PTT Lod TNT un nn» shot bc bats f nd 4 dt À rt. d4 4 téetlshées 2h été he 4.4 PP EE Re ARTE TE PTT TP gr AA bel mb € Et TE DL LL GR PS PE LÉ PES TE TPE EL SDS LS CROSS TE TRI TIC GR SR etae Kg ee rare! Se es rat Fer
ec
OO
0 . AT
PET PT EEE NT TES EL LE ds en 22 2 SERRES et w” " re Pure
DTA ES PU en Ÿ LV SV PNR LU DVD
vs"
. CCE à de
AAC CE CRE PS D WU 2 4
bd Dur rare LS
# 11 ‘ N: MAIL ACIER DPI. PAU 0) /]
ï DA PET
AR AALDANEX je
nà! NY
NY
VOL } HAE 6 OL 3 | AN x EN ho! * d An a 4 LA SN AS AN PLATE L'HATA À CNT) | (AUS LIT ; Ü
[a ù : à 44
1
D QT ALT y AIFEL
NE PNA
Th we (2) : 1 LMET Ve
MAP L Ce Te AT NE
u ge | 4 MOTS il) ne, LUE EU
POUNG PAO CURE
oÙ
ARCHIVES
CONCERNANT L’'HISTOIRE, LES LANGUES, LA GÉOGRAPHIE ET L'ETHNOGRAPHIE DE L'ASIE ORIENTALE
Revue dirigée par
Henri CORDIER Membre de l’Institut Professeur à l'Ecole spéciale des Langues orientales vivantes ET Edouard CHAVANNES
Membre de l’Institut, Professeur au Collège de France.
VOL. XV.
LIBRAIRIE ET IMPRIMERIE CI-DEVANT He 4). BRILL
LEIDE — 1914.
SS M 4 . Ô 7 À S\ ù ac 2
PRRRPRPRRRS
IMPRIMER
RP LR IR I SRSRLS
Ar A
IE CI-DEVANT E. J. BRILL, LEID
SPRRPPPPPR
E.
SOMMAIRE.
Articles de Fonds.
Pages BERTHOLD LAUFER, Bird divination among the Tibetans . . . : . . . 4 L. VaNHéE, Bibliotheca mathematica sinensis Pé-fou . . . . . . . . 111 ÉpouarD CHAVANNES, Leou Ki dE # et sa famille. ".,": 198 ANT. BRéBIoN, Diard, naturaliste français dans l'Extrême-Orient . . . . 203
JEAN PrzyLuskr, La divination par l'aiguille flottante et par l’araignée dans ACTOR OMDAR IE Se CS RS ES A. CZ Pauz PeLrior, La version ouigoure de l’histoire des princes Kalyänamkara
ANPHRAARARRE 2e SU 0 COPA Se 0 225 E. von Zacu, Notizen zur Mandschurischen Bibliographie. . . . . . . 273 HENRI CoRDIER, Les Correspondants de Bertin . . . . . . . . . . 307 Mamie. -Lie système: mbeiel. 00 02 DORE er ne tin 51399 PIERRE LEFÈVRE-PONTALIS, Wen tan. . . . . . . . . . 1 JO LÉONARD AUROUSSEAU, À propos de l’article de Sylvain Lévi. — Le Me
RAA laipno de tRontehat et man Te ee A a pe MAO BerTaoLp LaurEr, Was Odoric of Pordenone ever in Tibet? . . . . . 405
W. W. Rocknizz, Notes on the relations and trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the coasts of the Indian Ocean during the
fanrtésontbr contrer. de dr du Matane t Lo s jen tel 2449 Pauz PeLcior, Le nom turc du vin dans Odorie de Pordenone . . . . 448 Epouarb CHAvANNES, Une version chinoise du conte bouddnique de Kalyà-
DIUMRAEAN EE PAPAMRANT 02 4 à Me ne te 4 + ee à 0 1400 Louis LaLoy, Hoaï-nân Tzè et la musique. . . . . . . . . . . . 501
L. Gaucuer, Note sur la généralisation de l'extraction de la racine carrée chez les anciens auteurs chinois et quelques problèmes du À LA sf fo d31
PAMASSON-OBRSEE) Vin Wén=tseu nn. . © SN 0 Qi, . 001
Pauz Pezruor, Chrétiens d'Asie centrale et d’Extrème-Orient . . . . . 623
LéoporLb pE SAUSSURE, Les origines de l'astronomie chinoise . . . . . 645 Mélanges.
The sexagenary Cycle Once More, by B. Laufer. . . . . . . . . . 278 Première mention des logarithmes en Chine, par L. Vanhée, S. TJ. . . . 454 Nécrologie.
RU CHRRAOR, DB. LAUIGP,. .. à A 0. , À . . 109
Colonel G. E. Gerini, par Henri Cordier; Edouard Huber, par Ed. Chavannes 280 Le Dr. Palmyr Cordier, par Ed. Chavannes; Léon de Rosny, Henri Maitre, Christopher Thomas Gardner, par Henri Cordier . . . . . . . . 591
IV SOMMAIRE.
Bulletin critique. Pages
Admonilions of the Instructress in the Palace. — À painting by Ku K'‘ai-chih. — Reproduced in coloured woodeut. Text by Laurence Binyon (Ed. Chavannes). — Documents chinois découverts par Aurel Stein, published and translated by Edouard Chavannes (E. H. Parker) . . 167
Maurice Courant, La langue chinoise parlée, Grammaire du Kwan-hwa septentrional (B. Karlgren). — O. Franke et B. Laufer, ÆEpigra- phische Denkmäler aus China. Erster Teil: Lamaistische Kloster- inschriflen aus Peking, Jehol und Si-ngan; — Dr. Léon Wieger, Les vies chinoises du Buddha; — Teitaro Suzuki, À brief history of early Chinese philosophy; — Dr. E. Erkes, Ahnenbilder und buddhistische Skulpturen aus Altchina; — Charlotte M. Salwey, The island dependencies of Japan (Ed. Chavannes). — Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking. By E. Backhouse and J. 0. P. Bland ; — Chinese and Sumerian, by C.J. Ball (Henri Cordier). — Adolf Fischer, Kleiner populärer Führer durch das Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt COR U(S Hackin). re Ne DAS
Isabelle Massieu, Népal et Pays so (Henri Cordier) . ne
Correspondance. Lettre de M. Lionel Gilés./. 0000 RSR UD
Bibliographie.
Livres nouveaux : 1.24. TO 177 502 0000 Chronique.
FrANCe serie sect nt dé iatlentttes MONS IMNEN EO RRE RERREE
Notes and Queries.
4. Le chiffre quatre, ou «8 dans la bouche»; 5. Le sens de A\ s 6. Le zéro en Chine; 7. Les perles dans les lacs chinois; 8. HE tion chinoise; 9. Les trois caractères F4, fà et Hi : 10. Le mathéma- ticien Kouling ; 11. Chiffres sanscrits : 12. Edition spéciale du L X ; 13. Progressions curieuses; 14. Inscription sur coupe rustique, par L. Vanhée..! + @hukine LE up ul 050 ROSE PRIS 1 Calendrier de 63 av. J. C., par L. de Saussure . . . 20. … … … . 263
Index ‘alphabétique 2.2 . 2 0 2 SR CE
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS
(NOTES ON DOCUMENT PELLIOT No. 3530, WITH A STUDY OF TIBETAN PHONOLOGY OF THE NINTH CENTURY).
BY
BERTHOLD LAUFER.
Et illud quidam etiam his notum, avium voces volatusque interrogare. Tacitus, Germania X.
Among the Tibetan manuscripts discovered by M. Paul Pelliot there is a roll of strong paper (provisional number 3530 of the Bibliothèque Nationale) measuring 0.85 X 0.31 m and containing a table of divination. This document has recently been published and translated by M. J. Bacor.') This gentleman has furnished proof of possessing a good knowledge of Tibetan in a former publica- tion, ?) in which he gives a most useful list of 710 abbreviations occurring in the cursive style of writing (dbu-med) of the Tibetans, from a manuscript obtained by him on his journeys in eastern Tibet, It is gratifying to note that the tradition gloriously inaug- urated in France by Abel-Rémusat, Burnouf and Foucaux, and worthily continued by L. Feer and S. Lévi, reincarnates itself in a
young and fresh representative of the Tibetan field, who has enough
1) La lable des présages signifiés par l'éclair. Texte tibétain, publié et traduit.. (Journal asiatique, Mars-Avril, 1913, pp. 445—449, with one plate).
2) L'écriture cursive tibétaine (ibid., Janvier-Février, 1912, pp. 1—78). M. Bacor is also the author of a pamphlet L'art tibétain (Châlon-sur-Saône, 1911), and of two inter- esting books of travel Dans les marches tibétaines (Paris, 1909) and Le Tibet révollé (Paris, 1912).
1
2 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
courage and initiative to attack original problems. It is likewise matter of congratulation to us that the wonderful discoveries of M. Pelliot will considerably enrich Tibetan research and reanimate with new life this wofully neglected science. The volumes of the ancient Kanjur edition discovered by him in the Cave of the Thou- sand Buddhas (Ts'ien fu tung) of Kan-su and dating at the latest from the tenth, and more probably even from the ninth century, together with many Tibetan book-rolls from the same place, !) are materials bound to signal à new departure in the study of Tibetan philology, hitherto depending exclusively on the recent prints of the last centuries. We therefore feel justified in looking forward with great expectations to the elaboration of these important sources. The text published by M. Bacor is the first Tibetan document of the Mission Pelliot made accessible to science, and there 1S every reason to be grateful for this early publication and the pioneer work conscientiously performed by M. Bacor, It is a document of great interest, both from a philological and a religious point of view. The merit of M. Bacor in the editing and rendering of this text is considerable. First of all, he has honorably accomplished the difficult task of transcribing the cursive form of the original into the standard character (dbu-can), and, as far as can be judged by one who has not had the opportunity of viewing the original, generally in a convincing manner; he has recognized also some of the archaic forms of spelling, and correctly identified them with their modern equivalents; and above all, aside from minor details, he has made à correct translation of the divination table proper. There are, however, two points of prime importance on which my opinion differs from the one expressed by M. Bacor. These
points are the interpretation of the meaning of the Table, and the
1) Compare P. PeLrrior, La mission Pelliot en Asie centrale, pp. 25, 26 (Annales de lu société de géographie commerciale, Fase. 4, Hanoi, 1909) and 2. £ F.Æ.0., Nol. VIII, 1908, p. 507.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 3
reudering of the introductory note prefacing the Table. In regard | to the latter, M. Bacor is inclined to view it as a series of rebuses which seem to have the raven as their subject. He consequently takes every verse (the entire preface is composed of twenty-nine verses, each consisting of a dactyl and two trochees, — a metre peculiarly Tibetan and not based on any Sanskrit model) as a single unit; while in my opinion the verses are mutually connected, and their interrelation brings out a coherent account furnishing the explanation for the divination table. As indicated by the very title of his essay, M. Bacor regards the latter as a list of fore- bodings announced by lightning; and in column I of the Table worked up by him, we meet the translation en cas d’éclair à l'est, ete. The Tibetan equivalent for this rendering is #an 2er na, which literally means, “if there is evil speaking.” No authority, native or foreign, is known to me which would justify the translation of
’
this phrase by anything like “flash of lightning;” it simply means “to utter bad words,’ which may augur misfortune; hence #an, as Jâscuke (Dictionary, p. 126) says, has the further meaning of “evil, imprecation.” The phrase #an smras is rendered in the dic- tionary Zla-bai od-snañ (fol. 29b, Peking, 1838) into Mongol maghu käläksän. In the present case, the term #an <er refers to the unpleasant and unlucky sounds of the voice of the crow or raven, which indeed, as expressly stated in the prefatory note, is the subject of divination in this Table. Moreover, the preface leaves no doubt as to who the recipient of the offerings is. It is plainly told there in Verse 8 (4 in the numbering of M. Bacot): gtor-ma mi bya-la gtor, “the offering is made to the bird,” and this bird certainly is the raven (p‘o-rog) ') spoken of in Verse 1, again men- tioned in Verse 17, their various tones being described in V. 25—29.
