To me it is as obvious as the noon-day sun that _they too_ on examination would be found of a more comprehensive religious tendency than what could possibly relate to the preservation of the sacred fire; for it is well known that when temples were at all appropriated to this consecrated delusion, it was within a small _crypt_ or _arched vault_--over which the temple was erected--that it was retained. The Ghebres or Parsees, the direct disciples of Zoroaster, the reputed author of this improved institution, “build their temples,” says Richardson,[83] “over _subterraneous fires_.” Whenever a deviation from this occurred, it was in favour of a low stone-built structure, all over-arched, such as that which _Hanway met with at Baku_, and _corresponding in every_ particular with the edifices of this description to be seen at Smerwick, county Kerry, and elsewhere throughout Ireland.[84] The fire-house which Captain Keppel visited at a later period at Baku, in 1824, was a small square building, erected on a platform, with three ascending steps on each side, having a tall hollow stone column at every side, through which the flame was seen to issue, all _in the middle of a pentagonal enclosure_--comprising also a large altar, whereon naphtha was kept continually burning. Now, could anything possibly _correspond more minutely_ with Strabo’s description of the Pyratheia than does this last account? “They are,” he says, “_immense enclosures_, in the centre of which was erected an altar, where the Magi used to preserve, as well a quantity of ashes, as the ever-burning fire itself.” And could anything possibly be _more opposite_ to our Round Towers than all these accounts? When, therefore, we are told[85] that at the city of Zezd in Persia--which is distinguished by the apellation of Darub Abadat, or seat of religion--the Ghebres are permitted to have an Atush Kidi, or fire-temple, which they assert had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster, we must be prepared to understand it as corresponding in architectural proportion with one or other of the instances just now detailed; and in truth, from recent discovery, I have ascertained--since the above was composed--that it is nothing more than a _sorry hut_. But Pennant’s view of Hindostan is brought forward as at once decisive of the matter. What says Mr. Pennant, however? “All the people of this part of India are Hindoos, and retain the _old religion_, with all its superstition. This makes the pagodas here much more numerous than in any other part of the peninsula; their form too is different, being chiefly buildings of a _cylindrical_ or _round tower_ shape, with their tops either pointed or truncated at the top, and ornamented with something eccentrical, but frequently with a round ball stuck on a spike: this ball seems intended to represent the _sun_, an emblem of the deity of the place.”