It seems not at all improbable that the deities worshipped by the
ancient Britons and the Irish, were no other then the Phallic deities of
the ancient Syrians and Greeks, and also the Baal of the Hebrews.
Dionysius Periegites, who lived in the time of Augustus Cæsar, states
that the rites of Bacchus were celebrated in the British Isles; while
Strabo, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, asserts that a
much earlier writer described the worship of the Cabiri to have come
originally from Phœnicia. Higgins, in his History of the Druids, says,
the supreme god above the rest was called _Seodhoc_ and _Baal_. The name
of Baal is found both in Wales, Gaul, and Germany, and is the same as
the Hebrew Baal.
The same god, according to O’Brien, was the chief deity of the Irish, in
whose honour the round towers were erected, which structures the ancient
Irish themselves designated Bail-toir, or the towers of Baal. In
Numbers, xxii., will be found a mention of a similar pillar consecrated
to Baal. Many of the same customs and superstitions that existed among
the Druids and ancient Irish, will likewise be found among the
Israelites. On the first day of May, the Irish made great fires in
honour of Baal, likewise offering him sacrifices. A similar account is
given of a custom of the Druids by Toland, in an account of the festival
of the fires; he says:—“on May-day eve the Druids made prodigious fires
on these cairns, which being everyone in sight of some other, could not
but afford a glorious show over a whole nation.” These fires are said to
be lit even to the present day by the Aboriginal Irish, on the first of
May, called by them Bealtine, or the day of Belan’s fire, the same name
as given them in the Highlands of Scotland.
A similar practice to this will be noticed as mentioned in the II Book
of Kings, where the Canaanites in their worship of Baal, are said to
have passed their children through the fire of Baal, which seems to have
been a common practice, as Ahaz, King of Israel, is blamed for having
done the same thing. Higgins in his _Anacalypsis_, says this
superstitious custom still continues, and that on “particular days great
fires are lighted, and the fathers taking the children in their arms,
jump or run through them, and thus pass their children through them;
they also light two fires at a little distance from each other, and
drive their cattle between them.” It will be found on reference to
Deuteronomy, that this very practice is specially forbidden. In the
rites of Numa, we have also the sacred fire of the Irish; of St.
Bridget, of Moses, of Mithra, and of India, accompanied with an
establishment of nuns or vestal virgins. A sacred fire is said to have
been kept burning by the nuns of Kildare, which was established by St.
Bridget. This fire was never blown with the mouth, that it might not be
polluted, but only with bellows; this fire was similar to that of the
Jews, kept burning only with peeled wood, and never blown with the
mouth. Hyde describes a similar fire which was kept burning in the same
way by the ancient Persians, who kept their sacred fire fed with a
certain tree called Hawm Mogorum; and Colonel Vallancey says the sacred
fire of the Irish was fed with the wood of the tree called Hawm. Ware,
the Romish priest, relates that at Kildare, the glorious Bridget was
rendered illustrious by many miracles, amongst which was the sacred
fire, which had been kept burning by nuns ever since the time of the
Virgin.
The earliest sacred places of the Jews were evidently sacred stones, or
stone circles, succeeded in time by temples. These early rude stones,
emblems of the Creator, were erected by the Israelites, which in no way
differed from the erections of the Gentiles. It will be found that the
Jews to commemorate a great victory, or to bear witness of the Lord,
were all signified by stones: thus, Joshua erected a stone to bear
witness; Jacob put up a stone to make a place sacred; Abel set up the
same for a place of worship; Samuel erected a stone as a boundary, which
was to be the token of an agreement made in the name of God. Even
Maundrel in his travels names several that he saw in Palestine. It is
curious that where a pillar was erected there, sometime after, a temple
was put up in the same manner that the Round Towers of Ireland
were,—always near a church, but never formed part of it. We find many
instances in the Scriptures of the erection of a number of stones among
the early Israelites, which would lead us to conclude that it was not at
all unlikely that the early places of worship among them, were similar
to the temples found in various parts of Great Britain and Ireland. It
is written in Exodus xxiv. 4, that Moses rose up early in the morning,
and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to
the twelve tribes of Israel, were erected. It is also given out that
when the children of Israel should pass over the Jordan, unto the land
which the Lord giveth them, they should set up great stones, and plaster
them with plaster, and also the words of the law were to be written
thereon. In many other places stones were ordered to be set up in the
name of the Lord, and repeated instances are given that the stones
should be twelve in number and unhewn.
Stone temples seem to have been erected in all countries of the world,
and even in America, where, among the early American races are to be
found customs, superstitions, and religious objects of veneration,
similar to the Phœnicians. An American writer says:—“There is sufficient
evidence that the religious customs of the Mexicans, Peruvians and other
American races, are nearly identical with those of the ancient
Phœnicians.... We moreover discover that many of their religious terms
have, etymologically, the same origin.” Payne Knight, in his Worship of
Priapus, devotes much of his work to show that the temples erected at
Stonehenge and other places, were of a Phœnician origin, which was
simply a temple of the god Bacchus.