In this Table, it is, accordingly, the question only of the raven,
1) The differentiation of the Tibetan words for “raven” and “erow”’ is explained below,
in the first note relating to the translation of the preface.
{ BERTHOLD LAUFER.
not of lightning; no word for lightning (ylog or t'og) oceurs either
in the Table or in the preface. !) The fact that this interpretation
1) It must be said, in opposition to M. Bacor’s explanation, also that neither the Tibetans nor the Indians seem to have offerings to lightning, nor do I know that good or bad predictions are inferred in Tibet from the manner in which a flash of lightning strikes. M. Bacor assures us that analogous tables for divination from lightning are still in use in Tibet and Mongolia. It would be interesting to see such a table referred to by M. Bacor. In India, lightnings were classified according to color, a yellow lightning pointing to rain, a white one to famine, ete. (A. HizzesranDt, Rifual-Litteratur. Vedische Opfer und Zauber, p. 154, Strassburg, 1897). M. BLcoomrrecn (The Atharvaveda, p. 80, Strassburg, 1899) speaks of a “goddess lightning” who is conciliated by charms to cause her to spare the stores of grain; but then, again, he identifies the divine eagle with lightning. Among the Romans, the lightning-flash was a solicited portent of great significance, not, however, for the divination of the magistrates, but for certain priestly ceremonies of the augurs (HASTINGS, Æncyclopaedia of Religion, Vol. IV, p. 823). — In regard to thunder, a series of omens regulated according to the quarters exists among the Mongols. P. S. PaLLas (Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten über die mongolischez Vülkerschaften, Nol. IL, p. 318, St. Petersburg, 1801) has extracted the following from a Mongol book styled by him Jerrien-Gassool: “When in the spring it thunders in the south, this is a good sign for every kind of cattle. When it thunders straight from an easterly direction, this signifies an inundation threatening the crops. When it thunders from the north, this is a good sign for all creatures. When it thunders in the north-west, this means much slush and wet weather in the spring; and, moreover, many new and strange reports will be heard through- out the world. When it thunders from the west very early, a very dry spring will follow. When it thunders early in the south-west, this means unclean diseases to men. When it thunders early in the south-east, locusts will destroy the grass.” In regard to auguries, PaLLas states that the bird of augury among the Kalmuk is the whitish buzzard called tsaghan chuldu; when it flies to the right of a tramping Kalmuk, he takes it to be a happy omen, thanking it with bows; when, however, it flies to his left, he turns his eyes away and dreads a disaster. They say that the right wing of this bird is directed by a Burchan or good spirit, the left one by an aerial demon, and nobody dares shoot this bird. According to Pallas, the flight of the eagle, the raven, and other birds, has no significance among the Kalmuk. The white owl is much noted by them, and looked upon as a felicitous bird. — Abou Bekr Abdesselam Ben Choaïb (La divination par le tonnerre d’après le manuscrit marocain intitulé Er-Ra‘adiya, Revue d’ethnographie et de sociologie, 1913, pp. 90—99) translates a Moroccan manuscript (date not given) treating of divination from thunder-peals, according to their occurrence in the twelve months of the year. Also the Malays draw omens from thunder (W. W. SkEaT, Malay Magic, p. 561) and lightning (p. 665). — The field of Tibetan divination and astrology is a subject as wide as ungrate- ful and unpleasant for research. It has been slightly touched upon in the general books on Tibetan Buddhism by E. ScxaGINTwEIT and L. A. WaDDeLz. Some special contributions are by A. Wxger, Ueber eine magische Gebetsformel aus Tibet (Sitzungsherichte der preussi-
schen Akademie, 1884, pp. 11—83, 1 plate), and WaDpezz, Some Ancient Indian Charms
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS, )
is to the poiut, will be especially gleaned from the text of the Käkajariti given below. The first column of M. Bacor's l'able finds its explanation in the last clause of this text, where it is said: “When an omen causing fear is observed, a strewing obla- tion must be offered to the crow’” (4jigs-pai rtags mt'oñ-na, bya- rog-la gtor-ma dbul-bar byao), and the flesh of the frog is the most essential of these offerings. The crow does not receive offerings in each and every case when an oracle is desired from its sounds, but only when it emits disastrous notes pointing to some calamity, and the object of the offering is the prevention of the threatening disaster. It is therefore logical to find in the first column of our Table, headed “the method of offerings,” and indicating the kind of offerings for the nine (out of the ten) points of the compass, the conditional restriction ”an £er na, for example, “when in the east (the crow) should utter unlucky sounds, milk must be offered,” etc. The crow is believed to fly up in one of the nine points of the compass, and exactly the same situation is described in the begioning of the Küakajariti.
Among the offerings (gtor-ma, Skr. bali) enumerated in our Table, there are two distinctly revealing Indian influence, — the white mustard (Tib. yuñs-kar, Skr. sarshapa), and quggula, itself a Sanskrit
word.) The question must naturally be raised, Is this practice
from the Tibetan (Journal Anthrop. Institute, Vol. XXIV, 1895, pp. 41—44, 1 plate). The most common method of fortune-telling is practised by means of dice ($o) in connection with divinatory charts. Interesting remarks on this subject are found in the excellent works of STEWART CULIN, Chinese Games with Dice and Dominoes (Report of U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1893, p. 536, Washington, 1895), and Cess and Playing-Cards (ibid, for 1896, pp. 821—822, Wash., 1898). Also this practice doubtless originates in India, and should be studied some day with reference to the Indian dice games and oracles (compare A. WEBER, Ueber ein indisches Würfel-Orakel, Monatsberichte Berl. Ak, 1859; À. F. R. HoEëRNLE, The Bower Manuscript, pr. 209, 210, 214; J. E. ScarôtER, Paçakakevalt, Ein indisches Würfelorakel, Borna, 1900; and chiefly H. Lüpers, Das Würfelspiel im alten Indien, Abhandl. der K. Ges. der Wiss. zu Gütlingen, Berlin, 1907). There are several Tibetan books treating especially of dice oracles (see also E. H. Wazsx, Tibetan Game of de sho, Proc. A. S. B., 1903, p. 129).
1) Also rice and flowers are Indian offerings, the same as occur likewise in Burma
6 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
of divination from the notes of a crow of indigenous Tibetan origin, or
is it rather a loan! received from India? The Tibetan Tanjur contains
among the offerings to the Nat (L. Vossion, Nut-worship among the Burmesé, p. 4, reprint from Journal American Fotk-Lore, 1891), and the whole series of offerings may confidently be stated to be derived from Indian practice. “After bathing, with hands cireled by swaying bracelets, she kerselË gave to the birds an offering of curds and boiled rice placed in a silver cup; ... she greatly honored the directions of fortune-tellers; she fre- quented all the soothsayers learned in signs; she showed all respect to those who under- stood the omens of birds” (74e Kadambart of Bana translated by Miss C. M. RibDiNG, p. 56, London, 1896). — M. Bacor accepts the rendering Vois d’aigle for guggula (Tibet- anized qu-qul) given in the Tibetan Dictionary of the French Missionaries. But this is not correct. Guggula or gugquiu is not at all a wood but a gum resin obtained from a tree (Boswellia serrata, sometimes called the Indian Olibanum tree) and utilized as incense (W. RoxsorouGux, Flora Indica, p. 865; G. Warr, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. I, p. 515). In more recent times this name has been extended also to the produce of Balsamodendron Mulkut, which became known to the Greeks under the name Rdéanæ (thus in Periplus, ed. FABRICIUS, pp. 76, 78, 90), then Grecized PdéAAM0oY (first in Droscorines, Latinized BDELLIUM in PLINY, Nat. Hist, XII, 9, 19, ed. Mayorr, Vol. I1, p. 388; compare LasSEN, Indische Altertumskunde, Nol. 1, p. 290, and H. BRETZL, Botanische Forschungen des Alexanderzuges, pp. 282—4, leipzig, 1908) and to the Arabs under the word »0q/ £a (L. Lecrerc, Traité des simples, Vol. III, p. 331, Paris, 1883, and J. Lôw, Aramäische Pflanzennamen, p. 359, Leipzig, 1881). The meaning ‘bdellion’ is exclusively given for guggula in the Sanskrit dictionaries of St. Petersburg; this, however, is not the original but merely a subsequent (and probably erroneous) application of the word, nor is the identity of bdellion with guggula, as established by J. JoLLx (Medicin, p. 18, Grundriss d. indo-ar. Phil), correct. WATT says advisedly, “Care must be taken not to confuse this gum resin (guggula) with the olibanum or frankincense of commerce, or with Mukul. The true Sanskrit name for this plant is most probably Sallaki.” The Sanskrit name which Watt has in mind is çallaht or sillaki, Boswellia thurifera, yielding frank- incense which is called siZka (Tib. si-/a). The Greek words Zdella and bdellion are derived from Hebrew #dolah, bédolah; but “what it was remains very doubtful” (YULE and Bur- xELL, Hobson-Jobson, pp. 16, 386). Regarding the Chinese names of guggula see PELLIOT, T'oung Pao, 1912, p. 480. In his study of the names of perfumes occurring in Chao Ju-kua, M. Pezuor (ibid, p. 474) alludes to the Mahäavyutpatti as one of the sources to be utilized for such research; I may be allowed to point out that the Sanskrit and Tibetan list of the thirteen names of perfumes contained in that dictionary was published by me in Zeüschrift für Ethnologie, 1896, Verhandlungen, p. 397, in connection with the Tibetan text and translation of the DAupayogaratnamala; this certainly was wne œuvré de
jeunesse on which J could now easily improve. The most important source for our purposes
doubtless is the Hiang p'u LS al by Hung Ch'u dE F5} of the Sung period, reprinted
in Z'ang Sung tsung shu. BRETSOHNEIDER (Bof. Sin., pt. 1, No. 153) mentions a work
of the same title, but from the hand of Ye T'ing-kuei dE pes FÈ of the Sung.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. {
a small treatise under the title Xäkajariti indicated by G. Hurn. !) The Indian method of divining from the calls of the crow is briefly expounded therein, and for this reason à literal translation of it may first be given. It will be recognized that the thoughts of this text move on the same line as the document Pelliot, and it will furnish to us the foundation for some further remarks on the latter. In order to facilitate immediate comparison of the two texts, I have numbered, in the Table published by M. Bacor, the series of the first vertical column with the Roman figures [—XI, and the nine series yielded by the nine quarters with the Arabic figures 1—9, so that by the combination of the two any of the ninety squares of the Table may be readily found. The references to the squares of this Table, placed in parentheses in the following text,
indicate thought identity or analogy in the two documents, *)
Translation of Kakajariti.
