The same god, according to O’Brien, was the chief deity of the Irish, in whose honour the round towers were erected, which structures the ancient Irish themselves designated Bail-toir, or the towers of Baal. In Numbers, xxii., will be found a mention of a similar pillar consecrated to Baal. Many of the same customs and superstitions that existed among the Druids and ancient Irish, will likewise be found among the Israelites. On the first day of May, the Irish made great fires in honour of Baal, likewise offering him sacrifices. A similar account is given of a custom of the Druids by Toland, in an account of the festival of the fires; he says:—“on May-day eve the Druids made prodigious fires on these cairns, which being everyone in sight of some other, could not but afford a glorious show over a whole nation.” These fires are said to be lit even to the present day by the Aboriginal Irish, on the first of May, called by them Bealtine, or the day of Belan’s fire, the same name as given them in the Highlands of Scotland. A similar practice to this will be noticed as mentioned in the II Book of Kings, where the Canaanites in their worship of Baal, are said to have passed their children through the fire of Baal, which seems to have been a common practice, as Ahaz, King of Israel, is blamed for having done the same thing. Higgins in his _Anacalypsis_, says this superstitious custom still continues, and that on “particular days great fires are lighted, and the fathers taking the children in their arms, jump or run through them, and thus pass their children through them; they also light two fires at a little distance from each other, and drive their cattle between them.” It will be found on reference to Deuteronomy, that this very practice is specially forbidden. In the rites of Numa, we have also the sacred fire of the Irish; of St. Bridget, of Moses, of Mithra, and of India, accompanied with an establishment of nuns or vestal virgins. A sacred fire is said to have been kept burning by the nuns of Kildare, which was established by St. Bridget. This fire was never blown with the mouth, that it might not be polluted, but only with bellows; this fire was similar to that of the Jews, kept burning only with peeled wood, and never blown with the mouth. Hyde describes a similar fire which was kept burning in the same way by the ancient Persians, who kept their sacred fire fed with a certain tree called Hawm Mogorum; and Colonel Vallancey says the sacred fire of the Irish was fed with the wood of the tree called Hawm. Ware, the Romish priest, relates that at Kildare, the glorious Bridget was rendered illustrious by many miracles, amongst which was the sacred fire, which had been kept burning by nuns ever since the time of the Virgin.