Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/722

* FIRE-WORSHIP. 652 FIRMAMENT. developed, earae to be holy and powerful priests as the guardians of a divine gift. The savage tribes of American Indians, like the rude natives of West Africa, paid homage to a fire-spirit as ancestor, and, as Tylor has pointed out, the Polynesians and Mexicans ac- knowledged in their worship a fire-god akin to the divinity of the sun. The worship of Moloch in ancient Canaan was a form of homage to the genius presiding over fire; and hallowed rites to the fire were performed among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldseans, and the less civilized Mongolian tribes. Nearer to our own race, however, was the veneration shown for fire among the early Indo- Germanic peoples. In India of old, for example, there was an elaborate fire ritual ; sacrifice to the fire was one of the first acts of morning devotion; and the hymns addressed to the fire-god Agni (q.v.) in the Rigveda outnumber those in praise of any other divinity. In Greece and Rome like- wise, the fire-cult of Hestia or Vesta, and of Hephaestus or Vulcan, was a marked feature in the religion. The Slavic race, including Old Prussians, Lithuanians, and Russians, preserve reminiscences of earlier fire-worship. But in this respect most important among the members of the Indo-European family are the Persians. In Iran from the earliest times the eare of the fire was so scrupulous and so elaborately de- veloped that it formed the most noticeable char- acteristic of the ancient Persian faith. The re- ligion of Zoroaster (q.v.) is sometimes, therefore, called fire-worship, but erroneously, as the Parsis or modern adherents of the creed insist. It is certain that in the Avesta (q.v.) the fire played a most prominent role; it was personified as the 'Son of Ormazd,' anl inconceivable pains were taken to preserve the sacred element from de- filement. The regular name for a priest in the Zoroastrian scriptures is athravan, 'belonging to the fire'; and Greek writers describe how the fire was carried in state processions before the Per- sian kings, for it was a symbol of the divine presence and of national feeling. The extinction of the holy flame in the temples, when the Mo- hammedans conquered Persia, was synonymous with the downfall of Iran. The sacred fire which the Parsis (q.v.) carried with them from Per- sia to India when they fled as religious exiles was to them an outward sign of their nationality as it was of their faitli — a palladium of the wor- ship of Ormazd. As Zoroastrianism apparently sprang up first in the neighborhood of the Cas- pian Sea with its oil-wells and petroleum-foun- tains, one may imagine that this fact may have had some influence on the early Persian faitli. and there are Parsis or Ghebers (q.v.) that still do reverence to the eternal flame that leaps from the earth at. Baku on the Caspian shore. It is interesting to add that near Raw] Pindi in northern [ndia there is a Bacred tire' cherished by Mohammedans, which is unusual for islam, and it has been supposed thai this may show evidence of influence exerted by early Persian fire- worship combined with the old Bre-cull of India it elf. Whatever may have been in olden limes the feeling or attitude of Hie Persians in their worship or veneration of fire, or whatever were the views thai made the victorious Mohammedans brand them :i< idolaters and fire-worshipers, the I riane of India reject such a I ii le and emphasize that they look upon fire as a sign or symbol, as a manifestation of the divine power, purity, and essence. It may be added in conclusion that pyrolatry as a scientific designa- tion is sometimes employed to designate fire- worship. Consult: Tylor, Primitive Culture (London, 1873) ; A. Kuhn, "Herabkunft des Feuers," in his Mythologische Studien (2d ed., Gutersloh, 18SU) ; Zaborowski-Moindron, "Le feu sacre et le culte du foyer des Slaves contempo- rains," in tiocicte d'Anthropologie de Paris Bulle- tins et Mcmoires, series 5, vol. i., pp. 530-534 (Paris. 1900). FIRE-WORSHIPERS. See Ghebebs. FIRISHTA, fe-resh'ta, Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (1570-?). A celebrated Persian his- torian. He was born at Astrabad, on the Cas- pian Sea. At a very early age he went with his father (Ghulam Ali Hindu Shah) to India, where we find him, when twelve years old, at Ahmed- nagar, in the Deccan. He afterwards became captain in the bodyguard of Murtada Nizam Shah ; and when this King was deposed by his own son, Firishta went to Bijapur (998 A.H., a.d. 1589), where Ibrahim Adil Shah II., the reign- ing monarch, received him with great honor. Soon after his arrival Firishta is mentioned as taking part in an action against Jamal Khan, in which the historian was wounded and taken prisoner; but ere long he made his escape. His death is supposed to have taken place shortly after the year 1012. His great work is the Tarikhi Firishta, a history of the Mohammedan power in India. Written with an impartiality, simplicity, and clearness rare in an Eastern work, this history has become a standard work on the subject, into which it was the first to enter at length. Single portions of it have been trans- lated by Dow, Scott, Stewart, Anderson, etc. ; but the whole work was first edited by Briggs (Bombay, 1S31), and also translated by him under the title. The History of the Rise of the Mahometan Power in India (London, 1829). FIRKIN (ODan. firken, multiple of four, from fire, four, OHG. fior, fier, Ger. vier, Goth. fidwor, AS. feower, Eng. four; connected with lr. cethir, OChurch Slav, ehetyri, Litli. he- turi. I. nt. qvattuor, Oscan petur, Gk. rt<jaapt%, teg- sares, Skt. catur, four). An old measure of ca- pacity containing nine gallons (old ale and beer measure). But previous to the year 1S03 it had two values, being estimated at eight gallons in old ale measure and at nine in old beer measure. The firkin is equivalent to nine and one-seventh imperial gallons. See Weights and Measures. FIRMAMENT (Lat. firmamentum, from firman-, to strengthen, from firmus, firm). A word used In denote the vault of heaven. The term found its way into English from the Vul- gate, which renders the Septuagint «-Te/><?w»a, sir noma, ami the Hebrew raqi'a by the Latin firmamentum (Gen. i. 0). Raqi'a (from the verb raqa', to extend) signifies whatever is heal en or stretched out. and was especially employed by tin' Hebrews to denote the hemisphere above tl arth, compared (Ex. xxiv. 10) to a splendid and pelliiei.i sapphire. Elsewhere (Ez. i. 22 20) ii is spoken of as the 'floor' on which the throne of ili, Mo,( High is placed. Hence it follows thai the notions of solidity and expansion were both contained in the Hebrew conception of the