the supreme god of the Indians. In Hindustani, the word is a neuter noun, derived by grammarians from the verb *brih* to grow, and the suffix *ma*, and thus means that which grows, or the Supreme Being regarded under the aspect of development, and revealed by the creation of worlds. The word is used, however, in a secondary sense also, and means the Supreme Absolute Spirit, not regarded as a creative force, but shut up in himself, without external manifestations of any kind.

**BRAHMPOOTRA**, or **BURHMAPOOTER**, one of the largest rivers in India, deriving its origin from the unexplored region at the eastern termination of the Himalaya mountains, in Lat. 28° 30', Long. 97° 20'. Commencing with a westerly course it enters the province of Assam, and shortly after receives the tributary waters of the Dihong, a river of greater magnitude at the point of junction than itself; and which, rising under the name of the Sanpoo in the vicinity of the sources of the Sutlej and the Indus, winds eastward through the territory of Thibet for a thousand miles before its confluence with the Brahmapootra. In Long. 94° 30', the united streams divide into two great branches which inclose an island of sixty miles in length.

Continuing its course westward it enters Bengal near to the town of Goalpara, after which it makes a circuit round the Garrow Mountains; and then altering its course to the south it is joined by the Megna in Lat. 24° in the district of Dacca. From this point the river loses its previous appellation of the Brahmapootra and assumes that of the Megna, the waters of which disemboogie into the Bay of Bengal through three separate branches, one of these being the channel of the Ganges, with which the Megna communicates at the distance of about 40 miles from the sea. This great river, including its windings, has a course of about 930 miles, a length which would be doubled if the continuous streams of its remotest feeder, the Dihong, be included. Until 1765 the Brahmapootra was unknown in Europe as a great river, and Major Rennell, on exploring it, was surprised to find it larger than the Ganges. During a course of 400 miles through Bengal, the Brahmapootra resembles the Ganges in all respects, except that during the last 60 miles before its junction with that river, it forms a stream which is regularly from four to five miles wide, and but for its freshness might be considered an arm of the sea. The junction of the two mighty streams of the Brahmapootra and the Ganges produces an immense body of fresh water, such as is only exceeded by some of the great rivers in Africa which lie entirely within the limits of the tropical rains, or the Amazons and Orinoco in South America. The bore, which is known to be occasioned by the sudden influence of the tide into a river or narrow strait, prevails in all the passages between the islands and sands situated in the gulf formed by the confluence of the Brahmapootra and the Ganges, in a greater degree than in other rivers.