from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. git 



nower unknown in India, and confequently ill defcribed in the Sanfcrit 

 books: where Pliny mentions the Lotos of the Nile, he ufes a phrafe 

 very applicable to the Enfete, " foliis denfa congerie ftipatis /' and 1 though 

 he adds a few particulars nbt agreeing with Mr. Bruce's full defcription 

 of that plant, yet Pliny, being a carelefs writer and an inaccurate 

 botanift, might have jumbled together the properties of two different 

 flowers. 



The before-named country of ' Chandrt-JThan was thus denominated from 

 a fable in the Purdns : The God Chandra, or Lunus, having loft his fex 

 in India, became >Chandti, or Luna, who concealed herfelf in the moun- 

 tains near the lakes, of which we have been treating : fhe was there vifited 

 by the Sun, and by him had a numerous progeny caHed 1 Puimdas,- from 

 puhna an ijlot or fandbank, who dwelt near the rivers that ran from rhofe 

 mountains, and acknowledged no ruling powers but the Sun and the Moon. 



SkakU A-S/hdn, of which we cannot exactly diititfguim the boundaries, 

 but which included Ethiopia above Egypt, as it is generally called, with 

 part of Abyjjinla and Azan, received its name from ShaRMA, of whom 

 we mall prefenrly fpeak : his defendants, being obliged t& leave Egypt', 

 retired to the mountains of Ajagar, and fettled near the lake of the Gods, 

 Many learned Brdhmens are of opinion, that by the Children of Sbarma 

 we muft tinderftand that race of Devatds, who were forced to emigrate from 

 Egypt during the reigns of Sani and Ra'hu or Saturn and Typhojj : 

 they are faid to have been a quiet and biamelefs people, and to have fub- 

 fifted by hunting wild elephants, of which they fold or bartered the teeth, 

 and even lived on the fleih. They built the town of Rupavati or the 

 beautiful; which the Greeks called Rapta, and thence gave the name of 



