ITALY, AND INDIA. 227 



regularly with March, yet the eleventh month, named 

 Januarius, was confideredas firfl' >f the twelve, whence 

 the whole year was fuppofed to be under his guidance, 

 and opened with great folemnity by the confuls inaugu- 

 rated in his fane, where his ftatue was decorated on that 

 occafion with frefh laurel; and, for the fame reafon, a 

 folemn denunciation of war, than which there can hardly 

 be a more momentous national act, was made by the 

 military conful's opening the gates of his temple with 

 all the pomp of his magiitracy. The twelve altars and 

 twelve chapels of Janus might either denote, according 

 to the general opinion, that he leads and governs twelve 

 months, or that, as he fays of himfelf in Ovid, all en- 

 trance and accefs muft be made through him to the 

 principal Gods, who were, to a proverb, of the fame 

 number. We may add, that Janus was imagined to 

 prelide over infants at their birth, on the beginning of 

 life. 



The Indian Dix'mhy ha?, precifely the fame characters 

 all facrifices and religious ceremonies, all addrelfes even 

 to fuperior Gods, all ferious compoiitions in writing, 

 and all worldly affairs of moment, are begun by pious 

 Hindus with an invocation of Ganefa ; a word compofed 

 of ifa, the governor or leader, and gana, or a company 

 of deities, nine of which companies are enumerated in 

 the A marcofli. I nftances of opening bufinefsaufpicioufly 

 by an ejaculation to the Janus of India (if the lines of 

 refemblance here traced will juftify mc in fo calling 

 him) might be multiplied with eafe. Few books are 

 begun without the words " falula ion to Ganes ;" and 

 he is firft invoked by the Brakmans, who conduct the 

 trial by ordeal, or perform the ceremony of the ho'ma, or 

 facrifice to fire. M. Sonnerat reprefents him as highly 

 revered on the coaft of Coromandel; "where the Indians ," 

 he fays, " would not on any account build a houfe, with- 

 v * out having placed on the ground an image of this 



" deity, 



