and collected its precious freight, as directed; the flood of waters came at the appointed time; the fish appeared; to his horn the ship was bound, and thus floated safely, till at last it rested on the loftiest peak of the Himalaya mountains. But the points of resemblance between the Hindû legend and the Mosaic account, will best be seen from an extract. This extract is taken from the poetic version of Milman, late professor of poetry in Oxford University. Though clothed in poetic language, the author claims for it the quality of a correct version of the original. He likewise aimed at an imitation of the measure and form of verse of the original, and with an interesting degree of success.

Passing over the introduction, which contains some unimportant particulars respecting the manner in which the fishform deity was introduced to Manu, the holy sage, the account is as follows the fish, continuing his divine directions:

“When the awful time approaches-hear from me what thou must do. In a little time, O blessed all this firm and seated earth,

--

All that moves upon its surface-shall a deluge sweep away.
Near it comes, of all creation - the ablution day is near;
Therefore what I now forewarn thee- - may thy highest weal secure.
All the fixed and all the moving- all that stirs, or stirreth not,
Lo, of all the time approaches-the tremendous time of doom.
Build thyself a ship, O Manu!— strong with cables well prepared,
And thyself, with the seven sages - mighty Manu, enter in.
All the living seeds of all things-by the Brahmans named of yore,
Place thou first within thy vessel well secured, divided well.
From thy ship keep watch, O hermit watch for me as I draw near;
Horned shall I swim before thee by my horn thou 'lt know me well.
This the work thou must accomplish - I depart; so fare thee well.

Over those tumultuous waters — none without mine aid can sail.
Doubt not thou, O lofty minded-of my warning speech the truth."
To the fish thus answered Manu — ‘All that thou requirest I will do.'

Manu, having done as directed, and launched his vessel on the sea with its precious freight, the fish appears, and the vessel is bound to his head, and,

The name Manuja, Manu-born, as the appellative of the human race (in Sanskrit books), is from Manu; from thence the Gothic Manu, which we have preserved. Manu is the representative of man.― Milman's Version, p. 11.

"Dancing with the tumbling billows Tossed about with winds tumultuousLike a trembling drunken woman

dashing through the roaring spray, in the vast and heaving sea, reeled that ship, O king of men.

Earth was seen no more, no region - nor the intermediate space;
All around a waste of waters - water all, and air, and sky.
In the whole world of creation - princely son of Bharata!
None was seen, but those seven sages - Manu only and the fish.
Years on years, and still unwearied drew that fish the bark along,
Till at length it came, where lifted Himavan its loftiest peak.
There at length it came, and smiling- thus the fish addressed the sage :
To the peak of Himalaya, bind thou now thy stately ship."

At the fish's mandate quickly to the peak of Himavan

Bound the sage his bark, and ever to this day, that loftiest peak,
Bears the name of Manhubandhan - from the binding of the bark.
To the sage, the god of mercy thus with fixéd look bespake :

I am lord of all creation - Brahmá, higher than all height;

I in fish-like form have saved thee - Manu, in the perilous hour;
But from thee new tribes of creatures gods, asuras, men, must spring.
All the worlds must be created all that moves, or moveth not,
By an all-surpassing penance - - this great work must be achieved.
Through my mercy, thy creation - to confusion ne'er shall run.'
Spake the fish, and on the instant to the invisible he passed."

Manu immediately begins his penance and the work of creation. The legend closes :

"Such the old, the famous legend - named the Story of the Fish,

Which to thee I have related · this for all our sins atones.

He that hears it, Manu's legend, - in the full possession he,

Of all things complete and perfect—to the heavenly world ascends."

This legend is found in some of the Puránas. In fact, the first of the eighteen Puránas seems to have received its title from this legend. It is called the Matsya Purána, from the fact that its contents were communicated by Vishnu, in the form of a fish, or, in the Matsya Avatár, i. e. fish incarnation, “in which Vishnu preserves a king named Manu, with the seeds of all things, in an ark, from the waters of that inundation which, in a season of Pralaya (destruction), overspreads the world." 1 While the ark floats, fastened to the fish, Manu enters into conversation with his divine guide and preserver; and the questions of Manu, and the replies of

1 Vishnu Purána, Wilson's translation, Pref. p. li.

Vishnu, form the main substance of the compilation. The principal subjects are, as usual in the Puránas, an account of the creation, the royal dynasties, the duties of the different orders, and various mythological legends.

