a cross X . This beingthe number of fingers upon each person's hands .- and ahand and a cross being both prefigured in the sacred,

* Seepage 288 .In the Tartar language, which is a .dialect of the Irish, it still re-

tains this latter import, as appears from the following :" Ce qu'il y ade remarquable, c'est que le grand pretre des Tartares port le nom delama, qui en laugue Tartare signifie la croix ; et les Bogdoi qui con-quirent la Chine en 1644, et qui sont soumis au delae-lama dans leschoses de la religion, ont toujours des croix sur eux, quils appellent aussilamas . --Voyage de la Chine, par Avril, lib. iii. p. 194 .

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that is, in the Irish language*, by the same term,lambh, it hence occurred that in all reckoning andnotation, a new score should be commenced therefrom-that its sanctity should be still further enhanced, bythe epithet of diag, or perfection, which characterizesit as a submultiple, and that the mysteriousness of thewhole should be additionally shrouded under the -com-prehensive symbol of a pyramid or triangle o t .

Our .Hibernian Druids," says Vallancey, alwayswore a key, like the doctors of law of the Jews, toshow they alone had the key of the sciences, that is,.that they alone could communicate the knowledge ofthe doctrine they preached . The name of this keywas kire, or cire ; and co, a peg or pin, being com-pounded with it, forms the modern eo-cire, the key ofa lock . The figure of this key resembled a cross ;those of the Laceda monians and Egyptians were ofthe same form ."

Estimable and revered Vallancey, it pains me tosay anything against you ! but on those subjects youwere quite at bay! It was not " to show that theyalone had the key of the sciences," that " the doctorsof law of the Jews always wore a key," but becausethat they had seen it in the ceremonial of the Egyptians,from whom, like the Lacedaemonians, they had bor-rowed its use, without either of them being able topenetrate its import t !

The origin, then, of this badge appearing amongst* The words Irish and sacred are synonymous.-See page 129 .' See pages 267, 268, and 269 .* " The peculiar office of the Irumarcalim it is difficult to find out,"

says Lewis, " only it is agreed that they carried the keys of the sevengates of the court, and one could not open them without the rest . Someadd, that there were seven rooms at the seven gates, where the holyvessels were kept, and these seven men kept the keys, and had thecharge of them."-Origins Hebrace, vol . i . p. 97 .

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the habiliments of our ancient priests, is developed bythe name which those priests themselves bore, viz .,Luamh, which, being but a direct formative fromlambh, a cross, unlocks the secret of their being itsministers *.The Ida;i-Dactyli, who superintended the mysteries

of Ceres, obtained their designation from the very samecause, and corresponded literally with our Luamhsfor the lod of the Chaldeans being equivalent to thelambh or hand of the Irish, the number of fingersthereon were made religiously significant of the X,or cross ! And,-what cannot fail to excite astonish-ment, as to the immutability of a nation's character,-tothis very hour, the symbolical oath of the Irish peasantis a transverse placing of the fore finger of one handover that of the other, and then uttering the words," By the cross !"

Are not the opposers of my truths, then, as yetsatisfied ? or will they still persist in saying that itwas the Pope that sent over our Tuath-de-danaancrosses f ? in the ship Argho ! some thousands ofyears before ever Pope was born . I wonder was ithis Holiness that transported emissaries also to thatancient city in America, lately discovered in ruins,near Palenque ; amongst the sculptures of which wediscover a cross ! And the priority of which to thetimes of Christianity is borne witness to by the gentle-man who has published the " Description" of thoseruins t, though glaringly ignorant as to what was com-memorated thereby .

Upon one point, however," lie says, " it is deemedessentially necessary to lay a stress, which is the

' See page 438, with the note thereon also .h See Dublin Penny Journal, Nov . 10, 1833 .

Published by Berthoud, 65, Regent's Quadrant, Piccadilly.

489

4 90

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representation ofa Greek cross, in the largest plate illus-trative of the present work, from whence the casualobserver might be prompted to infer that the Palen-cian city flourished at a period subsequent to theChristian era ; whereas it is perfectly well known to allthose conversant with the mythology of the ancients,that the figure of a cross constituted the leading sym-bol of their religious worship : for instance, the augu-ral staff or wand of the Romans was an exact re-semblance of a cross, being borne as the ensign ofauthority by the community of the augurs of Rome,where they were held in such high veneration that,although guilty of flagrant crimes, they could not bedeposed from their offices ; and with the Egyptians thestaff of Bootes or Osiris,,is similar to the crosier ofCatholic bishops, which terminated at the top with across .

But if the Pope had so great a taste for beautifyingour valleys with those costly specimens of art, whereofsome are at least eighteen feet in height, composedof a single stone, and chiselled into devices of themost elaborate mysteries, is . it not marvellous that hehas not, in the plenitude of his piety, thought properto adorn the neighbourhood of the Holy See with anysimilar trophies? And why has he not preserved inthe archives of the Vatican any record of the bequest,as he has taken care to do in the case of the four palls ?

But, transcendently and lastly, why did he deem itnecessary to depict centaurs upon those crosses, withsnakes, serpents, dogs and other animals, such as thisfollowing one exhibits, which is that at Kells, andwhich has been alluded to, by promise, some pagesbackwards .

* Seepage 361 . At Monasterboice there are three very beautiful

THE ROUND TOWERS . 491

I have now done with the appropriation of thosecolumns ; and shall just whisper into my adversaries'ears-if they have but recovered from the downcrash oftheir fabric-that so far from laying claim to the honourof their erection, the Pope has actually excommuni-cated all such as revered them ! and has otherwisedisowned all participation therein, by the fulminatingof bulls and of anathemas * !specimens of those Tuath-de-danaan crosses still remaining, and covered,as usual, with hieroglyphic sculpture. " The pillars in the Palenciancity," I find, " are also decorated with serpents, lizards, &c ."

* See Borlase, p . 162.

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Yet did the zealots of party, after the history ofthose crosses was forgotten, associate them individu-ally with some favourite saint ! This notion," saysMosheim, referring to such diversions, " rendered itnecessary to multiply prodigiously their number, andto create daily new ones . The clergy set their in-vention at work, and peopled at discretion the in-visible world with imaginary protectors ; they inventedthe names and histories of saints that never existed ;many chose their own patrons, either phantoms oftheir own creation or distracted fanatics whom theysainted."

Here, however, the historian is as inaccurate as heis severe : for not only did the majority of those saints,if not all of them, exist s but the greater part also ofthose exploits, ascribed to them, have actually occurred !The imposition consisted in making them the heroes ofevents and legends belonging to former actors * .

