from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 383 



travagant than that of the' Egyptians themselves according to Manetho. 

 The "Talmud contains notions of divine days and years, founded on paifages in 

 Scripture ill-underftood j the period of 12,000 years was Etrufcan, and that 

 of 432000, was formed in Chahka by repetitions of the faros; the Turdetani, 

 an old and learned nation in Spain, had a long period nearly of the fame kind ; 

 but for particular inquiries into the ancient periods and the affinity between 

 them, I.muft refer to other Effays, and proceed to the geography of Egypt, 

 as it is illuftrated by the Indian legends. 



The place, where the Sun is feigned to have performed his acts of religi- 

 ous auflerity, is named the fi'han, or ftation, of Arca, Su'rya, and Ta- 

 pana : as it was on the limit between the divipas of Cujh and Sane ha, the 

 •Pur ins afcribed it indifferently to either of thofe countries. I believe it to be 

 the Tahpanhes of Scripture, called Taphna or Taphnai, by the feventy Interpre- 

 ters, and Daphne in the Roman Itinerary, where it is placed fixteen miles 

 from Pehifium: it is mentioned by He rodotus> under the name of Daphna 

 Pelujipe, [a) and by Stephanus under that of Daphne near Pelufmm; but 

 the moderns have corrupted the name into Saf?ias. 



Sauri-st'han, where Sani was born and. educated, feems to have been 

 the famed Beth Shemejh, or Heliopolis, which was built, fays Diodorus, by 

 Aetis, in honour of his father the Sun (<£): Aetis firfl taught Aflronomy in 

 Egypt, and there was a colbge of aftronomers at Heliopolis, with an obfjrva- 

 tory and a temple of the Sun, the magnificence and celebrity of which might 

 have occafioned the change of the ancient name into Surya-Ji'hdn, as it was 

 tranflated by the Hebrews and Greeks. It is faid by the Hindus, that Sani, 



(a) B. 2. C. 30. (b) B. 6. C. ij. 



