■fHE ORIGIN CCA, 389 



The reason of this tradition is, that the 8abians % 

 who worshipped the seven planers seem to have con- 

 sidered Saturn as the lord of time, on account of 

 fhe length of its periodical revolution ; and it appears; 

 from the Dabistak, that some ancient tribes in Persia 

 had contrived a cycle of years, consisting of the revo- 

 lution of Saturn repeatedly multiplied by itself. 



Asc'iial a-st'ha'n, or Asc'ba!avx-sfhdri y \s> obvi- 

 ously Ascalon ; there Si mis was born, according 

 ro Diodorus Sicueus, or, according to the Pnra- 

 ndsy there she made her first appearance. 



Maha'-bha'ga'-st'ha'iM is the sVhan of place of 

 Sami'-Ra'ma', in the characters of Maha-biia'ga', 

 or the great and prosperous goddess. This implies 

 also that she bestowed greatness and prosperity to 

 her votaries. 



We cannot but suppose that the st'hdnof Mah 

 ft 11 a'g a' is the ancienttovvn of MafogcMed now Me?i- 

 bigt and Menbigi the Greeks called it Hierapo!is> or 

 the holy city : it Was a place of great antiquity ; and 

 there was a famous temple dedicated to the Syrian 

 goddess, whose statue of gold was placed in the cen- 

 ter, between those of Jupiter and Juno. It h& 

 golden dove on its head ; hence some supposed it 

 was designed for Se m ir amis, and it was twice every 

 year carried to the sea-side in procession, This sta- 

 tue was obviously that of the great goddess, or Ma- 

 ha'bha'ga'-devi', whose history is intimately con- 

 nected with that of the Dove in the western mvtho- 

 logics, as well as in the Pui 



C c 3 An 



