always crowned with a gilt umbrella of iron filagree, hung round with
bells.--“The _tie_ or _umbrella_ is to be seen on every sacred building
that is of a spiral form; the rising and consecration of this last and
indispensable appendage is an act of high religious solemnity, and a
season of festivity and relaxation. The present king bestowed the _tie_
that covers Shoemadoo: it was made at the capital. Many of the principal
nobility came down from Ummerapoora to be present at the ceremony of its
elevation. The circumference of the tie is fifty-six feet; it rests on an
iron axis fixed in the building, and is further secured by large chains
strongly riveted to the spire. Round the lower rim of the tie are appended
a number of _bells_, which agitated by the wind make a continual jingling”
(SYMES).
[202] “It is remarked that in China they have no pyramids, but pagodas
raised by galleries, one above another, to the top: the most celebrated of
these is that called the Porcelain Tower, in Nankin, said to be two
hundred feet high, and forty feet at the base, built in an octagonal form.
These pagodas seem to have been designed for altars of incense, raised to
their aërial deities, with which to appease them; and their hanging bells,
_with their tintillations to drive away the demons_ lest they should, by
noxious and malignant winds and tempests, disturb their serene atmosphere
and afflict their country” (_Dissertations upon the Pyramids_).
[203] The reason of this will appear hereafter; while in the interim I
must observe that this new appropriation of them to Christian purposes was
what occasioned that error on the part of a writer some centuries after,
who _opined_ that it was _Sanctus Patricius_ who first presented one to
_Sancto Kierano_. I make no question of the _present_; but does
presentation imply invention?
[204] Cambrensis tells rather a curious story about St. Finnan’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
particular form of exorcism shaped for the purpose, and tied with a cord
(no matter how slight), it would be found in the morning at the church of
St. Finnan, at Clunarech, in Meath, from whence it was brought; and,” adds
he, “this sometimes happened.”
[205] A communication from Mr. Hall himself, just imparted, assures me
that, _as far as he could judge_, the aperture was _coeval_ with the
instrument, and by no means accidental.
[206] “This word is generally supposed to be derived from Fars or Pars, a
division of the empire of Iran, and applied by Europeans to the whole of
that kingdom. It is certainly a word unknown, in the sense we use it, to
the present natives of Iran, though some Arabic writers contend that Pars
formerly meant the whole kingdom. In proof of this assertion, a passage of
the Koran is quoted, in which one of Mohammed’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 kingdom being Paras or
Phars. The authors of the Universal History, on what authority I know not,
state that the word Iran is not a general name of Persia, but of a part of
the country. _This is certainly erroneous_: Iran has, from the most
ancient times to the present day, been the term by which the Persians call
their country; and it includes, in the sense they understand it, all the
provinces to the east of the Tigris; Assyria Proper, Media, Parthia,
Persia, and Hyrcania or Mazenderan” (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).
[207] These quotations from the professor’s book are not given
_consecutively_ as he wrote them, but _brought together_ from detached
sections and chapters.
[208] Pars is the Persian, Fars the Arabic, pronunciation of the word.
[209] I should have observed, that Plato also, speaking of those modern
Persians, says: “They were originally a nation of shepherds and herdsmen,
occupying a rude country, such as naturally fosters a hardy race of
people, capable of supporting both cold and watching, and when needful, of
enduring the toils of war” (Plato, _De Leg._ iii. op. ii. p. 695).
[210] Επεκτεινεται δε τ’ οὔνομα της Αριανης μεχρι μερους τινος καὶ Περσων
καὶ Μηδων και ετι των προσαρκτον Βακτριον και Σογδιανῶν. εισι γαρ τως και
ὁμωγλωττοι παρα μικρομ (STRABO, p. 1094).
[211] All the other variations are thus similarly accounted for; being but
offshoots of the same radix, such as I have already shown (p. 128) in
reference to Ireland--while the careful reader will of himself see that
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 evidently but the
translation of lough.
[212] Zendavesta, i. 14.
[213] “And what would hardly appear possible, as we cannot discover what
purpose such a finished fable of idolatrous superstition would be meant to
answer” (Sir John Malcolm’s _History of Persia_, vol. i. p. 191).
[214] Yet in Hindoostan, also, as we learn from Major Archer, “an
_astrologer_ is a constituted authority in all the villages, and nothing
pertaining to life and its concerns is commenced without his sanction.”
[215] “Tout, dans le systême primitif de la religion des Grecs, atteste la
transposition des traditions comme des principes; tout y est vague, sombre
et confus” (DE SACY).
[216] “The Sabians themselves boasting the origin of their religion from
Seth, and pretending to have been denominated from a son of his called
Sabius, as also of having among them a book, which they called the _Book
of Seth_” (Prideaux, part i. book iii.).
[217] This is only a corruption from the Irish word _Ercol_, the sun.
[218] Wisdom of Solomon, xiv. 16, 17.
[219] 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
_Palatinus_, which--no doubt, to the amazement of etymological
empirics--is nothing less than a compound of _Baal_ and _tinne_; that is
_Baal’s fire_--the initial _B_ and _P_ being always commutable. And
_Aven-tinus_, the epithet 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 former was devoted to the _sun_, so the latter was to the
_moon_; in confirmation of which it got another name, namely, _Re-monius_,
of which the component parts 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 say
nothing about these matters? nay, offer other _explanations_?
mystifications, Sir, if you please, whereby they implicate, as well
themselves as their readers, in absurdities; which could not be expected
to be otherwise uninstructed, _as their authors necessarily were_, in the
elements of that language whence all those words have diverged.
_Pru-taneion_, then, is compounded of _Bri_, a mount, and _tinne_, fire;
the _B_, as before observed, being commutable with _P_, particularly
amongst the Greeks, who indifferently called Britain Βρετανικη and
Πρετανικη (νησος being understood). Every community had, of old, one of
those _Britennes_, or _fire mounts_, natural or artificial. The guardian
of the sacred element 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 the _principal station_ at _Cecropia_, the name of which he
changed, by _way of eminence_, to _Astu_; and hence this latter word,
which originally but represented the abode of the _Sacerdos_, came
ultimately to signify a _city_ at large; as _Prutaneion_ did a Common
Council Hall.
[220] To this day, the most kindly wish, and ordinary salutation, of the
Irish peasant, continues to be _Bal dhia duit, Bal dhia ort_, that is the
god Baal to you, or the god Baal upon you.
[221] The Irish mode of expressing it is _Slan fuar tu sin, agus slan
adfaga tu sin_. The Caffres who reside all round the Cape, pay their
adoration to the moon, by dancing to her honour when she changes, or when
she is at the full. They prostrate themselves on the ground, then rise up
again, and, gazing at her orb, with loud acclamations, make the following
address:--“We, thy servants, salute thee. Give us store of milk and honey;
increase our flocks and herds, and we will worship thee.”
[222] The word is more _mysterious_, as I shall explain elsewhere.
[223] Hannah More.
[224] Byron.
[225] “One superstition of the pagans never fails to assert its influence
upon spots like this--the _genius_ loci is always ascendant” (DEANE).
[226] _Ab-roch_ also, the official title of Joseph, when appointed regent
of Egypt, signifies father of the _king_.
[227] “The Himalaya are the peculiar abodes of the gods of the Hindoos;
the rivers, issuing from the eternal snows, are goddesses, and are sacred
in the eyes of all. Shrines, of the most holy and awful sanctity, are at
the fountain-heads of the Ganges and Jumna; and on the summit of Kedar
Nauth, Cali, that goddess of bloody rites, is supposed to have taken up
her residence. One among the numerous proceedings of her votaries, 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 with a _knife_ tied
round his neck; the belief is, that the goddess will find the victim, and
immolate it with her own hand” (ARCHER).
[228] This adjective I apply indiscriminately to Persia or to Ireland.
[229] It lies in the district of _Ins-oin_, which means the _abode_ of
_Magicians_; corrupted now to _Inis_-owen, which would import Eugene’s
_island_. An aggravated blunder--the place being in the _very centre_ of
the country, with which such an imaginary chevalier was never associated.
[230]
“His tibi _Grynæi_ nemoris dicatur origo,
Ne quis sit lucus, quâ se plus jactet _Apollo_.”
Virg. _Ecl._ 6.
[231] “_Granem_ dixere priores.”--OVID.
Although those heaps are now but signals of accidental or violent death,
for which each passenger bespeaks his sorrow by _adding a small stone_,
yet we see that in their origin they were more religiously designed; and
while this _latter practice_ is observed also in India, it appears that
they have retained there more correctly the primitive idea, as may be
inferred from these words of Major Archer:--“On the right and left are
several cairns of stones, erected by parties of travellers as they cross,
in _acknowledgment to the deities or presiding spirits for their
protection_.”
[232] _Ogyg. seu Rer. Iber. Chron._ part i. p. 16.
[233] One of the ancient names of Ireland is _Inis Algan_, that is, the
_Noble Island_.
[234] “The children gathered the wood, the fathers kindled the fire, and
the women kneaded the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven” (Jer.
vii. 18).
[235] _Lettres sur les Sciences_, p. 202.
[236] _Hist. du Calendrier_, Pref. p. 14.
[237] “Obeliscum Deo soli, speciali munere, dedicatum fuisse” (AMMIANUS).
[238] “Chinenses et Indi, præter imagines in pagodis et delubris,
prægrandes aliquando etiam _integras rupes_, presertim si naturâ in
_pyramidalem formam_ vergebant, in idola formari solebant” (HYDE).
[239] Is it not pitiable, therefore, to hear Mr. Deane, in the last volume
of the _Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries_, London, ascribe the
erection of those obelisks which he met in Britanny, to the following
text? namely, “Behold Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear
stuck in the ground at his bolster” (1 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 was placed a large
polished stone, of a _cylindrical_ form, standing on its base, the top
_rounded_, or convex: they called it _Mahody_,--that the name of the
inconceivable God was placed under it aloof from profanation.
Launder, in his _Voyage to India_, p. 81, saw one _erected_ in a _tank_ of
water. Herodian tells us he saw a similar stone, round at the bottom,
diminishing towards the top in a conical form, at Emessa, in Phœnicia, and
that the name they gave it was Heliogabalus (VALLANCEY).
[240] _I.e._ the _Good_-Baal-Peor.
