Note.—This edition of O’Brien’s work on the Round Towers being, as regards the Author’s text, afacsimileof that published in 1834, the above Index will serve for both.
PRINTED BYMORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
Footnotes:
[1]“Bryan O’Brien, of the county of Kerry, son of Teige, born 1740, married, 17th November 1797, Ellen, daughter of Justin MacCarthy (by Joanna Conway, his wife); and had: I. Richard, who died unmar. in Jan. 1861; II. Lucien, who also died unmar. in America, in Mar. 1865; III. Turlogh Henry, author ofThe Round Towers of Ireland, who died unmar. 1835” (O’Hart’sIrish Pedigrees, p. 168). At pp. 39, 40,post, O’Brien alludes to his maternal grandfather as “the last of the MacCarthy Mores.”
[2]At pp. 480, 481,post: thus, by the way, refuting a statement (in theGentleman’s Magazinefor 1835) which has been adopted in theDictionary of National Biography, that he was utterly ignorant of Celtic.
[3]It is not to be supposed that a University Professor of Greek would have had any difficulty in explaining to the most ordinary intelligence an idiom so frequently occurring in the New Testament as εἰς τὰ ἴδια, which we meet with, not only in the passage referred to (John i. 11), but at xvi. 32 and xix. 37 of the same Gospel, and at xxi. 6 of the Acts of the Apostles. Nor is it likely that the exegetic difficulty connected with τὰ ἴδια would have occurred to a boy of twelve. Further, Mr. Boyton did not resign his connection with the University until 1833, whereas, in the passage above cited, O’Brien evidently refers to some time about 1820.
[4]It is not even clear that he is identical with the “Henry O’Brien” mentioned in theCatalogue of the Graduates of the University of Dublin from 1691 to 1868, now in the British Museum. The entry is as follows:—“Henry O’Brien, B.A. (ad eundem, Cantab.), 1835.”
[5]This must have been the English Master of the Rolls, who at that time was the Right Hon. Sir John Leach, a judge remarkable for the celerity of his decisions, in marked contrast to those of his contemporary, Lord Eldon, of whom it used to be said that he heard cases without determining them, whereas Sir John Leach determined cases without hearing them.
[6]Edinburgh Review, vol. lix. pp. 148, 149.
[7]Mr. Marcus Keane, author ofThe Temples and Round Towers of Ancient Ireland, states in his Preface to that work that he spent three years, during which he had to travel more than five thousand miles, in the performance of a task not much more exacting.
[8]From “To the Public,” a narrative prefixed to his translation of Villanueva’s “Ibernia Phœnicia,” which precededThe Round Towers.
[9]Ibid.p. xxxii. “’Ερεμω” may, however, be an error of the printer, and the fact that it was subsequently corrected lends colour to this view.
[10]It must be admitted that a letter alluded to at p. xix,post, written by the Rev. Cæsar Otway, a member of the Council, lends some colour to this assertion.
[11]P. xxiii of the introduction toPhœnician Ireland, inscribed “To the Public.”
[12]This letter will be found at p. lxxi,post.
[13]Vol. 59 of theEdinburgh Reviewfor 1834.
[14]Gentleman’s Magazinefor March 1834, p. 288; for Oct, 1834, p. 365 f.; and for Nov. 1835, p. 553. At pp. 340 f. of the volume for 1833, pt. ii., may be found a distinctly unfavourable review of O’Brien’s translation ofIbernia Phœnicia.
[15]Videnote 2, p. vii,ante.
[16]It may be remarked here that an Act for the protection of ancient monuments is much needed in Ireland.
[17]At p. 4 of his work on the Round Towers (2nd ed.).
[18]Amusing instances of this autocratic method pervade Dr. Petrie’s work on the Round Towers. Thus, at p. 109, he disposes of the Phallic Theory, which had exercised so many noble minds, with the single remark: “It is, happily, so absurd, and at the same time so utterly unsupported by authority or evidence worthy of refutation, that I gladly pass it by without further notice, even though it has found a zealous supporter in the person of Sir “William Betham” (who, it may be observed, was not only a member of the Academy, but one of the leading antiquarians of his day, besides being Ulster-King-at Arms, etc. etc.) “since these pages were originally written ... andwho was consequently not unacquainted with their contents.” (The italics are ours.) No further reference to this much-debated theory occurs in his book; but there are many denunciations of Sir W. Betham for presuming to differ from him. His way of dealing with the evidences and arguments in support of the pagan origin of the Round Towers adduced by O’Brien and Sir W. Betham is simply this: “I have not thought them deserving of notice” (p. 359).
[19]At pp. 1, 2 ofThe Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland, by Marcus Keane, M.R.I.A. (Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co.); a very beautiful and interesting volume. A still more formidable champion of the revolt against Dr. Petrie’s sway has since appeared, the Rev. Canon Bourke, M.R.I.A., author ofPre-Christian Ireland(Brown & Nolan, Dublin, 1887).
