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126
BIRMAH.
the amphibious deity who was the chief object of Phe-
nician idolatry. Under this form, Vishnou himself is
represented in the matsyu avatar, as a man issuing
from a fish. According to the testimony of Mr.
Hamelton, the idol originally enshrined here was not
of a human form ; but he was not allowed to see it.
There can, however, be little doubt that the place has
taken its name from the deity to whom it was conse-
crated, and who was worshipped here, ages before the
era of Buddha, either by the Tallien nation or by a
foreign colony and ; that the Indian Gaudama has inherited
the honours of the Syrian Dagon, just as the
Virgin has succeeded in western countries to the
shrines and altars of the Mater Dea, and the temple
of Vesta has become the church of the Madonna of the
Sun. Here, the mariner who has been delivered from
peril, now presents as his votive offering, a model of a
ship or boat to Buddha, as his ancestors once did to
their amphibious patron, and as in many countries is
practised by the worshippers of the Virgin as Our
Lady of Deliverance. In like manner, the temple of
Shoe-madoo (Maha Deo) at Syriam was once, no
doubt, sacred to the Hindoo Apollo, Sooryii or Syrius;
and Sitong may perhaps be nothing else than Saidon
(or 2iTo>i'), the Phenician Dagon under another name.*
Mr. Judson, the American missionary, was present,
in 1817, at the grand annual festival held at Rangoon
in honour of Gaudama.
"
It lasts for three days. It
tation, it is plausibly supposed that Noah is referred to. See
BRTAXT'S Mythology, vol. iii. p. 134; iv. 140; v. 236. CALMET'S
Dictionary, by TAT LOR, art. Dagon; and Fragments, cxlv. ccxii.
ccxiv.
* If the Philistines or Palestines were, as has been contended, a
branch of the Palli or Indo-Scythians, it would cease to be remarkable,
that the same object of worship should be introduced by a
maritime people into their different colonies.