3TR0M THE ANCIENT BOOKS OF THE HlKDUS. 345 



to worfhip him at the place of his refidence near the river Cdh. This is, pro- 

 bably, the fnake Heredi fo famed throughout Egypt: the Mufelmans infift, 

 that it is a Shaikh of that name transformed into a fnake -, the Chrijlians, that 

 ■it is Asmodeus mentioned in the book of Tobit, the AJhmugh-dh of the 

 Perfian romances ; and the" Hindus are equal to them in their fuperftitious 

 notions. My learned friends at Can inform me, that the facred fnake is at 

 this day vifited by travelling Sannydfis ; but I cannot affert this as a fact, hav- 

 ing never feen any Hindu, who had travelled fo far : thofe, whom I have feen, 

 had never gone beyond the Euphrates ; but they afiured me, that they would 

 have paffed that river, if they had not been deterred by reports of difturbances 

 among the Arab chiefs to the weftward. The boldeft religious adventurers, 

 among the Sannydjis, are thofe from the north weft "of India; for no native of 

 Bengal, or, indeed, of the countries eaft of the Ganges', would now attempt 

 (at leaft I never heard of any, who had attempted) fuch perilous journeys. 

 As to the belief of the Hindus, that As tic a put an effectual ftop to the 

 fiery breath of 'Sancha-ndga, or the Samum, it appears from the relation of 

 Mr. Bruce, that the fecond publick-fpirited faint had no more fuccefs than 

 the firft. 



We muft obferve, that naga, or motionlefs, is a Sanfcrit name for a moun- 

 tain, and that ndga, its regular derivative, fignifies both a mount ain-fnake 

 and a wild elephant : accordingly we read of an elephant-king in Sane ha, who 

 reigned on the banks of the Mareb, thence called Sancha-ndga. \ and, when 

 Crishna had flain both him and his fubject. elephants, their bones were 

 heaped on the banks of the Tacazze, which from that event had the name of 

 .Ajl'himafi. 



The other parts of Sane* ha-divip Proper, adjacent to the fea, were inha- 



a u 



