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274 nal. The four Samhitas here specified refer rather to their religious character than to their connexion with any specific work; and, in fact, the same terms are applied to what are called Samhitas of the Skanda. In this sense, a Purana might be also a Samhita; that is, it might be anassemblage of formula and legends belonging to a division of the Hindu system; and the work in question, like the Vishnu Purana, does adopt both titles. It says: "This is the excellent Kaurma Purana, the fifteenth (of the series)." And again: "This is the Brahmi Samhita." At any rate, no other work has been met with pretending to be the Kurma Purana. "With regard to the other particulars specified by the Matsya, traces of them are to be found. Although, in two accounts of the traditional communication of the Purana no mention is made of Vishnu as one of the teachers, yet Suta repeats, at the outset, a dialogue between Vishnu, as the Kurma, and Indradyumna, at the time of the churning of the ocean; and much of the subsequent narrative is put into the mouth of the former. "The name, being that of an Avatara of Vishnu, might lead us to expect a Vaishnava work: but it is always, and correctly, classed with the Saiva Puranas; the greater portion of it inculcating the worship of Siva and Durga. It is divided into two parts, of nearly equal length. In the first part, accounts of the creation, of the Avataras of Vishnu, of the solar and lunar dynasties of the kings to the time of Krishna, of the universe, and of the Manwantaras, are given, in general in a summary manner, but, not unfrequently, in the words employed in the Vishnu Purana. With these are blended hymns addressed to Maheswara by Brahma and others; the defeat of Andhakasura by Bhairava; the origin of four Saktis, Maheswari, Siva, Sati, and Haimavati, from Siva; and other Saiva legends. One chapter gives a more distinct and connected account of the incarnations of Siva, in the present age, than the Linga; and it wears, still more, the appearance of an attempt to identify the teachers of the Yoga school with personations of their preferential deity. Several chapters from a Kasi Mahatmya, a legend of Benares. In the second part there are no legends. It is divided into two parts, the I'swara Gita and Vyasa Gita. In the former, the knowledge of god, that is, of Siva, through contemplative devotion, is taught. In the latter, the same object is enjoined through works, or observance of the ceremonies and precepts of the Vedas.