mory of their ancestors.

When upbraided by

Darius for flying before his army, the former

exclaim, "Purfue us to the fepulchres of our

ancestors, and attempt to violate their hallowed remains, and you fhall foon find with what desperate valour the Scythians can fight.” The Indians, we learn from Mr. Holwell, have fo profound a veneration for the ashes of their progenitors, that, on the faft of Callee, worship and offerings are paid to their manes, and Mr. Wilkins, in a note upon the Heetopades, favours us with additional information,* that the offerings consisted of confecrated cakes, that the ceremony itself is denominated STRADHA, and that a Hindoo's hopes of happiness after death greatly depend upon his having children to perform this ceremony, by which he expects that his foul will be released from the torments of NARAKA, or hell. In his fixth note upon the text of the GEETA, his account of this ceremony is still more ample; for, in that note, he acquaints us that the Hindoos are enjoined, by the Vedas, to offer thefe cakes to the ghofts of their ancestors as far back as the third generation; that this greater ceremony of the Stradha is performed on the day. of the new moon in every month, but that

they

Hectopades, p. 271, and note 372.

they are commanded by those books daily to propitiate them, by an offering of water, which is called Tarpan; a word fignifying to fatisfy, to appease. A fpeech of the Indian emperor Dushmanta, in the Sacontala, remarkably exemplifies this obfervation of Mr. Wilkins. That emperor, ftruck with horror at the idea of dying childlefs, exclaims, "Ah me! the departed fouls of my ancestors, who claim a fhare in the funeral cake, which I have no fon to offer, are apprehenfive of losing their due honour, when Dufhmanta fhall be no more on earth :—who, then, alas! will perform in our family those obfequies which the Vedas prefcribe? My forefathers must drink, instead of a pure libation, this flood of tears, the only offering which a man who dies childless can make them." Mr. Wilkins judiciously remarks that these ceremonies were not unknown to the Greeks and Romans, in proof of which, if neceflary, many instances might be brought from claffical writers.

SECTION II.

Commences with a general View of the Indian Mythology, and difplays the Analogy fubfifting between the ancient Religion of INDIA and PERSIA, particularly in their univerfal and enthufiaftic Veneran of the Solar Orb and Elementary Fire.-The Indians facrifice to the MOON under the Character of a Male Divinity.

An extenfive Review taken of the SABIAN SUPERSTITION, or Worship of the Host of Heaven, in the earliest Ages of the World. — The Souls of deceafed Heroes elevated to the Stars, and adored as the Genii of the revolving Orbs.The Perfian Theology refumed. The Laws of the Perfian Zoroafter and Brahma have a wonderful Feature of Refemblance.-The Race originally the fame, and probably the Legiflators not different. The Antiquity of the Four VEDAS, or Sacred Books of India, examined. Hiftorical Obfervations relative to Zoroafter,

and

and introductory to the Investigation of the ftupendous Antiquities remaining to this Day in the Caverns of Elephanta and Salfette.

TH

HE investigation of that unpleafing but curious fubject, the human facrifices of the ancients, which engaged fo large a portion of the former chapter, has too long detained us from the confideration of the other parts of the extensive system of the Hindoo Mythology; without comprehensive infight into which it is ir potiible to understand the pages of their early hiftory, or to arrive at any fatisfactory knowledge of the hieroglyphics under which that history is veiled. Never did a belief in aërial beings, in the phantoms engendered by the warmth of a glowing and enthusiastic imagination, fo univerfally infect a people as that belief did in ancient times, and does, at this day, infect the people of HindofIn the Ayeen Akbery, the world is faid to be divided into ten quarters; over each of which prefides a guardian spirit. Their names, and thofe of the quarters over which they rule, as ftated in that authentic book, are thus arranged: "Indree, Aujin, Jum, Benyroot, Wurrun, Bayoo, Kobeir, Jyfan, Birmha, Naga; East, South-eaft, South, South-west, Weft, North

tan.

weft,

west, North, North-eaft, Above, Below." Of these Dewtahs only two are deferving particu lar notice: Birmha, or Brahma, the prince of the Dewtahs, who prefides over all above, and Naga, or, as Sir W. Jones* denominates him, SESHANAGA, who prefides over all below. Of Brahma we have spoken above, and fhall have occafion to fpeak much more hereafter. But of this fovereign of Patala, or the infernal regions, who alfo is the king of ferpents, for the Hindoo Hell is compofed of ferpents, I am convinced my readers will think themfelves obliged to me for the following account taken from the Bhagavat, and inserted from the author laft quoted. Creefhna is represented in that poem as descending with his favourite Arjun to the palace of this formidable divinity, and he is thus defcribed: "He had a gorgeous appearance, with a thousand heads, and on each of them a crown fet with refplendent jewels, one of which was larger and brighter than the reft; his eyes gleamed like flaming torches, but his neck, his tongues, and his body, were black; the skirts of his habiliments were yellow, and a sparkling jewel hung in every one of his ears: his arms were extended and adorn

ed

** I am aware that Indree, the god of the firmament, is also frequently called the prince of the Dewtahs. But Brahma is the fupreme first-born Dewtah. Confult the Gentoo Code, p. 39.