I shall now give you, from the book of Ballymote,my proof for the assertion before advanced as to theGo ban Saer, whom they would fain appropriate, hav-ing been a member of the Tuath-de-danaans, viz .,11 Ro gabsat sartain in Eirin Tuatha Dadann is debro badar na preen ealadhnaigh : Luchtand saer credneceard : Dian ceachd liargh etan dan a hingeinsidhe :buime na filedh Goibneadh Gobha lug Mac Eithe Oc-cai ; ro badar na huile dana Daghadae in Righoghma_ brathair in Righ, is e ar arainic litri no Scot ."That is, - The Tuath-de-danaans then ruled in Eirin .They were first in all sciences . Credne Ceard was of

* See page 36 . I must not omit to mention that the Tuath-de-danaancross at Armagh, noticed at page 359, was pulled down some timeback, to prevent the squabbles between the Catholics and the Orange- -men, neither of whom had any inheritance therein !

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this people ; and his daughter Dean Ceachd, whopresided over physic : she nursed the poet GohneGobha, the Free-mason (lug is the same as Saer) sonof Occai Esthne . Daghdae the king was skilled inall sciences : his brother Ogmus taught the Scythiansthe use of letters .

Thus you see that he could not, by possibility, beon the same theatre with St . Abham ; while the po-pular tradition is still substantially true which con-nects his name with the erection of the RoundTowers !

The church festivals themselves, in our Christiancalendar, are but the direct transfers from the Tuath-de-danaan ritual . Their very names in Irish areidentically the same as those by which they weredistinguished by that earlier race . If, therefore, sur-prise has heretofore been excited at the conformityobservable between our church institutions and thoseof the East, let it in future subside at the explicitannouncement that Christianity, with us, was but therevival of a religion, imported amongst us, many agesbefore, by the Tuath-de-danaans from the East, andnot from any chimerical inundation of Greek mission-aries-a revival upon which their hearts were, long-ingly riveted, and which Fiech himself, the pupil ofSt. Patrick, and bishop of Sletty, unconsciously re-gisters in the following couplet, viz .-

Tuatha Heren, tarcaintaisDos nicfead sith laithaith nua *."

That is,The Budhists of Irin prophesiedThat new times of peace would come ."

What kind of peace, you ask? Is it of deliverance

* Vita prima S. Patricii, Ap . Colgan .

e

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from their Scythian oppressors ? No, but that spiri-tual tranquillity, such as they enjoyed before, and htwhich even the angels of heaven rejoiced, while an-nouncing the tidings to man's .

" And sweet, and with rapture o'erflowing,Was the song from that multitude heard,

Who their heav'n for a season foregoing,To second the Angel appear d .All glory,' the anthem resounding,' To :God in the highest,' began ;

And the chant was re-echoed, responding,' Peace on earth, loving kindness to man+.' "

You will remember that the Scriptures themselvesrecord, how that the wise men of the East foresawthis epoch ; and " Lo, the star, which they saw in theeast, went before them, till it came and stood overwhere the young child was 1."

Is it therefore to be wondered at that our Tuath-de-danaans, who were their brethren, should equallyanticipate it ?

Yes, from the commencement of time, and throughall the changes of humanity, God had always wit-nesses to the truth in this nether world.

"Q And Melchizedec, king of Salem, brought forthbread and wine ; and he was the priest of the mosthigh God .

" And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abramof the most high God, possessor of heaven andearth

And blessed be the most high God, which hath

Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, whichshall be to all people . For unto you is born this day, in the city of David,a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord .--Luke ii . 10, 11 .

1' " And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenlyhost, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earthpeace, good will towards men."-Luke ii . 13, 14 .

* Matthew ii . 9 .

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delivered thine enemies into thy hand . And he gavehim tithes of all * .

" Now consider how great this man was, unto whomeven the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of thespoils .

49 For this Melchizedec, king of Salem, priest of themost high God,-who -met Abraham returning fromthe slaughter of the kings, and blessed him ;" To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all

first being, by interpretation, king of righteousness,and after that also king of Salem, which is king ofpeace.

Without father, without mother, without descent,having neither beginning of days nor end of life ; butmade like unto the Son of God-abideth a priest con-tinually u:'

Thus does the apostle proceed, in a strain of theclosest argumentation, to point out the superiority ofthis king of peace, over Abraham and his lineageafter which Mr . Brown, in his Commentary upon theBible, expresses himself as follows, viz ." Who thisMelchizedec was, this priest of God among the Ca-naanites, greater than Abraham, the friend of God,who were his parents or his successors, is on purposeconcealed by the Holy Ghost. And hence he is with-out father or mother, predecessor or successor, in hishistorical account, in order that he might typify theincomprehensible dignity, the amazing pedigree andunchangeable duration of Jesus Christ, our greatHigh Priest."

* Genesis xiv . 18, 19, 20 .t Hebrews vii . 4, 1, 2, 3 . Rex idem hominum, Ph nbique Sacer-

dos.-Vixuia .

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Nobody can quarrel with the piety of this com-mentator : but piety is not the only requisite for acommentator upon the Scriptures ; the absence ofstupidity is an essential condition . It is not, however,as applied to this particular passage that I thus expressmyself : were this the only instance of accommodatingoversight it should draw. forth no critique from me.But the instances are innumerable, to verify the ex-pression that" some persons see but perceive not."Mr. Brown had no idea of an emanation ! Mr.

Brown did not comprehend the sons of God! Mr.Brown did not know the connection which existedbetween the peace of Christ and that which was re-presented by Melchizedec * .

" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feetof him that bringeth good tidings, that publishethpeace that bringeth good tidings of good, thatpublisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion, Thy Godreigneth j - ."

1 1 These things have I spoken unto you, that in meye might have peace. In the world ye shall havetribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcomethe world $."

" If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in thisthy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! butnow they are hid from thine eyes §."

Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give untoyou : not as the world giveth, give I unto you 1j."

* Holy mysteries must be studied with this caution, that the mindfor its module be dilated to the amplitude of the mysteries, and not themysteries be straitened and girt into the narrow compass of the mind.-BACON .

fi Isaiah Iii. 7 .

: John xvi. 33 .¢ Luke xix . 42 .

II John xiv. 27 .

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Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into thatwithin the veil ;"

1° Whither the forerunner is for us entered, evenJesus, made an high priest for ever after the order ofMelchisedec a."

From our fathers to us the good tidings descend,From us to our children agen ;

Unrestrairi d as the sun, and as lasting, they blendAll the nations and ages of men .

Good news of great joy to all people, they speakAt once to the learn'd and the rude,

To barbarian and Scythian, the Jew and the Greek,Nor country nor person exclude,

From the man who goes forth to his labour by day,To the woman his help-meet at home ;

From the child that delights in his infantine play,To the`olebnthe- brink of the tomb ;

From the bridal oompahiens, the yoattth and themaid, --To the train on the death-pomp that wait ;

From the rich in fine linen and purple array'd,To the beggar that lies at his gate

To all is the ensign of blessedness shown,To the dwellers in vale or on hill,

Alike to the monarch who sits on his throne,And the bond-man who toils at the mill

High and low, rich and poor, young and old, one and all,Earth's sojourners, dead and alive,

Who perish'd by Adam our forefather's fall,Shall in Jesus the Saviour revive .

Not an ear, that those tidings of welfare can meekBut to it doth that welfare belong

Then those tidings with rapture what ear shall not greet,What tongue shall not echo the song?

