199 



proportions bears a, strong analogy to the Irish towers. From the 

 want of more particular details no important inference can be 

 drawn from it. In justice, however, it must be observed that, 

 although tauntingly called a Turkish minareh by Dr. Ledwich,* it 

 holds a much closer likeness to the Irish than to the Turkish towers, 

 , Hindostan also contains examples of edifices somewhat similar. 

 Lord Valentia describes two towers, which he declares to have im- 

 mediately reminded him of the round towers Ireland ;-f his design 

 represents them as being more ornamented, and having roofs ap- 

 proaching rather to the Ogee shape than the cone ; the doors are 

 situated exactly as in our Irish towers, and altogether the general 

 resemblance is very remarkable. The ascent to the doors appears 

 to be by means of a ladder. His Lordship observes that the neigh- 

 bouring inhabitants held them in no veneration, but that vast bodies 

 of pilgrims from the province of Jynegaur, on the western side of 

 the peninsula, were accustomed to come there annually for worship. 

 Fortunately some little addition has been made to this scanty 

 description by another writer who, although mentioning them but 

 incidentally, speaks of these towers at the village of Vasu Paduka,^: 

 as a collateral evidence of the true situation of the ancient city of 

 Palibothra, " the royal seat of the Baliaputra Rajahs, a dynasty 

 named from their great founder and ancestor Bali."§ But Bali, 

 and Bel, and Baal, oriental antiquaries have given proof of being 

 one and the same ; and Bali is shewn to be that apostate Nimrod, 



* Antiquities of Ireland, p. 166. 



f Valentia's Travels, I. p. 85. Quart. Ed. 



:j; A village four miles from Bhangulpore. 



§ Franklin's Enquiry into the site of Palibothra, p. 6 — Belus, the Lord or King, the divi- 

 nity, in one word the sun. — Baal or Belus, the Babylonian Bel, the Phenician Baal, are all 

 derived from the Hebrew Baal, Lord. That Bel was the sun is shewn in Virgil — Eneid, I. v. 733. 

 — Travels in the East, I. p. 431. 



