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Some Ideas about a Future Life 105
In Buddhist countries, too, a somewhat similar idea pre-
vails. A very large and savage breed of dogs is kept in
certain of the Lamasara'is or Monasteries in order that
they may eat the bodies of the dead. This is deemed
the most honourable form of burial in Ladakh or Western
Tibet, and is of course reserved for the rich. The corpses
of the poorer class are either placed in the river or deposited
on the tops of the mountains to be devoured by wild animals
or birds of prey.
In 1876, when passing through Lama Yuru, a few marches
from Leh, we went over the Lama monastery there. Some
of these fierce dogs tried to spring out upon our party. It
seemed to us that even their owners could not trust them,
and had much difficulty in restraining their ferocious instincts.
A very curious instance of the idea that some form of
absolution is necessary after death for sins done in the body
occurred in India in the fourteenth century ; the actors were
Muhammedans. Tughlaqabad, near the modern city of
Delhi, was founded by Ghiyasu'd-din Tughlaq Shah, who
reigned 132 1-1325 a.d., and was succeeded by his son,
Muhammad Shah Tughlaq, an accomplished prince, but a
man most unscrupulous in his actions. He is credited with
having, among other crimes, compassed the death of his
father. When he came to the throne, he was the most
inhuman and tyrannical of all the Pathan sovereigns of
India, and many of his cruelties were witnessed by his
cousin, Firoz Shah Tughlaq—also called Barbak—who
ascended the throne on his death in 1351 a.d., and
sought by a singular method to cancel some of his pre-
decessor's sins. The words of Firoz himself, as related