4383 -ON THE ANCIENT 
catch. Jala-manusha literally signifies watermen; however, it is never 
used in that sense; but it implies people, who in a compound shape of 
men, and of sea or river monsters, devour men and all living creatures, 
that come within their reach. 
Mava-Baru was a king, who went to worship at Visva-nith, and hav- 
ing entered the water, he saw three alligators, who wanted to devour 
him. They were them tearing the body of the Raa of Gaja-pur in 
Mohura-banja. M&va-sar'u dived into the water, and effected his escape 
to the shore. There was then. the Raja of Rasanga or Aracan, who was 
going to perform his ablutions, and who informed him, that these three 
alligators were originally three notorious gamblers, and cheats, living in 
the town of Codaru, near Raja-mahendra,* They were obliged to leave: 
the country, and to take refuge on. board of a ship, that was just ready to sail 
to distant countries, A sudden storm from the Malayan mountains in the 
peninsula drove them northward (it should be S.K.) to the country of Cirdia, 
which is near Périndra, or the lion’s country, or Sinhapur, not far from 
the lesser China. 'The ship was wrecked upon the magnet rocks, near the 
mouth of the Chart river. The three gamblers were devoured by alliga- 
tors, and were born again of them in that odious shape, and they remain 
still in the Brahmé-putra, round a hill in the middle of it. According to the 
natives, on the day of the As ocashtami, in the month of Chattra, they sacrifice 
men, buffaloes, goats and all sorts of animals in great numbers, when these 
alligators spring up to receive the blood into their mouths, and devour the 
Se 
* ProgsBiy the Codura of Prouemy. 
