YON 



Writings, too, on thefe fubjcfts, are very obfcure ; their 

 endlefs Scholia equally fo, and can be critically underftood 

 by very few Europeans, even with the affiftance of a learned 

 native, who, afhamcd probably of what he is dcfired to ex- 

 plain, will, with almoil laudable delicacy or deceit, glofs 

 over the half-revealed obfccnities of his brethren. 



The common tendency in the nature of the adoration of 

 the Linga and of the Yoni might, one would think, have 

 united their worfhippers in a community of objeft and view. 

 But fuch are the anomalies and pervcrfities of the human 

 mind, that it appears to be an hiftorical fact, that the Lin- 

 gajas and Yonijas have aftnally not only difputed and quar- 

 relled refpefting the comparative merits of their refpeftive 

 hieroglyphics, or, in other terms, the paramount potentiality 

 of the archetype ; but that bloody wars have arifen between 

 them on the queltion, which, as far as now appears, feems 

 really to have been one of phyfiology : the only inftance, 

 probably, in which fuch a queftion hath ever operated as a 

 caufe of holy war, manifold as thofe caufes unhappily have 

 been. The Yonijas infifted, it feems, on a fuperior in- 

 fluence in the female over the male nature in the produc- 

 tion of a perfeft offspring. The confequent difputes and 

 warfare the Hindoo writers have, as ufual, recited in extra- 

 vagant allegories, which we fhould call obfcene, but which 

 they confider as awfully facred. 



" This diverfity of opinion," fays Wilford, " feems to 

 have occafioned the general war which is often mentioned 

 in the Puranas (fee Puraka), and was celebrated by the 

 poets of the Weft as the bafis of the Grecian mythology : 

 I mean that between the gods led by Jupiter, and the giants, 

 or fans of the earth, or, in other words, between the followers 

 of Ifwara (fee Iswara) and the Yonijas, or men produced, 

 as they affcrted, by Prithu, a form of Vifhnu (fee Prithu 

 and Vishnu) ; for Nonnus (Dionyf. b. xxxiv. v. 241.) ex- 

 prefsly declares, that the war in queftion arofe between the 

 partifans of Jupiter and thofe who acknowledged no other 

 deities than water and earth. According to both Nonnus 

 and the Hindoo mythologifts, it began in India, whence it 

 ■was fpread over the whole globe, and all mankind appear 

 to have borne a part in it. 



" Thefe religious and phyfiological contefts were dif- 

 guifed in Egypt and India under a veil of the wildeft alle- 

 gories and emblems. On the banks of the Nile, Ofiris was 

 torn in pieces ; and on thofe of the Ganges, the limbs of his 

 confort Ifi, or Sati, (fee Osiris, Isis, Isi, and Sati,) were 

 fcattered over the world, giving names to the places where 

 they fell, and where they are ftill fuperftitioufly worftiipped. 

 In Sanfkrit books, we find the Grecian ftory concerning 

 the wanderings of Bacchus ; for Ifwara, having been muti- 

 lated through the imprecation of fome offended Munis, ( fee 

 Muni and Sami-devi,) rambled over the whole earth, be- 

 waihng his misfortune ; while Ifi wandered alfo through the 

 world finging mournful ditties in a ftate of diftraftion. 

 There is a legend in another book, of which the figurative 

 meaning is more obvious. When Sati, after the clofe of 

 her exiftence as the daughter of Dakfha, fprang again to 

 life in the charafter of Parvati, or mountain-born, (fee 

 Meha and Men A,) fhe was re-united in marriage to Maha- 

 deva. This divine pair had once a difpute on the compara- 

 tive influence of fexes in producing animated beings, and 

 each refolved, by mutual agreement, to create apart a new 

 race of men. The race produced by Mahadeva was very 

 numerous, and devoted themfclves exclufively to the worfhip 

 of the male deity ; but their intellefts were duU, their 

 bodies feeble, and their complexions of different hues. 

 farvati had at the fame time created a multitude of human 



YON 



beings, who adored the female power only. Thefe were 

 well-fliaped, with fweet afpefts, and fine compL-xions. A 

 furious conteft enfued between thefe Lingancitas and Yoni- 

 jas : the former ftood their ground pretty well at firft, but 

 were in the end defeated, and (hamefully routed in the 

 battle, through the potency of the facred Yoni. Mahadeva 

 enraged was about to dellroy them by the fire of his eye : 

 but Parvati interpofed ; and to appeafe him, made ufe of 

 the fame artifice that Baubo did to put Ceres into good 

 humour, and fliewed him the prototype of the Lotos. 

