259 
During that period it floated like a bubble upou the mighty 
deep. At length it broke, and Brahma sprung to light, having 
a thousand heads, with an equal number of eyes and arms, to 
enable him to undertake the work of creation. Similarly with 
this incarnation, another monster appeared from the same egg, 
whose hairs were forest trees, his head the clouds, his beard the 
lightning, his breath the atmosphere, his voice the thunder, 
his eyes the suu and moon, his nails the rocks, and his bones 
the mountains of the earth. The egg being thus hatched, 
Brahm , as Creator, retired from the scene, and relapsed into 
his former state of somnolent blessedness. The earth is repre- 
sented as a flat plain of circular form, measuring four hundred 
million miles in circumference, and resting upon an enormous 
snake with one hundred heads, which is itself supported by a 
gigantic tortoise. Brahma is said to die in course of time, and 
on his death all the worlds will suffer deluge ; all the Audons 
will be broken up ; and the Paradise of Vishnu will alone 
remain. At that time Vishnu, taking a leaf of the tree Alle- 
maron, will place himself under the leaf in the figure of a very 
little child, and thus float on the sea of milk, sucking the toe of 
his right foot. He will remain in this posture until Brahma 
comes forth from his navel anew in a tamarind flower. It is 
thus that the ages and worlds succeed each other, and are per- 
petually renewed.* 
20. A far superior idea of true cosmogony is found in the 
Institutes of Menu, to which Sir William Jones ascribes an anti- 
quity of at least 880 B.C., and which seems to show that the 
Hindoos must have borrowed some of their notions from the 
Mosaic writings. Thus, in the first chapter of that work God 
is represented as first creating the ivaters, which are called 
Nara, because they were produced by Nara, or “ the Spirit of 
God 3 ' ; and because they were His first ayana, or place of motion, 
He is called Narayena, f or, “ moving on the waters/’ After- 
wards, the alternate destruction and renovation of the world is 
* See Moor’s Hindoo Pantheon, p. 100, &c. 
f The following hymn has come into the author’s possession, he cannot 
recollect how, when, or where ; but he believes it to be a translation from the 
Sanskrit in honour of Narayena, the Holy Spirit according to Hindoo theo- 
logy. He has only space for a portion of the hymn, which begins thus : — 
Spirit of Spirits, who through every part 
Of space expanded and of endless time, 
Beyond the stretch of labouring thought sublime, 
Bad’st uproar into beauteous order start, 
Before Heaven was, Thou art. 
