MERAT. 
223 
be necessary to premise, that the romance of Hindoo 
chronology divides the history of the world into 
four eras. The first is the Satia Youg , or age of 
purity and truth, during which the life of man was 
extended to a period of a hundred thousand years. 
The second is called the Trita Youg , that is, the age 
wherein one -third part only of mankind had become 
reprobate, and the term of man’s life was then ten 
thousand years. The third is the Dwapur Youg , in 
which one-half of the human race became depraved, 
and the length of life one thousand years. And the 
fourth is the present age, the Kali Youg (literally 
evil age), in which mankind have become altogether 
vicious and impure, as well as short-lived. The 
fraud was thus effected : — Prior to the commence- 
ment of active operations, during a period of two or 
three years, Shri Gooroo and Gopa Shahir suffered 
their hair, and beards, and their finger-nails, to grow 
to a prodigious length, in order that they might the 
better represent the extraordinary characters they 
were about to assume. Shri Gooroo undertook to 
act the part of an ancient ascetic of the Trita Youg , 
and upon Gopa Shahir devolved the character of the 
disciple of this wonderful relic of remote ages. 
They excavated a small tumulus in a remote and 
unfrequented quarter of the Paja’s dominions, wherein 
Shri Gooroo was to suffer a living burial ; and hav- 
ing planted wild shrubs and jungul underwood 
around the entrance of the cave thus formed, they 
