sufficiently resembling this part of the poem to be inserted

here:

To Flint, from thence, into a restless bed,
That miserable night he comes conveyed;
Poorly provided, poorly followed,
Uncourted, unrespected, unobey'd;
Where, if uncertain Sleep but hovered
Over the drooping cares that heavy weigh'd,
Millions of figures Fantasy presents
Unto that sorrow waken'd grief augments.

His new misfortune makes deluded Sleep
Say 't was not so:-false dreams the truth deny :
Wherewith he starts; feels waking cares do creep
Upon his soul, and give his dreams the lie,
Then sleeps again:—and then again as deep
Deceits of darkness mock his misery.

Civil War, Book II. st. 52, 58.

The Aullay.-XVI. p. 132.

This monster of Hindoo imagination is a horse with the trunk of an elephant, but bearing about the samne proportion to the elephant in size, that the elephant itself does to a common sheep. In one of the prints to Mr. Kindersley's Specimens of Hindoo Literature," an aullay is represented taking up an elephant with his trunk.

66

Did then the Ocean wage

His war for love and envy, not in rage,

O thou fair City, that he spared thee thus ?-XVI. p. 133.

Malecheren, (which is probably another name for Baly), in an excursion which he made one day alone, and in disguise, came to a garden in the environs of his city Mahâbalipoor, where was a fountain so inviting, that two celestial nymphs had come down to bathe there. The Rajah became ena

moured of one of them, who condescended to allow of his attachment to her; and she and her sister nymph used thenceforward to have frequent interviews with him in that garden. On one of those occasions they brought with them a male inhabitant of the heavenly regions, to whom they introduced the Rajah, and between him and Malecheren a strict friendship ensued; in consequence of which he agreed, at the Rajah's earnest request, to carry him in disguise to see the court of the divine Inder, -a favour never before granted to any mortal. The Rajah returned from thence with new ideas of splendour and magnificence, which he immediately adopted in regulating his court and his retinue, and in beautifying his seat of government. By this means Mahâbalipoor became soon celebrated beyond all the cities of the earth; and an account of its magnificence having been brought to the gods assembled at the court of Inder, their jealousy was so much excited at it, that they sent orders to the God of the Sea to let loose his billows, and overflow a place which impiously pretended to vie in splendour with their celestial mansions. This command he obeyed, and the city was at once overflowed by that furious element, nor has it ever since been able to rear its head. CHAMBERS. Asiatic Researches.

Round those strange waters they repair.

- XVI. p. 135.

In the Bahia dos Artifices, which is between the river Jagoarive and S. Miguel, there are many springs of fresh-water, which may be seen at low tide, and these springs are frequented by fish and by the sea-cow, which they say comes to drink there. Noticias do Brazil. MSS. i. 8.

The inhabitants of the Feroe Islands seek for cod in places where there is a fresh-water spring at the bottom.- LANDT.

The Sheckra.-XVIII. p. 151.

This weapon, which is often to be seen in one of the wheelspoke hands of a Hindoo god, resembles a quoit: the external

edge is sharp; it is held in the middle, and, being whirled along, cuts wherever it strikes.

The writing which, at thy nativity,
All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain.

XVIII. p. 154.

Brahma is considered as the immediate creator of all things, and particularly as the disposer of each person's fate, which he inscribes within the skull of every created being, and which the gods themselves cannot avert.— KINDERSLEY, p. 21. NIECAMP, vol. i. p. 10. § 7.

It is by the sutures of the skull that these lines of destiny are formed. See also a note to Thalaba (Book V. p. 211.) upon a like superstition of the Mahommedans.

Quand on leur reproche quelque vice, ou qu'on les reprend d'une mauvaise action, ils répondent froidement, que cela est écrit sur leur tête, et qu'ils n'ont pu faire autrement. Si vous paroissez étonné de ce langage nouveau, et que vous demandiez à voir où cela est écrit, ils vous montrent les diverses jointures du crâne de leur tête, prétendant que les sutures même sont les curactères de cette écriture mysterieuse. Si vous les pressez de dé

chiffrer ces caractères, et de vous faire connoître ce qu'ils signifient, ils avouent qu'ils ne le sçavent pas. Mais puisque vous ne sçavez pas lire cette écriture, disois-je quelquefois à ces gens entêtés, qui est-ce donc qui vous la lit? qui est-ce qui vous en explique le sens, et qui vous fait connoître ce qu'elle contient? D'ailleurs ces prétendus caractères étant les mêmes sur la tête de tous les hommes, d'où vient qu'ils agissent si différemment, et qu'ils sont si contraires les uns aux autres dans leurs vues, dans leurs desseins, et dans leurs projets?

