564 Colonel Tod's Observations on a Gold Ring found at Montrose. 



enthusiastic in their devotions to this, the Bona Dea of all nations, who 

 conjoined the worship of the evil principle, typified in the serpent, with 

 that of the " Nourisher." The worship of Isis obtained throughout Celtic 

 Gaul, as in Italy, ere Rome was founded : she is an indigenous divinity, 

 not of exotic adoption ; and the capital of the Franks, the abode of the 

 Celtic Parisii* takes its name from the goddess,t whose statue was 

 preserved in the Abbey of St. Germain t to the year 1514 ; when the piety 

 of the Archbishop of Meaux interposed to the destruction of this object of 

 ancient superstition. Isis had not, even at this advanced period of Chris- 

 tianity, lost all her influence, and we might have compared her effigy with 

 Isani, but for the piety of the Bishop's secretary: " Frere Jehan, sur- 

 " nomme le sage, asseurant qu'il avoit trouve une femme a genoux devant cette 

 " idole, tenant une toiiffe de chajidelles allumees, et deplorant quelque perte 

 " qui lui etait advenue, et interrogee qu'elle Jaisait la, repondit que, des ecoliers 

 " au Pre aux clercs lui avaient donne ce conceil et diet : * Allez a I'idole St. 

 " ' Germain et vous trouverez ce qu'avez perdu.' Eti la place de la site, 

 " k dit sieur Briconnet y Jist scellcr une grande croix que Fan y void encore."% 

 The personal description of the goddess from two ancient authorities, is 

 the perfect counterpart of the consort of the Hindu sun-god, Bal Nath, or 

 Siva : " Elle etait comme d'une grande femme have, maigre et deckevelee ; 

 " noire et nue .•"|| the exact representation of the consort goddess of Iswara, 

 on the exterior of his temples, where their symbols, the Lingam and Yoni, 

 as represented on the ring, are worshipped in the sanctum. Precisely the 

 Kali Devi, or black goddess, whose common appellation of Sukd Maid, 

 the dry mother, may either express that she has given aU her nourishment 

 to her children, or that she is the parent at once of life and death. 



It is an erroneous, though generally-received opinion, that the Celtic 

 races had no sculptured deities or temples previous to their becoming tribu- 



* Histoire de I'lsle de France. 



t La ville de Paris, autrefois dedige a Isis, et situee pres de la ville d'Isia (Melun) eut de 

 terns immfimorial un navire pour symbole et pour armes. Son nom, en langue Celtique et Grecque 

 (qui sont les deux soeurs) est deriv6 de Para-Isidos, pres d'Isis. — Dissertation sur Belenus, 

 p. 25, prefixed to " Recherches Historiques sur Falaise." 



J Des-Prcs, formerly the temple of Isis. 



§ Des Parisii, et du culte de Gaulois, p 73, where the author has extracted from the old 

 historians all that regards the Isis of the Parisii, whose orthography is preserved in the quotation. 

 This author gives abundant evidence, as the Fauxbourg d'Issi, &c. 



II Des Parisii, &c., p. 71, 72. 



