470 ON THE VEDAS, 



posed, and here and there a word differs : for ex- 

 ample, it opens by describing* the primeval man 

 (purusha) witli a thousand arms, instead of a 

 thousand heads. The purport is, nevertheless, the 

 same ; and it is needless, therefore, to insert a 

 version of it in this place. 



The next hymn, in the the same book, includes 

 an important passage. It names the twenty-eight 

 asterisms in their order, beginning witli Crittica : 

 and seems to refer the solstice to the end of Js'- 

 lesha, or beginning of Maghd. I call it an im- 

 portant passage ; first, because it shows, that the 

 introduction of the twenty-eighth asterism is as 

 ancient as the Afharva-reda; and, secondly, be- 

 cause it authorises a presumption, that the whole 

 of that Veda, like this particular hymn, may have 

 been composed when the solstice was reckoned in 

 the middle, or at* the end, of As'leshd*^ and the 

 origin of the Zodiac was placed at the beginning 

 of Crittica. On the obvious conclusion, respect- 

 ing the age of the Veda, I shall enlarge in another 

 place. 



An incantation, which appears to be the same 

 that is mentioned by Sir W. Jones t, occurs in 

 the fourth section of the nineteenth book. It is 

 indeed a tremendous incantation; especially the 

 three Sactas, or hymns, which are numbered 28, 

 29, and 30. A single line will be a sufficient spe- 

 cimen of these imprecations, in which, too, there 

 is much sameness. 



* The middle of As'leshd, if the divisions be twenty-seven, and 

 its end, when they are twenty-eight equal portions, give the same 

 place for the colure. 



t Asiatic Researches, Vol. I. p. 348, 



