tree, the fruit of which contained the natural parts of both fexes united from this fruit proceeded a couple, male and female; the man was called Meschia, and the woman Mefchine*. Ahriman, who had got upon the earth in the form of a ferpent, feduced this couple from their allegiance to Ormufd, by perfuading them that he was himfelf the fole author of all that existed: the man and woman both believing him, became criminal, and this fin will perpetuate itfelf till the refurrection. Then Mefchia and Mefchine covered themselves with black veftments, and at length eat of a fruit which the devil prefented them. Some time after, there were born of Meschia and Meschine, two couple, male and female, from which proceeded feven other couple, also male and female: they became parents in about fifty years, and in about one hundred years died. One of these seven couples was Siamack and his wife Vefchak, who had twins, a male named Frevak, and a female named Trevakei: from this couple proceeded fifteen others, which produced fifteen .nations, and multiplied confiderably. Nine of these colonies paffed the Euphrates upon the back of the ox Stareffcok, and established themfelves in the fix Kefchwars, (i. e.) the fix parts of the world: the remaining fix colonies continued in the Kounnerets. Among the chiefs of thefe fix colonies, are reckoned: ift. Taze, and his wife Taza, from whom the defart of the Tazians, now Arabia, derived its name. zd. Ofching and Gondje his wife, from whom proceeded the Iranians, (z. e.) the Perfians. 3d. Mazendran 1, whofe defcendents have inhabited Sfour, Avir, Tour, Tchinesftan, Dai, and Statad: thus the pofterity of Frevak peopled the feven parts of the world. The rest of this Cofmogony is very much extended, and treats of many fubjects. It contains many particulars concerning rivers, mountains, trees, and animals, which, as well as the trees, proceeded from the firft ox: it treats alfo of the feveral fpecies of fire. There is one fire which is always in the presence of Ormufd, and another which refides in animated beings: by which it appears, that the Parffes confider fire as an emanation of the principle of life and action which refides in the Supreme Being. In the beginning of the Boundchefch, mention is made of a rain of forty days. This work alfo contains an account of the event which fhall precede and follow the refurrection. At this great cataftrophe, "the mother fhall be feparated from the father, the fifter from the brother, and the friend from the friend; the just shall weep over the damned, and the damned fhall weep over themselves; for a righteous father may have a fon worthy of hell of two fifters, one fhall be pure, and the other corrupt; and each fhall receive according to their * This account of the origin of mankind, seems to contradict the account given above, where the creation of man is reprefented as the last work of the creation, and as taking up seventy-five days. His wife is not mentioned. works. It is IX. Neaefchs, in Zend and Indian, with an interlineary verfion in modern Perfic, 8vo. 424 pages. X. Minokbered, Perfian and Samfkretam, 8vo. 434 pages. The Minokbered, a word that fignifies the Divine Spirit, is a kind of dialogue, the perfons of which are not certainly known. Some think that they are the Divine Being and Zoroafter its purport is to fhew the utility of the law, and the neceffity of fulfilling it, notwithstanding the objections of unbelievers. thought to have been originally written in Pehlvic; but no copy of it in that language is now extant : befides this tranflation of it into Samskretam, there is a perfect verfion both in profe and verfe; the profe tranflation is in the old Ravaet, of which I fhall give an account in a fubfequent article: the poetical verfion was made about an hundred years fince by Ormufdor, Deftour of Naucary, and is to be found in the Ravact that was brought into England by Mr. Fraser. There are two Minokbereds: the larger, which contains fixty-four queftions; and the smaller, which contains only four. This volume ends with a Patet, Perfian and Samskretam, in which there is a Samskretam verfion of the Jetha Ahouverio, and the Eschemochou. XI. Darounfade, 12mo. 238 pages. This work is part of the Perfic Liturgy, and confifts of several chap. ters of the Jzechne. XII. The Ravaet, in Perfic, a folio of 834 pages. This volume is a collection of several Ravaets, made at Bombay by feven Parffic Deftours. The firft contains feveral determinations relating to ceremonies; the names of one-and-twenty treatifes of Zoroafter; the plans of the places where the Parles perform their purifications, and of their burying-place: it contains alfo the Kolaffedin, or Effentials of the Law; a treatise in verfe and profe, of ceremonies, morals, the shape of the confecrated bread, and the nature of oaths. To these are added the Sogand nama, a treatise on oaths, in which the Parffes are forbidden to fwear, even in favour of the truth. The