FINAL DOOM OF A CHINAMAN.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 11, 4 May 1877, Page 2

FINAL DOOM OF A CHINAMAN.

If tha " heathen Chinee " ever thinks about his possible, and, indeed, probable future, he mast find it even less tolerable than any of the risks to which a capricious and tyrannical Gorernment subjects him in this mortal life. According to the Shanghai fVMmer, one of the articles of the Chinese creed is a purgatory. The Taoist purgatory is divided into sections in each of which is to be found a special punishment. The whole is as ingenious, though not as poetical, aj Dante's eoneep. tion of tbe nether world. The punishments awarded in tbe sixth court make us suppose that it is a court of final appeal, though the offences of which it take* cognisance are the comparatively mild ones of " showing no respect for written paper *— printed paper we cool J understand-*-" throwing down dirt or rubbish near temples or pagodas, or eat* ing beef." the situation of this purgatory is at the bottom of the ocean, due oorttt of the Wttchiao rock. Tbe arrangement* are that, in tbe first ward the souls aremade to knee) for long periods o&irot* shot. In the second they are placed up> to their necks in filth. la the third, they are pounded till the blood runs out. lu> the fourt 1 , their mouths are opened with iron pincers and fitted fuU of needles. In. tbe fifth, they are bitten by rats* Is the sixth* they are enclosed in a net of thorn* and nipped by locusts. In the seventh they are crushed to a jelly. In the eighth, their skin is lacerated, and they arebeaten on the raw. In the ninth, their mouths are filled with fire. In tbe tenth, they are licked by flames. la the eleventh, they are subjected to noisome smelU. Irk the twelfth, they are butted by oxen, and trampled on by horses. In the thirteenth^ their hearts are scratched. In the fourteenth, their beads are rubbed tiU their skulls come offl In the fifteenth, they are chopped into two at the waist, and ia tbe sixteenth, their skin is taken, off and rolled into spills.— Standard.