fasten him with his feet upwards and head downwards to a chariot of fire, and urge him onward with a red-hot goad. He ascends in the flame, and is then cast down; he is enclosed in the Lohokumba hell; he is covered all over with foam, like a grain of rice in the oven; he is now up, now down, and now on one side; and he dies not until the punishment he must receive for his demerit is complete. (Bála-pandhita-sútra-sanné.)

It was declared by Budha, that if any one were to attempt to describe all the misery of all the narakas, more than a hundred, or even a hundred thousand years, would be required for the recital.

The beings in the narakas endure much sorrow; they suffer much pain; every member of the body, throughout all its parts, is exposed to an intense fire; they weep, and send forth a doleful lamentation; their mouths and faces are covered with saliva; they are crushed by an insupportable affliction; they have no help; their misery is incessant; and they live in the midst of a fire that is fiercer than the sun-beam, raging continually, casting forth flames above, below, and on the four sides, to the distance of 100 yojanas.

Yet even these miserable beings are afraid of death, although this fear arises from no love they have to the place of torment; from this they wish to be released. In what way, is it asked? A man is exposed to danger from a snake, an elephant, or a lion, or some punishment awarded by the king; from this he wishes to be released, and yet at the same time he fears death. Again, a man has a dangerous tumour, which the surgeon is prepared to remove by the application of caustic or the use of some sharp instrument; this man wishes to be relieved from the pain of the tumour, but still dreads the operation. Again, a poor man in prison is sent for by some great ruler, and is ushered into his presence that he may be set at liberty; this man wishes for liberty, but trembles when entering a place of so much splendour. Again, a man is bitten by a poisonous serpent; he falls to the ground, and tosses himself violently from side to side; another man who sees his danger pronounces over him a charm, that the force of the poison may be overcome; when coming to himself, and on the point of being cured, he is afraid, and trembles; nevertheless he wishes that the cure may be effected. In like manner the beings in the narakas, though they have no satisfaction in the situation in which they are placed, like all other beings, fear death. (Milinda Prasna).

Upon one occasion Milinda said to Nágaséna, "You affirm that

the fire of the narakas is intensely more powerful than the natural fire of this world; if a small stone be here cast into the fire, it will remain a whole day without being consumed; but if a rock as large as a house be cast into the fire of a naraka, you say it will be consumed in a moment: this I cannot believe. You say again, that if a being is cast into a naraka, he will remain there many ages without coming to destruction: this also I cannot believe." Nágaséna replied, "How so? There is the sword-fish, the alligator, the tortoise, the peacock, and the pigeon; these all eat stones and gravel; but by the power of the digestive fire within the body these hard substances are decomposed; but if the females of any of these reptiles or birds become pregnant, is the embryo destroyed from the same cause?” Milinda : “ No.” Nágaséna: “Why?” Milinda: "By means of their individual karma they are preserved." Milinda: "So also, the beings in the narakas are preserved by their individual karma during many ages; they are there born, arrive at maturity, and die. Budha has said, Priests, so long as the karma of a being in a naraka continues to exist, that being must exist,"

There were five persons who lived in the time of Gótama Budha, of whom it is recorded that they went to a naraka:-1. The noble Bhagineyya, who violated the chastity of the priestess, Upulwan. 2. The brahman Mágandhi, who reviled Budha during seven days. 3. Chinchi, the female who was instigated by the tirttakas to bring a false accusation against Budha, in the presence of the four orders of the priesthood. 4. Supra Budha, the father-in-law of Budha. 5. Déwadatta, the son of Supra Budha, who tempted some of the followers of Budha to forsake him, and fell into heresy.

III. THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH; THEIR FALL FROM PURITY; AND THEIR

DIVISION INTO FOUR CASTES.

THE BRAHMAS COME TO INHABIT THE EARTH.-THEIR SPLENDOUR.-TS LOSS.-THE FORMATION OF THE SUN AND MOON.-THE DEGENERACY OF THE BRAHMAS.THE ORIGIN OF THE FOUR CASTES.

