“The Chinese,” says the author of _Rites and Ceremonies_, “worship a goddess, whom they call _Puzza_, and of whom their priests give the following account:--They say that three nymphs came down from heaven to wash themselves in a river, but scarce had they got into the water before the herb _Lotos_[269] appeared on one of their garments, with its coral fruit upon it. They were surprised to think whence it could proceed; and the nymph upon whose garment it was could not resist _the temptation of indulging herself in tasting it_. But by thus eating some of it, she became _pregnant_, and was delivered of a boy, whom she brought up, and then returned to heaven. He afterwards became a great man, a conqueror and legislator, and the nymph was afterwards worshipped under the name of _Puzza_.”[270] And thus we see that _Budh_ and _Pish_ were the actual regulators of the solar universe. Time, however, dissolved the chain which linked together those _mysterious absolutes_: or, rather, the _zealots_ of each contrived to sever an attachment, which was intended by nature to be reciprocal and mutual.[271] War, devastating, desecrating war, spread abroad over the plain! Human energies were evoked into an unknown activity! Men’s passions, always inflammable by the jealousy of partisanship, were here furthermore stimulated by the rancour of religion! And hearts were lacerated, and countries were depopulated in sustainment of the consequences of a physiological disquisition!!! But what do you conceive to have been the topic at issue? Verily, it was whether the _male or the female contributed more largely to the act of generation_!--those who voted for the _female_ side ranging themselves under the banners of _Pish_, and those for the _male_ under the standard of _Budh_, while both equally appealed to heaven for adjudication of their suit, by arrogating to themselves the adjunct of _De-danaans_, or God-Almoners. “Not but the human fabric from its birth Imbibes a flavour of its parent earth, As various tracts enforce a various toil, The manners speak the idiom of the soil.” Whether or not, however, the result is to be considered as decisive of the matter in dispute, one thing at least is certain, namely, that the _Pish_-God-Almoners obtained the victory; and the _Budh_-God-Almoners were thrown upon the ocean; over whose bosom, wafted to our genial shores, they did not only import with them all the culture of the East, with its accompanying refinement and polished civilisation; but they raised the isle to that pinnacle of literary and religious beatitude which made it appear to the fancies of distant and enraptured hearers more the day-dream of romance than the sober outline of an actual locality.