ce of
motion, he thence is named _Narayana_, or moving on the waters. In the
egg Brahma remained a year, and caused the egg to divide, forming the
heaven above and the earth beneath, and the subtile ether, the eight
regions, and the receptacle of waters between. He then drew forth from
the supreme soul mind with all its powers and properties." The rest of
the account appears to be very confused, and I confess to a great
extent unintelligible to me. There follows, however, a continuation
of the narrative, stating that there is a succession of seven Menus,
each of whom produces and supports the earth during his reign. It is
in the account of these successive Menus that the following statement
respecting the days and years of Brahma occurs:

"A day of the Gods is equal to a year. Four thousand years of the Gods
are called a Critya or Satya age. Four ages are an age of the Gods.
_One thousand divine ages (equal to more than four millions of human
years) are a day of Brahma the Creator._ Seventy-two divine ages are
one manwantara. * * * The aggregate of four ages they call a divine
age, and believe that in every thousand such ages, or in every day of
Brahma, fourteen Menus are successively invested with the sovereignty
of the earth. Each Menu they suppose transmits his authority to his
sons and grandsons during a period of seventy-two divine ages, and
such a period they call a manwantara. Thirty such days (of the
Creator), or calpas, constitute a month of Brahma; twelve such months
one of his years, and 100 such years his age, of which they assert
that fifty years have elapsed. We are thus, according to the Hindoos,
in the first day or calpa of the fifty-first year of Brahma's life,
and in the twenty-eighth divine age of the _seventh manwantara_ of
that day. In the present day of Brahma the first Menu was named the
Son of the Self-existent, and by him the institutes of religion and
civil duties are said to have been delivered. In his time occurred a
new creation called the _Lotos_ creation." Of five Menus who succeeded
him, Sir William could find little but the names, but the accounts of
the seventh are very full, and it appears that in his reign the earth
was destroyed by a flood. Sir William suggests that the first Menu may
represent the creation, and that the seventh may be Noah. The name
Menu or Manu is equivalent to "man," and signifies "the
intelligent."[63]

In this Hindoo cosmogony we have many points of correspond