priests, that his agitation was painfully obvious to his old associates, who, with the feeling common to their order towards sentient animals, applied to Gautama to know what to do. The deity desired them to wait seven days (the term of a louse's life), in which time the miserable insect (as will be seen hereafter), would be emancipated in some way from his then unhappy state. A louse's mental agony is, however, but as the bite of one to some of the infernal punishments of the Buddha's Tartarus. Assura Nat are their Minos and Rhadamanthus, and, as it may be imagined, are not very tender in awarding to their opponents their full share of any tortures which their misdeeds may have called for. One of these is, that a man as big as three mountains, and who is always in a hungry state, is tantalized by having a mouth no longer than the eye of the finest needle. The punishments attributed to the hells of the Buddhas assimilate so nearly to those of the Hindus, that a farther description of them may be referred to the account which will be found of them under the head of Yama, and the figures in plate 28.

The destruction of the world will, it is imagined, take place in the following manner. A great rain will, at a future time, fall in torrents; after which not a drop will descend from the heavens for a hundred thousand years. In this period plants, animals, and every living thing will perish, the sun and the moon will disappear, and, in their stead, two false suns will arise. The one will succeed the other, rising when it sets. There will then be no night. The heat will be intense, and small bodies of water will be dried up. A third sun will arise and dry up the largest rivers; a fourth and fifth will come and dry up the different seas; a sixth will rend asunder the 1,010,000 earths, from whose rents will be emitted smoke and flames. By the seventh sun the heavenly mountain Mienmo, and all its celestial inhabitants, will be consumed. The destroying fire, having then nothing more to feed it, will expire of its own accord.

The Buddhas allege that every thing exists from natural causes; that virtue brings its own reward, and vice its own punishment; and that the state of man is probationary. If he be virtuous, he will, after death, ascend to one of the lower heavens, but will be born again many times: and as he

may each time continue virtuous, or according to the extent of his virtue, he will progressively ascend in the scale of celestial bliss, till he may finally reach the highest heaven, and obtain Nivani or absorption, not as the Hindus believe, into a supreme being, which would not be in accordance with the doctrines of the Buddhas, but a kind of cessation of animal suffering, and exemption from farther transmigration.

If he have been wicked, he will, in like manner, descend into the different hells, and will exist again in the forms of different animals, according to the nature and extent of his sins; but the duration of his punishment is not eternal, and is still supposed to depend upon himself. He may thus, according to his conduct in the various forms he may exist in, be again elevated to the probationary condition of man; and, although his crimes may have once degenerated him into a lion, or, as just noticed, into a louse, a monkey, a mammoth, or a maggot, he will still, on attaining the state of man, be in a condition to look forward, by the practice of virtue, to obtain at a future period the blissful reward of Nivani.

If, however, he continue to be wicked in this degraded and degenerate state, he will descend still lower and become a devil, than which nothing can be imagined more base or miserable. Some of these devils are such hungry and abject wretches, that the very secretions of the mouth and nostrils are described as being delectable food to them. It is to be presumed that these hungry devils are not of the race of the Seven Hundred in Ceylon, whom Buddha (wherein he displayed signs of supremacy) ordered Vishnu to destroy; which that deity did, except one, by calling to his aid Vige Kumareia, the lion hero, and founder, in union with a female devil, of the early race of Singhalese monarchs. The story is curious, but would occupy too much space for this work. It will be found at length in M. Joinville's Treatise on the Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon, in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches.

Gaudama has also enjoined, as a necessary qualification to obtain Nivani, the performance of dana, or the bestowing of alms; and of bavana, which (according to Dr. F. Buchanan) consists in pronouncing three words:

aneizzo, doccha, and anatta. The first is to shew that he recollects that life is subject to vicissitudes; the second, that man is thereby liable to misfortune; and the third, that exemption from either does not depend upon himself.

The Buddhas do not, like the Brahmans, respect fire; and the rahans (or priests) never kindle one, lest they should thereby destroy the life of an animal. They consequently do not cook any food; though they eat that which has possessed life, provided it be ready dressed; such, at least, appears to be the case in Ava, but in some places it is said to be different. They commonly subsist on provisions given as alms; to collect which they issue every morning from their convents, as early as it is sufficiently light for them to distinguish the veins on their hands. They do not beg, but they stop before every house in a street. If food be given to them, they put it into their sabeit or baskets, and pass on without returning thanks: if none be given, they go on to the next house in silence. They are clothed in a large yellow mantle, folded becomingly round them, passing over the left shoulder and leaving the right shoulder and breast uncovered. They shave their heads and beards, and go barefooted: are usually clean, but do not wear any ornaments (see fig. 6, plate 33). On receiving the sacerdotal rank, they are enjoined to live in houses built under trees in the woods but these injunctions are qualified, so that they usually reside in convents or colleges, which in Ava are described as the best habitations in the empire, built in the most agreeable situations.

