rum, the sister of Cain. The Scripture says, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair: the Hindus, that the children of the Sun, married with those of the Moon, in consequence of their beauty. It matters very little whether these accounts are true or fabulous, that they are derived from the same source is all that I attempt to demonstrate. To proceed with the quotation :

"Of the five Menus that succeeded him," says Sir William Jones, "I have little more than their names; but the Hindu writings are very diffuse on the life and posterity of the seventh Menu surnamed Vaivaswat, or child of the Sun. He is supposed to have had ten sons, of whom the eldest was Teshwacu and to have been accompanied by seven Rishi's or holy persons, whose names were Casyapa, Atri, Vasisht'ha, Viswamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, and Bharatwaya. An account which explains the opening of the fourth Chapter of the Gita. This immutable system of creation (says Crishna) I revealed to Vaivaswator the Sun; Vaivaswat declared it to his son Menu; Menu explained it to Icshwacu. In the reign of this Sun-born monarch, the Hindus believe the whole world to have been drowned, and the whole human race destroyed by a flood, except the pious prince himself, the seven Rishi's and their several wives ;

for they suppose his children to have been born after the flood. This general Pralaya, or destruction, is the subject of the first Purana.”

Here, it is evident, the first Menu is blended with the seventh. Vaivaswat was the epithet annexed to every Menu in the race of the Sun, or Seth. The seven Rishi's preserved in the ark, were seven divine precepts, not men; and the opening of the fourth Chapter of the Gita alludes exclusively to the first Menu or Adam, and may be understood as follows. The Deity, through his prophet Enoch, revealed this immutable system of devotion or revealed religion to Adam; who declared it to Seth, by whom the whole was explained to his son Enos, who having lived until Noah was 84 years of age, was enabled to instruct the postdiluvian world; or in other words, the postdiluvian world knew the sublime doctrine of the Vedas, because they were delivered by Adam, through his son Seth, to Enos, who made them known to Noah, who took these divine precepts with him into the ark. The seven names assigned as the names of the seven Rishi's, that entered the ark, are again blended with the seven sons supposed to have issued from the first Menu. "The story of the Pralaya is concisely, but clearly and elegantly told in the eighth book of the Bhagawata," from whence Sir W. Jones furnishes an abridgement. But

being himself deceived in respect to the meaning of the Pralaya, he has in the unabridged, as well as the abridged translation, in several instances given his own, rather than the sentiments of the Hindus. The following is the unabridged translation of the Pralaya, the subject of the first Purana, entitled that of the Matsya or first Avatara. "Desiring the preservation of herds and of Brahmans, of genii, and virtuous men, of the Vedas, of law, and of precious things, the Lord of the Universe assumes many bodily shapes; but though he pervades like the air, a variety of beings, yet he is himself unvaried, since he has no quality subject to change. At the close of the last Calpa (day of Brahma) there was a general deluge occasioned by the sleep of Brahma; whence his creatures in different worlds, were drowned in a vast ocean; Brahma, being inclined to slumber, desiring repose after a lapse of ages, the strong demon Hayagriva (Satan) came near him, and stole the Vedas which had flowed from his lips. When Heri, the preserver of the universe, discovered this deed of the prince of Dánavas, he took the shape of a minute fish called Sap'harit. An holy king named

*In the Sanscrit " at the close of the 112th Menwantara."

+ Properly Sap❜heri, or Lord of the Waters, the Spirit that first moved on the waters.

Satyavrata then reigned *, a servant of the Spirit that moved on the waves, and so devout that water was his only sustenance: he was the child of the Sun, and, in the present Calpa, is invested by Narayan in the office of Menu, by the name of Sra'ddhade'va, or the God of obsequies. One day as he was making a libation in the river Critamala, and held water in the palm of his hand, he perceived a small fish moving in it. The king of Dravira immediately dropped the fish into the river, together with the water which he had taken from it; when the Sap'hari thus emphatically addrest the benevolent monarch. "How canst thou, O king, who shewest affection to the oppresed, leave me in this river water, where I am too weak to resist the monsters of the stream, who fill me with dread?" He not knowing who had assumed the form of a fish, applied his mind to the preservation of the Sap'hari both from good nature, and from regard to his own soul; and having heard its very suppliant address, he kindly placed it under his protection, in a small vase full of water. But in a single night, its bulk was so increased, that it could not be contained in the jar, and thus again addressed the pious prince: “I am

* In the Sanscrit, reigned in Dravira, a maritime province south of Carnata.'

not pleased with living miserably in this little vase; make me a large mansion, where I may dwell in comfort." The king removed it thence and placed it in the water of a cistern, but it grew three cubits in less than fifty minutes, and said: "0 king, it pleaseth me not to live vainly, in this narrow cistern; since thou hast granted me an asylum, give me a spacious habitation." He then removed it, placed it in a pool, where having ample space round its body, it became a fish of considerable size: "This abode, O king, is not convenient for me, who must swim at large in the waters; exert thyself for my safety; and remove me to a deep lake." Thus addressed, the pious monarch threw the suppliant into a lake, and when it grew of equal bulk with the piece of water, he cast the vast fish into the sea. When the fish was thrown into the waves, he thus again spoke to Satyavrata: "Here the horned sharks, and other monsters of great strength will devour me; thou shalt not, O valiant man, leave me in this ocean." Thus repeatedly deluded by the fish, who had addressed him with gentle words, the king said, "Who art thou that beguileth me in that assumed shape? Never before have I seen or heard of so prodigious an inhabitant of the waters, who like thee has filled up, in a single day, a lake, an hundred leagues in circumference: surely thou art Bhagavat, who ap