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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1886.
tormented after death, and cast headlong into entrance to the infernal regions. In Asia also a bottomless pit full of mire and dirt, and that the dog is associated with the death or funeral the souls of the virtaous pass with pleasure ceremonies. The Parsis place a dog in the and safety over it upon a narrow bamboo bridge chamber of a dying person to serve as the which leads directly to a gay paradise, where soul's escort to heaven. According to their they revel in all kinds of sensual enjoyment, but belief, the soul arrives at the bridge Chinavat, that when the souls of the wicked attempt to pass where the gods and the unclean spirits fight along this bridge, they fall over on one side of it. for the possession of it. If the soul be that Some of the American Indians have a tradition of righteous person it is defended by the that they must go southwards to seek the Land other pure souls, and by the dogs that guard of Souls. According to the Eurocs, an untutored the bridge. In Buddhist countries, too, sometribe in Northern California, the bright rivers, what similar idea prevails. A very large and sunny slopes, and great forests of their paradise savage breed of dogs is kept in certain of are separated from the earth by a deep chasm, the lama-sardis or monasteries in order that which good and wicked alike must cross on & they may eat the bodies of the dead," which is thin slippery pole. The former soon reach the deemed the most honourable form of burial in goal, aided doubtless by the Good Spirit as well Ladak or Western Tibet. In 1876 when passas by the fire lighted on the grave by mourning ing through Lama Yuru, a few marches only friends; but the latter have to falter unaided from Leh, I went over the LAma Monastery along the shivering bridge, and many are the there. Some of these fierce dogs tried to nights that pass before their friends venture to spring out upon our party, and it seemed to dispense with the beacon, lest the soul miss the os that even their owners did not trust them, path, and fall into the dark abyss. Nor do and had much difficulty in restraining their they hold that retribution ends with the ferocious instincts. peril and anxiety of the passage, for they l A very curious instance of the idea that think that many are liable to return to some form of absolution is necessary after the earth as birds, beasts, and insects. After death for sins done in the body occurred in 40 years' residence as a missionary in India in the 14th century; the actors were Samon, one of the Pacific Islands, Dr. George Muhammadans. Tagblaqabad, near the modern Turner, in & work recently published, says city of Dehli, was founded by Ghiâsü'ddin
that the inhabitants of this island held that Tughlaq Shah, who reigned 1321-1325 A.D., tho souls of dead Samoans started for Palsta
and was succeeded by his son Muhammad the spirit world, through two circular holes near Shah Taghlaq, an accomplished prince, but a the beach, the larger hole being for the souls man most unscrupulous in his actions. He is of cbiefs, and the lesser one for those of com- credited with having, among other crimes, commoners. They went under the sea till they passed the death of his father. When he came came to a land where all things were very much to the throne he was the most inhuman and as they had been on earth. Chiefs looked for tyrannical of all the Pathan Sovereigns of India, ward with pride to the use of their bodies as and many of his cruelties were witnessed by his pillars in the house of the Samoan Pluio." cousin Firoz Shih Taghlaq (called also Bárbak)
Connected with this journey of the dead is who ascended the throne on his death in 1351 an attendant dog, whose existence is believed in A.D., and sought by a most singular method East and West in widely separated lands. It to cancel some of his predecessor's sins. The is a popular belief throughout all that part of words of Firoz himself, as related by Farishta, France which formed the ancient Armorica, that who took them from an inscription on a large the dead betake themselves at the moment of Mosque at Firozabad, are as follows:their departure to the parish priest of Braspar," "I have taken pains to discover the surviving whose dog escorts them to Great Britain. In relations of all persons who suffered from the the ancient Scandinavian mythology, a fabulous wrath of my late Lord and Master, Muhammad dog called Garmr was believed to guard the Tughlaq, and having pensioned and provided
A small place about 30 miles South-East of Brest, and Only the friends of the richer people can afford distant about ten miles from the sea as the crow flies. this.