 Mahadeva fmiled, and relented on condition that the Yoni- 

 jas fliould inftantly leave the country. 



" It is evident that this ftrange tale was invented to 

 eftablifli the opinion of the Yonijancitas, or votaries of Par- 

 vati or the Yoni, that the good fhape, ftrength, and courage 

 of animals depend on die fuperior influence of the female 

 parent, whofe powers are only excited and put into acElion 

 by the male aura. But the Lingancitas maintain an oppo- 

 fite doftrine. There is alfo a fed of Hindoos, by far the 

 moft numerous of any, who, attempting to reconcile the 

 two fyftems, tells us, in their allegorical ftyle, that Parvati 

 and Mahadeva found their concurrence eflential to the per- 

 feftion of their off'spring ; and that Viihnu, at the requeft 

 of the goddefs, effefted a reconciliation between them : 

 hence the navel of Viffinu, by which they mean the os tinea, 

 is worftiipped as one and the fame with the facred Yoni." 

 Wilford, in Af. Ref. vol. iii. 



YONIJA, the name of a feft of Hindoos, who worftiip 

 the hieroglyphic of Parvati, called Toni j which fee. 



YONKERS, in Geography, a poft-townftiip of the ftate 

 of New York, in Weft Chefter county, on the E. bank of 

 the Hudfon, above New York illand, 20 miles N. of New 

 York, extending near eight miles along the Hudfon, and 

 having a medial breadth of near three miles. The furface is 

 broken, but the lands are cultivated and produftive. In 1 

 1810 the whole population confifted of 1365 perfons, with I 

 93 eleftors, and 204 taxable inhabitants. 



YONNE, a river of France, which rifes about four miles 

 S. from Chateau-Chinon, in the department of the Nyevre, 

 palTes by or near to Monceaux, Clamecy, Coulanges, Cra- 

 vant, Auxerre, Joigny, Villeneuve, Sens, Pont fur 

 Yonne, &c. and joins the Seine at Montereau. 



YoxNE, one of the nine departments of the central re- 

 gion of France, formerly Tonne, E. of Loiret, in N. lat. 

 47° 50', about 70 miles long, and from 30 to 40 broad, 

 containing 7740 kiliometres, or 373 fquare leagues, and 

 333,278 inhabitants; bounded on the N.E. by the depart- 

 ment of the Aube, and on the S.E. by the department of 

 the Cote d'Or, on the S. by that of the Nyevre, on the W. 

 by that of the Loiret, and on the N.W. by that of the 

 Seine and Marne. The river Yonne, from which it receives 

 its name, croflesit from S.E. to N.W. It is formed of the 

 Auxerrois, formerly reckoned a part of Burgundy. Its 

 capital is Auxerre. It is divided into five circles, or dif- 

 trifts, 34 cantons, and 4154 communes. The circles are, 

 Sens, comprehending 57,285 inhabitants ; Joigny, 81,933 ; 

 Auxerre, 103,882 ; Tonnerre, 47,394 ; and Avallon, 

 42,784. According to Haflenfratz, its extent in French 

 leagues is 29 in length, and 25 in breadth : its circles 

 are 7, its cantons 69, and its population confifts of 

 364,969 perfons. In the nth year of the French era, the 

 total of its contributions was 3,093,023 fr.; and its ex- 

 pences, adminiftration, judiciary, and for public inftruftion, 

 were 297,935 fr. 66 cents. The foil is various ; it has fome 

 dry and indifferently fertile traAs, diverfified with little hills; 

 the weftern part is of a clayey foil, covered with woods and 



pools : 



