hereafter. The true name of that place commonly called Ybaug, and Jybuck by Major Rennel, between Cabul and Bálkh, is Ai Bég, Dominus Lunus, our Lord the Moon. There are in its vicinity, in the mountains, several curious remains of antiquity. Jerom says also, that the Phison was called Ganges in his time. They were both perfectly right; though it is almost certain, that they understood by it the great Ganges. Hesychius says, that the Phison was thus called, because it flowed from a fissure, gap, or mouth. If so, this appellation is synonymous with Cophes, the ancient name of the Lindi-Sindh, as will appear hereafter.

"The second river was the Gihon, which compassed the land of Cush:" this is the Hir-Mend; and the country is the original land of Cusha of the Puránas, which begins near Candahar, and includes part of Iran or Persia.

"The third river is the Hiddekel, which runs toward, or through, the eastern parts of the land of Assur." This appears to be the river of Báhlac, which runs through the eastern part, and seems to have been once the eastern boundary of the land of Hassarah or Házárah. This country extends from Herát to Báhlac Bámíyan. From the unsettled disposition of its inhabitants, its boundaries cannot well be defined. They consider themselves as the aborigines of that country; and like the Arabs, were never thoroughly subdued. They are very numerous and brave, but incapable of discipline. They are Mussulmans; but retain many heathenish and superstitious customs, at least in the opinion of their neighbours. The principal tribes aret he Daicándi, Taimáni, &c.: the first live between Herát and Dawer; and the others toward Marv-Shájéhán. This is probably the country of Arsareth of the apocryphal book of Esdras. "The fourth is the Frat," of which no particulars are recorded. It is the river of Cudnuz.

"It appears ftom Scripture, that Adam and Eve lived afterwards in the countries to the eastward of Eden; for at the eastern entrance of it, GoD placed the angel with the flaming sword. This is also confirmed by the Puránics, who place the progenitors of mankind on the mountainous regions between Cabul and the Ganges, on the banks of which, in the hills, they shew a place where he resorted occasionally for religious purposes. It is frequented by pilgrims, and is called Swayambhuvasthán: I have not been able yet to ascertain its situation; being but lately acquainted with it; but I believe it is situated to the north-west of Sri-Nagar.'

"At the entrance of the passes, leading to the place where I suppose was the garden of Eden, and to the eastward of it, the Hindus have placed a destroying angel, who generally appears, and is represented like a cherub; I mean Garud'a, or the Eagle, upon whom Vishnu and Jupiter are represented riding. Garud'a is represented generally like an eagle; but in his compound character, somewhat like the cherub, he is represented like a young man, with the countenance, wings, and talons of the eagle. In Scripture, the Deity is represented riding upon a cherub, and flying upon the wings of the wind. Garud'a is called Vahán (literally the vehicle) of Vishnu or Jupiter, and he thus answers to the Cherub of Scripture; for many commentators derive this word from the obsolete root C'harab in the Chaldæan language, a word implicitly synonymous with the Sanscrit Vahán.

"The city of Bámíyan being represented as the fountain of purity and holiness, it was called with propriety Pará Bámiyan, or Bámiyan, the pure and holy; for the same reason the district of Bámíyan might be called Paru-désa, or Pará-désa, the pure and holy country. This district is now barren, and without a single tree. The sacred books of the Hindus, and of the Bauddhists, do, however, declare, most positively, that it was otherwise formerly. Tradition informs us also, that the

number of inhabitants was at one period so prodigious, that the trees, underwood, grass, and plants were destroyed. The vegetable soil, being no longer protected, was in the course of ages washed away by the rains. Certain it is, that the soil in the valleys is most fertile, and the whole district, such as it is now, is still a most enchanting and delightful spot. The country to the eastward of Bámíyan, as far as the Indus, is the native country of the vine, and of almost all the fruit-trees we have in Europe: there they grow spontaneously, and to a great degree of perfection. When the natives find a vine, an apple-tree, &c. in the forests, they clear all the wood about it, dig the ground, and by these means the fruit comes to perfect maturity. When we are told in Scripture of Noah's cultivating the vine; we may be sure, that it was in its native country, or at least very near it."

We have ventured, elsewhere, to suppose that the genealogy descending from Adam to Noah is that of princes or sovereigns, over the same country; and that Noah resided before the deluge, nearly on the same spot where afterwards he quitted the ark, in the country which had been the original birth-place of mankind, at no very great distance from Paradise: though all distinction of Paradise, as to its supereminent fertility, &c. was defaced, not to say destroyed, by the waters. We shall add a few words from Capt. Wilford on this subject.

