98 General Observations on [Feb, 



But if the root of pyramis, be as it seems tome, pyra, we should come 

 at once to a simple exposition of the original intent of a pyramid, ac- 

 cording to the Latins ; for pyra implies, and is, a heap ofivood made for 

 the burning of a dead body, a funeral pyre or pile. This at least 

 shews that the belief of the Latins was that Babel was a mausoleum as 

 well as the pyramids. 



The tower of Babel seems to me to have been raised in honor of some 

 great legislator, or some social or spiritual benefactor. The people of 

 the various countries in its vicinity would, as in the cases of building 

 Buddhist temples in after times in India, Ceylon, &c, have flocked 

 to the spot to assist in its erection, and there would then of course 

 have been a conflict of languages, which might have impeded the work* 

 But it went on apparently to completion, and then the strangers 

 dispersed. Faber says, the tower had seven stories, which is the num- 

 ber in a Buddhist Chatya. 



It is very improbable that if the idea of raising Dagobas was indigen- 

 ous, and normal, amongst Indian Buddhists, the latter should have hit 

 exactly on the number seven. 



If the Pali character slowly advances from a remote date until it 

 insensibly blends itself with, or almost loses itself in the Sanscrit, then, 

 if it did not belong to the Palis or Buddhists, or to some other ancient 

 tribe of people, not brahmans, the latter should be able to shew their 

 own records of the olden time, couched in that character. It would be 

 predicating I should think a great deal, and more than facts yet warrant, 

 were we to assume that during the many centuries throughout which 

 this character was seemingly being wholly appropriated by people not 

 brahmans, these last were holding that people in civil subjection. Nor 

 is there any glimpse to direct us to the point whence the supposed 

 heretics, the Buddhists, took the lead of the brahmans — for this must 

 have been long before Sakya Muni's time, if we are to believe that 

 Chaityas — which kind of monuments were never, as far as we know, 

 tolerated by brahmans — existed long before his ministry, 



But the brahmans I believe have no monumental records of Hindu- 

 ism to shew of a date anterior to those of the Buddhists and couched in 

 the Pali character. It is said they were not historians, nor given to 

 transmitting to posterity on stone or metal any records of themselves 

 or of other people. The truth would seem to be that, having failed to 



