INDEX. (continued 3)

“The daughter of Erii was married to the nephew of Feridoon, and their young son, Manucheher, proved the image of his grandfather; this child becoming the cherished hope of the aged monarch; and when the young prince attained manhood he made every preparation to enable him to revenge the blood of Erii. Selm and Toor trembled as they saw the day of retribution approach; they sent ambassadors with rich presents to their father, and entreated that Manucheher might be sent to them, that they might stand in his presence like slaves, and wash away the remembrance of their crimes by tears of contrition. Feridoon returned their presents; and in his reply to their message expressed his indignation in glowing terms. ‘Tell the merciless men,’ he exclaimed, ‘that they shall never see Manucheher, but attended by armies, and clothed in steel.’

“A war commenced; and in the very first battle Toor was slain by the lance of Manucheher. Selm retired to a fortress, from whence he was drawn by a challenge from the youthful hero, who was victorious in this combat, and the war restored tranquillity to the empire” (Sir John Malcolm).

[508] “Fifty-six years the Fir-Bolgs royal line were kings, and the sceptre they resigned to the Tuath-de-danaans” (Keating).

[509] We have as yet no accounts of the persecution and expulsion of the Budhists from India; and this circumstance of itself would allow us to infer, with great probability, that those events must have taken place at a very remote period of antiquity.—Asiatic Researches.

[510] Göttingen University.

[511] Vallancey, Coll. vol. iii. p. 163.

[512] Bryant’s Anal. vol. iii. 491-3.

[513] “The first origin of the Danavas” says Wilford, talking of the primeval inhabitants of Egypt, “is as little known as that of the tribe last mentioned. But they came into Egypt from the west of India, and are frequently mentioned in the Puranas, amongst the inhabitants near Cali.”

Is it not manifest that they were a colony of our Danaans? And is not this still more undeniable from the circumstance of a part of Egypt—doubtless that wherein the Danaans resided—having been called of old, as you will find by the same authority, by the name of Eria? See p. 68 of present volume.

[514] This explains what Hecatæus records, as to the ancient attachment between the Hyperboreans and the Grecians—“deducing their friendship from remote times.” And the offerings which the latter are said to have brought to the former were precisely of that nature (ανθηματα) which comports with the spirit of our Budhist pentalogue. See p. 112.

[515] As to the actuality of the visit, it is past anything like doubt, from Orpheus, or if you prefer Onomacretus’ poem called “Argonautica”; and his conviction of this it was which made Adrianus Junius, quoted by Sir John Ware, to characterise Ireland as an “insula Jasoniæ puppis bene cognita nautis.”

[516] “Abaris ex Hyperboreis, ipse quoque theologus fuit; scripsit oracula regionibus quas peragravit, quæ hodie extant; prædixit is quoque terræ motus, pestes, et similia ac cætera. Ferunt eum cum Spartam advenisset, Lacones monuisse de sacris mala avertentibus, quibus peractis nulla, postmodum Lacedæmone pestis fuerit” (Apollonius, Histor. Mirab.).

Turn back also to pp. 328, 67, and 66, and see what is there stated!

[517] “A spiritual supremacy of this kind prevailed in several cities of Asia Minor, as, for instance, at Pessinus, in Phrygia. The origin of such constitutions is uncertain; but, according to tradition, was of very ancient date. The same cities were also great resorts of commerce, lying on the highway from Armenia to Asia Minor. The bond between commerce and religion was very intimate. The festivals of their worship were also those of their great fairs, frequented by a multitude of foreigners; all of whom (certain classes of females not excepted), as well as everything which had a reference to trade, were considered as under the immediate protection of the temple and the divinity. The same fact may be remarked here, which has obtained in several parts of Central Africa, namely, that the union of commerce with some particular mode of worship gave occasion at a very early period to certain political associations, and introduced a sacerdotal government” (Heeren, vol. i. p. 121).

