'Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are radiant, there make me immortal!' 'Where wishes and desires are, where the place of the bright sun is, where there is freedom and delight, there make me immortal! 'Where there is happiness and delight, where joy and pleasure reside, where the desires of our desire are attained, there make me immortal!'[28] Whether the old Rishis believed likewise in a place of punishment for the wicked, is more doubtful, though vague allusions to it occur in the Rig-veda, and more distinct descriptions are found in the Atharva-veda. In one verse it is said that the dead is rewarded for his good deeds, that he leaves or casts off all evil, and glorified takes his body (Rv. X. 14, 8).[29] The dogs of Yama, the king of the departed, present some terrible aspects, and Yama is asked to protect the departed from them (Rv. X. 14, 11). Again, a pit (karta) is mentioned into which the lawless are said to be hurled down (Rv. IX. 73, 8), and into which Indra casts those who offer no sacrifices (Rv. I. 121, 13). One poet prays that the Âdityas may preserve him from the destroying wolf, and from falling into the pit (Rv. II. 29, 6). In one passage we read that 'those who break the commandments of Varu_n_a and who speak lies are born for that deep place' (Rv. IV. 5, 5).[30] [Footnote 28: Professor Roth, after quoting several passages from the Veda in which a belief in immortality is expressed, remarks with great truth: 'We here find, not without astonishment, beautiful conceptions on immortality expressed in unadorned language with child-like conviction. If it were necessary, we might here find the most powerful weapons against the view which has lately been revived, and proclaimed as new, that Persia was the only birthplace of the idea of immortality, and that even the nations of Europe had derived it from that quarter. As if the religious spirit of every gifted race was not able to arrive at it by its own strength.'--('Journal of the German Oriental Society,' vol. iv. p. 427.) See Dr. Muir's article on Yama, in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' p. 10.] [Footnote 29: M. M., Die Todtenbestattung bei den Brahmanen 'Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft,' vol. ix. p. xii.] [Footnote 30: Dr. Muir, article on Yama, p. 18.]