All hail to the Saviour 1 all hail to the Lord !God and man in one person combined !

The Father's Anointed 1 by Angels adored !The Hope and Delight of mankind t !

* Hebrews vi. 19, 20.

t Christmas Carols.

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CHAPTER XXXIII .

YET once I was blind, and could not see the light,And straight to Jeru-salem I then took my flight' ;They led me through a wilderness, with a multitude of care,You may know me by the system, or badge I wear .

Twelve dazzling lights I saw, which did me surprise ;I stood in amaze where I heard a great noiseA serpent came by me,-I fell unto the ground,With joy, peace, and comfort the secret I found *.

THE principle of all mysteries. having . . been. alreadyelucidated, it only remains, that, in this concludingchapter, I point out a few more instances of theirpractical application .

In the Gospel, then, according to St. Matthew, Ifind the words, " 0 generation of vipers, who hathwarned you to flee from the wrath to comet ?"-Andin that according to St. John, the following, " We benot born of fornication ; we have one Father, evenGod $."

The juxtaposition of these texts, one with another,and the comparison of them, mutually, with theexplication of the serpent, given at page 229, will notonly confirm the truth of all the forering develop-ments, but satisfy. you farther, what I am very cer-tain you did not before identify, viz ., that the phrasesgeneration of vipers, and the being born of fornica-tion, are one and the same-the viper, or serpent,

* Freemasons' song.t Matthew iii . 7 .

:l' John vii . 4 1 .

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499

being the symbol of lustfulness, making the former,equivalent to ye ofsprino of concupiscence ; that is, inother words, ye born of fornication ! And the verystress laid upon this mode of geniture, implies notonly the possibility of a different sort, but its fre-quency, also !

La the Duress prophecies concerning the ex=pected Saviour," say the . Asiatic Researches, " it issaid, that he was the son, or- rather the incarnation,of the great serpent : and his mother was =also . .ofthat tribe, and incarnate in the house of a pot-maker . .She conceived at the age of one ,year and a half, thegreat serpent gliding over her while. she was asleepin the cradle : and his mother, accordingly, is repre-sented as saying, to .the child, once that she broughthim to a place full :of serpents-mss Get,. .i4 lay withthem, they are your relations."'

Here it will be seen that, under the form of a -serpent, is personified the Deity, or the generativepower .

Nunez de Ia Vega, Bishop of Chiapa, in Mexico,when describing Nagualism, in his " Constitutions,"as observed in that :country, says, " The Nagualistspractise it by :superstitious calendars,- wherein areinserted the proper names of all the Naguals, ofstars, the elements, birds, beasts, fish ; =and reptiles ;with .observations upon the months and days ; inorder -that the children, as soon as they are born, maybe dedicated to that which, in the calendar, corre-sponds with the day of their birth this is precededby some frantic ceremonies, and the express consentof parents, which is an explicit part between theinfants and the Naguals that are to be given to

* See page 229 .2 Tc 2

500

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them. They then appoint the melpa, or place, where,after the completion of seven years, they are broughtinto the presence of the Nagual to ratify the engage-ment ; for this purpose they make them renounceGod and his blessed Mother, instructing them before-hand not to be alarmed, or sign themselves with thecross : they are afterwards to embrace the Nagualaffectionately, which, by some diabolical art or another,appears very tame,, and fondly attached to them, al-though it may be a beast of a ferocious nature, as alion, a tiger, &c . They persuade the children, bytheir infernal cunning, that this Nagual is an angel,sent by God to watch over their fortunes, to protect,assist, and accompany them ; and that it must beinvoked upon all occasions, business, ox_ occurrences,in which _they may require its aid!"

It is very clear, that the Nagualism above notified,is but a degenerate offshoot of that serpent worship,which is co-eval with the fall : yet, degenerate as itis, it is equally indisputable, that this good man'szeal outsteps far his judgment, the exaggerations ofhis fancy even committing him so far, as to make himimperceptibly contradict himself!

Surely, were it a principle of action with thoseunfortunate beings to make their children, on theirentrance upon active life, to renounce God, they wouldnot teach them, at the same time, to reverence abrute creature, merely as being a subordinate servantoff that God !

To reconcile the Bishop, therefore, to somethinglike truth, I will suppose him to mean by the wordGod, where it first occurs, Christ, which is evidentfrom the context, of " his blessed Mother :" and thenthe prohibition against the sign of " the cross," must

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501

be understood, exclusively, as in reference to him ; aconclusion which is confirmed by an additional refer-ence to that oath, which I have before mentioned, asstill prevalent amongst the Irish .

By the cross is the oath, accompanied by a trans-verse location of the fore-finger of one hand uponthat of the' other : and the addition alluded to isof Christ : which is never volunteered except whenequivocation is suspected ; and then it is exacted asa matter of distinction between his cross and the moreantecedent one !

But no further proof is requisite, to prove theBishop's want of candour, than his withholding; docu-ments from the public eye, which would appear toillustrate the subject . - 11 Although in these tracts andpapers there are," says he, !R "many other thingstouching primitive paganism, they ate not mentionedin this epitome, lest in being brought into notice,they should be the means of confirming more stronglyan' idolatrous superstition ." He should have hadmore confidence in his own cause, and feel that Ifanything, in consequence of this scrutiny, totter andfall, it can only be the error which has attached itselfto truth, encumbering and deforming it . Truth itselfwill remain unshaken, unsullied, fair, immortal!"

Now, in the description of the ancient city,' nearPalenque, quoted before, I find some words, whichprove an affinity between the worship of the ancientinhabitants of America and those of Ireland, andwhich rescue both from the imputations of bigotry ." I am Culebra," says Votan, one of the early princes,I believe, of Mexico, who wrote an historical tract inthe Indian idiom, 11 because I am Chivim ."

The man's name, you perceive, was Votan, but his

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ambition was to be considered Culebra, or the snake,that is, the deity so personified : the mode wherebyhe sought to establish it is foreign from my inquiry .The Gadelglas of the ancient Irish was precisely

similar to this Culebra ofthe Americans : gad signifyinga snake, or tortuosity : el, god ; and glas, green--in all,the green snake-god! And -conforniably•* with thisimport, we are assured by a man, who knew verylittle as to -the reason why, but whose testimony ishere valuable in a -matter of record, not of opinion ;viz., that the Milesians, from the time they'first con-quered Ireland, down to the reign of Ollamh Fodhla,made use of no other arms of distinction in their ban-ners than a serpent twisted round a rod, after the ex-ample of their Gadeiian ancest sYOU have now the' prop, fof- " iwho put the snakes

upon' our ancient crosses ?" And, independently ofsuch proof, the antiquity itself of all the traditionsassociating the serpent with the early memoirs of ourancestors was so great, as to appal even the monks !And as they could not, in their system of transferringour history, bring down this serpent to the 'era of thesaints, they resolved, at all 'events, to' have him intheir dispensation, and so made Moses the hero !

