Forlong - Rivers of Life

386
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
early Jewish leaders were, from Jacob and his streaked rods, to Joseph and his
“divining cup,” and from Moses and Aaron with their wonder-working serpent-rods,
to the victory-giving “Standard,” “Miss,” Nishān, or Lingam. Within these towers
we learn there was, as in the case of the Sivaik temple given at p. 39, a “Neimhedh,”
or “holy sanctuary,” in which stood to “Fidh,” which even Dr. Petrie 1 confesses was
the “shaft” or “stem of a tree,” clearly a “Ligneus penis.”
After most carefully considering the meaning of both these terms—which are constantly
written as if one word, and therefore thought to be one article, and indeed as
also a name of the towers (which is very natural, seeing they were built to shield these
inner creative and hidden organs)—Dr Petrie comes to the conclusion, that Fidhneimhedh
signifies “trees of the sanctuary,” or “sacred trees”—a pretty good guess
for one who clearly knew nothing of Sivaik lore, but which would certainly rouse the
risible faculties of our Benares brethren. Dr O’Connor arrives at the conclusion that
Fidh is “a witness,” “index,” “gnomon!” why did he not say a Nishān, Eduth, or
Lingam? 2 Because he, too, was not so far advanced. in his subject as Mr. Marcus
Keane, who clearly proclaims it to be the Keltic name for Lingam. As Nemph or
Neimh is “the heavens” (Gaelic, Nèamh), then, says Mr. Keane, Fidh nemph is “the
Lingam of the heavens,” 3 which means, in fact, the sun-stone, Muidhr or Mudros.
Thus the Irish Tor or Tara is, after all, proclaimed to be in whole, as in part, a god, or
“tower-god” of the heavens, a veritable Sivaik shrine, containing at once its ark and
Eduth, though the Irish Koothite buried, at least latterly, his god’s sanctuary in the
base of his Tor, and. did not exhibit it above also, as seen in Fig. 4, p. 39.
The height of the spires of these Phallo-Pur-Tors, if I may coin a word, has nothing
to do with their sanctity. Moore speaks of the towers of some Guebres or fire-worshippers
as over 120 feet high, and we commonly meet with Sivaik spires ranging from 60
to 150 feet, but I have seen some of the holiest with spires not 30 feet over the cella or
ark; and so it is with Lingams; one in Benares is said to be 30 feet in circumference,
but another and equally sacred at Achalgar, on mount Aboo or Ara-boodham, is a mere
pebble, with a silver button on its apex. The Sardinian towers, called Nuraghs, are cones,
sometimes 60 feet high, and like the Irish, without lime or cement; they have three dark
chambers, one above the other, and below all, have been found subterranean passages,
sometimes leading to other Nuraghs. I give a drawing of the most common form of
these interesting ruins, said. to be the “tomb of Aruns, Italy,” at fig. 7, Plate VI., but I
think their tombs were very different; see one of these, Plate VIII., 3. Two Sardinian
Mudri, male and female, of oval section, are shown in Plate X., 6 and adjoinmg is a
good specimen of an Irish Fidh-Neimh tower in Clonmacknoise, which is very correctly
situated over a bold headland, its sacred character being still noted by the graves of
its faithful adherents strewn all around, and by a Christian cross, of suitable Phallic design,
rising prominently beside it. The “Stone of Tarn” is seen below, as fig. 9, not-
1 2
Op. cit. p. 60 and onwards. [Possibly because he was writing in English. — T.S.]
3
Towers and Temples of Ireland, p. 296.