cated it to the Persians;" who were, indeed, the primitive founders of Druidism or Magism. Cicero also notices their veneration for misletoe, and the oak: "The Druids (for so the Gauls call their Magi) count nothing more holy than misletoe; or than the tree on which it grows, especially if it be an oak."

Hence, many ancient names of places in Ireland were derived from the oak; as, Kil-dare," the temple of the oak;" where a celebrated oak was preserved, with religious veneration, long after the introduction of Christianity, called "St. Bridget's oak." Dear-magh, "the oak field," now

*Cicero and Pliny notice their veneration for misletoe. Nil habent Druides (ita suos Magos appellant Galli), visco et arbore in quâ gignatur, si modo sit robur, sacratius. De Divin. I. 40. Est autem rarum admodum inventu, et repertum magnâ religione petitur; et ante omnia, sextâ luna ; quæ principia mensium annorumque his facit, et seculi post tricesimum annum. Plin. xvi, c. 44.

This Druidical usage of commencing the month, not from the new moon, but from the sixth night, or the half moon after, which was more easily known, gave rise, perhaps, to the division in some of our Almanacks, in which the first half moon is called "the first quarter," though in reality the second, as in the English Clerical Almanack of 1818. And the Druids easily accommodated the Lunar year of 354 or 355 days to the solar, of 3551 days, from which it falls short ten or eleven days; by intercalating a month of 30 days, at the end of every third year, about the time of the Summer solstice. Bede de Temporum ratione, c. 13. O'Conor, Prol. i. p. 30, 31.

Durrow, both in Leinster; Bile-magha-dair, "the holy tree of the field of oaks," in the county of Clare, Connaught, where the provincial kings were inaugurated.

The Druids were idolaters, as noticed by Ficch Their principal divinitics were the Sun, Moon, and Stars, or the Host of Heaven; the elements of nature, the winds, &c. The Sun was called, in Hebrew, Baal; in Phoenician, Beel*; signifying "Master;" i. e. Baal-shamaim, or Beelsamen, "Master of the Heavens:" and also Malech, Maloch, or Moloch, signifying "king" of the same. The moon was called Samhin (her Phoenician title), being the contraction of MalchothShamaim, "Queen of the Heavens," so styled by the Pagans, Jer. xliv. 17, 25. They were supposed to preside over the cardinal seasons of Spring and Autumn respectively: and the kindest wish of the native Irish, for the prosperity of a friend, still continues to be, at the present day," the blessings of Samhin and Bel be with you!" Hence their ancient custom, at the first sight of the nero moon, to borrow a piece of money, if they have it not themselves, as an omen of plenty throughout the month. See O'Halloran's History of Ireland, vol. i. pp. 47, 113,

* Thus Baal-zebub, signifying in Hebrew "Master of the Gadfly," worshipped in Palestine, 2 Kings, i. 2. was called in Syriac, or Phoenician, Beel-zebub, as in the New Testa

ment.

Accordingly, the grand festivals of Baal, "the Sun," and Samhin, "the Moon," were celebrated at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. The eve of the vernal, was called Oiche Baal tinne," the night of Baal's fire," when fires were lighted on all the high places dedicated to his worship. At which time, all culinary or household fires were ordered to be extinguished, under pain of death, and not lighted again until they were rekindled from the sacred fire. For imparting which, the Druids were entitled to a fee from each house. The eve of the autumnal equinox was called Oiche Samhin," the night of Samhin," which was celebrated with similar rites by the Druids.

In Ireland, the proper names of a multitude of places are derived from those of the Sun and Moon, imposed in times of paganism, and still retained to the present day. Such as the town of Baltinglass, in the county of Wicklow, and province of Leinster; or Baal-tinne-glass, signifying "Baal's fire, green," when the grass is green, as at the vernal equinox; Granard, in the county of Longford, or Grian-ard, "the Sun's high place." Kilmallock, a town in the county of Limerick, and province of Munster, or Kil-maloch," the temple of Maloch;" where are the ruins of a fine abbey, and a street of superb houses, the most magnificent to be scen in Munster, and of the remotest antiquity. Athlone, or Athà-luan, signifying "the ford of the moon," a town situate

high on the river Shannon, where it is fordable, bounding Leinster, in Westmeath, and Connaught, in Galway; Killesandra, or Killa-chandra, signifying in Irish, "the temple of the moon's circle or cycle;" and, what is truly remarkable, the same in the Sanscrit language, which was a dialect of the primitive Persic or Syriac. Thus Herodotus mentions a city of Egypt, during the Persian dominion, whose name, he allows, is not Egyptian, called Ar-chandra, signifying "the city of the Moon;" not, as he imagines, from the daughter of Archander, the wife of Danaus. B. ii. § 98.

The Druidical temples of the highest antiquity, like the Persian of old, were open to the Heavens; they were remarkably rude and simple in their structure, consisting of a circle of twelve tall straight stone pillars of immense size, with stone linterns across, connecting each pair of pillars; and also an enormous flat stone, called crom-leach, supported on three of four pedestals, serving for an altar of sacrifice, placed in the middle, or near one end of the enclosure; of which the plan might have been borrowed, perhaps, from the scriptural, consisting, in like manner, of twelve pillars and an altar, (Exod. xxiv. 4.) and both originally emblematical of "the Sun and Moon, and twelve Stars," (Gen. xxxvii. 9.) or constellations of the Zodiac, in the primeval astronomy of Chaldea, to which the Magi or Druids were much addicted See Vallancey's Astronomy of the Ancient Irish Collectan. vol. vi. part ii.

Of these Druidical temples and altars, there are numerous remains in every part of Great Britain and Ireland. Such as the great one of Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, said to have been formed in Ireland, and transported by Merlin's magic art, in one night, from thence, across the channel, to its present site. And one, of nearly equal dimensions, still exists in Ireland, at Beal-agh, "the altar of Beal, or Baal, in the county of Down, four miles from Belfast. (See a drawing and description of it in Vallancey's Essay on the Primitive Inhabitants of Ireland, pp. 40, 41.) The plain, or the high place in which they were erected, was called Magh-adhair, or Magh slecht, "the field of adoration."

The following curious description of their mode of worship is given in the Annals of the Four Masters, ann. mundi 3656, or B. C. 296*, in their account of Tigernach, king of Ireland, who first made an image, and introduced idolatry at that time. "On the night of Samhin, Tigernach, with the men and women of Ireland, prayed to the idol Crom-cruagh so devoutly, when they fell down and worshipped it, that they broke their

The Irish Chronologers, Gildas Coemhain, Tigernash, &c. counted 3952 years from the creation of the world to the vulgar Christian era, nearly agreeing with Scaliger, 3950, but differing from Petavius 3984 years, and from Usher 4001 years. See O'Conor, Prol. ii. pp. 85, 38.