"The summit of C'haisá-ghar is always covered with snow; in the midst of which are seen several streaks of a reddish hue, supposed by pilgrims to be the mark, or impression made by the feet of the dove which Noah let out of the ark. For it is the general and uniform tradition of the country, that Noah built the ark on the summit of this mountain, and there embarked: that, when the flood assuaged, the summit of it first appeared above the waters, and was the resting-place of the dove, which left the impression of her feet in the mud, which, with time, was hardened into a rock. The ark itself rested about half way up the mountain, on a projecting plain of a very small extent. There a place of worship was erected, near which is a caldron of copper of such dimensions, that one hundred maunds of food may be dressed in it at the same time. Near it is an hermitage inhabited by several Derveishes, and a little above is a flag. The inhabitants of the country resort there occasionally on Fridays. With respect to the foot-steps of the dove, they are known only by tradition, for the inhabitants of that country assert, that they have never heard of any body going up so high on account of the ruggedness of the mountain, and of the snow. The Bhauddhists, who were the first inhabitants of that country, are, I am told, of the same opinion as to the place where the ark rested; but hitherto I have been able to procure a single passage only, from the Buddhadharma-chârya-Sindhá, in which it is declared that Shama or Shem, travelled first to the north-east, and then, turning to the north-west, he arrived on the spot, where he built afterwards the town of Bámíyan. Shama, they say, having descended from the mountain of C'haisá-ghar, travelled north-east, as far as the confluence of the Attock with the Indus; where he made Tapasya [settled worship]: he then proceeded north-west to Bámíyan."

"The Pauránics insist, that, as it is declared in their sacred books, that Satyavrata made fast the ark to the famous peak, called from that circumstance Naubandha, with a cable of a prodigious length, he must have built it in the adjacent country. Nau (a ship) and bandha (to make fast), is the name of a famous peak situated in Cashmir, three days' journey to the north-east of the purganah of Lar. This famous place is resorted to by pilgrims, from all parts of India, who scramble up among the rocks to a cavern, beyond which they never go. A few doves,

frightened with the noise, fly from rock to rock these the pilgrims fancy to be their guides to the holy place, and believe that they are the genuine offspring of the dove, which Noah let out of the ark. At all events, in the numerous legends which I have extracted from the Puránas relating to Satyavrata and the ark, no mention is made of his letting out the dove."

"The mountains of Coh-Suleiman are sometimes called by the natives the mountains of the Dove; the whole range, as far as Gazni, is called by Ptolemy the Paruetoi Mountains, probably from the [term] Pár vata or Párávat, which signifies a dove.

"The followers of Buddha acknowledge that the ark might have been fastened to Nau-baudha near Cashmir; but surely, they say, the ark could not have been riding perpendicularly above this peak, and such a vessel required a vast length of cable in short, though the cable was made fast at Nau-bandha, the ark was riding above C'haisú-ghar. According to the Puranics and the followers of Buddha, the ark rested on the mountain of Aryavarta, Aryawart or India, an appellation which has no small affinity with the Araraut of Scripture. These mountains were a great way to the eastward of the plains of Shinar, or Mesopotamia, for it is said in Genesis, that, some time after the flood, people journeyed from the east, till they found a plain in the land of Shinar, in which they settled. This surely implies that they came from a very distant country to the eastward of Shinar. The region about Tuckt-Suleiman is the native country of the olive-tree, and I believe the only one in the world. There are immense forests of it on the high grounds; for it does not grow in plains. From the saplings, the inhabitants make walking-sticks, and its wood is used for fuel all over the country; and, as Pliny justly observes, the olivetree in the western parts of India, is sterile, at least its fruit is useless, like that of the Oleaster. According to Fenestalla, an ancient author cited by Pliny [N. Hist. lib. xii. c. 6.], there were no olive-trees in Spain, Italy, or Africa, in the time of Tarquin the eldest. Before the time of Hesiod, it had been introduced into Greece: but it took a long time before it was reconciled to the climate, and its cultivation properly understood: for Hesiod says, that, whoever planted an olive-tree never lived to eat of its fruit. The olive-tree never was a native of Armenia; and the passage of Strabo, cited in support of this opinion, implies only, that it was cultiva ted with success in that country.”

In justice to Capt. Wilford it should be remembered that several among the Fathers of the Christian church believed the Nile to be one of the rivers of Paradise; and-whether they have not properly explained themselves (or have only reported the words of others, without justly understanding them): or-whether because western writers are best acquainted with it, we have been induced to look to the Egyptian Nile as what they intended; which river rising far enough south in Africa, to render the application ridiculous, it has been passed over with a smile. But if the Nilab, or Indus, was the river they had in contemplation, then their words assume a very different import; and they furnish a testimony very consistent with that extracted from the Puranas.

This is farther supported by a letter of Alexander the Great, written when he was far advanced towards India: he informs his mother that he approached the head of the Nile. Hence some have thought he meant the head of the Egyptian Nile but this, as all geographers know, would have been contradictory and senseless whereas if it were the Nilab to which he referred, then it accords with the antiquity of this name: while it shews by what means the Christian Fathers might become acquainted with a Nile, that was not the Egyptian. But why should

:

Alexander pay such attention to this river, or, why desire to explore it?-Con nect this with his writing by way of information, that the gods had been human persons, and had lived on earth with his wishing to pass for a son of Jupiter (who dwelt on Mount Casius; that is, mount Cau-CASUS), and with the well known proverbial saying, that the head of the Nile [the residence of the gods?] had never been discovered

If the foregoing suggestions be admissible, the consequence will follow, that it was not the Egyptian Nile whose head originally and primarily occasioned the proverb; but there was couched under the expression an allusion to a dogma of Pagan theology; and from the various opinions to which the question of the Situation of Paradise has given rise among Jewish rabbins and Christian divines, we see the same inquiry continue equally embarrassing in another form. The reason for this ignorance might probably be, the prohibition among the Hindoos of passing these sacred rivers; which, if it were an early appointment, might be long maintained by tradition; though subsequent circumstances have induced a few individuals on incidental occasions to evade it.