Tanjur, Section Sutra (mdo), Vol. 123, Fol. 221 (edition of Narthang).
1) Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akademie, 1895, p. 275. Huru reters to “Schief- uer in Weber's Indische Streifen 1 275,” which I have never seen, and which is not accessible to me.
2) After my translation was made from the Narthang edition of the Tanjur, I found that A. ScHiErNER (Ueber ein indisches Krühenorakel, Mélanges asiatiques, Nol. IV, St. Petersburg, 1863, pp. 1—14) had already edited and translated the same work. In collating my rendering with that of SOHIEFNER, it turned out that I differed from him in a number of points which are discussed in the footnotes. SCHIEFNER"s text (apparently based on the Palace edition) and translation are generally good, though the mark is missed in several passages; I have to express my acknowledgment especially to his text edition, as my copy of the Narthang print, which is diflicult to read, left several points obscure. Ou the other hand, whoever will take the trouble to check my version with that of my pred- ecessor, will doubtless recognize the independence of my work. As the principal poiat iu the present case is to reveal the inward connection between the Kakaÿariti and the docu- ment Pelliot, it was, at any rate, necessary to place a complete version of that text before the reader, and not everybody may have access to the publication in which Scnier-
NER’s study is contained.
8 BERTHOLD LAUFER,
In Sanskrit: Aakajariti (“On the Sounds of the Crow”). !) In Tibetan: Bya-rog-gi skad brtag-par bya-ba (“Examination of
the Sounds of the Crow’).
This matter is as follows. The crows are divided into four castes; namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaiçya, and Çudra. A crow
of intelligent mind”) belongs to the Brahmana caste, a red-eyed
1) The Sanskrit title is thought by ScnrerNer to be corrupt. He made two conjec- tures, — first, in a communication to Weber, by restoring the title into #akarutar, which he soon rejected; second, he accepted as foundation of the disfigured Sanskrit title the words bya-rog-qi spyod-pa oceurring at the end of the treatise, which he took in the sense of kakacaritra or © carita, and he assumed that this title may have arisen through a retrans- lation from Tibetan into Sanskrit, at a time when the Sanskrit original no longer existed. Again, on p. 14, he conjectures spyod-pa to be an error for dpyod-pa = Skr. vicarana,
]
“examination,” and thus unconsciously contradicts his previous surmise on p. 1. I can see no valid reason for any of these conjectures. The final words taken for the title do not in fact represent it, but only refer to the third and last part of the treatise, which is plainly divided into three sections: 1. Omens obtained from a combination of orientation and the time divisions of the day; 2. Omens to be heeded by a traveller; 3. Omens obtained from the orientation of the crow’s nest. The spyod-pa of the crows refers to the peculiar activity or behavior of the birds in building their nests. Besides, the title of the work is simply enough indicated in its Tibetan translation, “Examination of the Sounds (or Cries)
2
of the Crow (or Crows),” and the restoration of the Sanskrit title should be attempted only on this basis. It is evident that it is defective, and that a word corresponding to Mb. brtag-par bya-ba is wanting, which, judging from analogies of titles in the Tanjur, it may be supposed, was parikshu. The word jarati, corresponding to Tib. skad, seems to be a derivation from the root ar, jarate, “to call, to invoke.”
2) Tib. Zo-la rtsi-ba. SCHIEFNER (p. 12) remarks on this passage which he renders die in Karshas rechnenden Brahmanen: “The Tibetan text is not quite without blemish. Some passages of the original are wholly misunderstood; to these belongs the passage in question. TI suspect a misunderstanding of karskzya, ‘blackness As Weber observes, this supposition is confirmed by a classification of the Brahmans among the crows occurring elsewhere.” This interpretation seems to me to be rather artificial; I think 20 is a clerical error for Ze, and take Ze-Za rtsi-ba in the sense of “to calculate in their minds.” The crow is the object of divinatory calculation on the part of observing man, and the bird which, owing to its superior intelligence, easily adapts itself to this process, is considered to rank among the highest caste. The ability for calculation and divination is directly transferred to the bird. The division into castes is found also among the Näga and the spirits called yñan (see ScuierNer, Ueber das Bonpo-Sutra, Mém. Acad. de St. Pét., Nol. XXVIII, N°. 1, 1880, pp. 3, 26 et passim;, Mém. Soc. finno-ougrienne, Vol. XI, 1898, p. 105; Denkschriften Wiener Alkademie, Nol. XLVI, 1900, p. 31).
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 9
oue to the Kshatriya caste, one flapping its wings to the Vaiçya caste, one shaped like a fish to the Çudra caste, one subsisting on filthy food and craving for flesh belongs likewise to the latter.
The following holds good for the different kinds of tones emitted by the crow. The layman must pronounce the affair the truth of which he wishes to ascertain simultaneously [with the flight of the crow]. ')
I. When in the first watch (fun dañ-po la), *) in the east, a crow sounds its notes, the wishes of men will be fulfilled,
When in the south-east it sounds its notes, an enemy will approach (Table IT, 9, and V, 2). *)
1) Scmigrner translates: ,Die verschiedenen Arten ihres Geschreis sind folgende, (welche) der Hausherr einmal wahrgenommen verkünden muss.” But this mode of rendering the passage does not do justice to the text (k'yim-bdag-gis cig-car bden-par agyur-ba nt brjod-par bya-ste). Stress is laid on the phrase cig-car, alluding to the fact, which repeats itself in all systems of omens, that the wish must be uttered at the same moment when the phenomenon from which the oracle is taken occurs. SCHIEFNER overlooks the force of bden par agyur-ba, which is not wahrgenommen, but was bewahrheiter werden soll. Only he who seeks an oracle will naturally pay attention to the flight of the erow, and he must loudly proclaim his question, addressing the bird at the moment when it flies into the open.
2) Scurerver takes the term #‘wx (Skr. yäma) in the sense of night-watch. This, in my opinion, is impossible. In this first section of the treatise, divination is detailed to five divisions of time, the fifth and last of which is designated as the sunset. Consequently the four preceding divisions must refer to the time of the day; both t‘ux and yäma apply to the day as well as to the night, and simply signify a certain length of time (usually identified with a period of three hours in our mode of reckoning) of the twenty-four hour day. The five watches named in our text would accordingly yield an average term of fifteen hours, the usual length of a day in India. It is also natural to watch crows in the daytime, and not at night, when, like others of their kind, they are asleep in their nests. The same division of the day into five parts, probably derived from India, exists also in Java (Rareces, À History of Java, Nol. 1, p. 530, London, 1830).
3) The crow’s propheey of war is linked with the rapacious and bellicose character of the bird. This notion appears as early as in the Assyrian inscriptions of Sennacherib, where we meet such comparisons as “like the coming of many ravens swiftly moving over the country to do him harim,” and “like an invasion of many ravens on the face of the coun- try forcibly they came to make battle” (F. DecrrzscH, Assyrische Thiernamen, p. 102, Leipzig, 1874; and W. HouGurton, The Birds vf the Assyrian Monuments, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch, Nol. VIU, 1884, p. 80). In Teutonic divination, the raven believed to possess wisdom and knowledge of events was especially connected with battle: should one be heard
thrice sereaming on the roof, it boded death to warriors; while the appearance of ravens
10 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
When in the south, ete, a friend will visit (Table VII 6;
When in the south-west, etc, unexpected profit will accrue.
When in the west, ete., a great wind will rise (Table V, 4).
When in the north- west, ete., a stranger (guest) will appear. !)
When in the north, ete., property scattered here and there (nor gtor-ba) will be found (Table X, 2).
When in the north-east, etc., a woman will come (Table VII, 8; IX, 5). |
When in the abode of Brahma (zenitk), *) etc., a demon will
following a host or a single warrior would bring good luck in battle (HasriN&s, Zxeyclo- paedia of Religion, Vol. IV, p. 827). «
1) In southern India, if a erow keeps on cawing incessantly in a house, it is believed to foretell the coming of a guest. The belief is so strong, that some women prepare more food than is required for the household (E. THURSTON, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 276, Madras, 1906). Among the Parsi (J. J. Monr, Omens among the Parsees, in his Axthropological Papers, p. 4, Bombay, no year) the cawing of a crow portends good as well as evil. A peculiar sound called “a full noise” portends good. Such a noise is also considered to foretell the arrival of a guest or the receipt of a letter from a relative in some distant country. If a good event oceurs after the peculiar cawing which portends good, they present some sweets to a crow. Another peculiar kind of cawing, especially that of the Æagri, the female crow, portends some evil. A crow making such a peculiar noise is generally driven away with the remark, “Go away, bring some good news!”
