322 AN ESSAY ON THE 



cording to Scripture the house of Tog arm ah, or 

 ThorCxAma, as he is called by Cedrenus and Syn- 

 CELLUS, traded in the fairs of Tyre, with hoises. 

 Toward the East is the head of an elephant, from 

 which flows the river Sitd : and to the North is a 

 lion's head, from which flows the Bhadrasama ; 

 hence this country, the same with Siberia, is called 

 the kingdom of the lions : and there was actually 

 a powerful Tartarian tribe called the tribe of the 

 lion. 



The Bauddliists have no rivers on Mtrii; but 

 place the origin of them in the South- West quar- 

 ter. The reason of this is, that they place the 

 seven dwipas, or ranges of mountains, with their 

 seas between Meru, and Lidia, or Jamhu-dzcipa. 

 These seven seas, or rather the river of milk, 

 winding seven times round Mkru, is the ori- 

 ginal river, which re-appears in the South-West, 

 and there parting, becomes into four heads of ani- 

 mals, the same as in the Puran'as. But the rivers 

 are very diiterent, being the Ganges, the Sindliu 

 or Indus, the Pahkiu ox Brahma-putra, which springs 

 from the head of an elephant ; and for this reason 

 upper Tibet is called the kingdom of the elephant, 

 though there are no elephants there at present. 

 The other river, toward the North, issues from a 

 lion's head, and is called Sita : it is the Ojcvs, 

 These four rivers spring from the roots of the tree 

 Jambu, of a most extravagant size. The Baud- 

 dliists seem to know but of one tree of knowledge, 

 and granting all our wishes. The Pauranics have 

 many, which they call Calpavrwsha. There is but 

 one in the Mosaical account, and the Musulmans 

 acknowledge but one, which they call Tuba: and 

 our ancestors boasted of the famous A.sh-tree 

 Ygdrdsil. This river of milk, winding round Meru, 

 is not peculiar to the followers of Budd'ha; I re- 



