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Here we have indubitable proof that the ancients were well acquainted with the Indian philofophers. Jerome (Adv. Jovian. 1. i.) mentions not only the burning of widows, but their ardent defire of giving this teftimony of affection. This custom ftill continues as a rite performed upon principle, but the self-murder of the Brahmin philofophers is not now, as formerly, by fire, or at all common: yet we have the concur rent teftimony of the ancients, that on the approach of disease, the infirmities of age, and even in the mere dread of calamity, the Indian, upon principle, made his exit in the flames. Cicero, Tufc. Queft. 1. 5. and Lucan, 1. 3. mention this cuftom as univerfally known.

Several ambassadors were fent by a king of India, a king of fix hundred kings, to Augustus Cæfar. (Sueton. c. 21.) One of thefe, a Brahmin philofopher, burned himfelf at Athens. His life had been extremely profperous, and he took this method, he faid, to prevent a reverse of fortune. Amid a great concourfe of people, he entered the fire naked, anointed, and laughing. The epitaph which he defired might be infcribed on his tomb, was, "Here rests Zarmanochagas, the Indian of Bargofa, who, according to the custom of his country, made himself immortal." And it was on the advances of a diftemper that Calanus amufed Alexander with this exhibition of Indian philofophy. But this cuftom is difufed. And from hence we have certain proof that the cuftoms of the Brahmins have undergone moft confiderable alterations. This will farther appear by the testimony which antiquity gives of the fimplicity of their worhip. The Indians who had any idols are mentioned by the

ancients

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ancients as few in number and grofs barbarians. The Brach manes, on the contrary, are commended for the fimplicity of their worship. The laborious philofopher Porphyry, though poffeffed of all the knowledge of his age, though he mentions their metempfychofis and penances, has not a word of any of their idols, or the legends of Brahma or his brothers. On the contrary, he represents their worship as extremely pure and fimple. Strabo's account of them is fimilar. And Eufebius

has affured us they worshipped no images *.

With thefe weighty evidences of the principled self-murder, and fimplicity of the worship of the Brachmanes, antiquity clofes her account of thefe philofophers. Eufebius lived in the fourth century; Gama at the end of the fifteenth, and those who followed him in the beginning of the fixteenth, found their innumerable temples filled with innumerable idols of the moft horrid figures. The adoration of these was so complex and various, and their religious rites fo multiplied, that, as Mr. Holwell confeffes, a prieft became neceffary in every family. The wild abfurdities of the Arabian Nights Entertainments fall infinitely fhort of thofe of the innumerable mythological legends of India; and human depravity, in no quarter of the globe, ever produced fuch deteftable fictions of impurity, as are contained in the legendary hiftories of the deities of the Brahmins.

Camoëns,

* - χιλιάδες πολλαὶ τῶν λεγομένων Βραχμάνων, ὅντινες κατὰ παραδοσόν τῶν προγόνων καὶ νόμων ἐτε φονεύεσι, ΟΥΤΕ ΞΟΑΝΑ ΣΕΒΟΝ

ΤΑΙ

Eufeb. Prep. Evan. Lib. vi. c. 10. p. 275. Ed. Parif. 1628.

Camoëns, whofe depth of obfervation rendered him greatly fuperior to the impofition of the most specious Brahmin, and who was long in the Eaft, gives us in the preceding book, a very unfavourable idea of the religious worship and manners of India. The ftate in which the first discoverers of the East found the religion and philofophy of the Brahmins deferves very particular attention: and Faria y Souza has been careful to give us a full and comprehenfive view of the opinions which prevailed when his countrymen landed in India.