fecond part contains the conclufion of the Minokbered in verfe; a poem which speaks of Guerfchafft, the firft of the Pehlvans; of Themourets, the king of the dynasty of the Pefchdadians; and of Djemchid, his fucceffor; the Zend and Pehlvic characters; an explication of the Jetha Abauverio, and the Eschem-vohou, with verfes upon the Kofti, which is the girdle of the Parffes; the repentance of Djemchid in hell; the Patets; extracts from the Sadder and Nezengs. Sadder fignifies bundred doors, and this tract is an abridgment of Perfic divinity, fpeculative, practical, and ceremonial : it is called hundred doors, because the hundred chapters, of which it confifts, are fo many doors into heaven: it is only part of the Zendavefta, and is thought to have been originally Pehlvic; fome pieces of Zerduft Behram, and, among others, fome queftions put to Zoroafter by Djamaffp, minifter of king Guftaffp; the Neaefchs of Fire, Water, and the Moon; and the Ormusd Fefcht, in Zend and Perfic; the Afergans, the Sadder; the Niraznama-nazam, or hiftory of Viraf, in verfe, there are three copies of this in Dr. Hunt's collection: the Sadder Bonadebesch, it is called Sadder, because it contains one hundred chapters; and Bomidehefch, because it treats of the origin of things: Djamalp nazam; this is the refult of a conference between king Guftaffp and Djamaffp, his minifter, concerning events prior and fubfequent to the law it is not the work of Djamaffp, tho' it bears his name. XIII. A collection of Perfian : works, 4to. 446 pages. It contains the Zerduft-nama Nazem, or hiftory of Zoroafter in verfe, his birth, his miffion, his miracles, and predictions: Dr. Hunt had a copy of this; the Virap-nama Nazem; the Tchengregratch-nama Nazem, or hiftory of Tchengregratch in verfe, the Bramin, to whom the Vipered is addreffed this Bramin having learnt in India, that Zoroafter was propagating a new doctrine in Perfia, which was adopted by Gustaffp, Djamaffp his minifter, and his court, wrote to the king, the minifter, and Zoroafter, and this work contain's the letters that paffed between them: the Nedefch of the Sun, in Zend and Perfic, with Perfic characters; the Eulma eflam a theolo、 VOL. V. gical conference between a celebrated Defleur and the Mohemotan Mullahs: this contains all the fecrets of the Perfic religion, and makes eternity the first principle of Ormufd, of fire, water, and the devil; anfwers of the Deftours of Kirman to the Deftours Darab and Kaoufs, concerning the first day of the year; Sadder Nazem, (i. e.) the Sadder in verfe; the history of the flight of the Parffas into India in verfe; and the Djamafpi Nazem. XIV. Virafnama, in Indian. XV. The old Raveat: this includes part of No. XII. and all the the Parffic liturgy. XIV. Vadjerguerd; this word fignifies that which is explained." It confifts of prayers that accompany certain ceremonies, particularly the cutting of twigs for the Barffom. XVII. A fmall Pehlvic Perfic dictionary. XVIII. Chekand Goumani; this word fignifies" doubt broken and destroyed." The author afferts, that evil comes not from God; but that the fource of the devil's malignity is in himself. M. Perron has brought many books, befides thofe above enumerated, from India; and he hopes, that the knowledge of the ancient Perfic, being facilitated by fo great a collection, will open a fpacious field of new discoveries to the learned, and clear the way to a perfect acquaintance with the Vedes, and the antiquities of India. M. Per ron, as a proof of his acquaintance with the ancient Perfic, has explained a paffage in that language that occurs in Ariftophanes, which has hitherto puzzled commentators. K Some Some account of a controverfy, now fubfifting among the Learned, concerning a fuppofed-antique Buft at Turin. L AST year there appeared at Rome a fmall piece entitled, De infcriptione quâdam Egyptiaca Taurini inventa, characteribus, Egyptiis olim et Sinibus communibus, follows: Frons tam lata eft, oculi funt cærulei, alba eft facies, unum (five primum) perfona magna hæc eft figura ejus longitudine palmas magnas marmoreas cum dimidia habebat novem ejufdem generis, coloris nigri, nimis (aut valde) pulchra prius erat præfenti tempore tanquam dea veneratur SHISOU-CHI. Mr. Needham thinks, that the In the conclufion, Mr. Needham triumphs in his having overturned the high antiquity of the Chinefe, by proving that they received hieroglyphics from the Egyptians. This letter of Mr. Needham's has been followed by two others, written on the fame fubject to the earl of Macclesfield, prefident of the Royal Society, by Edward Wortley Montague, Efq; F. R. S. exaratâ, idolo cuidam antiquo in re-authenticity of this Egyptian monugiá univerfitate fervato, epiftola.