But I am answered that the tower of Ardmore, which has within it no vestiges of divisional compartments, could offer no hindrance to the ascent of the smoke, or its consequent discharge through the four cardinal openings. To which I rejoin, that if there had ever been a fire lighted within that edifice, and continued for any length of time, as the sacred fire is known to have been kept perpetually burning, it would have been impossible for the inner surface of that stately structure to preserve the beautiful and white coating which it still displays through the mystic revolutions of so many ages. The same conclusion applies to the tower of Devenish, which, though it has no inside coating, yet must its elegant polish have been certainly deteriorated, if subjected to the action of a perpetual smoke.
ARDMORE.
The instance which is adduced of the four temples described by Hanway in his Travels into Persia, proves nothing. It certainly corresponds with the architectural character of some of our Round Towers, but leaves us as much in the dark as to the era and use of both as if he had never made mention of any such occurrence.
To me it is as obvious as the noon-day sun that they too on examination would be found of a more comprehensive religious tendency than what could possibly relate to the preservation of the sacred fire; for it is well known that when temples were at all appropriated to this consecrated delusion, it was within a small crypt or arched vault—over which the temple was erected—that it was retained. The Ghebres or Parsees, the direct disciples of Zoroaster, the reputed author of this improved institution, “build their temples,” says Richardson,[83] “over subterraneous fires.”
Whenever a deviation from this occurred, it was in favour of a low stone-built structure, all over-arched, such as that which Hanway met with at Baku, and corresponding in every particular with the edifices of this description to be seen at Smerwick, county Kerry, and elsewhere throughout Ireland.[84]
The fire-house which Captain Keppel visited at a later period at Baku, in 1824, was a small square building, erected on a platform, with three ascending steps on each side, having a tall hollow stone column at every side, through which the flame was seen to issue, all in the middle of a pentagonal enclosure—comprising also a large altar, whereon naphtha was kept continually burning.
Now, could anything possibly correspond more minutely with Strabo’s description of the Pyratheia than does this last account? “They are,” he says, “immense enclosures, in the centre of which was erected an altar, where the Magi used to preserve, as well a quantity of ashes, as the ever-burning fire itself.” And could anything possibly be more opposite to our Round Towers than all these accounts?
When, therefore, we are told[85] that at the city of Zezd in Persia—which is distinguished by the apellation of Darub Abadat, or seat of religion—the Ghebres are permitted to have an Atush Kidi, or fire-temple, which they assert had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster, we must be prepared to understand it as corresponding in architectural proportion with one or other of the instances just now detailed; and in truth, from recent discovery, I have ascertained—since the above was composed—that it is nothing more than a sorry hut.
But Pennant’s view of Hindostan is brought forward as at once decisive of the matter. What says Mr. Pennant, however? “All the people of this part of India are Hindoos, and retain the old religion, with all its superstition. This makes the pagodas here much more numerous than in any other part of the peninsula; their form too is different, being chiefly buildings of a cylindrical or round tower shape, with their tops either pointed or truncated at the top, and ornamented with something eccentrical, but frequently with a round ball stuck on a spike: this ball seems intended to represent the sun, an emblem of the deity of the place.”