[20]The Migration of Symbols: Archibald Constable & Co., Westminster, 1894.
[21]Introduction, pp. ix-xv.
[22]Preface, 3.
[23]P. 12.
[24]At p. 4 of his work on the Round Towers.
[25]General Vallancey’s literary remains are preserved in seven octavo volumes, entitledCollectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, of which a complete set is rather difficult to obtain. The portions specifically relating to the round towers will be found in vols. ii., iii., and vii. As regards the other source of plagiarism to which Moore refers in his article above quoted,—“the remarkable work calledNimrod,”—it has been already shown, without any attempt at contradiction, that the leading idea ofNimrodwas that the round towers werefire-altars, and that (to quote the writer’s words) “O’Brien’s theory is not to be found in any page of it.”
[26]According to “Father Prout” (“Rogueries of Tom Moore”), it was probably suggested to him by the study of Lucian. See p. 90 of Mr. Kent’s edition of “The Works of Father Prout.”
[27]Alluded to in theCharmidesof Plato.
[28]This statement is subject to a qualification. Certain structures—one at Peel in the Isle of Man, and another at Hythe in Kent—are supposed, on grounds of which the validity is more or less questioned, to be round towers.
[29]Videp. 514. General Vallancey had made a similar remark: “Nor are they always annexed to churches. There are many in the fields, where no traces of the foundations of any other buildings can be discovered around them” (Collect.iii. 492, cited at p. 17 of Dr. Petrie’s work). Dr. Lanigan avowed the same; but Dr. Petrie declares “they are, without a single exception, found near old churches, or where churches are known to have existed”; though, as Mr. Keane points out, he assumes buildings to be “churches” which have no claim to that title.
[30]Fraser’s Magazine, November 1, 1833.
[31]Thecharacteristic architectural peculiaritiesbelonging to each of the towers was the omission required to be supplied, and for this alone three months were extended. During that time I wrote my entire Essay, and of course did not omit this requisite. But as these could give no interest to the general reader, I have omitted them in the present enlarged form. If called for, however, I shall cheerfully supply them, as an Appendix to another work which may soon appear.
[32]Dublin Penny Journal, July 7, 1832.
[33]“Kilmallock has been a place of some distinction from a very remote period, and, like most of our ancient towns, is of ecclesiastical origin, amonasteryhaving been founded here by St. Maloch in the sixth century,of which the original Round Towerstill remains.”—Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p. 65.
“These (the Ruins of Swords) consist of a fine and lofty Round Tower, coeval with the foundation of the original monastery.”—Ibid.vol. i. p. 177.
[34]If this appear over-sanguine, I trust it will be attributed to its only cause—a strong sense of injustice expressed in the moment of warmth, and without ever expecting that this expression should see the light.
[35]That this was not gratuitous I pledge myself to prove, even from circumstances that have already transpired.
[36]It is true Mr. Higgins has told me this, and I listened with polite silence to what I had read “in print” a thousand times before. But our chronicles call the name Macha, and I abide by them. Enough, however, has occurred between the date of this letter and the present to quiet the most ardent disposition as to the pursuit of earthly éclat. Its author is no more! He has reached that “bourne whence no traveller returns.” And the warning, I confess, is to myself not a little pointed, from the unremitting perseverance with which this inquiry has been prosecuted and the vexatious opposition with which its truths have been met.
[37]I wish the reader to keep this in mind; its effects will be manifested by and by.
[38]φωνη εν τη ερημω.
[39]See Letter No. 3.
[40]Dublin Penny Journal, August 3, 1833.
[41]Gibbon’s Memoirs.
[42]The Budhist temples.
[43]The Cromleachs.
[44]The Mithratic Caves.
[45]Job i.
[46]I sayaccidentally, because he foundered as well upon theactual colonywho erected those temples, as upon thenatureof theritesfor which they were erected.
[47]Colonel Montmorency.
[48]Pliny, lib. lxvi. cap. 12.
[49]This incomparably beautiful object, constructed of white marble, in the days of Demosthenes, in the second year of the one hundred and eleventh Olympiad, 335 years before Christ, and in the year 418 of Rome, was erected in honour of some young men of the tribe of Archamantide, victors at the public games, and dedicated, it is supposed, to Hercules.
[50]The first name ever given to this body wasSaer, which has three significations—firstly,free; secondly,mason; and thirdly,Son of God. In no language could those several imports be united but in the original one, viz. the Irish. The Hebrews express only one branch of it byaliben; while the English join together the other two.
[51]Sallust,Cat. Con.
[52]Lib. xi. epist. 11.
[53]2 Kings xvii. 29, 30.
[54]Byron.
[55]Vol. iii. p. 78, note.
