4.66 



On Egypt and the Nile 



4. " Whilft He remained honouring and fatisfying the Gods, and priefts, 

 " and kine. One day by the a<3 of deftiny, the king, having drunk mead, 



5. st Became fenfelefs and lay afleep naked : then was he feen by C'h a r- 

 *f ma, and by him were his two brothers called, 



6. " To whom he /aid: What now has befallen I In what ftate is this 

 " our fire ? By thofe two was he hidden with clothes, and called to his fen- 

 " fes again and again* 



7. '? Having recovered his intellect,, and perfectly knowing what had": 

 « patted, he curfed C harm a, faying : Thou malt be the fervant of fer~ 

 " vants^ 



8. " And, fince thou waft a laugher in their prefence, from laughter fhalt 

 " thou acquire a name. Then he gave to Sherma the wide domain on the 

 " fouth of the fnowy mountain, 



9. " And to Jya'peti he gave all on the north of the friowy 'mountain* 

 ** but He, by the power of religious contemplation, attained fupreme blifs," 



Now you will probably think, that even the concifenefs and fimplicity of 

 this narrative are excelled by the Mofaick relation of the fame adventure ; but, 

 whatever may be our opinion of the old Indian ftyle, this extract moft clearly 

 proves, that the Satyavrata, or Satyavarman, of the Pur^dns was 

 the lame perfonage (as it has been afferted in a former publication) with the 

 Noah of Scripture, and we confequently fix the utmoft. limit of Hindu Chro- 

 nology 1 nor can it be with reafon inferred from the identity of the ftoriesj, 



