who reverenced the Deity under the symbol of a serpent. All the names of " places in these parts have a manifest reference to the rites and worship; and if they be compared with names of other places, where this people are supposed to have settled, they will be generally found very similar, and oftentimes the same. And this not only in antient accounts, but in those of later date, since the people of Europe have got footing in those parts. We read of Onor, Canonor, Candonor, all terms relating to the sun and fire. Calicut, Calcutta, Çotate, Comar, Comarin, Cottia, Cathaia, are of an etymology too obvious to need an interpretation. The most considerable mission in Madura is called " Aour (N) at this day. Near it is a city and river Balasore. Bal is the Chaldean and Syrian Deity, well known: Azor was another name of the Deity, worshipped in the same countries. He is mentioned by Sanchoniathon and other writers, and was supposed to have been the founder of Carthage. He was also known in Sicily, where there were rivers named from him. This people got likewise possession of the island Palæsimunda or Ceylon, called also Taprobane. 91 Hence so many places end in patan and patana, which signifies a serpent. 92 Travels of Jesuits by Lockman. v. 1. p. 470. . 93 Μητερα Ταπροβανην Ασιηγενεων ελεφαντεων. The adoration of fire and the worship of the sun was introduced here very early. In this island is an high mountain, held very sacred; the summit of which is called the Pike of Adam. This had no relation to the great Protoplast, though generally understood to be denominated from him. For writers may make what inferences they please from Sanchoniathon, and other antiquarians, ill interpreted, and worse applied: Iam persuaded that there are very few allusions in 93 Dionys. Perieg. v. 593. That Taprobane, named also Palasimunda and Serandive, was the island now called Ceylon, may be proved from many authors. Εξης δε τετων εσιν ἡ Ινδίκη, ή εντος Γαγγέ ποταμε κείμενη, ἧς κατα μεσαίτατον της ηπειρε νησης κατ' αντικρυ κείται μεγιση, Ταβροβανη καλεμενη. Marcian. Heracleot. apud Geog. Vet. v. 1. p. 14. Τω ακρωτηριῳ της Ινδίκης τῷ λεγομενῳ Κορυ αντικειται το της Ταπροβανης ακρωτηριον καλέμενον Βορειον. Marcian. Heracleot. p. 26. Τετο δε ακρωτηριον της νησε το αντικεί μενον τῷ Κορυ-απέχει ταδία, ή συξ. The poet Dionysius places it in the great Eruthrean Ocean: and mentions the whales with which that sea once abounded: a circumstance taken notice of by other writers. He speaks of it as a very large island. Αυτη γι ευρύτατη μέγεθος πελει αμφι δε παντη Κητεα θινες εχεσιν, ΕΡΥΘΡΑΙΟΥ βοτα ποντο, Ουρεσιν ηλιβάτοισιν εοικότα. ν. 596. antient history to the antediluvian world. The Pike of Adam is properly the summit sacred to Ad Ham, the King or Deity Ham, the Amon of Egypt. This is plain to a demonstration from another name given to it by the native Cingalese, who live near the mountain, and call it Hamalel. This, without any change, is 94 Ham-al-El, Ham the Sun; and relates to the antient religion of the island. In short every thing in these countries savours of Chaldäic and Egyptian institution. The worship of the ape, the imputed sanctity of the cow, the symbolical adoration of the serpent, have been introduced by people from those parts; not so much by the Mizraim, or genuine inhabi 94 On the side of Conde Uda is an hill, supposed to be the highest in the island, called, in the Chingulay language, Hamalel, but by the Portugueze and the Europeans Adam's Peak. It is sharp as a sugar-loaf, and on the top is a flat stone, with the print of a foot like a man's on it, but far bigger, being about two feet long. The people of this land count it meritorious to go and worship this impression; and generally about the new year, the men, women, and children go up this vast and high mountain to worship. Knox. Hist. of Ceylon, p. 5. The notion of this being Adam's Pike, and the print of Adam's foot, did not arise from the Portugueze, or any Europeans; but was very antient. It is mentioned by the Mahometan travellers in the ninth century: and the name of the mountain, Ad Ham, was undoubtedly as old as the first Cuthite inhabitants. See p. 3. of Renaudot's Edition of Mohammedan Travellers; and Notes, p. 8. tants of Egypt, as by the Cuthites. They came hither from that country as well as from Chaldea; but they came first and principally from the latter. Whatever therefore was similar in the rites of the Indians and the Mizräim, was imported into each country, principally by the sons of Chus, though some chance colonies of real Egyptians may have likewise come hither. When Alexander had taken Nusa in India, he appointed one of the natives to be governor, whose name was Acouphis. In like manner the person, whom he made his substitute at the great city Palimbothra, is styled Moph or Mophis. He seems to have had more appellations than one, for he is by Curtius called Omphis, Lastly, the person, to whom Alexander applied to get Porus to surrender, had the name of Meröe. All these are names apparently similar to Egyptian and Chaldäc terms. Even Porus is nothing else but Orus, with the Egyptian prefix. And as names of this kind continually occur, it is impossible but that some relation must have subsisted between those nations where this similitude is found. The Cuthic Indians worshipped particularly Dionusus; but confessed that he was not a native of their country, and that his rites were imported: 9 Διονυσον εκ των προς ἑσπεραν τοπων: He came from the west; that is from Babylonia and 95 Diodorus Sic. 1. 2. p. 123. Chaldea. Arrian, speaking of the Nuseans, says, that they were not the original inhabitants of the country. 9 Νύσσαιοι δ' εκ Ινδικον γενος εισιν, αλλά των αμα Διονυσῳ ελθόντων ες την γην των Ινδών. The people of Nusa are not " properly an Indian race; but are part of the company, who attended Dionusus in his expedition into these parts. They were therefore of the family of Chus, and styled Cuseans, Cuthites, Arabians, and Ethiopians; which were the most common titles of people of that family. The same author tells us, that they differed very little in their appearance from the Ethiopians of Africa, especially those of the south; being of the same dark complexion, but without woolly hair. Those who lived to the north resembled the Egyptians. 98 Των τε ανθρωπων αι ιδέαι ο πάντη αποδεσιν οι Ινδών τε και Αιθίοπων. Οι μεν προς νότα ανεμε Ινδοι (scil. δι Κολχοι) τοις Αιθιοψι μάλλον τι εοίκασι, μελανες τε ιδέσθαι εισι, και κομη αυτοίς μελαινα, πλην γε δη ότι σιμοι εκ ώσαύτως, εδε ελικρανοι, ὡς Αιθίοπες. Οτι δε βορειότεροι τε των κατ' Αιγυπτίας μάλιςα αν The inhabitants upon the Indus are, in their looks and appearance, not unlike the Ethio σώματα. είεν τα 96. Arrian. Hist. Indica. Ρ. 313. 97 They were mistaken in saying, εκ Ινδικον γενος: but their meaning is plain, that they were not Aborigines. |