[241] Wilford, in like manner, after a more mature acquaintance with the
system, says, “I beg leave here to retract what I said in a former essay
on Egypt, concerning the followers of Buddha.”
[242] _Observations on Drakontia_, London, 1833.
[243] The Mexican hierogram is formed by the intersecting of two great
serpents, which describe the circle with their bodies, and have each a
human head in its mouth.
[244] Ovid.
[245] Gen. xi. 31.
[246] See pages 503-506 for the explication of the serpent and the rest of
the allegory.
[247] The Betula, or Birch tree.
[248] Were additional proof required that this is the true solution of the
Mosaic _myth_, respecting the forbidden _apple_, it is irresistibly
offered to anyone who will see that relic of Eastern idolatry, presented
by Lieutenant-Colonel Ogg to the Museum of the East India Company, London,
which consists of a tabular frame of white marble, furnished with a
fountain, and emblematically stored with religious devices; the most
extraordinary of which is a representation of the _Lingam_ and _Yoni_ in
_conjunction_, around the bottom of which, in symbolical suggestion, is
coiled a serpent; while the top of another Lingam, placed underneath, is
embossed towards the termination, which is _conical_ and _sunny_, with
four heads, facing the cardinal points, and _exactly corresponding with
those which grace the preputial apex_ of the Round _Tower_ of _Devenish_.
Those four heads represent the four gods of the Budhist theology, who have
appeared in the present world, and already obtained the perfect state of
Nirwana, viz. Charchasan, Gonagon, Gaspa, and Goutama. And the entire
coincidence between this Lingam and the characteristics of our Round
Towers is such as to convince the most obdurate sceptics, even had I not
put the question beyond dispute before, that they were _uniform_ in
design, and _identical_ in purpose.
[249] Venus preferred a _cestus_, or a talisman of her own sex, as we are
told in the fourteenth book of the _Iliad_, where it is said, that
“the Queen of Love
Obeyed the sister and the wife of Jove,
And from her fragrant breast the zone unbraced,
With various skill and high embroidery graced.
In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.”--HOMER.
[250] The offerings made at the present day are precisely of the same
kind. “Boiled rice, fruits, especially the cocoa-nut, flowers, natural,
and 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).
[251] Gen. iv. 7.
[252] Methinks I hear some wiseacre start up here and say this cannot be,
because man in an _uncivilised_ state occupies more space than when
restricted by social usages. Pray, sir, who told you that man was then
_uncivilised_? Then, in fact, it was that he may be called truly
civilised, as more recent from the converse of his Creator.
[253] 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, Durga,
Ganes, and the Bull Nandi, in adoration. The size of the stand or tablet
is about two feet square, and the whole is richly painted and gilt. On the
crown of the Linga is a refulgent sun.” In fig. 2 of same “is a Panch
Muckti, or five-headed Linga, of basalt, of which the fifth head rises
above the other four, surmounted by the hooded snake. Each of the heads
has also a snake wreathed around it, as well as around the Argha. The Bull
Nandi is kneeling in adoration before the spout of the Yoni.”
[254] And _Bacchus_, in reality, was but another name for one of the
various _Budhas_. Even under the name of _Dionysos_ we find him, to this
hour, amongst ourselves. “On _Sliabh Grian_, or the _Hill_ of the _Sun_”
says Tighe, “otherwise called Tory Hill, in the county Kilkenny, is a
circular space, sixty-four yards in circumference, covered with stones. In
this stands a very large one, and on the east side another, reared on
three supporters, and containing an inscription, which in Roman letter
would exhibit “Beli Dinose.”
[255] “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 vow for the
purpose of having children, if she brings into the world a pretty
daughter, she carries it to Bod,--so they call the idol which they adore,
and leaves it with him” (Renaudot’s _Anc. Rel._ p. 109).
[256] “It is generally known, that the religion of Boudhou is the religion
of the people of _Ceylon_, but no one is acquainted with its forms and
precepts” (JOINVILLE).
[257] Goldsmith.
[258] That is, “_above_ reason.”
[259] Gen. vi. 2.
[260] _Ibid._ iv. 26.
[261] Job xxxviii.
[262] “_In the beginning_ God created” (Gen. i. 1).
[263] Gen. vi. 4.
[264] 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
rather because they fell and rushed on men with great violence, and
oppressed them in a cruel and tyrannical manner”!!!
[265] Philosophers will ultimately repose in the belief that Asia has been
the principal foundry of the human kind; and _Iran_ or _Persia_ will be
considered as one of the cradles from which the species took their
departure 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 the
name_) was the central country which we sought” (Sir W. Jones, _Asiatic
Researches_).
[266] 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 a
cylindrical form, with its top shaped like a dome_.
[267]
“Tuatha _Heren_ tarcaintais
Dos nicfead sith laitaith nua.”
That is,
The _magicians_ of Ireland prophesied
That new times of peace would come.
I would point your attention to this stanza, not only as confirmatory of
the solution above given for the word _Tuatha_, but as furnishing another
link in that great chain of analogy which I have traced between the names
of Ireland and ancient Persia. _Haran_, in Mesopotamia, is but the
prefixing of an aspirate to _Eran_, the Pahlavi variation for _Iran_, the
original name for that _Sacred Land_.
[268] General Vallancey was equally ignorant as to the meaning of the
additional words _De-danaan_.
[269] The Lotos was the most sacred plant of the ancients, and typified
the _two_ principles of the earth’s fecundation combined--the germ
standing for the _Lingam_; the filaments and petals for the _Yoni_.
[270] This _Puzza_ is nothing more than our Irish _Pish_: and, what is
miraculously _coincident_, the title of the enthusiast who annually kills
somebody in honour of her, under the name of the goddess _Manepa_, at
Tancput, is _Phut_, or Buth; that is, the Budh of the Irish!
[271] “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. xi. 24).
[272] “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
the perfection of their offspring, and that Vishnu, at the request of the
goddess, effected a reconciliation between them; hence the _navel_ of
Vishnu, by which they mean the _os tincæ_, is worshipped as one and the
same with the sacred _Yoni_.”
[273] She “made use of the same artifice the old woman, called Baubo, did
to put Ceres in good humour, and showed him the prototype of the _Lotos_.
Mahadeva smiled and relented; but on the condition that they should
instantly leave the country.”
[274] “But such is the confusion and uncertainty of the Hindu records,
that one is really afraid of forming any opinion whatever” (WILFORD).
[275] Sir John Malcolm, vol. i. p. 270.
[276] Thomson.
[277] “When history fails in accounting for foreign extraction of any
people, or where it is manifestly mistaken, how can this extraction be
more rationally inferred and determined, or that mistake rectified, than
from the analogy of languages? And is not this at once sufficiently
conclusive, if nothing else was left them?” (_Eugene Aram_).
[278] “The merchants of Magadha formed not only a particular class, but
also a particular tribe. It seems that they were bold, enterprising, and,
at the same time, cautious and circumspect; hence they are said to be
merchants by the fathers’, and warriors by the mothers’ side, according to
Mr. Colebrook’s account of the Hindu classes” (_Asiat. Res._ ix. p. 79).
[279] See _A Dissertation on the Antiquity, Origin, and Design of the
principal Pyramids of Egypt_, etc. etc.
[280] Mersennus writes thus:--“I find that the cubit (upon which a learned
Jewish writer, which I received by the favour of the illustrious Hugenius,
Knight of the Order of St. Michael, supposes the dimensions of the temple
were formed) answers to 23¼ of our inches; so that it wants ¾ of an inch
of two of our feet, and contains two Roman feet and two digits, and a
grain, which is ¼ of a digit.” The Paris foot, with which Mersennus
compared this cubit, is equal to 1-68/1000 of the English foot, according
to Mr. Greaves; and consequently is to the Roman foot as 1068 to 967. In
the same proportion, reciprocally, are 23¼ and 25-68/100. That cubit,
therefore, is equal to 25-68/100 _unciæ_ of the Roman foot, and
consequently falls within the middle of the limits 25-57/100 and 79/100,
with which we have just circumscribed the sacred cubit: so that I suspect
this cubit was taken from some authentic model, preserved in a secret
manner from the knowledge of the Christians (SIR ISAAC NEWTON).
[281] “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 now
in the wall; and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door: and he said
unto me, Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I
went in, and saw; and, behold, every form of creeping things, and
abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed
upon the wall round about” (EZEKIEL).
[282] “Inter omnes eos, non constat à quibus factæ sint, justissimo casu
obliteratis tantæ vanitatis authoribus” (PLIN).
[283]
קנים גפר עצי תבת לךעשה
אתה וכפרת התבה את תעשה
אשר וזה בכפר ומחוץ מבית
אמה מאות שלש אתה תעשה
אמה חמשים התבה ארך
קומתה אמה ושלשים רחבה
_Gen._ vi. 14.
[284] Exod. ii. 3.
[285] The Septuagint translators, not perceiving any difference, rendered
all, similarly, by the word κιβωτός!
[286] As does also _Tha_, _To_, _Ti_, _Tho_, _Thu_, with their several
commutables, derivatives, formatives, etc.
[287] And the _Valley of To-phith_, in which human victims were
sacrificed, thus discloses, in the _symbolic secret of its shape_, that
the propitiation of this _instrument_ was the grand object of the
sacrificers.
[288] Virgil.
[289] Gen. vi. 9.
[290] Gen. vi. 12.
[291] Rom. i. 20-24.
[292] Gen. vi. 8.
[293] _The-bith._
[294] Gen. ix. 1.
[295] “This king is stated to have reclaimed his subjects from a _state_
of the _most savage barbarity_. He was, we are told by our author, the son
of Yussan-Ajum, while others call him the grandson of Noah; _all agree in
acknowledging him as the founder of a dynasty, which are known in history
as that of the Paishdadian_” (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).
[296] The Irish name for a _boat_ is _baudh_, which is only a formative of
_pith_.
[297] Gen. v. 29.
[298] If the reader will now turn to p. 223, will he not think it probable
that the _symbol_ contained on the broken-off portion of the stone, there
represented, must have been the phallus?
[299] Who can forget the fable in Ovid, _de jactibus lapidibus_?
[300] “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 call him
Deva-cala-_Yavana_; or, according to the vulgar mode of pronouncing this
compound word, Deo-cal-_Yun_, which sounds exactly like _Deucalion_ in
Greek” (WILFORD).
[301] Fielding.
[302] Isa. viii. 7, 8.
