heartcdness, and skepticism, so that when I and my relations are on land, land animals, as tigers, elephants, buffaloes, poisonous ser pents, scorpions, etc., shall seize, crush and bite us, so that we shall certainly die. Let the calamities occasioned by fire, water, rul ers, thrones and enemies, oppress and de stroy us till we perish and come to utter destruction. Let us be subject to all the calamities that are within the body and all that are without the body. May we be seized with madness, dumbness, deafness, leprosy and hydrophobia. May we be struck with thunderbolts and lightning, and come to sudden death. In the midst of not speaking truth may I be taken with vomiting black clotted blood and suddenly die before the assembled people. When I am going by water, may the water-rats as sault me, the boat be upset and my property lost, and may alligators, porpoises, sharks, and other sea-monsters seize and crush me to death; and when I change worlds may I not arrive among men or nats, but suffer un mixed punishment and regret, in the utmost wretchedness, among the four states of punishment, Hell, Prita, Beasts and Athuraki. If I speak the truth may I and my relations, through the influence of the ten laws of merit, and on account of the efficacy of truth, be freed from all calamities within and without the body and may evils which have not yet come be warded far away, may thunder and lightning, the nat of the waters and all sea-animals love me that I may be safe from them; may my prosperity increase like the rising sun, and the waxing moon; and may the seven possessions, the seven laws, and the seven merits of the virtues be permanent in my person, and when I change worlds may I not go into the four states of punishments, but attain the happiness of men and nats, and realize merit, reward and perfect calm." (The Land of the White Elephant, by F. Vincent.) The oath administered to witnesses in Siam is still more awful and blood-curdling.

It is " I ... who have been brought here as an evidence in this matter, do now in the pres ence of the divine P'hra P'hoot-hee-rop (Buddha) declare that I am wholly unpreju diced in this matter against either party and uninfluenced in any way by the opinions or advice of others; and that no prospects oí pecuniary advantage or advancement to office have been held out to me. I also de clare that I have not received any bribe on this occasion. If what I have now spoken is false, or in any further averments I should color or pervert the truth so as to lead the judgment of others astray, may the three holy existences, i. e. Buddha, the Bali and the Hierarchy, before whom I now stand, together with the glorious Dwattas of the twenty-two firmaments, pun ish me. If I have not seen, yet shall say that I have seen, if I shall say that I know that which I do not know, then may I be thus punished : Should innumerable de scents of the Deity happen for the regener ation and salvation of mankind, may my erring and migrating soul be found beyond the pale of their mercy; wherever I go may I be encompassed with dangers and not escape from them, whether arising from murderers, robbers, spirits of the ground, of the forest, of the water or of the air, or from all the T'hewatda (the divinities who adore Buddha), or from the gods of the four elements, and all other spirits. May blood flow out of every pore of my body, that my crime may be made manifest to the world. May all or any of those evils over take me three days hence. Or may I never stir from the place where I now stand; or may the lightning cut me in twain, so that I may be exposed to the derision of the people; or if I should be walking abroad may I be torn in pieces by one of the preternaturally endowed lions, or destroyed by poisonous herbs or venomous snakes. When in the waters of the rivers or of the ocean may the alligators, the horned alli gator mang kan (a fabulous monster), or