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276 NOTES.
Cwlidicant; soman quippe apud eos Ccelumappellatar,i. e. "It
is a name giTen by the Tyrians to Jupiter. For the Phosnicians
seem to call Baal a lord or ruler, whence Baal-saman, a phrase
of the same import as if they said, the lord of the skj, for the
sky is by them called Soman." We need not be surprised at
finding a Roman mistaking Baal for Jupiter.
Pliny also confounds
them. When speaking of Babylon he says— " Durat
adhue ibi Jovis Belitemplum, i.e. " There remains still there a.
temple of Jupiter Belus.— Nat, Hist, lib, 6. cap. 26.
The Phoenician Saman, the Hebrew Semin, and the Gaelic
Saman, are all so similar in sound and signification, thit there
can be no doubt of their having been radically the same. Sam,
in the Gaelic, signifies the Sun, and Saman is its regular diminu.
tive. When the Celts call Beal by the name of Sam, or Saman,
they only use the same eliptical mode of expression which the
Romans do, when they call Apollo Jntonsus, Jupiter Oli/mpiiis,
&c. It is only substiuting the epithet or attribute, instead of
the name.
In the county of Aberdeen there is a parish named Culsalmond,
but pronounced Culsamon, This is merely a corruption of the
Gaelic Cill-saman, and signifies the temple of the Sun. The In.
dian Gymnosphistce were subdivided into Brachmannce, and Sa.
manaei, the former being hereditary and the latter elective philo.
sophers, Vide Strabonem lib. 15. The affinity between the Bra.
minical and Druidical philosophy is so great, as to leave no
doubt of [their having been originally the same. Samanai is
merely the Gaelic adjective Samanach (descended of, or belong.
iag to the sun), grascized Samanaioi, and thence latinized Safua.
noi, in the same manner as Judach and Chaldach are rendered
Judcei and Chaldai.
Doctor Smith in his History of the Dritids, (page 16) with his
usual Celtic Juror, tears the monosyllable Beal to pieces, and
etymologizes it Bca' uil, i. e. the life of all things. No philolo.
gist should venture to blow up a monosyllable, unless there are
the most unecj^ivocal marks of a Crasis. Here there are none,
and the import of the word both in theJEIebrew aud Fhcenician Ian.