rice, roots, and every description of vegetables. These were
surrounded with wood besmeared with butter, and set on fire. From the
appearance of the smoke and flame, those present pretended to discover
whether the harvest was to be abundant or otherwise. At seed-time the
priests took branches from trees, and walked in procession with them,
going three times round the temples. A hole was then dug in the
ground, and water from the Ganges poured into it. In this hole cows'
dung and the branches were put and set on fire, and from the
appearance of the flames the arch-priest was enabled to foretell what
was to happen during the year. When a person was dying, he was carried
to a river and dipped into it, that his soul and body might be
purified. Happy was the individual who could be conveyed to the
Ganges, because its waters were supposed to be possessed of virtues
that did not exist in other rivers. Sometimes the hands of the dying
person were tied to a cow's tail, and the invalid dragged through the
water. If the cow emitted urine upon the person, it was considered a
most salutary purification. If the fluid fell plentifully upon the
expiring man, his friends testified their joy by loud acclamation,
believing he was about to be numbered among the blessed. But when the
cow did not supply the purifying liquid, the relatives showed their
grief, for they thought their dying friend was going to a place of
punishment.

At Assam and elsewhere, when a person was sick, sacrifices were
offered to the god of the four winds. If the patient died, servants
were kept beating on instruments of copper to keep away evil spirits,
supposed to be hovering round the corpse. There was a belief that if
an evil spirit passed over a dead body, the soul would return to the
inanimate remains. At a funeral procession, men surrounded the coffin
with drawn scimitars, to drive the devil away and help to confine him
to his home of darkness. At a king's death, all his wives, ministers
of state, and retainers surrounded the grave, and poisoned themselves,
in order to accompany him into the other world. Horses, camels,
elephants, and hounds were also interred along with his majesty, to be
useful to him in the world of bliss.

In Pegu, the people believed in an eternal succession of worlds, and
imagined that, as soon as one would be burned, another would spring
out of its ashes. They thought that people devoured by crocodiles went
to a place of perpetual ha