[222] The word is more mysterious, as I shall explain elsewhere.
[223] Hannah More.
[224] Byron.
[225] “One superstition of the pagans never fails to assert its influence upon spots like this—the genius loci is always ascendant” (Deane).
[226] Ab-roch also, the official title of Joseph, when appointed regent of Egypt, signifies father of the king.
[227] “The Himalaya are the peculiar abodes of the gods of the Hindoos; the rivers, issuing from the eternal snows, are goddesses, and are sacred in the eyes of all. Shrines, of the most holy and awful sanctity, are at the fountain-heads of the Ganges and Jumna; and on the summit of Kedar Nauth, Cali, that goddess of bloody rites, is supposed to have taken up her residence. One among the numerous proceedings of her votaries, is to scramble as high up the mountain as they can attain, taking with them a goat for an offering: the animal is turned loose with a knife tied round his neck; the belief is, that the goddess will find the victim, and immolate it with her own hand” (Archer).
[228] This adjective I apply indiscriminately to Persia or to Ireland.
[229] It lies in the district of Ins-oin, which means the abode of Magicians; corrupted now to Inis-owen, which would import Eugene’s island. An aggravated blunder—the place being in the very centre of the country, with which such an imaginary chevalier was never associated.
“His tibi Grynæi nemoris dicatur origo,
Ne quis sit lucus, quâ se plus jactet Apollo.”
Virg. Ecl. 6.