FROM THE ANCIENT BOOKS fcf THE HlNDUS. 321 



Asfar, or Yellow India ; and the Cafpian itfelf is by the Turks called the 

 Yellow Sea (a). This appears to be the origin of the Pamhman tribes in 

 Arabia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, whofe native country was called Panch<za% 

 and the iflands near it, Panchcean : though Diodorus of Sicily, attempting 

 to give a defcription from Euhemerus of Panchcea or Pingdfa, has confin- 

 ed it to an inconfi derable ifland near Dwdraca v yet it was really India 

 itfelf, as his defcription fufficiently mows j and the place 9 which he names 

 Oceanida, is no other than old Sdgar at the mouth of the Ganges ; the 

 northern mountain, which he fpeaks of, is Meru 3 and the three towns 

 near it are defcribed in the Purans with almoft the fame appellations. 



Orus the fhepherd, mentioned in ancient accounts of Egypt, but of whom 

 few particulars are left on record, was, moft probably, Irshu the Pal li ; 

 whofe defcendants, the Pingdcjhas, appear to have been the Phenician 

 fhepherds, who once eftablifhed a government on the banks' of the Nile : 

 the Phenicians firft made their appearance on the fhores of the Erythrean t 

 or Red fea, by which we mufl understand the whole Indian ocean between 

 Africk and the Malay coaft ; and the Purdnas thus repreferjt it, when they 

 defcribe the waters of the Arunodadhi as reddened by the reflection of 

 folar beams from the fouthern fide of mount Sumtru, which abounds 

 with gems of that colour : fomething of this kind is hinted by Pliny (£). 

 It is afferted by fome, (and from feveral circumftances it appears mod 

 probable), that the fiift fettlements of the Phenicians were en the Perfian 

 gulph, which is part of the Erythrcan fea : Justin fays, that, having been 

 olligci to leave their native country (which feems from the context to have 

 been very far eaftward) they fettled ?iear the Afiyrian lake, which is the 



{a) Mulltr p. ic6. (Z) Lib. 6. Cap. 23. 



R r 



