Chamadaguini, and mother of Parassourama. This goddess commanded the elements, but could not preserve that empire longer than her heart was pure. One day, while she was collecting water out of a tank, and, according to her custom, was making with that and earth a bowl to carry it to the house, she saw on the surface of the water some figures of Grandouers, who were flying over her head. Struck with their charms, desire seized her heart. The earth of the bowl liquified, and the water mixed again with that of the tank. From this time she was obliged to make use of a vase. This inability discovered to Chamadaguini that his wife had deviated from purity, and in the excess of his rage he ordered his son to drag her to the place where criminals were executed, and to behead her. This order was executed, but Parassourama was so much afflicted for the loss of his mother, that Chamadaguini told him to take up the body and fasten the head upon it, which he had cut off, and repeat a prayer in her ear, which he taught him, and his mother would come again to life. The son ran eagerly to perform what he was ordered, but by a very singular blunder, he joined the head of his mother to the body of a Parichi who had been executed for her crimes: a monstrous assemblage which gave to this woman the virtues of a goddess and the vices of a criminal. The goddess becoming impure by such a mixture, was driven from her house, and committed all kinds of cruelties. The Deverkels perceiving the destruction she made, appeased her in giving her the power to cure the small-pox, and promising her she should be implored for that disorder.-Mariatale is the great goddess of the Parias, who place her above the Deity. To honour her, they have a custom of dancing with several pots of water on their heads, placed

The sculptured form of Marriataly stood;
It was an idol roughly hewn of wood,
Artless, and mean, and rude;
The goddess of the poor was she;
None else regarded her with piety."
The Curse, ii. 8.-J. W. W.

one above another. These pots are adorned with the leaves of the Margosier, a tree consecrated to her. Fearing her son Parassourama would no longer adore her, she prayed the Deverkels to grant her another child, and they gave her Catavareyen; the Parias divide their adoration between his mother and him. Mariatale is by many authors called the devil Ganga. They sacrifice hegoats to her."

"VICHENOU resides in the sea of milk, in contemplative repose, throned on Addissechen, or Seja, the thousand-headed serpent who supports the universe. They reckon seven seas:1 1, of salt; 2, of butter; 3, of tain, or curdled milk; 4, of calon, the liquor drawn from the palm; 5, of the serpent; 6, of water; 7, of milk, which they call tirouparcadel."

"THE two Rachaders, Ragou and Quedou, were metamorphosed into snakes, one red, the other black. They are enemies to the Sun and Moon, who prevented them from swallowing a portion of the Amortam. Eclipses happen when they attack them."

“Devendren, in the figure of a handsome man, one day went to find a courtesan, to prove if she would be faithful to him. He promised her great rewards, and she received him well during the whole night. Devendren counterfeited death, and the courtesan was so prepossessed of the truth, that she absolutely would be burned with him, though they represented to her that he was not her husband. As she was going to precipitate herself into the flames, Devendren awoke, acknowledged the deceit, took her for his wife, and carried her into his paradise."

"MANMADIN once dared to shoot his ar

In the extract from Kindersley, Poems, p. 610, there is some little difference. The quotation is to the line,

"Yea, the seven earths, that, each with its own ocean," &c. Mount Calusay, xix. 6. J. W. W.

rows at Eswara. The god darted flame from the eye in his forehead, and consumed him to ashes. Afterwards he restored him to life."

"AROUNIN, a lame Deverkel, conducts the chariot of the sun. The chariot is supported at one end by Mount Merou, the rest is sustained by the air. There is only one wheel. It is drawn by seven green horses. The Valaguilliers, to the number of 60,000, follow the sun in his twelve chambers, adoring him, and singing his praise.

"The mountain Merou is composed of 8,000 small mountains. It is of gold, in the middle of the earth. The gods alone can go there. With this mountain they churned the sea of milk to make the Amortam."1

"TAKIN is one of the ten Brahmas. Thirteen of his daughters married the Penitent Cassiapen. Of these Adidi was mother of the Deverkels; Singinde, of Ragou and Quedou; Vinde, of Arounin the lame; Catrou, of all snakes; Arite, of twelve lovely daughters, the eldest of whom, Arambe, is the dancer of the Deverkels."

"THEY believe that we receive from the

moon a certain vital water which gathereth and disposeth itself in the brain, descending thence, as from a source, into all the members for their functions."-Bernier.

“ALL the Avatars were of a dark-blue colour, to mark their celestial descent."MAURICE.

"MAYA, or, as the word is explained by some Hindu scholars, the first inclination of the Godhead to diversify himself (such is their phrase), by creating worlds, is feigned to be the mother of universal nature, and of all the inferior gods; as a Cashmirian informed

1 On "The Amreeta-cup of immortality," see Notes to "Curse of Kehama," Poems, p. 624. J. W. W.

me, when I asked him why Cama, or Love, was represented as her son."-SIR W.JONES.

