The universe, as it came from the mundane egg, is generally divided into fourteen worlds:  seven inferior or lower worlds, and seven superior or upper worlds.  The seven lower worlds are filled with all kinds of wicked and loathsome creatures.  Our earth, which is the first of the upper worlds, it is said, is flat.  The following figure will give you some idea of it.

[Illustration:  Concentric circles with labels on each from outermost to innermost:  Sea of Sweet Water.  Sea of Milk.  Sea of Sour Curds.  Sea of Clarified Butter.  Sea of Spirituous Liquors.  Sea of Sugar Cane Juice.  Sea of Salt Water.  Earth.]

That part of the earth which is inhabited consists of seven circular islands, or continents each of which is surrounded by a different ocean.  The island in the centre, where we dwell, is surrounded by a sea of salt water, the second island is surrounded by a sea of sugar-cane juice, the third island is surrounded by a sea of spirituous liquors, the fourth is surrounded by a sea of clarified butter, the fifth is surrounded by a sea of sour curds, the sixth is surrounded by a sea of milk, the seventh is surrounded by a sea of sweet water.

In all the worlds above ours are mansions where the gods reside.  In the third is the heaven of Indra.  This is the heaven to which it is said the widow goes, after she has burned herself to death on the funeral pile of her husband Its palaces are of the purest gold.  And such are the quantities of diamonds, and jasper, and sapphire, and emerald, and all manner of precious stones there, that it shines with a brightness superior to that of twelve thousand suns.  Its streets are of the clearest crystal, fringed with gold.  In the seventh, or the highest of the upper worlds, is the heaven where Brumha chiefly resides.  This far exceeds all the other heavens in point of beauty.

In the inferior worlds it is stated that there are one hundred thousand hells.  These are provided for such as have been great criminals.  The Hindoos say, that those who have not been very wicked, can make an atonement for their sins in this world.  Should they neglect to do this, they must suffer for it in another birth.  They believe in what is called the transmigration of souls, or the passing of the soul, after death, into another body.  The soul must suffer in the next birth, if not purified in this.  Hence it is asserted, that if a man is a stealer of gold from a Brahmin, he is doomed to have whitlows on his nails; if a drinker of spirits, black teeth; if a false detractor, fetid breath; if a stealer of grain, the defect of some limb; if a stealer of clothes, leprosy; if a horse-stealer, lameness; if a stealer of a lamp, total blindness.  If he steals grain in the husk, he will be born a rat; if yellow mixed metal, a gander; if money, a great stinging gnat; if fruit, an ape; if the property of a priest, a crocodile.