ITALY, AND INDIA. 239 



Menus, has any connexion with Minos the lawgiver, 

 and fuppofed fon of Jove. The Cretans, according to 

 Diodorus of Sicily, ufcd to feign, that mod of the great 

 men, who had been deified in return for the benefits 

 which they had conferred on mankind, were born in 

 their ifland; and hence a doubt may be raifed, whether 

 Minos was really a Cretan. The Indian legiflator was 

 the firft, not the feventh, Menu, or Satyavrata, whom I 

 fuppofe to be the Saturn of Italy. Part of Saturn's 

 character, indeed, was that of a lawgiver: 



' Q u * genus indocile ac difperfurn montibus altis 

 Compofuit lege/que dedit : 



And we may fufpect that all the fourteen Menus are re- 

 ducible to one, who was called Nub by the Arabs, and 

 probably by the Hebrews ; though we have difguifed his 

 name by an improper pronunciation of it. Some near 

 relation between the feventh Menu and the Grecian 

 Minos, may be inferred from the fmgular character of the 

 Hindu god Yama, who was alfo a child of the Sun, and 

 thence named Vaivafwata. He had too the fame title 

 with his brother, Srdddhadeva. Another of his titles 

 was Dhermardja, or King of Jujlice ; and a third, Pitri- 

 peti, or Lord of the Patriarchs ; but he is chiefly diftin- 

 guifhed ns judge oj departed fouls ; for the Hindus believe, 

 that, when a foul leaves its body, it immediately repairs 

 to Yamapur, or the city of Yama, where it receives a 

 juft fentence from him, and either afcends to Swerga, 

 or the firft heaven ; or is driven down to Narac, the 

 region of ferpents ; or affumes on earth the form of 

 fome animal, unlefs its offence had been fuch, that it 

 ought to be condemned to a vegetable, or even to a 



mineral, 



