Note 709 — THE ADORATION OF FIRE

Such is the nature of the temple named Istachar; and of the caverns in the mountains of Chusistan. They were sacred to Mithras, and were made use of for his rites. Some make a distinction between Mithras, Mithres, and Mithra: but they were all the same Deity, the [709]Sun, esteemed the chief God of the Persians. In these gloomy recesses people who were to be initiated, were confined for a long season in the dark, and totally secluded from all company. During this appointed term they underwent, as some say, eighty kinds of trials, or tortures, by way of expiation. [710]Mithra apud Persas Sol esse existimatur: nemo vero ejus sacris initiari potest, nisi per aliquot suppliciarum gradus transierit. Sunt tormentorum ij lxxx gradus, partim intensiores.—Ita demum, exhaustis omnibus tormentis, sacris imbuuntur. Many [711]died in the trial: and those who survived were often so crazed and shaken in their intellects, that they never returned to their former state of mind.