4©S On Egypt and the Nile 



both in that fpot and on the banks of the Nile {a). The Greeks, who cer- 

 tainly migrated from Egypt, carried with them the old Egyptian and Indian 

 legends, and endeavoured (not always with fuccefs)to appropriate a foreign fyf- 

 tem to their new fettlements : all their heroes or demigods, named He-raci/es 

 by them, and Hercules by the Latians (if not by the JEolians), were fons 

 of Jupiter, who is reprefented in India both by Hera, or Siva, and by 

 Her i or Vishnu; nor can I help fufpecting, that Hercules is the fame 

 with Heracula, commonly pronounced Hercul^ and fignifying the race of 

 Hera or Heri. Thofe heroes are celebrated in the concluding bocfc of the 

 Mahabharat, entitled Herivanfa ; and Arrian fays, that the Surafeni, or 

 people of Mat' bar a, wormjpped Hercules, by whom he muft have meant 

 Crishna and his defendants. 



In the Canopean temple of Ser apis, the ftatue of the god was decorat- 

 ed with a Cerberus and a Dragon j whence the learned Alexandrians con- 

 cluded, that he was the fame with Pluto: his image had been brought 

 from Sinope by the command of one of the Ptolemies, before whofe time 

 he was hardly known in Egypt, Ser apis, I believe, is the fame with 

 Yam a or Pluto; and his name feems derived from the compound Afrapa, 

 implying thirjl of blood: the Sun in Bbddra had the title of Yam a, but 

 the Egyptians gave that of Pluto, fays Porphyry, to tlie great lumina- 

 ry near the winter folftice (a). Yama, the regent of hell, has two dogs, 

 according to the Purdnas, one of them, named Cerbura and Sabala, 

 or varied; the other Sya'ma, or black; the firft of whom is alfo called 

 ^riiiras, or with three heads, and -has the additional epithets of Calmdjha, 

 China, and Cirmira, all fignifying ftained or fpoi 'ted : in Pliny the words 



(a J Steph. Byzant. under Me. (b) Cittd bj Eufeb. 



