glB On Egypt and the Nile 



of Meroe\ where he accounts for its being called an ifland. The compound 

 Puny a -nag ari, or City of Virtue, feems to imply both a feat of government 

 and a principal temple with a college of priefts : it was, therefore, the ce- 

 lebrated city of Meroe i a word which may be derived from Merha 

 (vidydrfbinqm gribam, /the manfion of ftudents, -as it is explained in the 

 dictionaries) or from Mrara, of whom we mall prefently fpeak. 



To the king of the PaUis, named alio Palli from tho'fe, whom he go- 

 verned, Maha'de'va gave the title of Nairrita, having appointed him 

 to guard the nairriti, or fouthweft ; and, though he was a Pifdcha by birth, 

 or naturally bloody-minded, yet he was rewarded for his good difpofition, 

 and is worshipped in India to this day among the eight Dic-pdlas, or 

 guardians of as many quarters, who conftantly watch, on their elephants, 

 for their fecurity of Cdsi> and other holy places m Jambu dwipa : but the 

 abode of his defcendants is declared in the Purdnas to be ftill on the banks 

 of the Cdli or Ni 'id. One of his defcendants was Lubdhaca, of whom 

 .an account will be given in a fubfequent fection ; and from Lubdhaca 

 .defcended the unfortunate Li'na'su, not the bard HeriDatta, who had 

 , alfo that name, and who will be mentioned hereafter more particularly, 

 but a prince whofe tragical adventures are told in the Rdjamti, and whofe 

 death was lamented annually by the people of Egypt : all his misfortunes 

 arofe from the incontinence of his wife Yo'ga BhrastV or Yoga' 

 CASHta j and his fon Maha'sura, having by miftake committed inceft 

 with her, put himfelf to death, when he difcovered his crime, leaving illue 

 by his lawful wife. May we not reafonably conjecture, that Lubdhaca 

 was the Labdacus, Li'na'su, the Laius and Yo'gacashta the Jo- 

 cast a, of the Greeks ? The word Yadupa, from which CEdipus may be 

 derived, lignifies king of the Yadu family, and might have been a title of 

 the unhappy Maha'sura. 



