dialects of Europe will not be regarded with unreasonable scepticism. 1 Bel,2 in Cingalese, signifies power, might, authority; Baal, Bel, Belus, in Assyria, Palestine, and Phoenicia, implies dominion, and became equivalent in use to supreme god, ruler.3 In all these countries the expression is also connected with 1 Very many words are nearly identical in their application and in their formation in the Cingalese and the Celtic languages. This, considering that the former is so much derived from Sanscrit and Pali, will not be thought, after recent philological discoveries, to require explanation-neither to be a matter for wonder-notwithstanding the relative geographical position of the countries in which these languages are spoken. I may merely mention a few words having a derivation common to the Cingalese and Celtic languages— God, death, king, virtuous, triumphant, light, the sun, the moon, the stars, a man, a lord, a woman, water, a tree, a cave-almost all the personal relations, and the numerals. The numerals, as expressed in Sanscrit, have unmistakeably a common origin with those of the Celtic dialects. But the question has been asked, "May not the numerals have been introduced into Britain subsequent to the Christian era ?" No one can give an authoritative answer to this question, which, it is presumed, is meant to imply that the numerals were imposed on the Celtic language after the Roman invasion. This appears to be most improbable; for it cannot be supposed that the Druids, with their knowledge of the heavenly bodies, and using alphabetical characters, were without words to express the common numbers. Neither have we any reason to suppose that the Irish, whose country was never assailed by the Romans, nor the Caledonians, whose country they were unable thoroughly to subdue or to retain, received from them the words for those simple numbers, which must be amongst the first requirements of beings endowed with the faculty of speech. The numerals, as expressed in the Sanscrit and Celtic languages, are evidently derived from a common source. The figures now in use to represent the digits in Europe were derived from the Arabs, who acquired them from India (Prinsep's Indian Antiquities, by Thomas); and it has been lately advanced that the Hindus derived them from the Chinese.Wilson's India Three Thousand Years Ago. In the tablets found in the camp of the Helvetii when they were defeated by Cæsar, B.C. 58, the people were numbered up to 368,000, of whom 92,000 were fighting men. 2 Bél, plural of Béla, power, strength, force, dignity, might, authority. 3 Kenrick's Phoenicia, pp. 298, 299. light and the worship of the heavenly bodies, more particularly of the sun.1 2 Bel or Belinus-Apollo,2 was a principal divinity of the heathen Britons and their Celtic kindred in Gaul, as well as of the Assyrians and Phoenicians. 1 Bhá and Bhála, light, effulgence, excellence; Bali, sidereal worship; Baliya, image made to represent any particular planet to which the sacrifice is offered. The Baalim of the Assyrians and Canaanites appear to have been the same as the Cingalese Baliya (see Judges ii. 11, 13). 246 Belinus, the same as Apollo" (Lexicon of Petrocus); Belinus, a divinity of the Gauls (Ausonius), the same as the Apollo of the Greeks and the Horus of the Egyptians; Orus or Horus, the emblem of the sun (Lemprière's Dictionary, "Belenus"); Orus, they say, is, by interpretation, Apollo (Diodorus Siculus, b. i.); Orus, whom the Greeks call Apollo (Herodot. Euterpe, cxliv.); Apollo, Ceres, and Diana, the Egyptians call Orus, Isis, and Bubastis (Herodot. Euterpe, clvi.) "Bel is confounded" (Jer. iv. 2). "I will punish Bel in Babylon" (Jer. xli. 44). Vossius says Apollo was called Belinus, and quotes Herodian and an inscription at Aquileia, viz., Apollini Belino."-Brand's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, p. 134). 66 On the reverse of a coin of the British king Cunobeline is a figure of Apollo playing on the lyre. On this coin Alford remarks "that the Britons worshipped Apollo under the name of Belus or Belinus. This king, Cunobeline, is by Dio and Nennius In Brittany there is the called Belinus (see also "Abellio " in Smith's Mythological Dictionary). "That the ancient Gauls worshipped Apollo under the name of Belinus is confirmed by Dioscorides, who expressly says that the Herba Apollinaris (in the juice whereof the Gauls used to dip their arrows) was called in Gaulish "Bellinuncia." -Camden's Britannia, 4th ed. p. 58. See also Samme's Ancient Britain, p. 130, 1676, folio, where, he adds, the plant is still called Veleno by the Spaniards. By Pliny it is called " 'Apollinaris, in the Greek Hyoscyamos," henbane (Pliny, Nat. Hist. b. xxv. c. 17). Beli is the sun in the language of Assam (see Latham's Ethnology, vol. ii. p. 395). From Ausonius to Patera :"Tu Baiocassis stirpe Druidarum satus (Si fama non fallit fidem) Belini sacratum ducis è templo genus: Et inde vobis nomina; Tibi Pateræ (sic ministros nuncupant Apollinaris mystici)." Baiocasses, a Celtic people; believed to be the same as Bodiocasses of Pliny (iv. 18). Bayeux is supposed to represent Baiocasses. —Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Ausonius has also to Phæbitius:"Qui (Phæbicius) Beleni Ædituus, Stirpe Satus Druidum Gentis Armoricæ." WORSHIP OF LIGHT. 