2) The four cardinal points (p'‘yogs bëi) are expressed by the common words ÿar, lho, nub, byañ. The four intermediate points are designated we (“fire”), south-east; bden bral, south-west; rZun (“wind”), north-west; and dbari-lan, north-east. These names are derived from those of the Ten Guardians of the World (see Mahavyutpatti, ed. of MINAYEv and MiroNov, p. 102; ed. of Csoma and Ross, pt. 1, p. 57). The ninth point, Brahmi, is there rendered by sfei-gi p'yogs, the direction above, which is expressed in our text by Ts'añs-pai gnas, the place of Brahma. In the Table published by M. Bacor (II, 9) tbe term »am-ka (= ka, m'a) ldin is used in lieu of that one; this means literally “floating or soaring in the sky” (it oceurs as a frequent name of the Garuda), and here “soaring in straight direction toward the sky,” that is, the zenith. It will thus be seen that the nine points of the compass (out of the typical ten, daçadik, which were: assumed), as enum- erated in the above text, are the same and occur in the same succession, as in M. Bacor’s Table. The tenth point, naturally, is here out of the question, as erows cannot fly up in the nadir of a person. In the introductory to M. Pelliot’s roll the fact of nine cardinal] points is distinctly alluded to in two verses (6 and 24), and M. Bacor, quite correctly, has recognized there the eight quarters, making nine with the zenith. — The connection of
crow auguries with the cardinal points may have arisen from the very ancient observation
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. ‘4
come (Table X, 1).!) End of the cycle of the first watch.
II. When in the second watch (fun gais-pa-la), in the east, à
crow sounds its notes, near relatives will come (Table VI, 4). *)
of the crow’s sense of locality, and its utilization in discovering land. Indian navigators kept birds on board ship for the purpose of despatching them in search of land. In the Baveru-J'ätaka (No: 339 of the series) it is a crow, in the Kevaddhasutta (in Dighanikuya) it is a “land-spying bird.” J. MiNayEv (Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. VI, 1872, p. 597), who was the first to edit the former text, explained the word for the crow disakaka, as it occurs there, as possibly meaning “a crow serving to direct navigators in the four quarters” (while the opinion of WEBER, added by him, that it might be an ordinary crow, as it oceurs in all quarters, — seems forced). In my opinion, Minayev is correct: disakaka isthe crow, whose flight is afiliated with the quarters, both in navigation and divination. GRüNw£eDEL (Verüf. Mus. für Vülkerkunde, Vol. V, 1897, p. 105) has published an allied text from the Biography of Padmasambhava, where the land-seeking bird of the navigators is designated “pigeon” (Tib. p'ug-ron). This will doubtless go back to some un- known Indian text where pigeons are mentioned in this capacity. Prinx (Naf. Hist. VI, 22, 83, ed. Maymorr, Vol. I, p. 465) relates that the seafarers of Taprobane (Ceylon) did not observe the stars for the purpose of navigation, but carried birds out to sea, which they sent off from time to time, and then followed the course of the birds flying in the direction of the land (siderum in navigando nulla observatio: septentrio non cernitur, volueres secum vehunt emittentes saepius meatumque earum terram petentium comitantur). The connection of this practice with that described in the Babylonian and Hebrew tradi- tions of the Deluge was long ago recognized. In the Babylonian record (H. ZIMMERN, Keilinschriften und Bibel, p. 1) a pigeon, a swallow, and a raven are sent out successively to ascertain how far the waters have abated. When the people of Thera emigrated to Libya, ravens flew along with them ahead of the ships to show the way. The Viking, sailing from Norway in the ninth century, maintained birds on board, which were set free in the open sea from time to time, and discovered Iceland with their assistance (0. Ke- LER, Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. I, p. 102). According to Jusrin (XXIV. 1v. 4), who says that the Celts were skilled beyond other peoples in the science of augury, it was by the fight of birds that the Gauls who invaded Illyriceum were guided (DorriN in HAsTiINGs, Encyclopaedia of Religion, Nol. 1V, p. 787). In the /se-füdoki, Emperor Jimmu engaged in a war expedition, and marched under the guidance of the gold-colored raven (K. FLo- RENZ, Japanische Mythologie, p. 299). On the sending of pheasant and raven in ancient Japan see especially A. PrIZMAIER, Z4 der Sage von Onvo-kuni-nushi (Sitzungsberichte Wie- ner Akademie, Nol. LIV, 1866, pp. 50—52).
1) SCHtEFNER reads agron-po, and accordingly translates “guest.” But it seems unlikely that the same should be repeated here that was said a few lines before in regard to the north-west. The Narthang print plainly has agou-po, which I think is mistaken for a7o-po, “jemon.” The analogous case in Table X, 1, where the word adre gdon is used, confirms this supposition.
2) In the Kanjur, a little story is told of a crow uttering agreeable sounds auguring
12 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
[A reference in regard to the south-east is lacking in the text.]
When in the south it sounds its notes, you will obtain flowers and areca-nuts. !)
When in the south-west, etc, there will be numerous offspring (rgyud-pa ap'el-bar agyur-ro).
When in the west, ete., you will have to set out on a distant journey (tag riñs-su agro-bar qgyur-ro; compare Table II, 2; IX, 5).
When in the north-west, ete., this is a prognostie of the king being replaced by another one (rgyal-po géan-du agyur-bai rtags; compare Table VIII, 1). ?)
When in the north, ete. you will receive good news to hear
(Table III, 8; VII, 7).°)
“
for the safe return of à woman’s absent husband, and being rewarded by her with a golden cap (A. SCHIEENER, Tibetan Tales, English ed. by RALSTON, p. 355). J, J. Mont (Anthro- pologicat Papers, p. 28) quotes the following lines, which he overheard a Hindu woman speak to a erow: “Oh crow, oh crow! (I will give thee) golden rings on thy feet, a ball prepared of eurd and rice, a piece of silken cloth to cover thy loins, and pickles in thy mouth.” A peculiar noise made by a crow, continues this author, is supposed to indicate the arrival of a dear relation or at least of a letter from him. When they hear a crow make that peculiar noise, they promise it all the above good things if its prediction turn out true. In this case they fulfill their promise by serving it some sweets, but withhold the ornaments and clothes — The following custom is observed in Cambodja. “Lorsque quelqu'un de la maison est en pays lointain, si le corbeau vient gazouiller dans le voisi- nage, la face tournée dans la direction de l’absent, il annonce son prompt retour. Dans toute autre direction, il annonce un malheur” (É. Aymonier, Revue indochinoise, 1883, p. 148).
1) Tib. #e-tog dañ go-la l'ob-pa. ScuiErNer renders go-la by “betel;”” but go-la isthe areca-nut, which is chewed together with the leaf of betel, piper betel L. (see CHANDRA Das, Dictionary, p. 227). We may justly raise the question whether anything so insipid was contained in the Sanskrit original, and whether the text is not rather corrupted herc. The Table contains nothing to this effect. [ venture to think that go, “rauk, position, ” was intended. In Table I, 6, flowers are mentioned as offerings to the birds, and this may give a clew as to how the confusion came about.
2) In the text of the Table: rgyal-po ajig-par ston, “this indicates the overthrow or ruin of the king” (but not indique un danger pour le roi). I do not agree with SCHIEr- Ners rendering: , Ein Zeichen, dass der Künig sich anderswohin wendet.”
3) Tib. ap'rin-las legs-par L'os-par agyur-ro. P'rin, “news,” will probably be the proper reading. In the text of M. Bacor p'rin byai is printed, and translated #% courrier de nouvelles. M. BacoT presumably had in mind the word bya-ma-rta, a courier,” but there is no word #yañ with this meaning. We doubtless have to read p'rin bzan, “good news,
good message.”
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 13
When in the north-east, ete., disorder !) will break out (Table OUR à À
When in the zenith, ete., you will obtain the fulfilment of your wishes. *)
End of the cycle of the second watch.
IIL When in the third watch, in the east, a crow sounds its notes, you will obtain property (Table X, 2).
When in the south-east a crow sounds its notes, a battle («t‘ab- mo) will arise (Table V, 7).
When in the south, ete., a storm will come (Table V, 4).
When in the south-west, etc., an enemy will come (see above, I, south-east).
When in the west, etc, a woman will come (see above, I, north-east).
Wheo in the north-west, ete., a relative will come (see above, IT, east).
When in the north, ete., a good friend will come (Table VIT, GX 8).
When in the north-east, etc, a conflagration will break out (mes ats‘ig-par agyur-ro; Table VI, 7).
When in the zenith, ete., you will gain profit from being taken care of by the king. *)
End of the cycle of the third watch.
1) Tib. zk‘rug-pa exactly corresponds in its various shades of meaning to Chinese Zzan äl : «disorder, tumult, insurrections, war,” etc. This rendering is indeed given for the Tibetan word in the Tibetan-Chinese vocabulary of Hua à yi yü (Ch. 11, p. 33 b; Hirth’s copy in Royal Library of Berlin). In the Table, the word £‘ab-mo, “fight, battle,” is used.
2) Tib. adôd-pai ajug-pa rhed-par agyur-ro. SCHIEFNER translates: , Wird sich die gewünschte Gelegenheit finden.”
3) ScuterNER’s translation ,wird der Kônig den im Gemüth befestigten Gewinn fin- den” is unintelligible. The text reads: rgyal-po t'ugs-la brlags-pai rhed-pa l'ob-par agyur-ro. Schiefner”s correction of #rlags into tags is perfectly justifiable; indeed, the confusion of these two words is frequent. But #‘wgs-la adogs-pa is a cominon phrase correctly explained by Jüscure (Dictionary, p. 280) “to interest ones self in, to take care of.” It should not be forgotten, of course, that, at the time when Schiefner wrote, this dictionary was
not published,
11 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
IV. When in the fourth watch, in the east, à crow sounds its notes, it is a prognostic of great fear (gigs-pa c'e-bai rtags-s0 ; Table V, 6; IX, 1).
When in the south-east a crow sounds its notes, it is a prog- uostic of large gain.
When in the south, ete., a stranger (guest) will come (see above, I, north-west). :
When in the south-west, etc., a storm will rise in seven days.
When in the west, etc, rain and wind will come (Table V, 4, 5). !)
When in the north-west, ete., you will find property which is scattered here and there (nor ylor-ba).
When in the north, etc., à king will appear.
When in the north-east, etc, you will obtain rank. 2)
When in the zenith, etc., it is a prognostic of hunger.
End of the cycle of the three watches and a half.
V. When at the time of sunset (%i-ma nub-pai ts'e; compare Table X), in the east, a crow sounds its notes, an enemy will appear on the road.
When in the south-east a erow sounds its notes, a treasure
will come to you. When in the south, ete., you will die of a disease (Table V, 8), *)
1) The ability attributed to crow and raven of possessing a foreknowledge of coming rain has chiefly made them preëminently prophetice birds (œugur aquae in Horace). The ancients observed that these birds used to caw with peculiar notes when rain was to fall, and that, if a storm was imminent, they were running to and fro on the beach with great restlessness, and bathing their heads (compare ©. KeLLeR, Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. I, p. 98).
2) Tib. go-la (as above) r#ed-par agyur-ro. The correction go rñed-par may here be allowed to pass, as the finding of areca-nuts seems such a gross stupidity.