NEARLY all the ancient nations of the world, of whom we have any record, carry back their origin to a period immensely remote; nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider that the traditions of the diluvian age must then have been fresh in the memories of men. Noah lived three hun

dred and fifty years, and Shem five hundred years after the flood. Nimrod, from whom was "the beginning of the kingdom of Babel," was the great grandson of Noah; and the kingdom of Egypt is supposed to have had its origin from Mizraim, the son of Ham. The founders of these kingdoms, therefore, conversed with men who had seen the flood, and who had been witnesses of the most fearful mundane convulsion that had taken place since the formation of our species. Who, in the days of his childhood, when the mind yearns after information relative to the past, and the strangest fiction is received as sober truth, has ever listened to the tales that none are so ready to tell as the aged, whether grandsire or gammer, without the receiving of impressions which the experience of future years can never entirely obliterate? It is then that the spirit leaves the narrow bound that in infancy was its world, and breaks away into other regions; where it sees that which was before invisible, and hears that which was before inaudible, and enters upon a

new existence. But the wildest romance ever heard in our day, from lips all garrulous, must be poor and spiritless when compared with the wondrous revelations that the members of the Noachic family could impart; and when the children to whom they told them grew up into manhood, and wandered into the lands where they founded dynasties and established kingdoms, all these tales and traditions would be cherished in the memory, increasing in extravagance as they went on, until some superior mind would arise, and reduce them to order. Thus, from that which in its origin was the simple truth, would arise the legend, the myth, and the chronological cycle almost limitless, of the times succeeding the deluge. The traditions of the Budhists are in unison with this order of development.

In the ages previous to the present Maha Bhadra kalpa, a kelalaksha of worlds was destroyed by fire, in which destruction the Great Earth was included, and all the worlds in each sakwala from the Ajatákása to the sixth brahma-lóka, Abhassara; so that the whole space was void, like the inside of a drum. But by the united merit of all sentient existence, the rain called Samartthakara, (or Sampattikara)* Mégha, began to fall. The drops were at first in size like a grain of rice, then gradually increasing in magnitude they became large as a needle, an arrow, a bamboo, an areca, a palm, four miles, and eight miles, until as much space as is occupied by a kela-laksha of worlds was entirely inundated. Then, by the same power, a wind was brought into existence, which agitated this mighty ocean, until the whole was evaporated, with the exception of that which composes the seas of the earth and the world of waters under the earth. At this time the whole space was enveloped in darkness. The monarchs of the brahma-lókas, coming to see whether the lotus was formed that indicates whether a supreme Budha will appear in the same kalpa or not, dispersed the darkness in an instant; when they beheld five flowers, with five sets of priestly requisites near them; by which they knew that the kalpa

"Janárddano, in the person of Rudra, having consumed the whole world, breathes forth heavy clouds; and those called Samvartta, resembling vast elephants in bulk, overspread the sky, roaring and darting lightnings.' -Wilson's Vishnu Purána.

would be honoured by the presence of five Budhas. Then taking the five robes, alms-bowls, &c., they returned to their respective lókas.

On the destruction of the previous worlds, the beings that inhabited them, and were in the possession of merit, received birth in the Abhassara brahma-lóka; and when their proper age was expired, or their merit was insufficient to preserve them any longer in a superior world, they again came to inhabit the earth. It was by the apparitional birth they were produced; and their bodies still retained many of the attributes of the world from which they had come, as they subsisted without food, and could soar through the air at will; and the glory proceeding from their persons was so great that there was no necessity for a sun or a moon. Thus, no change of seasons was known; there was no difference between night and day; and there was no diversity of sex. Throughout many ages did the brahmas thus live, in all happiness, and in mutual peace. There was afterwards the formation, upon the surface of the earth, of a peculiar substance like the scum that arises upon the surface of boiled milk; but it was free from all impurity, as the virgin honey in the cell of the bee. This attracted the attention of one of the brahmas, who took up a little of the substance with his finger, and applied it to his mouth; but as its taste was most delightful, it excited the wish for more; and a principle of evil was now first manifested among the beings of the earth, who had hitherto kept themselves pure. The other brahmas soon began to follow this example; by which the glory proceeding from their persons was extinguished, and it became necessary that a sun and moon, and other shining bodies, should be brought into existence.

The whole of the brahmas assembled together; and after expressing to each other their regret for the loss of the privileges they had once enjoyed, they determined upon forming a sun. By the power of their united karma this was effected; and the shining body thus produced was called súrya, from sura, might, and wírya, energy. The name of Sun-day was given to the day upon which

"The beings who were created by Brahmá, of the four castes, were at first endowed with righteousness and perfect faith; they abode wherever they pleased, unchecked by any impediment; their hearts were free from guile; they were pure, made free from soil, by observance of sacred institutes. In their sanctified minds Hari dwelt; and they were filled with perfect wisdom, by which they contemplated the glory of Vishnu."-Wilson's Vishnu Purána.