from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 439 



JFhala, or Egypt, was intended as a repofitory for the dead -, and no fuch idea 

 is conveyed by the Mahdcalpa, where feveral other pyramids are expreflly men- 

 tioned as places of worfhip. There are pyramids now at Benares, but oa a 

 fmall fcale, with fubterranean paffages under them, which are faid to extend 

 many miles : when the doors, which clofe them, are opened, we perceive only 

 dark holes, which do not feem of great extent, and pilgrims no longer refort 

 to them through fear of mephitick air or of noxious reptiles. The narrow 

 paffage, leading to the great pyramid in "Egypt 3 was defigned to render the 

 holy apartment lefs accemble,,and to infpire the votaries with more awe : the 

 caves of the oracle at Delphi, of Trophonius, and of New-Grange in- Ire- . 

 land, had narrow pailages- anfwering the purpofe of thofe in Egypt and India 5 

 nor is it unreafonable: to foppofe, that the fabuk>us relations concerning the 

 the grot of the Si/syl in Italy, and the purgatory of St. Patrick, were de- 

 rived from a fimilar practice and motive, which feem to have prevailed over 

 the whole Pagan world, and are often alluded to in Scripture. M. Mail- 

 let has endeavoured to fhow, in a mod elaborate work, that the founder of 

 the great pyramid lay entombed in it, and that its entrance was afterwards 

 clofed -, but it appears, that the builder of it was not buried there ; and it was 

 certainly opened in the times of Herodotus and Pliny% On my defcrib- 

 ing: the great Egyptian pyramid to feveral very learned Brdkmens,. they declar- 

 ed it at once to have been a temple; and one of them afked, if it had not 

 a communication under ground with the river Call: when I anfwered, that 

 fuch a paflage was mentioned as having exifted, and that a well was at this 

 day to be fcen, they, unanimoufly agreed, that it was a place appropriated to 

 the worfhip of Padma'-de'vi n , and that the fuppofed tomb was a trough, 

 which, on certain fcftivals, her priefls ufed. to fill with the facred water and 

 lotos-flowers. Wh.it Pliny fays of the Labyrinth is applicable alfo to the 

 Pyramid: fome infifled, that it was the palace of a certain king; fome, that 