3) In the story “The Death of the Magpie,” translated from a manuscript of the India Office by A. Scnigrver (Mélanges asiatiques, Nol. VIII, p. 630), the raven has the attri- butes “the Unele, the Judge of the Dead” (in Schiefner’s rendering; the original is not known to me), and the following verses are addressed to it (p. 681): “Be kind to the
nephews here, bestow fortune upon the children, direct the government of the country,
»
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 15
When in the south-west, !) ete., the wishes of one's heart will be fulfilled. When in the west, etc., relatives will come.
When in the north-west, etc., it is a prognostic of obtaining property.
When in the north, etc, homage will be done to the king.
[A reference to the north-east is lacking in the text.]
When in the Zenith, etc, you will obtain an advantage for which you had hoped.
End of the cycle of the fourth watch.
End of the description of such-like cries of the crow.
We shall now discuss the import of the crow’s tones when one is travelling. When along dams and river-banks, on à tree, in a ravine,*) or on cross-roads, à crow sounds its voice on your right-band side, you may know that this journey is good. When, at the time of wandering on the road, à crow sounds its voice behind your back, you will obtain the siddhi. When, during a
journey, a crow flapping its wings *) sounds its voice, a great acci-
lend expression to good plans” In connection with these ideas of the raven as a bird of death, it is worthy of note that in two texts of the Tanjur, Mabhakäla appears in the form of the Raven-faced one (Skr. kakasya, Tib. bya-rog gdon-can), likewise the goddess Kält (Tib. £‘va gdoñ-ma); see P. CoRDIER, Cat. du fonds tibélain de la Bibl. Nat., Vol. II, pp. 124, 127. The raven-faced Mahäkäla is illustrated in the “Three Hundred Gods of Narthang” (section ÆRin abyuñ, fol. 121). The raven as a bird announcing death is widely known in classical antiquity and mediæval Europe (0. KELLER, Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. 11, p.97; E. A. Por’s poem The Raven). The imminent deaths of Tiberius, Gracchus, Cicero, and Sejan, were prophesied by ravens.
1) Is expressed in this passage by srix-poi mts'ams, “the intermediate space of the Räkshasa.”
2) Tib. grog stod, as plainly written in the Narthang print. SCHIEFNER read yrog slot, and corrected grog steñ, with the translation “on an ant-heap,” regarding grog as grog-ma, qrog-mo, “ant” 1 prefer to conceive grog as grog-po (related to ro), “ravine,” which is more plausible in view of the other designations of localities which are here grouped together. Moreover, [ do not believe that crows go near ant-hills or feed on ants. The reading s/od is then perfectly good, the significance being “in the upper part of the ravine.”
3) According to the introduction, one of the Kshatriya caste.
16 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
dent will befall one, When, during a journey, à crow pulling human hair with its beak !) sounds its voice, it is an omen that one will die at that time. When, during a journey, a crow eating filthy food ?) sounds its voice, it is an omen of food and drink being about to come (Table VIII, 9).
When, during a journey, a crow perching on a thoru-bush sounds its voice, it should be known that there is occasion to fear an enemy. When, during à Journey, a crow perching on a tree with milky sap *) sounds its voice, milk-rice (o tug-gi bza-ba) will fall to your lot at that time. When a crow perching on a withered tree ) sounds its voice, it is a prognostication of the lack of food and drink at that time, When a crow perching on a palace sounds
its voice, you will find an excellent halting-place. ) When a erow
1) Tib.skra mous gzirs-3ir. According to Jäscure (Dictionary, p.464) stra adsirs-pa or gzi-ba is an adjective with the meaning “bristly, rugged, shaggy” (Dictionary of the French Missionaries, p. 832: crines disjecti, cheveux épars). The verbal particle ci? and the iastrumentalis #c‘u-s (“with the beak”) indicate that gzis is a verbal form belonging to a stem sis, adsiñs, and means “pulling about hair in such a way that it appears rugged.” Below, we find the same expression wc°us gos gziñs-Sèn, “pulling a dress with its beak.” The word adsis-pa is used also of interlaced trees or thick-set vegetation, as in- dicated by the Polyglot Dictionary of K‘ien-lung, according to which it is the equivalent of ts'ao mu ts‘ung tsa 5 À LA JE, Manchu gubulehebi, Mongol käyhänüldüjr (s’entre- lacer) ; we find there, further, the phrase sgro adsiñs = ling ch'i ts‘an küe 1 44] FE ER : “with broken wings,’ Mongol sëmfüräji, se briser (the Tibetan equivalent in KovaLEvskI is à misprint). SCHIEFNER (p. 14) remarks that the form gzi#s is new to him, and ques- tions its correctness; he takes it as identical with Dzw%, and translates it by anfassen. This derivation is not correct, it is merely surmised. The passage evidently means more than that the crow simply seizes human hair; it is torn to pieces, and this destructive work has a distinct relation to the foreboding of death.
2) Tib. mi gtsañ-ba za Zix, tbe same expression as used in the introduction to denote a crow of the Cuüdra caste. Compare Subkashitaratnanidhi 37 (ed. CsomaA).
3) Tib. o-ma-can-gyi Si (Skr. ksMrikä, ksktrini). {Indian medicine recognizes five trees presumed to yield a milky sap. These are, according to HorrNLe (The Bower Manuscript, p. 20), the nyagrodha (Ficus bengalensis), udumbara (Ficus glomerata), açvattha (Ficus religiosa), plaksha (Ficus tjakela), and parisha (Thespesia populnea).
4) As often in the Indian stories (SCHIEFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. VIII, 1877, p. 96; or RaLsron, Tibetan Tales, p. 32).
5) Scurernver translates erroneously, “When you betook yourself to the royal palace,
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. IT
perching on à divan sounds its note, an enemy will come. When a crow facing the door sounds its voice, it should be known that a peril will threaten from the frontier (mtsams-kyi «jigs-par es- par byao). When a crow pulling a dress (gos) with its beak sounds its voice, you will find a dress (os). When, during a journey, a crow perching on the cranium of a corpse !) sounds its notes, it is a prognostication of death. When a crow seizing a red thread and perching on the roof of a house sounds its notes, this house will be destroyed by fire (Table VI, 7). When, in the morning (sña-droi dus-su, Table V), many crows assemble, a great storm will arise (Table V, 3).°)
When, at the time of a journey, a crow seizing with its beak a piece of wood sounds its voice, some advantage will fall to your lot. When, at the time of a journey, at sunrise (21-ma $ar dus-su, Table IV), a crow sounds its voice, you will obtain property. When, at the time
of a journey, it sounds its voice, *) one’s wishes will be fulfilled.
and when the crow then sounds its cries, you will receive a good seat.” Bat it is the question of a traveller who, on his journey, happens to pass by a palace, and it is the crow which is sitting on the roof of the palace (the verb gnas means “to dwell, remain,” but never expresses any act of motion); in the same manner as the crow bas found a good resting-place, so the weary wanderer will find good quarters for the night. The text runs thus: p'o-brañ-la gnas-nas gañ-qgi ts'e skad sqgrogs-na, dei ts'e sdod sa bzañ-po rñed-par agyur-ro. The word s4od sa does not mean “a seat,” but a place where a traveller stops for the night, “halting-place.” Likewise, in the two following sentences, SCHIEFNER refers the phrases ydan-la gnas-nas and sgo lta ai to the man instead of to the crow.
1) ScurgrnNer: ,eine Krähe auf der Kopfbinde sich befindend.” This is due to a con- fusion of the two words ‘04 and Z‘od-pa; the former means “turban;” but the text has t'od-pa meaning “the skull of a dead person,” and this only makes sense of the passage Crows congregate and feed on carrion, and are therefore conceived of as birds of death. The turban, for the rest, is out of the question in this text, as it was introduced into India only by the Mohammedans.
2) O. Kerrer (Die antike Tierwelt, Nol. II, p. 109, Leipzig, 1913), who concludes his interesting chapter on crow and raven in classical antiquity with an extract from Schiefner’s translation, observes on this sentence that it is based on a fact, and that such grains of truth hidden amonz these superstitions account for the fact that they could sarvive for centuries.
3) Apparently there is here a gap in the text, no definition of the activity of the crow
being given
12
LS BERTHOLD LAUFER:.
End of the signs of the journey (/am-gyi mts'an-nid).
The symptoms (or omens) of the nest-building of the crow are as follows. :} When a crow has built its nest in à branch on the east side of a tree, a good year and rain wiüil then be the result of it. When it has built its nest on a southern branch, the crops will then be bad. When it has built its nest on a branch in the middle of a tree, a great fright will then be the result of it (Table V, 6). When it makes its nest below, fear of the army of one’s adversary will be the result of it. When it makes its nest on à wall, on the ground, or on a river, the king will be healed |from a disease]. *)
Further, the following explanation is to be noted. When a crow sounds the tone ka-ka, you will obtain property. When à crow sounds the tone da-da, misery will befall you. When a erow sounds the tone fa-ta, you will Fn a dress. When a crow sounds the tone gha-gha, a state of happiness will be attained.*) When a crow
sounds the tone gha-ga, a failure will be the result of it. ?)
1) In the first section of the treatise the crow is in motion, and the person demand- ing the oracle is stationary. In the second section both the crow and the person are in motion. In this one, the third section, both the crow and the person are stationary; hence the text says: gnas-pai bya-rog-gi ts'añ-qi mts'an-ñid, “the crows when they are settled. . . ?”?
9) Tib. ats'o-bar agyur-ro, translated by SCHIEFNER ,,80 wird der Künig leben,” which gives no sense. Of course, the word ats°c-ba means “to live,” but also “to recover from sickness.” Here the Table (IX, 2) comes to our rescue. where we meet the plain wording nad-pa sos-par ston, “it indicates cure from disease.” — Among the Greeks, the crow, owing to the belief in the long life of the bird, was an emblem of Asklepios (O0. KELLER, Die antike Tierwelt, Nol. 11, p. 105); compare Hesiod’s famous riddle on the age of the crow and raven (W. ScuuLrz, Rätsel aus dem hellenischen Kulturkreise, p. 143, Leipzig, 1912: and K. OuLrertr, Rälsel und Rätselsmele der alten Griechen, 24 ed., p. 146, Ber- lin, 1912). The idea of the longevity of the crow was entertained also in India (Skr. dirghajus, Tib. »a-ts'od-can, attribute of the crow given in the Dictionary of the French Missionaries, p. 86); it is striking that this quality of the crow is not alluded to in our text.
3) Tib. don agrub-par agyur-ro. SOHIEFNER translates: ,,80 geht die Sache in Erfüllung.”