To conclude, we observe (1.), that the head of the Egyptian Nile is very far south (and west) in Africa; and that between this source and the Euphrates, in Asia, there is such an intervention of land and water, as renders perfectly laughable the conception, that these rivers might spring from the same source under ground, though they appeared so distant from each other above ground. The Egyptian Nile must certainly be excluded from among the rivers of Paradise.

(2.) The labour employed to find Paradise in Judea (as at Jerusalem), or in Phenicia, or in Syria, has evidently been misapplied ;—no lake in that country has the power of furnishing four streams from one reservoir.

(3.) The same, we think, must be said of the notion of Huetius, who placed Paradise on the lower branches of the Euphrates and Tigris: two streams above the garden running into it, and the same two streams below the garden running out of it, could never be the four heads which Moses describes.

(4.) The Situation of Paradise, in Armenia, where the heads of the Euphrates and Tigris spring, where the head of the Araxes, and a branch of the Phasis, rise not very distant from each other, according to the best accounts we are able to procure of that country (which, however, are not altogether satisfactory), has many plausibilities in its favour. Nevertheless, there is this to be said against it, that mankind could not journey from the East to Babylon, if Armenia were the seat of Noah's deliverance; and if that seat were adjacent to Paradise, as we have uniformly supposed.

(5.) The Situation of Paradise on the Indian Caucasus, or Imaus Mountains, unites all those requisites which are deemed necessary coincidences with the Mosaic narration. Mountains furnish the sources of rivers; many great rivers rise in these mountains. Paradise furnished four rivers; four rivers rise in these mountains, in a vicinity sufficiently near, though not now from the same lake. Mankind travelled from the East to Babylon; these mountains are East of Babylonia. But the names of these rivers are utterly unlike those of Moses :-This must be acknowledged, [unless we ought to except the Gihoon]; yet, perhaps, when their ancient names, or the import of their names, as descriptive appellations, shall be ascertained, this may be reconciled; and this demands, and deserves reconciliation.

Those places which have been proposed as Situations of the Garden of Paradise, PART XIX. Edit. 5.

E

are marked in our Map by circles of dots. Nobody can imagine that we attach to them any precision; they merely denote that an extent of country was probably included in this highly finished Garden of Pleasure. The reader will judge on the nature and properties of each of these countries, and will accept, as perfectly open to assent or dissent, every sentiment contained in this endeavour to assist his determination.

No. DVII. OF THE INDUS, AS A RIVER OF PARADISE.

A FEW words may be proper here, in relation to the Indus, another River which we have supposed might be one marked as deriving its source from the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of our first parents. Like the others, this River annually_overflows, and, in consequence, diffuses fertility around its course. And, if the Indus, which retains the name of the Nilab to this day, were truly the Nile referred to by the early Christian Fathers, and other writers, we cannot well forego the opportunity of obtaining some acquaintance with it.

That this River was a sacred stream, and even a Deity itself, like its fellow streams the Ganges and Burhampooter, scarcely admits a question; especially after considering the sentiments of Alexander, who, doubtless, was well informed on its nature and character. The following extracts are from Kinneir's Memoir of Persia. 4to. Lond. 1813.

"Of the four frontier Rivers the most considerable is the Indus, called by the eastern nations the Sinde and Nilab. The true source of this noble River, it is generally admitted, is unknown. It is formed, according to Rennell, by about ten principal streams, which descend from the mountains of Persia, Tartary, and Hindostan. Uniting near Moultan, they form a Delta in the province of Sinde, and enter the Indian Ocean by several mouths. p. 8.

"The River Indus, with its branches, intersect this country (Scind) and increase its fertility, forming a Delta, in length about one hundred miles along the coast. The collective waters throw out many branches, which fertilize the country to a great extent on both sides. The principal stream separates into two channels... The most eastern branch, now called the Nulla Suncra, formerly entered the sea at Lukput Bunder, but is now, if we are to credit the reports of the natives, entirely lost in the sands... Mr. Maxfield, of the Bombay Marine, who went as far as Hydrabad, describes the principal stream, as being in general about a mile in breadth, but varying in depth from two to five fathoms. The swelling of the Indus, occasioned by the melting of the snow, in the mountains of Kashmere, generally commences in the beginning of July, and continues to increase until the latter end of August." p. 228.

Major Wilford, speaking of the remaining places of worship still resorted to by Hindoo pilgrims, says, "The principal are... The principal are... Hinglaz, or Anclooje, near the sea, and about eighty miles from the mouth of the Indus: it is now deserted; but there remain twenty-four temples of Bhavani: this place, however, is seldom visited, on account of the difficulties attending the journey to it." Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 397. If Bhavani (Venus) had so many temples here, doubtless, the whole district, and the River itself, were deemed sacred.