am told is a native of Cashmir and Persia."*

In Egypt it grew in the canals that conducted the water of the Nile to the neighbouring plains, and in recesses on the borders of the river itself: its tubular roots, black without, white within, sprang from the muddy soil below; the flower and leaves displayed themselves above the surface of the water.

In India it has also its existence in the water. "The seeds are very numerous, minute and round. The flowers of the blue, beautifully azure; but when full blown, more diluted, less fragrant than the red, or rose-coloured, but still with a delicate scent. The leaves are radical, subtargeted, hearted, deeply scollop-toothed. On one side dark purple, reticulated; on the other, dull green, smooth. Petals very smooth, long and tubular." Sir William Jones observes, that there is a variety

* Jones, vol. v. p. 128.

is of the same qualities, but more transparent than that of the Nilotic, or Arabian species. The wood, extremely hard, is used by the Brahmins to kindle their sacred fire, by rubbing two pieces of it together, when of a proper age and sufficiently dried.”*

Bilva, or Malura, by Linnæus termed Crataeva, of which there are three species, but the one here referred to is the Crataeva Religiosa. This plant bears a large spheroidal berry, with numerous seeds. "The fruit nutritious, warm, cathartic; in taste delicious, in fragrance exquisite. It is call ed Sriphala, because it sprang, say the Indian poets, from the milk of Sri, the goddess of abundance, who bestowed it on mankind at the request of Iswara, the god of nature, whence he alone wears a chaplet of Bilva flowers: to him only the Hindus offer them; and when they see any of them fallen on the ground, they take them up with reverence, and carry them to his temple."+

Besides other proofs that might be pro duced, to shew that polytheism was not of Grecian origin, a passage of Herodotus may be mentioned, where, in speaking of the Pelasgi, he says, that they distinguished not the Gods by any names; they called them Gods, by which they meant to say ordainers; that they afterwards learnt the names of divinities from the Egyptians; that they consulted the oracle at Dodona, to know if they should adopt them, which answered that they might, and that from the Pelasgi they were spread through Greece. There, as in India, the number of divinities was afterwards gradually increased by deifying wise men and heroes. Many deities and objects of adoration were also invented by poets, who ventured sometimes even to personify inanimate things, as well as mental qualities:- fountains, groves, and admired trees and flowers.

The Hindu divinities at their feasts drank a beverage named Amrūti, as the Grecian gods drank their Ambrosia.

66

It might be proved beyond controversy,

that we now live among the adorers of those very deities, who were worshipped under different names in old Greece and Italy; and among the professors of those philosophical tenets, which the Ionic and Attic writers illustrated with all the beauties of their melodious language. On one hand we see the trident of Neptune, the eagle of Jupiter, the satyrs of Bacchus, the bow of Cupid, and the chariot of the Sun; on another we hear the cymbals of Rhea, the songs of the Muses, and the pastoral tales of Apollo Nomius. In more retired scenes, in groves, and in seminaries of learning, we may perceive the Brahmins, and the Sarmanes, mentioned by Clemens, disputing in the forms of logic, or discoursing on the vanity of human enjoyments, on the immortality of the soul, her emanation from the eternal mind, her debasement, wandering, and final union with her source. The six philosophical schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sastra, comprise all the metaphysics of the old Academy, the Stoa, and the

stream, an appearance which it is said to present, before it is disturbed by the waters flowing into it, during the rains, from the mountains of Abyssinia.

Dr. Edward Smith supposes the Indian Lotos, and the Egyptian plant, Nymphæa Nilufer, to be different. The former he distinguishes under the names of Cyamus, and the Indian Bean; and observes, that the latter became important in the Egyptian mythology, only as a substitute for the former; and hence, says he, "I have for some time presumed to deduce an argument in support of the doctrine now prevalent, on other grounds, that the religion of the Egyptians was adopted from the East.” He proceeds, afterwards, to suppose the seeds of the Cyamus to be " the celebrated Pythagorean bean;" and he rejects the

or dark azure; and in the Calica-puran, they are all ascribed to the river. They are Cali, or Cala, Nila, Asita, Shyama, or Shyamala, Mechaca, Anjanabha, Crishna." See Asiat. Res. vol. iii. p. 303, article on Egypt and the Nile from the ancient books of the Hindūs, by Mr. Francis Wilford.