“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 hisCodex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti).
[604]The principal one I conceive to have been at the hill ofTara, which means the hill of theSaviour, and synonymous with mountIda, 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 thesecretof 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 lesommet sphériqueet la matière étoient fort différens des obélisques d’Egypte” (Ammian. Marcel.).
[605]Ex. xx. 26. The wordaltardoes not mean what it is generally taken to express, aplatform, but ahigh 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 haveround towerserected 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’sRites 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 frombeans, 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 thesword, and by thefire, 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 wereafterwardsdegraded to every possible purpose they could be made to subserve: but I speak above of the timeimmediatelyafter 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, themaddin nagof 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 constellationOrion, he said that wasCaomai, 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 theCimahof Job, which the learned Costard asserts to be the constellationOrion” (Vallancey).
[619]At p. 305 of his work on theTowers 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.