$16 On Egypt and the Nile 



received them from the Gods, lived a long time, as they fay, in the coun- 

 tries bordering on the Cali, before he repaired to the De'vdnica mountains 

 near Cabtd, and there built the town of Devanagar, from which his fyftem 

 of letters had the name of Devandgari. As to the Paifdcba chara&ers 

 they are faid to have been invented by the Palis, or Shepherds, who carried 

 them into Ethiopia: the Yacjha-w riting I had once imagined to be a fyftem 

 ©f hieroglyphicks j but had no authority from the Pur anas to fupport that 

 ©pinion, and I dropped it on better information % efpecially as the Brah- 

 mens appear to have no idea of hieroglyphicks, at leaft. according to our 

 conception of them* 



The Sbarmkas, we have obferved, rank among the De voids or demi- 

 gods j and they feem to have a place among the Yacjhas of the Purdns, 

 whom we find in the northern mountains of India, as well as in Ethiopia : 

 the country, in which they finally fettled, and which bore the name of their 

 anceftors, was in Sanc'ba-dwip t and feems to comprife all that fubdi virion 

 of it, which, in the Bbdgavat and other books, is called Cuflia-dxvig 

 without. 



Several other tribes from India or Pcrfia fettled afterwards in the land 

 of Sharma : the iirit and molt powerful of them were the Palis ; or Shep- 

 herds, of whom the Puranas give the following account. 



II. I'rs'hu, furnamed PingdcJIja t the fon of Ugra, lived in India to the 

 fouth weft of Cafhi, near the Naravindhyd river, which flowed, as its 

 name implies, from the Vindbya mountains : the place of his refidence to 

 the fouth of thofe hills was named Palli, a word now fignifying a large 

 town and its diftricl;, or Pali, which may be derived from Pdla* a herds- 