They are well-conducted, kind, and hospitable to strangers, and are the best-informed men in the Burman empire. Each college has a head, called zara or teacher; of which, according to the size of the colleges, or the estimation in which they are held, there are degrees. The head of the colleges is the zarado or royal abbot. Towards the whole of them the utmost respect and attention are shewn. They are the gratuitous instructors of youth, which is considered as a work of merit.

During their priesthood they must abstain from female connexion, and observe other strict regulations; but may, at any time, leave their convent

and marry, which is frequently done. A priest must be provided with the following articles: the yellow mantle before-mentioned, a sabeit,* a mat, a pillow, a bucket to draw water and a bottle to contain it, a drinking-cup, a fan to use as an umbrella, &c. The head of the church in Ceylon is styled "Dammah Chandeh maha Nayekoh."

It may be imagined that in a religion extending over so many countries, a great diversity will be discovered in some of the minor practices of its votaries, although its fundamental principles may be throughout the same. This observation will probably apply to the foregoing account of the priests, whose manners and customs will unquestionably vary in unimportant points in some places, from what may have been noticed in others. In like manner, the temples and religious buildings of the Buddhas will be observed of various descriptions: some small and plain, others large and magnificent in their paintings and decorations: in other places, formed, as I have elsewhere related, by excavations in the solid rock of an immense extent, and equally astonishing in their magnitude and beauty.

In these temples, the images of Buddha, sitting, standing or lying down, are seen in great numbers, from three or six inches high to a colossal size. His images are, however, usually made sitting on a lotus throne or seat, sometimes supported on the backs of elephants, the legs turned up and crossed upon the seat, the soles of the feet being uppermost. The hands are sometimes also crossed, and resting upon the lap: at others, one hand is placed there with the palm uppermost, and the other hanging down over the right knee. The hair is short and curled, like a negro's. Sometimes, principally among the Burmans, ascending in a spire of various lengths (fig. 1, plate 29, and fig. 2, plate 30); at others, as in Ceylon, forming a sort of triform flame (fig. 4 and 5, plate 29); and at others the head is covered with a rich mughut or cap. The countenance should be benign, placid, and contemplative, indicative of the mild and humane doctrines which he preached.

Kampfer, in his work on Japan, says that the Japanese Buddhists have

* The sabeit is a round black covered vessel, usually made of lacquered basket-work.

a temple which they call the Temple of the White Horse. Fig. 2, plate 29, taken from a carving about four feet high, and half as many broad, in my possession, represents Buddha mounted on a winged horse. I believe the carving to have come from Ava. It is badly proportioned, but is richly painted and decorated. The colour of the figure is white his hair is in the usual way, terminating on the top of his head in a spiral manner: his robe or coat is green, with golden flowers; his perjammahs are red, also with flowers. Over his head he brandishes with one hand a scimitar, with the other he holds the reins of his horse; which animal is richly caparisoned, and, in consequence of being covered with silver leaf, has a dazzling white appearance. Captain Low, in his description of the divine foot of Buddha, states that his horse Kanthat Assawarat, forming one of the divisions of the divine foot, bore Phra Puttha, or the Siamese Somonok-hodom, when he rode towards the banks of the Jumna.

Fig. 1, plate 29, is taken from a beautiful cast of Buddha in copper, gilt. He is represented sitting in his usual form of contemplation. His head is covered with a richly-gemmed tiara or crown, from which, on each side, project large ornaments resembling bows, or the convolutions of serpents, the tails of which appear to hang through his ear-rings. The spire on the top of his head is of considerable length, and he is also adorned with neck ornaments. On each side of him is a tree. Whether this really elegant cast, in all respects very inadequately copied, may have been intended to represent Buddha, the portion of Narayana in the wild and dreary forest, or, as I imagine, in grateful recollection of the condescending trees which bent their graceful branches over the form of Mayamaha, the mother of Buddha. when, in travelling to see her father, she was seized with the pains of labour in a garden, I do not know. On the sole of his foot is the mark called the chakraverti, or wheel or discus, which should also have been on the palm of his hand, by which, on that occasion, the sages divined that he would rise to considerable eminence.

Fig. 1, plate 30, is from a large cast in metal of Buddha. Fig. 2, in the same plate, from a sculpture in white marble from Ava: the positions and contemplative countenances the same. The figure from Ava has an orna