According to Faria their fyftem of the univerfe is thus: The heaven refts on the earth: the fun and moon move like fishes in the water, from east to weft by day, and by night run northward along the edge of the horizon, to the place of their rifing. And the earth is fupported by the fnake Ananta. They hold an eternal fucceffion of worlds. Every thing at the end of these periods is destroyed, except Ixoreta or the Deity, which is then reduced to the fize of a dew drop; when, having chirped like a cricket, the divine fubftance in itself produces the five elements, (for what they call the heavenly matter they esteem the fifth,) and then dividing itself, the heavens and the earth are formed. In terra, fimulac formata eft, apparet mons argenteus, cujus in vertice confpiciuntur ra didora, quæ verum Ixoreta five Nunen appellant, et caufam caufarum. These, which are worshipped in their temples, firft produce Ixora, Bramah, and Viftnu, the three primary deities. Some moft ludicrous impurities follow in Faria. A female named Chati is produced by magical words from Ixora's back, and these two turning themselves into different animals beget the different kinds of all living creatures, VOL. II.

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men,

men, beasts, devils, and the heavenly fpirits. The amours of Brahma, Viftnu, and Ixora are innumerable. Their offspring have the heads of elephants, goats, monkies, &c. and they are always killing each other and springing up in fome new chimeraform, but the greater deity is always outwitted *. Brahma, Vistnu, and Ixora pass through many transmigrations, and are born as the filthieft of animals, monkies, hogs, fnakes, &c. Viftnu being spawned a fish, recovers the law or Shaftah from the bottom of the fea, whither it had been carried by Breniacxem, who ftole it from the heavenly † fpirits. While Viftnu's mother Axoda was big with him, the Diviners told his father that the child would kill him. Hence his youth refembles the labours of Hercules. At feven years of age he deflowers all his mother's maids, is whipped for it, and is revenged by a repetition of his offence. Viflnu's exploits are innumerable. But what is efteemed his greateft action in all its tranfmigrations is one day's labour of the fame kind of that for which he was whipped

* This is exactly in the spirit of the Talmudical legends. In these the prophet or Rabbi invariably outwits his God, and the devil the prophet. E. g. David having performed an action agreeable to heaven, Nathan is fent to order him to make what request he pleafed. He defires to die on a Sabbath evening at fun-fet. Again Nathan comes on a like occafion, and he defires he may never die while he is reading the law. From this time David was always fure to be reading the law on the Sabbath evening. By his life thus prolonged, religion flourished, and the Devil was piqued. The love of fome pears that grew under his window was now David's ruling paffion. Juft at sun-set, one Sabbath eve, the devil shakes the pear-tree and cries thieves, thieves. David starts up from the book of the law, fees the thieves running away, and a rope-ladder at the window. David with the fword of Goliah thinks to pursue them from the window, but the ladder was an illufion, and David fell down and broke his neck. One would think a Brahmin had been the inventor of this legend.

For this fame legend fee Dow.

whipped; but which extended to fixteen thousand one hundred and eight. Viftnu is fometimes represented as the greatest God. In this character he lies fleeping on his back in a fea of milk; yet in this condition he governs the whole world. He lies on the snake Ananta. At other times Ixora is the greatest God.

If fome of these legends outrage the bounds of allegory, part of the following is obvious. Brahma and Vinu envying Ixora's greatness, he promised, that if they could find his beginning or end, they should become his fuperiors. Vifinu turned himself into a hog, and with his fnout dug up the earth in search of Ixora's feet, till he was deterred by a snake. Brahma went in search of his head, but at last was diffuaded to defist by roses. These, however, he bribed to testify that he had seen Ixora's head. Ixora confcious of the fraud, strikes off one of Brahma's five heads; and in penance for this crime, Ixora travels as a pilgrim. He meets with men who throw wild beafts at him; fome he fleas, and cloaths himself with their fkins; he is at laft overcome. Viftnu in the shape of a beautiful virgin relieves him. Ixora gets her with child, and Viftnu bears a fon. They quar rel who fhall have the infant, but are reconciled by a heavenly fpirit, who takes it to himself and breeds it an expert archer, on purpose to guard him against the giant with 500 heads and 1000 hands, who sprung from the head of Brahma when cut off by Ixora.

In Faria we find the fevere penances, the feas of milk and oil, and the fanciful legends mentioned by the ancients. Thefe, and what mythological reveries he gives us, are in part the fame,

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