24 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



by a Cupola at top, and four small windows in the sides near the top, let out the smoke. The 

 diameter of them is no more than sufficient for the Cai-Cwlane, or Draoi to perform his sacred 

 office : his Zend or prayers were not to be heard by the congregation, as in the service, his mouth 

 was covered lest he should breath on the holy fire, so that he mumbled or muttered his words. 

 When he had done, he probably ascended to the door or to the top, and gave his Aphrin. The 

 sacred fire was fed by the wood of a sacred tree ; in Persia the name of that tree is Haunt al Magjus, 

 L e. Haum Magwum: In Irish Om and Omna was Crann-naomha or sacred tree : we translate it 



an Oak. 



" The Perso-Scythi of Ireland named these Towers, Tuir Beil, or the Towers of Baal or Belus, 

 a name sacred to the Sun; whence Bel-ain, a year, i. e. the Circle of Bel. In Pharh. Gj. a Persian 

 author, we are told that Ardeshir Babek, a Persian King, constructed a certain lofty building which 

 he named Terbali, to the East of the City of Iharaghun in Persia, alia etiam veterum Templorum 

 Persicorum nomina in sequentibus memorantur, et eorum omnium nomina hodie recuperare et re- 

 censere, est plane impossibile, Hyde, 108. 



" The sacred fire was named Hyr, in Irish Ur, it was also named Adur, whence the Adair of 

 Ireland, names of places where some sacred building is always to be found ; our modern churches 

 are commonly annexed to these old fire-towers ; a strong argument that they were originally sacred 

 buildings. The Praefectus ignis was named Hyr-bad, in Irish Ur-Baidh. scil. Ignis Sacerdos; we 

 now translate laid, a prophet. The Urbad continued night and day in the fire tower, and all other 

 Priests were subject to him ; we have the same accounts in the Irish MSS. This order was also 

 named Mogh. Primus ordo antea vocabatur Mogh et postea Hyrbad. (Hyde). Mogh Mugh or 

 Magh was the name in Ireland, hence Ard-magh the Metropolitan See of Ireland, and all those old 

 family names beginning with the Epithet Mag, as Mag Mathghamna, Mag uidir, Mag Cana, Mag 

 Giolla Eiabha, Mag Eaghnuil, Mogh Luigh, Mac Luchta, &c. &c. and this name was borrowed of 

 the Chaldeans, another strong circumstance from whence Zerdust came, corresponding with our 

 Irish traditions. Olim in Chaldaeorum Curia horum Eector supremus (Jerem. 29. 3. 13) dicebatur 

 an-21 Rab mag i. e. Magorum Przefectus." -Vol. iv. pp. 202-3-4-5. 



And again: 



" It may be said that the few fire towers existing in Ireland, plainly evince that this fire-worship 

 was not an established religion, and that they must have been applied to some other use : to this 

 objection, I answer, that many have been pulled down, and that these were only Cathedrals ; that 

 other buildings of wattles and straw, (or Corridores) to cover the congregation, may have been erected 

 round them, and we shall find most of the Irish Towers connected with our Cathedrals, as at Cloyne, 

 Cashett, Glandalough, &c. &c. Notandum est, quod omne Pyreum fuit Ecclesia Cathedralis dotata 

 ad alendum Episcopum, et Sacerdotes necessaries (Hyde, 106), and like the Ghebres of India, they 

 often prayed to Culinary fires, where a tower was not conveniently at hand." Ib. pp. 206, 207. 



I do not feel it necessary to make any comment on the preceding passages, as 

 Vallancey's new Irish names for the Round Towers, together with the Irish autho- 

 rities to which he refers, are, as all Irish scholars must be aware, mere creations 



