106 ON THE ORIGIN OP CREMATION, 



It is well known, that, among some of the ancient nations of 

 the East, parents were wont to consecrate their children to Mo- 

 loch, whom some suppose to be the Sun, and others Saturn, 

 by actually giving them up to the devouring flame. The infa- 

 tuated parents persuaded themselves, that by this inhuman act 

 they would secure their own prosperity, and that of the rest of 

 their offspring. But this was not the only mode of consecra- 

 tion. We learn from Maimonides, that, a great fire being 

 kindled, the parent delivered his son to the priest, who had the 

 charge of this ^re ; and that he gave him back to the father, in 

 token of his being permitted to make him pass through the 

 fire. After this ceremony, the father himself led his child 

 through the flames, from one side of the fire to the other *. 

 Correspondent with this account, the language containing the 

 prohibition of this crime, in Deut. xviii. 10. is rendered in the 

 Septuagint, " There shall not be found among you any one 

 " that purifieth his son or his daughter in fire f." 



The Druids, we are told, on May-eve kindled two great fires, 

 between which the men and beasts, which were to be sacrificed, 

 were made to pass in order to their purification £. In Ireland 

 to this day, at the Feast of Beltein, which is held at the sum- 

 mer solstice, as they kindle fires on the tops of hills, every 

 member of a family is made to pass through the fire ; this ce- 

 remony being deemed necessary to ensure good fortune through 



the 



• Maimon. de Idololat. c. 6. s. 3. 



% " Two fires were kindled by (near) one another, on May-eve, in every vil- 

 lage of the nation, (as well thro'out all Gaule, as in Britain, Ireland, and the ad- 

 joining lesser islands,) between which fires the men and the beasts to be sacri- 

 fice were to pass. 1 ' Toland's Hist, of the Druids, Lett. ii. § 4. 



