whole chronology on the account of Buto (which he renders Budha) given therein. "It is well known," says Mr. Bryant, "that the ark was constructed by a divine commission, in which, when it was completed, God enclosed the patriarch and his family. Hence, it is said, that Typhon made an ark of curious workmanship, that he might dispose of the body of Osiris. All this relates to the Typhonian deity, who enclosed Noah together with his family within the limits of an ark. The patriarch, also, who was thus interested in the event, had the title of Typhonian. The ark by the mythologists was spoken of, as the mother of mankind. The stay in the ark was esteemed a state of death, and of regeneration. The passage to life was through the door of the ark, which was formed in its side. Through this the patriarch made his descent, and at this point was the commencement of time. This history is obscurely alluded to in the account of Typhon. The same mythology, and the same hieroglyphics "he tells us" were carried as far as China and Japan, where they are to be found to this day. The Indians have a person, whom they greatly reverence, and esteem a deity, and whom they call Buto or Budo. This is the same name as Boutos of Egypt, Bottus of Cyrene and Belus of Greece. The account given of him is similar to that of Typhon. For it is said, he did

not come to life in the usual way, but made himself a passage through the side of his mother, which mother is represented as a virgin. This history, though now current among the Indians, is of great antiquity; as we may learn from the account given of this personage by Clemens Alexandrinus. There is a cast of Indians who are disciples of Boutos. This person, upon account of his extraordinary sanctity, they look up to, as a God." The account given by Clemens Alexandrinus is totally unconnected with the Chinese Bu-to, or Foe, said to have forced his way through the side of his mother, who is now for the first time considered as a virgin. For the mother of this Chinese God Foe, was the wife of In-fan-vang, a tributary prince of that country. Yet, on the foregoing authority, the whole Hindu chronology is attempted to be overthrown; the birth of this Chinese sectary being declared the standard, by which all Hindu chronology is to be regulated. But the birth of Foe, is so clearly ascertained to have taken place, on or near the year B. c. 1027, that Sir William Jones acknowledges that he had confounded him, with the first Budha, or Mercury, whom the Goths call Woden; forgetting that in so doing he overset the whole postdiluvian system. For the similitude between Noah and Foe, the Chinese Buty, originated in the former having descended from the door which was in the side of VOL. II. B

the ark, and the latter having forced his way into the world through the side of his mother, and therefore, answers much better to Julius Cæsar or Macduff, than to Noah.

Clemens Alexandrinus was treating of the second Hindu Buddha, a character so sacred that he is supposed by the Hindus to be the eternal Spirit in a human form. And, as I have before shewn, he was the prophet Enoch. But, in the Indian Puranas, we must be careful to distinguish between the divine Spirit, and the carnal form, in which it is supposed to have been enclosed; as, likewise, between the pure religion taught by that prophet, and the impure religion at present tolerated; which is so shaded by fable and darkened by idolatry, as to require more than a common share of perseverance to divide the grain from the chaff in which it is enveloped. There are, however, none, I believe, so ignorant, as not to allow, that the redeeming Spirit offered himself as an atonement, and that he will re-appear, at the last day, to judge mankind. That this is an article of their faith, nearly all their Puranas, and sacred songs, evince. The following are given by Sir William Jones:

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Spring to life triumphant Son,

"Hell's* future dread and heaven's eternal wonder.Ӡ

* Death's.

+ Hymn to Dargu.

"To soften human ills dread Seva drank

"The poisonous flood, that stained his azure neck."

"Oh! haste, oh! seek the God with Lotos eyes: "The power that stoop'd to soften human woes, "None e'er implored in vain." ‡

In the giant Taraca we trace Satan personified. And this moral is attached to the fable, that death, the consequence of sin, having been brought into world, by the disobedience of the first-created, so could the life eternal only be procured by the mediation of the Son of the Most High. We may abridge the fable as follows: "Taraca, or Tercku, the prince of the Dityas or fallen spirits, having performed the most austere religious penances before his expulsion from heaven,+ obtained two promises from the Almighty; first, that, of all created beings, no one should be equally powerful with himself; and, secondly, that he should never be overcome either by mortal, Soor, or Assoor; in consequence of which he became the tyrant of the earth. The whole world became under the influence of Satan, and a general consternation took place even in the paradise of the Gods, when

* Hymn to Indr

+ Hymn to Lacshmi.

Before his dereliction from virtue.

i. e. Benign spirits, the guardians of mankind. Paradise. never denotes the residence of the Eternal, but of the prophets after death. On this subject see the tenth chapter of St. John, verse 34, and Psalm lxxii. 6.

it was discovered that, by the promise obtained from the Most High, neither Gods nor men had power over the prince of darkness: it was decreed by fate, that none, but the Son of the supreme God, should vanquish this enemy of the world." From the foregoing fable long legendary tales have been invented; such as the marriage of Seva, for the purpose of giving birth to this divine Son, who is called Coma" and a thousand more figurative expressions, rendered absurd by being understood literally whereas, originally, each denoted the union of some virtue; each name being derived from some peculiar attribute of the Deity. The legend ends by the divine Son overcoming the giant, and rescuing the world from sin and death. This giant in the first Avatar is named Hayagriva, in allusion to his having stolen the Vedas, or introduced a false religion; which has been explained in a former page. In sculpture the prophet Buddha in the Matsya or first Avatar, is depicted as issuing from the mouth of a fish, and as in the act of prophesying. In the second, or Courma Avatar, the same divine Spirit is depicted in the act of foretelling the resurrection, or life eternal, to all those who worship the living God. "Those," says he, "that assist in the great

*Cama or Cœma, divine love.