Roads

trees, rivers, and shores are beautifully lit up: and stars of light are set afloat on waters sacred—as is whispered—to the old deity Shin Upago. The old worship of spirits still survives and animism is still the religion of the ma es (Shans, Chins, Karens, and others), in highlands and forest-clad mountains. Only in the plains has Buddhism conquered the ancient superstitions about Nats or spirits, who may be listening from yonder deep pool, weird mountain, or shady tree. Even near monasteries, in wooded nooks near the hamlets, shrines exist where water, food, and secret prayers are offered to Nats; and in the highlands such rites are openly performed, at an altar with its image of some tutelary Nat, which must be hidden however from Pongyi monks, and from all other unbelievers. The famous Buddhist emblem of man’s recurring existences is called the Bhava-chakra, or ever-revolving “ Wheel of Life.” It is the symbol of unalterable law, and thus the “ Wheel of the Law” that governs matter. The Wheel is held by a terrible monster (as represented at Ajanta and elsewhere) who typifies Nature “red in tooth and claw.” It revolves round an axis of stupidity, anger, and pa ion, represented by a pig, a cock, and a snake, holding each other's tails. There are 12 accompanying groups round it, which are connected with twelve zodiakal signs. They are usually: (1) Ignorance as a blind woman, (2) the potter making perishable pots on his wheel, and labouring for what is worthle , (3) Curiosity as a monkey tasting all fruits, (4) Sickne , (5) the House of the Senses, the five “birth brothers,” (6) Contact; as two lovers ki ing and a man ploughing, (7) Pain as an arrow in the eye, (8) Thirst or desire as a man drinking, (9) Covetousne as a man gathering fruits, and ama ing wealth, (10) the clinging to life and reproduction, as a woman with child, (11) Birth—the result of the preceding, and (12) the corpse as the end. The wheel itself has six segments in its circular area, representing the six stages of existence: (1) The heaven of the gods: (2) the world of the ungodly: (3) the world of men: (4) the world of beasts: (5) the world of ghosts: (6) hell or Naraka. [A Japanese example, giving Buddha, seated in Nirvana-—a white circular centre of the wheel—has only five divisions of life: in Heaven: the beast world: Hell: the world of hungry wandering ghosts: and the world of men (see the Japanese picture in Man, Jany. 1901, by Mr H. W. Thomas.—Ep., | On our conduct in any one of these lives, or existences, it depends which of the other worlds we shall reach after death. We may rise to heaven or sink to hell, be born as a beast or remain a wandering ghost,or be again a man in better or worse position than before. All depends on our Karma (the Tibetan Lhas), Yet modern teachers say that charms and ritual help the Karma, for angels and demons record our deeds, [It is this that the Japanese mean when they speak of the “merits” of one whose Karma has made him their emperor.—Ep.] In Hell the naked soul is shown his former crimes in a great mirror, as he kneels before the table of the three judges (see Mr Waddell’s valuable account, Bengal Rl, Asiatic. Socy. 398