[56]The tolling of a bell was supposed to have had miraculous effects—to keep the spirits of darkness from assaulting believers—to dispel thunder, and prevent the devil from molesting either the church or congregation; and hence they were always rung, in time of storm or other attack, to paralyse the fiend, whether the elements or mortal man, by the hallowed intonation. Each was dedicated to a particular saint,—duly baptized and consecrated; and the inscriptions which still remain on the old ones that have come down to us proclaim the virtue of their capabilities. The following distich will be found to sum them up, viz.:—
“Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum,Defunctos plero,pestem fugo, festa decoro.”
And the very syllables of this which follows form a sort oftunefulgalloping, viz.:—
“Sabbata pango, funera plango, solemnia clango.”
[57]νπερ τον Ωκεανον παρελθειν επὶ τας καλουμενας Βρετανικας νησους.Euseb.inPræp. Ev.1. 3.
Egyptum et Libyam sortitus est alius Apostolorum, extremas vero oceani regiones, etInsulas Britannicasalius obtinuit.Nicephor.l. 2, c. 40.
[58]Religious Rites and Ceremonies, published under his name.
[59]Milton.
[60]This latter to be explained hereafter.
[61]The ruins, to the height of ten feet, still remain.
[62]Goldsmith.
[63]Top. Dist.ii. c. 9, p. 720.
[64]In the reign of Txiacha Labhruine,A.M.3177;B.C.827.
[65]This mark (7), in the Irish language, is an abbreviation foragus, i.e.and.
[66]TheAnnals of Inisfallen, also, p. 148, call them by the same name ofFiadh-Nemeadh.
[67]Rer. Hib. Scrip. Vet.iii. p. 527.
[68]Fidh-Nemeadhcertainly admits of this interpretation, but in a very different sense from what its author had supposed.
[69]A German writer, contemporary with the Emperor Charles the Great, says of another Irishman named Clement, at a much later period, “That through his instructions the French might vie with the Romans and the Athenians. John Erigena, whose surname denoted his country (Eri or Erina being the proper name of Ireland), became soon (in the ninth century) after famous for his learning and good parts, both in England and France. Thus did most of the lights which, in those times of thick darkness, cast their beams over Europe, proceed out of Ireland. The loss of the manuscripts is much bewailed by the Irish who treat of the history and antiquities of their country, and which may well be deemed a misfortune, not only to them, but to the whole learned world.”
[70]Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, says: “Scotia eadem et Hibernia,” that is, Scotia and Ireland are one and the same—an identity, however, oflocality, not ofsignification. And Orosius of Tarracona, still earlier in the fifth century, avers that, “In his own time, Ireland was inhabited by the nations of the Scoti.” And were further evidence required as to the point, it would be found in the fact of one of our Christian luminaries, whose name was Shane,i.e.John, being called by the Latin historians indifferently by the epithets of Johannes Scotus and Johannes Erigena—the former signifying John the Irishman and the latter, John the Scotchman.
[71]The Scots first drove them from Ireland to what is now called Scotland, and the Picts afterwards chased them from the lowlands to the highland fastnesses.
[72]Henricus Antisiodrensis, writing to Charles the Bald, says: “Why need I mention all Ireland, with her crowd of philosophers?” “The philosophy and logic,” says Mosheim, a German historian, “that were taught in the European schools in the ninth century, scarcely deserved such honourable titles, and were little better than an empty jargon. There were, however, to be found in various places,particularly among the Irish, men of acute parts and extensive knowledge, who were perfectly well entitled to the appellation of philosophers.”
[73]Antiq.p. 108.
[74]Milton.
[75]I will show, however, that it was much older.
[76]De Orig. et Progress. Idolat.ii. 61.
[77]Gen. xi. 4.
[78]Gen. vi. 5.
[79]On the top was an observatory, by the benefit of whichit was that theBabylonians advanced their skill in astronomy so early; when Alexander took Babylon, Callisthenes the philosopher, who accompanied him there, found they hadobservationsfor 1903 years backward from that time, which carries up the account as high as the hundred and fifteenth year after the flood,i.e.within fifteen years after the tower of Babel was built.
[80]I stop not to inquire whether or not this may have been the same with that which stood in the midst of the temple of Belus, afterwards built around it by Nebuchadnezzar. The intent I conceive similar in all, whether the scripturalTower, Birs Nimrod, or Mujellibah; and the rather, as Captain Mignan tells us of the last, that on its summit there are still considerable traces of erect building, and that at the western end is acircularmass of solid brick-worksloping towards the top, and rising from a confused heap of rubbish; while Niebuhr states that Birs Nimrod is also surmounted by a turret. My object is to show that the sameemblematic designmingled in all those ancient edifices, though not identical in its details.
[81]Hos. ii. 16.
[82]St. Stephen, the first martyr who suffered death for Christ, said before the Jewish Sanhedrim, “God dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts vii. 48).
[83]Asiatic Researches.
[84]It is most unaccountable how Hanway, after seeing this evidence of anactualfire-temple, should, notwithstanding, commit the egregious blunder of calling the Round Towers—which differed from it as much as amaypoledoes from a rabbit-hole—fire-temples also. Yet has he been most religiously followed by Vallancey, Beauford, Dalton, etc., who could not open their eyes to the mistake.
