In my essay on Egypt, I mentioned the unfortunate affray between the son of CUSSID, and some of these elephants, in consequence of which he became a Caunapas, or like a dead corpse. I cannot ascertain whether the whole legend be genuine or not: certain it is, that in Lexicons the Carenapás are mentioned as belonging to the train and retinue of NAIRRIT, or PALLI, and of course they lived either in Ethiopia or in Egypt. The dwipa of S'anc'ha is supposed, by the Pauránics, to join the island of Sumatra, or of the Moon. This mistaken notion has been adopted by PTOLEMY, and after him by Oriental writers. In the beginning of the Brahmanda-purána, Lancá, or the peninsula of Malaya, and Sumatra join the island of S'anc'ha, or Zengh. Samásť hitam, adhering to, is a participial form, answering to con-stitum in Latin, and sun-istamai in Greek. This is understood of the island of Mandara, or Sumatra; for it is positively declared, that Mahá Lancá, or Málacá, and Sumatra, are separated by a strait called Lancá-dwára, or the gates of Lancá. PTOLEMY, however, supposed it was the peninsula of Málacá that was thus joined to Africa; and, for this purpose, makes the shores take a most circuitous turn. EL EDRISSI asserts equally, that the isle of Malai joins, toward the West, to the country of Zengh. The inland, or Mediterranean sea, is called Yámodadh'é, or the sea of Yama; and by PTOLEMY Hippados, perhaps from the Sanscrit Upábd'hi, which would imply a subordinate or inferior sea. expression would be perfectly grammatical, but I do not recollect that it is ever used. Hippados may also be derived simply from Abdhi, pronounced Apd'hi, or the sea. The tract of islands called Raneh by Arabian writers, and including Madagascar and the surrounding islands, is obviously This : the dwipa of Harin'a, mentioned in the Bhagavata, along with Sancha, in the South-West quarter of the old continent. This island being also called in Arabic, the isle of the Moon, has occasioned some confusion. Doctor VINCENT has thrown much light on this subject, in his learned and elaborate treatise on the Periplus of the Erythraan sea; by which it appears, that the notions of the Arabs, relating to these seas, are more conformable to the Puránas than PTOLEMY's description. The three dwipas to the Eastward, are Yamala, or Malaya, now the peninsula of Málacá, and the adjacent islands; as for the dwipa of Yama, its situation is rather obscure; the third is Anga-dwipa, in the North-East, by which they understand China. There is very little about it in the Puranas; and, with regard to the dwipas of Yama and Malaya, they will be the subject of a particular paragraph. VI. There is another division of the old continent, extracted chiefly from the Bhagavata, the Bramándá, and Brahmá-Puranas, which represent the world under the emblem of a Nymphea, or Lotos, floating on the ocean. There the whole plant signifies both the Earth and the two principles of its fecundation. The stalk originates from the navel of VISHNU, sleeping at the bottom of the ocean; and the flower is described as the cradle of BRAHMA', or mankind. The germ is both Méru and the Linga: the petals and filaments are the mountains which encircle Meru, and are also the type of the Yoni; the four leaves of the calyx are the four vast dwipas, or countries, toward the four cardinal points. Eight external leaves, placed two by two, in the intervals, are eight subordinate dwipas or countries. in her person which might make her negligent of cattle." THE priests who use the Yajurvéda, make only five oblations with as many prayers addrest to fire, air, the sun, the moon, and the Gandharba or celestial quirister: praying them to remove any thing in the person of the bride, which might be injurious to her husband, to her offspring, to cattle, to the household, and to honour and glory. The following text is recited while the water is poured on the bride's head: "That blameable portion of thy person, which would have been injurious to thy husband, thy offspring, thy cattle, thy household, and thy honour, I render destructive of paramours: may thy body, [thus cleared from evil,] reach old age with me. The bride is then fed with food prepared in a caldron, and the following text is recited : "I unite thy breath with my breath; thy bones with my bones; thy flesh with my flesh; and thy skin with my skin." ود THE ceremonies, of which the nuptial solemnity consists, may be here recapitulated. The bridegroom goes in procession to the house where the bride's father resides, and is there welcomed as a guest. The bride is given to him by her father in the form usual at every solemn donation; and their hands are bound together with grass. He clothes the bride with an upper and lower garment; and the skirts of her mantle and his are tied together. The bridegroom makes oblations to fire, and the bride drops rice on it as an oblation. The bridegroom solemnly takes her hand in marriage. She treads on a stone and mullar. They walk round the fire. The bride steps seven times, conducted by the bridegroom, and he then dismisses the spectators, the marriage being now complete and irrevokable. In the evening of the same day the bride sits down on a bull's hide, and the bridegroom points out to her the polar X3 star star as an emblem of stability. They then partake of a meal. The bridegroom remains three days at the house of the bride's father. On the fourth day, he conducts her to his own house in solemn procession: She is there welcomed by his kindred: and the solemnity ends with oblations to fire. AMONG Hindus a girl is married before the age of puberty. The law even censures the delay of her marriage beyond the tenth year. For this reason, and because the bridegroom too may be an infant, it is rare that a marriage should be consummated until long after its solemnization. The recital of prayers on this occasion constitutes it a religious ceremony, and it is the first of those that are performed for the purpose of expiating the sinful taint which a child is supposed to contract in the womb of his mother. They shall be described in a future essay. On the practice of immature nuptials, a subject suggested in the preceding paragraph, it may be remarked, that it arises from a laudable motive; from a sense of duty incumbent on a father, who considers as a debt the obligation of providing a suitable match for his daughter. This notion, which is strongly inculcated by Hindu legislators, is forcibly impressed on the minds of parents. But in their zeal to dispose of a daughter in marriage, they do not perhaps sufficiently consult her domestic felicity. By the death of an infant husband, she is condemned to virgin widowhood for the period of her life. If both survive, the habitual bickerings of their infancy are prolonged in perpetual discord. NUMEROUS restrictions in the assortment of matches impose on parents this necessity of embracing the earliest opportunity of affiancing their children to fit companions. The intermarriages of different classes, formerly permitted, with certain limitations, are now wholly forbidden. The prohibited degrees degrees extend to the sixth of affinity: and even the bearing of the same family name is a sufficient cause of impediment. |