THE HINDU RELIGION. 51 



husband of Saraswati', the goddess of speech. 

 The Greeks called him Chomios, as Sir William 

 Jones says, without knowing why; and he was 

 styled by the Roma?iS^ Bruma : his feasts were ce- 

 lebrated for several days at the winter solstice; 

 from him they were called Brumalia, and the win- 

 ter solstice it^di Bruma. 



The crescent of Si'va may have suggested the 

 horns of Bacchus ; and his army of Satyrs, and vic- 

 tories in India, shew the 'resemblance of this part of 

 his character to Vishnu as Ra'ma, who, with his 

 army of monkies, overran the peninsula of India. 



It was a common practice with the Greeks to dis- 

 guise their own ignorance of the purport of a fo- 

 reign word, by supplying a word of a similar sound, 

 but different meaning, in their own language, and 

 inventing a story to agree with it: thus Meru, or 

 the north pole, the supposed abode of the Devatas^ 

 being considered as the birth-place of the God, 

 gave rise to the fable of Bacchus's second birth 

 from the thigh of Jupiter, because Aleros, a Greek 

 word approaching Alerii in sound, signifies the 

 thigh in that language. Si'va is described as taking 

 the form of a Sink, in the battle of Durga' and 

 AIahisha'sura; he seizes the monster with his 

 claws and teeth, and overthrows him, while Dur- 

 ga', with her spear, finishes the conquest by his 

 death. Thus Bacchus, under the same form, is 

 described as destrovino- the o-iant Rhcecus. 

 Rhcecum retorsisti Leonis 

 Ufiguibus korribilique Mala. 



The Hindu sacrifices to Durga' and Ca'li' resem- 

 ble those of Bacchus. When the stroke is given, 

 which severs the head of the victim from its body, the 

 cymbals strike up, the Sa?icha or Buccinum is blown, 



E2 



