Note 335 — TIT and TITH.

What the Poet styles the eyes of the Dragon, were undoubtedly windows in the upper part of the building, through which the fire appeared. Plutarch takes notice, that in the temple of Amon there was a [335]light continually burning. The like was observable in other temples of the [336]Egyptians. Pausanias mentions the lamp of Minerva [337]Polias at Athens, which never went out: the same custom was kept up in most of the [338]Prutaneia. The Chaldeans and Persians had sacred hearths; on which they preserved a [339]perpetual fire. In the temple of [340]Apollo Carneus at Cyrene, the fire upon the altar was never suffered to be extinguished. A like account is given by Said Ebn Batrick of the sacred fire, which was preserved in the great temple at [341]Aderbain in Armenia. The Nubian Geographer mentions a nation in India, called [342]Caimachitæ, who had large Puratheia, and maintained a perpetual fire. According to the Levitical law, a constant fire was to be kept up upon the altar of God. [343]The fire shall be ever burning upon the altar: it shall never go out.