38 ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE 



A man robs and kills another, and casts the body 

 away to conceal the murder from the relations of 

 the deceased, who conceive their kinsman to have 

 been killed by a snake or a tiger -, but God cannot be 

 deceived : vengeance will fall on the murderer, or 

 his relations 5 he, or some of them, will fall a sa- 

 crifice to a tiger or a snake ; divine vengeance will 

 surely await him. Whoever kills a tiger without 

 divine orders, will either himself, or some of his re- 

 lations, fall a sacrifice to a tiger. 



From such superstition, the natives of the hills 

 are averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their re- 

 lations has been carried off by one - 3 when they go 

 out for that purpose, and having succeeded, their 

 bows and arrows are laid on the body of the animal, 

 ihey invoke God, and declare that they killed it 

 to retaliate for the loss of a relation. Vengeance 

 thus satisfied, they vow not to attack a tyger, with-* 

 out the provocation of losing a kinsman. 



God sends a messenger to summon a person to his 

 presence : Should the messenger mistake his object, 

 and carry ofT another, he is desired by the Deity to 

 take him away ; but as the earthly mansion of this 

 soul must be decayed, it is destined to remain mid- 

 way between heaven and earth, and never can re- 

 turn to the presence of God. Whoever commits 

 homicide without divine orders, can never appear in 

 the presence of theDeity.j his soul is destined to re- 

 main mid-way between heaven and earth. Who- 

 ever is killed by a snake, as a punishment for some 

 cpr.:caled crime, can never appear in the presence 



of 



