138 ESSAY ON 



the building of the tower of Babel ; and tliat he is 

 the same with Zohac or Nimhod, and that under 

 the name of Saurid he built the great pyramid in 

 Egypt. The Parsis in India say, that he was a native 

 of China ; but I suppose that they originally meant 

 Bactria, seemingly the native country of the Chinas^ 

 according to the Purdnas, and the eailiest Persian 

 and Arabian authors, who say that formerly the 

 country about Samarcand was called Chinistanj and 

 its inhabitants Chinas*, 



II. The three peaks of Meru are, one of gold, the 

 other of silver, and the third of iron, stone or earth, 

 which is considered as the same. Thus, the iron 

 age is generally called the age of stone or earth in 

 India. In the west, mankind was produced from 

 stones, thrown by Deucalion and Pyurha behind 

 their backs, in the beginning of the iron age ; and from 

 them sprang the present stony or stone-hearted race. 



In consequence of this, some powerful princes are 

 declared, in the Pur an! as and other books, to have 

 erected three mountains, of gold, silver, and stone ; 

 or three pyramids or conical hills, like the three 

 peaks of Merit, though the materials they were built 

 with were only stone or clay. PoLYiENUS has given 

 us the names of these three peaks, Menon, CandaskS, 

 and Corasibe ; which, however distorted and dis- 

 figured, may be still traced back to their original 

 standard. For this purpose let us suppose, that 

 a traveller asked a Hindu the names of these 

 three peaks, the Hindu probably answered Mana, 

 Cunfhdc'hya, Caildsopi, or literally in -Ew^/w/?, Man a, 



• D'Herbelot's Bibliotli. Orient, voce Tarikh and Tabari. Sir 

 W, Ouseley's Traiislat. of £bn Haucal ia the Appeudix. 