[518] “This word is of uncertain etymology—their early history is uncertain. Diodorus (lib. v. 31) tells us that the Celts had bards who sung to musical instruments; and Strabo (liv. iv.) testifies that they were treated with respect approaching to veneration. The passage of Tacitus (Germ. 7) is a doubtful reading” (American Encyclopædia).

[519] See Oriental Collections.

[520] Homer’s Iliad, π. v. 233.

[521] Hesiod, apud Strabo, 1. 7.

[522] See Miege’s Present State of Ireland.

[523] See p. 257.

[524] On the pillar at Buddall, before alluded to, are these words, namely, “He had a womb, but it obstinately bore him no fruit. One like him can have no relish for the enjoyments of life. He never was blessed with that giver of delight, by obtaining which a man goes to another Almoner.” Upon which the learned translator (Sir Charles Wiggins) very correctly comments, that “he had no issue to perform Sradh for the release of his soul from the bonds of sin.” See p. 113 of this work. By another Almoner is meant the Deity.

[525] See p. 327.

[526] “Graiis, ingenium Graiis: dedit ore rotundo” (Horace).

[527] This is still more evident by his making use of the word τηλοθι, that is, far off, meaning from Greece! And Hesiod applies this identical topography to the British Islands, which he styles sacred, describing them as μαλα τηλε, an immeasurable distance off, towards the northern point of the ancient continent!

[528] See p. 71.

[529] Chap. xvii. 15.

[530] For Dedan, see last two pages; and for D-Irin, see p. 128. The prefixing of D to the last word arose from confounding it with the former name; and thus it was embodied with it, as seen before in L-Erne.

[531] Or as the Rev. Cæsar Otway would say, in a similar embarrassment,—“I will give (i.e. invent) you a motto and a motive for it.” Ha, ha, ha! (see Dublin Penny Journal, July 8, 1832).

[532] Dublin Penny Journal, April 6, 1833.

[533] “Elementorum omnium spiritus, utpote perennium corporum motu semper, et ubique vigens, ex his quæ per disciplinas varias affectamus, participat nobiscum munera divinandi, et substantiales potestates ritu diversa placatæ, velut ex perpetuis fontium venis vaticina mortalitati suppeditant verba” (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 21).

“They then took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees” (Book of Enoch).

“I have collected fifty words in the Irish language relating to augury and divination: every one of them are oriental, expressing the mode of producing these abominable arts; they are, in fact, the very identical oriental words written in Irish characters” (Vallancey).

[534] Danaus, the sire of fifty daughters, leaving those fruitful regions watered by the Nile, came to Argos, and through Greece, ordained that those who erst were called Pelasgi, should by the name of Danai be distinguished (Euripides).

[535] You will find in Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller’s writings, that those boats are still called, in that country, arghs, as they were in ours, and the people who man them are styled Phut, corresponding to our Fo-morians.

[536] “I thank you,” says Symmachus to his brother Flavianus, “for the present you made me of some Irish dogs (canes Scotici), which were there exhibited at the Circensian Games, to the great astonishment of the people, who could not judge it possible to bring them to Rome otherwise than in iron cages.”

[537] This is the meaning of the name Glen-da-lough, and a faithful portraiture it is of the situation.

[538] Miniature of Budhism.

[539] “The secret, it was lost, but surely it was found” (Freemason’s Song).

[540] This account is found in Satdharmalankare, a very popular Budhist book, being a collection of histories, etc., from the writings of the Rahats, in which the original Paly (Pahlavi) texts are preserved with the Singhalese (Miniature of Budhism).

