G49 
that these singular customs and names, which have no con- 
nection with Scotland of historic times, and are in many 
respects opposed to the prejudices and feelings of the present 
race, point to very early ages — even to a time when Bel or 
Baal had a meaning, and found a response in the hearts of 
the people ? There can be no doubt that sun or Baal worship 
prevailed to a great extent in Israel, and in most, if not in 
all, the nations of the world. The city of On or Aun (I.e., 
the self-existing eternal Being) was called Heliopolis (city of 
the sun) by the Greeks. Baalbec in the East was also con- 
sidered synonymous with city of the sun. In India, in 
Persia, in China too, so also in Greece and Rome, and even 
to the north of Europe, and probably in the wilds of Siberia, 
there seems to have been one universal feeling on this sub- 
ject, viz., the existence of one great eternal being — Bel or 
Bramah, or Oromasdes, or Phthah ; and the sun, as being 
the most direct and visible manifestation of his power. 
Connected with this, it is singular to find that some notion 
of a Triad or Trinity was almost as universal. Bramah, 
Vishnu, and Shiva, in India. Phtha, Amoun, and Osiris, in 
Egypt. Oromasdes, Mithra, Arimanius, in Persia. Bel, 
Sarnham, and Abhiester, in Britain. All having similar 
functions, and a similar, though, not identical, connection. 
It is remarkable, that though the ordinary word for " devil " 
in Gaelic is one taken from the Scriptures, viz., some form 
of Satan or Diabolus, implying " accuser," the real old 
word is abheister, which means " destroyer," which is the 
office of Arimanius and Shiva with the Persians and 
Hindoos. 
This wonderful similarity in feeling and religious belief 
among nations far removed from each other, and varying in 
habits, in climate, and disposition, cannot be the effect of 
chance, or the natural offspring of the human intellect, but 
is rather the remains of some primeval belief, and points to 