This they - contrived by inventin-9--the' name ofGadel for one of our forefathers, and then trans-planting him to the coast of the Red Sea, just as theLegislator of the Jews was' conducting- them out ofEgypt ! :They then -very unsacerdotally make a ser-pent bite him, in some part of the heel, but very gra-ciously afterwards restore him to sanity by Moses'sinterposition ! with a stipulation, however, that the

* Keating's History of Ireland,' folio, p . 143 .

THE ROUND TOWERS . 503

former sore should ever appear glass or green!' Andthus was he called Gadelglas, or Gadel the Green Y!

In truth, it was from this green snake-god, aboveexplained, that the island obtained the designationof Emerald ; and not from -the verdure of its soil,which is not greater than that of other countries .

The Arabians have a tradition, that Enoch was thefirst who, after Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, wrotewith a pen, in the use of which he instructed hischildren, saying to them additionally, " 0, my sons,know that ye are Sabians !"Although the substance of the religion,eligion, couched

under this designation, has been already explained,yet the origin of the name itself remains yet to beunfolded,Then be it known, that in the scared, =i. e., Irish

language, the word Sabh * has three significations--'firstly, voluptuousness, or the yoni ; secondly, a snake,or sinuosity ; and thirdly, death, or life ! And inaccordance with this triple import, if you roll backthe leaves as far as page 229, you will find in theplate inserted there, and which has been transcribedfrom the sculptures of the ancient Palencian citybefore alluded to, those three symbols, viz ., the yoni,the serpent, and death, all. united in design, and illus-trating my development of that mysterious scenewherein-

" Eye tempting Adam by a serpent was stung t ."

The sculpture itself is intended to " portray the* Pronounced Sauv . This was the Seva of the Hindoos, by which,

although they understood, indeed, as well generation as destruction to besymbolised ; yet, is it clear that they must have long lost the method ofaccounting for the reason why, otherwise than saying, that death andlife meant the same thing ; that is, that the cessation of existence inone form was but the commencement of existence in another .t Freemasons' song .

504

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situation of those progenitors of the human species inthe : Garden of Eden . And yet, striking as it is,would its tendency remain ever a secret, were it notfor the instrumentality of the Irish language !

That the society of free and accepted Masonspossess a grand secret among themselves is an un-doubted fact . What this grand secret is, or of whatunknown materials it consists, mankind in general,not dignified . with the order, have made the mostridiculous suppositions . The ignorant form inco-herencies, such as conferring with the devil, andmany other contemptible surmises, too tedious tomention, and too dull to laugh at . While the bettersort, and more polished part of mankind, puzzle them-selves with reflections more refined, though equallyabsurd . . . Tp. dispel ,-the opinionative mist from the eyeof general error is the author's intention ; and howeverrash the step may be thought, that he, a mere atomin the grand system, should attempt so difficult, sonice a task, yet he flatters himself that he shall notonly get clear over it, but meet with the unitedplaudits both of the public and of his brethren . Andhe must beg leave to whisper to the ignorant, as wellas the judicious, who thus unwarrantably give theirjudgment, that the truth of this grand secret is asdelicately nice as the element of air ; though the phe-nomenon continually surrounds us, yet human sensa-tion can never feelingly touch it, , till- 'constituted tothe impression by : the masonie art . - The principal,similar to the orb of light, universally warms andenlightens the principles, the first of which, virtue,like the moon, is heavenly chaste, attended by tenthousand star-bright qualifications . The masonicsystem is perfectly the emblem of the astronomic ;

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it springs from the same God, partakes of the sameoriginality, still flourishes in immortal youth, and butwith nature will expire * ."

The contortions of the snake were easily trans-ferred to the revolutions of the heavenly bodies ." When the ancients," says Boulanger, " found outthe true cycle of the sun, they coined names by a jeude mots, or words, signifying its heat, or its course,that made up the number 365, as . they had donebefore to make up 360 . The name Sabasins, thathas so much perplexed antiquaries and etymologists,is no. more than a numerical name, which was given toJupiter and to Bacchus as periodical deities . Whenthe suppliant was initiated into the mysteries of-Sabasinsj a -serpent, , the symbol of revolution, wasthrown upon -his breast.- To 1ABOE, which theGreeks repeated so often in the feasts of Bacchuswithout understanding the meaning of the words, meantno more than the cycle of the year, from the ChaldeanSabb circuire, vertere, &c . The ancient religion,which applied entirely to the motions of the heavensand periodical return of the stars, was for that reasonnamed Sabianism, all derived from the Chaldee Seba,a revolution ;" and this, though Boulanger knew itnot, from the Irish Sabh, serpent, or pith.

Sabaism, therefore, and Ophiolatreia were all onewith Gadelianism ; - and while, apparently, purportingto be the worship of the serpent and the stars, were,in reality the worship of :the' Sabh or , Yoni-so thatthe dialogue, in Genesis, between Eve and the serpent,was, in truth, a parley between Eve and the Yoniand the materials for the allegory were afforded by the

* Ashes Masonic Manual .

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fact of serpent and yoni being both expressed in thesacred, i. e ., Irish language, by one and the same name,just as the Lingam and the Tree of Knowledge havebeen before identified .

The mystery, then, of our ancient escutcheon, viz .,a serpent twisted round aE rod, resolves itself into theYoni embracing the Lingant.

Hence, too, it was that the portals of all the Egyp-tian temples were decorated with the impress of thecircle and the serpent . You see also, why the seasons,at the equinoxes and solstices should have beenmarked upon the circle at page 225 ; and you furthersee the mysterious tendency of the Prophet's injunc-tion to his children, when he said, " Remember thatye are Sabians," to have been equ yaleat with.-Xeep,ccPnstantjy,in view_ , that you are the offspring of con-cupiscence, and, by the suggestion of the serpent,begotten in sin, the penalty of which, as a breach of -the Creator's commandments, is inevitable death,from which you are only extricated through the pro-mised Redeemer, emanating from the same sourcewhich was before instrumental in entailing yoursorrow !

Every syllable of this is hieroglyphically expressedupon the plate inserted at page 223, where youobserve the cockatrice, or snake-god, placed at thebottom ; over him the crescent, or mysterious boot,i. e., yon* the object seduced ; !and, finally, the crossin triumph over both, intimating emancipation by thevicarious passion of God's own Son .This then is my answer to V . W.'s question,

at page 225, where he asks, " What relation, had thiswith the Nehustan, or brazen serpent, to which theIsraelites paid divine honours in the time of Heze-kiah ?"

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From this Sabaism, or serpent worship, Irelandobtained the name of Tibholas, or Tivolas ; Sand Tbeing commutable letters, Tibholas is the same asSibholas, and this being derived from sibal, a circle,shows the name to have been equivalent with theland of circles, or revolutions, otherwise, both to theserpent 'and the planets.

Those prophetic women of Etruria, designatedSybils, were named from the same cause, beingpriestesses of the serpent, i . e., the Sabh, or Yoni-allegorically represented as married to Apollo, andgifted with a longevity of a thousand years . Hereagain thePsame conversion of letters occurred, for theplace which they inhabited was called from themselves,Tivola, c espondig -to -ourTivolas, the S and Tbeing, as before explained, comnmnta and b orbh being equivalent to v .

