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[652] _The dying. _--The innumerable superstitions performed on the banks
of the river Ganges, afford a pitiable picture of the weakness of
humanity. The circumstances here mentioned are literally true. It is no
uncommon scene for the English ships to be surrounded with the corpses
which come floating down this hallowed stream.

[653]

_Pegu, whose sons (so held old faith) confess'd
A dog their sire. --_

The tradition of this country boasted this infamous and impossible
original. While other nations pretend to be descended of demi-gods, the
Peguans were contented to trace their pedigree from a Chinese woman and
a dog; the only living creatures which survived a shipwreck on their
coast. --See Faria.

[654] _A pious queen their horrid rage restrain'd. _--Thus in the
original:

"Aqui soante arame no instrumento
Da geracao costumao, o que usarao
Por manha da Raynha, que inventando
Tal uso, deitou fora o error nefando. "


[655] _And 'mid white whirlpools down the ocean driven. _--See the same
account of Sicily, Virg. AEn. iii.

[656] _Ophir its Tyrian name.
_--Sumatra has been by some esteemed the
Ophir of the Holy Scriptures; but the superior fineness of the gold of
Sofala, and its situation, favour the claim of that Ethiopian isle. --See
Bochart. Geog. Sacr.

[657] _And thousands more. _--The extensive countries between India and
China, where Ptolemy places his man-eaters, and where Mandevylle found
"men without heads, who saw and spoke through holes in their breasts,"
continues still very imperfectly known. The Jesuits have told many
extravagant lies of the wealth of these provinces. By the most authentic
accounts they seem to have been peopled by colonies from China. The
religion and manufactures of the Siamese, in particular, confess the
resemblance. In some districts, however, they have greatly degenerated
from the civilization of the mother country.

[658] _And gnaw the reeking limbs. _--Much has been said on this subject,
some denying and others asserting the existence of anthropophagi or
man-eaters. Porphyry (de Abstin. i. 4 ? 21{*}) says that the Massagetae
and Derbices (people of north-eastern Asia), esteeming those most
miserable who died of sickness, when their parents and relations grew
old, killed and ate them, holding it more honourable thus to consume
them than that they should be destroyed by vermin.