BRIDGES. All over the world, in different religions and cultures, there are vivid descriptions of a perilous way that the dreamer, the ecstatic visionary, or the deceased has to follow on his journey to the otherworld. One of the perils may be a bridge leading across a chasm, a rapacious stream, or the void. Success in crossing the bridge may depend on the traveler's own behavior during life or on the sacrifices he or his surviving relatives have performed. Ethical qualifications are not always needed.

Parallel with these eschatological ideas, actual bridge-building on earth has been connected with sacrifices and with religious, folkloric, and magical conceptions. At times, the construction of a tangible bridge—whether for day-to-day use or for ritual use only—is related to the soul's passage to the afterlife. Finally, the bridge in itself has often been a very useful symbol to signify the transcendence...