Pythia is exactly synonymous with Sybil, meaningthe priestess who presided over the Pith, which, likeSabhus, means as well serpent as yoni : and theoracle which she attended was called Delphi, fromde, divine, and phith, yoni-it being but a cave in theshape of that symbol *, over the orifice of which thepriestess used to take her seat upon a sacred tripod,or the religiously emblematic pyramid f, while theinspiring vapour issued from beneath through a tube,similar to that exhibited at page 460, and one endof which passing through the aperture, held . fast thetripod, to which the priestess had been secured, sothat she should not, in her delirium, relinquish theposition .

The great Samian philosopher, known as Pyth

* See page 282, note,

f Seepage 268 .

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agoras, only assumed this name in deference to thoserites for Pyth-agoras means one who expounds themysteries of the pith-viz., death from its weakness,and redemption from its virtue .

°' Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and shall call his name Immanuel s," was the spiritualsubstance of those expositions: .the only differencebeing in that Isaiah "spoke prospectively towards alately verified issue, whereas the initiated took thepromise from the moment of the fall : and of itspartial accomplishment prior to our era, there can beno doubt, even from the writings of this prophet .

On the opposite plate are three profile likenessesof Christ, as he appeared upon earth in humanform-the first . is . a facsimile -from. a. ~ br. ass medal,found at-Breii Owyn, in the ' Isle of Anglesey, andpublished in Rowland's " Mona Antiqua." Theinscription upon it has been translated, as meaning," Jesus the Mighty, this is the . Christ and the mantogether.

The second, likewise of brass, and found at Friar'sWalk, near Cork, is now in the possession of a Mr.Corlett . -Inscription upon one side, 11 The LordJesus."-Upon the other, " Christ the King camein peace, and the light from the heaven 'was madelife ."

You will please observe here, that he does notsay the word was made life,, but the light was madelife .

The third is of silver, and the inscription means,`9 Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ-the Lord and theMan together ."

The originals of these inscriptions are all in

* Isaiah vii . 14 .

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510

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Hebrew, and the likenesses which accompany them,although on different metals, appear almost copiesone of another : whereas the cruciform figures hereinalready inserted, have no one feature of correspond-ence whatsoever with them, but prove themselves, onthe contrary, in every particular, an antecedent gene-ration .

-As everything else appertaining to the historyof the Round Towers has already been explained, I

* " The countenance of Christ was placid, handsome, and ruddy, soformed, however, as to inspire the beholders, not so much with love andreverence as with terror ; his locks were like the colour of a full ripefilbert nut (auburn), straight, and entire down to the ears, from thencesomewhat curled down to the shoulders, but parted on the crown of thehead after the manner of the Nazarites ; his forehead was smooth andshining, his, eyes blue . and sparkling, hwnoee Std. nu uth .des'orous, andabsolutelyfau> , 's beard, in colourlike his locks, was forked, andnot long:' -Wesaxus, page 63 .

" At this time appeared a man, who is still living, a man endowedwith great power, his name Jesus Christ. The people say that he is amighty prophet ; his disciples call him the Son of God . He quickensthe dead, and -heals the sick of all manner of diseases and disorders .He is a man of tall stature, well proportioned, and the aspect of hiscountenance engaging, with serenity, and full of expression, so as toinduce the beholders to love and then to fear him. The locks of his hairare of the colour of a vine-leaf, without curl, and straight to the bottomof his ears, but from thence, down to his shoulders, curled and glossy,and hanging below his shoulders . His hair on the crown of the headdisposed after the manner of the Nazarites . His forehead smooth andfair. His face without spot, and adorned with a certain tempered rud-diness. His aspect ingenuous and agreeable . His nose and his mouthin no wise reprehensible . His beard thick and forked, of the samecolour as the locks of his head. His eyes blue and extremely bright .In reprehendfv*-_and reproving, awful ; in teaching and exhorting,courteous and engaging ; a wonderful grace and gravity of countenance ;none saw him laugh, even once, but rather weep. In speaking, accurateand impressive, but sparing of speech . In countenance, the fairestamong the children of men ."-(Attributed to Lentulus, predecessor ofPilate in the government of Judea, recorded by Fabricius in his11 Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti . ')

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shall now account for the difference of appropriationnoticed at page 6 . Having been all erected in honourof the Budh, they all partook of the Phallic form ;but as several enthusiasts personified this abstract,which, in consequence of the mysteries involved in thethought and the impenetrable veil which shroudedit from . : the_ vnlgar, .vhecame synonymous with wisdomor wise man, it was necessary, of course, that theTowers constructed in honour of each should portraythe distinctive attributes of the individuals specified-Hence the difference of apertures towards the proepu-tial apex, the crucifixions over the doors, and theabsence or presence of internal . compartments' .

Those venerable piles vary in their elevation fromfifty to one hundred and fifty feet . At some distance_froth- tht

summit-there:primp out-, :&. .9D4 4f. :cover-

ing, which, accompanied as it sometimes is' with--, mar-nice, richly sculptured in foliage, in imitation, if youmust have it, prwputii humani, but such also was thepattern of the " nets of checker-work and wreaths ofchain-work," which graced " the chapiters whichwere upon the top of the two pillars belongingto Solomon's temple"-terminates above in a sort ofsugar-loaf crown, concave on the inside and convexon the outside .

Their diameter at the base is generally about four-

* The principal one I conceive to have been at the hill of Tara, whichmeans the hill of the Saviour, and synonymous with mount Ida, whichmeans the mount of the cross .-See page 453 .

" The predominant style and character of the Pillar Tower," saysMontmorency, " in a great measure discloses the secret of its origin ."It is astonishing how, after this, he and his pupils of the academyshould labour to assimilate that secret to a dungeon .

" L'obelisque que les Pheniciens dedierent au Soleil dont le sommetspherique et la matiere etoient fort diffirens des obelisques d'Egypte :'-AMMIAN. MARCEL .

5512

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teen feet through, that inside measuring about eight,which decreases gradually, but imperceptibly, to thetop, where it may be considered as about six feet inthe interior .

The distance of the door from the level of theground varies from four to twenty-four feet . Thehigher the door the more irrefragable .is the evidenceof the appropriation of the structure to the purposesspecified . The,. object was two-fold, at once to keepoff profane curiosity and allow the votaries the undis-turbed exercise of their devotions ; and to save therelics deposited underneath from the irreverent gazeof the,casual itinerant .

Analogous to these would appear to have been theedifices which the Lord had in view when he said,`°Neither shalt ::thou go : up stems utttb& mine altar,that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon*," whichadditionally proves the antiquity of the Irish philebeg ;for, as with any other costume, such a prohibitionwould be needless, it follows that the prevailingfashion, in the eastern habiliments, must have beendiffuse and open in the nether extremes .

