693 
APPENDIX B. 
Texts from Monserrate’s lost Bk. II quoted by Col. F. Wilford. 
The texts from Monserrate’s writings quoted by Col. F. Wilford will prove that the MS. in 
his possession was different from the one here edited. 
At the risk of being taken to task for the length of this appendix, I must quote Monserrate’s 
passages together with Wilford’s context. As for Wilford’s theories, I do not comment on them. 
If, in the case of a passage (my No. 6 ) I reproduce at some length Wilford’s views on ancient 
traces of Christianity in North India, it is because they are so interesting when compared with 
Monserrate’s. 
i. Asiatick Researches , VI (1799), pp. 496-497, Art.: On Mount Caucasus. 
[ 496 ]. The Parapomisean hills, or at least part of them, are called also Parnassus , and 
Parnessus, by Dionysius Periegetes, Priscian, and F. Avienus: this last appellation has been 
supposed to be only a corruption, or contraction from the first. But the difference is so great, 
that, in my humble opinion, these are really two different denominations of the same moun- 
tainous tract, at least, or part of it. These mountains are in general called Devanica in the 
Hindu sacred books, because they were full of Devas or gods, and holy Rishis and Brahmens , 
who are emphatically called the gods of the earth, or Bhu-devas. They lived, according to the 
Puranas , in bowers or huts, called Parnasdlas or Parnasas, because the}?- were made of leaves, for 
such is the Sanscrit expression, whilst we should say, built with twigs and branches. Indeed 
the leaves are the most conspicuous part, because in India when dry, they generally adhere still 
to the boughs they grew upon. The most celebrated amongst these Parnasas was that of the 
famous Atrt, whose history is closely connected with that of the British islands and other 
western regions. It was situated on an insulated hill, called in the Puranas Mem, and by the 
Greeks Meros. It is supposed by the Hindus to be a splinter from the larger Mem ; J and that 
the gods come and reside upon it occasionally. Its situation was ascertained by the late Mr. 
Foster, by my friend Mirza Mogul Beg, and by P. Monserrat, who accompanied the 
Emperor Acbar in his expedition to Cabul in the year 1581. It [ 497 ] is called to this day Mer- 
coh and Mar-coh , or the mountain of Mer or Mem ; for in the spoken dialects, they often say 
Mer for Mem, and in the Treloci-derpana, we constantly read Mer for Mem. It is on the road 
between Peishower and Jalalabad ; and about twenty-four miles from the latter, on the banks of 
the Landi-Sindh or Cameh river. It is now a bare rock, the river which formerly ran to the south 
of it, having carried away all the earth from the lower parts; and the earth above being no longer 
supported, was also washed away by the rains. From its dismal appearance, it was called Be- 
dowlat by the Emperor Humayun. It looks like a single stone, without any fissure. It extends 
from the west to the east. It rises abruptly from the plain in which it stands ; from the bottom 
to the top; P. Monserrat reckons about 2000 feet, and it is about six furlongs in length : its 
distance from the nearest hill is about three miles. The ground to the south and east is marshy, 
being the old bed of the river : to the west are seen several triangular entrances into caves. To 
the east at the distance of three miles, is a wretched village, called Bissour or Bissowly (Bussowul 
in Major Rennell’s map), which about two hundred years ago was a pretty large town. To the 
west are the villages of Ambarcand and Battercote, close to which NadirshTh encamped; and as 
l Cf. F. Wilford, As. Res., VIII, (1805), p. 315. 
