r places (poor
devil!)--that the Persian Magi overran the world in the time of the
great Constantine, introducing Round Towers in place of the Vestal
mounds into Ireland, combining their fire-worship with our
Druidism--and that the present towers were built in imitation of the
Magian Towers. This is all, as Mr. Petrie says, pure fallacy, without a
particle of authority; but we should think "_twelfth_" is a misprint
for "_seventh_" in the early part of Beauford's passage, and,
therefore, that the last clause of Mr. Petrie's censure is undeserved.

This Beauford is not to be confounded with Miss Beaufort. She, too,
paganises the towers by aggravating some misstatements of Mason's
_Parochial Survey_; but her errors are not worth notice, except the
assertion that the Psalters of Tara and Cashel allege that the towers
were for keeping the sacred fire. These Psalters are believed to have
perished, and any mention of sacred fires in the glossary of Cormac
M'Cullenan, the supposed compiler of the Psalter of Cashel, is adverse
to their being in towers. He says:--

"_Belltane, i.e., bil tene, i.e., tene bil, i.e._, the goodly fire,
_i.e._, two goodly fires, which the Druids were used to make, with
great incantations on them, and they used to bring the cattle
between them against the diseases of each year."

Another MS. says:--

"_Beltaine, i.e., Bel-dine; Bel_ was the name of an idol; it was on
it (_i.e._, the festival) that a couple of the young of every
cattle were exhibited as in the possession of _Bel; unde Beldine_.
Or, _Beltine, i.e., Bil-tine, i.e._, the goodly fire, _i.e._, two
goodly fires, which the Druids were used to make with great
incantations, and they were used to drive the cattle between them
against the diseases of each year."

Mr. Petrie continues:--

"It may be remarked that remnants of this ancient custom, in
perhaps a modified form, still exist in the May-fires lighted in
the streets and suburbs of Dublin, and also in the fires lighted on
St. John's Eve in all other parts of Ireland. The _Tinne Eigin_ of
the Highlands, of which Dr. Martin gives the following account, is
probably a remnant of it also, but there is no instance of such
fires being lighted in towers or houses of any description:--

"'The inhabitants here (Isle of Skye) did also make use of a fire
called _Tin Egin_ (_i.e._), a forced Fire, or Fire of necessity