[85]Pottinger’sBelochistan.
[86]Num. xxii. 41.
[87]Milton.
[88]Top. Dist.ii. c. 34.
[89]Had Bede evenassertedthat the Round Towers were fire receptacles, it would not obtain my assent, as they were as great an enigma in that venerable writer’s day as they have been ever since, until now that theirsecretis about to be unveiled.
[90]The derivation of this word not being generally known, I may be allowed to subjoin it. It is the Irish fordove, ascolumbais the Latin, and was assigned to the above place in honour of St. Columbe, who was surnamed Kille, from the many churches which he had founded.
[91]Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad.vol. xv.
[92]This adjective is not here applied to our westernIrin,i.e.Ireland, but to the eastern Iran,i.e.Persia.
[93]“Virginesque Vestæ legit, Albâ oriundum sacerdotium, et genti conditoris haud alienum” (Livy, lib. i. cap. xx.).
[94]Horace.
[95]Asiatic Researches, Dissert. Up. Egypt and Nile.
[96]Literally, “the goddess of the lotos.”
[97]Craufurd’sSketches.
[98]Milton.
[99]Maya also signifiesillusion, of which as an operation of the Deity, the following remark, extracted elsewhere from Sir William, may not be unseasonable:—“The inextricable difficulties,” says he, “attending thevulgar notion of material substances, concerning which ‘we know this only, that we know nothing,’ induced many of the wisest among the ancients, and some of the most enlightened among the moderns, to believe that the whole creation was rather anenergythan a work, by which the Infinite Being who is present at all times and in all places, exhibits to the minds of his creatures a set of perceptions, like a wonderful picture or piece of music, always varied, yet always uniform; so that all bodies and their qualities exist, indeed, to every wise and useful purpose, but exist only as far as they areperceived—a theory no less pious than sublime, and as differentfromany principle of atheism, as the brightest sunshine differs from the blackest midnight.”
[100]Nature.
[101]The Hindoos never bathe nor perform their ablutions whilst the sun is below the horizon.
[102]Poojah is properly worship.
[103]Krishen of Matra may be called the Apollo of the Hindoos.
[104]Vassant, the spring.
[105]Kama, the god of love.
[106]Translated from the Persic, and read before the Oriental Society in India.
[107]The reason why the Egyptian Pyramids, thoughcomprehendingthe same idea, did notexhibitthis form, will be assigned hereafter.
[108]In his treatise,De Deâ Syriâ.
[109]
“Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns,To whose bright image nightly by the moon,Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs.”—Milton.
[110]“Les Indiens ont le Lingam qui ajoute encore quelque chose à l’infamie du Phallus des Egyptiens et des Grecs: ils adorent le faux dieu Isoir sous cette figure monstreuse, et qu’ils exposent en procession insultant d’une manière horrible à la pudeur et à la crédulité de la populace” (La Croze, p. 431).
[111]We can now see how it happened that the Irish wordToradh,i.e.“to go through the tower ceremony,” should signify also “to be pregnant”; and we can equally unravel themythosof that elegant little tale which Sir John Malcolm tells us from Ferdosi, in hisHistory of Persia. “It is related,” says he, “that Gal, when taking the amusement of the chase, came to the foot of atower, on one of the turrets of which he saw a youngdamselof the most exquisite beauty.They mutually gazed and loved, but there appeared no mode of ascending the battlement. After much embarrassment, anexpedientoccurred to the fair maiden. She loosened her dark and beautifultresses, which fell in ringlets to thebottomof thetower, and enabled theenamouredprince toascend. The lady proved to be Noudabah, the daughter of Merab, king of Cabul, a prince of the race of Zohauk.”
[112]Chap. iv. p. 48.
[113]Syncellus accordingly spells Budh, even in the singular number, with anF; and Josephus, from the Scriptures, additionally commutes the finaldintot. We shall see more inflections anon.
“φουδ εξ ου τρωρλοδιται.”—Syncellus, p. 47.
“Fut was the founder of the nations in Libya (Africa), and the people were from him called Futi” (Josephus,Ant.lib. i. c. 7).
[114]VidePlutarch,de Isi et Osiri.
[115]Eas, in Irish, also means the moon.
[116]Literally the Son of the Sun, and should properly be written O’Siris, like any of our Irish names, such as O’Brien—and meaningsprung from.
[117]These are theindexesfor which Mr. O’Connor could find no other use than that of dials!
[118]“Les mystères de l’antiquité nous sont demeurés presqu’interdicts; les vestiges de ses monuments manquent le plus souvent de sens pour nous, parceque, de siècle en siècle, les savants ont voulu leur attribuer un sens” (De Sacy).
