from the Ancient Books op the Hindus. 405 



iront, were enraged at the king, telling him, that he mould live twelve years 

 as a night- wanderer feeding on cundpas y and. that Caunapa mould be the fur- 

 name of his defcendants s.fome add, that, as foon as this curfe was pronounced, 

 the body of Visvadhanwa became feflering and ulcerous, and that his chil- 

 dren inherited, the loathfome difeafe. 



We find clear traces of this wild ftory in Egypt-, which from Ca'ma was 

 formerly, named Chemia, and it is to this day known by the name of Chemi to 

 the: few old Egyptian families, that remain: it has been- conjectured, that the 

 more modern Greeks formed the word Chemia from this name, of Egypt ', 

 whence they derived their firfl knowledge of Chemiftry. The god Caimis 

 was the fame, according to Plutarch, with Orus the- Elder, or one of the 

 ancient Apollos ; but he is defcribed as very young and beautiful, and his 

 confort was. named Rhytia j fo that he bears a flrong refemblance to Ca'~ 

 ma,, the hufband of Reti, or the Cupid of the Hindus: there were two 

 gods named Cupid, fays ^Elian {a), the elder of whom was the fon of 

 Lu.c.ina, and .the lover, if not the hufband, of Venus : the younger was her 

 fon. Now Smu or Typhon, fays Herodotus, wimedto deflroy Orus, 

 whom Latona concealed in a grove of the ifland Chemmis, in a lake near 

 Butus; but Smu, orSAMBAR,^found means to kill him, and left him in the 

 waters, . where Is is found him and reflored him to life (I). /Elian fays, 

 that. the Sun, a form of Osiris, being difpleafed with. Cupid, threw him 

 into the ocean, and gave him' a ihell for his abode:. Smu, we are told, was 

 at length defeated and killed by Orus.. We have faid, that Ca'ma was 

 born again in this lower world, or became ■ Adhoyoni, not as a punimment 

 fbr his offence, which that .word commonly implies, but as a mitigation of the 



(a) B. 14, C. 28. (I) Diod. Sic. B. 14, 