In the Bhagavat Purána, this legend of the Fish Avatár, has, according to a passage translated by Sir W. Jones, an additional statement which should be given. The fish-form deity says:

"Take thou, therefore, all kinds of medicinal herbs and esculent grains for food, and, together with the seven holy men, and pairs of all animals, enter the ark without fear." (As. Res. Vol. II. p. 118.) The copy of the Bhagavat in our possession, however, if we have the right passage, does not warrant the definite language, "pairs of all animals." Bournouf translates it, "bringing together a collection of (from) all beings" (rassemblant la collection de tous les êtres). Bhág. Pu. Li. 8vo. ch. 24: 34.) The translation of Bournouf ap. pears to be correct. In another place, Sir Wm. Jones has translated the passage, "pairs of all brute animals.” The original, in his copy, was probably different from that of the French savans.

In the Puránas, the particular name given to the Manu saved from the deluge is Satyavrata, an expressive epithet for a holy man; and this Satyavrata was the seventh from the first Manu of the present day of Brahmá, or present creation; the first Manu, being called the Swayambhuva, i. e. sprung from the self-existent.

Just in this connection, it may not be out of place to notice the resemblance between the Sanskrit word ádim, meaning first,' and the great progenitor of the human race, and likewise that between Manu and Noah, the final syllable being the root of the name of the patriarch. See, likewise, note on the next paragraph.

1 Lieut. Col. Vans Kennedy says: "But whatever be the comparative antiquity of the Hindû scriptures, we may safely conclude that the Mosaic and Indian chronologies are perfectly consistent; and that Manu, son of Brahma, was the Adima, or first created mortal, and consequently, our Adam.” — Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 134. Sir W. Jones suggests the same.. -As. Res. Vol. II. p. 401.

The next fact we shall notice is the hebdominal division of time. The origin of this division of time, into weeks of seven days each, among men, is undoubtedly indicated in the Mosaic account of creation.

The Hebrews had, for a long time, no separate names for the different days of the week; except that the seventh day was called the Sabbath, or day of rest. The names of the different days originated with some other people. And here two points of consideration present themselves, viz. the division of time into weeks of seven days each, and the giving separate names to the different days. For the Hindûs have the division of weeks, the same as the Hebrews, and they have the days separately named, which the Hebrews had not.

There can be no question that the division itself was from the Mosaic record, or rather from the facts which the Mosaic record contains. The ancestors of the Hindûs doubtless had this mode of dividing time before the Jews were a distinct people. The mere mention of the fact of this manner of reckoning time being in use among that people at a period of remote antiquity, is sufficient for our purpose. Yet the fact is clothed with additional importance, when we consider that separate names were first given to the different days of the week in India, and that those names are the same as now in use among the Anglo-Saxon nations of Europe. It is well known that these names of the days of the week are those of the sun, moon, and the Saxon names of the five planets known to the ancients, viz. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Now the evidence appears to be conclusive, that these five planets were first discovered and named in India; and that their names, with those of the sun and moon, were given to the seven days of the week.

The names of the planets, according to several authors, occur in the Vedas, which existed in their present form thirteen or fourteen hundred years before the commencement of our era. And, from astronomical data, they re

The Mythology of the Vedas personifies the elements and planets." Cole

ceived their present names about 1425 B. c. The names of the planets in the Sanskrit language are the names of deities in the Hindû mythology, which correspond to the deities designated by the names of the same planets in Grecian and Roman mythology, and likewise in the mythology of the nations of Northern Europe, whence origi nated the Saxon element of the English language, and consequently the English names of the days of the week. The division of time into weeks was not known among the Greeks and Romans at the commencement of our era, and the existence of the planets is not indicated in any Greek and Latin author till about 610 B. c.; except that, in Homer, the morning and evening stars are mentioned. But they are supposed to be different bodies. Pythagoras is said to have first suggested that the morning and evening stars (Εωσφόρος and "Εσπερος) were one and the same star. (Pythagoras flourished 540-500 B. C.)

Democritus wrote a treatise respecting the planets (IIepì tŵv πλavntŵv), among which he reckoned the sun, moon, and 'Ewopópos; but as yet their number had not been determined.3 Seneca says Eudoxus derived his knowledge of the planetary motions from Egypt.

brooke, as quoted by Vans Kennedy, and which the latter says, "is doubtless correct." An. Myth. p. 365, and a writer in the Calcutta Review, Vol. III. p. 119. 1 Bentley's Hind. Ast. p. 4.

2 Thus Áditya, the sun, with wára, day, Ádityawara, is the name of the first day of the week, or Sunday; and so of the other days, as in the following table: From Aditya, the Sun, is Adityawára, or Sunday.

3 Smith's Classical Dictionary, Art. Planets, ed. 1849. — Quoting Seneca (Quaest. Nat. VII. 3): "Democritus subtillissimus antiquorum omnium suspicari ait se plures stellas esse quae currant, sed nec numerum, illarum posuit, nec nomena, nondum comprehensis quinque siderum cursibus. Eudoxus ab Egypto hos motus in Graeciam transtulit."