SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST, &C. 30j 



successive emigrations of the original inhabitants 

 of that country; and the first and second Cus'a they 

 consider but as one and the same. 



The third dwipa is that of S'ancha, or Africa, of 

 which they know but httle, and nothing- beyond 

 Ethiopia, or rather Abyssinia and Egypt, with the 

 Eastern shores. It retains, in great measure, its 

 Sanscrit name ; an extensive part of tliat coast be- 

 ing called Lengh, and Lengk-bkar, to this day. But 

 Ptolemy extends it as far as cape Gardajiii, to 

 the South of which he places another cape, called 

 Lingis, or Sirigis ejctrema. The denomination of 

 S'ancha is obvious also in the names of Singis, 

 Lenghistan, and pei'haps Lengitana, Langiro, Lan- 

 haga, Lenighi, and even perhaps Senegal, from the 

 Sanscrit Sane haia, in a derivative form ; and the 

 Troglodytes are called to this day Shangalas. 



S'anc'ha-dwipa signifies the island of shells, and 

 the natives, according to Strabo, used to wear 

 large collars of them ; but, according to the Paa~ 

 ran'ics, the inhabitants used to live in shells : pro- 

 bably in caverns, hollowed like shells, or compared 

 to shells. The famous demon S'a'nc'hasura, lived 

 in a shell. When Crishxa killed him, he took 

 the shell in which he lived, and which is now be- 

 come one of ViSHXu's insignia. This strange idea 

 ■was not unknown to the Greeks, who represent 

 young Nerites, who is one of the Cupids, as 

 living in shells, on the shores of the Red sea. 

 S ancha-dzvipa is then synonymous with Troglody- 

 tica of the ancients. The Troglodytes, or inhabi- 

 tants of Caves, are called in scripture Suldm, be- 

 cause they dwelt in Siicas, or dens; but it is pro- 

 bable, that the word Suca, which means a den only 

 in a secondary sense, and signifies also an arbour, 

 a booth, or a tent, was oiiginally taken in the 



