ade his illustrious guest drunk, and in this state put out his eyes on the sea-shore, where he had laid himself down to sleep, so that Orion, when he awoke from his debauch, found himself blind. Directed by the sound, he then went to a neighbouring forge, where he placed one of the workmen on his back, and by his directions proceeded to a place where the rising sun was seen with the greatest advantage. Here he turned his face towards the luminary; and, according to report, he immediately recovered his eye-sight, and hastened to punish the perfidious cruelty of Oenopion.

Orion was believed to have been an excellent workman in iron, and to have fabricated a subterranean palace for Vulcan.

Some say that Orion was the son of Neptune and Euryale, and that he had received from his father the privilege and power of walking over the sea without wetting his feet; but others assert that he was a son of Terra, like the rest of the giants. He had married a nymph called Sida before his connection with the family of Oenopion; but Sida was the cause of her own death, by boasting herself fairer than Juno. Diodorus says that Orion was a celebrated hunter, superior to the rest of mankind by his strength and uncommon stature. He built the port of Zancle, and fortified the coast of Sicily against the frequent inundations of the sea, by heaping up a mound of earth called Pelorum, on which he built a temple to the gods of the sea. After his death Orion was placed in heaven, where one of the constellations still bears his name. The constellation of Orion was placed near the feet of the bull. It was composed of seventeen stars, in the form of a man holding a sword; for which reason the poets often speak of Orion's sword. As the constellation of Orion, which rises about the 9th day of March, and sets about the 21st of June, is generally supposed to be accompanied at its rising with great rains and storms, it has acquired the epithet of aquarius, which is applied to it by Virgil.

ORISSA, an extensive province of Hindustan, in the Deccan, between the sixteenth and twenty-third degrees of north latitude. It has Bengal for its boundary to the north, to the south the river Godavary, to the east the Bay of Bengal, and to the west the province of Gundwana. It may be estimated from north-east to southwest at 530 miles in length by ninety in average breadth. Orissa was formerly an independent Hindu kingdom. It was first conquered by the Afghans, and afterwards by the Moguls towards the end of the sixteenth century. It was in ancient times divided into five districts, namely, 1. Jellaisir, comprising Midnapoor and the British possessions lying north and east of the river Subunreekha; 2. Buddruck (now Cuttack); 3. Cuttack; 4. Kuling or Cicacole; and, 5. Rajamundry. The principal modern subdivisions of this extensive province, independently of other petty states and large zemindaries, are, 1. Singhbhoon; 2. Kunjeur; 3. Mohurbunge; 4. Balasore; 5. Cuttack; 6. Khoordah.

This province, in the interior, is of a rude and barbarous aspect, consisting for the most part of rugged hills, uninhabited jungles, and deep water-courses. It is surrounded by pathless deserts, forests, or valleys; and the atmosphere is pestilential. There are only two passes in the great mountainous ridge that extends from the Godavary to the Mahanuddly; the one direct, from Chandah to Cicacole; the other oblique, from Choteesghur by the way of Kahuliadi, and both uniting at the pass of Saloor or Saurecca. But though Orissa is, generally speaking, a barren country, the south-eastern or maritime parts are equal in fertility to most parts of India.

At present the British rule over nearly one half of this extensive region, and the remaining part is possessed by tributary zemindars, called ghurjauts or hill-chiefs, who pay a fixed rent to the British, under whose jurisdiction they live. The woody and interior division of the country belongs to them; whilst the other division, belonging to the British, comprehends all the low lands extending along the coast, a tract generally plain and fertile, but not well cultivated or peopled. But the country occupied by the natives, though a barren tract of rock, forest, and jungle, and thinly inhabited, produces a surplus of grain beyond the consumption of its inhabitants. The British portion of the country produces, as its chief staples, rice and salt; the former of which is an article of export. Every sort of grain and vetch is cultivated, and the country is improving under its present administration; whilst the portion that is still under its native chiefs presents a scene of oppression and decay. The low lands along the Bay of Bengal abound with wild animals, such as hogs, deer, tigers, and jackals; and the high lands are infested by such numbers of wild animals, that in many places they are regaining possession of the country from which they were driven by the progress of cultivation. Fish swarm in the rivers, which are also infested with reptiles and alligators; and in the plains and jungles are innumerable noxious insects. The chief rivers are the Godavary, Mahanuddly, Byturnee, and Subunreekha, besides innumerable mountain streams of a short course.

The country between the rivers Gaintee and Bamoni is peculiarly fertile, and is inhabited by an industrious class of persons, weavers, chiefly of coarse muslins for turbans, and sanase, which are a staple manufacture. The districts to the west of Bengal are mountainous, and inhabited by a savage race of Hindus, who are still called Oureas. They go nearly naked, and are armed with bows and arrows, and are nominally subject to the Mahrattas, though they pay but little revenue. They are naturally a fierce people, possessing personal courage in a great degree. They are great enemies of the Mahrattas, who plunder and oppress them; but those under the British dominion are a mild and tractable people, and the palanquin-bearers in Calcutta are mostly from that country. These bearers have high and proud notions: they pretend to be of a higher caste than the bearers from Bahar, and are very fastidious about performing their duties.

In the ancient history of the Hindus, Ucata or Odreda, implying the great or famous country of Cala, was nearly co-extensive with the modern Orissa; but the martial race by whom it was inhabited were at last extirpated by the karnas or kings of Magadha. A race of Hindu princes governed the country in 1592, and were conquered by the viceroy of Akbar, to whose dominion the country was annexed as a dependent government. It then measured 600 miles along the sea coast by forty in medium breadth, extending from Tumlook on the banks of the Great Ganges, to Rajamundry on the Lesser Ganges; and was inhabited by the Oureas, a race of Hindus, of peculiar and distinct language, manners, and religion. From disjointed fragments of its history, and from existing relics, it appears to have been a flourishing empire, even before the Mahommadan invasion; but it soon afterwards fell into decay. When the Afghans were expelled from Bengal by the Moguls in the sixteenth century, they took refuge in Orissa, and retained possession of part of it, including the celebrated temple of Juggernaut, till near the year 1615.