[303] Gen. vii. 2.
[304] Gen. viii. 10, 11.
[305] The following is an abstract of the Hindoo version of this allegory,
as copied from their Puranas:--“Satyavrata, having built the _ark_, and
the flood increasing, it was made fast to the peak of Nau-baudha, with a
cable of a prodigious length. During the flood, Brahma, or the _creating
power_, was _asleep_ at the bottom of the abyss: the _generative powers of
nature_, both male and female, were reduced to their simplest elements,
the _Linga_ and the _Yoni_. The Yoni assumed the shape of the hull of a
_ship_, since typified by the Argha, whilst the Linga became 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 of _Capoteswari_, or the
_dove_, and she was soon joined by her consort, in the shape of
_Capoteswara_.”
[306] See p. 63.
[307] Acts vii. 22.
[308] The _date_ of those Uksi was not the only misconception this
historian has committed. He was equally in the dark as to the _place_
whence they came, and, for want of a better name, called them, at a
venture, Arabians!
[309] See p. 64.
[310] Most of the _oracles_ in the ancient world were but
_personifications_ of this influence--the _goddess_ invariably being the
sacred Yoni. And the priestesses so far prevailed upon the credulous
worshippers as to make them believe that _she_ actually spoke! The oracle
of _Delphi_, the most 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.
[311] As _Noah_ was himself named from the _symbolical boat_, so was his
eldest son _Japheth_, from its sanctified _prototype_. _Ja-Phith_
signifies _consecrated to Pith_, or the _Yoni_. And again, _his_ son’s
name, _Ja-van_, means _consecrated to woman_.
[312] “In the city of Babylon there is a temple with brazen gates,
consecrated to Jupiter Belus, being four square; and each side being two
furlongs in length. In the midst of this holy place there is a solid
tower, of the thickness and height of a furlong; upon which there is
another 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 are
steps 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 were made
for the purpose, that they who go to the top may have conveniences to sit
down and rest themselves” (HERODOTUS).
“’Tis a tower exactly round, in form of a cone, or round pyramid; the
diameter, or thickness at the base, being 81 feet; the circumference, or
way round, 254½ feet; the height perpendicular likewise 81 feet, equal to
the diameter; the height likewise, oblique, 90½ feet; and the angles of
the sides equal to those of the former design: the whole likewise a mass
of brick and bitumen work, amounting to 140,589 cubic feet, upon 5207
square” (MARK GREGORY).
[313] Gen. xi. 4.
[314] Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_.
[315] _Shiloh_ is an _Irish_ word, literally meaning _seed_, and
additionally showing that it was in our _sacred_ language all those
occurrences were _originally named_.
[316] Both words equally signify the _happy country_ or the _sacred land_.
[317] Gen. iii. 15.
[318] See chap. xvii. p. 229.
[319] Gen. iii. 15.
[320] Gen. xix. 31-34.
[321] _Asiatic Researches._
[322] Job xix. 25.
[323] John viii. 56.
[324] Rev. xiii. 8.
[325] _Appeal to Common Sense_, p. 45.
[326] See chap. xvi. p. 224.
[327] _De Morib. German._ xxiv.
[328] _Western Islands_, vol. i. p. 184, etc.
[329] _Highlands_, vol. iii. p. 236.
[330] “I inquired,” says Mr. Martin, “of the inhabitants, what tradition
they had concerning these stones; and they told me, it was a place
appointed for worship in the time of heathenism; and that the chief Druid
stood near the big stone in the centre, from whence he addressed himself
to the people that surrounded him.”
[331] United at the feet in this manner [Illustration]. The jewel in the
freemasons’ royal arch is thus formed. Noah was a freemason; and being the
inventor of that _mysterious_ and _sacredly-religious ceremony_, called
the _Deluge_, we may be satisfied that all the _secrets_ of that body bear
reference to my developments. I look upon their institution as most
_solemn_ and _majestically sublime_.
[332] In the accounts transmitted to us of the various _Buddhas_, no term
occurs more commonly as descriptive of their innocence and their meekness
than that of _lamb_.
[333] Gen. iii. 15.
[334] Luke iii. 39.
[335] See p. 132.
[336] _Indian Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 361.
[337] See chap. xvi. p. 221.
[338] Matt. xxii. 29.
[339] Vol. i. p. 308, on the article “Fine Arts.”
[340] The initial subscribed to the article.
[341] See Appendix.
[342] Like the two former effigies, at pp. 138 and 140, it is made of
_bronze_, and found in Ireland after the Tuath-de-danaans. Those found
after their brethren in the East are made of the same metal. “Sometimes,”
says Archer, “the _images_ are of _wood_ or _stone_, but these, unless
possessing the rarity of some monkish legend, are not in such repute as
their brothers of _brass_.”
[343] This is the only _peculiar_ monogram of Jesus Christ--I. H. S.
belonging originally to Budha, though appropriated afterwards to _him_, Υ
Η Σ was its proper form, and it comprehended a mysterious number, as
follows:--
Υ 400
Η 8
Σ 200
---
608
Another monogram of Budha was Φ Ρ Η. It composed the same numerical
enigma, viz.--
Φ 500
Ρ 100
Η 8
---
608
Salvo vera Deum facies, vultusque paternæ,
Octo et sexcentis numeris, cui litera trina
Conformet sacrum nomen, cognomen et omen.
MARTIANUS CAPELLA.
[344] _Arch. Soc. Ant. Lond._ vol. ii. p. 83.
[345] _Asiatic Researches._
[346] “He has a separate apartment, shrouded from vulgar eyes by a black
velvet curtain, richly embossed with gold, in a splendid palace at
Ummerapoor: and his whole residence is as dazzling and sumptuous as gold
and silver can make it. He is furnished with a silk bed, adorned with gold
tapestry, hangings, and jewellery, and has his gold appurtenances. Foreign
ministers are introduced to his sacred person, and he ranks before every
member of the royal court except the king” (SYMES).
[347] It was only as an _epithet_ that the title _sacred_ could apply to
Samothrace: and as such, every other locality, wherein those mysteries
were commemorated, shared it in common. But in _this our island_, to which
Artemidorus above alludes, and where superior solemnity attended the
celebration, the name of _sacred_ was no adventitious clause, but, _par
excellence_, the _constituent essence_ of its _proper appellation_ (see
pp. 128, 129).
[348] Μυστηρια δε δυο τελειται του ενιαυτου; Δημητοι Κορη; τα μικρα και τα
μεγαλα· και εστι τα μικρα ωσπερ προκαθαρσις και πραγνέυσις των μεγαλων.
[349] Lib. x. p. 474.
[350] εις την Πολιτ. Πλατ. p. 380.
[351] See the article under her name in the _Classical Dictionary_, with
all the authorities there adduced.
[352] _Clem. Alex. Strom._ ii.
[353] Mihi cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athenæ tuæ peperisse--tum
nihil melius illis mysteriis quibus agresti immanique vitâ exculti ad
humanitatem mitigati sumus: initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera
principia vitæ cognovimus: neque solum cum lætitiâ vivendi rationem
accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliori moriendi (_De Legibus_, 1. i. c. 24).
[354] Pope.
[355] Luke xix. 20.
[356] “The _Bulbul of Iran_ has a passion for the rose, and when he sees
any person pull a rose from the tree he laments and cries” (“Persian
Poem,” quoted in Ouseley’s _Oriental Collections_).
[357] Basnage, bk. iii. ch. xix. s. xix.
[358] 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 is Captain
Basil Hall’s description of this curious constellation.
“Of all the antarctic constellations, the celebrated _Southern Cross_ is
by far the most remarkable; and must in every age continue to arrest the
attention of all voyagers and travellers who are fortunate enough to see
it. I think it would strike the imagination even of a person who had never
heard of the Christian religion; but of this it is difficult to judge,
seeing how inextricably our own ideas are mingled up with associations
linking this sacred symbol with almost every thought, word, and deed of
our lives.
“The three great stars which form the Cross, one at the top, one at the
left arm, and one, which is the chief star, called Alpha, at the foot, are
so placed as to suggest the idea of a crucifix, even without the help of a
small star, which completes the horizontal beam. When on the meridian, it
stands nearly upright; and as it sets, we observe it lean over to the
westward. I am not sure whether, upon the whole, this is not more striking
than its gradually becoming more and more erect, as it rises from the
east. In every position, however, it is beautiful to look at, and well
calculated, with a little prompting from the fancy, to stir up our
thoughts to solemn purposes.
“I know not how others are affected by such things, but for myself I can
say with truth, that during the many nights I have watched the Southern
Cross, I remember on two occasions, when the spectacle interested me
exactly in the same way, nor any one upon which I did not discover the
result to be somewhat different, and always more impressive than what I
had looked for. This constellation, being about thirty degrees from the
South Pole, is seen in its whole revolution, and accordingly, when off the
Cape of Good Hope, I have observed it in every stage; from its triumphant
erect position, between sixty and seventy degrees above the horizon, to
that of complete immersion, with the top beneath, and almost touching the
water. This position, by the way, always reminded me of the death of St.
Peter, who is said to have deemed it too great an honour to be crucified
with his head upwards. In short, I defy the stupidest mortal that ever
lived, to watch these changes in the aspect of this splendid
constellation, and not to be, in some degree, struck by them” (_Fragments
of Voyages_).
[359] Isa. liii. 4, 5.
[360] Isa. liii. 3.
[361] _Asiatic Researches._
[362] Matt. x. 26.
[363] This will explain a text in Scripture never before understood,
namely, “Son of Man, when the land sinneth against Me by tresspassing
grievously, then will I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break _the
staff of the bread thereof_, and will send famine upon it, and cut off man
and beast from it” (Ezek. xiv. 13). _Fogh_ is another term equivalent to
this.
[364] This will at once appear from Varro, who, in Nonus Marcellinus, is
made to say, “We are barbarians, because that we crucify (in gabalum
suffigimus) the innocent; are you not barbarians, when you acquit the
guilty?” Compare also Selden, _Syntagm._ ii. c. 1.
[365] Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos (Tertullian, _de
Præscrip._ cap. xi.).
[366] Ezek. ix. 4, 5, 6.
[367] John iii. 10. The omission of this _cross_ from the text of our
translation may afford some handle to the enemies of religion.
[368] Matt. vi. 27.
[369] _Cunni_ Diaboli.
[370] The _rosary_ was also anterior to Christianity.
