OTHER HINDU SECTS 259
tained, and this the less since the Bramines hold it as
a mystery.
The fourth sort, called Schaerwaecka (Sarvaka), are
of the race of Epicureans and believe that life is the end
of man, and that after this life no other f olloweth. All
that others say of the future life, that they deny, and
say that men must prove and show to them so that they
may see with their own eyes; otherwise, they will not
believe. The Bramin Padmanaba said that if in their
dealings with men they conduct themselves well, they
do it not to gain any good therefor in the future
life, but to win them praise from men. These seem
mostly to be of the humour of Pliny, who ridiculed all
that men say of the abode of the soul after the death
of the body, and who held such things for madness
and a dream; and said that after the corpse is dead,
there remaineth no more of the man than there was
before he was conceived and born; and who laughed
at those who believed that souls survived, and sought
thereby to console themselves in the hour of death.
The fifth sect are called Pasenda. They say that
the law, that is, the teaching which is taught every-
where amongst the heathen, is not true; nor do they
regard it, but care alone for their belly and let all
go its own gait; inasmuch as they hold with the
former sort that man endeth with this life. How can
it be, they say, that a man who is burnt to ashes and
hath become dust should again be made alive? Yet
herein they argue not nor speak against the Christian
belief of the resurrection of the dead, whereof they have