448 On Egypt and the Nile 



to Macrobws, or long-lived ; though that country, fays the AbyJJinian tra- 

 veller, is one of the moil unhealthy on earth : indeed, if Ma'rcande'ya, 

 the fon of Mricandu, be the fame perfon with Ma'rcava, he was 

 truly Macrobios 9 and one of the nine long-lived Sages of the Pufdns. 



VI. The next legend is taken from the ' Mahacalpa ; and we introduce 

 it here as illuftrative of that, which has been related in the fecond fe6lion s 

 concerning the two Indian Gods of Medicine, to whom fome places in Egypt 

 were confecrated. 



A most pious and venerable Sage, named Rishi'ce'sa, being very far 

 advanced in years, had refolved to vifit, before he died, all the famed places 

 of pilgrimage $ and, having performed his refolution, he bathed at laft in the 

 Tacred water of the Cah, where he obferved fome limes engaged in amorous 

 play, and reflecting on their numerous progeny, which would fport like them 

 in the ilream, be lamented the improbability of his leaving any children : but, 

 fince he might poffibly be a father, even at his great age, he went immedi- 

 ately £b the king of that country, HirAnyaverna, who had fifty daughters, 

 and demanded one of them in marriage. So flrange a demand gave the 

 prince great uneafinefs ; yet "he was unwilling to incur the difpleafure of a 

 faint, whofe imprecations he dreaded: he, therefore, invoked Heri, or 

 Vishnu, to infpire him with a wife anfwer, and told the hoary philofopher, 

 that he mould marry any one of his daughters, who of her own accord mould 

 fix on him as her bridegroom. The fage, rather difconcerted, left the palace; 

 but, calling to mind the two fons of Aswini\ he haflened to their terreftrial 

 abode, arid requefted, that they would' beftow on him both youth and beauty: 

 they immediately conducted him to Abhimatada, which we fuppofe to be 

 Ahydus iri Upper Egypt -, and, when he I had bathed in the pool of Rupayau- 