[541] Buddu, the god of souls, is represented by several little images made of silver, brass, stone, or white clay, and these are set up in almost every corner, even in caverns and on rocks, to all which piles the devotees carry a variety of provisions, every new and full moon throughout the year; but it is in March they celebrate the grand festival of Buddu, at which time they imagine the new year begins. At this festival they go to worship in two different places, which have been made famous by their legendary stories concerning them. One of them is the highest mountain in the island, and called by the Christians Adam’s Peak; the other is in a place where Buddu reposed himself under a tree, which planted itself there for the more commodious reception of the deity, who, when he was on earth, frequently amused himself under its agreeable shade, and under that tree the pagans in Ceylon adore their Buddu, whom they really believe to be a god (Dr. Hurd).

Bodhesat receives a few handfuls of grass presented to him by Soitha (a Brahmin), which grass, when strewed on the ground under the Bo tree, there arise from the earth miraculously a throne of diamond fourteen cubits high, covered externally with grass; on which Bodhesat takes his seat, reclining his back against the tree, in order to accomplish his last act of meditations. Buddha having ascended into the air, and displayed his glory to all the worlds in rays of six different colours, in order to afford the gods a proof of his perfection, stands seven days with his eyes fixed on the Bo tree, enjoying the Dhyanes (Miniature, etc.).

[542]

[543] Book of Enoch, lxi. 8-10.

[544] Dr. Lawrence, present Archbishop of Cashel.

[545] Preface to translation of the Book of Enoch.

[546] “If this singular book be censured as abounding in some parts with fable and fiction, still should we recollect that fable and fiction may, occasionally, prove both amusing and instructive; and can then only be deemed injurious when pressed into the service of vice and infidelity. Nor should we forget that much, perhaps most, of what we censure, was grounded upon rational tradition, the antiquity of which alone, independent of other considerations, had rendered it respectable. That the author was uninspired will be scarcely now questioned. But, although his production was apocryphal, it ought not therefore to be necessarily stigmatised as necessarily replete with error; although it be on that account incapable of becoming a rule of faith, it may nevertheless contain much moral as well as religious truth, and may be justly regarded as a correct standard of the doctrine of the times in which it was composed. Non omnia esse concedenda antiquitati is, it is true, a maxim founded upon reason and experience; but, in perusing the present relic of a remote age and country, should the reader discover much to condemn, still, unless he be too fastidious, he will find more to approve; if he sometimes frown, he may oftener smile; nor seldom will he be disposed to admire the vivid imagination of a writer who transports him far beyond the flaming boundaries of the world—

displaying to him every secret of creation; the splendours of heaven, and the terrors of hell; the mansions of departed souls, and the myriads of the celestial hosts, the seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim, which surround the blazing throne, and magnify the holy name of the great Lord of Spirits, the Almighty Father of men and of angels” (Archbishop of Cashel).

[547] See p. 475.

[548] John i. 10, 11.

[549] John i. 14.

[550] P. 478.

[551] But cf. Acts (Gr.) xxiv. 23, τῶν ιδιων.

[552] John i. 12.

[553] John i. 13.

[554] See p. 242.

[555] See p. 243.

[556] Rom. xi. 33.

[557] John i. 31.

[558] John xii. 28.

[559] Namely, the secret of an Antediluvian Incarnation.

[560] Matt. ii. 1, 2.

[561] This woodcut is copied from one of the early block-books.

[562] See p. 440.

[563] I need not repeat to the reader, that by Irish I mean the primitive Persic, indiscriminately common as well to Iran as to Irin.

[564] Virgil’s Æneid, vi. 724.

[565] John viii. 12.

[566] John i. 1.

[567] John i. 29. See also p. 315 of this volume.

[568] See p. 288.

[569] In the Tartar language, which is a dialect of the Irish, it still retains this latter import, as appears from the following:—“Ce qu’il y a de remarquable, c’est que le grand prêtre des Tartares port le nom de lama, qui en langue Tartare signifie la croix; et les Bogdoi qui conquirent la Chine en 1644, et qui sont soûmis au delae-lama dans les choses de la religion, ont toujours des croix sur eux, qu’ils appellent aussi lamas” (Voyage de la Chine, par Avril, lib. iii. p. 194).

[570] The words Irish and sacred are synonymous. See p. 129.

