dently the Indian Triad, Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva, who are pourtrayed fitting upon that lotos, the ufual throne of the fabulous perfonages of oriental mythology; and it is one among many other forcible and direct teftimonies over how vaft an extent of Afia, in ancient periods, the religion, and with it probably the laws and sciences, of Hindoftan were diffused,

While in these remote northern regions it would be improper to pafs unnoticed by the ancient race and religious rites of Scandinavia, I have elsewhere endeavoured, by a chain of strong evidence, decifively to prove that their first celebrated god Oden, or Woden, was no other than the Taut of Phoenicia, the Hermes of Egypt, the elder Buddha or Boodh of India, the Fo of China, and the Mercury of 'Greece and Rome. In fhort, that the religion of almost every nation of the earth, previous to the happy diffufion of the Christian doctrine, exhibited little elfe befides the shattered fragments of one grand system of primitive, I do not fay the earliest, theology, once prevalent in the Greater Afia. Not the least forcible of the arguments adduced to fupport this hypothefis, an hypothefis that gives to Britain, in the earliest periods of the world, a colony of Ddd 3 brahmins,

brahmins, or at least of brahmin-taught fages of the fect of Boodh, are those derived from the ftriking fimilitude of the fuperftitious ceremo nies instituted and observed in those respective regions, and the very fingular circumftance of the Indian god and planet Boodh, under the name of Woden and Mercury, conferring his name, over all the northern and western empires of Europe, upon one particular day of the week. This remarkable fact is evidenced in the inftance of the BoODH WAR, or dies Mercurii, of India being the very fame fourth day of the week which the Scandinavians confecrated to Oden, which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors denominated Woden's dag, and which we call Wednesday. I shall not farther anticipate what will fhortly be presented to the reader on this curious fubject than by remarking that both Keyfler and Mallet unite in affigning to this god-king Oden an Afiatic origin, and in afferting that the mythology which he introduced was the mythology, not of a cold ungenial region where the efforts of a lively imagination are checked by the rigour of the climate and objects that infpire gloom and melancholy, but of a warm, luxurious, fouthern realm, where an active, vigorous, fancy, under the impe

tuous

tuous goad of ardent paffions, and ani- 1 mated by the most enlivening and charming objects, forms the most romantic images, and indulges its natural propenfities to gaiety by the most mirthful feftivals and the moft fplendid rites.

In respect to the Scandinavian religion I fhall only for the prefent obferve, that, in regard to the doctrine in queftion, it does not differ from other codes of religious in ftitution in Afia; for, it plainly inculcates the worship of a triple DEITY in the mythologic perfons of ODEN, FREA, and THOR,*

Concerning the firft of thefe deities I think it has been in my power to produce incontestable evidence of his being the very identical perfonage denominated Taut, Hermes, and Boodh, through all the Eaft. M. Mallet has produced as irrefragable proof that FREA, the second perfon in this Scandinavian triad, is no other than the celebrated Dea Syria, adored at Babylon, and the Venus Urania of the Perfians. She feems, indeed, to be the prolific mother of all things, the great principle of fecundity, and her name and rites demonstrate her close affinity with the RHEA of the Greeks, to whofe honour they smote the

Ddd 4

* Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 96.

the refounding cymbal, while the facred mee lody myfteriously fhadowed out the harmony that prevails through univerfal nature. She

gave her name to the fixth day of the week, which was confecrated to her under the denomination of FREYTAG, that is Frea's day, fynonimous with our Friday; and, in direct teftimony that her character is not unconnected with that of Venus Urania, as afferted by M. Mallet, may be adduced the remarkable circumftance of that day being distinguished in the western world by the appellation of Dies Veneris.

With refpect

to THOR, the third of thefe northern deities, otherwife known among the Celtic nations. by the name of TARANIS, a title which, in the Welch, that is, the old Cimbrian, language, M. Mallet obferves, fignifies thunder: he in every refpect greatly resembles the Eendra of the Indians, and the Jupiter Tonans of the Greeks and Romans. Thor præfidet in aëre, fulmina et fruges gubernat. This Scandinavian Jove feems to have been alfo armed with the CHACRA of Veefhnu, recently inscribed as instinct with life for, fays our author, THOR always carried a mace, or club, which, as often as he discharged it, returned of itself to the hand

Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 95.

;

that

that launched it. He grafped this impatient and restless weapon, which, like the thunder-bolt of the Grecian Jove, vibrated to be gone, with strong gauntlets of iron, and he wore around his loins a mystic girdle which had the virtue to renovate his ftrength, when neceffary. "It was with thefe formidable arms that he overthrew the monsters and giants" (the Affoors, or evil dæmons of India)" when the gods fent him to oppose their enemies."* To Thor, likewife, there was a day confecrated, in the northern mythology, which ftill retains his name in various languages of Europe. That day is, in Danish, called Thorsdag; in Swedish, Torsdag; in English, Thursday. It is not lefs worthy of obfervation that this day was, by the Romans and by all those nations who have fince adopted their aftronomical language, called Dies Jovis.

In that valuable relic of northern genius, the EDDA, in which is contained an authentic epitome of Runic mythology, these three deities are represented as fitting on three thrones, with each a crown on his head. The description is curious, and I fhall present it to the reader in the words of that eminent antiquary

Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 97.