642 New varieties of the [Oct. 



Like OKPO, this figure has four arms, and is therefore Indian : further 

 it is a male divinity ; and thirdly, it is identified with MAO, the moon, 

 by the crescents of that luminary arising from its shoulders. It 

 must therefore be Soma or Chandra of the Hindu pantheon, who is 

 represented with all these characters in Moore, though a later work 

 by Mr. Coleman makes him to be a two-handed divinity. 



The appellation MANAOBAro, which so puzzled me on the former 

 occasion, has at length, I think, found a satisfactory explanation. 

 Many, C±£>l/« in Persian, is an ancient name of the moon, — and Bhaga 

 V[J[ in Sancrit, means splendour, glory ; and is given as a synonyme of 

 the moon as well as of the sun. In the Zend, then, the link between 

 the Persian and Sanscrit, we may naturally look for a compound of 

 these two terms, such as manao-bago. It is well known that the my- 

 thology of the Saxons was derived from a Scythic or central- Asiatic 

 source, and their male deity MONA (whence our modern term, moon*), 

 has been by the learned referred to the Persian Mang. I have, how- 

 ever, found a much more convincing proof than these analogies afford, 

 that such is the correct explanation, in the Baron Von Hammer's 

 Prize Memoir ' sur le culte deMithra,son origine,sa nature, et ses mysteres,' 

 Paris, 1833 ; for a copy of which 1 am indebted to the learned author's 

 perusal of my observations on the curious relics from the Panjab. 



In the catalogue of Mithraic inscriptions discovei'ed in various parts 

 of Europe, the Baron points attention to one in particular among 

 Gruter's collection, in which the word MENOTYRANNUS denotes 

 the deified moon : 



" Cette inscription est une des plus interessantes a cause des deux mots de 

 Menotyrannus et de Persidicus : le dernier indique l'origine persane du culte de 

 Mithra : le Menotyrannus peut se traduire par, seigneur du mois ; mais malgre' 

 Ljs objections de M. Rolle contre l'existence du dieu Lunus, je crois que cette 

 existence peut tres-bien £tre prouv£e, noa settlement par tous les monumens 

 astronomiques des orientaux modernes, dans lesquels la lune est representee 

 sous la figure d'un jeune garcon de quatorze ans, mais encore par la coincidence 

 de la mythologie Egyptienne dans laquelle la lune, d'apr^s les decouvertes de M. 

 Champollion, est une divinite" male. Enfiu le mot MHN dans lequel M. 

 Rolle ne voit que le nom d'un mois, est effectivement uq nom persan de la lune 

 qui s'appelle mah et mang ; c'est le moon des Anglais et le mond des allemands, 

 lesquels lui ont conserve son genre oriental." 



* In like manner I feel strongly disposed to connect the strange OAAO of our 

 coins with Odin or Woden of the Saxon my thos, an acknowledged derivative from 

 the Sanscrit "Sf^ Buddha, Mercury. It is not a little curious that the verbal root 



•J 



of two of our present days of the week, Monday and Wednesday, should thus be 

 discovered among a parcel of old coins dug up in the Panjab ! 



