XXI. 8.—“ All liars shall have their part in the lake

which burneth with fire and brimstone."

More systematic, more determined liars, than the people of the East, cannot in my opinion be found in the world. They often utter falsehoods without any apparent reason, and even when truth would be an advantage, they will not tell it. Reprove them, and they appeal to Brahma as an excuse, because he said he had found out the summit of the pillar of fire when he had not, or because some of the other gods uttered falsehoods, or, "it was their ignorance or fate!” Yet, strange to say, some of their works and sayings represent a falsehood as almost the unpardonable sin. Take the following for an example:

"The sin of killing a Brahmin is as great as that of killing a hundred cows; and the sin of killing a hundred cows is as great as that of killing a woman; the sin of killing one hundred women is as great as that of killing a child in the womb; and the sin of killing one hundred in the womb is as great as that of telling a lie!"*

They sometimes reverse these comparisons.