Adam, and of his wife Iva or Eve. Of
Swayumbhuva, the "father of all men," a mystical
legend exists, similar in substance to the
infanticides of Chronos; which legend is
explained by astronomical facts. For, the Hindû
mythology, though intensely metaphysical, is
also eminently material, symbolising, in the
most intimate union, the phenomena of physical
nature with the mysterious operations of
the mind, and the universal passions of humanity.
At once metaphysical and scientific, it
is also poetic to a wonderful degree; graceful
and gracious, beautiful and varied, but
profound and learned.

Brahma's court—the gorgeous picture of
Merù—is a poem in itself. In the centre of
the circle of the universe, or, rather, in the
heart of the mythical lotos which sprang from
Vishnû, and which is the germ of all things,
stands Merù—"high, and of four colours, of
four sides, is this golden mountain, the greatest
of all; " to the east white, yellow to the
south, black to the westward, and to the
north, red as the rising day. It is the largest
of all mountains; "a form consisting of many-
coloured jewels;" the abode of various tribes
of righteous men, who have been persecuted
off the face of the general earth by the
violence of the wicked; "like gold, like the
dawning morn, resplendent with a thousand
petals, like a thousand water-pots, with a
thousand leaves." Within it are the "self-
moving cars" of the gods, beautiful as things
of heaven, belonging to divinities, should be.
In the petals are the abodes of all the gods,
where they dwell with their wives in happiness
and joy, under eternal sunlight, shaded
by wondrous trees, such as grow only on
Merù; and supreme above all, resides
Brahma,—"he who knows the Vedas," (the
Sacred Writings of Hindûsthan, originally
transmitted from Brahma,) the greatest of
all the great. In the East, is Indra, the
Lord of Heaven, sitting on "self-moving cars,"
as dazzling as a thousand suns. He gives
music and nectar to the gods, and holds
the merriest court of all: filling in
himself the divided functions of the Apollo and Ganymede of our youth. In the immediate
presence of the four-headed God Brahma,
dwell the seven glorious Rishis (the seven
stars of the Great Bear,) about whose starry
wives, the Pleiades, such naughty scandal was
so long afloat; and by the Rishis, in their
dazzling crowns and shining robes, sits the
Lord of Wealth, with ten thousand eyes, like
living gems, set over and about him. There
also is the "self-moving car" of the God of
Fire, variegated with a hundred sorts of
metals, the like of which no mortal has ever
dreamed of; there, too, is the court of Yama,
surnamed the Beautiful; there, too, is the court
of Varuna, the Lord of Ocean, the prototype
of our old friend Neptune, with his sea-weed
hair. The Lord of the Zodiac sits on his
dark-blue lazuli throne, and Siva glooms
heavily on a golden car, flashing with ten
thousand rays; crowds of the lesser gods, sons,
brothers, and impersonations of the Triad;
the celestial minstrels called Gandharvas;
the nymphs, or Apsaras, with the beautiful
Rhemba in the midst; the great snakes as
attendants; the morning stars; the sons of God;
and all things beautiful and pure are here, all
singing praises to the Lord of Life and Matter
—Brahma the uncreated! On every side, flow
rivers of gold, dividing the great mountain into
separate dales and portions. The buttresses
or supports are also of gold, and are set all
about with vimanas (or self-moving cars) for
the gods, formed of black and red coral
intermixed, buried in heaps of marvellous flowers.
And on the mountain sides, are trees such as
mortal eyes never saw; flowers "like great
waterpots with leaves," whose fragrance is
strong a thousand miles off—flowers with
open calices pouring out scent, like living
dew on the ground; trees, under whose shade
are life and immortality, as blossoms or fruit
falling from their boughs; rivers of honey,
and of the gold from whence all the adornments
of the gods are formed; last of all, the
tree, of mysterious name and mystic virtue,
which the gods and the Gandharvas worship
—the venerable Tree of Immortality. Such
are the wonders of this place—the home of
the gods, and the throne of Brahma!

What a truly Eastern picture it is!—
Gold in profusion, as if gold were a real
virtue; "self-moving cars;" or the powers of
Nature tricked out for a child's fairy tale—
flowers, trees, stars, snakes, gods—all that
would most please the ardent, untaught
imagination, piled up like countless ores
within a mine! And yet, it is very beautiful.
There is a child-like freshness and simplicity
about its very gorgeousness which may not
win our love, but which must command our
regard: and, though it may not be the highest
style of poetry, yet it is true poetry of its
kind. "Olympus in Thessaly" was more
noble in its conception, because more simple;
but the mystic charm lingers most round
Merù: the oldest form of heaven that we know.

The Paradise, called Kailysa, of Mahadevi
and Parvati, is somewhat different. Parvati,
we have observed before, is Mahadevi's wife
—his saeti, or energy—the female representation
of his powers. All the gods, in each of
their impersonations, have their saetis; even
Brahma possessing a Saraswati as his queen.

On a tiger-skin, spread over a crimson
couch, sit Mahadevi and his bride—a glory
round their heads, and a golden stream of
light falling on them through the azure clouds
above. A silver crescent is on his forehead;
and round his wrists, and in his ears, are
glancing snakes of gold, tinged with crimson.
His rosary, and her broad bracelet bands,
are all of gold; pearls, and emeralds, rubies,
diamonds, and sapphires, blaze in the light
from every part of their persons. A necklace
round his throat, and a necklace on his breast;
a pendant chaplet crossed on her blushing