Les Brames m'écoutoient de sang froid, et sans s'inquiéter ni des contradictions où ils tomboient, ni des conséquences ridicules qu'ils étoient obligés d'avouer. Enfin, lorsqu'ils se sentoient vivement pressés, toute leur ressource étoit de se retirer sans rien dire.-P. MAUDUIT. Lettres Edifiantes, t. x. p. 248.

The Seven Earths. - XIX. p. 161.

The seas which surround these earths are, 1. of salt-water, inclosing our inmost earth; 2. of fresh-water; 3. of tyre, curdled milk; 4. of ghee, clarified butter; 5. of cauloo, a liquor drawn from the pullum tree; 6. of liquid sugar; 7. of milk. The whole system is inclosed in one broad circumference of pure gold, beyond which reigns impenetrable darkness.. KINDERSLEY.

I know not whether the following fable was invented to account for the saltness of our sea :

"Agastya is recorded to have been very low in stature; and one day, previously to the rectifying the too oblique posture of the earth, walking with Veeshnu on the shore of the ocean, the insolent Deep asked the god, who that dwarf was strutting by his side? Veeshnu replied, it was the patriarch Agastya going to restore the earth to its true balance. The sea, in utter contempt of his pigmy form, dashed him with his spray as he passed along; on which the sage, greatly incensed at the designed affront, scooped up some of the water in the hollow of his hand, and drank it off: he again and again repeated the draught, nor desisted till he had drained the bed of the ocean of the entire volume of its waters. Alarmed at this effect of his holy indignation, and dreading an universal drought, the Devetas made intercession with Agastya to relent from his anger, and again restore an element so necessary to the existence of nature, both animate and inanimate. Agastya, pacified, granted their request, and discharged the imbibed fluid in a way becoming the histories of a gross physical people to relate, but by no means proper for this page; a way, however, that evinced his sovereign power, while it marked his ineffable contempt for the vain fury of an element, contending with a being armed with the delegated power of the Creator of all things. After this miracle, the earth being, by the same power, restored to its just balance, Agastya and Veeshnu separated: when the latter, to prevent any similar accident occurring, commanded the great serpent (that is, of the sphere)

to wind its enormous folds round the seven continents, of which, according to Sanscreet geography, the earth consists, and appointed, as perpetual guardians, to watch over and protect it, the eight powerful genii, so renowned in the Hindoo system of mythology, as presiding over the eight points of the world."- MAURICE.

The Pauranics (said Ramachandra to Sir William Jones) will tell you that our earth is a plane figure studded with eight mountains, and surrounded by seven seas of milk, nectar, and other fluids; that the part which we inhabit is one of seven islands, to which eleven smaller isles are subordinate; that a god, riding on a huge elephant, guards each of the eight regions; and that a mountain of gold rises and gleams in the centre. - Asiatic Researches.

"Eight original mountains and seven seas, BRAHMA, Indra, the SUN, and RUDRA, these are permanent; not thou, not I, not this, or that people. Wherefore then should anxiety be raised in our minds?"— Asiatic Res.

Mount Calasay.-XIX. p. 161.

The residence of Ixora is upon the silver mount Calaja, to the south of the famous mountain Mahameru, being a most delicious place, planted with all sorts of trees, that bear fruit all the year round. The roses and other flowers send forth a most odoriferous scent; and the pond at the foot of the mount is inclosed with pleasant walks of trees, that afford an agreeable shade, whilst the peacocks and divers other birds entertain the ear with their harmonious noise, as the beautiful women do the eyes. The circumjacent woods are inhabited by a certain people called Munis, or Rixis, who, avoiding the conversation of others, spend their time in offering daily sacrifices to their god.

It is observable that, though these pagans are generally black themselves, they do represent these Rixis to be of a fair complexion, with long white beards, and long garments hanging crossways, from about the neck down over the breast. They