Indian Antiquities* says, the fire temples were always round. In per- 

 fect conformity with which Hanway writes, that there are at Sari, in 

 the province of Mazanderan in Persia, four temples of the Guebres or 

 worshippers of fire, who formerly inhabited that country, and he adds, 

 "it seemed inconsistent that the Persians suffered these temples to 

 remain unmolested, after the abolition of a religion which they now 

 esteem grossly idolatrous, but they are made of the most durable 

 materials. Those edifices are rotundas of about thirty feet diameter, 

 raised in height to a point near one hundred and twenty feet." -^ And 

 in the " Histoire des Decouvertes dans la Russie et la Perse," occurs 

 the notice of one at Bulgari,|: the ancient capital of Bulgaria, which 

 is there described as built of cut stone, extremely well wrought, and 

 crowned with a conical roof; while every modern traveller in the east 

 aids the present hypothesis by accounts of towers of exactly similar 

 construction with those of Ireland, existing at this day where the 

 fire worship has been or still is. Pottinger, in his travels in Beloochis- 

 tan, speaks of them as Atush Kidi, or fire temples, and Lord Valentia 

 notices two of them which he saw near Bhaugulpore in Hindoostan, 

 while the drawing he gives of them, presents the exact similitude of 

 those here treated of as to form, proportion, elevation of the door- 

 way about twelve feet above the ground, the four summit windows, 

 and the small tapering roof crowning all, and thus the noble traveller 

 describes them : " They much resemble those buildings in Ireland 

 which have hitherto puzzled the antiquarians of the sister kingdoms, 

 excepting that they are more ornamented. It is singular that there is 

 no tradition concerning them, nor are they held in any respect by the 

 Hindoos of this country. The Rajah of Jyenagur considers them as 



* Cited by Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. v. 4. p. 409. f Han way's Travels, part 3. c. 43. p. 199. 

 1 Vide, Vallanc. Collect. Hib. v. 3. pp. 194-5. . 



