IN THE MUSEUM OF THE SOCIETY. 389 



of the Ganges, covered with perpetual snow, which the Hin- 

 dus suppose to be the favourite abode of Mahadeva, the chief 

 deity of the sect of Siva. Gautama Buda became a priest, and 

 having attained that perfection of virtue and supreme know- 

 ledge by which he was constituted Buda, he employed his 

 time in converting men to religion and a virtuous life. The 

 word Buda signifies wise. He died at the age of 85 ; and 

 his death, which is the epoch from which the Siamese, and 

 the natives of Ceylon, reckon their years, is stated to have 

 happened 544 years before the Christian era *. The religion of 

 Buda prevails amongst the inhabitants of a very considerable 

 portion of the world ; it is the religion of Ava, Siam, Ceylon, 

 and other countries of the East, and it is one of the religions 

 that prevails in the empires of China and Japan. In China, 

 Buda is called Fo, Sasya, Siaka, Xaca; in Japan, Bud, 

 Siaka, and Si Tsun, that is, the great saint : Gaudma in Ava : 

 Gautama Buda in Ceylon : in Siam, Samono Gautama and Sa- 

 monocodom. The religion of Buda was introduced into Chi- 

 na and Japan in the year 65 of the Christian era. Fo, which 

 is the Chinese pronunciation of Buda, belongs to a system 

 which has no connection with Fo-hi in the remote and fabu- 

 lous part of Chinese history, who invented the eight koa', tri- 

 grams, or ancient mystical characters, composed of hori- 

 zontal and parallel straight lines, and taught the Chinese 

 the arts and sciences, as Tot or Hermes did to the Egyptians. 

 Clemens Alexandrinus, who flourished in the reign of Seve^ 

 rus and Antoninus Caracalla, about the year 200, mentions 

 the religion of Buda as prevailing in some parts of India f . 



In 



* See Laloubere royaume de Siam ; and Dr Davy's Account of Ceylon. 

 nr'ftnKxri. Clemens Alexandr. ffcfiarwi, lib. i. sect xv. p. 305. 



