SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. ■ 147' 



shoulders, close to the neck.) From that circumstance he was called 

 Cacust'ha, or he who is seated on the Cacud; and mankind are some- 

 times called, in the Purdnas, the children of Cacust'ha. Indra, how- 

 ever, proved victorious every where, and thus ascended the throne of 

 the heavenly mansions, there to remain, till another, equally fortunate, 

 dispossesses him, by performing an hundred As'vamed'has. For this rea- 

 son Indra is always watching the adlions of men below, and whenever 

 he finds any one attempting to perform the prescribed As'wamcd'has, he 

 generally waits till they are nearly completed, and then sends an 

 Apsaras or two, who never fail to spoil the unfortunate man's devotions. 



These nymphs were not unknown, in the most remote parts of the 

 western world, their native country, according to the Paurdnics : and they 

 are probably the goddesses Ram^h^ or Rumah^, mentioned in some in- 

 scriptions found on the northern parts of E?igland, and I believe on the 

 banks of the Rhine ; but their name is never found in the first case. There 

 is a place, in the northern parts of England^ called Rumahiis by the anony- 

 jnous geographer of Ravenna; and probably their true name was Ramcebce, 

 or Rumosbcs. In the inscription, upon an altar found at Lowthe?; m West- 



moreland, we read deabus matribus tramai &c. In the room of 



TRAMAi : Dr. Gale proposes to read Bramce, but I think the true reading 

 IS Deabus Matribus et ramai bus or Ramcebis : and in the inscription men- 

 tioned by Gruter, Rumahaebis for Rumaehabus. 



The mother goddesses, or Dece Matres, make a most conspicuous 

 figure in hidia, where they are called Mdtn-devi, Matres Dece. They 

 are seven in number, and are always invoked together. No nuptial rites 

 are performed without previously performing the pi'ijd in their honor. 

 They draw seven parallel lines or strokes perpendicularly, with clarified 