[371] John i. 29.
[372] John i. 30.
[373] John i. 31.
[374] Isa. xlii. 9.
[375] Temora.
[376] “And this _stone_, which I have set for a _pillar_, shall be _God’s
house_” (Gen. xxviii. 22).
[377] It is fit I should advertise that Mr. Hamilton spoke of the
individual merely as a figure, without professing to identify him in name
or history either with _Thot_, _Budha_, or _anybody else_.
[378] Introduction, p. xciii.
[379] Cowper.
[380] From the Brahma-vawartta, section of the Crishna-janma--c’hand’a.
[381] Much, mugh, mughsaine tra ainm sain delias do dheadh (Cormac’s
_Glossary_).
[382] The _locale_ of that _boar_, as well as the _mystery_ of its
meaning, which Plutarch transmitted in his allegorical _war_ between
Osiris and Typhon, is now no longer ambiguous (see p. 327).
[383] I have before explained that the _serpent Pyth-on_ means the
_seduction_ of sensuality--_Pith_ itself signifying _yoni_, the _boat_, or
_serpent_, the final _on_ being nothing but a Greek termination.
[384] Isa. liii. 7.
[385] “The gods,” said the Budhist priest to the Catholic bishop before
alluded to, “who have appeared in the present world, and who have obtained
the perfect state, niebau, or _deliverance from all the evils of life_,
are four, Chanchasam, Gonagom, Gaspa, and Godama” (Syme’s _Embassy to the
Court of Ava_).
[386] I shall give you my _definition_ for this word by and by.
[387] 1 Cor. xv. 51.
[388] It will be perceived, that I do not mean this to be an exact _copy_
of the Knockmoy Crucifixion--or _vice versâ_.--The general idea is, what I
mean to substantiate, and the identity of design cannot well be gainsaid.
This remark applies also to the kings about to be introduced by and by.
[389] “We saw,” says Colonel Symes, alluding to the imperfect shell of a
_Budhist_ temple, in the Burman Empire, “several unfinished figures of
_animals_ and _men_ in _grotesque attitudes_, which were designed as
ornaments for different parts of the building” (_Embassy to the Court of
Ava_).
[390] 1 Cor. i. 12.
[391] _Asiatic Researches._
[392] The name of _Sulivan_ in Ireland, than which there is no one more
common, is unquestionably but the perpetuation of the above _Sulivahana_.
And I can give a proof of the fact, _independently of its derivation_,
which will scare ridicule into defiance. It is that a particular branch of
that family called the O’Sulivans, of Tomies, have been ever looked upon
with a feeling of _reverence_ by the natives, almost approaching to
veneration. I have in vain striven to ascertain from them the origin of
this indefinable sense of sanctity. It was like magic upon their minds:
they half-worshipped them, and knew not why. There were but _two
individuals_ of this stock remaining when I was a schoolboy, a few years
ago, at Killarney.
[393] “That is,” says Keating, “the neighbouring country”!!! as if a
country would call itself by such a name! Vallancey ridicules, but bungles
himself still more. And while reminded by this circumstance, I had best
note, that what this last-mentioned writer elsewhere translates as “the
_topographical_ names of Ireland” (_Ainim abberteach an n’ Eirean_),
should have been “the _appellative_ names of Ireland”: they are the
_titles_ of the _island_ itself, not _descriptions_ of the several
_localities_ within it.
[394] Gen. xlix. 10.
[395] _Asiatic Researches._
[396] _Asiatic Researches._
[397] Isa. xlii. 2, 3.
[398] Retiring into a still more solitary place, _Gautama_ and his
disciples sustained triumphantly an argument with two of their bitterest
enemies. But a severer trial exhibited his righteousness in a yet clearer
light. Four young and beautiful sisters, burning with unholy love,
presented themselves naked before him, and besought him to comply with
their desires. “Who, O Gautame!” said they, in the rage of their
disappointment, “who is the lying witness who dares attest that the
virtues of all the former saints are concentrated in thee?” “Behold my
witness,” said the sage, striking the ground with his hand, and at the
moment Okintôngu, the tutelar genius of the earth, appeared, proclaiming,
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, saying, “O _pure_ and
_perfect countenance_, wisdom more precious than gold! majesty
impenetrable! honour and adoration to thee, _thou source of the faith of
the three epochs of the world_!” (Abridged from KLAPROTH).
[399] _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_, October 12, 1833.
[400] This is the exact rendering of the name by which they called it:
viz. _nua vreith_, or _the being born anew_ by the operation of grace.
[401] It is still practised in the East.--“For the purpose of regeneration
it is directed to make an image of pure gold of the _female_ power of
_nature_, in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue the
person to be regenerated is inclosed, and dragged out through the usual
channel. As a statue of pure gold, and of proper dimensions, would be too
expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred _Yoni_, through
which the person to be regenerated is to pass” (WILFORD).
[402] See pp. 3-78 and 162.
[403] Be it remembered, that it was in consequence of his ignorance of the
principle of regeneration that our Saviour addressed Nicodemus in these
cutting words, viz. “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things?” thereby recognising the existence of the doctrine before His own
manifestation to that people.
[404] “Enter ye in at the _strait gate_: for _wide_ is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to _destruction_, and _many_ there be which go
_in_ thereat, because _strait_ is the _gate_, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto _life_, and _few_ there be that find it” (Matt. vii. 13, 14).
[405] “The dome [of this, what he calls a cemetery] springs at various
unequal heights, from eight to nine and ten feet on different sides,
forming at first a coving of eight sides. At the height of fifteen or
sixteen feet, the north and south sides of this coving run to a point like
a gore, and the coving continues its spring with six sides; the east side
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 three feet 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 a centre. It is
combined with great long flat stones, each of the upper stones projecting
a little beyond the end of that immediately beneath it; the part
projecting, and weight supported by it, bearing so small a proportion to
the weight which presses down the part supported; the greater the general
weight is which is laid upon such a cove, the firmer it is compacted in
all its parts” (POWNALL).
[406] “The eight sides of this polygon are thus formed: the aperture which
forms the entrance, and the three niches, or tabernacles, make four sides,
and the four imposts the other four” (POWNALL).
[407] This word I have already derived, after the example of other
writers, from _peutgeda_, or _house of idols_, so misnamed by Europeans. I
must state, however, that another explication is also assigned thereto,
and that is, a perversion of the term _bhaga-vati_, or _holy house_. But
with great respect to the gentlemen who incline to the latter opinion, I
have to 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_.
[408] “The entrance into this temple, which is entirely hewn out of a
stone resembling porphyry, is by a spacious front supported by two massy
pillars and two pilasters forming three openings, under a thick and steep
rock, overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs. The long ranges of columns
that appear closing in perspective on every side; the flat roof of solid
rock that seems to be prevented from falling only by the massy pillars,
whose capitals are pressed down and flattened as if by the superincumbent
weight; the darkness that obscures the interior of the temple, which is
dimly lighted only by the entrances; and the gloomy appearance of the
gigantic stone figures ranged along the wall, and hewn, like the whole
temple, out of the living rock,--joined to the strange uncertainty that
hangs over the history of this place,--carry the mind back to distant
periods, and impress it with that kind of uncertain and religious awe with
which the grander works of ages of darkness are generally contemplated”
(ERSKINE).
[409] “This appellation, Caucasus, at least in its present state, is not
Sanscrit; and as it is not of Grecian origin, it is probable that the
Greeks received it through their intercourse with the Persians” (WILFORD).
[410] Darwin.
[411] “If perfection in art consist in affording continued pleasure, its
achievements, when contemplating this column, must be deemed
insurpassable. A Corinthian capital of 10 feet is poised on a shaft of 67½
feet, the latter resting on a base of 21½ feet; the whole rises to a
height of nearly 100 feet” (HEAD).
[412] “Or the obelisks, commonly called Cleopatra’s Needles, one alone is
now standing; the other, lying down, measures seven feet square at the
base, and sixty-six feet in length. They are so well known, that it is not
necessary to give a very particular description of them” (CLARKE).
[413] In confirmation of this, you will find at p. 14 of Seguin’s
_Thessalonian Coins_, the impression of a man with a hammer, as above, in
one hand, and a key in the other, and the word _Cabeiros_ as the
inscription.
[414] On all public occasions displays of this kind are still indulged in
the East. The _floralia_ of the Romans were adopted from the Easterns.
“Every person, male and female, had _festoons_ depending from the top of
the cap down one side of the head. These were composed of the flowers of
the _wild rose_ and hawthorn, and other beautiful kinds, which, while they
set off the headpiece of the lieges, literally perfumed the air wherever
they went” (ARCHER).
[415] _Sketches of India Field Sports._ Dr. Shaw and Mr. Forbes are even
more conclusive.
[416] P. 338.
[417] If you examine the Tuath-de-danaan crosses with a minute eye, you
will find this exposition irrefutably verified. Though they all have the
traces of the Budhist sculpture, they have also the marks of
_obliteration_; and no one of them to a greater extent than this at
Finglas, where it is known that St. Patrick principally resided. Yet even
this retains indistinct evidence of snakes, etc.
“The body of the snake is not only capable of flexion, but of close and
intimate application to every rugged inequality of a tree on the earth;
and this faculty is the result of its minute subdivisions. The body of the
snake is never bent in acute angles, but always in flowing easy curves or
circles. From each of those distant bones, so multitudinous in their
number, which form the vertebral column (and in one species of Pythra we
have counted 256, exclusive of those composing the tail), a rib arises
from each side, and both together form a great portion of a circle, so as
to embrace nearly the whole circumference of the body. These ribs are
restricted to the vertebræ of the body only; they do not arise from those
of the tail.”
[418] _Travels in Northern India._
[419] Oliver Cromwell with his army of locusts.
[420] Byron.
[421] Some say he belonged to the _fifth_ century. All agree that it was
not later than the _ninth_.
[422] See p. 61.
[423] July 1833.--This gentleman’s name was Pareira.
[424] _Religious Rites and Ceremonies._
[425] The Gaurs themselves did not build those towers, but finding them to
their hand, and knowing them to have been formerly reverenced, they
converted them to this purpose.