[119]To this declaration of Mr. Heeren, as I cannotnowbestow upon it a separate inquiry, I must be allowed briefly to intimate that if such be all that he “knows with certainty” on the topic, he had better not know it at all, for, with the exception of that part which avows the generalignoranceconcerning its rise and progress, as well as its expulsion by the Brahmins from the East,all the rest is inaccurate. In the first place it does not “flourish” at present in Ceylon. It has sunk and degenerated there into an unmeaning tissue of hideous demonology,if we may judge by a reference to a large work published here some time ago, by Mr. Upham, which is as opposite from realBudhismas truth is from falsehood. In the second place its tenets werenot“in direct opposition to those of the Brahmins,” any more than those of the Catholics are from the tenets of the Protestants; yet have the latter contrived to oust the Catholics, their predecessors, as the Brahmins did the still more antecedent Budhists. And this will be sufficient to neutralise that insinuation which would imply that Budha was aninnovatorand asectarian, until I show by and by that the reverse was the fact.
[120]The Jews themselves, so early as the time of Moses, adopted the practice as an act ofthanksgiving.
“And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels, and with dances.
“And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to theLord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea” (Exod. xv. 20, 21).
[121]The origin of this word shall be explained hereafter.
[122]“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except acornofwheatfall into the ground anddie, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John xii. 24).
[123]We are told—says Sir John Malcolm, in a Persian work of celebrity, theAttash Kuddah—that a person dreamt he saw Ferdosi composing, and an angel was guiding his pen: he looked near, and discovered that he had just written the above couplet, in which he so emphatically pleads for humanity to the smallest insect of the creation.
[124]Another Almonerwas an epithet they assigned to God, which even the Brahmins retained after they had seceded from them, as may be seen in Wilkins’ translation of a Sanscrit inscription on a pillar nearBuddal, published in the first volume of theAsiatic Researches. This inscription, I must observe, as it escaped that learned Orientalist to perceive it, as it equally did the acumen of the president, his annotator, is, with the column on which it appears, nothing else than a record of the triumphs obtained by a hero of the Brahminical party in exterminating the Budhists. The frequent allusion to the “lustful elephants,”—such as “whose piles of rocks reek with the juice exuding from the heads of intoxicated elephants,”—and “Although the prospect hidden by the dust arising from the multitude of marching force was rendered clear from the earth being watered by constant and abundant streams flowing from the heads of lustful elephants of various breeds,”—and still more that beautiful and pathetic sentiment which occurs in the original of the preceding paper, omitted by Mr. Wilkins, but supplied by the president, viz. “by whom having conquered the earth as far as theocean, it was left as being unprofitably seized—so he declared; and hiselephants weepingsaw againin the forests their kindred whose eyes were full of tears,”—make this a demonstration: yet would the beauty of the image be lost to some of my readers, were I not to explain that the Budhists treated with a sort of deified reverence the tribe ofelephants, which now bewailed their extermination as above described.
[125]From Bavana was named the village of Banaven, in Scotland, whither some of the Tuath-de-danaans had repaired after their retreat from Ireland—a very appropriate commemoration of their recent subversion; and a particular locality within its district, where St. Patrick was born, was calledNemph-Thur, that is, theholy tower, corresponding toBudh-Nemph,i.e.theholy Lingam, from the circumstance of there having been erected on it one of those temples which time has since effaced.Tor-Boilehupon the Indus, which means theTower of Baal, is in exact consonance withNemph-Thurand withBudh-Nemph; and there can be no question but thattherealso stood one of those edifices, as the ruins even of a city are perceptible in the neighbourhood. Mr. Wilford, however, would translate this last name, Tor-Boileh, byBlack Beilam: and, to keep thiscolourin countenance, he invents a new name for a place called Peleiam, “which,” he says, “appearsto have been transposed from Ac Beilam, or theWhite Beilam, sands or shores and now called ‘Hazren.’” I am not surprised at thediscreditbrought upon etymology.
[126]And this, too, after he had admitted that “the name is certainly of the pure Iberno-Celtic dialect, and must have had some meaning founded in the nature of things in its original and radical formation.”
[127]All our ancient swords were made of brass.
[128]Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 527, 4to, 1781.
[129]Histoire d’Irelande, vol. i. cap. 7.
[130]Avienus lived in the fourth century.
[131]“Melius (Hiberniæ quam Britanniæ) aditus—portusque per commercia et negociatores cogniti” (Tacit.vit. Agricol.499).
[132]“Plus in metum quan in spem.”
[133]“ὥσπερ και των Βρεττανων τους οικοντας την ονομαζομενην Ιριν.”Diod Sic.lib. v.
[134]In proof of this, I aver that I could go through the whole range of their language, and prove that in its fabrication, so punctilious was their regard toeuphony, they scrupled not tocancelor otherwiseobnebulatetheessentialandsignificantletters of the primitive words; so that, in a few generations, their descendants were unable to trace the truerootsof their compounds. Hence that lamentable imperfection which pervades all our lexicons and dictionaries, and which can never be rectified but by the revisal of the whole system, and that by athorough adeptin the language of the Irish.
