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TUTION, which was in its origin a thing purely astronomical, they 

 applied morally to terrestrial affairs, and bounded, by that sum of 

 years, as well the existence of the present race of human beings as 

 of the sphere which they inhabit. That the tremendous catastrophe 

 in question is fated, according to the Brahmins, to take place in 

 VAISACH, or Scorpio, is another circumstance highly deserving no- 

 tice ; since it tends still farther to demonstrate the striking co-inci- 

 dence of their system Aviththat of the Egyptians, who assigned to the 

 destroying Typhon that malignant asterism ; under whose envenomed 

 rage Nature was represented as convulsed, and the beneficent Osiris 

 as vanquished. The fiery breath of the Scorpion consumed Egypt, 

 and the Hindoo YUGS terminate in a general conflagration. The 

 destructive weapon with Avhich CALCI is armed, "the cimeter bla- 

 zing like a COMET," which are the words of Jayadeva, have a deci- 

 ded reference to that mode of destruction ; and the white horse, ever 

 sacred to the Sun through all antiquity, which is to bear that death- 

 ful conqueror down to the earth, seems to imply that the solar orb 

 was to be instrumental in its destruction. Of all the conjectured 

 means of effecting that dissolution, Whiston's idea of a COMET thus 

 commissioned seems the most probable ; and, in fact, in a Sastra 

 cited by me in the preceding volume, it is expressly said, that, at the 

 end of time, ** Seeva, with the ten spirits of dissolution, shall roll a 

 COMET under the moon, which shall involve all things in fire, and 

 reduce the world to ashes*." M. Sonnerat, also, after describing 

 this Avatar from the sources of information which he obtained in 

 India, informs us, that, " on the approach of Calci, the sun and 

 moon shall be darkened ; the earth tremble, and the stars fall from 

 the firmament: that then the serpent AN A NT A, (or infinity, on 

 which Veeshnu reposes,) from his thousand mouths, shall vomit forth 



* See vol. i. p. 58. 



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