Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

h-ish Gods. i^q
may have been the means of introducing the week to
Ireland.
The twelve signs of the zodiac were not unknown to the
Irish. They w^ere ever like the ladder, with six steps
upward, and six downward. MazzarotJi, the twelve, is in
the Arabic vianzccl, a house or dwelling. The Targu mists
and Rabbins employed the words tercysar Diazzalaya for
the Signs.
Philo called the dodecahedron a perfect number.
" It is to honour that sign," adds Philo, " that Moses divided
his nation into twelve tribes, established the twelve cakes
of the shewbread, and placed twelve precious stones around
the ephod of the pontiffs."
On the Irish zodiac, above the figures representing the
Signs, the Irish letters were placed. The figure in the
Sagittarius was a deer's body with a man's head. That in
the Scales had legs, but no feet. The Virgin was standing,
apparently spinning, being fully clothed, even to shoes.
Aquarius was seen with a very long bod}', but short, thin
legs and feet.
The Phoenician presence was to be, also, traced in Ireland
by the remarkable evidences of Baal worship. Of this the
Irish language and Irish customs bear witness.
Thus,—we have Beal-agh, fire of Baal, in the Giant Ring
ft. in
at Belaugh, Co. Down, four miles from Belfast, 579
diameter. There is Bal-Kiste, or Baal, Lord of the chest
or ark ;
Meur-Bhcil, the finger of Be'il ;
Beli, god of fire ;
Baal Tinne, for the summer solstice ;
Siiil-Bcal, oracle of
Druids ;
Bealtime, the Baal month.
Four miles north of Cork is Bcal-atha-magh-adJioir,—
the field for the worship of Baal. Sliabh-bultcinc was the
hill of Bel. The ark-Brcith, a covered coracle, wasclrawn
by oxen. The old Irish name for the \-ear was Bcahunc
or Bliad/iaiiL the circle of Baal.