Looking to the far East, we find in the Hinduized and
Islamized mythology of Java the bridge which leads across the
abyss to the single opening in the stone wall round Suralaya,
the dwelling of the gods ; off this bridge the evildoers fall into
the depths below. 2 Other myths from this region have more
special and seemingly more local character. The conception of
a bridge being needed for the passage of souls is well shown
among the Karens of Birmah, who at this day tie strings across
the rivers for the ghosts of the dead to pass over to their graves ;
among these people the Heaven-bridge is a sword, those who
cross it become men, those who dare not, women. 3 And among
the Idaan of Borneo, the passage for men into paradise is across
a long tree, which to those who have not killed a man is scarcely
practicable. 4

In America, the • bridge over the abyss is distinct in native
mythology. The Greenland angekok, when he has passed
through the land of souls, has to cross an awful gulf over a
stretched rope, his guardian spirit holding him by the hand, till
he reaches the abode of the great female Evil Spirit below the
sea. 5 Among the North American Indians the Ojibwa soul has
to cross the river of death on the great snake which serves as a
bridge, 6 while the Minnetarees, in their way to the mansions of
their ancestors after death, have to cross a narrow footing over a
rapid river, where the good warriors and hunters pass, but the
worthless ones fall in. 7 Catlin's account of the Choctaw belief is
as follows : — " Our people all believe that the spirit lives in a
future state ; that it has a great distance to travel after death
towards the west — that it has to cross a dreadful deep and rapid
stream, which is hemmed in on both sides by high and rugged
hills — over this stream, from hill to hill, there lies a long and

1 T. Wright, ' St. Patrick's Purgatory ;' London, 1844, p. 74, and elsewhere.
