'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎106] (777/1024)

Jhe Gentiles of
Indoftan.
midnight the Angels finging in the Ait, and the Heavens pouting down a (howet of
flowers all that night. This favours much of Chriftiamty : But then there follows a
Fable again, which is. That this God incarnate killed hrft of all a Giant that flew in
the Air, and was fo big as to obfcure the Sun, and by his fall to make the Earth to
fhake and that by his great weight he funk as deep as Hell > that this God incarnate
b e i n a wounded in the fide, in the hrft conflidd with this Giant, fell, but by his fall put
his Enemies to flight i that after he had raifed himfeli again, and redeemed the
World, he afcended into Heaven •, and that by reafon of his wound, he is commonly
called the Wounded in his Side. In the tenth Incarnation, which (hall then be, when
according to our fupputation Antichrift (hall come, the World (hall be delivered from
the flavery of the Mahumetans : But this is oi^a vulgar Tradition, which is not
found in their Books. „ , — . . , . .m V t • r
They fay alfo, that theTbird Perfon of theTrimty hath manflefted himfelf to the
World i concerning which they relate, That the Daughter of a certain King, being fit
to be married, and asked by her Father, whom (he v/ould marry, anfwered, that (he
would not be united but to a Divine Perfon j and that at the fame time, the Third Per
fon of the Trinity appeared^ the King in the form of Fii£ i that that King forthwith
gave notice of it to his Daughter, who prefently confented to the Marriage i That this
Perfon of the Trinity,though altogether in a flry appearance,was called before the King’s
Council, and feeing that the Counfellors oppofed this Marriage, took hold of their
Beards and burned them, together with the whole Pvoyal Palace, and then married the
Daughter. Ridiculous!
They add, that the flrftlncarnation of the fecond Perfon, was in the nature of a Liony
the fecond, in thatof a » thethird, in that of a Torftwye s thefourth, inthatofa
Serpent the fifih in that of a Brahma She-Dwarfr onely a foot and a half high i the
hxth, in that of a Monller, a Man-Lion > the feventh, in that of a Dragon j the eighth,
as hath bepmf^id already j the ninth, in an Ape j the tenth, in that ofa great Cavalier.
Concerning this I (hall acquaint you, that I doubt not but that the Reverend Father
lioa, hath takeh all he faith of this matter out of the Books of ^ the Gentiles, and that
is the main ground of their Mythology. I had written many things of it at large in my
Papers, and had alfo taken the Figures of their Gods or idols, which I had feen in their
Temples, having alfo got of them the Characters of their Language Hanjcrit > but bod
ing at my return all thofe things, or at lead the belt part of it Printed in the China lllufl-
rata of Father ifirckr, who had obtained it at TCome from the fame Father Loa j I (hall
content my felf to have named the Book to you. ’Tis true, that the word Incarnation,
which the Reverend Father ufeth, was new to me, having never feen itfo exprefly
ufed i l had only heard fome Tendets thus explaining the thing, viz. That God had
formerly appeared in thofe Figures when he did all thofe wonders they relate. Others
explained it to me after this manner, to wit. That it was the Soul of certain Great Men,
fuch as we might call Hero’s, that hadpafled into thefe Bodies, and that thefe
were thu's become Dent as, or to fpeak in the phrafe of our old Idolaters, fome powerfu
and confiderable Divinities, Numens, Genios , Demons, Spirits j for I fee not that this
word Deiita can (ignifle any other thing : But this fecond Explication of tke Pendets,
cometh in effed to the tirfl, for as much as moftofthem believe, that our Souls are
Portions of God. _ , r
Others there were that gave me a much fublimer Explication, faying, That all thole
Incarnations or Apparitions, which their Books fpeak of are not to be underflood a ^ or
ing to the Letter,but Myftically,forafmuch as thereby are explained the feveral Attributes
of God. Some there were, and thofe of the mofl: learnedj acknowledging to me can
didly, that there was nothing more fabulous then thofe Incarnations, and that they were
only the Inventions of Legiflators, to retain People in fome Religion : And though this
werefo, if there were nothing elfe but this, (’which is common to them all) t a
our Souls were Portions of the Deity, it were to be exploded in found Phylo op
without making any Myfteries in Religion of it, feeing that in refped of our Souls we
fhouldbeGo^, and that in effeCt it fhould be our felves that had impofed upon us a
Pveligious Worfliip, Metempfychofes, Paradice and Hell, which would be ridiculous.
1 (hall here add a few words, to declare that I am not lefs obliged to Monfleur w
ry Lor, and to Monfieur Abraham Roger, then to the Reverend Fathers Kircher am
I had compil’d an hundred things relating to the Gentiles, which I found in the Boo so^
thofe Gentlemen, and which would have been a great trouble to me to range t lC1 ^