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NOTE*?. 323Note LIV.—Page 149.That Mercury zras their chief god, ^'c.—All travellers haregenerally fallen into the same mistake, of tracing vestiges oftheir own religion in foreign countries. Tacitus found his mGermany. Nay the Apostle Paul himself was mistakea forMercury at Lycaonia. Our own christian missionaries havefound traces of Christianity in almost every quarter of the globe.Among the Greeks and Romans, Mercury was considered as thegod of high ways ; and it was customary to erect heaps, or earnsto him, near the public roads. The Druids erected earns toBeal; and from the resemblance of these to i\i& Mtrcurial heapsythe Romans concluded that Mercury was the chief Celtic deity.But though Csesar mistook Beal for Mercury, he has handeddown to us a point of much importance, when he tells us '* J/mjussunt plurima simulacra—i. e. " There are very many imagesof this deity." Hence it is clearly established that the Druidshad very many images of their gods.Note LV.—Page 150.Many of them have a cavity on the top capable tohold a pinty^c.—This cavity on the top of one of the stones in the Druidi,ral temples has been often noticed. It was intended to catchthe dew or rain pure from heaven. The Druids had their kol^zi-^ater and hol^ fi^^-i ^s well as the Jews, and other nations.Among the Greeks, every one who was admitted into the templewas sprinkled with holy water. He who was not admittedwas called Behelos— i. e. " debarred from the porch, or eiimtrance.^^ The coincidence betwixt the Gaelic and Greek languagesis here remarkable. In the Scots dialect of thi^ Gaelic,Bal signifies a house. In the Irish dialect, Bail has the samesignification.The Greek Bel, divested of its peculiar terminationOS, signifies the porch or entrance of a house, and hence thehouse itself.There is not the slightest difference, cither in soundor signiHcation, betwixt the Irish Bail nud the Greek Bll.