134 



taroth, Chemosh and Milcom, there are several chambers, one 

 of which is described to resemble a hollow round pyramid or cone, 

 the vertex being even with the soil. — This " place of abomination" 

 evinces the great prevalence and extreme antiquity of the cavern 

 worship, which from the knowledge gleaned out of pagan authors, 

 and the scanty records of heathen nations, appears to have em- 

 braced and united several objects, all however by an extraordinary 

 concatenation intimately connected with the worship of the sun. 

 That such places were frequent in Judea is evident from the strong 

 reprobation with which they are mentioned by the Prophets. And 

 it appears from Ezekiel that various modes of idol worship were 

 practised in union. In his eighth chapter* he describes the sub- 

 terranean temple with all the idols of Israel, the weeping for 

 Thammuz, who has been identified with Adonis, Osiris, and Serapis, 

 the Sol Infernus ; and the worship of the sun by five-and-twentyf 

 men looking towards the East. 



The Irish name Cairn, as well as the Welsh Carnedde, is 

 thought]: to be derived from the Hebrew, keren-nedh, a coped 

 sloping heap ; it seems to have been commonly employed in the 

 most solemn transactions in the earliest times, and to have then 

 borne a sacred character ; as appears from the Scripture account of 

 the agreement between Jacob and Laban,§ where on their en- 

 tering into a covenant, Jacob had a pile of stones raised, each 

 party giving a name to the heap, but both names bearing the same 



* Ezek. viii. 10, 14, 16. 



-}- It has been observed, that the number, twenty-five, is very remarkable, as being one of the 

 Egyptian Cycles, and much attended to in the worship of Apis — Class. Jour. No. LXIV. 

 p. 371. 



J Mona Antiqua, p. 218. 



§ Gen. xxxi. 44. 