[571] See pp. 267, 268, 269.

[572] “The peculiar office of the Irumarcalim it is difficult to find out,” says Lewis, “only it is agreed that they carried the keys of the seven gates of the court, and one could not open them without the rest. Some add that there were seven rooms at the seven gates, where the holy vessels were kept, and these seven men kept the keys, and had the charge of them” (Origines Hebrææ, vol. i. p. 97).

[573] See p. 438, with the note thereon also.

[574] See Dublin Penny Journal, Nov. 10, 1833.

[575] Published by Berthoud, 65 Regent’s Quadrant, Piccadilly.

[576] See p. 361. At Monasterboice there are three very beautiful specimens of those Tuath-de-danaan crosses still remaining, and covered, as usual, with hieroglyphic sculpture. “The pillars in the Palencian city,” I find, “are also decorated with serpents, lizards, etc.”

[577] See Borlase, p. 162.

[578] See p. 36. I must not omit to mention that the Tuath-de-danaan cross at Armagh, noticed at p. 359, was pulled down some time back, to prevent the squabbles between the Catholics and the Orangemen, neither of whom had any inheritance therein!

[579] Vita prima S. Patricii, Ap. Colgan.

[580] “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke ii. 10,11).

[581] “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men” (Luke ii. 13, 14).

[582] Matt. ii. 9.

[583] Gen. xiv. 18, 19, 20.

[584] Heb. vii. 4, 1, 2, 3. “Rex idem hominum, Phœbique Sacerdos” (Virgil).

[585] “Holy mysteries must be studied with this caution, that the mind for its module be dilated to the amplitude of the mysteries, and not the mysteries be straitened and girt into the narrow compass of the mind” (Bacon).

[586] Isa. lii. 7.

[587] John xvi. 33.

[588] Luke xix. 42.

[589] John xiv. 27.

[590] Heb. vi. 19, 20.

[591] Christmas Carols.

[592] Freemasons’ Song.

[593] Matt. iii. 7.

[594] John vii. 41.

[595] See p. 229.

[596] Keating’s History of Ireland, folio, p. 143.

[597] Pronounced Sauv. This was the Seva of the Hindoos, by which although they understood, indeed, as well generation as destruction to be symbolised; yet it is clear that they must have long lost the method of accounting for the reason why, otherwise than saying, that death and life meant the same thing; that is, that the cessation of existence in one form was but the commencement of existence in another.

[598] Freemasons’ Song.

[599] Ashe’s Masonic Manual.

[600] See p. 282, note.

[601] See p. 268.

[602] Isa. vii. 14.

[603] “The countenance of Christ was placid, handsome, and ruddy, so formed, however, as to inspire the beholders, not so much with love and reverence as with terror; his locks were like the colour of a full ripe filbert nut (auburn), straight, and entire down to the ears, from thence somewhat curled down to the shoulders, but parted on the crown of the head after the manner of the Nazarites; his forehead was smooth and shining, his eyes blue and sparkling, his nose and mouth decorous, and absolutely faultless; his beard, in colour like his locks, was forked, and not long” (Waserus, p. 63).

“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 his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti).

[604] The principal one I conceive to have been at the hill of Tara, which means the hill of the Saviour, and synonymous with mount Ida, 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 the secret of 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 le sommet sphérique et la matière étoient fort différens des obélisques d’Egypte” (Ammian. Marcel.).

[605] Ex. xx. 26. The word altar does not mean what it is generally taken to express, a platform, but a high 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 have round towers erected 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’s Rites 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 from beans, 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 the sword, and by the fire, 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 were afterwards degraded to every possible purpose they could be made to subserve: but I speak above of the time immediately after 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, the maddin nag of 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 constellation Orion, he said that was Caomai, 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 the Cimah of Job, which the learned Costard asserts to be the constellation Orion” (Vallancey).

[619] At p. 305 of his work on the Towers 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.