100 
jority of the nations of the east ; where the Magian priests, abhor- 
ring idolatry, erecting altars in high places, and, under the symbol 
of fire, worshipping one supreme God, self-existing and eternal, 
had been opposed to Labinanism, polytheism, and image-worship. 
This was the reformed religion of Zerdust, or Zoroaster,* the great 
Persian prophet, and cotemporory of Darius Hystaspes ; and it is still 
preserved by his disciples, the Parsees or Guebres, who “ generally,” 
says Richardson, “ build their temples over subterraneous fires.” 
“At the city. of Yezd in Persia, which is distinguished by the ap- 
pellation of Darub Abadat, or seat of religion, the Guebres are 
permitted to haye an Atush Kidi, or Fire temple, (which, they as- 
sert, had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster) in their 
own compartment of the city.’t{ The Greeks and Romans had 
their inconsumable fire, as had all the Celtic tribes through their 
widely spread nations. ‘The ceremony was of divine original, as I 
shall presently make manifest. To this day in Ireland, beyond any 
European nation, is this most ancient and universal rite regularly 
observed. ‘The symbolic fire still gives name to the first of May, 
called in Irish La Bail-teine, “ the day of Bel’s fire,” which peri- 
odically blazes throughout the island, particularly at midsummer ; 
and for its imagined purifications the peasantry still entertain enthu- 
siastic respect, although quite unconscious of the source of their 
immemorial superstition. ‘The word, year, is in Irish “ bel-ain,” 
the circle of the sun, from bel sun, and ain a ring or circle. 
As these monuments of heathenism, in the Isles of Aran; present 
no peculiarity distinguishing them from similar objects, so numer- 
ous throughout the British Isles, and so familiar to all, I will strive 
to substitute, for a minute detail of them, a brief analytical expo- 
* In Persic, this word means ‘‘ an observer of the heavens.” 
+ Asiatic Researches. + Pottinger’s Beloochistan. 
