106 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, ~ 
It is well known, that, among some of the ancient nations of 
the East, parents were wont to consecrate their children to Mo- 
loch, whom some suppose to be the Sun, and others Saturn, 
by actually giving them up to the devouring flame. The infa- 
tuated parents persuaded themselves, that by this inhuman act 
they would secure their own prosperity, and that of the rest of 
their offspring. But this was not the only mode of consecra- 
tion. We learn from Marmonies, that, a great fire being 
kindled, the parent delivered his son to the priest, who had the 
charge of this fire ; and that he gave him back to the father, in 
token of his being permitted to make him pass through the 
fire. After this ceremony, the father himself led his child 
through the flames, from one side of the fire to the other *. 
Correspondent with this account, the language containing the 
prohibition of this crime, in Deut. xviii. 10. is rendered in the 
Septuagint, “‘ There shall not be found among you any one 
“ that purifieth his son or his daughter in fire f.” 
The Druids, we are told, on May-eve kindled two great fires, 
between which the men and beasts, which were to be sacrificed, 
were made to pass in order to their purification t. In Ireland 
to this day, at the Feast of Beltein, which is held at the sum- 
mer solstice, as they kindle fires on the tops of hills, every 
member of a family is made to pass through the fire; this ce- 
remony being deemed necessary to ensure good fortune through 
the 
*® Marmon. de Idololat. c. 6. s. 3. 
T Megicabarigay cov inoy ewes val thy Ovyarion dure uel. 
{ ‘© Two fires were kindled by (near) one another, on May-eve, in every vil- 
lage of the nation, (as well thro’out all Gaule, as in Britain, Ireland, and the ad- 
joining lesser islands,) between which fires the men and the beasts to be sacri- 
fic'd were to pass.” Totanp’s Hist. of the Druids, Lett. ii. § 4. 
