from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 367 



as a'jx^v) and umbo feem to be derived from A?nba, or the circular argha with a 

 bofs like a target, fa o^cpaM^- and umbilicus apparently fpfiag from the fame root, 

 and even the word navel, though originally Gotbick, was the fame anciently 

 with nabbi'm Sanfcrit and ndf 'in Terfian. The facred ancilia, one of which 

 was revered as the Palladium of Rome, were probably types of a fimilar na- 

 ture to the argha, and the fhields, which ufed to be fufpended in temples, 

 were pombly votive ambds. At Delphi the myftick Omphalos was continually 

 celebrated in hymns as a facred pledge of divine favour, and the navel of the 

 world: thus the myftick boat was held by fome of the firft emigrants from. 

 Ajia to be their palladium, or pledge of fafety, and, as fuch, was carried by 

 them in their various journeys 3 whence the poets feigned, that the Argo 

 was borne over mountains on the moulders of the Argonauts. I know how 

 differently thefe ancient emblems of the Hindus, the Lotos and mount 'Merit, 

 the. Argha, or facred vefTel, and the name Argbanaf ha, would have been 

 applied by Mr. Bryant; but I have examined both applications without 

 prejudice, and adhere to my own as the more probable, becaufe it correfponds 

 with the known rites and ceremonies of the Hindus and, is* confirmed by the 

 oldefl records of their religion. 



Such have been, according to the Fur anas, the various emigrations from' 

 India to Cufhadwip ; and hence part of Africa was called India by the Greeks: 

 the Nile, fays Theophylact, flows through Lybia, Ethiopia, 'and India; (a) 

 the people of Mauritania are laid by Strabo to have been Indians or Hin- 

 dus;, [U) and Abyfjinia was called middle India in the time of Marco Paolo. 

 Where Ovid fpeaks of Andromeda, he afferts, that fhe came from India*, 

 but wc mail mow in another fection, that the fccne. of her adventures was the 



(a) C. 7. C. 17. (.7) B. 17. p. 8*8. ■' 



