THE SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. 135 



are from five to twenty feet high, according to the 

 circumstances and zeal of the villagers. These are 

 considered as a representation of mount Merit ; and, 

 in the inscription of Sdrjiathy the conical mount, near 

 the sacred repository, is called Meru. 



Like all the temples and tombs of Belus in India, 

 the pyramids had no opening whatever, except one 

 or two. It is however pretty certain, that all the 

 pyramids were not intended for the reception of the 

 bones of Belus. Many were probably intended for 

 the burial of a very few exalted and sacred charac- 

 ters, like the grand Lamas of Tibet, with a few 

 others, who are always buried under pyramids : but 

 these are acknowledged to be forms of Budd'ha, 

 though of an inferior rank. As the Egyptians con- 

 cealed most carefully the real place where their 

 Belus was entombed, it is not unlikely that the 

 great pyramid was only an ostensible one, and of 

 course allowed to remain open. For we are told, 

 that the body of him for whom it was intended, 

 never was deposited there; or if deposited, it was not 

 into the ostensible tomb, but into some secret place 

 under the pyramid. The limbs of Osiris were 

 buried separately, and on the very spot where Isis 

 found them : and he was torn into fourteen pieces ; 

 others say six-and-twenty. The general opinion is, 

 that Isis collected all tlie limbs in a coffin, like 

 which she made many others, and presented them to 

 several cities through Egypt; assuring privately 

 every one, that they possessed the real one. It is 

 supposed, that Osiris was entombed near Memphis, 

 though the spot never was known. 



The tower of Babel seems then to have been the 

 wordly temple of the spirit of heaven, and the tomb 



K 4 



