from the Ancient Books op the Hindus. 419 



The founder of the family was a pious and excellent prince, obferving in all 

 refpects the ordinances of the Veda : his name is to this day highly venerated 

 by the Brdhmens -, many facerdotal families in India boaft of their defcent 

 from him j and the laws of Pait''hi'nasi are ftill extant, in an ancient ftyle 

 and in modulated profe, among the many tracts, which collectively form the 

 Dherma-Sd/lra. It muft be obferved, that he was often called Pi't'he'- 

 rTshi, or Pi't'hershi; and his place of relidence, Pifhi-rijhi-fihdn ; 

 but the fhort vowel ri has the found of ru in the weftern pronunciation, like 

 the firft fyllable of Richard in fome Englijh counties : thus, in parts of India, 

 amrita, or ambrojia, is pronounced amrut; whence I conjecture, that the feat 

 of Pithk-rufhi was the Pathros of Scripture, called Phatures by the Seventy, 

 and Phatori by Eusebius, which gave its appellation to th,e Phaturitic nome 

 of Pliny. Some imagine Phaturis to have been Thebes of Diofpolis ; but 

 Pliny mentions them both as diftinct places, though, from his context, it 

 appears that they could not be far afunder -, and I fuppofe Phaturis to be no 

 other than the Tathyris of Ptolemy, which he places a.t no great diftance 

 from the Mcmnonium, or weftern fuburb of Thebes ; and, in the time of Pto- 

 lemy, the nome of Phaturis had been annexed to that of Diofpolis, fo that its 

 capital city became of little importance : we took notice, in the firil fection, 

 that the Ethiopians, who, from a defect in their articulation, fay Taulos 

 inftead of Paulos, would have pronounced Tithoes for Pithoes, and Tathuris 

 for Pathuris. 



Though we before gave fome account of the fabulous Ra'hu and the 

 Grahas, yet it may not be fuperfluous to relate their ftory in this place at 

 greater length. Ra'hu was the fon of Cas'yapa and Diti, according 

 to fome authorities; but others reprefent Sinhica' (perhaps, the Sphinx) 

 s£ his natural mother; he had four arms ; his lower parts ended in a tail 



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