[426] One called _Jachen_, that is, _he shall establish_; and the other
_Boaz_, or, _in it is strength_. This was all emblematical, which, without
giving Solomon any participation therein, may be accounted for on the
principle that the building was conducted under the superintendence of
Hiram, a Sidonian, who naturally had exercised the taste of his own
country in the discretion here allowed him. Nor will the circumstance of
those pillars having been made of _metal_ oppose any barrier--the _design_
is the thing to be considered, not the _material_. And besides, we find
them of metal elsewhere also.
“An iron pillar,” says Archer, “stands in a sort of courtyard, having the
remains of cloisters on the four sides. Its history is _veiled in darkest
night_. There is an inscription on it, which nobody can decipher: nor is
there any account, historical or traditional, except we may refer to the
latter class, a prevalent idea of all people, that the pillar is on the
most sacred spot of the old city, which spot was also its centre. It is
also said that as long as the pillar stood, so long would Hindustan
flourish. This was the united dictum of the Brahmins and astrologers of
the day. The pillar is fifteen or sixteen inches in diameter.”
[427] ανθρωπος εστι των παντων μετρον (PROTAGORAS).
[428] 1 Kings viii. 27.
[429] _Antiquities of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 134.
[430] _Antiquities of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 129.
[431] _Dublin Penny Journal_, 20th July 1833.
[432] _Dublin Penny Journal_, 10th June 1833.
[433] _Dublin Penny Journal_, 20th July 1833.
[434] _Ibid._ 5th October 1833.
[435] Colgan.
[436] _Melpomene_, ch. 46.
[437] “Oppidum vocant Britanni cum silvas impeditas vallo atque fossâ
munierunt. The Britons call a town an encumbered wood, fenced in with a
rampart and a ditch” (CÆSAR’S _Comment._ lib. 5).
[438] Of whom O’Flaherty gives this character from an Irish poem, writ by
one G. Comdeus O’Cormaic, which he thus translates into Latin:--
“Primus Amerginus genu candidus anthor Jern
Historicus, judex lege, poeta, sophus.”
That is,--
Fair-limbed Amergin, venerable sage,
First graced Ierne’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 aidir
Agus 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.
[439] The above stanza, I should observe, belongs to that species of
poetry called in Irish _con-a-clon_, wherein the final word of each line
is the initial one of the following.
[440] Or “Tarah,” says the _Dinn Seanchas_, compiled by Amergen Mac
Amalgaid in the year 544, “was so called from its celebrity for melody.”
[441] “Once occupied by a celebrated queen!” (_Asiatic Researches_).
[442] “Heremon was the first of the _Scots_ who held the dominion over all
Ireland” (_Psalter of Narran_).
[443] “For, in the first place, the general tradition of the old Irish
handed down to us by all our historians and other writers, imports that
when the Scots arrived in Ireland, they spoke the same language with that
of the Tuath-de-danaans” (Preface to _O’Brien’s Irish Dictionary_).
[444] The Egyptian epithets are not very dissimilar: “Besides these first
inhabitants 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 the _Sacred
Isles in the West_, deserves peculiar attention” (_Asiatic Researches_).
[445] Nearly similar things, we find, have occurred in the East. “The
natives of the place (Mavalepuran, in Indian) declared to the writer of
this account, that the more aged people among them remembered to have seen
the tops of several pagodas far out in the sea; a statement which was
verified by the appearance of one on the brink of the sea, already nearly
swallowed up by that element” (_Asiatic Researches_).
[446] Αναθηματα,--things dedicated to the gods.
[447] In March.
[448] In September.
[449] See p. 120.
[450] _Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad._ vol. xvi. p. 166.
[451] Procopius calls them ανηκοι και αμελιτητοι, that is, heedless and
indifferent to all culture.
Bishop Cormac also says that he “cannot sufficiently express his
astonishment at the indifference which the Scottish nation evinced in his
day to literature.”
Strabo calls them, Αγριων τελεως ανθρωτων, while M’Pherson asserts of
their brethren, that “nothing is more certain than that the British Scots
were an illiterate people, and involved in barbarism, even after the
Patriarch’s mission to the Scots of Ireland.”
[452] In fact this writer had no other reason for this _mistake_ which he
has committed, in describing it as “scarce habitable for cold,” than his
knowledge of its Hyperborean situation. “The most remote navigation
northward from the Celtic coast in our days,” says he, “is said to be into
Ireland (Ierné), which being situated beyond Britain, is scarce habitable
for cold, so that what lies beyond that island is thought to be not at all
habitable” (_Geog._ lib. 2, ex vers. Gul. Xylandri).
[453] Orpheus also calls the sea dividing the north of Scotland from
Ireland, “Mare Cronium, idem quod mare saturninum et oceanus
septentrionalis” (VALLANCEY).
[454] Gerald. _Cambr. Hist._ i. cap. 19.
[455] A series of articles written under this head, in the columns of the
_Dublin Penny Journal_, by Mr. Pebrie, antiquarian high-priest to the
Royal Irish Academy!
[456] This Tubal-Cain was evidently the person from whom the Greeks
manufactured their mythological Vul-can.
[457] “The griffin,” says Shaw, copying Ctesias, “is a quadruped of India,
having the claws of a lion, and wings upon his back. His fore parts are
red, his wings white, his neck blue, his head and his beak resemble those
of the eagle; he makes his nest among the mountains, and haunts the
deserts, where he conceals his gold.”
[458] “The ignorance of the European Greeks in geography was extreme in
all respects during many ages. They do not even appear to have known the
discoveries made in more ancient voyages, which were not absolutely
unknown to Homer” (Mr. Gouget, _Origin of Arts and Sciences_, tom. 7, b.
3).
[459] “L’existence _de ce peuple antérieur_ est prouvée par le tableau qui
n’offre que des débris, astronomie oubliée, philosophie mêlée à des
absurdités, physique dégénérée en fables, religion épurée, mais cachée
dans une idolatrie grossière. Cet ancien peuple a eu des sciences
perfectionnées, une philosophie sublime et sage” (BAILLY).
[460] Amongst our antiquities also are found _nose-rings_ (nasc-srion),
which, stronger than any other demonstration, shows the orientalism of our
Tuath-de-danaan ancestors. Their ear-rings, also, are thus defined in
Comrac’s _Glossary_: “Arc nasc--vel, a-naisc, bid im cluas--aibh na
saoreland,” _i.e._ a ring worn in the ears of our gentry.
[461] _Dublin Penny Journal._
[462] “Si j’ai bien prouvé que Butta, Thoth, et Mercure ne sont également
que le même inventeur des sciences et des arts” (BAILLY).
“The Buddhists insist that the religion of Buddha existed from the
beginning” (_Asiatic Researches_).
[463] _Gentleman’s Magazine_, Nov. 1822.
[464] In the entire land of Phœnicia there was but one, and that
comparatively a modern one, erected no doubt after their intercourse with
the Tuath-de-danaans.
[465] The play above alluded to is that of the Pænulus, or Carthaginian,
in which Haono is introduced in quest of his two daughters, who, with
their nurse, had been stolen by pirates, and conveyed to Calydon, in
Ætolia. Thither the father repairs on receiving intelligence of the fact,
and addresses a supplication to the presiding deity of the country, to
restore to him his children unstained by pollution. He is made to speak in
his vernacular tongue, just as natives of France are represented in our
drama by Shakespeare: and so _interesting_ is the whole--independently of
the curiosity attaching to so rare a production--that I shall subjoin a
portion of it for the reader.
1.
“Nith al o nim, ua lonuth secorathessi ma com syth.
An iath al a nim, uaillonac socruidd se me com sit.”
O mighty splendour of the land, renowned, powerful; let him quiet me
with repose.
2.
“Chin lach chunyth mumys tyal myethii barii 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 recover
my children after my fatigue.
_N.B._--The first line in each of these triplets is Phœnician, the second
Irish, and the third, their import, in English.
[466] “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
feros; whence, then, I pray you, could they have those letters?” He
answers, “It is hard to say, for whether they at the first coming into the
land, or afterwards by trading with other nations, learned them of them,
or devised them amongst themselves, is very doubtful, _but that they had
letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said
to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish_. And
that also appeareth from the likeness of the character, for the Saxon’s
character is the same with the Irish” (SPENSER).
[467] “Having been always free and independent of the empire of the
Romans, they were unacquainted with the Roman language and its characters:
there were, therefore, but two courses to adopt; either to translate the
holy books into the language of the country, and celebrate the divine
mysteries in it, which would have been contrary to the custom of the
Church, or to teach the characters of the Roman language to those who were
to instruct others; the holy apostle adopted the latter course” (ABBÉ MAC
GEOHIGAN).
[468] Book of Cashel.
[469] Job viii. 8, and xix. 23.
[470] There is no Mohammedan of learning in Persia or India who is not an
astrologer: rare works upon that science are more valued than any other;
and it is remarkable that on the most trivial occasions, when calculating
nativities and foretelling events, they deem it essential to describe the
planets in terms _not unsuited to the account which the author of the
Dabistan has given of these deities_ (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).
[471] Job xix. 23, 24.
[472] Job viii. 8.
[473] Since I have commenced this work, a very ancient manuscript of the
abbey of Icolmkill has fallen into my hands; it was written by
Cairbre-Liffeachair, who lived _six generations before St. Patrick_, and
about the time of our Saviour; an exact account is given in it of Irish
kings, from whence I infer, that as the Irish had manuscripts at that
period, we must certainly have possessed them likewise.
[474] Æschylus would seem to refer to this, when he makes Prometheus say,
“I invented for them the array of letters, and fixed the memory, the
mother of knowledge, and the soul of life” (_Bloomfield’s edition_, v.
469).
[475] Τον Ἑρακλεα ὁι Κελτοι ΟΓΜΙΟΝ ονομαζουσι φωνη τη επιχωριῳ. LUCIAN.
[476] Whittaker’s, Manchester.
[477] See p. 332.
[478] An allegory, by the way, which I could explain satisfactorily, were
it not that it would detain me.
[479] O Richard of Cirencester, oh! what pleasure it affords me to see the
_moderns_ running after the chariot wheels of the _monks_, whenever they
can pick out amongst their lucubrations any stray sentences to support
their own fantasies!
[480] “Near the road (at a place called Margan) is an _old cross_, bearing
an _inscription_, which has been doomed to serve as a bridge for foot
passengers over a little rivulet; and in the village are fragments of a
_most beautiful cross richly decorated with fretwork_.”--CAMBRENSIS.
