34& On Egypt and t fl e Nile 



bited by the fubjects of Sanc'ha'sura,. whofe palace was 2. fell m the ocean p 

 but they are faid to have refided in fiells on or near the mountains of the 

 African continent: they are reprefented as cannibals, and even as demons- 

 incarnate, roaming by night and plundering the Hat country, from which, 

 they carried off men, women, and children, whom they devoured alke ; that 

 is, perhaps, as raw flefh is now eaten in Abyfinia,. From this account it- 

 mould feem, that the Sane hdfuras lived in the caves of mountains along the 

 eoarr., while their king relided in a cavern of the fmall ifland. Suakem, where 

 fljiere ft ill is a confiderable town, in the middle of a large bay : he there, pro- 

 bably, concealed his plunder, and thence was reported to dwell in the ocean*. 

 The name of that ifland appears derived from Sukhrm, the plural of Sukh in. 

 Hebrew,- and the Sanch of the Hindus s by the ancient Geographers it is cal- 

 led both Sukkce, and the Harbour of preferring Gods, from the prefervation, I 

 fufTpofeyofSancba-dwift and its inhabitants by the divine afiiftance of Crish- 

 naj who, with an army of deities, attacked and defeated Sanc'ha'sura, pur- 

 fuing him even through the fea, where he drew the monfter from his fiel/ fs 

 and -put him to death., 



Besides thefe firft inhabitants of Sanc'ha-dwzpa, who are defcribed by the 

 Mythologifts as elephants, demons, 2,rAfnakes, we find a race, called, S'hanchd- 

 yanas, who are the real Troglodytes* or Shan galas ; for la is a regular termina- 

 tion of Sanfcrit adjectives, as Bhagala, fortunate; Sinhala, lion-like; and 

 Bengala, which properly means belonging to the country of Benga : they were 

 the defcendants of'\A.TRi before named, whofe hiftory, being clofely connect- 

 ed with that of the Sacred IJles in the weft, deferves peculiar attention. He 

 fprang, fay the writers of the Pur anas, from the mind of Brahma', who 

 appointed him a Prajapati, or Lord of Creatures, commanding him to pro- 

 duce a numerous race* and intrufting him with the Vsdas % which had exifted 



