The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-07-19

rant that they are celebrating a day
consecrated to Bel, or Baal, by .heir
Phoenician and IrisL ancestors, who
observed it in a precisely similar man
ner.
When St. Patrick was sent from
Rome by Pope Celestine as mission
airy to pagan Ireland, all other relig-
ions of that country had in great
measure yielded to or become merged
in Druidism. The Serpent worship
pers were at this time evidently
diminished or decadent sect, practising
their mysterious rites in the most re-
mote and solitary places-as did the
Druids when they had lost their pres
tige and power. The good Saint did
his mission boldly. He traversed the
island, preaching the gospel and de-
stroying the pagan idols. He over
turned the Druid affairs and converted
the sacred oaks into fuel. He extin-
guished the perpetual fires, and used
the waters OF the holy wells for ablu-
tions. He overthrew the great idol,
Crom, on the Field Of Howling," and
with his staff he smote and broke to
pieces the serpent images before which
the people had bowed, forcing them to
seek refuge in remote and uninhabited
places, where they might practice their
secret rites undisturbed. Many who
were thus driven out resorted to the
desert islands of the western coast.
Herein we discern the true slgnifi-
canoe of that marvellous story of St.
Patrick and the Snakes. 1t was not
serpents, but Serpent Worshippers
whom St. Patrick drove out of Ireland
Strange, that in the fifteen centuries
which have elapsed since then, and in
the various disputes and controversies
upon the subject, this simple explana-
tion has never prest led itself.
For that this is the true solution Of
the mystery one cannot doubt who
thoroughly considers the subject.
That we have no written or historical
information concerning it may be ac-
counted for in the fact that Bishop
Patricius (too often confounded with
St. Patrick), when he came to Ireland
some centuries after the latter, devoted
himself to eradicating the last traces
of pagan worship, and blotting out its
very memory by burning every book
and manuscript relating thereto, and
even torbidding mention of the subject
"a deplorable holocaust by which so
much of historic value and interest has
been lost to the world. To this is
probably owing our ignorance not only
of serpent worship in Ireland, but of
the round towers and those curious
underground cells or crypts which,
despite the researches of the antiquary,
remain still an impenetrable mystery
their origin, their builders, and their
very uses unknown.
1t is known that on several of these
small Western Islands-as Arran, for
instancc-are the remains of curious
circular structures Of the origin and
uses of which not even a tradition
exists. One of these, described by DR..
Petrie, may be regarded as typical of
the rest. 1t consists of series of
ramparts and bitches enclosing space
of ten feet in diameter, dimension
which precludes the idea of its having
been intended as a fortification. The
question is therefore suggested, May
not this carefully guarded central
space have been the shrine ofsome idol
or deity, possibly Of the above-men-
toned Serpent Worship? DR.. Walsh
| informs us that as St. Patrick pro-
ceeded through the country "preach-
ing and baptizing, the idolaters fled to
the uninhabited islands of the western
coast" which agrees with the account
of the expulsion of serpents from
Croig Patrick.
There is another St. Patrick's Pur-
gatory, situated on an island of Lough
Neagh-a dismal cavern through
whose gloomy depths are forever
sounding the ghostly murmurs Of wind
and wave. Here, say the peasantry,
once dwelt monster snake slain by
St. Patrick, who afterwards did Lenten
penance in this cave, as at Cruachin
Aigle. In the Dark Ages this spot
was regarded as one of the most sacred
shrines in Europe. On account of its
miracles Of healing, pilgrims resorted
to it from every Christian country.
On the island is a round tower, be-
tokening that it was once a sacred
place with others than the Serpent
Worshippers, and near this monument
of paganism are the ruins of an early
Christian church. 1t was the custom
Of all the successive inhabitants OF
Western Europe, as also ofthe Romans
in Gaul and Britain, to adopt for their
own places of worship the sacred sites
of the preceding inhabitants, whatso-
ever their religion may have been; and
we thus find most of the great abbeys,
churches and cathedrals erected upon
what had been the sites of heather
temples LPpincou's Magazine.
The man with a weak chin some
times raises the heaviest whiskers.