I beg the reader will now be pleased to look backat the Tuath-de-danaan cross at page 358, and he

* Exodus xx . 26 .-The word altar does not mean what it is generallytaken to express, a platform, but a high place, or standing column,what the Septuagint renders by the Greek word oanxn, a pillar. :. Andthis was what the Israelites were forbid erecting to . Jehovah, lest thattheir nakedness should be discovered while ascending by steps or laddersto the entrance overhead .The Gaurs have round towers erected of stone, and thither they

carry their dead on biers ; within the tower is a staircase` with deepsteps made in a winding form, and when the bearers are got within, thepriests scalp the walls by the help of ladders ; when they have draggedthe corpse gently up with ropes, they then let it slide down the staircase.-Dr . HURD's Rites and Ceremonies, 4c .

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5 1 3

will at once see how it happened that the Gvban Saer,who is there represented, has been imposed upon theRoyal Irish Academy, or rather promulgated by them,as a woman ! viz ., from the peculiarity of his dress !being the distinctive badge of his sacerdotal order .

Nor is . it only the character of those sculptures, butthe existnce of any sculptures upon those relics, aswell crosses as towers, that proves them to have beenTuath-de-danaan ; for the reason why Jehovah for-bade the Israelites from using any tools upon thestones used in their religious edifices, was, that othernations bad loaded theirs with sculptured images ofdifferent gods, which made Him say, " °I€ thou -wiltmake me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it ofhewai stone,. for if thou _ 1 VI up thy tool upon it, thouhast polluted it."

`In their masonic construction there is nothing in

the Irish Towers appertaining to any of the fourorders of architecture prescribed by the moderns . Itis so also with those in the East . They approachnearest, however, to the Tuscan, and the reason ofthat similarity may be imagined from what I havealready stated as to the Etrurians .

Prepared :stone is the material of which they aregenerally composed, and evidently, in some . instances,brought from afar. Sometimes also they appear con-structed of an artificial substance, resembling a red-dish brick, squared, and corresponding to the compo-sition of the Round Towers of Mazunderan . Now ifthe monks possessed this secret, why were not themonasteries, the more important edifices, according toour would-be antiquarians, composed of the sameelements? And is it not strange that all elegance andextravagance should have been lavished upon the

2 L

5 1 4

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appendages, while uncouthness, inelegance, want of du-rability, or other architectural recommendation arethe characteristics of what they tell us were the prin-cipals ? Yet neither in the ° monasteries, nor in anyother Christian building, do we meet with those ma-terials above described, either generally or partially,except where the ruins of_ a neighbouring RoundTower have made them available, which, in itself, issufficient to overthrow, for ever, the anachronisms ofthose who would deny the existence of those templesanterior to the present era .

But Christian edifices, they say, are generallyfound in their vicinity . Yes, and as I have alreadyexplained the reason why *, I forbear now rehearsingthe fact . But even . . this stronghold of Ahe' moderns Icut away from them, by stating that at the `'`Giant'sRing," in the' county Down, the indisputable scene ofprimordial veneration, we have an instance of a RoundTower, without any church hard by ! And while re-called _by this circumstance, L must : observe that thevitrification manifest within' the walls . of that strut-:ture'arose from the burning of the - dead -bodies. therein ;and not from the indications' of the .sacred:fire .

With three exceptions, all have a row .of aperturestowards the top, just under the projecting roof, madecompletely after the fashion of those which Solomonhad built, being windows of narrow . fight8j . , Iiigeneral the number is four, and then :they'. correspondto .the .e cardinal-points . In three instances there isone aperture towards the summit, in one instancethere occurs five, in one six, in . one seven, in oneeicrht

Inside they are perfectly empty from the door* See pages 7 and 8 .

+ 1 Kings vi . 4 .

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5 1 5

upwards, but most of them divided, either by rests orprojecting stones, into lofts or stories, varying in num-ber from three to .eight. In the temple of Solomonwe find the same, for fC within, in the wall of thehouse, he made narrowed rests round about, that thebeams should . not be fastened in the walls of thehouse*." And, the- images which I have shown tohave been cupboarded upon these rests, were no-.thing more than what Solomon himself did, when<< he carved all the walls of the house round aboutwith carved figures of cherubims, and palm-trees, and,open flowers, within and without t ."

In a future publication I intend to show a morestartling correspondence between our Round Towersand some ;gther~ parts, of Solomon's temple . Mean-while I wish it to be borne in mind,- . . m ;samedegree accounting for the correspondence-that, Solo= ;mon's architect was a Sidonian .

A striking perfection observable in their construe-ntion is the inimitable perpendicular invariably main-tained . No architect of the present day, I venture toaffirm, could observe such regularity . Nelson's pillaritself has been proved to vary somewhat from theperpendicular line ; but the keenest eye cannot tracea deviation, in a single instance, from amongst thewhole of those Sabian monuments . Even the towerof Kilmacdugh, one of the largest in the kingdom,having from, some accident, earthquake, or othercause, been forced to lean terrifically to one sideyet, miraculous to mention, retains its stability as firmas before : such was the accuracy of its original ele-vation $ .

* 1 Kings vi . 6 .

+ 1 Kings vi . 29.T The Tower of Pisa bears no comparison to this edifice .

5 16

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If asked how it was I conceive them to have beenconstructed? I should answer, by' a scaffolding raisedgradually from within . The expense in this casewould be infinitely less, and the labour also. It wouldbe very easy to let fall a plumb-line at various inter-vals of height, by which at all times the perpendicularmay be ascertained, and the masonry carried- on by,what may be called, overhanding, while the cementemployed -in giving solidity to the whole, and which is .the direct counterpart of the Indian chunan, bidsdefiance to the efforts of man to dissever, except bythe exertion of extraordinary power.

That this was the mode in which their erection waseffected, is evident in the instance of Devenish Tower,which, from the elegance of its , cut stone exterior,would seem to negative the idea of their being builtfrom within . But a judicious eye cannot but at oncediscern that near the top, where it is probable thatone or two of the artists may have come out, by thehelp of some contrivance devised for the purpose,the execution and finish which the workmanship dis-plays, is incomparably superior to that of any of thelower parts . In other instances, where the ancienttop having been removed, a modern -one has beensubstituted, the case is very different indeed .

The cohesiveness of all these columns will be bestestimated by the fact of the Round Towerr at Clon-dalkin -having firmly stood its ground when, 'in theyear 1786-7, the' powder-mill explosion, which tookplace within twenty-four feet of its base, shivered toannihilation every other structure within its influence ;nay, extended its violence so far as to shatter thewindows in some of the streets of Dublin . That atMaghera also lay unbroken after its fall, exhibiting

to the spectator the almost "appalling spectacle of agigantic cannon !

