We may here pause a moment to inquire whence the Greeks derived the most lovely and fascinating of their mythological creations--those lesser and more terrestrial beings--the spirits of the mountain, the waters, and the grove.
Throughout the East, from the remotest era, we find that mountains were nature's temples.

The sanctity of high places is constantly recorded in the scriptural writings.

The Chaldaean, the Egyptian, and the Persian, equally believed that on the summit of mountains they approached themselves nearer to the oracles of heaven.

But the fountain, the cavern, and the grove, were no less holy than the mountain-top in the eyes of the first religionists of the East.
Streams and fountains were dedicated to the Sun, and their exhalations were supposed to inspire with prophecy, and to breathe of the god.
The gloom of caverns, naturally the brooding-place of awe, was deemed a fitting scene for diviner revelations--it inspired unearthly contemplation and mystic revery.

Zoroaster is supposed by Porphyry (well versed in all Pagan lore, though frequently misunderstanding its proper character) to have first inculcated the worship of caverns [37]; and there the early priests held a temple, and primeval philosophy its retreat [38].