As to their acknowledging the fish, tortoise, and boar to be incarnations of the divinity, by this they mean, that all beings are rays emanating from the essence of the Almighty, and that no degradation results to him therefrom, according to this narration of the _Mir Sáíd Sharif_, of Jarjan (Georgia). As a Súfí and rhetorician were one day disputing, the latter said: “I feel pain at the idea of a God who manifests himself in a dog or hog:” to which the Súfee replied: “I appeal from the God who displays not himself in the dog.” On this, all present exclaimed: “One of these two must be an infidel.” A man of enlightened piety drew near, and showing them the exact import of these expressions, said: “According to the belief of the rhetorician, the dignity of God is impaired by his manifesting himself in the dog; he is therefore distressed at the idea of a God thus deficient. But, according to the Súfee, the non-appearance of God in that animal would be a diminution of his dignity, he therefore appeals against a God deficient in this point: consequently, neither of them is an infidel.” So that, in fact, the Súfís and these sectaries entertain the same opinions. The author of this work once said to Shídósh: “We may affirm that by the fish is meant the lord, or conservative angel, of water;” as, according to their mythology, a demon having taken the Vedas under that element, was pursued and slain by Vishnu, and the Vedas brought back: thus their mention of a fish originated from its inseparable connection with water. By the tortoise is meant the lord, or conservative angel, of earth; as their mythology relates, that the Avátar of the tortoise occurred for the purpose of the earth being supported on its back, as is actually the case; they have also especially mentioned the tortoise, as it is both a land and aquatic creature, and that after water comes earth. By the boar are meant the passions and the propagation of living creatures; and as to the tradition of a demon having stolen away the earth and taken it under the water, and of his being pursued by Vishnu under the form of a boar, and slain by his tusks, its import is as follows: the demon means dissolute manners, which destroyed the earth with the deluge of sensuality; but on the aid of the spirit coming, the demon of dissoluteness was overthrown by the tusks of continence: the boar is particularly mentioned, because its attribute is sensuality; and it was reckoned an Avátár, because continence is virtue. The _Narsinh_, or “man-lion,” is the lord, or conservative angel of heroism; and as this constitutes a most praiseworthy quality, they said, that the Narsinh was a form with a lion’s head and a human body, for when they spoke of impetuous bravery in a man, they made use of the term “lion.” By _Vámana_, or “dwarfish stature,” they meant, the lord of reason, strength of reflection, and an intellectual being; the dwarfish stature implying that, notwithstanding a diminutive person, important