literally true. Our author therefore assigns to him those honours, which were exclusively meant for Enoch the son of Jared. If the four names given by Mr. Wilford as of the race of Noah, are not entirely fabulous, which I believe to be the case, they must have been appointed subordinate rulers, in the very earliest period of the fourth age. For the Hindu records are very clear in respect to none having been appointed (of that race) after that period and if so, it is possible, that Adam might have died during the time of Visitaswa (who perhaps was Vriadratha*) and Enoch might have been translated during that of Ducsha. Thus I have endeavoured to make sense of this contradictory passage; for the explanation attempted by the author is absurd, and, if possible, more heterogeneous than the account. For he adds, "supposing Pritha to be Noah, and Dhrava to be Enoch, the account agrees remarkably well with the computation of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Enos lived 433 years after the birth of Noah ; and, of course, the great grandchild of the latter could be witness of the translation of Dhrava into heaven. Swayambhuva, or Adam, lived 223 years after the birth of Noah, according to the computation of the Samaritan Pentateuch; and it is said of Pritha that the earth having assumed the shape of a cow,

*See p. 151, the twenty-first name.

he made use of his great ancestor Swayambhuva as a calf to milk her. Perhaps the old sire took delight in superintending the fields and orchards of his beloved Pritha." The reasoning of the foregoing is as weak as the sentiment is profane. Nor can we be surprised, while such a doctrine is promulgated by Europeans, that " Anglo Indians" are styled "unbaptized Christians;" or that the religion we profess, should be held in contempt by the Hindus. For there is no Brahman so ignorant, as not to know that the portion of Narayana, the spirit that moved on the waters at the creation, and animated the body of Buddha the son of Máyá, in that incarnate form, was of the seventh generation, and a type of that redeeming Spirit, which they expect, when the days shall be fulfilled, (i. e. the present age concluded) to judge mankind in the incarnate form of Calsi, the tenth and last Avatar: whereas Mr. Wilford affects to believe, that Enos the son of Seth was translated to heaven, in the year of the world 1140, and consequently lived 433 years after the birth of Noah, placing that epoch at A. M. 707. If the Samaritan text places the birth of Noah at A. M. 707, it likewise places the birth of his eldest son at A. M. 1207; that of his grandson Arphaxad at A. M. 1308; and the translation of Enoch at A. M. 887. So that unless we admit the Dacsha of this author

to have been born at least 320 years before his great grandfather Vigilaswa, "the account agrees. remarkably ill with the computation of the Samaritan Pentateuch," which places the translation of Enoch three hundred and twenty years before the birth of Shem. The Samaritan text places the deluge at A. M. 1307; Mr. Wilford at the year B. c. 3044, or A. M. 958; which likewise agrees remarkably ill therewith. It appears, from these contradictory accounts, that the author makes even nature itself subservient to his views. For, when Budha and Bharata were to flourish in the antediluvian world, the deluge is placed according to the Samaritan text. But, when it becomes expedient to detail the events of their life as postdiluvian, the deluge is carried back 349 years for their accommodation. The Hindu text, which has been so profanely perverted, for the purpose of bringing in a miserable play on words, is as follows. "He, the supreme ruler, who prescribed the sacrifice ordained from the beginning; from fire, from air, and from the Sun, milked out as it were the three primordial Vedas, named Rich, Yayush, and Saman, for the due performance thereof." Could any, but a professed atheist, render the foregoing," The earth having assumed the shape of a cow, Noah made use of his great ancestor Adam to milk her?" It is not by

ridiculing religion, or rejecting the Hebrew text of the Bible, that we can expect to convert the Hindus to Christianity. The introduction of the well known allegory of the elephants and the crocodiles, with the remarks thereon, warrants us in supposing the whole to be meant in ridicule. Mr. Wilford tells us, "that during the reign of the fourth Menu, occurred the famous war between the elephants and the crocodiles. Whenever the elephants went to drink or bathe, the crocodiles dragged them into the water, and devoured them; the horde of the elephants having been attacked by the chief of the crocodiles a dreadful conflict took place, and the elephants would all have been destroyed but for the assistance of Vishnu: what could have given rise to such an extravagant tale, I cannot determine. But some obvious traits of it still remain in the sacred isles of the west. almost every lake in Wales has a strange story attached to it, of battles fought there, between an ox and a beaver, both of uncommon size: at night the lowing of the ox and the rattling of the chain with which Behainbannawy (the great ox) endeavours to pull out of the water the Arane (beaver) are often heard." To strengthen this Welch wonder, Mr. Wilford adds, " elephants were called oxen in the west." Now as it is impossible this author can seriously intend to inform us that he

For

had often heard the lowing of Behainbannawy, or the rattling of his chains, we can only suppose that he was indulging a vein of irony at the expence of truth. But if, on the contrary, he is one of those ghost seers, who imagine watch-lights before death, and hear the screams of the dæmons, who await their prey before a storm, his appetite for the marvellous would be amply gratified by the unenlightened Indians, who frequently take allegorical descriptions literally. The legend alluded to is the great battle, in which Sesonchoris* the son of Amaneres, called by the Hindus the chief of the elephants, conquered the whole world. In consequence of which, the crocodiles resigned the sovereignty of the world to the fourth Avatara (Mahalaleel of Scripture). Accordingly the fifth dynasty of the Egyptians is said by Manethon to have been of Elephantine kings. Elephants and mal crocodiles were the emblematic names given to harkace. the race of Seth and Cain, and, even in the post-12140 diluvian world, the Hindus were allegorically named elephants, and those who inhabited the country approximating to the Nile, crocodiles. And the Indians on that side of Asia, still contend that had it not been for the Avatars the mighty monarchs of the river had subdued those, of the forest.

applied to,

* Sesostris.