That both Indians and Irish performed circulardances around them, typical of the motions of theheavenly bodies, is highly probable, as we have stillthe name of a particular movement, apparently thatpractised on the' i.omaaivn, still amongst us in commonuse, viz ., Rinke-teumpoil, or the temple dance : and thatthey otherwise honoured them by perforgn_ingpenancesaround them, is evident_ from the name of ;Turrish,which means a religious circuit round a tower ! ap-plied afterwards by the Catholics to any, penitentialround . . And we have the -authority of Sanchoniathon,when talking of the creation, for stating that " thenext ,race „eonsee_rated. pillars-that they prostratedprostratedthemselves -before them, and made anneal libations tothem * !"

These, I conceive, were the halcyon days of Ire-land's legendary and romantic greatness . In thissequestered isle, aloof from the tumults of a bustlingworld, this Tuath-de-danaan colony, all of a reli-gious race, and all disposed to the pursuits of litera-ture, united into a circle of international love, andspread the fame of their sanctity throughout theremotest regions of the universe.. That its localitywas familiar to the Brahmins of India I make noearthly question-that it was that sacred islandwhich they eulogised so fondly, and spoke of withsuch raptures, I am sanguinely satisfied-and equally

* The holy wells also, with the practice of hanging pieces of cloth uponthe branches of an overhanging tree, all belonged to the Tuath-de-danaan ceremonial . The early Christians took possession each of themof one of these wells, and are now, by prescription, recognised as theirpatron saints, and even supposed to have been their founders

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5 1 8

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convinced am 1, that it was that beatifying region,whose wide-spread holiness, and far-famed renown,made such an impression on the minds of Orpheusand of Pindar, when those divine bards, speakingof its Hyperborean inhabitants, thus enchantinglysung-

" On sweet and fragrant herbs they feed, amidverdant and grassyastures, and drink ambrosialdew, divine potation : all resplendent alike in coevalyouth a placid serenity for ever smiles on theirbrows and lightens in their eyes ; the consequence ofa just temperament of mind and disposition, both inthe parents and in the sons, inclining them to do whatis great, and to speak what is wise . Neither diseasenor wasting old age infest _this -holy people, hutwithout ; laboui, without war, they continue to livehappy, and to escape the vengeance of the cruelNemesis' ."

Though clothed in the cadence of measured phra-seology, and decked in the charms of an imaginativestyle, this is scarcely more beautiful than the simplesummary of the Tuath-de-danaan moral code, asgiven you at page 112, and of which, in truth, this isbut the paraphrase . For instance, they fed, it isstated, `` on sweet and fragrant herbs," because theywere prevented by their first commandment fromeating " anything endowed with life I - ." They drankambrosial dew," because their fifth commandment

forbade their touching '~ any intoxicating liquor ." And* bfoiQa b' oix ierobaeeei •:~brar, ezQ¢er :goo, rav .-a cue ;eaQoi maCP_vwv au~sev •r c

Saai xavayai T' avXav hvecvra, he va Ts ,, vcEa xoccog avadreavTES UXUtrva olvrv tv

fQavms . YOTOi YOVTE py »%ccs GYXofCEVOV ,C XQaTa IJ~ej yev[u • 70Yw b5 xai "axav aTfe

oacLoIQl ~.z>avrLi UfQSIx0Y Milga/v: Pyth . X . 39,

r Even among the vegetables, they abstained from beans, as did thePythagoreans after them, ob sirniiitudinenn virilibus genitalibus .

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519

the healthful aspects they exhibited were but thenatural result of temperate habits and virtuous de-meanour .

°' The simplest flow'ret of the vale,The simplest note that swells the gale,The common air, the earth, the skies,To them were opening Paradise !

'Five hundred years after the period of theirdethronement, while the influence of their examplestill continued to operate, we are told by the DinnSeanchas, that " The people deemed each other'svoices sweeter than the warblings of a melodiousharp, such peace and concordreigned amongst them,that no music could delight them more than the soundof each other's_ voices ."With these compare what Cambrensis, who was no

friend, has said of this island, about two thousandyears after . " Of all climes," says he, " Ireland isthe most temperate ; neither Cancer's violent heat isfelt there in summer, nor Capricorn's cold in winter ;but in these particulars it is so blessed, that it seemsas if Nature looked upon this zephyric realm with itsmost benignant eye . It is so temperate," he -adds,"that neither infectious fogs, nor pestilential winds, arefelt there, so that . the aid of doctors is seldom lookedfor, and sickness rarely appears except among thedying ."

. The repose of this happy people being at lengthdisturbed by the ungenial inundation of the Scythianintruders, the ritual of the temple worship was pre-cipitated apace ; and this, if I mistake not, " satis-factorily removes the uncertainty in which the originand uses of those ancient buildings has been hereto-

520

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fore involved :*." For the Scythians being warriors trather than students, and looking with distrust uponthe emblematic images of their temple-serving prede-cessors, which they considered to be idolatry, did allin their power by legislative, as well as militaryenactments, to efface every trace thereof ; so thatin a few years the. temple, or tower, worship be-came utterly extinct, and-more than annihilated-forgotten,

Instead thereof, they substituted the worship offire $, which, though their predecessors were far fromrecognising as a deity, yet they always showed to itsome reverential respect : and this approximation ofsentiment, on both parts, contributed to, what may becalled, a passive reconciliation : the victors assumingthe mastery of the soil ; and the vanquished, indeference to their high literary repute, being conti-nued as superintendents of the national education, aswell as the practical followers of all trades and pro-fessions .

It was so also at Rome, when Romulus dislodgedthe Pelasgi, who, we are told by Festus, had them-selves some time previously, under the name of1° Sacrani," that is, the religious caste, corresponding

* See conditions of advertisement in Preface.f " You may read in Lucian, in that sweet dialogue, which is entitled

Toxaris ; or, of Friendship,' that the common oath of the Scythianswas by the sword, and by the fire, for that they accounted those twospecial] divine powers, `which should worke vengeance on the perjurers .So doe the Irish at this day, when they goe to battaile, say certaineprayers or charmes to their swords, making a crosse therewith upon theearth, and thrusting the points of their blades into the ground, thinkingthereby to have the better successe here in fight. Also they use com-monly to swear by their swords ."-SPENSER.

$ See pages 81,82 .

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521

to " Irish," which signifies the same thing, drove theLigures and Siculi from Septimontio, i. e ., Rome.

The only use now made of those Sabian edifices,after stifling the religion for which they were de-signed, was, we may suppose, to promote the studyof astronomical science, for which they were admi-rably adapted, and with which their original destina-tion . was inseparably interwoven' . But as the sti-mulus of religion was wanting for the prosecution ofthose researches, we cannot be surprised that thispart of their purpose too, sharing the fate of its col-lateral helpmate, insensibly repined under the alteredaspect of the scene ; for, to apply to it what has beensaid of the great scheme of the creation itself, viz .,_that-

" if each system in gradation rollAlike essential to the amazing whole,The least confusion-but in one-not all,That system only, but the whole must fall ."

