m."

Then beginning with an abstract of the four Vedes, the eighteen Pourans,
and the five or six Chastres, he recounted how a being, infinite,
eternal, immaterial and round, after having passed an eternity in
self-contemplation, and determining at last to manifest himself,
separated the male and female faculties which were in him, and performed
an act of generation, of which the Lingam remains an emblem; how that
first act gave birth to three divine powers, Brama, Bichen or Vichenou,
and Chib or Chiven;* whose functions were--the first to create, the
second to preserve, and the third to destroy, or change the form of
the universe. Then, detailing the history of their operations and
adventures, he explained how Brama, proud of having created the world
and the eight bobouns, or spheres of probation, thought himself superior
to Chib, his equal; how his pride brought on a battle between them, in
which these celestial globes were crushed like a basket of eggs; how
Brama, vanquished in this conflict, was reduced to serve as a pedestal
to Chib, metamorphosed into a Lingam; how Vichenou, the god mediator,
has taken at different times to preserve the world, nine mortal forms
of animals; how first, in shape of a fish, he saved from the universal
deluge a family who repeopled the earth; how afterwards, in the form of
a tortoise,** he drew from the sea of milk the mountain Mandreguiri
(the pole); then, becoming a boar, he tore the belly of the giant
Ereuniachessen, who was drowning the earth in the abyss of Djole, from
whence he drew it out with his tusks; how, becoming incarnate in a black
shepherd, and under the name of Christ-en, he delivered the world of the
enormous serpent Calengem, and then crushed his head, after having been
wounded by him in the heel.

* These names are differently pronounced according to the
different dialects; thus they say Birmah, Bremma, Brouma.
Bichen has been turned into Vichen by the easy exchange of a
B for a V, and into Vichenou by means of a grammatical
affix. In the same manner Chib, which is synonymous with
Satan, and signifies adversary, is frequently written Chiba
and Chiv-en; he is called also Rouder and Routr-en, that is,
the destroyer.

** This is the constellation testudo, or the lyre, which was
at first a tortoise, on account of its slow motion round the
Pole; then a lyre, because it is the shell of this reptile
on which t