68 ESSAY ON THK 



the horizons and which acl hke a coloured glass, the sun appears de- 

 prived of its rays and splendor. It seems that Twashta' was a little 

 awkward at first: for it is declared, that it took him a hundred years to 

 perform this operation, and the sun's face felt so sore after it, that 

 Twashta' was obliged to besmear it with such drugs as are used in India 

 for sores and contusions: hence the sun's bloated appearance in the 

 evening, 



Twashta' is now much more expert, and every evening the business 

 is soon expedited, when the sun in his night dress immediately disappears 

 with his consort behind the Astagiri in ^Swetam. Ni-cshubha' or Neha- 

 lenia' goes to live with the sun on the seventh day of the black half of 

 Mdgha, answering in the year i8os to the fifteenth of January; and she 

 leaves him the seventh of Srdvana, or the twenty-first of July. 



The word Nehalenya' is never used in the roomof Ni-cshubha': it is 

 however a Sanscrit word Na-halina', and perfedlly synonymous with 

 Ni-cshubha'. I have adopted it, as Nehalenya' a derivative form, is 

 the name of a goddess peculiar to Britain and to some adjacent countries, 

 as Holland; where her statue was found, and is described by Montfau- 

 coN, and I believe by several other authors. 



. Twashta', having thus obtained the fiery rays of the sun, applied the 

 element of fire to his own purpose ; introduced it into his own shop ; and 

 was thus enabled to fabricate all his tools, and implements r for before that 

 time, there was no such a thing as Te'ja, resplendence, light or fire in the 

 world, except that of the sun, which it was almost impossible to come at, 

 till a favourable opportunity offered itself to Twashta', who eagerly seized 

 at, and obtained by gentle means, what Prometheus got by stealth; and 



