576 Remarks on a Boodhist Coin. [No. 152. 



various authors, but I will only mention a curious fact which has 

 not hitherto been noticed, viz. that the *AJf Allah of the Mussulman* 

 is nothing, but three distinct upright marks. Sometimes these are 

 found, I, believe, united at the base. 



I have already had occasion to mention the reliance that is to be 

 placed in numbers ; by this means we may often determine the family 

 to which a myth belongs. The number " Three," however, seems to have 

 been common to all nations of the world as a sacred number; besides 

 its arithmetical peculiarities, there are many phenomena in statics 

 that must have been sufficiently known to all nations, to have ac- 

 counted for its sacred character. The number " Seven" was held a 

 perfect, or sacred number among the Semitic families of mankind, in 

 allusion evidently to the seven epochs of creation mentioned by Moses; 

 but in unmixed Boodhism it is not so held ; whereas " Nine" is. Thus 

 we see at once that the episode in Gaudama's life, mentioned in the 

 note, is evidently a Semitic interpolation of Brahminism, from its allu- 

 sions to the number Seven. 



With reference to any other marks on this side of the coin, I am not 

 aware that they have any particular interpretation, and are probably 

 meant to fill up space. 



On the obverse of the coin (fig. 2,) are various symbols, which 

 I take to typify a Boodhist representation of this universe in particu- 

 lar, and former universes in general. Before I enter into an explana- 

 tion, I must premise, that, according to the Boodhist, a Mahagabba, or 

 great system, or creation of universes, is characterised by the presence 

 of 28 Boodhs, a Buddagabba, or system such as the present mundane 

 universe is characterised by a smaller number ; the present is charac- 

 terised by 5 Boodhs, four of whom have already appeared, viz. 

 Rokdothanda, Konagama, Kathaba, and Gaudama, the fifth Arieya- 

 mala, is still to appear. As he will be the 28th Boodh of this Maha- 

 gabba, he will close the number ; the universe will be utterly annihi- 

 lated, and then perhaps 



Novus ab integvo saeclorum nascitur ordo. 



It is difficult to determine what that curious emblem in the centre 

 (a. fig. 2,) may represent Two triangles having two other triangles 

 within them uniting their points in a circle having a dot in the centre. 

 There seems to be that Masonic character about this symbol, that 



