On Egypt and the N i 



388 On Egypt and the Nil e 



that, where Bhava was interrupted In his devotions, was at flrft. called 

 Bbavajtb'dih and feems to be the celebrated Bubaftos, or, in the oblique cafe, 

 Bubaflon, peculiarly facred to Diana, the Goddefs of Woods : from Bba- 

 vatavi, which was at fome diftance from the Nile in the midir. of an imper- 

 vious fore'ft, the Greeks made Butoi in the oblique cafe, whence they formed 

 Buto and But its 3 and there alfo ilood a famous temple of Diana. The fi- 

 tuation of Crirdvana. cannot be fo eafily ascertained; but it could not have 

 been far from the two laft-mentioned places, and was probably in the Delta s 

 where we iind a moft diftinguifhed temple of Venus at Aphroditopolis, (a) 

 how Atar-bikM, which, according to Stephanus of Byzantium, was" at no 

 great diftance from Atribi: the goddefs had, indeed, laid afide the character of 

 Diana, when Bhava perceived her, and affumed that of Bhava'ni, or 

 Venus. The three places of worfhip here mentioned were afterwards con- 

 tinually vifited by numerous pilgrims, whom the Brabmdnda-purdn % from 

 which the whole fable is extracted, pronounces entitled to delight and happi- 

 nefs both in this world and in the next. 



Bhave'swA-ra feems to be the Bus-iris of Egypt; for Stra- 

 bo afferts politively, that no Egyptian king bore that name, though 

 altars, on which men were anciently facrinced, were dedicated to Bu- 

 ■slRis, and the human victims 6f the Hindus were oiJered to the con- 

 fort of B h a v e's warA. The Naramedba, or facrifice of a man y is allow- 

 ed by fome ancient authorities ; but, fince it is prohibited, under pain of the 

 fevereft torture in the next world, by the writers of the Brabmd y of the A'di* 

 tya-purdn, and even of the Bbdgavat itfelf, We cannot imagine, that any Brab^ 

 men would now officiate at fo horrid a ceremony- though it is alferted by 





