47? ON MOUNT CAUCASUS, 



children, and her hufband fhall not die before her: for 

 Pa'rvati is highly delighted with prayers and offer- 

 ings in that intercalary month. Pice'sa Maha'-de'va 

 is probably the Jupiter Picus of the Latians : fome 

 pretend that this metamorphofis happened in Syria^ 

 others in Italy: but the Hindus infifl; that it happened 

 in the rnountains to the north of the Pdnjdb. Though 

 Picus be faid to have appeared in the time of Adima; 

 vet as, according to the Purdnas, the fame concatena- 

 tion of events reappears in every Manwantara, the fame 

 (lory muft have happened of courfe in the time of Sa- 

 TYavrata, or Noah. 



In the Purdnas^ the Ganges is reprefented as remain- 

 ijjg concealed for a long time in the hills; at the pray- 

 ers of a certain holy man it entered the plains of i/;«- 

 dujian till it rt2ich&6. Benares : then. gradually advanc- 

 ing, it found at laft its way into Beng(iL As the whole 

 country from Hardwar to the fea was annually over- 

 flowed in fuch manner as to render the greateft part of 

 it unfit for cultivation, Bhagiraf ha ref^rained the in- 

 undation between certain limits. The Ch'mefe relate the 

 fame {lory of P'ohi, who furveyed the cpurie of \.\\q. yel- 

 low river to its fource, and by proper inbankments, 

 reftrained its deftruftive overflowings. Gapila, al- 

 ways fond of the fea fhore, followed the Ganges: wc 

 find him afterwards meditating near a place called 

 Mccr<3g-,2/<:/6<2 in Major Ren N ell's Atlas, to the fouth 

 of Calcutta^ not far from Fulta, and at that time clofe to 

 the fea. Here he was infulted by the children of Sa'- 

 gara, whom he reduced to afhes by a fingle look: this 

 place is called the old S agar ^ and is probably the place 

 called Oceanis by Diodorus the Sicilian, for Sdgara dind 

 Oceanis are fynonymous words. There the Ganges fee- 

 ing Saniudr or Oceania was frightened, and fled back 

 through athoufand channels: thus the Paurdnics account 

 for the retrograde motion of the waters of the Ganges 

 twice a day. 



Capila 