The knowledge of this delightful study, however,did not yet completely die away ; it formed stillan essential in the education of every Irish youth ;and the remnant of our language, at this very mo-ment, shows how piously attentive were its framersto that divine precept which told them, that thelights of the firmament of heaven were for signs

and for seasons, and for days and for years ."The profligate degeneracy of the Druids, however,

tended to bring this also into disesteem .This order of priests got so overbearing here,

grasping at not only high ecclesiastical power, but

* They were afterwards degraded to every possible purpose they couldbe made to subserve ; but I speak above of the time immediately aftertheir overthrow .

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also intermeddling in secular transactions, that theymade themselves obnoxious to the great body of thepeople, and a disregard both to the literature andthe religion which they inculcated was the inevitableresult . To this I ascribe the plebeian war of Ireland,A .D . 47, that deplorable state of a country, whenfaction and rage usurp the place of counsel and dis-cretion ! when commerce stagnates ! confidence de-cays ! when lust stalks abroad to desecrate every-thing holy ! and all is doubt, suspicion, melancholy, .and. death !

How beautifully and how aptly, but yet, for him-self, how unwisely, did the philosophic Callisthenesapply the sentiment of Euripedes to Philip of Ma-cedon, at Alexander's Feast?-viz .,

When civil broils declining states surprise,There the worst men to highest honours rise .

Many virtuous persons, we are told, opposed them-selves to the encroachments of this degenerate hie-rarchy. When Conlah, in his retreat from the glitterof life, betook himself to an humble cottage, and de-voted the faculties of his comprehensive mind tophilosophical pursuits and the improvement of hisspecies, the greatest praise which the annalist, in re-cording such worth, could bestow, was, "She do rinnian choin bhliocht-ris inna Druwdh ;" that is, It is hethat disputed against the Druids !

The Books, however, of their predecessors, theBoreades, still remained, and the knowledge of astro-nomy was kept alive by their perusal . But of thesewe were despoiled, very shortly after, by that mis-taken piety elsewhere deplored . Some few treatiseseven then must have escaped, and their effect was

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5 23

best illustrated, as shown before, by the unprece-dented success with which the Gospel dispensationwas hailed in this island .

I have before shown the instance of Fergil or Virgil,who, in the eighth century, maintained the rotundand true form of the earth, when the rest of Europewere ignorant on the subject . " He was," says SirJames Ware, °C the author of a Discourse on the An-tipodes, which he most truly held, though againstthe received opinion of the ancients, who imaginedthe earth to be a plain ."

In this sweeping ban upon the ancients, however,Sir James must not include the ancient Irish, whosehereditary doctrine upon the subject it is evident thatFergil did here only give utterance to ; and dearlydid he suffer for it ; his life, like that of Galileo, hav-ing been forfeited thereby, at the hands of the same en-lightened tribunal . This was enough to put the lastextinguisher upon the cultivation, or at least avowal, ofthe Irish notions of astronomy . It is astonishing, not-withstanding, what an instinctive thirst still lurkedin the Irish mind for the sublimities of -this pursuit * .

* " I had not been a week landed in Ireland from Gibraltar, where Ihad studied Hebrew and Chaldaic, under Jews of various countries anddenominations, when I heard a peasant girl say to a boor standing byher, Rach an maddin nag, (Behold the morning star,) pointing to theplanet Venus, the maddina nag of the Chaldean . Shortly after, beingbenighted with a party in the mountains of the western parts of thecounty of Cork, we lost the path, when an aged cottager undertook to beour guide . It was a fine starry night . In our way, the peasant point-ing to the constellation Orion, he said that was Caomai, or the armedking ; and he described the three upright stars to be his spear or sceptre,and the three horizontal stars, he said, were his sword-belt . I could notdoubt of this being the Cimah of Job, which the learned Costard assertsto be the constellation Orion."-VALLANCEY .

524

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Smith mentions an instance of a " poor man nearBlackstones, in the county Kerry, who had a tolerablenotion of calculating the epacts, golden number, do-minical letter, the moon's phases, and even eclipses,although he had never been taught to read English ."The author of this Essay has known many such cha-racters;-one in particular who, from his great pro-ficiency in the art, had obtained for himself the,honourable designation of the Kerry Star .

THE END .

WILLIAM CLOWes, Printer, Uuke .ntreet,Lumbeth .

ERRORS AND OMISSIONS .

Page 28, Fourteen lines from bottom, insert "the fourth - century of" be.tween the words" before" and "the Christian light ."

90, Three lines from bottom, instead of " Fells" read " Kells . "106, End of note +, instead of " and meaning sprung from" read

"O'meamngspnmg'fram."-'1 1

207, Sixteen lines from top, insert "among ' bwen the words " thepersons," for Herodotus gives the credit there alluded to, toMelampus .

229, Eleven lines from top, instead of " its second" read " its first."238, Nine lines from bottom, instead of " this day" read " Christmas day."240, Eight lines from top, instead of "impregnable" read "impracticable ."252, Seven lines from top, instead of " inadvertently" read " inadvertedly ."297, Note t, erase " See Appendix."406, Five lines from top, instead of " Tenan" read " Conan ."406, Four lines from bottom, instead of " demonstrative" read " demon-

- strable."418, Append the name " Mackenzie" after note t .

Just published by the same Author, price 12s .

""PHENICIAN IRELAND ."

CRITICAL REVIEWS OF THE ABOVE .

" This is a translation, in one octavo volume, with elaborate Notes andIllustrations, by HENRI O'BRIEN, Esq ., Author of the Prize Essay uponthe Round Towers of Ireland . On the whole it is a work of great re-search and antiquarian lore, displaying the ancient condition of Ireland,and the Manners, Laws, Religion, and Customs of the inhabitants . Tothe patriotic Irishman this book will be invaluable as a vindication ofthe alleged high origin and early eminence of his countrymen:'-Dis-patch, June 16, 1833 .

" To those who know the high litera chaacter of VILLANUEVA, weneed hardly add that the. work is wti n -in - pure and classical Latin(from which' it is now put into English,) and is only another proof of hisgreat erudition . We recommend it to all who are curious in such mat-ters-and to all who are not-for its sale will be serviceable to one ofthe most learned men in Europe, now eighty years old, who preferredtruth, and justice, and liberty to the highest dignities in the Spanishchurch, and was content to leave home and country, and this world'shonour, for a grave among strangers, so he might die with a clear con-science."-Athenceum, Nov . 5, 1831 .

" Phcenician Ireland is a work of great curiosity and extraordinarylearning, by Dr . VILLANUEVA . It is translated by Mr. O'BRIEN, theauthor of a Prize Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland-the most re-markable antiquities in the world, if we regard' the singularity of theirconstruction, the obscurity of their origin, and the difficulty of assigningthe object for which they were built. Mr . O'BRIEN has made some dis-coveries respecting them, it would seem ; and traces the early civiliza-tion of his well-beloved Iran to the Budhists of Persia. However thismay be, we have been so struck with the learning and plausibility of Dr .VILLANUE)4',s' work, that we shall be glad, if time and space permit us,at some future but early day to enter upon a detailed examination of itscontents . '-Spectator, July 20, 1833.

Sold by LONGMAN and Co., London ; and KEENE, TIMs, andW AREMAN, Dublin .