[135]I say strangled, becauseIrinis a compound word embracing within its compasstwo distinct parts, of which Iris could give but the spirit of one.
[136]“Iren perrexit ut et aliorum Doctorum sententias in philosophicis atque divinis litteris investigator curiosus exquireret” (Vita Gildæ, cap. 6).
[137]Lib. x. Anno 1098.
[138]Modern writers upon Persia, who wouldrefineupon the matter, have perverted this word toPehlivi; but look you into the early numbers of theAsiatic Researches, and there you will find it spelled as above.
[139]Besides, to speakaccurately, this is not awesterncountry at all, or only so relatively to Britain, Gaul, and that particular line.
[140]Collect. de Reb. Hib.vol. iv.
[141]Antiq. Research. Pers.vol. i. p. 137.
[142]If I have taken a wrong view of the professor’s phraseology, I shall feel most happy to be set right; but I submit to the critic whether I am not justified in understanding him as I do.
[143]To be met with at a place called Tauk-e-Bostan. Silvestre de Sacy, a member of the Institute at Paris, had made the following translation of it, which is divided into two parts.
The first:—“This figure is that of a worshipper of Hormuzd, or God; the excellent Shahpoor; king of kings; ofIranandAn-Iran; a celestial germ of a heavenly race; the son of the adorer of God; the excellent Hormuzd; a king of kings; ofIranandAn-Iran; a celestial germ of a heavenly race; grandson of the excellent Narses; king of kings.”
The second:—“This figure is that of a worshipper of Hormuzd, or God; the excellent Varaham; king of kings; king ofIranandAn-Iran; a celestial germ of a heavenly race; son of the adorer of God; the excellent Shapoor; king of kings; ofIranandAn-Iran; a celestial germ of a heavenly race; grandson of the excellent Hormuzd; king of kings.”
[144]ThisAn, the original name forcountry, was modified afterwards, according to clime and dialect, intotan, as in Aqui-tan-ia, Brit-tan-ia, Mauri-tan-ia, etc.; and intostan, as in Curdi-stan, Fardi-stan, Hindu-stan, etc.
[145]From this was formed the English wordtower, the very idea remaining unchanged. As was also the English wordbud, meaning thefirst shoot of a plant, agerm, from the Irishbudh,i.e.theorgan of male energy.
[146]The present bleak and sterile aspect of this region militates nothing against this view, when we consider the thousand alterations which it has undergone, under the thousand different tribes that have consecutively possessed it.
[147]FromIrorEer, sacred, andan, aland.
[148]FromIrorEer, sacred, andin, anisland.
[149]Iran or Irin,i.e.Eeran or Eerin.
[150]Each of these three preceding words meansreligionorrevelation. And from themEra, denoting aperiod oftime,—which with the ancients was asacredreckoning,—has been so denominated; as well asEric, which, in law phraseology, indicates a certain penalty attachable to certain crimes, and equivalent toDeodand, or areligious restitution—all Irish.
[151]I mean the “Græci vetustissimi,” not the “Græculi esurientes.”
[152]Namely,Ivernia:—u,v, andbare commutable.
[153]Should you hesitate as to this mode of accounting for the letterb, I can show you that the Greeks spelledAlbionindifferently with or without ab; as they indifferently usedborvin one of the above names for Ireland; for instance—
Ἄι Βρετανιδες ειϛι δυο νησοι, Ουερνία και Αλουιον, ητοι Βερνια καὶ Αλβιων Eustath.ad Dion. Perieg.
[154]It is only thedate, however, that I will share with any one. The derivation of the word and itstrue expositionare exclusively my own.
[155]“Quod nomen ob beati solum ingenium, in quonullum animal venenosum vitale, facile assentior attributum” (Ogyg.pt. i. c. 21). So gratifying, however, has this been to the obsequious wisdom of subsequenthistorians(?), as to be echoed from one to the other with the most commendable fidelity. “O imitatores, servum pecus!”
[156]Pronounced Fiodhvadh—copiedliterallyfrom the old manuscripts.
[157]This corresponds toIr-an, the SacredLand.
[158]This answers toIr-in, the SacredIsland.
[159]The reader will see that, in quoting Dr. Keating, I do so from no respect for his discrimination or sagacity. Whenever he has attempted to exert either, in the way of comment ordeduction, he hasinvariablyerred: fortunately he has offered none in this instance. Yet is his book a most valuable compilation; andInow cull out of itthose three names, as one would a casket of jewels from a lumber-room.
[160]ThisFarragh, otherwisePhearragh, is thePeorof the Scriptures, and thePriapusof the Greeks.
[161]“Priapus, siphysiceconsideretur idem est acsol; ejusque lux primogenia undevis omnis seminatrix” (Diod. Sic.lib. i.). See also Num. xxv. 4, where you will see that “Peor”remotelymeant the sun.
