LITERATURE OF THE EURMAS. 223 



dal, paffionate, envious, undervaluers of their neigh- 

 bours; who ufed abulive language; who confined 

 their fellow creatiircs with chains, bonds, or fetters; 

 who admitted any forbidden thing in their words, 

 ' aftions or delires; and who did not confole the fick 

 ' with foothing words. All thefe crimes will be 

 ' puniflied in the fmaller hells, and that in propor- 

 ' tion to the atrocity of the deed, and the frequency 

 ' with which it has been repeated. 



" Besides thefe places of punifliment there is 

 ' another hell, which may be compared to an immenfe 

 ' kettle filled with melted bra fs. The damned are 

 ' forced to defcend to the bottom of this kettle, then 

 ' to rife to the furface, and 3,000 years are confumed 

 ' in each defcent, and in each afcent. To this hell 

 ' are condemned the fenfual perfons, who corrupt 

 ' the wives, the daughters, or the fons of others; 

 ' and who, during the courfe of their lives, ncgleft- 

 ' ing to obferve the holy days, or to give alms, pafs 

 ' their time in fealting, drunkennefs, and lafcivious 

 ' enjoyments. 



" It has been already mentioned, that the equila- 

 ' teral fpaces, which are fuppoied to be in the inter- 

 ' dices of the different worlds, are full of water in- 

 ' tenfely cold. The Burma v/ritings affert, that thefe 

 ' are fo many hells, to which thofe are condemned 

 ' who give offence to their parents, or to the ftritl 

 ' obferver*of the law. Thefe people after death get 

 ' bodies three gaut in length, with crooked nails on 

 ' their hands and feet: fometimes like bats they creep 

 ' through the caves, and dark caverns in the deep 

 ' receffes of the mountains: at others they hang to- 

 * gether on trees like a hive of bees, mutually tor- 

 ' menting and abufing themfelves with the moft dire- 

 ' ful words; then being inftigated by a cruel hunger, 

 ' they tear each other limb from limb. The limbs 

 ' falling into the cold water are diffolved like fait: 

 ' but the parts' of their bodies being again united by 



^' the 



