feigned to be her earliest production: and the greatest part of the hymn exhibits a correct delineation of the Ragmala, or necklace of musical modes, which may be considered as the most pleasing invention of the ancient Hindūs, and the most beautiful union of painting with poetical mythology and the genuine theory of music."

"The Hindū arrangement of the musical modes is elegantly formed on the variations of the Indian year, and the association of ideas; a powerful auxiliary to the ordinary effect of modulation. The modes, in this system, are deified; and as there are six seasons in India, namely, two Springs, Summer, Autumn, and two Winters, an original Rag, or god of the mode, is conceived to preside over each particular season; each principal mode is attended by five Ragnys, or nymphs of harmony; each has eight sons, or genii of the same divine art; and each Rag, with his family, is appropriated to a distinct season, in which alone his melody can be sung or played at prescribed hours of the day or night: the

mode of Deipec, or Cupid the inflamer, is supposed to be lost; and a tradition is current in Hindustan, that a musician, who attempted to restore it, was consumed by fire from heaven. The natural distribution of modes would have been seven, thirtythree, and forty-four, according to the number of the minor and major secondary tones; but this order was varied for the sake of the charming fiction above-mentioned."

"The last couplet of the poem, addressed to Sareswati, alludes to the celebrated place of pilgrimage at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamna, which the Sareswaty, another sacred river, is supposed to join under ground."*

"Lacshmi is the Hindu goddess of harvests and abundance. She is also named Pedma, and Camala from the sacred Lotos or Nymphæa;-" but her most remarkable

* See Translation of a Sanscrit poem to Sareswati; in Sir William Jones's Works, 8vo. edit. vol. xiii. p.

name is Sri, or in the first case Sris, which has a resemblance to the Latin, and means fortune or prosperity.-It may be contended, that, although Lacshmi may be figuratively called the Ceres of Hindustan, yet any two or more idolatrous nations, who subsisted by agriculture, might naturally conceive a deity to preside over their labours, without having the least intercourse with each other; but no reason appears why two nations should concur in supposing that deity to be a female. One, at least, of them would be more likely to imagine that the earth was a goddess, and that the god of abundance rendered her fertile. Besides, in very ancient temples near Gaya, we see images of Lacshmi, with full breasts, and a cord twisted under her arm like a horn of plenty, which very much resemble the old Grecian and Roman figures of Ceres."*

Ceres was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, or Vesta; and Lacshmi is the daugh

* Jones.

ter, not indeed of Menu himself, but of Bhrigu, by whom the first code of sacred laws was promulgated. She seems also to answer to some of the attributes of the Egyptian Isis, to whom corn, and, indeed, all the other productions of the earth were attributed. There can, however, be little doubt, we think, that Ceres and Isis were the same personages. The former was properly the goddess of agriculture, but the latter had numerous names and attributes, and hence the appellation given to her of Myrio

nyma.

The Lingam of the Hindūs seems to correspond in many respects with the Lampsacan god Phallus, or the Roman deity Priapus. This object of worship in India, sometimes represents both the male and female parts of generation, but generally only the former. A lamp is kept constantly burning before the image; but when the Brahmins perform their religious ceremonies, and make their offerings, which ge

See Asiatic Res. 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 240.

nerally consist of flowers, it is said that seven lamps are lighted; which De la Croze, speaking from the information of the protestant missionaries, says, exactly resemble the candelabras of the Jews, that are to be seen on the triumphal arch of Titus.

Very singular and striking marks of affinity appear in the religious rites performed to Phallus, by the Egyptians and Greeks, and those by the Hindus to Lingam; upon which occasions the emblematic representations of that deity, and the ceremonies used, seem exactly to resemble one another. The figure of Phallus was consecrated to Osiris, Dionysus, and Bacchus, who probably were the same: at the festivals of Osiris, it was carried, in Egypt, by women, and the figure of Lingam is now borne by women in Hindustan.

Various accounts are given of the origin of this personage; but in Greece he appears to have been generally considered as the son of Bacchus and Venus, and to have been born in Lampsacus, in Asia Minor, where the goddess met Bacchus on his re