"If I have not seen, yet shall say that I have seen--if I shall say that I know that which I do not know, then may I be thus punished. Should innumerable descents of the Deity happen for the salvation and regeneration of mankind, may my erring and migrating soul be found beyond the pale of their mercy. Wherever I go, may I be encompassed by dangers and not escape from them, whether arising from murderers, spirits of the ground, robbers, spirits of the forest, of the water, of the air, or from all the angels, or from the gods of the four elements and all other spirits. May blood flow out of every pore of my body, that my crime may be made manifest to the world. May all or any of these evils overtake me three days hence. Or may I never stir from the place on which I now stand; or may the 'lash of the sky'[F] cut me in twain, so that I may be exposed to the derision of the people; or if I should be walking abroad, may I be torn in pieces by either of the four preternaturally endowed lions, or destroyed by poisonous herbs or venomous snakes. When in the waters of the river or ocean may alligators and large fishes devour me; or may the winds or waves overwhelm me; or may the dread of such evils keep me during my life a prisoner at home, estranged from every pleasure; or may I be afflicted by the intolerable oppressions of my superiors; or may cholera cause my death, after which may I be precipitated into hell, there to go through innumerable stages of torture; amongst which, may I be condemned to carry water over the flaming regions, in open wicker baskets, to assuage the heat felt by the judge of hell when he enters the infernal courts of justice, and thereafter may I fall into the lowest pit of hell. Or if these miseries should not ensue, may I after death migrate into the body of a slave, and suffer all the hardships and pain attending the worst state of such a being, during a period of years measured by the sands of the four seas; or may I animate the body of an animal or beast during five hundred generations; or endure in the body of a deaf, blind, dumb, homeless beggar, every species of loathsome disease during the same number of generations, and then may I be hurried to the bottomless pit, there to be crucified by the king of hell."[G]