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202 MUR 
feen with the feftarial marks on his forehead that dif- 
tinguifh the grand divifion of Saivas ; fuch as horizontal 
lines, a crefcent, See. His commoneft name is Ganefa ; 
that of Poilear being of local ufage, on tire coaft of Coro¬ 
mandel chiefly. He is alfo claflically called Ganyaha ; and 
.vulgarly, among the Mahrattas and low people, Ganpaity. 
His name of Ganefa is derived by fir W. Jones from gana, 
an affemblage of gods, and i/’a, meaning lord; denoting 
him to be the fuperior of fuch afi'emblages, of which 
Hindoo books enumerate nine, each confiding of eight 
deities. He is invoked by Hindoos of many, if not of all, 
lefts in the outfet of any bufinefs : if a perfon build a 
lioufe, an image of Ganefa is previoufly propitiated by 
ceremonies detailed in their rituals, and fet up at or near 
the fpot: if he write a book, Ganefa is faluted at the 
commencement, as lie is alfo at the top of a letter, with 
Sri Ganefa namah, “ Praife to the divine Ganefa,” or 
fome fuch phrafe, or a charafter denoting it. Setting off 
on a journey, Ganefa is implored for proteftion ; and for 
the accommodation of travellers his image is frequently 
feen by the road-fide, efpecially where two roads crofs ; 
but fometimes it is little elfe than a Hone rudely chiflelled 
into fomething of a conical form, or like an elephant’s 
head, with oil and red ochre daubed over it, decorated 
perhaps with a chaplet of flowers by fome pious neighbour 
or traveller. It is common to fee a figure of the god of 
prudence over bankers’ and other fliops; and upon the 
whole there is perhaps no deity in the Hindoo Pantheon, 
as copious as that of Rome, oftener feen and addreffed. 
There are feveral coincidences in the charafters of 
Ganefa and Janus : to both were aferibed a charafter of 
wifdom; and, when he is deferibed as confidered by the 
Romans “ the god who pre.fided over the beginning of all 
undertakings, receiving the firft libations of wine and 
wheat, and the preface of all prayer,” the defeription 
anfwers to both. 
Befides the ufual adoration paid to Ganefa afiociated 
with other gods, there is, it is faid, a feft of people 
who exclufively or chiefly worlhip him. They are called 
Ganapatya. He has been frequently incarnated ; and 
Hindoo books contain numerous legends of his meta- 
morphofes and adventures, heroic and amorous. The 
worlhip of Ganefa we may conclude to have been long 
as well as extenfively praftifed, for he is feen frequently 
fculptured in the Elephanta and other ancient caves. In 
the Puranas are many extravagant relations refpefting 
him. Although ufually confidered as the offspring of 
Siva, it is laid in the Siva Purana that he was formed by 
Patvati of fair proportions, of the excrementitious par¬ 
ticles and impurities of her own body, without the in¬ 
tervention of her lord, which fo enraged him, that on 
one occalion he cut off the head of Ganefa, in place of 
which an elephant’s ivas fubftituted. Sometimes he is 
feen in piftures with but one tulk; and legends, fimilarly 
extravagant, are given to account for this. Such of our 
readers as defire more of thefe fables, we refer to the 
Hindoo Pantheon, where many particulars and plates of 
Ganefa are given. 
MU'RACH, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the 
Schwarzach at Schwarzhofen. 
MU'RACH, a town and caftle of Bavaria, in the Upper 
Palatinate : feven miles eaft of Nabburg. 
MURADAL', a pafs of Spain, in the Morena Mountains, 
between New Caftile and Andalufia, wdiere the Spaniards 
obtained a viftory over the Moors in the year 1202. 
MURHL'NA, /.' [pvpEw, Gr. to Hide away, or efcape ; 
its llipperinefs being proverbial.] The Eel; in ichthy¬ 
ology, a genus of fiihes of the order apodes, of which the 
generic charafters are—Head fmooth ; noltrils tubular; 
gill-membrane with ten rays ; eyes, covered with a com¬ 
mon Ik in ; body round, fmooth, mucous ; caudal, dorfal, 
and anal, fins united ; a fpiracle behind the head or pec¬ 
toral fins. 
