which is the source of the Ganges. For the same reason, she is said to have assumed the form of the river Nerbudda or Narmada, or rather to be the deity presiding over its waters. This is a striking instance, among many others, of the allegorical structure of the Hindú mythology.

Bhyroe. Whether this personage is the same as the mighty

Mahésha, over whom Dúrga triumphed, is not very certain. Captain Blunt saw at Ruttunpúra, in the neighbourhood of Omer'chandac, a building dedicated to the worship of this personage, and in it an enormous idol of blue granite, nine feet high. It was rubbed over with red paint, and adorned with flowers; circumstances which prove, that it was an object of adoration to the Hindús of the neighbourhood. Bhyroe must have been an evil spirit or Assúra, but this is no objection to the fact of his being worshipped, since evil beings of various orders are worshipped, especially in the Decún, to avert their malignity, for the same reason as the ancient Egyptians worshipped Typhon, and various mischievous and noxious animals.-Jablonski, Panth. Ægypt.

Brahma. Vide Maha-Déva.

Brahma's Sleep. It is an article of belief with great part of the disciples of the Véda, that all things, the universe itself not excepted, exist only in idea; or rather are com

posed of a system of ideas originating in Brahme, the Supreme Being, but actually or immediately produced by Brahmú, the efficient Creator, from whom, while he exerts his powers of combining ideas, things created proceed into being; but that when he ceases to exert these his powers, things created die away, vanish from existence, and return back to their first chief cause. These periods of the existence and non-existence of created beings, the philosophers of the Véda distinguish in their allegorical manner by the figure of the day and night, or the waking and sleeping of Brahmá. Of these changes, which are believed to have been repeated a vast number of times, the institutes of Menú thus speak, (chap. 1. v. 52.) "When that power (Brahmá) awakes; for though slumber be not predicable of the sole eternal mind, infinitely wise and infinitely benevolent, yet it is predicated of Brahmá figuratively, as a general property of life, then has the world its full expansion; but when he slumbers with tranquil spirit, then the whole system fades away." Whether the doctrine of the successive organization of this earth, taught by this allegory, be, or be not, wholly improbable and absurd, is a point which may not be wholly unworthy the examination of the divine and the philosopher.

Butter. In this, and the five following lines, most of the ar

ticles used in the Hindú sacrifices, and the principal observances of the Hindú worship, are enumerated; consequently, the passage cannot be well understood, without some account of the rites and ceremonies of the Brahmens. The religious duty of the Hindú consists of five principal rites, which the translator of the institutes of Menú distinguishes by the name of the five great sacraments. These are enumerated by that legislator, in the following verse:

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Teaching and studying Scripture, is the sacrament of the Véda; offering cakes and water, the sacrifice of the manes; an oblation to fire, the sacrament of the deities; giving rice and other food to living creatures, the sacrament of spirits; receiving guests with honour, the sacrifice of men." (Menu, chap. 3. v. 70.) Of the last four of these five sacraments, it may be observed, that they comprise the ritual of pagan antiquity, and that they were generally practised at their sacrifices. The sacred cake and water were introduced at almost every sacrifice: fire to consume part, or the whole victim, was an essential requisite; and the libation, or pouring of part of the wine or liquor used on the occasion, resembles, or at least corresponds with, that act of the Hindú, when he leaves part of the offering a prey to birds and dogs, the representatives of the invisible spirits which, as he supposes, inhabit the

air. It may be farther added, that the hospitality of the ancient heathens of the western world, bears no very slight resemblance to the fifth of the sacraments; especially, as a sacrifice was an act of festivity, and generally served as an entertainment for the friends of the sacrificer. After these observations, it will be sufficiently obvious, that the short compass of a note will not serve as an explanation of these rites. This, therefore, must be relinquished, and a concise account of one of the five sacraments must suffice, instead of a full description, to convey a general idea of the ceremonies belonging to the others, which are very numerous, and minutely perplexing. When the oblation to fire is to be performed, in honour of all the gods*, the officiating priest first consecrates a level area of four cubits, by smearing it over with cow-dung; a substance, which, from its gelatinous nature, soon hardens in a hot climate, and forms a clean floor. Upon this area, he next draws several lines, in the directions prescribed by his ritual, and then sprinkles the area with water. This done, he throws away an ember from the sacred fire in a

* All the gods, or the assembled gods termed in sanscrit viswedévas, are thus addressed and described in a mantra used on certain occasions." Assembled gods, listen to my invocation; ye who reside in the sky; ye who abide near us (on earth), or far off (in heaven). As. Res. Vol. vii. No. 8.

covered vessel, in which it had been brought from some sacred fire, lighted by the friction of two pieces of a particular kind of wood, and maintained by fuel of the same; he then places the fire upon the consecrated spot. Around this vessel, thus placed upon the floor, he next disposes in due order, several blades of the sacred cúsa grass (Poa Cynosuroides), and sitting down upon the ground, in the manner directed in the ritual, pronounces the names of the earth inaudibly. Should any inauspicious word have been spoken during this process, he now atones for it, by reciting a prescribed mantra, or sacred text. At this time also, if any special act of worship is intended, the materials for sacrifice are prepared, and a suitable mantra is pronounced. More blades of cúsa are now placed in order, round the vessel containing the fire; and the priest having laid on wood, and poured upon it a ladleful of ghí or clarified butter, he sits down with his face towards the east, and meditates in silence on Brahmá, lord of creatures.

After some interval, the officiating priest proceeds to consecrate the vessels and butter to be used in the sacrifice, a process not a little intricate, and accompanied with the recital of various mantras, or sacred texts, after which, having burned in silence a small log of wood smeared with