- ment cannot be queftioned, because, Per Turbervillum Needham. In this 1. The marble is Egyptian; 2. The letter Mr. Needham, an English- form of it and the characters are man, informs the reader, that in Egyptian; 3. It has been 30 years the king's museum at Tarin is a at Turin, buft of black marble, commonly supposed to be an antique of the goddefs Ifis; the face and breaft of which are covered with uncommon characters. It came into his head that each of those characters, like thofe of the Chinese, had a particular fignification. He owns he took this idea from the memoir of M. de Guignes*. Upon this he had an exact copy taken both of the bust and the infcription: and had fome thoughts of fending it to China; but meeting with a native of Peking, who belonged to the Vatican library, he fhewed it to him. The Chinese at first knew nothing of it, (nihil prorfus fpectu prima intellexit) because he was acquainted only with the modern Chinese characters. But in a Chinese dictionary, in twenty-fix volumes, printed in the time of Kang-hi, he found the ancient Chinese characters set down; and of the conformity of these characters with those on the buft, Mr. Needham fays, that father Jacquier and Mr. Wilcocks were witneffes as well as himself. At first they made out 12 of the characters, and fome days after, all the reft. The infcription, as they interpret it, is as In the first of these letters, dated Turin, April 17, 1762, this gentleman acquaints lord Macclesfield, that he went with feveral learned men to take off the infcription of the buft, called an antique of Ifis; that on comparing the buft with Mr. Needham's plate, none of them could find the least resemblance; and that the characters, of which he himself took the impreffion from the bust, also differ very much from thofe in Mr. Needham's plate. With regard to the marble, two eminent lapidaries, after a narrow examination, affirmed it was from a quarry in the neighbourhood of Turin. is fo bituminous, that when heated, it yielded a strong smell of fulphur: * See Annual Register, Vol. III. p. 150. It fo that it cannot fairly be reckoned marble. Mr. Needham, who was at TuFin when this letter was wrote, mentioned his fufpicion, that the characters on the buft had been charged or altered, fince they had been copied by his order. Mr. Montague, therefore, had them carefully examined, the day before he wrote this letter, by two of the best statuaries at Turin, in prefence of feveral perfons of learning and distinction, and the artists declared pofitively, that they never had been altered or changed in the leaft fince they were first made; nor could any of the gentlemen prefent difcover any ground for Mr. Needham's fufpicion. Mr. Needham alfo threw out, that this ftatue might not be the fame which the perfon he employed copied, but another fubftituted in the room of it. But, Mr. Montague fays, none of the gentlemen who were prefent at either of these examinations of it, and who must have known it for many years, hinted any thing like it. To excufe the diffimilitude of the buft to his drawing, Mr. Needham came and told Mr. Montague, that he ordered the perfon, who copied it for him, not to be anxious about the likeness of the buft, it being fufficient for him that it was the buft of a womon. This is the fubftance of rhe first letter. From Mr. Montague's fecond letter, dated Rome, October 2, 1762, it appears that the abbé Bartoli, one of the profeffors of the univerfity of Turin, and antiquarian to the king, who took a defign, about eight or nine years ago, of the buft and infcription in queftion, had published a letter, or letters, against Mr. Needham, to which the latter replied, and in his reply every where joined Mr. Montague with M. Bartoli, though he knew that Mr. Montague had never entered into M. Bartoli's arguments, Mr. Needham, in answer to what Mr. M. had objected of the bituminous nature of the ftone, fays, that all ftones, if hard enough, when rubbed with iron, will yield an odour of fulphur: this he had faid at the time of the experiment; upon which Mr. M. in Mr. Needham's prefence, rubbed the ftone with a piece of wood, which had nearly the fame effect: but this circumstance Mr. Needham fuppreffes. Mr. Needham further alledged, that the ftone would be found to be as much Egyptians as the two lions at the Dioclefian baths, and the two fphinxes, and feveral other undoubted Egyptian ftatues of the villa Borghefa. But cardinal Albani (who is particularly eminent for that kind of learning) being fhewn a fmall piece of the bust; gave his opinion in writing, to the following effect: "I proteft that I cannot find in the plate of the buft at Turin, either the conformation of the features proper to Egyptian heads, or the ftyle of their fculpt ors, both the one and the other being absolutely different in the above-mentioned, from many undoubted monuments and ftatues of that nation; and, according to a design sent me of it, I cannot find out the buft in question to be Egyptian. I have the characters as they are, which appear to me to be magical, and of that figure which one finds on fome gems, and which are known by the name of Abraxas; but the ftone of the buft of which the gentleman K 2 (Mr. |