[162]I shall not trouble myself in reciting the absurdattemptsthat have been heretofore made to expound this word: it is enough to say thatthey were all wrong.
[163]Themotto, also, of this family, viz.,Lamh laider a-Boo,i.e.“The strong arm from Boo,” now changed toVigueur du dessus, is in keeping with the same idea.
[164]This is themere utteranceof an historical transaction without reference tosect,creed,party, orpolitics. No feelings of bitterness mingle therein. The author disclaims all such, as much as he would depreciate them in others.
[165]In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, are several such, collected in the beginning of last century, by Lhuyd, author of theArchæologia, and restored by Sir John Seabright, at the instigation of Edmund Burke. I am credibly informed also, that there have been lately discovered in the Library at Copenhagen certain documents relating to our antiquities, taken away by the Danes after their memorable defeat at Clontarf, by King Brian,A.D.1014. Lombard has already asserted the same; and that the King of Denmark entreated Queen Elizabeth to send him some Irishman, who could transcribe them; that Donatus O’Daly, a learned antiquarian, was selected for the purpose, but that his appointment was afterwards countermanded, for political reasons.
There are, besides, in mostly all the public libraries of Europe—without adverting to those which are detained in the Tower of London—divers Irish manuscripts, presented by the various emigrants, who from time to time have been obliged to fly their country, to seek among strangers that shelter which they were denied at home; taking with them, as religious heirlooms, those hereditary relics of their pedigree and race.
One of the most beautiful and pathetic pieces of Irish poetry remaining, written by Macleog, private secretary to Brian, after the demise of that monarch, and beginning with this expression of his sorrow: “Oh! Cencoradh (the name of his patron’s favourite palace), where is Brian?” was picked up in the Netherlands, in 1650, by Fergar O’Gara, an Augustinian friar, who fled from Ireland in the iron days of Cromwell.
[166]I rejoice to state, that the present administration, under the benign direction of our patriot King, have resolved, so far as in them lies, to atone for former depredators. There is now a vigorous revisal of those documents going on, with a view, as I understand, to their immediate publication.
[167]The antiquarian luminaries of theRoyal Irish Academywould fain make out that this was aChristian warrior. Theirhigh priesthas lately proclaimed the fact, in their “collective wisdom.” It is astonishing how fond they havesuddenlybecome for the memory of the monks; they would now father everything like culture in the country upon them. It used not to have been so!
[168]This image was found under the root of a tree dug up in Roscommon. It is about the size of the drawing; is made of brass, once gilt; the gilding, however, now almost worn off; and may be seen in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin.
[169]Major Archer’s Travels in Upper India, vol. i. pp. 383, 384. Lond. 1833.
[170]So the “collective wisdom,” in the true spirit of Christian restitution and penitential contrition, have lately pronounced him! It is delightful to see this solicitous zeal with which, when it suits a private purpose, they cherish the memory of the monks, beingno longerin the way of theirsecularperquisites: but if the poor monks could speak, or send a voice from the tomb, it would be to say that they did not choose to be encumbered with such meretricious flattery; and that, having laid no claim to thoserelics, or to thetowerswhich they decorated, during theirlifetime, they now indeathmust repudiate the ascription. “Timeo Danaas et dona ferentes,” would be their answer.
[171]Asiatic Researches, vol. vi.; where it will be observed that the Doctor was not writing for me. He did not evensuspectthe existence of this figure. It is, like the preceding one, of bronze.
[172]The Egyptian sovereign assumed thistitle, as the highest thatlanguageandimaginationcould bestow. It signifies literally theact of copulation, of which it would represent him aspresiding genius—the source whence all pleasure and happiness can flow—and is but faintly re-echoed in the Macedo-Syriac regal epithet of Ευεργετης, “Benefactor,” or even that by which we designate our king as thefountainofgoodness. There being no such letter asphin the ancient alphabets, all those words, viz.Pheor,Pharaoh, andPharagh, should properly be spelledFeor,Faraoh, andFaragh.
[173]Gen. xlvi. 34.
[174]“On the fifteenth day of the first month every year. Every person is obliged, on the evening of that day, to set out a lantern before his door, and these are of various sizes and prices, according to the different circumstances of those to whom they belong. During this festival, they have all sorts of entertainments, such as plays, balls, assemblies, music, dancing, and the lanterns are filled with a vast number of wax candles, and surrounded with bonfires.”
[175]Barker.—The same is mentioned by Captain Burr, in reference to the Indian followers who had attended him to the temple of Isis.
[176]Mr. Greaves’s diagonal, in proportion to his base of 694 feet, is 991 feet nearly; the half of which is 495½ feet, for the height of the Pyramid; for as the radius is to the tangent of 45°, so is half the diameter to half the diagonal, or 7 to 10, or 706 to 1000. Say, 7 : 10 :: 694 :991⁄2= 495½.—Dissertation upon the Pyramids.
[177]Schindl.
[178]Gen. xlvii.
[179]Hist. Christ. des Indes, p. 429.
