ever animal the wizard happens on that day to be most inclined to
eat. When the address is made to any of the superior and beneficent
deities for assistance, and the priest directs an offering of a horse,
cow, dog, hog, or fowl, care must be taken that the animal to be
sacrificed is entirely white.

They have also a vague and confused idea of the immortality of the human
soul, and of a future state of happiness or misery. They say that the
soul of a dying person makes its escape through the nostrils, and is
borne away by the wind, to heaven, if of a person who has led a good
life, but if of an evil-doer, to a great cauldron, where it shall be
exposed to fire until such time as Batara-guru shall judge it to have
suffered punishment proportioned to its sins, and feeling compassion
shall take it to himself in heaven: that finally the time shall come when
the chains and bands of Naga-padoha shall be worn away, and he shall once
more allow the earth to sink, that the sun will be then no more than a
cubit's distance from it, and that the souls of those who, having lived
well, shall remain alive at the last day, shall in like manner go to
heaven, and those of the wicked, be consigned to the before-mentioned
cauldron, intensely heated by the near approach of the sun's rays, to be
there tormented by a minister of Batara-guru, named Suraya-guru, until,
having expiated their offences, they shall be thought worthy of reception
into the heavenly regions.

...

To the Sanskrit scholar who shall make allowances for corrupt orthography
many of these names will be familiar. For Batara he will read avatara;
and in Naga-padoha he will recognise the serpent on whom Vishnu reposes.

OATHS.

Their ceremonies that wear most the appearance of religion are those
practised on taking an oath, and at their funeral obsequies. A person
accused of a crime and who asserts his innocence is in some cases
acquitted upon solemnly swearing to it, but in others is obliged to
undergo a kind of ordeal. A cock's throat is usually cut on the occasion
by the guru. The accused then puts a little rice into his mouth (probably
dry), and wishes it may become a stone if he be guilty of the crime with
which he stands charged, or, holding up a musket bullet, prays it may be
his fate in that case to fall in battle. In more important instances they
put a small leaden or tin image into the middle of a dish of rice,
garnished with those bullets; when the man, kneeling