“L’obélisque que les Phéniciens dédièrent au Soleil dont le sommet sphérique et la matière étoient fort différens des obélisques d’Egypte” (Ammian. Marcel.).
[605] Ex. xx. 26. The word altar does not mean what it is generally taken to express, a platform, but a high place, or standing column, what the Septuagint renders by the Greek word στηλη, a pillar. And this was what the Israelites were forbid erecting to Jehovah, lest that their nakedness should be discovered while ascending by steps or ladders to the entrance overhead.
The Gaurs have round towers erected of stone, and thither they carry their dead on biers; within the tower is a staircase with deep steps made in a winding form, and when the bearers are got within, the priests scale the walls by the help of ladders; when they have dragged the corpse gently up with ropes, they then let it slide down the staircase (Dr. Hurd’s Rites and Ceremonies, etc.).
[606] See pp. 7 and 8.
[607] 1 Kings vi. 4.
[608] 1 Kings vi. 6.
[609] 1 Kings vi. 29.
[610] The Tower of Pisa bears no comparison to this edifice.
[611] The holy wells also, with the practice of hanging pieces of cloth upon the branches of an overhanging tree, all belonged to the Tuath-de-danaan ceremonial. The early Christians took possession each of them of one of these wells, and are now, by prescription, recognised as their patron saints, and even supposed to have been their founders?
[612] Μοῖσα δ’ οἰκ ἀποδαμει τρόποις επι σφετέροσι, παντα δε χοροὶ παρθένων λυρᾶν τε Βοαὶ καναχαί τ’ ανλων δονεονται δαφνᾳ τε χρυσεα κομος αναδησαντες εἰλαπινα ξοινιν εν φρονως. νοσοι δ’ οντε γηρας ονλομενον κέκρατα ἱερᾶ γενεᾶ· πονων δε καὶ μαχᾶν ἄτερ οικεοισι φυγοντες υπερδικον Νέμεσιν (Pyth x. 59).