CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAL MUCKS. 429 



en throne, ascends to the kingdom of the good. In a contrary case, 

 it descends to be purified in another kingdom, which is divided into 

 thirty-six sections. The inhabitants of this kingdom remain there five 

 hundred years at least, and every day of these years is equal to one of 

 our months. The souls here undergo pains more or less severe, accord- 

 ing to the nature and the degree of their crimes. Thus, cruel chiefs 

 and homicides are condemned to swim without rest in a sea of blood ; 

 misers, transfigured into monsters, having a mouth as small as the eye 

 of a needle and a throat as fine as a thread, have nothing but flames 

 upon which to feed and blood to drink. These poor damned contin- 

 ually rove over a desert plain, seeking in vain some nourishment. 

 They sometimes perceive trees full of delicious fruits, but scarcely do 

 they happen to approach them than the trees disappear, and the unfor- 

 tunates behold themselves again abandoned to their punishment in the 

 midst of the desert. 



The punishments practised in the kingdom of eternal pains are still 

 more terrible. Situated at 200,000 miles below the earth, it is 

 divided into sixteen sections. In the first, the damned, half dead, are 

 continually cast from knives to knives ; and this punishment en- 

 dures for 500 years, of which each day further equals 9,000,000 

 years. In the second section, the condemned are continually sawn. 

 In the third, they break them in an iron press, and every time they 

 revive they are bruised again. In the fourth and fifth sections, the 

 condemned are roasted by the fire. In the sixth, they are boiled. In 

 the following, they are frozen to the degree that their skin is covered 

 with blisters, their lips split into shreds, etc. Not only men, but ani- 

 mals also, are condemned to undergo different pains. Thus, some are 

 condemned to bear different burdens ; others to run without rest, and 

 to be torn in pieces by ferocious animals. 



Just as the punishments of hell are terrible, so also the enjoyments 

 of paradise, prepared for the just, are delicious. The paradise of the 

 Buddhists is divided into five regions, each of which bears the name 

 of one of the principal idols. The first kingdom is full of trees of sil- 

 ver, with branches of gold, which bear, in the place of fruit, stones the 

 most precious. Streams of living water irrigate this miraculous coun- 

 try, in the midst of which is found a delightful forest, in which the 

 spirit, surrounded by the just, reposes upon a throne, which is sup- 

 ported by a peacock and a lion. 



The chiefs of the Buddhist clergy are the Dalai-Lama and the 

 JBogdobatsin. They both reside in Thibet. Formerly Dalai-Lama exer- 

 cised the civil and spiritual power in the whole of Thibet. But since 

 1703, that is, since that country has passed under the power of China, 

 Dalai-Lama has not only lost his civil power, but he has been obliged 

 to divide with Bogdobatsin his spiritual power also. Notwithstand- 

 ing, Dalai-Lama always exercises an enormous authority. He inhabits 

 the palace which is constructed of stones proceeding from a sacred 



