87 



Strabo, (lib. 4,) Tacitus, and Suetonius, (Vita Claudii,) concur in 

 representing them as offering human sacrifices, which Diodorus Sicu- 

 lus, (hb. 6,) confines to extraordinary occasions. In Ireland, howe- 

 ver, it is enough to know, that a religion, such as Saint Patrick 

 describes, did exist, that its priests were called Magi, as by Evinus 

 (cited, post, p. 88,) and others ; that the existence of its tenets, dis- 

 cipline, altars, Beltinne and Hallowe'en rites, is enforced by all the 

 external testimony of artificial appearances in the country, that its 

 ceremonies are deeply legible after the lapse of centuries in the man- 

 ners of the people : that the cromlechs, the upright pillars, the circu- 

 lar temples of stones, the round towers of the sacred fire, the holy 

 groves, (the " casta nemora " of Tacitus,) the venerated fountains 

 which were dedicated to sun worship, still remain; (for, like the Ger- 

 mans, as decribed by Tacitus,* the ancient Irish thought it was absurd 

 and unworthy the Author of all being and space, to limit his presence 

 within walls, or his worship within human architecture.) That they 

 had their everlasting fire, like the perpetual flame that ascended on 

 the altar of burnt offering at Jerusalem. That like the Guebri, 

 described by Dr. Hyde,-)" as kindling an annual fire, whence the 

 country was supplied, the Magi of Ireland too, on one particular 

 night, displayed their sacred fire on Tara, whence every hearth of 

 the island should be religiously fed, as appears from Evinus so 

 often praised by Usher. " It was provided by the strictest law, 

 that all the fires of every district of Ireland should be extinguished on 

 that night, and that no body should have liberty to rekindle his own, 

 until the pile of sacrifices was offered at Tara by the Magi, under 

 pain of death to the transgressor.":^ A rite, which Benignus, in the 



!v '* De Morib. German. t Cited Vallanc. Coll. v. 2. p. 283. 



X " Lege etiam severissima cavebatur, ut omnes ignes per universas regiones ista nocte 

 extinguerentur, et nuUi liceat ignem reaccendere, nisi prius Temoriie a Magis rogus sacrificio- 



