fame, and all in the true fpirit of what is told us by our two late writers. As Viftnu lies in the fea of milk, a rofe fprings from his navel. Through the hollow stalk of this rose Brahma defcends into Viftnu's belly. Here he fees the ideas of all things, and from looking on these, he creates the world. In Faria we find Brahma the creator of the world; Ixora the perfecter, and Viftnu the governor of all things. We find these deities also, with different numbers of heads and hands *. Ixora holds in his fixteen hands, a deer, a chair, a fiddle, a bell, a bafon, a trident, a rope, a hook, an ax, fire, a drum, beads, a staff, a wheel, a snake, and a horned moon towards his forehead. All this is exactly fimilar to the accounts of Holwell and Dow. By the concurrent teftimony of all the travellers of the 16th and 17th centuries, that vileft of beafts, the monkey, is held in high veneration. Various are the legends which relate the reafon of this. Faria fays that Ixora and Chati, having turned themselves * Patracali, Ixora's daughter, has eight faces and fixteen arms, has boars teeth, her hair of peacocks tails, is cloathed with fnakes, and carries two elephants in her ears for pendants. Ixora has a fon with an elephant's head, has four arms, is of an enormous bulk, and rides upon a mouse. We are told, however, that these fictions do not escape ridicule even in India. The writers who have treated of the miffion of Xavier, relate, that there are extant in India the writings of a Malabar poet, who wrote nine hundred epigrams, each consisting of eight verses, in ridicule of the worship of the Frahmins, whom he treats with great afperity and contempt. This poet is named Palcanar by Faria. Would any of our diligent enquirers after oriental learning favour the public with an authentic account of the works of this poet of Malabar, he would undoubtedly confer a fingular fayour on the republic of letters. themselves into apes, produced one named Anuman, on whom they beftowed great power. Near the city of Prefeti was a wood full of apes, esteemed of a divine race, and of the household of Perimal, in whom some thousands of the gods had taken refuge. In the city of Cidambaram, fays Linfchoten, was a ftately temple erected to one of these apes, named HANIMANT: (probably Anuman. Such variations are common in Indian mythology.) Being threatened with fome danger, Hanimant put himself at the head of many thousand of his brother gods, and led them to the fea fide; where finding no fhip, he took a leap into the ocean, and an island immediately rofe under his feet. At every leap the miracle was repeated, and in this manner he brought his divine brotherhood all safe to the island of Ceylon. A tooth of Hanimant was kept there as a facred relick, and many pilgrimages were made to visit it. In 1554, the Portuguese made a descent on that island, and among other things feized the holy tooth. The Indian princes offered 700,000 ducats in ranfom, but by the perfuafion of the archbishop, Don Conftantine de Braganza, the Portuguese viceroy, burned it in the presence of the Indian ambassadors. A BANIAN, however, had the art to persuade his countrymen that he was invisibly prefent when the Portuguese burnt the tooth, that he had fecreted the holy one, and put another in its place, which was the one committed to the flames. His ftory was believed, says our author, and the king of Bifnagar gave him a great fum for a tooth which he produced as the facred relick. The ftriking refemblance which this fable of the apes bears to the Egyptian mythology, which tells us that their gods had taken refuge in dogs, crocodiles, P 3 crododiles, onions, frogs, and even in cloacis, is worthy of ob fervation * According to Joannes Oranus, the Brahmins of Agra fay, that the world fhall last four ages or worlds, three whereof are paft. The firft continued one million seven hundred and twentyeight thousand years. Men in that world lived ten thousand *Both Camoëns and Faria affert that feveral of the Indian idols resemble thofe of the Grecian fable: Here fpreading horns an human vifage bore; In the temple of the Elephant, fays Faria, is the Giant Briareus with his hundred hands; Pafiphae and the Bull, and an angel turning a male and a female out of a delicious grove. This he esteems the expulfion of Adam and Eve from Paradife. In the fame temple, fays he, is an idol called Mabamurte; with one body and three faces; on his head a triple marble crown of admirable workmanship, exactly resembling the papal mitre. According to the fame authority Vistnu having metamorphosed himself into his younger brother Siri Christna, overcame the ferpent Caliga, of nine leagues in length, which lived in a lake made by its own venom. This and the origin of Chati, afford fome obvious hints to the investigators of mythology. Tavernier's Travels into India ought also here to be cited: Biftnoo, he was told, had been nine times incarnate; had been a lion, a fwine, a tortoife, &c. In the eighth time he was a man, born of a virgin at midnight. At his birth the angels fung, and the fky fhowered flowers. In his manhood he fought and killed a great giant who flew in the air, and darkened the fun. In this conflict he was wounded in the fide, and fell; but by his fall overcame, and afcended into heaven. years, were of enormous ftature, and of great integrity. Thrice in that period did God visibly appear upon the earth. First in the form of a fish, that he might recover the book of Brahma, which one Caufacar had thrown into the fea. The second time in the form of a fnail, (See Dow's account of the fymbolical reprefentations of Brahma,) that he might make the earth dry and folid. The other time like a hog, to destroy one who called him. felf God, or as others fay, to recover the earth from the fea, which had fwallowed it. The fecond world lafted one million ninety-two thousand and fix years, in which period men were as tall as before, but only lived a thousand years. In this, God appeared four times, once as a monftrous lion, with the lower parts of a woman, to repress the wickedness of a pretender to deity. Secondly, like a poor Brahmin, to punish the impiety of a king who had invented a method to fly to heaven. Thirdly, he came in the likeness of a man called Parcaram, to revenge the death of a poor religious man. And lastly in the likeness of one Ram, who flew Parcaram. The third world continued eight hundred and four thousand years, in which time God appeared twice. The fourth world fhall endure four hundred thou fand years, whereof only four thousand fix hundred and ninetytwo are elapfed. In this period God is to appear once, and fome hold that he has already appeared in the person of the emperor Echebar. The accounts of the god Brahma, or Brimha, and their whole mythology, are inconceivably various. According to Father Bobours, in his life of Xavier, the Brahmins hold, that the Great God having a defire to become visible, became man. In this P4 this ftate he produced three fons, Mayfo, Viftnu, and Brahma; the firft, born of his mouth, the fecond of his breast, the third, of his belly. Being about to return to his invifibility, he affigned various departments to his three fons. To Brahma he gave the third heaven, with the fuperintendence of the rites of religion. Brahma having a defire for children, begot the Brahmins, who are the priests of India, and who are believed by the other tribes to be a race of demi-gods, who have the blood of heaven running in their veins. Other accounts fay, that Brahma produced the priests from his head, the more ignorant tribes from his breast, thighs, and feet. According to the learned Kircher's account of the theology of the Brahmins, the fole and fupreme god Viftnou, formed the fecondary god Brahma, out of a flower that floated on the furface of the great deep before the creation. And afterwards, in reward of the virtue, fidelity, and gratitude of Brahma, gave him power to create the universe. According to the Danish miffionaries*, the Firft Being, fay the Brahmins, begat Eternity, Eternity begat Tschinen, Tschinen begat Tfchaddy, Tfchaddy begat Putady, or the elementary world, Putady begat Sound, Sound begat Nature, Nature begat the great god Tfchatatfchinen, from whom Brahma was the fourth in a like descent. Brahma produced the foul, the foul produced the visible heaven, the heaven produced the air, the air the fire, the fire the water, and the water the earth. What Mr, Dow calls * See Phillips's Collection of their Letters, published at London in 1717. |