[481] Some copies read _Scoto_, the meaning, however, is the same; the
only difference being that the latter partakes of the modern enunciations
of the word, as _Scots_, instead of _Scuits_ or _Scythians_.
[482] In the anxiety with which my translation of “Phœnician Ireland” was
hurried through the press, it inadvertently escaped me that the Scythians
had only _touched at Spain_. The above will correct the oversight; to
which I shall add that, “as for entitling the _Spanish-Irish Scots_, there
wants no authority, the Irish authors having constantly called the Spanish
colony Kin-Scuit, or the Scottish nation.”--LHUYDH.
[483] “Every argument of the origin of emigrant nations must, after all,
be referred to language.”--CAMDEN.
[484] The derivation of those two terms is not exclusively mine. It is but
the repetition of the received interpretation of all men of letters.
[485] “For it is to be thought, that the use of all England was in the
raigne of Henry the Second, when Ireland was planted with English, very
rude and barbarous, so as if the same should be now used in England by
any, it would seem worthy of sharpe correction, and of new lawes for
reformation, for it is but even the other day since England grew civill”
(SPENSER).
[486] The name of _Arran_ was given to this island as expressive of _the
land of the unfaithful_, in opposition to our _Iran_, or _the land of the
faithful_: both corresponding to the _Iran_ and _An-Iran_ of the Persians.
[487] This, however, did not happen at first; for the name of Ireland was
not yet generally used among strangers, as Adam de Breme, who lived in the
eleventh century, and Nubigensis, in the twelfth, were the first who
mentioned it: the name of Scotland was by degrees appropriated to Albania,
which was for some time called Little Scotland, “Scotia Minor,” to
distinguish it from Ireland, which was called “Scotia Major,” whose
inhabitants did not lose all of a sudden the name of Scots: they are so
called in the eleventh century by Herman, in the first book of his
chronicle; by Marianus Scotus, Florentius Wigorniensis, in his annals, in
which, having inserted the chronicle of Marianus, in mentioning the year
1028, he says, “In this year was born Marianus, probably a Scot from
Ireland, by whose care this excellent chronicle has been compiled from
several histories.” We discover the same thing in a chronicle in the
Cottonian library (_Abbé Mac Geoghegan_).
[488] The Picts, confiding in the happy omen of future friendship from the
Scots, obtained wives from them, and thereby contracted so close an
alliance, that they seemed to form but one people; so that the passage
between the two countries being free, a number of Scots came and settled
amongst the Picts, who received them with joy (BUCHANAN).
Britannia post Britones et Pictos tertiam Scotorum nationem in Pictorum
parte, recepit, qui, duce Reuda, de Hibernia progressi, vel amicitiâ vel
ferro, sibimet inter eos sedes quas hactenus habent, vindicârunt, à quo
scilicet duce usque hodiè Dalreundini vocantur (Beda, _Hist. Eccles._ lib.
i. cap. 1).
Cambrensis says, that in the reign of Niall the Great in Ireland, the six
sons of Muredus, King of Ulster, with a considerable fleet, seized on the
northern part of Britain, and founded a nation, called Scotia (_Topog.
Hib._ dist. 3, cap. 16).
“It is certain,” says Camden, “that the Scots went from Ireland into
Britain. Orosius, Bede, and Eginard, bear indisputable testimony that
Ireland was inhabited by the Scots.” Elsewhere he calls the Irish the
ancestors of the Scotch. “Hiberni Scotorum atavi.”
[489] Author of the _New Analysis of Chronology_, and late Fellow of
Trinity College, Dublin.
[490] See p. 376.
[491] This should have been Scythians.
[492] “Origin and Purity of the Primitive Churches of the British Isles.”
[493] Various colonies of the Tuath-de-danaans had settled here: but I
talk now of the last one, immediately preceding the Scythians.
[494] See pp. 259, 264, 265.
[495] See pp. 385, 282, and 259.
[496] _Euseb. Præpar. Evang._ 1. ii. 4.
[497] Πανταχοῦ δὲ καὶ ἀνθρωπομορθον Οσιρίδος ἄγαλμαδεικνύουσιν ἐξορθιαζον
τῶ’ αἰδοιω, διὰ το γόνιμον καὶ τὸ τρόφιμον.--_Plut. de Isid. et Osirid._
[498] See p. 265.
[499] De facie in orbe lunæ. Slatyr, also, an English poet, in his “Pale
Albeone,” calls our island Ogygia. Rhodoganus explains the propriety of
the word when he says, “Ogygium appellant poetæ tanquam pervatis dixeres.”
[500] The original, in fact, of the _Feodal System_.
[501] An act of daring impiety (not requiring to be added) disgusted
Jemsheed’s subjects, and encouraged the Syrian prince, Zohauk, to invade
Persia. The unfortunate Jemsheed fled before a conqueror, who was deemed
by all, the instrument of divine vengeance. The wanderings of the exiled
monarch are wrought into a tale, which is among the most popular in
Persian romance. His first adventure was in the neighbouring province of
Seistan, where the only daughter of the ruling prince was led, by a
prophecy of her nurse, to fall in love with him, and to contract a secret
marriage; but the unfortunate Jemsheed was pursued through Seistan, India,
and China, by the agents of the implacable Zohauk, by whom he was at last
seized, and carried before his cruel enemy, like a common malefactor. Here
his miseries closed; for after enduring all that proud scorn could inflict
upon fallen greatness, he was placed between two boards, and sawn asunder
with a bone of a fish (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).
[502] _Clio_, chap. 130.
[503] “Now these _heathens_ in India, believe that an _atonement_ has been
made for their sins,” says Dr. Hurd, in his _Religious Rites and
Ceremonies_. Had the Doctor, or whoever he was that assumed his name,
known that this was their reliance upon the _expiation_ “of the Lamb slain
from the beginning of the world,” he would have spared his _heathens_, and
spoken less irreverently.
[504] _Clio_, chap. 193.
[505] Cambrensis, in the twelfth century, says, the Irish then musically
expressed their griefs; that is, they applied the musical art, in which
they excelled all others, to the ordinary celebration of funeral
obsequies, by dividing the mourners into two bodies, each alternately
singing their part, and the whole, at times, joining in full chorus.
“The body of the deceased, dressed in graveclothes, and ornamented with
flowers, was placed on a bier, or some elevated spot. The relations and
_keeners_ (singing mourners) then ranged themselves in two divisions, one
at the head, and the other at the foot of the corpse. The bards and
croteries had before prepared the funeral caoinan. The chief bard of the
head chorus began by singing the first stanza in a low doleful tone, which
was softly accompanied by the harp: at the conclusion, the foot semichorus
began the lamentation, or _ullaloo_, from the final note of the preceding
stanza, in which they were answered by the head semichorus; then both
united in one general chorus. The chorus of the first stanza being 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, as
before, both united in the full chorus. Thus, alternately, were the song
and the choruses performed during the night. The genealogy, rank,
possessions, the virtues and vices of the dead were rehearsed, and a
number of interrogations were addressed to the deceased: as, Why did he
die? If married, whether his wife was faithful to him, his sons dutiful,
or good hunters or warriors? If a woman, whether her daughters were fair
or chaste? If a young man, whether he had been crossed in love? or if the
blue-eyed maids of Erin had treated him with scorn?” (_Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy_, vol. iv. note 9).
[506] Baillie.
[507] A particular anecdote in the Persian history has such claims upon
the feelings, and is otherwise so interesting, _as being, in fact, the
elucidation 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 Tahamurs. He
had escaped, in almost a miraculous manner, from Zohauk, when that prince
had seized and murdered his father. At the age of sixteen he joined Kâwâh,
who had collected a large body of his countrymen: these fought with
enthusiasm under the standard of the blacksmith’s apron, which continually
reminded them of the just cause of their revolt; and the presence of their
young prince made them invincible. Zohauk, after numerous defeats, was
made prisoner, and put to a slow and painful death, as some punishment for
his great crimes.
“Feridoon’s first act was to convert the celebrated apron into the royal
standard of Persia. As such, it was richly ornamented with jewels, to
which every king, from Feridoon to the last of the Pehlivi monarchs added.
It was called the Derush-e-Kawanee, the Standard of Kawa, and continued to
be the royal standard of Persia, till the Mohammedan conquest, when it was
taken in battle by Saed-e-Wukass, and sent to the Caliph Omar.
“A Persian poet, alluding to the victories which the youthful Feridoon
obtained over Zohauk, and to those enchantments by which the latter was
guarded, and the manner in which they were overcome by his virtuous
antagonist, beautifully exclaims, ‘The happy Feridoon was not an angel; he
was not formed of musk or of amber; it was by his justice and mercy that
he gained good and great ends. Be then just and merciful, 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 Persian
romance; and it is, indeed, only in that form that there remains any trace
of these events. This virtuous monarch had, we are told, three sons, Selm,
Toor, and Erii. The two former were by one mother, the daughter of Zohauk;
the latter by a princess of Persia. All these three princes had been
united in marriage to three daughters of a king of Arabia. Feridoon
determined to divide his wide dominions among them. To Selm he gave the
countries comprehended in modern Turkey; to Toor, Tartary and part of
China; and to Erii, Persia. The princes departed for their respective
governments, but the two elder were displeased that Persia, the fairest of
lands, and the seat of royalty, should have been given to their junior,
and they combined to effect the ruin of their envied brother. They first
sent to their father to reproach him with his partiality and injustice,
and to demand a revision of his act, threatening an immediate attack if
their request was refused. The old king was greatly distressed; he
represented to them that his days were drawing to a close, and entreated
that he might be allowed to depart in peace. Erii discovered what was
passing, and resolved to go to his brothers and to lay his crown at their
feet, rather than continue to be the cause of a dissension that afflicted
his father. He prevailed upon the old king to consent to this measure, and
carried a letter from their common parent to Selm and Toor, the purport of
which was, that they should live together in peace. This appeal had no
effect, and the unfortunate Erii was slain by his brothers who had the
hardihood to embalm his head and send it to Feridoon. The old man is said
to have fainted at the sight. When he recovered, he seized with frantic
grief the head of his beloved son, and, holding it in his raised hands, he
called upon heaven to punish the base perpetrators of so unnatural and
cruel a deed. ‘May they never more,’ he exclaimed, ‘enjoy one bright day!