4) Tib. »0r 0f-bar agyur-ro. SCHIEFNER, ,80 wird ein Schatz kommen,” which is cer- fainly correct, as far as the meaning of these words is concerned; but I doubt very much
whether this is the true significance intended by the author, for what SCHIEFNER trans-
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 19
Wheu an omen causing fear is observed, a strewing oblation must be offered to the crow. As the flesh of a frog pleases the crow, no accidents will occur when frog-flesh is offered. ?)
One mi-ri mi-ri vajra tudate gilars grilhna gi svaha!
End of the description of such-like behavior of the crow.
Translated by the Mahäpandita Danaçila in the monastery T'an-
po-c‘e of Yar-kluñs in the province of dBus.
The translator Dänaçila has been dated by Hurx in the ninth century, on the ground that he is made a contemporary of King K'ri-lde sron-btsan of Tibet in the work sGra sbyor in Tanjur, Sütra, Vol. 124. This fact is correct, as may be vouchsafed from a copy made by me of this work. Dänaçila figures there, together with such well-known names as Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Crilendra- bodhi, Bodhimitra, the Tibetan Ratnarakshita, Dharmatäcila, Jiüäna- sena, Jayarakshita, Mañjuerivarma and Ratnendraçila. Danaçila is well known as translator of many works in the Kanjur *) and Tanjur. From the colophon of a work in the latter collection it
appears that he hailed from Varendrajigatala, that is, Jigatala
lates is exactly the same as what is said above in regard to the tone Æa-ka. Further, the tone gha-ga stands in opposition to the preceding tone gka-gha; it thus becomes clear that nor stands for »or-ba, “to err, to fail,” and is expressive of the contrary of don agrub-pa, “to reach one’s aim, to obtain one’s end, to attain to happiness.” This case reminds one of the grammatical as well as other subtleties of the Indian mind. — Also the ancients seem to have distinguished between various kinds of raven’s cries, judging from PLINY's words that they imply the worst omen when the birds swallow their voice, as if they were being choked (pessima eorum significatio, cum gluttiunt vocem velut strangulati. Naf. Hist., X, 12, $32; ed. Maynorr, Vol. II, p. 229). The crow, according to Priny (id, $ 30), is a bird inauspicatae garrulitatis, a quibusdam tamen laudata.
1) In the belief of the Tibetans, the crow is fond of frogs; compare the jolly story “The Frog and the Crow” in W. M. O’Conxor, Folk Tales from Tibet, p. 48 (Lon- don, 1906).
2) FEer, Aanales du Musée Guimet, Vol. IE, p. 406,
20 BERTHOLD LAUFER:
(Jagaddala) in Varendra, in eastern India. ') Then we meet him in Käçmira, where Taranatha ”) knows him together with Jinamitra and Sarvajñadeva, in accordance with dPag bsam ljon bzai (ed. Cnanpra Das, p. 115); while rGyal rabs has the triad Jinamitra, Crilendrabodhi, and Danaçila. *) It may therefore be granted that the Kükajariti*) was translated and known in Tibet in the first part of the ninth century. The original Sanskrit manuscript from which the Tibetan translation was made in all probability was defective, for three gaps in it could unmistakably be pointed out. What is the position of Æ. in the history of Indian divina- tion? H. Jacoër (in Hasnines, Æncyclopaedia of Religion, Vol. IV, p. 799) has formulated the result of his study of this subject in these words: “In India, divination has gone through two phases of development. Originally it seems to have been practised chiefly with the intention of obviating the evil consequences of omens and portents; in the later period, rather to ascertain the exact nature of the good orevil which those signs were supposed to indicate.” In the Vedic Sañbhitäs, birds are invoked to be auspicious, and
certain birds, especially pigeons or owls, are said to be messengers
1) P. Corpier, Cat. du fonds tibétain de la Bibl. Nat. II, pp. 63, 122, 188 (Paris, 1909), and VipyaBHUsANA (the name of this author appears in his publications in four difierent ways of spelling, Çç bhusan, . bhusana, , bhusana, obhusana: which is the bibliog- rapher supposed to choose?) Bauddha-Stotra-Sarñqrahah, pp. XVIII, XIX (Calcutta, 1908). Mr. V. states that it is said at the end of the Æfkajatisadhana that the worship of Tara originated from China, but that it is not clear whether this refers to Ekajati Tara alone or to Tarä of all classes. 1 fear that neïîther the one nor the other is the case. The Tibetan text plainly says, “The work 7aräsadhana which has come from China (sec. in a Chinese translation) is in a perfect condition.” This implies that the Tibetan translator availed himself of a Chinese version. The worship of Tara most assuredly originated in India, not in China.
2) ScuterNer’s translation, p. 226.
3) Scucagwrwer, Kônige von Tibet, p. 849; also RockuiL, The Life of the Buddha, p. 224.
4) Henceforth abbreviated ÆX.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. M |
of death (Nirrti, Yama). 1) But all these are no more than scant
1) The best investigation of the history of bird omens in India is found in the mono- graph of E. Hurrzscnx (Prolegomena zu des Vasantaruja Cakuna nebst Textproben, Leipzig, 1879). The beginnings of bird augury in India may be traced back to the Vedic period. In the KRigveda occur the so-called çakuna, charms against pigeous, owls, and other black birds whose appearance or contact forebodes evil, or defiles (M. BroomrteLp, The dlharva- véda, p. 85, Strassburg, 1899). According to MacpONELL and Kerri (Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Vol. IT, p. 347, London, 1912) there are the two words, fafuna, usually denoting a large bird, or a bird which gives omens, and gakuni, used practically like the former, but with a much clearer reference to divination, giving signs and fore- telling ill-luck; later the falcon is so called, but the raven may be intended; the commen- tator on the Taittiriya Samita thinks that it is the crow. Oracles obtained from an observation of crows seem to be contained particularly in the Kaugika Sütra. When the rite serving the purpose of securing a husband has been performed on behalf of a girl, the suitor is supposed to appear from the direction from which the crows come (IH. OLDEx- BERG, Die Religion des Veda, p. 511, Berlin, 1894). Contact with a crow was regarded as unlucky and defiling. He who was touched by a crow was thrice turned around himself, from the left to the right. by the sorcerer holding a burning toxch (V. HENRY, La magic dans l'Inde antique, p. 176, 2d ed., Paris, 1909; KE. THURSTON, Z{Anographic Notes in Southern India, p. 277, Madras, 1906). A. HisvesraNDT (Retual-Litteratur. Vedische Opfer und Zauber, p. 153, Strassburg, 1897) believes he finds the explanation for this idea of bird omens in a passage of Baudhäayana, according to which the birds are the likenesses of the manes; but it seems rather doubtful whether the latter notion could receive such a generalized interpretation, and whether it is suflicient to account for the augural practice in its entire range. The latter would naturally presuppose the idea of the bird being ani- mated with a soul and being gifted with supernatural powers or instigated by some divine force; but Hillebrandt's opinion leaves the reason unexplained why the bird, even though it should represent à mane in every case, possesses the ability of divination. True it is, as shown by W. CaLann (Die altindischen Todten- und Bestattungsgebrüuche, p. TS, Amster- dam, 1896), that especially the crows were conceived of as embodying the souls of the departed, as messengers of Yama, who, after the funerary repast (cräddha), draw near, greedy for food (compare the Raven Spirit in the Lamaist mystery plays who attempts to filch the strewing oblation, and who is chased away by two stick-brandishing Atsara, the skeleton ghosts!); but plainly, in this case, no process of divination is in question. CaLaNp, on this occasion, quotes Dusois on the modern practice that the chief of the funeral offers boiled rice and pease to the crows, — if they should refuse to eat, it is taken as an evil presage of the future state of the deceased; but this evidently is quite a different affair from that described in his above reference to Baudhäyana. Some authors allow the whole practice of auguries 10 go back into the prehistorie epoch of the Indo-European peoples (HI. Hirr, Die Indogermanen, Vol. 1, p 518, Strassburg, 1907; and S. Feist, Xultur, etc., der Indogermanen, p. 326, Berlin, 1913), the latter even going so far as to speculate that the idea of a soul flying along in the shape of a bird was not foreign to the wrvotk, since this augural divination is based on the transformation of the soals into birds, I
am very skeptical regarding such conclusions and constructions, and must confess that
22 BERTHOMD: LAUPER.
allusions: neither in the Vedie nor in the early Brahmanic epoch do we find anything like an elaborate augural system, as in K, in which future events are predicted, — Jacobrs second stage. The same author tells us that the whole art of divination became independent of religion when Greek astronomy and astrology were introduced into India in the early centuries of our era; the Indian astrologer then took up divimation, hitherto practised by the Atharva priest. It is of especial interest for our present case that in the Prihat Sarïshita by Varähamihira (505—587), written about the middle of the sixth century, in which a summary of the Indian arts of divination is given, the auspicious or unlucky move-
ments of crows are mentioned. ') À work of the type of K., ac.
1 even belong to those heretics who are still far from being convinced of the existence of such a thing as the ixdogermanische urzeit, — at least in that purely mechanical and subjective formula in which it is generally conceived. The work of Feist, however, is à laudable exception, perhaps the first sensible book written on this subject, and I read it from beginning to end with real pleasure. — In regard to the crow or raven, we find also other ideas connected with them than those of a soul-bird, in India as well as among other Indo-European peoples. In a legend connected with Räma, an Asura disguised as à crow appears to peck at Sitws breast (E. THURSTON, Z €, p. 276, and Omens and Super- stitions of Southern India, p. 87, London, 1912). Among the southern Slavs, the crows are believed to be transformed witches (F. S. Krauss, Slavische Volksforschungen, pp. 57, 60, Leipzig, 1908); and in mediaeval legends, the devil occasionally assumes the shape of a raven. In Greek legend Apollo repeatedly appears in the disguise of a raven (0. KELLER, Die antike Tierwelt, Nol. I, p. 103). These various examples demonstrate that the raven as a divine bird cannot be solely explained as the embodiment of an ancestral soul. It seems to me that I. OvvenserG (Die Religion des Veda, pp. 76, 510) is right in assum- ing that the animals sent by the gods were those of a weird, demoniacal nature, and were, for this reason, themselves deified, while at a later time they became mere stewards to divine mandators. “The bird erying in the quarter of the fathers” (the south), mentioned in the Rigveda, according to OLDENBERG, should be understood as one being despatched by the fathers. The document Pelliot lends substantial force to this argument. It is there expressed in plain and unmistakable words that the raven is a divine bird of celestial origin and supernatural qualities, and the messenger who announces the will of a deity, the Venerable One of the Gods (L4a btsun) ; compare the Preface to the Table, translated below.
