prom the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 415 



from the ancient Hindu figures of heroes and demigods. Sa'cya has a re- 

 femblance in found to Sisac, and we find Cha'nac abbreviated from 

 Cha'nacya; fo that Sisac and Sesonchosis may be corrupted from 

 Sa'cyasinha, with a tranfpofiticn of fome letters, which we know to be 

 frequent in proper names, as in the word Bandres, Many of his ftatues 

 in India are Colpffal, nearly naked, and ufually reprefented fitting in a 

 contemplative attitude ; nor am I disinclined to believe, that the famed 

 frame of Memnon in Egypt was ere£ted in honour of Mahiman, which 

 has Mahimna' in one of its oblique cafes, and the Greeks could hardly 

 have pronounced that word otherwife than Maimna or Memna : they 

 certainly ufed Mai inftead of Maha, for Hesychius exprefsly fays 

 Mat, (Leyet.lifioi'- and Mai Signifies great even in modern Coptick. We ara 

 told, that Mahiman, by his wife Maiia'ma'nya\ had a fon named 

 Sarmana Cardama, who feems to be the Sammano Codom of the 

 Bauddhas, unl fs thofe lafr. words be corrupted from Sam ant a Go'tam, 

 which are found in the Amarcojh among Buddha's names. Card am, 

 which properly means clay or mud, was the firft created man according to 

 fome Indian legends; but the Purdnas mention about feven or eight, who 

 claimed the priority of creation ; and fome Hindus, defirous of reconciling 

 the contradiction, but unwilling to admit that the fame fa£t is differently- 

 related, and the fame perfon differently named, infill that each was the 

 firfl man in his refpective country. Be this as it may, Cardama lived in 

 Varuna-chanda, fo called from his fon Varuna the god of ocean, where 

 we fee the groundwork of the fable concerning Paljemon, or Melicer^. 

 tus, grandfen of Cadmus: now that dhanda, or divifion, of Jambu-dwip 

 comprifed the modern Perfia, Syria, and AJia the Lefs; in which coun- 

 tries we find many traces of Mahiman and his followers in the ftupen- 

 dous edifices, remarkable for their magnificence and folidity, which the 



