from the Ancient Books or the Hindus. g6i 



■declares, (a) that the war in queftion arofe between the partizans of Jupiter 

 and thofe, who acknowledged no other deities but Water and Earth : according 

 to both Nonnus and the Hindu Mythologies, it began in India, whence it 

 was.fpread over the whole globe, and all mankind appear to have borne a part 

 In it. 



These religious and phyfiological contefts were difguifed, in Egypt and 

 India, under a veil of the wildeft allegories and emblems. On the banks of 

 the Nile, Osiris was torn in pieces; and on thofe of the Ganges, the limbs 

 <of his confort I'si' or Sati' were fcattered over the world, giving names to 

 the places, where they fell, and where they ftill are fuperfHtioufly wormippeds 

 in the book entitled Mahd cala-fanbitd, we find the Grecian flory concerning 

 the wanderings of D am ate r, and the lamentations of.B ac chusj for Iswa- 

 ra, having been mutilated, through the imprecations of fome offended Munis * 

 rambled over the whole earth, bewailing his misfortune; while T si' wander- 

 ed alfo through the world finging mournful ditties in a ftate of diflradtion* 

 There is a legend in the Servarafa, of which the figurative meaning is more 

 obvious. When Sat i', after the clofe of her exiflence as the daughter of 

 Dacsha, fprang again to life in the character of Pa'rvati', or Mountain- 

 horn, me wa6 reunited in marriage to Maha'de'va : this divine pair had 

 once a difpute on the comparative influence of the fexes in producing animat- 

 ed beings, and each refolved, by mutual agreement, to create apart a new 

 race of men. The race produced by Maha'de'va were very numerous, and 

 devoted themfelves exclufively to the worfhip of the male deity ; but their 

 intellects were dull, their bodies feeble, their limbs distorted, and their com- 

 plexions of many different hues : Pa'rvati' had at the fame time created a 



(a) Dionys. B. 34. v. z^i, 



X x 



