ITALY, AND INDIA. 265 



Brahma, named Nared, whofe actions are the fubjecl: 

 of a Parana, bears a ftrong refemblance to Hermes, or 

 Mercury : he was a wife legiflator, great in arts and in 

 arms, an eloquent meffenger of the Gods, either to one 

 another, or to favoured mortals, and a mufician of ex- 

 quifite (kill. His invention of the Vina, or Indian lute, 

 is thus defcribed in the poem entitled Magha : " Nared 

 " fat watching from time to time his large Vina, which, 

 ';' by the impulfe of the breeze, yielded notes that 

 " pierced fuccedively the regions of his ear, and pro- 

 " ceeded by mufical intervals." The law tract, fup- 

 pofed to have been revealed by Nared, is at this hour 

 cited by the Pandits ; and we cannot, therefore, be- 

 lieve him to have been the patron of Thieves; though 

 an innocent theft of Cri/Jinas cattle, by way of putting 

 his divinity to a proof, be (trangely imputed, in the 

 Bhagavat, to his father Brahma. 



The laft of the Greek or Italian Divinities, for whom 

 we find a parallel in the Pantheon of India, is the Stygian 

 or Taurick Diana, othtrrwife named Hecate, and often 

 confounded with Proferpine ; and there can be no doubt 

 of her identity with Call, or the wife of Siva, in his 

 character of the Stygian Jove. To this black goddefs, 

 with a collar of golden fkulls, as we fee her exhibited in 

 all her principal temples, human facrifices were anciently 

 offered, as the Vedas enjoined; but, in the prefent age, 

 they are abfolutely prohibited, as are alfo the facrifices 

 of bulls and horfes. Kids are dill offered to her; and, 

 to palliate the cruelty of the Daughter, which gave fuch 

 offence to Buddha, the Brdhmans inculcate a belief, 

 that the poor victims rife in the heaven of Indra, where 

 they become the muficians of his band. 



Inftead of the obfolete, and now illegal, facrifices of 

 a man, a bull, and a horfe, called Neramedha, G6- 

 medha, and Aswamsdha, the powers of nature arc 



Vol. I. U thought 



