idol or Pagan god whom St Stephen says the Israelites worshipped in the wilderness as they passed from Egypt to the land of Promise: "Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan; figures which ye made to worship them." That the martyr here quotes the following words of the prophet Amos, all commentators are agreed: "Ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch, and Chiron your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." But if this coincidence between the Christian preacher and the Jewish prophet be admitted, it follows, that Chiron and Remphan are two names of one and the same deity. This is indeed farther evident from the LXX translators having substituted in their version the word Raiphon, instead of Chiron, which we read in the Hebrew and English Bibles. But the question which still remains to be answered is, what god was worshipped by the name of Remphan, Raiphon, or Chiron? for about the other divinity here mentioned there is no dispute. See Moloch.

That Chiron or Remphan was an Egyptian divinity, cannot be questioned; for at the era of the Exodus the Hebrews must have been strangers to the idolatrous worship of all other nations; nor are they ever accused of any other than Egyptian idolatries during their 43 years wanderings in the wilderness, till towards the end of that period that they became infected by the Moabites with the worship of Baal-peor. That Moloch, Melek, Melek, or Mileon, in its original acceptation, denotes a king or chief, is known to every oriental scholar; and therefore when it is used as the name of a god, it undoubtedly signifies the sun, and is the same divinity with the Egyptian Osiris. Reasoning in this way, many critics, and we believe Selden is in the number, have concluded that Chiron, and of course Remphan, is the planet Saturn; because Chiron is written Cion, Civan, Cavan, Chevion; all of which are modern oriental names of that planet.

But against this hypothesis insurmountable objections present themselves to our minds. It is universally allowed (see Polytheism), that the first objects of idolatrous worship were the sun and moon, considered as the king and queen of heaven. The fixed stars, indeed, and the planets, were afterwards gradually admitted into the Pagan rubric; but we may be sure that those would be first associated with the two prime luminaries which most resembled them in brightness, and were supposed to be most benignant to man. But the planet Saturn appears to the naked eye with so feeble a lustre, that, in the infancy of astronomy, it could not make such an impression on the mind as to excite that admiration which we must conceive to have always preceded planetary worship. It is to be observed, too, that by the Pagan writers of antiquity Saturn is constantly represented as a star of baleful influence. He is termed the leaden planet; the planet of malevolent aspect; the dismal, the inhuman star. That the Egyptians, at so early a period as that under consideration, should have adored as one of their greatest gods a planet obscure in its appearance, distant in its situation, and baleful in its influence, is wholly incredible.

There is, however, another star which they might naturally adore, and which we know they actually did adore, as one of their most beneficent gods, at a very early period. This is the asterion or stella of the Greeks, the canis or stella canicularis of the Romans, and the dog-star of modern Europe. By the Egyptians it was called Sothis or Soth, which signifies safety, beneficence, fecundity; and it received this name, because making its appearance in the heavens at the very time when the Nile overflowed the country, it was supposed Remphan to regulate the inundation. On this account Plutarch (Is. et Osir.) tells us, they believed the soul of their illustrious benefactress Isis to have transmigrated into the star Sothis, which they therefore worshipped as the divinity which rendered their country fruitful. It made its appearance, too, on the first day of the month Thoth (A), which was the beginning of the Egyptian year, and as such celebrated with feasting and festivity; and being by much the brightest star in the heavens, Horapollo (cap. 3. informs us it was considered as sovereign over the rest. A combination of so many important circumstances might have induced a people less superstitious than the Egyptians to pay divine homage to that glorious luminary, which was confounded with Isis, who had been long regarded with the highest veneration; and as Isis was the wife and sister of Osiris, and always associated with him, the star of Isis or Remphan was naturally associated with Moloch, the same with Osiris.

But it will be asked, how the star which by the Egyptians was called Soth or Sothis came to be worshipped by the Hebrews under the appellation of Chion or Remphan? This is a very pertinent question, and we shall endeavour to answer it.

Every one knows that the pronunciation of oriental words is very uncertain; and that as the vowels were often omitted in writing, it is of very little importance to the meaning how they be supplied, provided we retain the radical consonants. The word Chion may with equal propriety be written Kion, Kion, or even Kion, the Hebrew jod being convertible into the Greek ρ or the Roman y; but the words Cane, Chan, Kan, or Khan, which are often diversified into Khen, Kyn, Cohen, Cahun, signifying Head, Chief, Prince, King, &c. are diffused through a great part of Asia and Europe. In the Chinese language Quin, which signifies a King, is so similar to the word Chion or Khian under consideration, that no etymologist will hesitate to pronounce them of the same original and the same import. The word Kan or Khan is universally known to be an honorary title in Tartary; and Kian or Kain, which is manifestly cognate of the word Chion or Kion, is, in the Phevi or old Persian language, the epithet applied to the dynasty of princes which succeeded Cyrus the Great.

Among the Scythians or ancient Tartars, Ghivn signifies the Sun and likewise the day; and Kung, Kinung, Kun, runs through all the dialects of the Gothic tongue, everywhere denoting a chief or sovereign. In the Syrian dialect, Kon signifies a prince; and hence the Almighty is styled (Gen. xiv. 19.) Konah, which is translated possessor, but might have, with perhaps more propriety, been rendered Sovereign of heaven and earth. In Hebrew, the word Kahan or Kohen, which is the very same with Khan or Kan, signifies either a priest or a prince; and in Egypt Kon was the name of the first Hercules or the sun. Hence the same word in composition denotes greatness, as Can-obs the great serpent; Can-athoth, the great Thoth or Mercury; Can-osiris, the great Osiris.

From this deduction we would conclude, that the word, which is found in so many tongues, and always denotes Chief, Prince, Sovereign, is the very word Chion, which the Egyptians and Hebrews applied to Sothis, as being, in their conceptions, the chief or sovereign of all the stars. This will appear still more probable, when we have ascertained the import of the word Remphan, or, as the LXX have it, Roiphon.

Phan, the latter part of this word, is unquestionably the same with Pan, the most ancient of the Egyptian gods (see PAN). It is likewise a cognate of the Hebrew Phanaah, conspicit, spectavit, vidit; and the radical word seems to be Phail, which signifies sometimes the countenance, and sometimes light. Hence Phaethon, which is compounded of pha “light,” eth or esh, “fire,” and on, “strength,” came to be one of the names of the sun. Rai, which we commonly write Rajah, has long signified, among the Indians, a subordinate prince; and we know, that between India and Egypt there was a very early intercourse. Raiphon, therefore, may be either the royal light or the bright prince, subordinate to Osiris; and in either sense, it was a very proper epithet of Sothis in the Egyptian calendar. The word Rem or Rom, again (for it is sometimes written Remphan, and sometimes Roiphon), is no other than the Hebrew רומ, Rom, “high, exalted.” Hence Remphan is the high or exalted light, which Sothis certainly was.

For this etymological disquisition we are indebted to Dr. Doig, the learned author of Letters on the Savage State, who has written a dissertation on Chion and Remphan, of such value that we hope it will not be much longer withheld from the public. The ascertaining the identity of these names, and the god to which they belonged, is the least of its merit; for it will be found to throw much light upon many passages in the Old Testament. What confirms his interpretation is, that the idol consecrated by the Egyptians to Sothis or the dog-star, was a female figure with a star on her head; and hence the prophet upbraids his countrymen with having borne the Star of their deity.

ACTION OF REMOVING, in Scots Law. See LAW, No. clxvii. 18.