4*4 



On Egypt and the Nile 



terceffion of the Divas, defcended in the fhape of a Sar.nyasl, named 

 Buddha, with his hair braided in a knot on the crown of his head, 

 wrapt in a fqualid mantle and with a broom in his hand. Buddha pre- 

 ferred himfelf to the Baity as, and was kindly ; received by them; but, 

 when they expreffed their furprife at his foul vefture and the fingular im- 

 plement, which he carried, he told them, that// was cruel, and confequent- 

 ly impious, to deprive any creature of life; that, whatever might be faid in 

 the Vcdas, every facrifce of an animal was an abomination, and that puri- 

 fication itfelf was wicked, becaufe fome fmall infect might be killed in 

 bathing or in warning cloth j that he never bathed, and conftantly f wept 

 the ground before him, left he mould tread on fome innocent reptile : he 

 "hen expatiated on the inhumanity of giving pain to the playful and harm- 

 lefs kid, and reafoned with fuch eloquence, that the Daityas wept, and 

 abandoned all thought of ablution and facrifice. As this Maya, or illufive 

 appearance, of Vishnu fruftrated the ambitious project ot the Daityas, one 

 of Buddha's titles is the fon of Ma'ya': he is alfo named Sa'cyasinh a, 

 or the Lion of the race of Sdcya, from whom he defcended j an^appellation, 

 which feerns to intimate, that he was a conqueror or a warrior, as well 

 as a philofopher. Whether Buddha was a fa^e or a hero, the lead r of a 

 colony, or a whole colony perfonifled, whether he was black or fair, 

 whether his hair was curled or ftraight, if indeed he had any hair (which 

 a commentator or the Bhagavat denies), whether he appeared ten, or two 

 hundred, or a thoufand, years after Crishna, it is very certain, that he 

 was not of the true Indian race : in all his images, and in the ftatues of 

 Bauddkas % male and female, which are to be fevn in many parts of thefe 

 provinces and in both peninfulas, there is an appearance of fomething 

 Egyptian or Ethiopian j and both in features and drefs, they differ widely 