1) Ch. XI is taken up by the auguries obtained from the wagtails (see H. KERN’s translation in his Verspreide gesckriften, Vol. I, p. 299, ’s-Gravenhage, 1913; on crows, ibid, pp. 130, 178). Regarding Varahamihira’s date of birth MuKkExII In. 4-19 by ALL;
pp- 215—8,
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS, 23
cordiugly, must have been known at that time; but was it much earlier? [ am under the impression that A, is hardly earher than the sixth or seventh century, perhaps contemporaneous with the Cükuna of Vasantaraja, which, according to Huzrzscu (p. 27), is posterior to Varahamihira; the striking lack of thought and imagi- nation, and the somewhat flat treatment of the subject, plainly stamp A. as a late production. The absence of any mythological detail is a decided drawback; the religious function of the crow is not even set forth, and we remain entirely in the dark as to the religious concept of the bird in the India of that period. SCHI£FNER designated the little work a Buddhist retouch (Überarbeitung) of a Brahmanic text. It seems to me to be neither the one nor the other. It cannot be yoked to any definite religious system; it takes root in the domain of folk-lore, and closely affiliates with those mani- fold branches of divination which, independent of any particular form of religion, are widely diffused from the shores of the Medi- terranean to almost the whole of continental Asia and the Malayan
world. ') The tone and tenor of this text are not Buddhistic, nor
1) ©. S. Rarrces (The History of Java, Vol. IE, p. 70, London, 1830) tells, in regard to the ancient Javanese, that when the crop was gathered and the accustomed devotions performed, the chief appointed the mode and time of the departure of the horde from one place to another. On these occasions, the horde, after offering their sacrifices and feasting in an open plain, left the remains of their repast to attract the bird #/unggéga (supposed to have been a crow or raven); and the young men shook the évklung (a rude instrument of music still in use), and set up a shout in imitation of its ery. If the bird did not eat of the meal offered to it, or if it afterwards remained hovering in the air, perched quietly on a tree, or in its flight took a course opposite to that which the horde wishea to pursue, their departure was deferred, and their prayers and sacrifices renewed. But when the bird, having eaten of its meal, flew in the direction of their intended jour- ney, the ceremony was coneluded by slaying and burning a lamb, a kid, or the young of some other animal, as an offering of gratitude to the deity. RarrLes adds that the Dayak of Borneo still hold particular kinds of birds in high veneration, and draw omens from their flight and the sounds which they utter. Before entering on a journey or engaging in war, head-hanting, or any matter of importance, they procure omens from a species of
white-headed kite, and invite its approach by sereaming songs, and scattering rice before it.
24 BERTHOLD LAURER.
is there a particle of Buddhist color admixed with it. Nor is there in it much that could be styled specifically Indian, with the excep- tion, of course, of the outward garb in which it is clothed; but most of the oracles could as well have been conceived in Greece or Rome. !)
We may justly assume that Æ, was not the only work of its
class, and that other Sanskrit books -of an allied character may
L£ these birds take their flight in the direction they wish to go, it is regarded as a favor- able omen; but if they take another direction, they consider it as unfavorable, and delay the business until the omens are more suitable to their wishes. See now Hose and Me DouGauz, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. 1, pp. 168—170,.Vol. II, p. 74 (London, 1912). Omens are taken either from the flight or the cries of certain birds, such as the night-owl, the erow, ete. (W. W. SKEAT, Malay Magic, p. 555, London, 1900). Among the tribes of the Philippines, bird omens play an extensive rôle. My colleague F. C. CoLr, who has studied to a great extent their religious notions, kindly imparts the following information on the subject: “With the Batak, a pigmy people living in northern Palawan, the small sun bird known as sagwaysagway is considered the messenger of Diwata [evidently Skr. devata] Mendusa, the greatest of the nature spirits. Should this bird sing while they are on the trail, the Batak will return home, for evil is sure to follow if they continue their journey that day. Should the bird enter a dwelling and sing, the place is deserted. When a man desires to make a clearing in the jungle, he first addresses the sun bird, asking it to sing and give him the sign if it is a bad place to plant, but to be silent if it is a good plot for him to cultivate. Similar beliefs are entertained by the Tagbanua tribe which inhabits the greater part of Palawan” Further information will be found in the publication of F. C. Cor, Zke Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao, pp. 65, 108, 153, 173 (Field Museum Anthr. Ser., Nol. XII, 1913).
1) The Greeks distinguished five kinds of divination (o/wvs7T1##) headed by auguration (ro oôpyeosxomixéy); Telegonos was the first to write on this subject (H. DieLs, Beifrüge zur Zuckungsliteratur des Okzidents und Orients X, Abhandl. preuss. Akad., 1908, p. 4). The typical Homerie method of foretelling the future was by the actions and cries of omen-birds. In Homer, the omen-bird is generally an eagle, and is always sent by Zeus, Apollo, or Athene. Its actions are symbolical, and need no complicated augury for their interpretation (HasriNas, Æneyclopaedia of Religion, Nol. IV, p. 787). In Aristophanes” Birds, Euelpides inquires what road is advised by a crow purchased at three obols. Ac- cording to Virgil and Horace, a crow coming from the left-hand side is of ill omen, In Works and Days by Hesiod it is said, “Do not let a house incomplete, otherwise a gar- rulous row will perch on it and caw.” Even Epiktet believed in the correctness of the evil prophecies of a raven (O0. KeLLER, Die antike Tierwelt, Nol. 11, p.97). Compare L. Hopr, Tierorakel und Orakeltiere in alter und neuer Zeit (Stuttgart, 1888); and W. R. HazLiIDAY, Greek Divination, à Study of its Methods and Principles (London, 1913).
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 29
then have existed in Tibet; !) for, with all the coincidences prevailing between Æ. and the document Pelliot, there are, on the other hand, far-reaching deviations extant in the latter which cannot be ex- plained from Æ. First of all, however, the interdependence of the two texts should be insisted upon. The main subject of the two is identical ; it is the method of obtaining omens from crows which is treated in both on the same principle. This principle is based on à combination of two elements, — orientation of the augur and time-reckoning according to the hours of the day; divination is determined by space and time. In regard to the division of space, the coincidence in the two documents is perfect; the nine *) points of the compass forming the framework in both are one and the same. Time calculation is likewise the same in principle, except that X, follows the Indian, the Table the Tibetan method, — à point diseussed farther on. The ideas expressed by the oracles show far-reaching agreements in both, and move within the narrow boun- daries of a restricted area; no great imagination is displayed in them, they are rather commonplace and philistine, even puerile, but this is all that could be expected from this class of prophecy intended for the profanum volqus. Another feature which Æ. and the document of Pelliot have in common is the method of divining
from the nature of the cries of the crow, independent of space and
1) Writings of similar contents are still extant in modern Tibetan literature. BRiAN H. Honcsox (7%e Phoenix, Vol. I, 1870, p. 94), in a notice on the Literature of Tibet, mentions a book “Ditakh, by Chopallah [C'os dpal?] Lama, at Urasikh; to interpret the ominous croaking of erows, and other inauspicious birds.”
2) The number nine plays a great rôle in systems of divination. In southern India, the belief prevails that ill luck will follow should an owl sit on the house-top, or perch on the bough of a tree near the house. One screech forebodes death; two sereeches, success in any approaching undertaking; three, the addition by marriage of a girl to the family; four, a disturbance; five, that the hearer will travel. Six sereeches foretell the coming of guests; seven, mental distress; eight, sudden death; and nine signify favorable results (E. THURSTON, Zthnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 281, Madras, 1906; and Omens
and Superstitions of Southern India, p. 66, London, 1912).
26 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
time, The last six verses (24—29) of the prefatory note correspond in meaning to the conclusion of Æ.: “When à crow sounds the tone Æa-ka,” etc. It is a notable coincidence that in both texts five : notes of the bird are enumerated in words imitative of its sounds, in X, conceived from an Indian point of view, in document Pelliot nationalized in a Tibetan garb.') The character and quality of these tones, as well as the distinction between good and bad omens, necessarily lead to an effort toward reconciling the evil spirit which speaks through the organ of the bird. Offerings may counterbalance the mischievous effects of unlucky omens, — again à point on which the two texts are in harmony. :
The differentiation of the two, in the first place, is due to à technical feature. The text of X. is a literary production and an analytic account. What is offered in the document Pelliot is an ab- stract of this divinatory wisdom worked up into convenient tabular form, manifestly with a view to handy and practical use. Any one who had encountered the necessary experience by observing a crow
in a certain direction at a certain time of the day was enabled to
1) The number five is evidently suggested by the five elements, as shown by the five eries of the piigala, a kind of owl, distingaished according to the five eiements in the Calkuna of Vasantaräja (HurtzscH, Prolegomena, p. T0). The beliefs in the omens of the owl in modern India are well set forth by E. THurstrox (Omens und Superstitions of Southern India, pp. 65—67). The enmity between crow and owl in Indian folk-lore deserves a word of comment in this connection. JäscHkE (Dictionary, p. 374) refers to Suvarza- prabhasasutra as describing the crow as an inveterate enemy of the owl. In the Prajñadanda ascribed to Nagarjuna (ed. CHanpra Das, p. 9, Darjeeling, 1896) occurs the saying: “Those formerly vanquished by an enemy do not wish any longer for friendship. Look how the erows set fire to the cave filled with owls and burn them to death.” In the same book (p. 8), the crows are credited with the killing of snakes. Compare also Sublashita- ratnanidhi 185 (ed. Csom4). The animosity of the crow toward the owl seems to be based on the observation of a natural fact. C. B. Cor (7%e Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin, p. 548) has the following to say: “They seem to entertain an intense dislike to certain animals, especially an owl. Often the peaceful quiet of the woods is suddenly broken by the harsh excited ‘cawing’ of a flock of erows, who have discovered a bird of that species quietly enjoying his diurnal siesta, and the din rareiy ceases until the hated bird has been
driven from his concealment and forced to seek other quarters.”
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 21
read from this Table at a moment’s notice what consequence this event would entail on his person. The subject-matter, therefore, was arranged here somewhat differently; the oflerings placed at the very end of X. make here the very opening, and justly so, because, in accordance with the practical purpose of the Table, it was essential for the layman, or rather the priest acting on his behalf, to ascertain the kind of reconciliatory offering in case of threatening 1ll luck.
