23O ON* THE GODS OF GREECE, 



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flourifhing defcendants : if we produce, therefore, an 

 Indian king of divine birth, eminent for his piety and 

 beneficence, whofe ftory feems evidently to be that of 

 Noah difguifed by Afiatick fiBion, we may fcfely offer 

 a conjecture, that he was alfo the fame perfonage with 

 Saturn. This was Menu, or Satyavrata, whofe patro- 

 nymick name was Vaivafwata, or Child of the Sun ; 

 and whom the Indians not only believed to have reigned 

 over the whole world in the earlier! age of their chrono- 

 logy, but to have refided in the country of Dravira, on 

 thecoart of the Eaftern Indian Peninfula: the following 

 narrative of the principal eventin his life I have literally 

 tranflated from the Bhdgavat ; and it is the fubject of 

 the firft Purdna, entitled that of the Matjya, or Fijh. 



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" Defiring the prefervation of herds, and of Brdh?nans, 

 *' of genii, and virtuous men, of the Vedas, of law, and 

 <c of precious things, the Lord of the Univerfe affumes 

 '' many bodily fhapes ; but though he pervades, like 

 " the air, a variety of beings, yet he is himfelf unva- 

 " ried, fince he has no quality fubjecl to change. At 

 *' the clofe of the laft Calpa, there was a general de- 

 " ftruction occafioned by thefleep of Brahma ; whence 

 " his creatures in different worlds were drowned in a 

 " vaft ocean. Brahma, being inclined to {lumber, de- 

 <s firing a repofe after a lapfe of ages, the ftrong demon 

 " Hayagriva came near him, and ilole the Vidas, which 

 " had flowed from his lips. When Heri, the Preferver 

 u of the Univerfe, difcovered this deed of the Prince of 

 " Ddnavas, he took the fhape of a minute fiih, called 

 "fap'kari. A holy king, named Saiyavrata^ then 

 ct reigned; a fervantof the fpirit, which moved on the 

 " waves, and fo devout, that water was his only fufte- 

 * ; nance. He was the child of the Sun, and, in the 

 • s prefent Calpa, is inverted by Nardyan in the office of 

 ** Menu, by the name of Sraddhadeva, or the God of 

 " Obfequies. One day, as he was making a libation to 



" the 



