5

358 NOTES.
the Italians, who appeased Latian Jove, and Saturn, with human
victims." The etymoQ of Hesus has been uniformly mistaken.
The glory of a warriour is his strength, and the Celtic god of
war behoved to be a powerful deity. The Celtic names are generally
descriptive, and highly appropriate. To their god of
war they gave the name Eas or Es, i. e. a torrent or cataract
that sweeps all before it, to which the Romans added their termination
us, and formed Esus of Hesus. The name conveys to
us the same idea, but in a much more primitive and forcible manner,
as if they had named him irresistible or invincible, for who
could contend with a cataract? The Tuscan god Esar, whom
the Tuscans borrowed from the Umbrians their praecursors, has
the very same signification. In the Gaelic language, Easfhear
is still a name of the deity, and literally means the man of the
cataract.
Note LXXXII.
Teutates.—Lucan, (lib. 1.) says,
Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates.
), e. " And by whom (the Gauls,) cruel Teutates is app>eased
by direful blood." Caiepine, on the authority of Plato, reckons
him the inventor of geometry and astronomy. If so, Cicero
(de Nat. Deor.) very properly reckons him an Egyptian god,
geometry having been first invented in Egypt to determine the
limits of private property, which were annually effaced by the
overflowings of 'be Nile. SancJwniathon, the Phcenician, cotemporary
with Gideon, and who composed his
history about
1200 years prior to our aera, reckons Teutates, or (as he calls
him) Taaui, the inventor of letters, and says he was indebted to
the book of Taaut for the greater part of his materials. This
god is supposed to have been the Mercury of the Greeks.. In
the Gaelic this word signifies 'fVarmth, or Heat.—See Note 33.
Note LXXXIII.
Belenus eel Abellio.—Both, these deities have already been adterted
to.—See ?fote 4?.