Note 708 — THE ADORATION OF FIRE

In Cappadocia were many Puratheia; and the people followed the same manner of worship, as was practised in Persis. The rites which prevailed, may be inferred from the names of places, as well as from the history of the country. One city seems to have been denominated from its tutelary Deity, and called Castabala. This is a plain compound of Ca-Asta-Bala, the place or temple of Asta Bala; the same Deity, as by the Syrians was called Baaltis. Asta Bala was the Goddess of fire: and the same customs prevailed here as at Feronia in Latium. The female attendants in the temple used to walk with their feet bare over burning [708]coals.