people, that any thing natural could be offenfively obfcene; a fingularity which pervades all their writings and converfation, but is no proof of depravity in their morals.

Both Plato and Cicero fpeak of Eros, or the Heavenly Cupid, as the fon of Venus and Jupiter; which proves, that the Monarch of Olympus and the Goddess of Fecundity were connected, as Mahádéva and Bhaváni. The God Cáma, indeed, had Máyá and Casyapa, or Uranus, for his parents, at leaft according to the mythologifts of Cashmir; but, in moft refpects, he feems the twinbrother of Cupid, with richer and more lively appendages. One of his many epithets is Dipaca, the Inflamer, which is erroneoufly written Dipuc; and I am now convinced, that the fort of refemblance, which has been obferved between his Latin and Sanscrit names is accidental: in each name the three firft letters are the root, and between them there is no affinity. Whether any mythological connexion fubfifted between the amaracus, with the fragrant leaves of which Hymen bound his temples, and the tulasi of India, muft be left undetermined: the botanical relation of the two plants (if amaracus be properly tranflated majorum) is extremely

near.

One of the moft remarkable ceremonies in the feftival of the Indian Goddess, is that before-mentioned, of calling her image into the river. The Pandits, of whom I inquired concerning its origin and import, anfwered, "that it was prescribed by the Véda, they knew not "why" but this cuftom has, I conceive, a relation to the doctrine, that water is a form of Iswara, and confequently of Isání, who is even reprefented by fome as the patronnefs of that element, to which her figure is restored after having received all due honours on earth, which is confidered as another form of the God of Nature, though

though fubfequent, in the order of Creation, to the primeval fluid. There feems no decifive proof of one original fyftem among idolatrous nations in the worship of river-gods and river-goddeffes, nor in the homage paid to their streams, and the ideas of purification annexed to them; fince Greeks, Italians, Egyptians, and Hindus, might (without any communication with each other) have adored the feveral Divinities of their great rivers, from which they derived pleafure, health, and abundance. The notion of Doctor Musgrave, that large rivers were fuppofed, from their ftrength and rapidity, to be conducted by Gods, while rivulets only were protected by female Deities, is, like most other notions of grammarians on the genders of nouns, overthrown by facts. Most of the great Indian rivers are feminine and the three goddeffes of the waters, whom the Hindus chiefly venerate, are Gangá, who fprang, like armed Pallas, from the head of the Indian Jove; Yamuna, daughter of the Sun; and Sereswati. All three met at Prayaga, thence called Trivéni, or the three plated locks; but Sereswati, according to the popular belief, finks under ground, and rifes at another Trivéni near Húgli, where fhe rejoins her beloved Gangá. The Brahmaputra is, indeed, a male river; and, as his name fignifies the Son of Brahmá, I thence took occafion to feign that he was married to Gangá, though I have not yet feen any mention of him, as a God, in the Sanscrit books.

Two incarnate deities of the firft rank, Ráma and Crishna, muft now be introduced, and their several attributes diftin&tly explained. The first of them, I believe, was the Dionysos of the Greeks, whom they named Bromius, without knowing why; and Bugenes, when they reprefented him horned; as well as Lyaios and Eleutherios, the Deliverer, and Triambos, or Dithyrambos, the Triumphant. Most of those titles were adopted by the Romans, by whom he was called Bruma, Tauri

formis,

formis, Liber, Triumphus; and both nations had records or traditionary accounts of his giving laws to men and deciding their contefts, of his improving navigation and commerce, and, what may appear yet more obfervable, of his conquering India and other countries with an army of Satyrs, commanded by no less a perfonage than Pan; whom Lilius Giraldus, on what authority I know not, afferts to have refided in Iberia, "when he had returned (fays the learned Mythologist) "from the Indian war, in which he accompanied "Bacchus." It were fuperfluous in a mere effay to run any length in the parallel between this European God and the fovereign Ayodhya, whom the Hindus believe to have been an appearance on earth of the Preserving Power; to have been a conqueror of the highest renown, and the deliverer of rations from tyrants, as well as of his confort Sítá from the giant Rávan, king of Lancá; and to have commanded in chief a numerous and intrepid race of thofe large Monkeys which our naturalifts, or fome of them, havedenominated Indian Satyrs. His General, the Prince & Satyrs, was named Hanumat, or with high cheek bone; and, with workmen of fuch agility, he foon raifeca bridge of rocks over the fea, part of which, fay the Hindus, yet remains; and it is, probably, the feriesof rocks, to which the Muselmans or the Portuguese hav given the foolish name of Adam's (it fhould be called Ráma's) bridge. Might not this army of Satyrs have been only a race of mountaineers, whom Ráma, if fucla monarch ever exifted, had civilized? However that may be, the large breed of Indian Apes is at this momnt held in high veneration by the Hindus, and fed with levotion by the Bráhmans, who feem, in two or thre places on the banks of the Ganges, to have a regular ndowment for the support of them. They live in tribes f three or four hundred, are wonderfully gentle, (I fpek as an eyewitnefs,) and appear to have fome kind,f order and fubordination in their little fylvan polity. We must not

omit,

omit, that the father of Hanumat was the God of Wine, named Pavan, one of the eight Genii; and, as Pan improved the pipe by adding fix reeds, and "played ex

66

quifitely on the cithern a few moments after his birth,” fo one of the four fyftems of Indian mufick bears the name of Hanumat, or Hanuman in the nominative, as its inventor, and is now in general estimation.

The war of Lance is dramatically reprefented at the feftival of Ráma on the ninth day of the new moon of Chaitra; and the drama concludes (fays Holwel, who had often feen it) with an exhibition of the fire-ordeal, by which the victor's wife Sitá gave proof of her connubial fidelity. "The dialogue (he adds) is taken from "one of the eighteen aoly books," meaning, I fuppofe, the Puránas; but the Hindus have a great number of regular dramas, at leaft two thousand years old, and among them are feveral very fine ones on the ftory of Ráma. The firft poet of the Hindus was the great Válmic, and his ámáyan is an Epick Poem on the fame fubject, whih, in unity of action, magnificence of imagery, and elegance of ftyle, far furpaffes the learned and elabrate work of Nonnus, entitled Dionysiaca, half of wich, or twenty-four books, I perused with great eagerefs, when I was very young, and fhould have travelled ɔ the conclufion of it, if other pursuits had not engage me. I fhall never have leifure to compare the Dionsiacks with the Rámáyan, bút am confident, that anaccurate comparifon of the two poems would prove ionysos and Ráma to have been the fame perfon; andi incline to think that he was Ráma, the fon of Cush, vho might have established the first regular government a this part of Asia. I had almoft forgotten, that Mros is faid by the Greeks to have been a mountain o' India, on which their Dionysos was born; and that Néru, though it generally means the north pole in the Indian geography, is alfo a mountain near

the