144 



holy, and has erected a small building to shelter the great number of 

 his subjects who annually come to worship here;"* thus evidently 

 implying that they were erected by a people professing a religion 

 different from that of the majority of the modern Hindoos. In these fire 

 temples Anquetil du Perron relates, -f that the chamber of fire was 

 not accessible to any persons except the priests, a fact that would 

 seem to explain the reason of the doorways of the Irish pillar towers 

 being so much raised above the level of the ground and chance of 

 pollution. 



And after the erection of such edifices, can it be supposed that the 

 architects were unable or unwilling to provide more comfortable resi- 

 dences for themselves, than those already alluded to ? The inference 

 must be that stone was exclusively dedicated to the service of religion, 

 and the remaining religious structures being also of stone will further 

 establish this position ; for notwithstanding the round temples which 

 were erected in accordance with the reformation of Zoroaster, there 

 are two evident traces of there being in Ireland, as there was in Persia, 

 another sect of fire worshippers that " erected their altars on the tops 

 of hills and high places in the open air ;";]: and hence is the Cromlech 

 so frequently met with in that country. It may be defined a flat 

 unhewn ponderous altar stone, propped in an inclined position, on two, 

 three, or four large stones, and frequently surrounded with a circle or 

 circles of stones, forming the outwork of the pyreum or fire temple. 

 The channels or furrows, still traceable on most of the inclined or altar 

 stones, make it probable that sacrifices as of oxen, &c. might have 

 been offered on them. But whatever were the victims, the altar is 

 itself thoroughly eastern and primitive; such an altar Noah " builded 



• Lrod Valentia's Voyages, vol. l.p. 85. 



•{- Zend. Avesta, torn 2. p. 669, cited by Lanigap, Eccl. Hist, vol, 4. p. 410. 



J Prideaux'a Connexions, ante, p. 142. 



