100 



The New Planet Asia. [No. 11, new seeies. 



I regret the not having seen this book, before completing my 

 report on the Eiliot marbles. Such railings are among them. 

 Further research, among the Government Manuscripts, explained 

 to me what was dark, as to the Dagobahs ; which, I noted in se- 

 veral cases, showed a serpent at the small entry beneath. It ap- 

 pears, that the word Kundali, which properly means a snake is 

 applied metaphorically to the female nymphae. Thus the Dome 

 represented the female abdomen, as that represented univeisal 

 nature, the object of Jaina worship ; the snake-aperture repre- 

 sented the vulva, and the snake the nymphae. What Dr. Benza 

 conjectured might be architraves were funereal tablets ; and the 

 joyful emblems, on some of them, however incompatible with our 

 ideas, indicated that, in the judgment of survivors, the deceased — 

 no matter whether man or woman — had obtained nibutti ; that is 

 the mortal shell being broken, the soul had become re-united to the 

 universe : for they knew of no other bliss. ' Death could not be 

 always disarmed of its terrors, as the tombstone of a deceased 

 grazier plainly evidenced ; the Cobra capella there has a very dif- 

 ferent interpretation. 



XI. — Discovery of a New Planet " Asia." By N. R. Pogson, 

 Esq., e. e. A. s., Government Astronomer : 



A new Planet, resembling a star of about the 12th magnitude^ 

 was discovered with the equatorealof this Observatory on the night 

 of April 17th, 1861. Its detection was the fifth similar result of 

 a systematic search, maintained for some years past in certain 

 portions of the zodiacal heavens, aided by manuscript charts of my 



