FROM THE ANCIENT BOOKS OF THE HSNDUS. 3Q7 



length, and 100 in breadth, or 492.12 miles. The mountains were named 

 Ajdgara, or of thofe, who watch not, in oppofition to the mountains of 

 AbyJJinia, which were inhabited by Nijacharas, ©r night-rovers j a nume- 

 rous race oiYacfhas, but not of the moft excellent clafs, who ufed to deep 

 in the day time and revel all night : Mr. Bruce fpeaks of a Kowas, or 

 watching dog, who was wormipped in the hills of AbyJJinia, 



The mountains of So'ma, or the Moon, are fo well known to geogra- 

 phers, that no farther defcription of them can be required ; but it may be 

 proper to remark, that Ptolemy places them too far to the South, and 

 M. D'Anvill-e too far to the North, as it will hereafter be fhown : accord- 

 ing to Father Lobo, the natives now call them Toroa. The Ajdgara 

 mountains, which run parallel to the eaftern mores of Africa, have at pre- 

 fent the name of Lupata, or the backbone of the world : thofe of Sit ant a are 

 the range which lies weft of the lake Zambre, or Zaire, words not impro- 

 bably corrupted from Amara and Sura. This Lake of the Gods is believed 

 to be a vaft refervoir, which, through vifible or hidden channels, fupplies 

 all the rivers of the country h the Hindus, for mythological purpofes, are 

 fond of fuppofin^; fubterranean communications between lakes and rivers; 

 and the Greeks had fi'.n il*r notions. Mr. Bruce, from the report of the 

 natives, has placed a refervoir of ;this kind at the fource of the White 

 River, [a) which (though the two epithets have oppofite fenfes), appears 

 •to be the. Cd(i of the Purd.ns : it may have been called white from the Cu- 

 muda, which abounds in its waters ; at le&ft the mountains near it are 

 thence named Cumudadri, and the Cumuda is a water-flower faqtd to t\ie 

 Moon, which Van Rheede has exhibited, and which feemQ to be either 



(«) III Bruce 719. 

 P p 2 



