[paragraph continues] Manu, [**] amongst instructions concerning sacrifice, we read: "As a preservative of the oblation to the patriarchs, let the housekeeper begin with an offering to the gods; for the Rakshasas rend in pieces an oblation which has no such preservative." According to Professor Wilson these beings may be divided into three classes: "One is of a semi-celestial kind, and is ranked with the attendants of Kuvera, the god of wealth; another is a sort of goblin, imp, or ogre, haunting cemeteries, animating dead bodies, disturbing sacrifices, and ensnaring and devouring human beings; the third kind approaches more to the Titan, or relentless and powerful enemy of the gods." Can it be that men, finding it difficult to abstain from evil and do good, have invented these mighty beings to represent the forces of evil that are arrayed against them? They are described as eating cows and also men, when, according to the ordinary belief of the people, these are the greatest imaginable crimes. May this not be a vigorous method of teaching that the enemies of God and man will not stop at anything in order to secure success in their work of destruction? It may be that the Rakshasas of the Epics were the rude barbarians of India, who were conquered by the Aryans, and their manners of life and religious ceremonies caricatured in this strange fashion. Some of the more intelligent were styled monkeys, possibly the more savage were styled Rakshasas.

The name Bhuta is given to a similar class of beings who are the common attendants of Siva; hence. his name of Bhutanatha, the lord of spirits. The term Pisarch is given to beings similar to, though if possible more offensive than, the Rakshasas.

THE JAIN DEITIES.

As there are considerable numbers of Jains, chiefly in the north and north-west of India, some account should be given of their objects of worship.

The origin of this sect is obscure, especially as their chronology is so wild and extravagant. Hindu notions of time are reasonable compared with those of the Jains.