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tunate husbandman, and the zeal of the exploring antiquary. A treafure of no lefs than eighty thousand large gold coin or medals, each of the value of fix Roman crowns, was, according to Mountfaucon,* in 1714, discovered near Modena in Italy. They seemed all to have been struck in very early periods of the Roman grandeur, and the least antique of them were those of Julius Cæfar and the Triumvirate. Particular reafons induced M. Fontanini, the correfpondent of Mountfaucon, who transmitted him an account of the discovery, to suppose these medals belonged to the military cheft of the army collected by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia against Auguftus. The treasures of Roman money alfo dug up in France, Germany, and Spain, during the middle centuries, were amazingly great; and, during the failure of the ancient fources of wealth, in part fupplied the quantity neceffary for carrying on the commercial intercourse of Europe.

Before we conclude this Differtation on the treasures of the ancient world, it is necessary

* See the Supplement to Mountfaucon's Antiquities, book v. P. 329.

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we fhould again advert to thofe Afiatic regions whence we commenced our furvey, and where, especially in India, the fame pernicious practice of burying money in vast quantities has immemorially prevailed. And here we may remark, that, although in the vaft fums of coined money at different periods dug up in Europe, the overflowing wealth of the Roman capital may, in fome degree, be accounted for; yet, as immenfe treasures muft have still remained difperfed over the extenfive provinces of Afia, which never found its way into Europe, hoarded in the coffers of the mifer, or concealed in the vaults of the palaces of the kings and fatraps of the Eaft, far more remains still unaccounted for, or how comes it that fuch a flender stock of Afiatic coins is to be found in the cabinets of those affluent curiofi, who have fpared neither toil nor expenfe to fearch for and procure them? Of Darics and Philippi there are very few indeed of the immenfe heaps of : money coined by the Ptolemies, and the other Greek fovereigns who fucceeded Alexander, a very moderate proportion also has reached pofterity. India, thou avaricious glutton, whofe rapacious jaws, from the first of time, have

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fwallowed the gold and filver of the world,

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fefs thy treachery to the caufe of medallic science; they have gone to fwell the magnificence of thy pagodas, and, without the leaft regard to the grandeur of the defign, the majesty of the character impreffed, or the unequalled beauty of the execution, thy refiners have melted them down in their crucibles to an unanimated mass, of value only proportioned to its weight.

On the plains of India, also, not less than on thofe of Europe, are fuppofed to lie buried treasures, principally in bullion, to an incalculable amount, depofited there during the ravages and oppreffion of fucceffive conquerors, through at least eight centuries of anarchy and tumult; I mean, from the 7th century to the mild and peaceable reign of Akber. These are now and then, though rarely, difcovered, and fometimes Greek coins, probably of high antiquity, as the Greeks of Caria and other maritime countries vifited the coafts of the peninfula almost as early as the Phoenicians themselves. Mr. Chambers, in his account of the ruins of Mavalipuram, written in 1784, acquaints us, that he was informed

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informed by the Kauzy of Madras, that, fome years previous to that period, a RYOT, or husbandman, in ploughing his ground, had found a pot of gold and filver coins, with characters on them which no one in those parts, Hindoo or Mahommedan, (therefore, plainly, neither Arabic nor Sanfçreet,) was able to decipher. That the Kauzy, however, at the same time informed him, all search for them, then, would be in vain, for they had doubtlefs long ago been devoted to the crucible, as, in their original form, no one there thought them of any value.* The extenfive plains of Tartary are, alfo, fuppofed to contain inexhaustible stores of treasure buried by the Arab and Tartar hordes, who range over those wild folitudes, during either their ancient implacable contests with each other, or the invasion of the Parthians and other hoftile nations combined against them.

With refpect to India, independent of the domestic statues, which, it has already been obferved, it was cuftomary with the ancient Indians to form out of the precious metals in fufion, we are well affured that all

Afiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 158. Calcutta, quarto edition.

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the great pagodas of India had complete fets, amounting to an immenfe number, of the avatars and deities, which they would probably deem degraded by any baser metals or meaner fubftance than gold and filver, except in those instances in which their mythological superstition ordained that the deity fabricated fhould be of ftone, as in the instance of Jaggernaut, which Captain Hamilton represents as a pyramidal black stone, (in the fame manner as the ancient Arabians fabricated their deity, though of a Square figure, to mark his perfection, while the darkness of the stone indicated the obscurity of his nature,) with, however, the richest jewels of Golconda for eyes; and, in that of Veefhnu, in the great bason of Catmandu, in Nepal, fculptured in a recumbent posture, and of blue marble, to represent the primordial fpirit, at the commencement of time, floating on the cærulean surface of the Chaotic waters. In the Ayeen Akbery there is a very curious chapter on the great skill of the Indian artists in working in gold and jewellery, in which it is expreffly affirmed, that the AVATARS are frequently made of gold and

filver;

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