OF SPECIFIC CRIMES AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS. 
415 
sion of the people, or, if I should be walking abroad may I be torn 
to pieces by either of the four preternaturally endowed Lions, or 
destroyed by poisonous herbs, or venomous snakes. If when in the 
water of the rivers or Ocean may Ch6r&k,h6 [or Alligators] Hera 
(the fabulous horned alligator) Mangkan [a fabulous animal which 
in Siamese Astronomy represents capricorn] Machd (or large fishes) 
devour me; or may the winds or waves overwhelm me; or may 
the dread of such evils keep me during life a prisoner, at home 
estranged from every pleasure, or may I be afflicted by the intoler¬ 
able oppressions of my superiors; or may Cholera Morbus cause 
my death; after which may 1 be precipitated into hell, there to go 
through innumerable stages of torture, amongst which may I be 
condemned to carry water over the flaming regions, in open wicker 
baskets, to assuage the heat felt by Y,haan Wetsoowan when he en¬ 
ters the infernal hall of justice, [He is one of the 30 judges in hell 
who relieve each other alternately ; and was once a king on earth] 
and thereafter may I fall into the lowest pit of hell. Or if these 
miseries should not ensue may I after death migrate into the body of 
a slave, and suffer all the hardships and pains attending the worst 
state of such a being during a period of years measured by the sand 
of four seas. Or may I animate the body of an animal, or beast 
during five hundred generations; or be born a hermaphrodite five 
hundred times ; or endure in the body of a deaf, blind, dumb, house¬ 
less beggar every species of loathsome disease during the same num¬ 
ber of generations ; and then may I be hurried to Narok or hell and 
there be crucified by P,hreba yom (one of the kings of hell.) 