This genus feems to make a very near approach to the 
reptile ciafs ; for in the eel, as in reptiles, the body is 
M U R 
long, (lender, and flexible ; and, excepting the flmall pair 
of peftoral fins, it may be laid to be without fins, inaf- 
much as the dorfal, anal, and tail, fins are united in one 
web, which furrounds a large portion of the body. 
Nine fpecies only are delcribed by Gmelin ; and even 
from thefe fome later naturalifts have cut off five, and 
formed them into a diftinft genus, Anguilla. On the 
other hand, many fpecies have been lately difeovered by 
Bloch, Cepede, See. fome of which have been placed here; 
others in a newly-created genus called Gymnothorax, 
from wanting the peftoral fins ; and fome in other new 
genera for which ephemeral names have been invented. 
We have always endeavoured to follow the Linnsean 
fyftetn as clofely as poffxble, and to avoid adopting new 
genera where it could be avoided ; and upon that prin¬ 
ciple the following enumeration of fpecies is formed. 
1. Murasna anguilla, the common eel: body without 
fpots, and the under jaw protruded. There are ten rays 
in the membrane of the gills, nineteen in the peftoral-fin, 
100 in the anal, in the tail and dorfal together 1000. The 
body of this fifli is long, narrow, fmooth, and covered 
with flime. The head is fmall, ending fharp ; the noltrils 
are cylindric, and placed in the upper jaw; and near the 
eye are two other apertures, long and round, which are 
probably the organs of hearing. The aperture of the 
mouth is fmall; the jaws and palate are armed with feveral 
rows of fmall teeth ; and there are little apertures in each 
jaw whence a vilcous matter is exprelfed. The eyes are 
fmall, and furniflied with a membrane ; the pupil is black, 
the iris gold-colour. The gill-coverts unite with the 
body by means of a Ikin ; and the fmall aperture is cref- 
cent-fliaped, and lies dole to the peftoral fin. The body, 
which is narrow and long, is round at the back and belly, 
and a little compreffed at the fides. The lateral line, 
which is in the middle, has a ftraight direftion and fome 
white dots. The colour depends on the kind of water it 
inhabits : it is black when the water has a muddy bottom, 
and then the belly only is yellowilh; where the bottom 
is fandy, the eel is green or brownilh, with the belly of a 
fiiver colour; fuch is our common eel, which is called the 
Jilver eel. Haffelquift faw an eel the back of which was 
marked with brown Itripes, which formed fpots where 
they communicated. The lkin is very fupple, and is fur- 
nilhed with long foft feales, which however are only 
vifible when the eel is dry. On this fubjeft fee the article 
Ichthyology, vol. x. p. 748. and Plate II. The dorfal 
and anal fins are long and narrow ; the former, which is 
united to that of the tail, is reddifn at the edges; the 
other is white. The peftoral fins are fmall, round, and 
of a lighter colour than the body. See the annexed En¬ 
graving, fig. 1. 
The eel by its form approaches to the creeping am¬ 
phibia, particularly to the vipers, by its outward fhape, 
movements, vifeous body, and fleeping all the winter: 
it is on this account probably that Homer (Il.xxi.) feems 
inclined to cut it off from the race of fiihes; for tho 
fame reafon no doubt the Greenlanders will not eat it, 
but only ufe the ikin, of which they make bags for their 
fhot; the Romans, according to Juvenal, held it in no 
elteem; on the other hand, the Boeotians prized it fo 
much, that they crowned it with garlands, and facrificed 
it to the gods. The Jews do not eat it, becaufe it is fup* 
pofed to have no feales : fee Deut. xiv. 10. 
The eel is found in all climates, from Jamaica and the 
Eaft Indies to Iceland and Greenland. There are but two 
ftreams in Europe, otnerwife well furniflied with fifli, in 
which eels are very rare, namely, the Danube and the Volga. 
Willoughby fays they are never found in the Danube, and 
they die immediately if thrown in; but Marfigli and Kra¬ 
mer contradift this from ocular demonftration. According 
to Pliny, they are found in the Ganges; and Sloane 
fays they are known in Jamaica, at leaft he remarks 
no difference between the eel of that country and that 
of Europe. Ariftotle remarked, that the eel paffes from 
the rivers into the flea, which oblervation is confirmed 
■by 
