| In the great temple of Benares ... beneath the dome which marks the center of the world, rests a brass plate in which are fixed three diamond needles, each a cubit high and as thick as the body of a bee. On one of these needles, at the creation, god placed 64 disks of pure gold, the largest disk resting on the brass plate, and the others getting smaller and smaller up to the top one. This is the Tower of Bramah. Day and night unceasingly the priests transfer the disks from one diamond needle to the other ... When the 64 disks shall have been thus transferred from the needle on which at the creation God placed them to one of the other needles, then tower, temple, and Brahmins alike will crumble into dust, and with a thunderclap the world will vanish. |