Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 142

THE SEVEN SONS OF JAPHETH
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dants have spread little by little throughout the length and
breadth of the land. This opinion of the Hindus as to tli<-
origin of the Brahmins is confirmed by the Brahmins
themselves, by the manner in which they treat one another.
The northern Brahmin considers himself nobler and of
higher rank than his southern brother, inasmuch as, having
originated closer to the cradle of the race, there is less room
for doubt concerning the fact of his direct descent from
the Rishis.
Surely these seven Hindu Penitents, or philo-
sophers, must be the seven sons of Japheth, who, with their
father at their head, led one-third of the human race
towards the West, when men began to disperse after the
Flood. They did not all reach Europe.
Some of them on
their way there turned northwards, under the guidance of
Magog, second son of Japheth, and penetrated into Tartary
as far as the Caucasian Range, in which vast tract of
country they made several settlements.
I hazard no conjectures here which are not borne out
by the Scriptures or by the commentaries of its wise in-
terpreters, with whose aid I might easily pretend to much
erudition
it would only be necessary to copy out verbatim
what Bochart and the savant Dom Calmet have written
on this subject.
Any one believing in the connexion between names and
facts will be struck with the similarity existing between
Magog's name and Gautama's, commonly called Gotama.
Ma, or maha, signifies great, so that Gotama must mean
;
the Great
Gog
or
Magog
1
.
Furthermore, pagan history adds weight to these con-
jectures of mine on the origin and antiquity of the Brah-
mins. Learned men allude to more than one Prometheus.
According to the Greeks the most celebrated of them all
is a son of Japheth.
He created man out of the soil, and
instilled life into him with the fire stolen from heaven.
This bold enterprise irritated Jupiter, who punished him
by chaining him to one of the Caucasian Mountains, where
a vulture devoured his liver as fast as it renewed itself.
Hercules killed the vulture, and thereby put the son of
Iapetus, or Japheth, out of his torture.
Much of this seems extremely fanciful. Max Miiller and other
1
modern
authorities should be consulted.
Ed.