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[Page 4]
India: and the latter, which is a circumstance more extraordinary, is almost universally current in the northern parts of America. The later Greeks, and Romans, often abridged their nominative cases; so that we must look among the oblique cases for the original term. The true name of a Prince among the ancient Latines was Regis or Ragis, which is the same as the modern Rajah of India. If we inquire into the names of places in the Country and Ireland we shall often discover a great similitude between them and names of different regions; and often of very ancient date. Sanchoniathon tells us, that the first people worshiped Baal-Samen, which was no other than the Sun, and signified the Lord of Heaven. We learn from Ptolemy the Geographer, that the chief river and estuary in Lancashire had this very name, and was called Baal-Samen. According to Camden it is at this called the Ribal. This is of the same purport: Ri, Ria, Rua, Riva, all of old signified a dimanation of water. Ri-Bal is the river of Bal, or Baal; the ancient Deity of Syria, Canaan, and Babylonia: whose worship must have been introduced into these parts in an age very remote. What are the Thames and the Isis but the Thamas and Isis of Egypt: which Thamas was the Themis of Greece and Rome, the Thamur of Syria and Canaan. Many cities