May the demon remorse tear their savage bosoms, till they excite
compassion even in the wild beasts of the forest! As for me,’ said the
afflicted old man, ‘I only desire from the God that gave me life, that he
will continue it till a descendant shall arise from the race of Erii to
avenge his death: and then this head will repose with joy on any spot that
is appointed to receive it.’
“The daughter of Erii was married to the nephew of Feridoon, and their
young son, Manucheher, proved the image of his grandfather; this child
becoming the cherished hope of the aged monarch; and when the young prince
attained manhood he made every preparation to enable him to revenge the
blood of Erii. Selm and Toor trembled as they saw the day of retribution
approach; they sent ambassadors with rich presents to their father, and
entreated that Manucheher might be sent to them, that they might stand in
his presence like slaves, and wash away the remembrance of their crimes by
tears of contrition. Feridoon returned their presents; and in his reply to
their message expressed his indignation in glowing terms. ‘Tell the
merciless men,’ he exclaimed, ‘that they shall never see Manucheher, but
attended by armies, and clothed in steel.’
“A war commenced; and in the very first battle Toor was slain by the lance
of Manucheher. Selm retired to a fortress, from whence he was drawn by a
challenge from the youthful hero, who was victorious in this combat, and
the war restored tranquillity to the empire” (SIR JOHN MALCOLM).
[508] “Fifty-six years the Fir-Bolgs royal line were kings, and the
sceptre they resigned to the Tuath-de-danaans” (KEATING).
[509] We have as yet no accounts of the persecution and expulsion of the
Budhists from India; and this circumstance of itself would allow us to
infer, with great probability, that those events must have taken place at
a very remote period of antiquity.--_Asiatic Researches._
[510] Göttingen University.
[511] Vallancey, _Coll._ vol. iii. p. 163.
[512] Bryant’s _Anal._ vol. iii. 491-3.
[513] “The first origin of the _Danavas_” says Wilford, talking of the
primeval inhabitants of Egypt, “is as little known as that of the tribe
last mentioned. But they came into Egypt from the west of India, and are
frequently mentioned in the Puranas, amongst the inhabitants near Cali.”
Is it not manifest that they were a colony of our Danaans? And is not this
still more undeniable from the circumstance of a part of Egypt--doubtless
that wherein the Danaans resided--having been called of old, as you will
find by the same authority, by the name of _Eria_? See p. 68 of present
volume.
[514] This explains what Hecatæus records, as to the ancient attachment
between the Hyperboreans and the Grecians--“deducing their friendship from
remote times.” And the offerings which the latter are said to have brought
to the former were precisely of that nature (ανθηματα) which comports with
the spirit of our Budhist pentalogue. See p. 112.
[515] As to the actuality of the visit, it is past anything like doubt,
from Orpheus, or if you prefer Onomacretus’ poem called “Argonautica”; and
his conviction of this it was which made Adrianus Junius, quoted by Sir
John Ware, to characterise Ireland as an “insula _Jasoniæ_ puppis bene
cognita nautis.”
[516] “Abaris ex Hyperboreis, _ipse quoque theologus fuit; scripsit
oracula regionibus quas peragravit, quæ hodie extant; prædixit is quoque
terræ motus, pestes, et similia ac cætera. Ferunt eum cum Spartam
advenisset, Lacones monuisse de sacris mala avertentibus, quibus peractis
nulla, postmodum Lacedæmone 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 pp. 328, 67, and 66, and see what is there stated!
“An hundred and ninety-seven years complete
The Tuath-de-danaans, a famous colony,
The Irish sceptre swayed.”
[517] “A spiritual supremacy of this kind prevailed in several cities of
Asia Minor, as, for instance, at Pessinus, in Phrygia. The origin of such
constitutions is uncertain; but, according to tradition, was of very
ancient date. The same cities were also great resorts of commerce, lying
on the highway from Armenia to Asia Minor. The bond between commerce and
religion was very intimate. The festivals of their worship were also those
of their great fairs, frequented by a multitude of foreigners; all of whom
(certain classes of females not excepted), as well as everything which had
a reference to trade, were considered as under the immediate protection of
the temple and the divinity. The same fact may be remarked here, which has
obtained in several parts of Central Africa, namely, that the union of
commerce with some particular mode of worship gave occasion at a very
early period to certain political associations, and introduced a
sacerdotal government” (Heeren, vol. i. p. 121).
[518] “This word is of uncertain etymology--their early history is
uncertain. Diodorus (lib. v. 31) tells us that the Celts had bards who
sung to musical instruments; and Strabo (liv. iv.) testifies that they
were treated with respect approaching to veneration. The passage of
Tacitus (Germ. 7) is a doubtful reading” (_American Encyclopædia_).
[519] See Oriental Collections.
[520] Homer’s _Iliad_, π. v. 233.
[521] Hesiod, _apud Strabo_, 1. 7.
[522] See Miege’s _Present State of Ireland_.
[523] See p. 257.
[524] On the pillar at Buddall, before alluded to, are these words,
namely, “He had a womb, but it obstinately bore him no fruit. One like him
can have no relish for the enjoyments of life. He never was blessed with
that giver of delight, by obtaining which a man goes to _another
Almoner_.” Upon which the learned translator (Sir Charles Wiggins) very
correctly comments, that “he had no issue to perform _Sradh_ for the
release of his soul from the bonds of sin.” See p. 113 of this work. By
_another Almoner_ is meant the _Deity_.
[525] See p. 327.
[526] “Graiis, ingenium Graiis: dedit _ore rotundo_” (HORACE).
[527] This is still more evident by his making use of the word τηλοθι,
that is, _far off_, meaning _from_ Greece! And Hesiod applies this
identical topography to the _British Islands_, which he styles _sacred_,
describing them as μαλα τηλε, an immeasurable distance off, towards the
northern point of the ancient continent!
[528] See p. 71.
[529] Chap. xvii. 15.
[530] For _Dedan_, see last two pages; and for _D-Irin_, see p. 128. The
prefixing of _D_ to the last word arose from confounding it with the
former name; and thus it was embodied with it, as seen before in _L-Erne_.
[531] Or as the Rev. Cæsar Otway would say, in a similar
embarrassment,--“I will _give_ (_i.e._ invent) you a motto and a motive
for it.” Ha, ha, ha! (see _Dublin Penny Journal_, July 8, 1832).
[532] _Dublin Penny Journal_, April 6, 1833.
[533] “Elementorum omnium spiritus, utpote perennium corporum motu semper,
et ubique vigens, ex his quæ per disciplinas varias affectamus, participat
nobiscum munera divinandi, et substantiales potestates ritu diversa
placatæ, velut ex perpetuis fontium venis vaticina mortalitati suppeditant
verba” (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 21).
“They then took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to
approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery,
incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees” (Book of Enoch).
“I have collected fifty words in the Irish language relating to augury and
divination: every one of them are oriental, expressing the mode of
producing these abominable arts; they are, in fact, the very identical
oriental words written in Irish characters” (VALLANCEY).
[534] Danaus, the sire of fifty daughters, leaving those fruitful regions
watered by the Nile, came to Argos, and through Greece, ordained that
those who erst were called Pelasgi, should by the name of Danai be
distinguished (EURIPIDES).
[535] You will find in Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller’s writings, that
those boats are still called, in that country, _arghs_, as they were in
ours, and the people who man them are styled _Phut_, corresponding to our
_Fo-morians_.
[536] “I thank you,” says Symmachus to his brother Flavianus, “for the
present you made me of some _Irish dogs_ (_canes Scotici_), which were
there exhibited at the Circensian Games, to the great astonishment of the
people, who could not judge it possible to bring them to Rome otherwise
than in iron cages.”
[537] This is the meaning of the name _Glen-da-lough_, and a faithful
portraiture it is of the situation.
[538] Miniature of Budhism.
[539] “The _secret_, it was _lost_, but surely it was found” (_Freemason’s
Song_).
[540] This account is found in _Satdharmalankare_, a very popular Budhist
book, being a collection of histories, etc., from the writings of the
_Rahats_, in which the original _Paly_ (_Pahlavi_) texts are preserved
with the Singhalese (_Miniature of Budhism_).
[541] _Buddu_, the god of souls, is represented by several little images
made of silver, brass, stone, or white clay, and these are set up in
almost every corner, even in caverns and on rocks, to all which piles the
devotees carry a variety of provisions, every new and full moon throughout
the year; but it is in March they celebrate the grand festival of _Buddu_,
at which time they imagine the new year begins. At this festival they go
to worship in two different places, which have been made famous by their
legendary stories concerning them. One of them is the highest mountain in
the island, and called by the Christians _Adam’s Peak_; the other is in a
place where _Buddu_ reposed himself under a _tree_, which planted itself
there for the more commodious reception of the deity, who, _when he was on
earth, frequently amused himself under its agreeable shade_, 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 Soitha (a
Brahmin), which grass, when strewed on the ground under the _Bo tree_,
there arise from the earth miraculously a throne of diamond fourteen
cubits high, covered externally with grass; on which Bodhesat takes his
seat, reclining his back against the _tree_, in order to accomplish his
last act of meditations. Buddha having ascended into the air, and
displayed his glory to all the worlds in rays of six different colours, in
order to afford the gods a proof of his perfection, stands seven days with
his eyes fixed on the _Bo tree_, enjoying the _Dhyanes_ (_Miniature,
etc._).
[542]
“Yes, love indeed is light from heaven,
A spark of that immortal fire,
With angels shared, by Allah 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.
[543] Book of Enoch, lxi. 8-10.
[544] Dr. Lawrence, present Archbishop of Cashel.
[545] Preface to translation of the Book of Enoch.
[546] “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 be
deemed injurious when pressed into the service of vice and infidelity. Nor
should we forget that much, perhaps most, of what we censure, was grounded
upon rational tradition, the antiquity of which alone, independent of
other considerations, had rendered it respectable. _That the author was
uninspired will be scarcely now questioned._ But, although his production
was apocryphal, it ought not therefore to be necessarily stigmatised as
necessarily replete with error; although it be on that account incapable
of becoming a rule of faith, it may nevertheless contain much moral as
well as religious truth, and may be justly regarded as a correct standard
of the doctrine of the times in which it was composed. _Non omnia esse
concedenda antiquitati_ is, it is true, a maxim founded upon reason and
experience; but, in perusing the present relic of a remote age and
country, should the reader discover much to condemn, still, unless he be
too fastidious, he will find more to approve; if he sometimes frown, he
may oftener smile; nor seldom will he be disposed to admire the vivid
imagination of a writer who transports him far beyond the flaming
boundaries of the world--
------‘Extra
Processit longe flammantia mœnia mundi’;
displaying to him every secret of creation; the splendours of heaven, and
the terrors of hell; the mansions of departed souls, and the myriads of
the celestial hosts, the seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim, which surround
the blazing throne, and magnify the holy name of the great Lord of
Spirits, the Almighty Father of men and of angels” (ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL).
