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not less in number than 40,000 souls, maintained without labour by the liberality of superstition.*

The disproportioned figures of most of the idols, adored in these superb fabrics, are by no means in unison with the prevailing symmetry that reigns in their construction; though it must be confessed, that the ponderous ornaments of gold and jewels, with which they are decorated, are perfectly so with the sumptuousness and magnificence that distinguish them. Those idols are in general formed of every monstrous shape which imagination can conceive, being, for the most part, half human and half savage. Some appear formidably terrific with numerous heads and arms, the rude expressive symbols of super-human wisdom and of gigantic power; others appear with large horns branching from their heads: and others again with huge tusks protruded from their extended In short, as Master Purchase has

mouths.

observed, "they are very

they are very ill-favoured; their mouths are monstrous, their ears gilded and full of jewels, their teeth and eyes of gold, silver, or glass, and coloured black with the lamps that burn continually before them."†

* Orme's History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 178. + See Purchase's Pilgrimage, vol. i. p. 579, edit. 1679.

A

profusion of consecrated hieroglyphic animals appears sculptured all over the crowded walls. The BULL, SO peculiarly sacred to OSIRIS, at Memphis, as indeed, he was to SEEVA, THE GOD WITH THE CRESCENT, at Benares, the RAM sacred to JUPITER, and the GOAT to PAN, are seen together in the same groupe with the ape, the rhinoceros, and the elephant: and EGYPT seems to have blended her sacred animals with those which are considered as in a more peculiar manner belonging to INDIA.

SECTION II.

Preliminary Observations to the comparative Survey of the Temples of Egypt, comprehending an extensive Disquisition relative to the Period in which the Superstitions, more peculiarly appropriate to EGYPT, were transported into INDIA.-Probable to have been at that Crisis when the Egyptian Priests were driven from their Country by the cruel Ravages of CAMBYSES. The Opinions of KIRCHER and KEMPFER on this Subject, greatly corroborated by the Reflections of Sir W. JONES, in the Asiatic Researches, on the Subject of the Indian Deity BOODн, or BUDDHA; and on the great Resemblance subsisting both in the Name and the worship of the Egyptian Isis and OSIRIS and the Indian ESWARA and Isa. -Mr. CHAMBERS's Account of the Ruins of Mavalipuram, of the SOMMONACODOM, or Stone-Deity of the SIAMESE, and of the Super

stition of BOODH.-Additional Evidence of an early and familiar Intercourse subsisting between the EGYPTIANS and INDIANS, adduced.

First, in their mutual Veneration of the sacred LOTOS.-Secondly, in their early Cultivation of the SUGAR-CANE.-Thirdly, in their ancient and once universal Diet having consisted of VEGETABLES.-Fourthly, in their mutually possessing a SACRED SACERDOTAL LANGUAGE, called in India the DEVANAGARI. -Fifthly, in the Division of the People into TRIBES or CASTS.-Sixthly, in the numerous ABLUTIONS practised by both People.—And, finally, in their universal Reverence of the Cow and the SERPENT.-The PYRAMIDS, the coLOSSAL STATUES, and the TEMPLES, of EGYPT, together with their symbolical Decorations, are now at large considered in a new and mythological Point of View, and the Analogy which they bear to the ancient Mythriac Superstitions of the Greater Asia are pointed out.

IMPRESSED with ideas tolerably correct of the unsullied purity of the genuine laws and of the uniform simplicity of the original mode of

worship established by the first great legislator of Hindostan, and not ignorant, at the same time, of the awful sanction by which the natives were bound, through the wise policy of the legislator, to the strict observance of both, many zealous admirers of the celebrated institution of Indian jurisprudence and theology have been filled with astonishment at the rapid increase of idol-deities, and especially of Egyptian deities, in that country. It is evident from every review of the ancient history of the two countries, that in the most early ages, a very familiar intercourse subsisted between India and Egypt. Upon evidence, that appears neither irrational, nor unsupported by collateral proof, we have seen that some authors of credit have considered the Indians as descended from Rama, the grandson of HAM, the parent of idolatry. However strong that evidence, the more generally prevalent opinion seems to be that the Indians are of the nobler and more devout line of SHEM. If we consider them in the latter point of view, as the progeny of that holy patriarch, one of the most probable solutions of this deviation, in his descendants, from their primeval simplicity of worship that has been offered, is to be found in the learned Athanasius Kircher, who has made

* Kircher. Chin. Illustrat. part iii. p. 151. edit. Amst. 1667.

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