[180]Lib. ii. p. 4.
[181]πυρ, generally renderedfire, is not so, however, in the true import of the word, but theSun; fire is only a secondary sense of it.
[182]Barker.
[183]Ibid.
[184]Gen. xlvi. 34.
[185]Ex. vii. 11, etc., and 2 Tim. iii. 8.
[186]America also has had her ancient pageantry. Antonio de Solis gives the following description of the Mexican shrine:—“The site of that temple devoted to the worship of the Sun, and its altar for human sacrifices, was a large square environed by walls, cloisters, and gates; in the centre was raised a high tower of a pyramidical form, broad at the base, and narrowed towards the top, having four equal sides in a sloping direction; in one of which was a flight of one hundred and fifty steps to the top, covered with the finest marble, with a square marble pavement, guarded with a balustrade: in the centre stood a large black stone, in manner of an altar, placed near the idol. In the front of this tower, and at a convenient distance from its base, stood a high altar of solid masonry, ascended by thirty steps: in the middle of it was placed a large stone, on which they slaughtered the numerous human victims devoted for sacrifice; the outside being set with stakes and bars, on which were fixed human sculls.”
[187]The regular pyramid is a section of the cube, whose altitude is equal to half the diameter of the base, and is contained within a semicircle. The great pyramid is not of this precise order; its height or altitude being found more than half the diameter of its base. A second order is that whose altitude is equal to half the diagonal of the base, and is also bounded and contained within a semicircle; and consequently, if the diagonal be given at 1000, the altitude will be 500: but the true height of the Egyptian pyramid being determined at less than half its diagonal, is therefore found to be not exactly of this order, but nearly approaching to it, and probably aimed at in the original design, though failing in the execution.—Dissertation upon the Pyramids.
[188]Astronomy began very early to be cultivated among the Egyptians; and to them is attributed the discovery of the magnitude of the solar year, or, as it is distinguished,the Egyptian yearof 365 days; which discovery appears to be noticeable, and memorialised in the construction of their Great Pyramid. The ancient measure of length being the cubit, and that measure being determined common with the Hebrews and Egyptians, as nearly as Dr. Cumberland could determine it, and reduced to English measure, a certain standard is obtained: but we find also another, called the longer cubit, to have obtained, on which we may with equal propriety calculate the measures of the Egyptian Pyramid, on which to infer the number of days contained in the solar year; the measures of the base of the Great Pyramid being found, if not exactly, yet nearly approximating to it.—Dissertation upon the Pyramids.
[189]I have not the least doubt but the ancient Egyptians measured by the cubit, whatever it then was; that the number of cubits was designedly fixed upon by them in laying the base of the Pyramid; and that if we divide the ascertained sum of 752 feet by 2, the quotient will be 376, which is a number exceeding 365 by 11: consequently, if we estimate their ancient cubit at 2 feet7⁄10of an inch, that measure will be ascertained, and found to approximate nearly to the longer Hebrew cubit; and so will the measures of the Pyramid be found to agree with the number of days in the solar year.—Dissertation upon the Pyramids.
[190]Then Major Fitzclarence, March 2, 1818.
[191]Asiatic Researches.
[192]Scientific Tourist through Ireland, p. 33.
[193]Usher’sPrimord, c. xvii. p. 846.
[194]Journal, pp. 21, 23.
[195]Neither can I, with him, restrict their object toTombs alone; their Phallic shape bespeaks another allusion; as does the style of architecture indicate anaffinityofdescent, though not anidentityofdesignwith that of ourTowers.
[196]In his treatise,De Deâ Syriâ.
[197]Of this distant adoration we may still see traces in the practice of the Irish peasantry, almost preferring to say their prayers outside the precincts of the chapel, or mass-house, than within it, unconsciously derived from this service of the Afrion, or benediction-house,i.e.the Round Towers.
[198]The Ghabres to this day chew a leaf of it in their mouths, while performing their religious duties round the sacred fire.
[199]Those are what Montmorency would fain make out to have beenrosesimported from the Vatican.
[200]A similar sacrifice is described by Major Archer as still practised in the mountains of Upper India, which he himself witnessed. “An unfortunate goat,” says he, “lean and emaciated, was brought as an offering to the deities; but so poor in flesh was he that no crow would have waited his death in hopes of a meal from his carcass.”
[201]“Round thetieor umbrella at the top (of the Dagobs at Ceylon) are suspended a number of small bells, which with these formteesof a great quantity of smaller pagodas that surround the quatine, being set in motion by the wind, keep up a constant tinkling, but not unpleasing sound” (Coleman).
The temples of Budh in the Burmese empire are also pyramidical, the top always crowned with a gilt umbrella of iron filagree, hung round with bells.—“Thetieorumbrellais 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 thetiethat 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 ofbells, 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 demonslest they should, by noxious and malignant winds and tempests, disturb their serene atmosphere and afflict their country” (Dissertations upon the Pyramids).