[214] Yet in Hindoostan, also, as we learn from Major Archer, “an astrologer is a constituted authority in all the villages, and nothing pertaining to life and its concerns is commenced without his sanction.”
[215] “Tout, dans le systême primitif de la religion des Grecs, atteste la transposition des traditions comme des principes; tout y est vague, sombre et confus” (De Sacy).
[216] “The Sabians themselves boasting the origin of their religion from Seth, and pretending to have been denominated from a son of his called Sabius, as also of having among them a book, which they called the Book of Seth” (Prideaux, part i. book iii.).
[217] This is only a corruption from the Irish word Ercol, the sun.
[218] Wisdom of Solomon, xiv. 16, 17.
[219] To this exactly corresponds, as well in import as in appropriation, the name of one of the hills upon which Rome was built, that is Palatinus, which—no doubt, to the amazement of etymological empirics—is nothing less than a compound of Baal and tinne; that is Baal’s fire—the initial B and P being always commutable. And Aven-tinus, the epithet of another of the Seven Mounts, is derived from Avan, a river; and tinne, fire, meaning the fire-hill, near the river. And as the former was devoted to the sun, so the latter was to the moon; in confirmation of which it got another name, namely, Re-monius, of which the component parts are Re, the moon, and moin, an elevation.
The Pru-taneion, also amongst the Greeks, was what? A fire-hill. Startle not, it is a literal truth. But the dictionaries and lexicons say nothing about these matters? nay, offer other explanations? mystifications, Sir, if you please, whereby they implicate, as well themselves as their readers, in absurdities; which could not be expected to be otherwise uninstructed, as their authors necessarily were, in the elements of that language whence all those words have diverged.
Pru-taneion, then, is compounded of Bri, a mount, and tinne, fire; the B, as before observed, being commutable with P, particularly amongst the Greeks, who indifferently called Britain Βρετανικη and Πρετανικη (νησος being understood). Every community had, of old, one of those Britennes, or fire mounts, natural or artificial. The guardian of the sacred element therein was called, Bri-ses; and the dwelling assigned him, hard by, Astu. The number of those latter Cecrops reduced, in Attica from one hundred and sixty, to twelve. Of these, Theseus appointed the principal station at Cecropia, the name of which he changed, by way of eminence, to Astu; and hence this latter word, which originally but represented the abode of the Sacerdos, came ultimately to signify a city at large; as Prutaneion did a Common Council Hall.
[220] To this day, the most kindly wish, and ordinary salutation, of the Irish peasant, continues to be Bal dhia duit, Bal dhia ort, that is the god Baal to you, or the god Baal upon you.
[221] The Irish mode of expressing it is Slan fuar tu sin, agus slan adfaga tu sin. The Caffres who reside all round the Cape, pay their adoration to the moon, by dancing to her honour when she changes, or when she is at the full. They prostrate themselves on the ground, then rise up again, and, gazing at her orb, with loud acclamations, make the following address:—“We, thy servants, salute thee. Give us store of milk and honey; increase our flocks and herds, and we will worship thee.”