203 



on which it may be supposed the fire was at certain periods exhi- 

 bited to the people.* Fire-temples are also mentioned at Firozebad 

 and elsewhere, by Rinier ; near Ispahan, by other travellers, under 

 the name of attash or atesh ; and at Baku« the region of bitumen and 

 flame, when Hanway visited the place, fire- worshippers preserved 

 the holy flame in low ancient temples, built of stone and arched 

 over.-f- The account of these low vaulted buildings bears so strong 

 a resemblance to some curious cells, which yet remain at Smerwick, 

 county of Kerry,:}: that the very same words might be employed to 

 describe them. 



When in 1824 Captain Keppel was at Baku, he went to view the 

 fire-temple which now remains. He found in the middle of a pen- 

 tagonal enclosure a small square building, standing on a platform, 

 with three ascending steps on each side. At every corner stands a 

 tall hollow stone column, through which pours a bright flame ; near 

 this fire house is a large altar, on which naptha is kept continually 

 burning. The whole is surrounded by a thick wall which contains 

 small cells, each inhabited by a devotee,§ 



There were then at Baku several pilgrims, some of them Brah- 

 mins and some Viragees, the strictest caste of Hindoo ascetics.il 



Some of the low stone-roofed buildings in Ireland present somewhat 

 of the same character ; and if the small oratory at Killaloe be truly 

 represented in Grose's Irish Antiquities, the door and windows are 

 precisely similar in shape to those of the older buildings of India 



* Morier's Travels in Persia, First Journey, p. 128. 

 t Hanway's Travels, II. p. 333. Edit. Dub. 1754. 

 J Smith's History of Kerry, p. 191. 



§ Perhaps the cells in the wall of the Stig-an-air-pyratheia were intended fur the same 

 purpose. 



II Captain Keppel's Personal Narrative, II. pp. 216 — 219. 



D D 2 ' 



