of worship and the ufe of the very fame ininstruments have immemorially prevailed in India. His hypothesis, if admitted, only exhibits still more glaring proof how univerfally throughout the pagan world a fyftem of grofs phyfics prevailed, and the earth was adored instead of the Creator.

I am still, however, inclined to the opinion of other mythologists who confider this celebrated deity in the most extensive view of her character, as univerfal nature herself, which includes not only the earth, but the whole circle of being; and though, when understood in this point of view, the mutilation of her priests may appear fomewhat fingular, there was another custom practised in her temple very confonant to this character, the confideration of which brings us back to the dancing girls of India, who, we observed, are public prostitutes, and are denominated women of the idol. This cuftom, recorded with expreffions of just indignation by Herodotus,* was, that all female votaries of this deity, once at least in their lives, fhould prostitute themselves to some stranger in the polluted porches of this temple. It had, fays that historian, for this infamous purpose, a long range of galleries open on every fide, that the paffing

* Herodot. lib. i. p. 6o.

ftranger

ftranger might more freely view the affembled fair, thus devoutly frail, and make his choice with unreftrained freedom. For the object of his choice he did not, like the proud fultan, throw the handkerchief of love, but a piece of filver coin, into her lap, which the severe laws of the country forbade her to refuse, as well as his embrace, however disgusting might be her lover. The wages of iniquity, thus menially obtained, were accounted holy, and were devoted to increase the treafures of this temple. Every female in that district without exception, the noble as well as ignoble, the princess and the peasant's wife, were alike obliged to go through this indifpenfable ceremony of initiation into the mysteries of Mylitta, with this difference only, that women of distinguished rank, with a numerous train of fervants attending at some little distance, no doubt with the politic intention to overawe any intruder of mean parentage from approaching the fhrine of princely beauty, took their station in covered chariots at the gate. Such were the rites of the Syrian goddess; and the reader, by comparing the account with that of the Bayaderes in a preceding page, will find that the devotees of India are by no means behind those of Syria in

the

the duty of facrificing at the shrine of nature, either at the vernal or autumnal equinox.

Cybele then, the mother of the gods, that is, the fruitful parent of all the pagan theology, if Lucian may be credited, is no other than the Dea Syria. She is faid to have invented the tympanum, or small drum, which fhe conftantly carries in her hands, and Varro has told us, that, by that tympanum, the globe of the earth is defignated, of which the was thought to be the animating principle. If that affertion be true, we cannot wonder at the constant use of it in the devotion of India, and it is a strong additional proof from what central country that devotion originally came, as well as to whom it has immediate reference; whether she be, in fact, the Indian Lachsmi, the goddess of abundance, or Bhavani, the fofter deity who prefides over love and generation. In the frantic dance before her altars, pipes, or flutes, also, and tabors, formed a part of the facred concert. In regard to the first of these instruments, I have only to remark, that, in most of the engravings of Veeshnu, in the form of Creefhna, that god is reprefented playing to the enamoured Gopias, or milkmaids of Mathura, on this melodious paftoral inftrument, a proof of the great antiquity of

its

its use in India, and its invention is attributed to Hanumat, the Hindoo Pan, a famous general of the great Rama, who conquered the world with an army of fatyrs. Now Hanumat was the son of Pavan, the Indian god of the winds,* and feems to have been well calculated, from this mythological birth, to become the inventor of musical modes and paftoral airs. The fimilarity of found between the names Pavan and Pan might incline us to believe they both mean the fame deity, that deity, qui primus (Pan) Calamos conjungere plures inftituit. A figure of the VINA, or Indian guitar, engraved in the Afiatic Researches, with some remarks upon its antiquity which accompany that engraving, demonstrate how early and affiduously the ancient Indians cultivated mufic: indeed, at the ancient period in which the Vedas were written, they must have had confiderable fkill in that fcience; for, like many parts of the Jewish scriptures, they are written in a kind of metre, as if meant to be fung, and accompanied with inftruments; and, when properly read, I understand, they are chanted after the fame manner as the Jewish fcriptures in the fynagogues are chanted to this day. With ref

* Afiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 258,

pect

pect to the tabor, the immemorial ufe of this instrument in India is proved by the circumstance of two of the manfions of the moon, in the Lunar Zodiac, being defignated with this afterism, and very properly used they are to mark the nightly ftages of that planetary deity, in whofe festivals of the Neoμnvia, throughout every nation of the ancient world, the chearful found of the tabor gave energy and animation to the midnight dance. The facred dance itself, of ancient periods, must now form the subject of extenfive confideration.

Immoderate joy and pleasure naturally fhew themselves in the air and gestures of the perfon affected by fuch fenfations. His eye gliftens, his cheek is flufhed with crimson, and his feet spontaneously bound in accordance with the increased contraction and dilatation of his palpitating heart. When religious fervour adds its stimulus to the excited paffions, the transport is greater, in proportion to the fublimer nature of the object, and the more animating profpect which celestial hope and inspiration unfold to the intellectual

view.

Superftition still heightens every colour, dazzles us with a false glare, and inflames the ardour

Nnn