Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/506

490 body of Parsis still to be found in Persia and India. According to the Parsi belief, the good after death pass safely over the bridge Chinevat, which stretches from Mount Alborj up to Garotman, the blissful realm of Ormuzd; while the wicked fall from the bridge into the Gulf of Duzahk, which yawns beneath, where they are tormented by dævas. At the end of the world, a comet will fall upon the earth, causing a vast conflagration, by which the whole earth will be melted, and the molten stream will pour down into Duzahk, carrying with it the sinners who are on earth at the time. Here they and the earlier comers, except those already redeemed by the prayers of friends, will burn for three days and nights and then thus purified will be received into heaven. Afterward all the dævas, and even the arch-fiend Ahriman, will have their evil burned away and will also enter the abode of light.

The Laws of Manu, one of the early sacred books of Brahmanism, names twenty-one hells. Punishments for different sins are, to be reborn into one of these hells, or to return to earth as a beggar, cripple, or leper, or in the form of a rat, a snake, or a louse, the penalty being in each case appropriate to the crime. Punishment need not be endless for any one, as each successive life is a new probation, in which righteousness wins admission to a higher stage of existence.

In Buddhism, which is one of the religions of China, and the state religion of Thibet and other countries of eastern Asia, future punishment is provided for in a great hell, comprising a system of one hundred and thirty-six lesser hells. The torments of these hells are depicted in many Buddhist books and paintings, with much detail and vividness.

The punishments recorded in the Jade Record and other works on future torment give frightful pictures of the torture of bad men.; in many Buddhist temples these are represented by small figures, and in others by life-size images. Men are ground to powder, the dust becoming ants, fleas, and lice; pestled in a mortar, and mashed to jelly in iron mortars; chopped in slices with a knife and hacked to pieces with hatchets; the tongue of deceit and lying pulled out; sawn asunder; the bones and flesh crushed by falling mountains; women cast into a lake of blood; crossing the narrow bridge and falling among fiery serpents; the caldron of oil for those who waste rice; drunkards with the cangue and standing on the hands; quack doctors with hands and feet tied, and a large stone on the back, the fierce judge administering hot drinks; a man going into the mill head foremost, with the legs sticking out, and a dog coming out below in the transmigration; a headless ghost pulling his murderer to judgment; disemboweled, tossed on a hill of knives; cast on a lake of ice; chained to a red-hot cylinder; iron dungeon, darkness within and fire without; lashed with burning iron wires; when thirsty, drinking molten iron; eating red-hot iron balls; besides, there is the freezing hell, the burning hell, and the hell of bubbling filth.