346 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



centuries B. C., and precedes even the ten assigned to 

 it by the great authority of Professor Wilson ; for, in 

 that case, the Gomerian Celtse of the west would have 

 reached their destination long before the arrival of 

 their kindred in the south ; a region so much nearer 

 to the common point of departure. Were either of 

 the above admitted, it would subvert the natural con- 

 nection, evidently existing between the east and west, 

 and leave the source of a variety of ideas, opinions, 

 and usages, common to them, totally inexplicable. 

 They extend even to Abyssinia, where the death wail, 

 and many other usages, are similar to the Irish, and 

 both are unquestionably derived from the far east. If 

 the westward migration of these Hindoo Ethiop tribes 

 were traced to its origin, we might refer one of 

 them, as a likely consequence of the severe civil war, 

 wherein a part of the Pandoos were worsted. Colonel 

 Todd, in his Rajahstan, points out the plains of Caggar 

 and Surawati, where the decisive conflicts took place, 

 when the fifty-six Yadhu tribes were at length broken, 

 and departed with Ardjoon and Bhima to unknown 

 regions. We find, in other mythical tales, the Asuras 

 or Ashurs* eminently religious and virtuous, according 

 to the doctrines of the Vedas, and therefore invincible, 



* Here the A si are admitted to be wise and virtuous. 

 They came from the same region as the Bahlika priest- 

 hood; were terrible in war, typified by their monster 

 heads, and were, perhaps, the Arai or Mahratta colonists. 

 The Asuras were sons of Diti, wife of Kasyapa; which, 

 again gives a mountain origin to these Titans. 



