during the warfare. Thus, in a fimilar conteft between Siva and the Daityas, or children of Diti, who frequently rebelled against heaven, Brahmá is believed to have presented the God of Destruction with fiery shafts. One of the many poems, entitled Rámáyan, the last book of which has been tranflated into Italian, contains an extraordinary dialogue between the crow Bhushunda, and a rational Eagle, named Garuda, who is often painted with the face of a beautiful youth, and the body of an imaginary bird; and one of the eighteen Puránas bears his name, and comprizes his whole hiftory. M. Sonnerat informs us, that Vishnu is reprefented in fome places riding on the Garúda, which he fuppofes to be the Pondicheri eagle of Brisson, especially as the Brahmans of the Coaft highly venerate that bird, and provide food for numbers of them at stated hours. I rather conceive the Garuda to be a fabulous bird, but agree with him, that the Hindu God, who rides on it, resembles the ancient Jupiter. In the old temples at Gaya, Vishnu is either mounted on this poetical bird, or attended by it together with a little page; but, left an etymologift fhould find Ganymed in Garud, I must obferve that the Sanscrit word is pronounced Garura; though I admit that the Grecian and Indian ftories of the celeftial bird and the page appear to have some refemblance. As the Olympian Jupiter fixed his Court and held his Councils on a lofty and brilliant mountain, fo the appropriated feat of Mahádéva, whom the Saiva's confider as the Chief of the Deities, was mount Cailása, every splinter of whose rocks was an ineftimable gem. His terreftrial haunts are the fnowy hills of Himalaya, or that branch of them to the Eaft of the Brahmaputra, which has the name of Chandrasic'hara, or the Mountain of the Moon. When, after all these circumstances, we learn that Siva is believed to have three eyes, whence he is named alfo Trilochan, and know from Pausanias, not only that Triophthalmos was an epithet of Zeus, but that a ftatue of him had been found fo early as

the taking of Troy, with a third eye in his forehead, as we see him reprefented by the Hindus, we must conclude, that the identity of the two Gods falls little fhort of being demonftrated.

In the character of Destroyer alfo we may look upon this Indian Deity as correfponding with the Stygian Jove, or Pluto; efpecially fince Cáli, or Time in the feminine gender, is a name of his confort, who will appear hereafter to be Proserpine. Indeed, if we can rely on a Persian tranflation of the Bhagavat, (for the original is not yet in my poffeffion,) the fovereign of Pátála, or the Infernal Regions, is the King of Serpents, named Séshanága; for Crishna is there faid to have defcended with his favourite Arjun to the feat of that formidable divinity, from whom he instantly obtained the favour which he requested, that the fouls of a Bráhman's fix fons, who had been flain in battle, might reanimate their respective bodies; and Séshanága is thus defcribed. "He had a gorgeous appearance, with a thousand heads, and, on "each of them a crown fet with refplendent gems, 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 "habiliment were yellow, and a sparkling jewel hung " in every one of his ears; his arms were extended, and "adorned with rich bracelets; and his hands bore the "holy fhell, the radiated weapon, the mace for war, " and the lotos." Thus Pluto was often exhibited in painting and fculpture with a diadem and fceptre; but himself and his equipage were of the blackest shade.

There is yet another attribute of Mhádéva, by which he is too vifibly diftinguished in the drawings and

temples

temples of Bengal. To deftroy, according to the edenii's of India, the Súsi's of Persia, and many philofophers of our European schools, is only to generate and reproduce in another form. Hence the God of Destruction is holden in this country to preside over Generation ; as a fymbol of which he rides on a white bull. Can we doubt that the loves and feats of Jupiter Genitor (not forgetting the white bull of Europa) and his extraordinary title of Lapis, for which no fatisfactory reafon is commonly given, have a connexion with the Indian Philofopy and Mythology? As to the deity of Lampsacus, he was originally a mere fcare-crow, and ought not to have a place in any mythological fyftem; and, in regard to Bacchus, the God of Vintage, (between whose acts and those of Jupiter we find, as Bacon observes, a wonderful affinity,) his Ithyphallick images, measures, and ceremonies, alluded probably to the fuppofed relation of Love and Wine; unless we believe them to have belonged originally to Siva; one of whofe names is Vágis or Bágis, and to have been afterwards improperly applied. Though, in an Effay on the Gods of India, where the Brahmins are pofitively forbidden to taste fermented liquors, we can have little to do with Bacchus, as God of Wine, who was probably no more than the imaginary Prefident over the vintage in Italy, Greece, and the lower Asia, yet we must not omit Surádéví, the Goddess of Wine, who arofe, fay the Hindus, from the ocean, when it was churned with the mountain Mandar: and this fable feems to indicate, that the Indians came from a country, in which wine was anciently made and confidered as a bleffing; though the dangerous effects of intemperance induced their early legiflators to prohibit the ufe of all fpirituous liquors; and 'it were much to be wished that fo wife a law had never been violated.

Here may be introduced the Jupiter Marinus, or Neptune, of the Romans, as refembling Mahádéva in