This, then, is my answer to V. W.’s question at p. 225, where he asks, “What relation had this with the Nehustan, or brazen serpent, to which the Israelites paid divine honours in the time of Hezekiah?” From this _Sabaism_, or _serpent worship_, Ireland obtained the name of _Tibholas_ or _Tivolas_; _S_ and _T_ being commutable letters, _Tibholas_ is the same as _Sibholas_, and this being derived from _sibal_, a circle, shows the name to have been equivalent with the _land of circles or revolutions_, otherwise, both to the serpent and the planets. Those prophetic women of Etruria, designated _Sybils_, were named from the same cause, being priestesses of the _serpent_, _i.e._ the _Sabh_ or _Yoni_--allegorically represented as married to Apollo, and gifted with a longevity of a thousand years. Here, again, the same conversion of letters occurred, for the place which _they_ inhabited was called from themselves, _Tivola_, corresponding to our Tivolas, the _S_ and _T_ being, as before explained, commutable, and _b_ or _bh_ being equivalent to _v_. _Pythia_ is exactly synonymous with _Sybil_, meaning the priestess who presided over the _Pith_, which, like Sabhus, means as well _serpent_ as _yoni_: and the oracle which she attended was called _Delphi_, from _de_, divine, and _phith_, yoni--it being but a _cave_ in the shape of that symbol,[600] over the orifice of which the priestess used to take her seat upon a sacred _tripod_, or the religiously emblematic pyramid,[601] while the inspiring vapour issued from beneath through a tube similar to that exhibited at p. 460, and one end of which, passing through the aperture, held fast the tripod to which the priestess had been secured, so that she should not, in her delirium, relinquish the position. The great Samian philosopher, known as Pythagoras, only assumed this name in deference to those rites: for _Pyth-agoras_ means one who _expounds_ the mysteries of the _pith_, viz. _death_ from its weakness, and _redemption_ from its virtue. “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel,”[602] was the spiritual substance of those _expositions_: the only difference being in that _Isaiah_ spoke prospectively towards a lately verified issue, whereas the _initiated_ took the promise from the moment of the _fall_: and of its _partial_ accomplishment prior to our era, there can be no doubt, even from the writings of this prophet. On the opposite plate are three profile likenesses of Christ, as He appeared upon earth in human form--the first is a facsimile from a _brass_ medal, found at Brein Owyn, in the Isle of Anglesey, and published in Rowland’s _Mona Antiqua_. The inscription upon it has been translated as meaning, “Jesus the Mighty, this is the Christ and the Man together.”