Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850

of this kind, wherein none were admitted but virgins of the noblest blood. It was called Cluain-Feart, or the place of retirement till death," &c ... "The duty of these virgins was to keep up the fires of Bel, or the sun, and of Sambain, or the moon, which customs they borrowed from their Phoenician ancestors. They both [i.e. the Irish and the Phoenicians] adored Bel, or the sun, the moon, and the stars. The 'house of _Rimmon_' which the Phoenicians worshipped in, like our temples of Fleachta in Meath, was sacred to the moon. The word '_Rimmon_' has by no means been understood by the different commentators; and yet, by recurring to the Irish (a branch of the Phoenician) it becomes very intelligible; for '_Re_' is Irish for the moon, and '_Muadh_' signifies an _image_, and the compound word '_Reamhan_,' signifies prognosticating by the appearance of the moon. It appears by the life of our great S. Columba, that the Druid temples