111 commune of Belz; and the great tumulus there, although now crowned by the chapel of St. Cedo, is, by tradition, pointed out as being once the chief seats of the worship of the god Bel. It is situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the Cyclopean remains of Carnac and other wondrous monuments of heathen worship. Belich is a word still used by the Bretons for a priest; and in Cornish, Belic (priest), Belein (priests), Beal tine1 (fires lighted to Belus), show that the word was in use in other Celtic dialects. The name and the worship of Baal or Bel2 can be traced in many intermediate countries, as well as in Ceylon and India, Gaul and Britain, and was also used as an honorary addition to the names of kings and great families or individuals. It is common in distinguished names of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and forms part of the names of the two earliest British kings known to history, viz., Cassibelan and Cunobeline-both of whom, by two early authors, are simply called Belinus. Bellovesus, nephew of Ambigatus, the king of the Celts in Gaul in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, is mentioned by Livy. 3 From the Rig Veda we learn that light, the sun, and fire, were amongst the earliest objects of Arian worship. 1 Borlase's Cornish Vocabulary. 2 Baal, the Lord, was used for the true God until confusion arose from the same epithet being applied to pagan gods worshipped by Jews and Canaanites.-Hosea ii. 16; Prideaux, etc. etc. 3 By Dio and Nennins. If Geoffrey of Monmouth is admitted as an In an authority, there was a third British king Belinus. In the British Bards "the victorious Beli" is invoked. 4 The sun is the soul of all that moves or rests." The sun is also called "the vital spirit."-Max Müller's Ancient Sanscrit Literature, p. 20. 1 other chapter are notices of the adoration of the sun that still prevails amongst some, possibly among all, of the aboriginal tribes of India. Some additional proofs will now be offered regarding the worship of the sun, and fire, its representative, by our heathen ancestors in Britain, whose ancient rites, although they have gradually declined into quaint customs and vulgar superstitions, have possessed such tenacity that they not only continued in despite of power and punishment, but have not been effaced by time and civilisation. It is important, as a prelude to the description of rites in a worship common to the early inhabitants of the Indian peninsula and to the Celtic population of Gaul and Britain, to refer to the cognate expressions which they employed for the objects of their adoration. In Cingalese, Ja, Jwala, signifies light, lustre, flame; Jwalana, light; also Agni, or personified and deified fire. Eliya is also Cingalese for light; in Welsh, Lleuer and Lleuad, the moon; in Gaelic, Eibhle, anything on fire. In Sanscrit, Jwálá or Jwala signifies light, flame; in Cornish, Gwawl; in Welsh, Goleu; in Armorican, Goleu. In Gaelic, Geal and Eallaidhe is white; Soillse,3 light, sunlight; Suil, the eye. In Cingalese, Haili and Hel, and in Sanscrit, Heli or Helis is the sun. In Welsh it is Haul, pronounced Hail; in Armorican, Haul and Heol; in 3 1 Viz., Customs and Superstitions common to India and Caledonia. 2 Also the moon." 3 H is not used in Gaelic as the initial letter of any word. In these two words S occupies the place which is filled by H in the words that follow 3 from Sanscrit and Celtic. The word written Suil, in Gaelic is pronounced Huil.-Paper on an old Gaelic Poem, by the Rev. Thomas M'Lauchlan, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 368. FESTIVAL OF YEUL. 113 Cornish, Houl and Heul. The great festival of heathen Britain-viz., Yeul-was celebrated at that period of the year when the sun, having obtained the greatest distance from the earth, commenced his return to restore warmth and to revivify nature. Although Christmas superseded the heathen festival, not only the ancient name of Yeul, but many of the customs, evidently connected with the heathen rites, are not yet obsolete in South Britain; and in Scotland, at least in the more remote parts, and in agricultural districts, Yeul is still the word in general use for Christmas Day. From the Penitential of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the seventh century, and the Confessional of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York, in the early part of the eighth century, we may infer that homage was then offered to the sun and moon; for women are forbidden to practise passing their children through the fire, or exposing them on the house-tops, to restore or insure their health. It is curious to compare these restrictions and penalties to be enforced by English 1 The Yeul feast and Yeul log can be clearly traced to their original source. The blaze of lights, and the kindling of the great Yule log on Christmas Eve by a portion of the Yule brand of the former year, is as clearly a heathen ceremony, and for the same object of worship, as the fires on Midsummer Eve. As to the feast, in times comparatively recent the Greenlanders held a sunfeast at the winter solstice, to rejoice in the commencement of returning light and warmth. From Teinidh and Tein, Irish and Gaelic for fire, is probably derived the VOL. I. obsolete English word "to teend." Herrick, speaking of the Christmas brand, says "part must be kept wherewith to teend the Christmas by next year."-Hone's Every-day Book, vol. i. p. 204. Changing pagan festivals into Christian holidays was practised and approved, "the better to draw heathens to the religion of Christ."-See Dr. Conyers Middleton's Letter from Rome, particularly p. 126. 2 Si qua mulier filium suum vel filiam super tectum pro sanitate posuerit, vel in fornace, vii. annos poeniteat."-Theodori Arch. Cant. Lib. Po I |