Montfaucon gives a bass-relief found at Autun, on which a Druid displays in his right hand a crescent of the size of a moon, when six days old', which was just the time when the misletoe was gathered. Of this nature was the Irish Todhan Moran, which Vallancey mistook for a collar, being a crescent, of which each horn was ornamented with circular plates marked with concentric circles2; but the real origin of that shape is disclosed by some ancient works of art. In a bass-relief in the gallery of Florence, the ship which carried off Helen is represented having at each horn of its crescent a large boss of many circles; and in like manner a Bari sculptured on the walls of a temple at Luxore in Egypt3, and containing an image seated

with two buttons on the points, and supported by an eagle with the thunderbolt in his talons. The editor calls it Luna falcata, and his observation upon it is- Che voglia dirsi ? quantunque ne sembri incerta l'intelligenza, e la spiegazione non facile, è ad ogni modo pregevole assai e curioso. - De' Bronzi di Ercolano, tom. i. p. 1. tav. 1. The easiest explanation of it is to suppose it the transverse section of a ship, and the eagle the figure on the prow; for they were usually formed of the heads, not of quadrupeds, but of birds; whence they were called Rostra.

1 Vol. ii. 276.

2 Collect. vol. iv. Intr. Dr. Clarke makes a similar mistake, where he describes what he calls a cincture for the ancles or wrist found in a vault at Sienna. It was a serpent curved into an elliptical form, with two heads at the opposite points, and possessing no elasticity; and yet his error constrains him to suppose that this unelastic metal might be expanded to admit the wrist but both the animal and the double peak show that it was one of those memorials, which the Hebrews included under the name of Teraphim; for the country about it was decidedly Arkite. The environs are covered with tumuli which excite the traveller's wonder, and that in which the vaulted chamber was found was quite a mountain. Clarke's Travels, ii. 71.

Pococke ap. Bryant. Anal. of An. Myth. i. 251.

in a lozenge-shaped shrine', has a circle placed on each horn of the crescent. If the British Celts derived their religious feelings and usages from Phoenicia, the passage which we have been considering will sufficiently account for the mysterious superstition with which the oak was regarded by the Druids. For Elah, in Hebrew, signifies an oak 2, and is used for that at Shechem: but the same letters form the title of God himself, and thus the idea of something sacred might pass to the tree. The Seventy render it Terebinthus, which, according to the Manichees, was the name of one who, in the age of the Apostles, took the name of Budda. He may have been encouraged to adopt that title by observing, that the Terebinthus of the Septuagint is denominated by the Chaldee Targumists, Butema, which is something intermediate between Budda and Gautema; both being only different names of the same person, who was the Elah or deity of a large portion of Eastern Asia.

3

1 The lozenge-shaped shrine consists of two pyramids united by their bases, and standing upon the apex of that which is inverted,

. A position in which no one would have thought of placing it, if it had not been a great object to preserve the appearance of a pyramid. Gen. xxxv. 4. Josh. xxiv. 26. Jud. ix. 6.

2

.Quercus אֶלָה

, Deus. — Deut. xxxii. 17.

לה

4

3 Baur. Das Manachaische Religion-system, p.462.

393

CHAP. XXIV.

TOWERS IN SYRIA, IN MAN, IN IRELAND, IN CENTRAL SANCTUARIES IN ROCKS AND CROMLECHS.

ASIA.

DIMON, ITS MEANING

DAGON, ETC. OTHER INSTANCES FROM JEREMIAH, ISAIAH, AMOS, AND EZEKIEL.

SINCE then it has been shown that a close resemblance existed between the Celts and the Phoenicians in their consecration of pillars, and crescents, and oaks, to the purposes of religion, we may expect to find a similar correspondence with respect to another variety of the same Arkite monuments, where the pillar is hollow instead of solid; and therefore combines the two great features of the system, and, like the vaulted mound, is a type of the Ark, as well as of the mountain. Thus near the well of Samaria, several round towers stand on the hills on each side of an unknown date'; and at Tartoura 2 there is a ruined building on a peninsula, which the Franks call "The Accursed Tower," perhaps, because an idolatrous reverence adhered to it after the establishment of Christianity. I know not that there is much evidence to prove its original appropriation, except its site, and the fact that in the same neighbourhood, small low caves have been ob

1 Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, i. 461.

2 Tartoura is the Dora of Josephus, and the Dor of Joshua, xvii. 11. And since Dor signifies water in several languages, Tar,. toura may be interpreted, the Tower of the Waters.

served, probably sanctuaries, with benches of stone and cisterns of water near them. But at Hierapolis, in the propylæum of Deucalion's temple, two hollow towers stood in Lucian's time, of which he gives this remarkable account: - they were apparently 300 feet in height, and on the top of one of them a man resided twice a year seven days; which was just the length of the true Deucalion's continuance in the Ark, on the top of Ararat, after he discovered that the waters had abated from off the earth. But for what purpose were they built? It is a question of great importance to our inquiry ; and this is the answer some say to facilitate converse with the gods on account of their height; others, to commemorate the climbed into the highest trees escape from the rising deluge. authority of Lucian for asserting it to be an old and common opinion in Syria, that the round towers were Arkite monuments. And the truth of the opinion is corroborated by other circumstances: for not far off is a lake, in the middle of which stood an altar of stone, which seemed to float upon the water. "To me," says he, "it looks like a great pillar bearing an altar. Many swim there every day to pray; and great assemblies are held, which are called descents into the lake, because then all the Hiera are carried down to the lake for immersion." 3 Towers exactly corresponding with the description of those in Phoenicia, except in

period when men and mountains, to Thus we have the

Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, i. 192.

2 Genesis, viii. 12.

3 Lucian, De Deà Syria.

point of altitude, are still to be seen in the British Islands; not indeed in England, where the solid pillar was more in favour, and quite excluded the other form, but in the Isle of Man, one of those ecclesiastical towers remains, which are described by an ancient historian as narrow, round, and lofty.' It is nearly fifty-five feet high, and has four windows at the top, and remains of joists are visible in the walls so far its object might be ambiguous; but its situation marks its character. It is placed in the Holm, — a small rocky island, not far from the ancient church of St. Patrick; and, like those in Ireland, the only access to it is several feet above the ground. The island is distinguished by many other Arkite features, besides its name. It contains many tall pillars and mounds, and one in particular, usually considered Druidical, is called Tinwald 2, or the altar hill; and a large cairn is surmounted by three perpendicular stones, and encircled at the base by an arrangement of smaller ones.3 In Ireland as many as ninety-seven of these towers are said to be still standing; and the object of their construction has been a never-ending theme of controversy. They have sometimes been called Penitential Towers; and it has been contended, on the authority of ancient Irish manuscripts, that they

Turres ecclesiasticæ, quæ more patrio arctæ sunt, et altæ, necnon et rotundæ. Giraldus Cambrensis.

2 Tin seems to have signified a sacred place for sacrifice, a kind of high altar-the same as Tan in the East.

An. M., i. 94.

Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1829.

Bryant's Anal. of

4 Of these two mentioned by Mr. Collinson are near cathedrals at Kerry and Downpatrick

-

two are near the ruins of churches, at Rattoo and Kinnith; two were near churches at Cork and at Brigonne, but no longer remain. Archæol, vol. ii.