Whalton and its Vicinity, by the Rev. J. E. Elliot. 243 



bustible materials, which was dragged by them with great 

 rejoicing (a fiddler being seated on the top of the cart) into 

 the village and erected into a pile. The people from the sur- 

 rounding country assembled towards evening, when it was 

 set on fire ; and whilst the young danced around it, the elders 

 looked on smoking their pipes and drinking their beer, until 

 it was consumed. There can be little doubt that this curious 

 old custom dates from a very remote antiquity. One of the 

 earliest forms of idolatry was that which was directed to the 

 Principle of Life and the prolific energies of Nature. These 

 were represented under the symbols of the sun, the element 

 of fire, and other figures, which appeared most vividly to ex- 

 press it among the different races who practised it. Baal or 

 Bel, the sun god, was the great object of worship of the Phoeni- 

 cians; a people who in their trading voyages were brought into 

 frequent and close connection with the inhabitants of these 

 islands. To their influence Professor Nilsson, in his book on 

 the bronze age, attributes the civilization of that period; and 

 it appears, indeed, sufficiently probable, that it would like- 

 wise extend to the introduction of their religious opinions. 

 " Wherever," he says, " the traces of solar worship are dis- 

 covered, they are found in connection with traces of bronze 

 culture." In the same work, he attributes the concentric 

 markings upon the rocks found in different parts of Northum- 

 berland, described in the " Illustrated News " of 19th March, 

 1864, to sun worshippers ; he says that "he was subsequently 

 informed by I)r Bruce that articles of bronze as well as flint 

 were found near them ; and in a subsequent paper in the 

 " Transactions of the Ethnological Society," 1866, he en- 

 deavours to show that Stonehenge and other so-called Druidical 

 circles were " Temples in which the sun-god was worshipped, 

 in the same manner as Baal in the east." " In evidence of 

 this," he says, " the worship of Baal in Canaan was performed 

 from the days of Moses and Joshua with dance and song. In 

 1 Kings, ch. 18, v. 22, it is stated that the prophets of Baal 

 leaped upon the altar and invoked the name of their god, 

 &c. The feast of Baal was celebrated in the same manner in 

 Ireland. On Mid-summer Eve, bonefires were lighted on the 

 hills, and dancing was kept up around them all the night. 

 In the language of the country these fires Avere called Balsteni; 

 consequently the Canaanites and the Irish equally denomi- 

 nated the sun-god Baal and lighted fires on the hills, round 



