349:5 'That sacrifice being wrongly offered, through the improper invocations of the Hotri.' It is also read 'frustrated.' This is rather a brief and obscure allusion to what appears to be an ancient legend, and one that has undergone various modifications. According to the Matsya, no change of sex took place in the first instance. The eldest son of Manu was Ida or Ila, whom his father appointed sovereign of the seven Dwípas. In his progress round his dominions, Ila came to the forest of Śambhu or Śiva; entering into which, he was changed to a female, Ilá, agreeably to a promise made formerly by Śiva to Párvatí, who had been once unseasonably broken in upon by some sages, that such a transformation should be inflicted on every male who trespassed upon the sacred grove. After a season, the brothers of Ila sought for him, and finding him thus metamorphosed, applied to Vaśisht́ha, their father's priest, to know the cause. He explained it to them, and directed them to worship Śiva and his bride. They did so, accordingly; and it was announced by the deities, that, upon the performance of an Aśwamedha by Ikshwáku, Ila should become a Kimpurusha, named Sudyumna, and that he should be a male one month, and a female another month, alternately. The Váyu, which is followed by most of the other authorities, states, that upon Manu's offering their share of the sacrifice to Mitra and Varuńa, instead of a boy, a girl was born: according to the Vedas. Manu desired her to follow him; whence her name Ilá (from ila or id́a, 'come'. There, however, Manu propitiates Mitra and Varuńa, and the girl Ilá is changed into the boy Ila or Sudyumna by their favour: as the Márkańd́eya. Sudyumna's subsequent change to a female again, is told much as in the Matsya; but his being alternately male and female is not mentioned in the Váyu any more than it is in our text. The Bhágavata agrees in that respect with the Matsya, but it has evidently embellished the earlier part of the legend by the introduction of another character, Śraddhá, the wife of the Manu. It is said that it was by her instigation, as she was desirous of having a girl, that the ministering Brahmans altered the purpose of the rite, in consequence of which a girl, instead of a boy, was born. The similarity of the name has induced the learned author of the Origin of Pagan Idolatry to conceive that he has found the Ila of the Hindus in the Il or Ilus of the Phœnicians. "The Phœnician Il is the masculine Ila of the Hindus and Indo-Scythæ, and Ila was a title of Manu or Buddha, who was preserved in the ark at the time of the deluge:" I. 156: and he thence concludes that Ila must be Noah; whilst other circumstances in his Phœnician history identify p. 350 him with Abraham. I. 159. Again; "Ilus or Il is a regular Cuthic name of Buddha, which the Phœnicians, I have no doubt, brought with them; for Buddha or Manu, in the character of Ina, is said to have married his own daughter, who is described as the offspring of an ancient personage that was preserved in an ark at the time of the deluge." I. 223. Now whatever connexion there may be between the names of Ila, Il, Ilus, Ilium, Ilá 'the earth,' and Ilos 'slime,' there is no very obvious resemblance between the Pauráńik legends of Ilá and the Mosaic record; nor do the former authorize the particulars of Ina stated by Mr. Faber, on the authority probably of Col. Wilford. The Manu Satyavrata, who was preserved in the ark, is never called Ila, nor is he the father of Ilá. Buddha was not so preserved, nor is Ila ever a title of Buddha. Budha (not Buddha), the husband of Ilá, never appears as her father, nor is he a Manu, nor is she the daughter of any ancient personage preserved in an ark. There is not therefore, as far as I am aware, any circumstance in the history of Ila or Ilá which can identify either with Abraham or Noah.