FROM THE ANCIENT BOOKS' OF THE HlNDUS. 343 



m fome of the Purdnas a fenfe yet more limited, and is reftrained to the land 

 inhabited by the fnake Sancba-ndga, which included the mountains of Hubdb, 

 or the Serpent, and the Abyjjinian kingdom of Tigre : the fame region is, 

 however, fometimes called Sanc'ba-vana, and is reported to be a wonderfully fine 

 country, watered by noble rivers and ftreams, covered with forefts of the mofl 

 ufeful and beautiful trees, and a hundred yojans in length or 492 miles; a di- 

 mension, which correfponds exactly enougn with a line drawn from the fouth- 

 em limit of Tigri tothe northern extremity of the Hubdb mountains. It lay 

 between the Calk a, or Call, and the fea; its principal river was the Sanc'ba- 

 nagd, now called Mdreb j and its capital city near the fea-fhore,, where the royal 

 fnake refided, had the name of Cotinu - y not far from which was a part of the 

 mountain Dyutimdn, or brilliant, fo called from the precious metals and gems p 

 with which it abounded. 



In the Dherma-fdfira both Ndgas and Garudds are named as" races of men 

 defcended from Atri, concerning whom we mall prefently fpeak more at 

 large j but, in the language of Mythology, the Ndgas or TJragas are large 

 ferpents, and the Garudds or Supernas, immenfe birds, which are either the 

 Condors of M. BuSton and- Vulture Griffons of Linnjeus, called Rokhs by the 

 Arabian fabulifte and by Marco Polo> or mere creatures of imagination* 

 like the Si'morg of the Perjians y - whom Sadi defcribes as receiving his daily 

 allowance on the mountain of Kdf: whatever be the truth, the legend of 

 Sane' ba-naga and Garrtdd is thus told in the ancient books of the Hindus. 



The king of Serpents formerly reigned in Chacra-giri* a. mountain very 

 far to the eafhvard ; but his fubjects were obliged by the power of Gar ud' a 

 to fupply that enormous bird with a fnake each day: their king at length 

 refufed to give the daily provifion, and intercepted it himfelf when it was fent 



