8. The god or gods worshipped.
The year-gods in Babylonia and Egypt respectively were Baal and Thoth. It is worth while to inquire whether either name has made its appearance as a loan-word in the traditions of Western Europe.
About Baal there can be no question as to the coincidence, whether accidental, as some philologists affirm, or not.
We find Bel or Baal common to the two areas. Mr. Borlase informs us (op. cit., p. 1164) that in Western Europe Bel, Beal, Balor, Balder, and Phol, Fal, Fáil are the equivalents of the Semitic Baal. Balus, indeed, is named as the first king of Orkney. A May worship is connected with all the above. Beltaine and many variants describe the fires lighted at the festival, and it is worthy of note that although this fire worship has been extended to the solstitial ceremonials in June, the name Baltaine has never been applied to it at that time except by writers who think that the term “midsummer” may be applied indiscriminately to the beginning of May and the end of June.
I next deal with the Egyptian year-god Thoth. In Greece he became Hermes, among the Romans Mercury. In this connection I can most usefully refer to Rhys’s Hibbert Lectures and his chapter on the Gaulish Pantheon. He tells us (p. 5) that “Mercury is the god with whom the monuments lead one to begin.” There is also mention of a god Toutates or Teutates, and a Toutius, who might have been a public official (? priest of Toutates). Only Celtic or other later origins of the words are suggested; it is not said whether the possible Egyptian root has been considered.
We may even, I think, go further and ask whether some of the constellations were not figured as in Egypt, otherwise it is difficult to account for the horror of the black pig ([p. 195]) at Hallowe’en. The whole Egyptian story is told in my Dawn of Astronomy[109] in connection with the worship of Set, that is the stars visible at night, blotted out at dawn by the rising sun, or becoming predominant after sunset.