Forlong - Rivers of Life

382
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
means—fired by his rays. The name of this feast in Scotland was Egin-Tin, in which
we can recognise Agin, Ag, or Agni—fire, and the Fire-god of all Asia. In the island of
Skye—says Dr. Martin, quoted by Petrie, page 38—the Tin-Egin was a forced fire or fire
of necessity which cured the plague, (the old Hebrew story, for Serpent and Fire are often
synonymous) and murrain amonst cattle, &c. “All the fires in the parish were extinguished,
and eighty-one married men (a multiple of the mystic number nine) being
though the necessary number for effecting this design, took two great planks of wood,
and nine of them were employed by turns, who, by their repeated efforts, rubbed one
of the planks against the other, until the heat thereof produced fire, and form this
forced fire each family is supplied with new fire.”
This is the true “Fire which falls from Heaven,” and it must still be so produced
at the temples of all Fire-worshipping races, and at the hearths of the Guebre or Parsees,
as it was in this remote isle of Skye. In the celebrated Irish “Psalter of Tara”—by
Crawford, we observe that on every 31st October there was to be a similar kindling
of fire at Tlachtga, and the extinguishing of all other fires. “The Priests and Augurs
were then to be summoned and to consume the sacrifices offered to the gods.” This,
says Comeford, was ordained in the year 79. C. 1 and. the same king and “general
assembly of Tara” directed that a similar festival ahould be held on the 1st of May
at Connaught, “to offer sacrifices to the principal deity of the island under the name
of Beul.” “A third annual festival was ordered to be observed at Tailtean, in Ulster,
when the inhabitants of the kingdom were to bring their children, when of age, and
treat with one another about their marriage.” A fourth meeting was to be at Tara, of
which I have no details, but the nature of all the festivals were unmistakably phallosolar;
all were at season when Bel’s fire is most Puissant, and all persons were then
instructed to purify themselves, so that they might partake worthily of his new and
saving grace. Only married ment, we see, were wisely taught to produce the heavenly
fire, whilst each at their proper season, of those who were marriageable, were to be
brought to the God’s Sacrament. In my chapter on Arabian Faiths, I point out a
similar ceremony at the same seasons, which was performed in a specially enclosed
place adjoining the Al-Kaba, or the Lord’s Ark. Ireland seems, as fur as we can gather
from her remain, to have preferred Tars or Tors, from which, no doubt, we get the
name Tara. The word, says Dr Joyce, 2 comes from Teamhair or Tawe, “a simple
word which has pretty much the same meanin as grianam,” from Grian, the Sun. It
would appear that Tea or Team was a name for the wife of Heremon, that is Hermon,
and that the Teamhair or Tara was simply her residence. I do not agree with some
writers in thinking that all the ancient towers of our Islands were only for the conservation
of Holy Fire, nor yet mere beacons or watch towcrs; they doubtless fulfilled
these purposes to a limited extent, but I think they were as truly Phalli as the
1 Petrie, p. 39. Tara is clearly so called as the place of the Lingam, Tor or Tar.
2 Origin and Hist. of Irish Names, pp. 281-285. Dub. 1871.