OR THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. 107 
the succeeding year *. As the designation of this feast retains 
the name of Baal or Bel, I need scarcely remark the striking 
resemblance of this rite to the ancient worship of the false god 
who was thus denominated by the nations of the Kast. There 
is great reason, indeed, to believe, that Baal and Moloch were 
merely different names for the same idol; the one word signi- 
_ fying Lord, and the other King. For those, who in one place 
are said to have “ built the high places of Baal,—to cause their 
* sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Mo- 
-“ loch f,” are said, in another, to have “ built the high 
“ places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offer- 
s ings unto Baal}.” There can be no doubt that the wor- 
9 of Baal was that of the sun, who was designed “ the lord,” 
and « the king, of heaven.” 
The ancient Goths ascribed a similar virtue to this element. 
When, in their religious feasts, they drunk in honour of their 
ods or departed heroes, they stood around a great fire in the 
st of the temple, and caused the cups, filled with wine or 
~ mead, to ) be passed through gpe: flames ||. 
v6 PENNANT ane notice of a singular superstition, which still 
remains in the Highlands of Scotland, and which must certain- 
ly be viewed as a remnant of druidical worship. “ It has hap- 
Sf ‘ pened,” he, ys, “ iehigts after baptism, the father has placed 
si om O 2 “ao 
Me a Thus I Tae seen the people running and leaping through the St John’s 
fires in Ireland; and not only proud of passing unsing’d, but, as if it were some 
be lustration, thinking themselves in a special manner blest by this ceremo- 
‘ny, of whose original, nevertheless, they were wholly ignorant, in their imperfect 
imitation of it.” Toxanp, ibid. § 7. V. also Borxass’s Antiquities of Corn- 
wall, p. 130. 
if Jer. xxxii. 35. { Jer. xix. 5, 
|| Sturteson, Vit. Haquin. Adalstan. V. Keysuen. Antiq. Septentr. p. 355, 
356. 
