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On E G Y P T A N D T H E Nl X .E 



approaching to his own attributes '; and the Hindus in general perform a&s of 

 worfhip to fome of their ancient monarchs and fages, who were deified m 

 confequence of their eminent virtues.- After thefe introductory remarks we 

 proceed to the feveral manifefiationSj in Egypt and other -countries adjacent 

 to the Nile, of De'vi and the three principal Gods of the Hindus, as they 

 are expreflly related in the Purdnas and other Sanfcrit books of antiquity. 



De'vi', or the Goddefs, and Isf, or the fovereign Queen, is the Is is of Egypt* 

 and reprefents Nature m general, but in particular the Earth, which the In- 

 dians call P&it'hivi x j while water and humidity of all kinds are fuppofed by 

 the Hindus to proceed from Vishnu* as they were by the Egyptians to pro- 

 ceed from Osiris; this account of Is is we find corroborated by Plutarch $ 

 and Servius afierts, that the very word Isis means Earth in the language of 

 the Egyptians-, but this I conceive to be an errour, 



I. It is related in the Scanda, that, when the whole earth was covered 

 with water, and Vishnu lay extended afleep in the bofom of De'vi v , a lotos 

 rofe from his navel* and its afcending flower foon reached the furface of the 

 flood j that Brahma fprang from that flower, and, looking round without 

 feeing any creature on the boundlefs expanfe, imagined himfelf to be the -firffc 

 born and entitled to rank above all future beings, yet refolved to inveftigate 

 the deep, and to afcertain whether any being exifted in it, who ;Could con- 

 trovert his claim to pre-eminence. He glided, therefore, down the flalk of 

 the lotos, and, finding Vishnu afleep, afked loudly who he was: " I am 

 Ai the firft born," anfwered Vishnu waking; and, when Brahma* denied his 

 primogeniture, they had an obftinate battle, till Maha'de'va prefTed- be- 

 tween them in great wrath, %ing: " It is I, who am truly the firft bornj 

 H but I will refign my pretenfions to either of you, who /hall be able to 



