-H^O OS' MOUNT CAUCASUS. 



Mcru. In the firft pafTage I met witli, in the Pur anas, 

 rclarjiig to the /acred i/Ies in the weft, by which we arc 

 to iip.derftand the Britifi iflands, Iceland and Fcro, it is 

 pofitively declared, that they are fitnaied to the eaft of 

 Scanda-dwipy which is Scandia^ or Scandinavia; accord- 

 ingly I looked for them in the feas, to the eaftward of 

 that famous peninfula, particularly as Pliny feems to 

 place there the iOand g^ Elixoia, fuppofed by fome, to 

 be the abode of the bleffed: but my chief pandit warn- 

 ed me, with much earneftnefs not to be too hafty : that 

 this inftance from the Purdnas was deemed to be the 

 only one, in which ihefacred ijles were afleried to be to 

 the eaftward of Scandia ; and that he would produce 

 numerous pafTages in which thefe iflands were declared 

 to be to the weftward of Scanda-dwip, or in a derivative 

 form Scandeya: and that, from numberlefs particular 

 circumftances, he would prove to my utmoft faiisfaflion, 

 that Scandeya was leally to the eaftward of Samudran^ 

 taraca, a name by which the f acred ijles are fometimes 

 called, becaufe they are in the middle of the ocean. 

 As the Brahmem would rather fuppole the whole eco- 

 nomy of the univerfe difturbed, than queftion a fingle 

 fatl related in their facred books, he then informed me, 

 that this fingle paflage alluded to a remote period, in 

 which the pole of the globe, the courfe of the fun, were 

 diiTerent from what they are now, in confcquence of 

 v.hich there was a time, when the fun appeared to the 

 inhabitants of Scandia^ to rife above the facred ijlcs^ 

 But let us return to the terreftrial paradife, 



The followers of Buddha in Tibet place the garden 

 ol J'' den at the fool of mount Mem toward the fouth 

 v.cil, at'.d at the fource of the Ganges. The facred ri- 

 vers, according to them, arc the Ganges, the Indus, the 

 Sanipu, and the Sita-gangd ; by which thev underftand 

 ilie Sirr or Jaxartcs, which is alfo called Siid-gangd in 

 the Purdnas. They liave the fame number ol heads of 

 animals, which are difpofed in the fame manner; and 

 the divines of Tibety and of India coniider thefe four 



animal^ 



