Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

98 HISTORY OF THE
was ? , where we have the radical idea of the
term under consideration, Tau-Re. Re being
in Celtic, the sun, a star, by figure, any round
object whatsoever. It is supposed that an allu-
sion is made to this mystic sign T in Ezekiel ix. 4,
where God directs the man clothed in linen, who
had the writing inkhorn by his side, to set "a
mark" upon the foreheads of those who lamented
the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem. The
original phrase is, set a in Tu or Tau upon their
foreheads. The vulgate preserves the real meaning
of the command, — " mark with the letter Tau the
foreheads." Now, it has been ceded by the learned
long ago, that in the Samaritan character in which
Ezekiel wrote, the n was cruciform, in the shape
of our T, or the Coptic Dau. May we suppose
this to have been the mark, or sign, or symbol,
given to, or put upon Cain ? The Hebrew isniSj
Ayr, or Tau. The hieroglyphic for a pope, a
bishop, or abbot, is a cross! Has the term Tattoo
any analogy here ? Does St Paul allude to this
sign of consecration to the Deity when he says,
" I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus ?"
Amongst the Greeks the sign of acquittal was a
T. Popery may boast of an ancient religion, if
Paganism really be a matter of boasting. God
alone knows, however, what the moral lesson of the
sign was at one period.