but pleasure, until it unconsciously strikes the blaze with its little wings, and is swallowed up in the flame; so you are dazzled with the pleasures of the world, thinking nothing of the flames which may swallow you up in a moment, and put a stop to all your joys for ever.  O, that the death-bed scene of Miss Matthews might have a happy effect upon you.  O, that the solemn warning which she gave to her young friend, not to put off repentance as she had done, until a dying hour, might continue to sound in your ears, until you would no longer delay repentance.  My dear children, this young lady, though dead, yet speaketh.  She speaks to you.  She calls upon you from her tomb—­from the eternal world, to delay repentance no longer.  Will you, then, be so mad as to turn a deaf ear to this call?  Will you ever take another sip from the cup of unhallowed pleasure?  Will you ever direct your little feet to the ballroom, or other places of sinful amusement?  Will you hereafter prefer your worldly joys to Christ?  O, you must not, you must not.  It will not do for you to be lost.  Who, O who can lie down in everlasting burnings?  Who can dwell for ever with devouring flames?

CHAPTER XIV.

THE GODDESS KARLE.

My dear Children—­In the preceding chapter I spoke of Karle.  She, as I there mentioned, is the wife of Siva, and, like her husband, has the power of destruction.  From the images made of her, it would appear that she is a female, of a black or dark blue color.  She has four arms.  In one hand she holds a sword, and in another a human head.  Her hair is dishevelled, reaching down to her feet.  Her countenance is most ferocious.  Her tongue comes out of her mouth, and hangs over her chin.  She has three eyes, red and fiery.  Her lips and eyebrows are streaked with blood.  She has two dead bodies for ear-rings, and wears a girdle around her loins—­a girdle made of bloody hands, which she cut off from the bodies of her enemies.  She has a necklace of skulls, which she took from the bodies of the giants and others killed by her.

[Illustration]

Of all the Hindoo divinities, this goddess is the most cruel and revengeful.  Such is her thirst for blood, that being unable at one time to procure any giants for her prey, in order to quench her thirst, she cut her own throat, that the blood issuing thence might spout into her mouth.  Different acts of worship are performed to appease her.  If, for example, a devotee should burn his body, by applying a burning lamp to it, it would be very pleasing to her.  If he should draw some of his blood and give it to her, or if he should cut off a piece of his flesh and offer it as a burnt-offering, she would be still move pleased.  If he should present whole burnt-offerings upon the altar, saying, “Hrang, brang, Karle, Karle!  O, horrid-toothed goddess, eat, eat; destroy all the malignant:  cut with this axe; bind, bind; seize, seize; drink this blood; spheng, spheng; secure, secure; salutation to Karle,” she would be much delighted.  It is said that she will be pleased for three months, if the people offer her the blood of a crocodile—­for a thousand years, if they offer her the blood of one man, and a hundred thousand years, if they offer her the blood of three.