ITALY, AND INDIA. 2JI 



word Misr, fpelled alfo in Sanfcrit with a palatial 

 fibilant, is very remarkable; and, as far as etymology 

 can help us, we may fafely derive Nihts from the San- 

 fcrit word nila, or blue : fmce Dionyfius exprefsly calls 

 the waters of that river u an azure ftream ;" and, if 

 we can depend on Marco's Italian verfion of the Rdmd- 

 yan, the name of Mia is given to a lofty and faered 

 mountain, with a fummit of pure gold, from which 

 flowed a river of clear, fweet, andfrejli water. 



M. Sonnerat refers to a differtation by Mr. Schmit 9 

 which gained a prize at the Academy of Infcriptions, 

 44 On an Egyptian Colony eltablifhed in India." It 

 would be worth while to examine his authorities, and 

 either to overturn or verify them by fuch higher autho- 

 rities as are now acceffible in thefe provinces. I ftrongly 

 incline to think him right, and to believe that Egyptian 

 priefta have actually come from the Nile to the Gangd 

 and Yamuna, which the Brdhmans mod afluredly would 

 never have left. They might, indeed, have come either 

 to be inftructed, or to inltruct ; but it feems more proba- 

 ble that they vifited the Sarmans of India, as the Cages 

 of Greece vifited them, rather to acquire than to impart 

 knowledge: nor is it likely that the felf-fufficient Brdh- 

 mans would have received them as their preceptors. 



Be all this as it may, I am peiTuaded that a connect 

 tion fubfilted between the old idolatrous nations of 

 Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, long before they emi- 

 grated to their feveral fettlements, and confequently 

 before the birth of Mofes : but the proof of this pro- 

 polition will in no degree affect the truth and fandity 

 of the Mofaick Hiftory, which, if confirmation were 

 necelTary, it would rather tend to confirm. The Divine 

 Legate, educated by the daughter of a king, and in all 

 refpecls highly accomplifhed, could not but know 

 the mythological fyftem of Egypt ; but he mull have 

 condemned the fuperititions of that people, and defpi fed 

 the fpeculative absurdities of their prieiU; though fome 



of 



