“Feby. 10th. This morning a Brahmin came to me, who declared ‘that the Sanscrit language is not the invention of man, but came from Maha Deva’s[39] Bàni: that four genii, who remain about the size of children of eight years of age, hearing the sound of the drum, repeated the sounds, from whence, having written them, they collected the twenty-five letters of the alphabet. On my asking him, how so many letters could be collected from one sound; after some dispute he said, ‘Maha Deva’s Bàni was not like to any now in size, but at the day of judgment it will sound again, and strike all with horror.’ I then inquired, who committed this language to writing in the Shasters? He answered, ‘three Fakeers, to whom the four genii communicated it.’ On asking where they lived, he mentioned ‘a jungle near the hill:’ on asking where the hill was, he could not tell; and, after a long argument, went away promising to bring a map, and shew me the situation of the hill; ‘which, however, is beyond the snowy mountains, in the land of the genii.’ To this I objected, that as the Shasters confined the residence of the Hindoos to this country, the religious men would never call their own place of residence unholy; and, therefore, it must be in this land. We parted with the promise of his coming again. “Feb. 12th. Yesterday, the Brahmin came again; and, after much conversation said, ‘there is no difference in places; and that only the ignorant worship stones, &c., but the fear of popular displeasure keeps them silent.’ In the evening, he came again, and we had a sharp dispute, chiefly on the distance of places: his Shasters describe Hindoostan as seventy-five millions of miles long. My moonshee and the Brahmin had a warm argument.