[547] See p. 475.
[548] John i. 10, 11.
[549] John i. 14.
[550] P. 478.
[551] But cf. Acts (Gr.) xxiv. 23, τῶν ιδιων.
[552] John i. 12.
[553] John i. 13.
[554] See p. 242.
[555] See p. 243.
[556] Rom. xi. 33.
[557] John i. 31.
[558] John xii. 28.
[559] Namely, the _secret_ of an Antediluvian Incarnation.
[560] Matt. ii. 1, 2.
[561] This woodcut is copied from one of the early block-books.
[562] See p. 440.
[563] I need not repeat to the reader, that by _Irish_ I mean the
primitive _Persic_, indiscriminately common as well to _Iran_ as to
_Irin_.
[564] Virgil’s _Æneid_, vi. 724.
[565] John viii. 12.
[566] John i. 1.
[567] John i. 29. See also p. 315 of this volume.
[568] See p. 288.
[569] In the Tartar language, which is a dialect of the Irish, it still
retains this latter import, as appears from the following:--“Ce qu’il y a
de remarquable, c’est que le grand prêtre des Tartares port le nom de
_lama_, qui en langue Tartare signifie _la croix_; et les _Bogdoi_ qui
conquirent la Chine en 1644, et qui sont soûmis au _delae-lama_ dans les
choses de la religion, ont toujours des _croix_ sur eux, qu’ils appellent
aussi _lamas_” (_Voyage de la Chine_, par Avril, lib. iii. p. 194).
[570] The words _Irish_ and _sacred_ are synonymous. See p. 129.
[571] See pp. 267, 268, 269.
[572] “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
seven gates of the court, and one could not open them without the rest.
Some add that there were seven rooms at the seven gates, where the holy
vessels were kept, and these seven men kept the keys, and had the charge
of them” (_Origines Hebrææ_, vol. i. p. 97).
[573] See p. 438, with the note thereon also.
[574] See _Dublin Penny Journal_, Nov. 10, 1833.
[575] Published by Berthoud, 65 Regent’s Quadrant, Piccadilly.
[576] See p. 361. At Monasterboice there are three very beautiful
specimens of those Tuath-de-danaan crosses still remaining, and covered,
as usual, with _hieroglyphic sculpture_. “The pillars in the Palencian
city,” I find, “are also decorated with serpents, lizards, etc.”
[577] See Borlase, p. 162.
[578] See p. 36. I must not omit to mention that the Tuath-de-danaan cross
at Armagh, noticed at p. 359, was pulled down some time back, to prevent
the _squabbles_ between the Catholics and the Orangemen, neither of whom
had any inheritance therein!
[579] _Vita prima S. Patricii_, Ap. Colgan.
[580] “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall 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).
[581] “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will towards men” (Luke ii. 13, 14).
[582] Matt. ii. 9.
[583] Gen. xiv. 18, 19, 20.
[584] Heb. vii. 4, 1, 2, 3. “Rex idem hominum, Phœbique Sacerdos”
(VIRGIL).
[585] “Holy _mysteries_ must be studied with this caution, that the mind
for its module be dilated to the amplitude of the _mysteries_, and not the
mysteries be straitened and girt into the narrow compass of the mind”
(BACON).
[586] Isa. lii. 7.
[587] John xvi. 33.
[588] Luke xix. 42.
[589] John xiv. 27.
[590] Heb. vi. 19, 20.
[591] _Christmas Carols._
[592] _Freemasons’ Song._
[593] Matt. iii. 7.
[594] John vii. 41.
[595] See p. 229.
[596] Keating’s _History of Ireland_, folio, p. 143.
[597] Pronounced _Sauv_. This was the Seva of the Hindoos, by which
although they understood, indeed, as well _generation_ as _destruction_ to
be symbolised; yet it is clear that they must have long lost the method of
accounting for the _reason why_, otherwise than saying, that _death_ and
_life_ meant the same thing; that is, that the cessation of existence in
one form was but the commencement of existence in another.
[598] _Freemasons’ Song._
[599] Ashe’s _Masonic Manual_.
[600] See p. 282, note.
[601] See p. 268.
[602] Isa. vii. 14.
[603] “The countenance of Christ was placid, handsome, and ruddy, so
formed, however, as to inspire the beholders, not so much with love and
reverence as with terror; his locks were like the colour of a full ripe
filbert nut (auburn), straight, and entire down to the ears, from thence
somewhat curled down to the shoulders, but parted on the crown of the head
after the manner of the Nazarites; his forehead was smooth and shining,
his eyes blue and sparkling, his nose and mouth decorous, and absolutely
faultless; his beard, in colour like his locks, was forked, and not long”
(WASERUS, p. 63).
“At this time appeared a man, who is still living, a man endowed with
great power, his name Jesus Christ. The people say that he is a mighty
prophet; his disciples call him the Son of God. He quickens the 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 his countenance
engaging, with serenity, and full of expression, so as to induce the
beholders to love and then to fear him. The locks of his hair are of the
colour of a vine-leaf, without curl, and straight to the bottom of his
ears, but from thence, down to his shoulders, curled and glossy, and
hanging below his shoulders. His hair on the crown of the head disposed
after the manner of the Nazarites. His forehead smooth and fair. His face
without spot, and adorned with a certain tempered ruddiness. His aspect
ingenuous and agreeable. His nose and his mouth in no wise reprehensible.
His beard thick and forked, of the same colour as the locks of his head.
His eyes blue and extremely bright. In reprehending and improving, 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, accurate and impressive, but sparing of speech. In countenance,
the fairest among the children of men” (Attributed to Lentulus,
predecessor of Pilate in the government of Judea, recorded by Fabricius in
his _Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti_).
[604] The principal one I conceive to have been at the hill of _Tara_,
which means the hill of the _Saviour_, and synonymous with mount _Ida_,
which means the mount of the cross. See p. 453.
“The predominant style and character of the Pillar Tower,” says
Montmorency, “in a great measure discloses the _secret_ of its origin.” It
is astonishing how, after this, he and his pupils of the academy should
labour to assimilate that secret to a dungeon.
“L’obélisque que les Phéniciens dédièrent au Soleil dont le _sommet
sphérique_ et la matière étoient fort différens des obélisques d’Egypte”
(AMMIAN. MARCEL.).
[605] Ex. xx. 26. The word _altar_ does not mean what it is generally
taken to express, a _platform_, but a _high place_, or standing column,
what the Septuagint renders by the Greek word στηλη, a pillar. And this
was what the Israelites were forbid erecting to Jehovah, lest that their
nakedness should be discovered while ascending by steps or ladders to 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 deep steps made
in a winding form, and when the bearers are got within, the priests scale
the walls by the help of ladders; when they have dragged the corpse gently
up with ropes, they then let it slide down the staircase (Dr. Hurd’s
_Rites and Ceremonies, etc._).
[606] See pp. 7 and 8.
[607] 1 Kings vi. 4.
[608] 1 Kings vi. 6.
[609] 1 Kings vi. 29.
[610] The Tower of Pisa bears no comparison to this edifice.
[611] The holy wells also, with the practice of hanging pieces of cloth
upon the branches of an overhanging tree, all belonged to the
Tuath-de-danaan ceremonial. The early Christians took possession each of
them of one of these wells, and are now, by prescription, recognised as
their patron saints, and even supposed to have been their founders?
[612] Μοῖσα δ’ οἰκ ἀποδαμει τρόποις επι σφετέροσι, παντα δε χοροὶ παρθένων
λυρᾶν τε Βοαὶ καναχαί τ’ ανλων δονεονται δαφνᾳ τε χρυσεα κομος αναδησαντες
εἰλαπινα ξοινιν εν φρονως. νοσοι δ’ οντε γηρας ονλομενον κέκρατα ἱερᾶ
γενεᾶ· πονων δε καὶ μαχᾶν ἄτερ οικεοισι φυγοντες υπερδικον Νέμεσιν (Pyth
x. 59).
[613] Even among the vegetables, they abstained from _beans_, as did the
Pythagoreans after them, _ob similitudinem virilibus genitalibus_.
[614] See conditions of advertisement in Preface.
[615] “You may read in Lucian, in that sweet dialogue, which is entitled,
_Toxaris; or, of Friendship_, that the common oath of the Scythians was by
the _sword_, and by the _fire_, for that they accounted those two speciall
divine powers, which should worke vengeance on the perjurers. So doe the
Irish at this day, when they goe to battaile, say certaine prayers or
charmes to their swords, making a crosse therewith upon the earth, and
thrusting the points of their blades into the ground, thinking thereby to
have the better successe here in fight. Also they use commonly to swear by
their swords” (SPENSER).
[616] See pp. 81, 82.
[617] They were _afterwards_ degraded to every possible purpose they could
be made to subserve: but I speak above of the time _immediately_ after
their overthrow.
[618] “I had not been a week landed in Ireland from Gibraltar, where I had
studied Hebrew and Chaldaic, under Jews of various countries and
denominations, when I heard a peasant girl say to a boor standing by her,
_Féach an maddin nag_ (Behold the morning star), pointing to the planet
Venus, the _maddin nag_ of the Chaldean. Shortly after, being benighted
with a party in the mountains of the western parts of the county of Cork,
we lost the path, when an aged cottager undertook to be our guide. It was
a fine starry night. In our way, the peasant pointing to the constellation
_Orion_, he said that was _Caomai_, or the armed king; 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 not doubt of this
being the _Cimah_ of Job, which the learned Costard asserts to be the
constellation _Orion_” (VALLANCEY).
[619] At p. 305 of his work on the _Towers and Temples of Ancient
Ireland_, Mr. Keane observes: “Lists of Irish Round Towers have been made
to the number of one hundred and twenty; of these, the remains of about
sixty-six are traceable.” The list given here includes some towers of
which the site alone remains, as being possibly of interest to explorers.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Round Towers of Ireland, by Henry O'Brien