THEORY OF THE EARTH. 167 



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India, they had not even suitable and connected 

 fables ; that they preserved only lists more or less 

 defective of their kings, and some remembrances 

 of the more distinguished among them, of those 

 especially who had taken care to have their names 

 inscribed upon the temples and other great edifices 

 which adorned their country ; but that these re- 

 membrances were confused, that they rested 

 merely upon the traditional explanation which 

 was given to the representations painted or sculp- 

 tured upon the monuments ; explanations found- 

 ed solely upon hieroglyphical inscriptions, con- 

 ceived, like that which has been handed down to 

 us *, in very general terms, and which, passing 

 from mouth to mouth, were altered, as to their 

 details, at the pleasure of those who communi- 

 cated them to strangers ; and that it is conse- 

 quently impossible to rest any proposition relative 

 to the antiquity of the presently existing conti- 

 nents, upon the shreds of these traditions, so in- 

 complete even in their own times, and become 

 utterly unintelligible under the pen of those who 

 have been the means of transmitting them to 

 us. 



Should this assertion require other proofs, they 

 would be found in the list of the sacred works of 



* That of Ramcstes in Ammian. loc. cit. 



