252 ON THE RELIGION AND 



thefe capacities, they were all cultivators of the land. 

 To them therefore a diftinttion of profeflions in the 

 citizens of a ftate would appear ftrange: and I am apt 

 to think, that the vita multipartita of Pliny more re- 

 fembles the divifion of ranks and profeffions among 

 the Burmas, or in modern Europe, than it does the 

 caft of the Brahmcns. The pafl'age 1 allude to is, 

 *' Na^nque vita mitioribus populis Jndorum multipartita 

 *' degiiur. Alii tellurem exercent, militiam alii ca- 

 *'^ peffitnt, merces alii fuas evehunt, refpublicas optimi 

 *' ditijfimi temperant, judicia reddunt, regibus ajjident. 

 ^' Quintum genus celebrates illic, et prope in religionem, 

 verfos fapientioe deditum, voluntaria fcmpcr morte vi- 

 tam, accenfo prius rogo, finit^. Unum fuper hcec ejl 

 ' femijerum, ac plenum laboris immenji.^ et quo fupra 

 diBa co?itinentur, venandi clephantes domandique, 

 lis arant, ii^-invehuntur, hcec maxime novere pecu- 

 " aria : iis militant dimicantqiie pro fmibus.f" It is 

 to be obferved, that this defcription neither agrees 

 well with the prefent divifions of the different calls, 

 nor does it call the \e3iYnQd Brahmens ; on the contra- 

 ry, Pliny fpeaks of the Brachmanoe not as a clafs 

 or order in fociety, but as a nation, or as a name 

 common to many nations. He mentions, that Sene- 

 ca had attempted to procure the names of all the peov 

 pie inhabiting India, and had actually heard of one 

 hundred and eighteen nations. The moll conlidera^ 

 ble of thefe he afterwards enumerates: '''' Gentes, quas 

 '' 7nemorare non pigeat, Ifmari, Cojyri, Izgi, et per 

 ^'^ juga Chi/iotofagi, 7nultaruvique gentium cognomen 

 "• Brachmanoe quorum Maccocalingcs, flumina Pumas et 

 " Cainas (quod in Gangcm injluit) ambo navigabilia.'^' 



This 



* It Is to be ohferved, that this manner of ending life, attributed to the 

 learned of antient India, more refembles that in ufe among the priefls of 

 Pf,;[w (t^oui^ERE's Relalioti duSiam) than it does that recommended 

 by the Bruhmens, who according to Aeul Faz ii, [Ayeen Akbcry) 

 think it meritorions to terminate life by cutting the throat at the confluence 

 of the Ganfies and Jumna, or by expofing themfelves to the alligators 

 Hi. the mouth of the holy river. 



t Nat. IIIR. L. 6, c. 19. + Nat. Hid. L. 6, c. 17. 



