The first Europeans who visited Cape Comorin, the most southerly extremity of the peninsula of Hindostan, were surprised to find the inhabitants worshiping a Lord and Saviour whom they called _Salivahana_. They related that his father's name was Taishaca, but that he was _a divine child horn of a Virgin_, in fact, an incarnation of the Supreme _Vishnu_.[119:1] The belief in a virgin-born god-man is found in the religions of China. As Sir John Francis Davis remarks,[119:2] "China has her mythology in common with all other nations, and under this head we must range the persons styled _Fo-hi_ (or Fuh-he), _Shin-noong_, _Hoang-ty_ and their immediate successors, who, like the demi gods and heroes of Grecian fable, rescued mankind by their ability or enterprise from the most primitive barbarism, and have since been invested with _superhuman_ attributes. The most extravagant prodigies are related of these persons, and the most incongruous qualities attributed to them." Dean Milman, in his "History of Christianity" (Vol. i. p. 97), refers to the tradition, found among the Chinese, that _Fo-hi_ was born of a virgin; and remarks that, the first Jesuit missionaries who went to China were appalled at finding, in the mythology of that country, a counterpart of the story of the virgin of Judea. Fo-hi is said to have been born 3463 years B. C., and, according to some Chinese writers, with him begins the historical era and the foundation of the empire. When his mother conceived him in her womb, a rainbow was seen to surround her.[119:3] The Chinese traditions concerning the birth of Fo-hi are, some of them, highly poetical. That which has received the widest acceptance is as follows: "Three nymphs came down from heaven to wash themselves in a river; but scarce had they got there before the herb _lotus_ appeared on one of their garments, with its coral fruit upon it. They could not imagine whence it proceeded, and one was tempted to taste it, whereby she became pregnant and was delivered of a boy, who afterwards became a great man, a founder of religion, a conqueror, and legislator."[119:4] The sect of _Xaca_, which is evidently a corruption of Buddhism, claim that their master was also of supernatural origin. Alvarez Semedo, speaking of them, says: "The third religious sect among the Chinese is from India, from the parts of Hindostan, which sect they call _Xaca_, from the founder of it, concerning whom they fable--that he was conceived by his mother Maya, from a white elephant, which she saw in her sleep, and for more purity she brought him from one of her sides."[120:1]