They did not place gods over the different parts of nature, like the Greeks; they did not even personify the powers of nature, like the Hindoos; they paid their devotion to the actual material things themselves.

Fire, as the most subtle and ethereal principle, and again as the most powerful agent, attracted their highest regards; and on their fire-altars the sacred flame, generally said to have been kindled from heaven, was kept burning uninterruptedly from year to year and from age to age by bands of priests, whose special duty it was to see that the sacred spark was never extinguished.

To defile the altar by blowing the flame with one's breath was a capital offence; and to burn a corpse was regarded as an act equally odious.

When victims were offered to fire, nothing but a small portion of the fat was consumed in the flame.

Next to fire, water was reverenced.