Masonic Notes And Queries.

¦ own order could understand . These sacred chai-acters have been often noticed by antiquaries under the denomination of Ogltam : * ¦ The Ogham characters were used by the priests of India and Persia , the Egyptians and Phenicians , and the Druids of the British Isles . 'Sir William Jones tells us , that the writings at Persepolis bear a strong resemblance to the Ogham ; that the

unknown inscriptions in the Palace of Jemschid are in the same characters , and are , probably , sacerdotal and ¦ secret , or a sacerdotal cypher ; and that the word Ogham is Sanscrit , and means " mysterious knowledge . " That similar inscriptions are to be found in Ireland is abuip dantly proved by Colonel Yallancy . But the most ¦ extraordinary circumstance is , that the word Ogham still

• continues among the people of Indostan , Persia , and ¦ Ireland , with the same sacred meaning annexed to it ! 'The Druids not only concealed , in this manner , their secred tenets from the knowledge of the people , but they often instructed their pupils by symbolical representations , with the same view of involving their doctrines an mystery , aud rendering them too dark for the vulgar

apprehension . This mode of instruction was truly -oriental ; and , to prove that the Druids were even reined in their allegories , the picture of Hercules Ogmius , as described by Lncian , need only be produced- ! There is another evidence of the symbolical learning of the ¦ Druids in basso relievo , discovered , some time since , over the door of the temple of Montmorillon , in Poictou . It is a lively representation of the several stages of life at "which the Druid disciples were gradually admitted into the mysteries of the Druid system .

Prom these mysteries of the Druids let us pass on to 'their popular doctrines . Amidst the sublimer tenets of * his priesthood , we have everywhere proofs of their polytheism ; and the grossness of their religious ideas , as represented by some writers , is very inconsistent with that divine philosophy which we have considered as a . part of their character . These , however , were popular

divinities which the Druids ostensibly i worship , and . popular notions which they ostensibly adopted , in conformity with the . prejudices of the vulgar mind . The Druids well knew that the common people were no philosophers . There is reason , also , to think that the great part of the idolatries I am about to mention were not oriinally sanctioned by the Druidsbut afterwards

g , introduced by the Phenician colony . But it would be impossible to say how far the primitive Druids accommodated themselves to vulgar superstition , or to separate their exterior doctrines and ceremonies from the fables and absurd rites of subsequent times . Caesar thus recounts the popular divinities : — "Deum maxime Mereurium colunt . Hujus sunt lurima simulacra . Hunc

p omnium artium inventorem ferunt ; hunc viarum atque itinenvm ducem ; 7 wtnc ad giKosfas pecunm mercaturasqiie habere vim maxiraam arbitrantum . —Post hunc , Apollinem et Martem , et Jovem , et Mitiervwm . Da his eandem fere jpiam reliance qentes habent opvnionem—Anollinem mo 7-bes

depellere—Afonervam operum atque artificwrum initio , transdere — Jovem imperium cmlestium tenere — Martem bella rec / ere . " The origin of the British gods has been generally attributed to the Phenicians or Canaanites . The god whom the Romans compared to Jupiter was worshipped by the name of Tarann , or Taramis , and of Thor—both which names signify the Tlvunderer in

Phenician . The god whom the Bomans compared to Mercury was worshipped under the name of Tentates , or Thentates , or Taantos , or Thoth—the Phenician name for the son of Misor . The god whom the Romans compare to Mars , was worshipped under the name of Hi-was , or Hesus , and also the name of Gham , or Gamu , or Gamo . —called by the Bomans Gamul / us . He was also called

Hues , which is another name for Bacchus or Barclmsthat is , the son of Clms . The Greeks adopted the Hues in the rites or orgies of Bacchus . It is of Phenician origin , and signifies Fire ; and , as such , Bacchus was worshipped ! The god whom the Bomans compared to Apollo was worshipped by the name of Bel-am ; or , as the Bomans called him , Delinus . He was also called Bel-atre-cadrus , from the Phenician Bel-atur-cares , signifying Sol Assyrce Deus . The god whom the Bomans

compared to Duma , was Behsama : it is a Phenician word signifying the Queen of Heaven . The god whom the Romans compared to Minerva , was worshipped by the name of Onca , Onva , or Onvana , the Phenician word for that goddess . The god whom the Bomans compared to Venus , was worshipped by the name of Andastre—the Astaste of the Phenicians . The other gods of the Britons

were the Pluto , Proserpine , Geres , and Hercules , of the Bomans . Of these divinities the Druids had symbolical representations : a cube was the symbol of Mercury , and the oak of Jupiter . * But it would be a vain attempt to enumerate their gods : in the e 3 e of the vulgar they deified every object around them . They worshipped the spirits of the mountains , the valleys , and the rivers .

Every rock and every spring were either the instruments 6 r the objects of adoration . The moon-light valleys of Danmonium were filled with the fairy people , and . its numerous rivers were the resort of Genii . The fiction of fairies is supposed to have been brought , with other extravagancies of a like nature , from the eastern nations , whilst the European Christians were engaged in the holy war : such , at least , is the notion of an ingenious writer , who thus expresses himself : "Nor were the montrous

embellishments of enchantments the invention of romancers , but formed upon eastern tales , brought thence by travellers from their crusades and pilgrimages , which , indeed , have a cast peculiar to the wild imagination of the eastern people , "f That' fairies , in particular , came from the East , we are assured by that learned orientalist , M . Herbelot , who tells us that the Persians

called the fairies Peri , and the Arabs Genies ; that , according to the eastern fiction , there is a certain country inhabited by fairies , called Ginnistian , which answers to our Fairy-land ; and that the ancient romances of Persia are full of Peri , or fairies . J Mr . Warton , || in his Observations on Bpenser ' s Faery Queen , is decided in his opinion that the fairies came from the East ; but he

justly remarks , that they were introduced into this country long before the period of the crusades . The race of fairies , he informs us , were established in Europe in very early times , but " not universally , " says Mr . Warfcon . The fairies were confined to the north of Europe—to the ultima Thule—to the British Isles—to the divisis orbe Britannia . They were unknown at this remote a ? ra to the ' Gauls or the Germans ; and they were , probably ,