On l. 106. (G.):—
"Pan entertains, this coming night,
His paramour, the Syrinx bright."
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, Act i.
J.F.M.
DERIVATION OF EASTER.
Southey, in his Book of the Church, derives our word Easter from a Saxon source:—
"The worship," he says, "of the goddess Eostre or Eastre, which may probably be traced to the Astarte of the Phoenicians, is retained among us in the word Easter; her annual festival having been superseded by that sacred day."
Should he not rather have given a British origin to the name of our Christian holy day? Southey acknowledges that the "heathenism which the Saxons introduced, bears no [very little?] affinity either to that of the Britons or the Romans;" yet it is certain that the Britons worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth, a relic of whose worship appears to be still retained in Cornwall to this day. The Druids, as Southey tells us, "made the people pass through the fire in honour of Baal." But the festival in honour of Baal appears to have been in the autumn: for