"THE appropriate seat of Mahadeva (Eswara) was mount Cailása, every splinter of whose rocks was an inestimable gem. His terrestrial haunts are the snowy hills of Himalaya, or that branch of them to the east of the Brahmaputra, which has the name of Chandrasic'hara, or the Mountains of the Moon." —Ibid.

"THERE the sun shines not, nor the moon and stars. These lightnings flash not in that place: how should even fire blaze there? God irradiates all this bright substance, and by its effulgence the universe is enlightened. -From the Yajurveda. Asiat. R.

This may be finely applied to Eswara's glory throne.

Hæc ait, et sese radiorum nocte suorum Claudit inaccessum.'" COLUMBUS.

"JAMBU is the Sanscrit name of a delicate fruit, called Jáman by the Muselmans, and by us rose-apple: but the largest and richest sort is named Amrita, or Immortal; and the mythologists of Tibet apply the same word to a celestial tree bearing ambrosial fruit, and adjoining to four vast rocks, from which as many sacred rivers derive their se

veral streams."—Ibid.

It is odd that Sir W. Jones makes no remark upon this resemblance to the immor| talizing milk, or tree of life.

"GARUDA, whom Vishnu rides, is often painted with the face of a beautiful youth, and the body of an imaginary eagle. His name is better spelt Garura. He is the rational eagle."-Ibid.

"KIDS are still offered to Cali, the wife of Siva, to palliate the cruelty of the slaughter which gave such offence to Buddha. The Brahmans inculcate a belief that the poor victims rise in the heaven of Indra, where they become the musicians of his band.

"Formerly human sacrifices were made to this goddess, and bulls and horses."Ibid.

that they may wave like the banners of Cama."

He applauds another who dances in the

wara.

"I GLADLY inspire those who are constantly employed in my service, with that use of reason by which they come unto me; and in compassion I stand in my own nature, and dissipate the darkness of their ignorance with the light of the lamp of wisdom."-Ibid.

THE crop of heads on their deities is merely a palpable metaphor of "the eternal God whose countenance is turned on every side."-Ibid.

"As a single sun illuminateth the whole world, even so doth the spirit enlighten every body."-Ibid.

"THERE are these three passages to Narak (the infernal regions), lust, anger, and avarice, which are the destroyers of the soul: wherefore a man should avoid them; for, being freed from these gates of sin, at length he goeth the journey of the Most High."— Ibid.

"WHENCE should men out of place have wealth, which makes others give way to the fangrooms of their horses? Whence should they procure white umbrellas with long sticks, horses, elephants, and a troop of attendants?"-HITOPADESA.

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"BEFORE the sun had put on his crown of rays."-Life of Creeshna.

"THY anger was but mercy, which gave us an occasion of beholding thy power."— Ibid.

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"HELL, called Yemalogu, is a large fiery cellar, where there are fiery leeches."-Letters to the Dan. Miss.

"THOU art pleasanter than sweet Samarcand in her vallies of jonquils."--Translated from the Persian and Arabic by the author of Gebir.

1 ROUALEYN GORDON CUMMING in his Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of South Africa, speaks of the ostrich shells as used for water-vases by the "bush-girls and ing Bechuana tribes of the Kalahari desert.”— Bakalahari women who belong to the wanderVol. 1, p. 113. I do not know whether this can be used in illustration, neither do I know what authority is due to the book quoted. Herodotus, in the old time, and Bruce, in more recent days, told stories equally wonderful, which have turned out true. One cannot, how. ever, but lament that Mr. Cumming's narrative should be so needlessly blood-stained as it is at times-neither is mawkish sentimentality at all to be admired.-J. W. W.

"THE delighted genii have been collecting, among the trees of life, those crimson and azure dyes, with which the celestial damsels tinge their beautiful feet,—and they now are writing thy actions in verses worthy of divine melody.”—Ibid.

WHEN S. Roberto reformed the Bene

dictines at Molismo, part of the regular business of the day was "cortar folhas de palma, & tecer dellas os habitos que traziao."-Brito. Chro. de Cister.

HODGES speaks of peacocks in abundance, "which, sitting on the vast horizontal branches, and displaying their varied plumage to the sun, dazzle the eyes of the traveller as he passes."

"A REYSHEE whose austerities were such that he subsisted entirely on the drops of milk which fell from the mouths of calves in the act of calving."-Life of Creeshna.

"THE two children learned to walk together, either round their beds, or by holding a calf's tail in their hands."

"THUS did the Gopias admire him who had on a yellow robe, a peacock's feather on his head, a brilliant rosary round his neck, and a flute on his lip."

"THE peacocks on the house-tops were rejoicing and singing in the smoke which arose from the constant burning of aromatics in such quantity as to form a cloud that resembled the rainy season."

"ON her sitting down or rising up, the Devates became mad with admiration at the tinkling that proceeded from the golden bells that adorned her feet and ankles."Ibid.