LITERATURE OF THE BURMAS. zSl 



the fame meaning. iMr. Chambers, following M. 

 Gentil, and followed by Paulinus, conceives the 

 Fo or FoHi of the Chinefe to be alfo a corruption of 

 BouDDHA. The etymology is here fo forced, that 

 I do not think it merits great attention : yet I allow it 

 to be a probable opinion, although not completely 

 eftablifhed, that Fo andBouDDHA are the fame god*. 

 The derivation of Taautos, Toth, or Touth, the 

 Egyptian name for Hermes, from the fame word 

 BouDDHA, t feems to me perfetlly fanciful : and I mull 

 entirely diffent even from the rational Mr. Chambers, 

 when he fuppofes Bouddha to be the fame with the 

 Woden of the Scoidinavians. No two religions furelv 

 can be more totally different; nor can I conceive it 

 to be a fufficient proof of a common origin, that the 

 fame day of the week is called after the two gods. No 

 circumftance indeed feems to have occafioned more 

 miftakes among the antiquarians, than from one or 

 two coincident attributes to fuppofe two divinities of 

 different nations to be the fame: an error adopted by- 

 all the Greeks and Romans^ whether from refpecl to 

 their gods, or from national vanity. 



Aconsiderable degree of confufion is to be found 

 in the various accounts of the religion of the Chinefe. 

 Grosier, the latcft author on the fubjecl, with whom 

 I have met, feems by no means to have had good in- 

 formation. I know well that fome of the Brahnenical 

 gods are worfliipped in Cluna^ having feen their images 

 in that great temple oppofite to Canton^ which was the 

 palace of the lafl native princes of the Chinefe empire. 

 I have lately feen fome elegant drawings of the Chinefe 

 gods, belonging to the Reverend Mr. Brown, of 

 Calcutta : and as far as I can truft to my memory, thev 

 appear to be very cxa6l reprefentations. Although 

 the Chinefe have given to thefe idols their own fea- 

 tures, and drefs, with new names, yet there can be no 

 doubt of their being the fame with the gods of the 

 Brahmens. Among them You-loe-fat, the god of 



S 3 wifdora, 



'^ See note + in page 268 of this volume. 

 f Paulinus Mus, Bor^, pge 73. 