The greater fulness of the Table constitutes one of the prin- cipal divergences from Æ. In the latter, only five divisions of day- time are presented, while the Table offers double this number. This is infallible proof for the fact that the divination process revealed by the document Pelliot has been Tibetanized ; it is by no means a translation from Sanskrit, but an adaptation based on some San- skrit work or works of the type of Æ., and freely assimilated to Tibetan thought. The Indian division of the day is abandoned; and the designations of the Tibetan colloquial language, as they are still partially in use, ') have been introduced into the Table, It is self-evident that these ten periods are not equivalents of the three- hour Indian yäma, but correspond to a double hour as found in China. In logical sequence these determinations run from about one o’elock at night to about nine o’clock in the evening. The plain Tibetan names for the points of the compass are all retained, wbile the fancy Indian names appearing in Æ,. are all dropped. An at- tempt at adaptation to Tibetan taste has been made in the oracles, The killing of a yak and heavy snowfalls, for instance, are affairs
peculiar to Tibet. It is manifest also that the prognostics given in
1) See G. SANDBERG, Hand-book of Colloquial Tibetan, p. 162 (Calcutta, 1894), and C. A. Berz, Manual of Colloquial Tibetan, p. 110 (Calcutta, 1905), where other terms also are included; also A. DesGoniNs, Æssai de grammaire thibétaine, pp. 90—91 (Hong- kong, 1899).
28 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
the ‘Table, in a number of cases, are more delinite and specific than those of X,, which are rather monotonous and wearisome by trequent repetition of the same statement. Such repetitions, it is true, oceur also in the Table (II, 2— IX, 3; Il, 4—1V, 7 — VII 4; V, 6—=1IX, 1; VII, 6 = X, 3), and there is certainly no waste of inventive power or exertion of ingenuity in this whole system. Apparently it appealed to the people of Tibet, where kindred ideas may have been in vogue in times prior to the infusion of Indian
culture, ‘) and it is to this popularity that we owe the composition
«
1) For the inhabitants of the Western and Eastern Women Kingdom, the latter a branch of the K‘iang, perhaps akin to the Tibetans, were in possession of a system of bird divination, #40 pu EL P (Sur shu, Ch. 83, and Z'ang shu, Ch. 122; the two passages are translated by Rockizz, The Land of the Lamas, pp. 339, 341, the former also by BusueLL, The Early History of Tibet, p. 97, J.R.A.S., 1880), which was based on the examination of a pheasant’s crop, — a process of divination certainly differing from what is described in our Tibetan texts. Nevertheless we may infer that the shamans of those peoples, especially as the ‘ang shu states that to divine they go in the tenth month into the mountains scattering grain about and calling a flock of birds, paid a great deal of attention to birds. (Whether the inhabitants of the two Women Kingdoms spoke a Tibetan
language seems doubtful. The Z‘axg shu has preserved to us three words of the language
n à . . 4 = « » . + RE; > se of the Eastern one: prx-fsiu =) EU “sovereign Æ. lao-pa-li [E2 Gil F4 “minis- Le . 5) . 1: ter = AH , aud sx-yi LT LEA “shoe FE . None of these is traceable to a Tibetan
word known to us. The vocabulary is so widely different in the present Tibetan dialects that this may have been the case even in ancient times; at any rate, these three examples are not suflicient evidence for pronounecing a verdict. The word sz-y2 (not contained in
GiLES and PaLLaDius) is explained by the Si ming as quoted in K'‘ang-hÿs Dictionary
ÉB rh FT LL th “a word employed among the Æw”\. The Z'ang shu (Ch. 216 P,
p. 6 a) relates that the great sorcerers po ck'é pu EN si ib (exactly corresponding to Tib. ba c'e-po, “great sorcerer”’), taking their place on the right-hand side of the Tibetan king, wore, during their prayer ceremonies, head-dresses in the shape of birds and girdles of tiger-skin (AV JL EL TE D pe ). while beating drums. ‘They certainly were shamans, as indicated by the very Chinese word #% and the style of their costume, and it is diflicult to see what made BusueLz (7%e Early History of Tibet, p. 101, note 81) think that the po ck'é pu would appear to have been a Buddhist. — Among the adherents of the Bon religion, transfiguration of saints into birds, and observation of and divination from birds’ voices, are prominent (see rGyal rabs bon-gyi abyuñ gnas, pp. 12, 13; regard- ing this work compare 7'oung Pao, 1901, p. 24); there the verse occurs, “Omens are derived from birds, trees, the four elements, hills and rocks: from these the voices of the
Bon doctrine have arisen.”
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 29
of this divination table in the colloquial language. This point marks the fundamental importance of the document Pelliot, which thus becomes the earliest document of the Tibetan vernacular that we have at present. And it is no small surprise to notice that the style of this text is thoroughly identical with that of the living language of the present day. Any one familiar with it will testify to the fact that he can perfectly understand this Table through the medium of his knowledge of colloquial Tibetan. The safest cri- terion for the correctness of this diagnosis is furnished by M. Bacor himself, who had doubtless mastered Tibetan conversation during his journeyings in the country, and, [ venture to assume, was con- siderably aided by this knowledge in grasping correctly the mean- ing of the oracles in the Table. But let us not wholly rely on such impressionistie opinions, when the text of ÆX., written in the Tibetan wén li, the style of the early Buddhist translators, offers such a tempting opportunity for comparing analogous sentences of the two texts. In 7. (Table) all oracles are concluded with the pläin verb ston; in X. rlags-so or the periphrastic future tense with ggyur-ro are used, which do not occur in 7. In X. we read mes ats’ig-par ugyur-ro, “a conflagration will break out;” the same is plainly expressed in 7. by the words mye ñan £ig où-bar ston. In X. rañ-gi he-bo où-bar ugyur-ro; the same in T. gen £ig où- bar ston. In K. rluñ c‘en-po abyuñ-bar agyur-ro; the same in T. rluñ ldañ-bar ston, ete. T. has the plain and popular words through- out, as t’ab-mo for «k‘rug-pa, bza bea (‘food and drink”) for bza dañ skom-pa in K., and, as shown, in the names of the quarters and divisions of the day. Note that the termination o denoting the stop, and restricted to the written language (discussed farther on), is absent in document Pelliot; there is always ston, not ston-n0, and
at the end of the preface ston yin.
30 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
As to the time of the authorship of document Pelliot, there cau be no doubt that in the same manner as À. it is a production of the ninth century. This is, first of all, proved by the date of K., which at the time of its introduction and translation was a live source impressing the minds of the people, and hence gave the impetus to further developments of the subject in a manner tangible and palatable to the nation, Only at a time when the impression of these things was deep, and the practice of such beliefs was still fresh and vigorous, was the cast of these notions in the direct and plastic language of the people possible. Secondly, the antiquity of our document is evidenced by palaeographic and phonetic traits (diseussed hereafter) occurring in other writings of equal age; it ranges in that period of language which is styled by the scholars of Tibet “old language” (brda rhin). Thirdly, there is the cireum- stantial evidence, the discovery of the document in the cave of Tun-huang by M. Pelliot (see p. 2).
Let us note-en passant that the Indian system of crow augury has been transmitted also to China. H. Doré in his excellent book “Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine” (pt. 1, Vol. IT, p. 257, Shanghai, 1912), has revealed a Chinese text on bird divination which plainly betrays its connection with Æ. It is based in the same manner on the division of the day into five parts and on the local orientation of the cardinal points, eight of which are given by Doré. The presages are identical in tone with those of K. and document Pelliot; we meet predictions of wind and rain, disputes, threatening of a disaster, reception of a visit, death of a domestic animal, recovery of a lost object, malady, happy events, growth of fortune, gifts, arrival of a friend or a stranger, etc.
without reference to any specific Chinese traits. !)
1) In regard to beliefs in erow and raven in China, the reader may be referred to De Groor, 1%e Religious System of China, Vol. NV, pp. 638—640; J. F. Davis, China,
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 31
The Preface to the Table.
As M. Bacor’s rendering of the preface accompanying the Table is in need of a revision, L take the liberty to offer a new trans- lation of it, !) diseussing in the notes the chief points in which my opinion deviates from that of M. Bacor. A Lama, bsTan-pa du- Idan by name, has been consulted by this gentleman, and has jotted down for him a number of notes, explaining certain phrases in the colloquial language. These notes are reproduced on pp. 447—448 of the essay of M. Bacor, but apparently have not been utilized. Most of the Lama’s comments are correct, a few are wrong, and some, though wrong, are yet interesting. Anything of interest in his explanations is embodied in the notes which follow. It may not be amiss to give here a transliteration of the text, in order to enable the reader to compare my translation with it immediately. In M. Bacors edition, the text (in Tibetan characters) appears as prose; but it is very essential to recognize its metrical composition. The metre is rigorously adhered to in the twenty-nine verses, and is + ü o QC 20, a dactyl followed by two trochees (the signs
- and © denote merely accentuated and unaccentuated, not long
Vol. II, p. 98 (London, 1857); J. DoourrtE, Social Life of the Chinese, p. 571 (Lon- don, 1868). The subject is still in need of special investigation. Crows and ravens are cer- tainly very far from being exelusively birds of ill omen or productive of evil, as DE Gnoor is inelined to think; on the contrary, the raven was even the emblem of filial piety, and the appearance of one of red color was a lucky augury, foreboding the success of the Chou dynasty (CHAVANNES, Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts‘ien, Vol. I, p. 226). Other augur birds, as the mainah (Lecce, The Chinese Classics, Vol. V, pt. II, p. 709; WATTERS, Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 444; and Forke, Lun-héng, pt. TI, p. 3) and the magpie, who knows the future (Forke, Z. c., pt. I, p.358; pt. IT, p.126), must be equally taken into consideration.
1) In a bibliographical notice of M. Bacor's study (Revue de l'histoire des religions, 1913, p. 122) it is remarked, “Un curieux préambule mériterait d’être tiré au clair; mais
il ne semble plus compris aujourd’hui.”
32 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
aud short syllables). ') A. H. Franoke?) observes that in Ladakhi poetry the daetyl is rather frequent, arising from a dissyllabice eom- pound with a suflix. This certainly holds good of all Tibetan dia- lects and also of the written language. In this composition, all the dactyls are formed by the particle ni coupled with a trochaic ele- | ment, It is ceurious that all verses are constructed in the same manner, having this ni in the third syllable (compare note to
V. 19). At the same time, there is obviously a cesura after ni. *)
Text of the Preface.
(The accents denote the metre.) 1 p'Ü-rog ni myi-i man 2 drüñ-sron ni lhd-i bkü 3 bydn abrog ni abrôñ Sa-i rkyén 4 yuül-gi ni dbûs mt'il dû 5 lhà btsun ni bdi(+- a) *) skad skyél 6 p'ydgs brayad ni ltén dan dqw 7 ,äh ton ni t'übs gsum gsüñs
8 gtér-ma ni byd-la gtôr
1) On Tibetan metries compare H. Becku, Beifräge zur tibelischen Grammatik, Lexikographie und Metrik (Anhang zu den Abhandl. der preussischen Akademie, 1908, pp. 53—63). The author justly emphasizes that in the study of Tibetan works the metre is to be investigated in the first line, and that it should be kept in mind in all text-critical and grammatical questions; but he overlooks the fact that this principle had been fully brought into effect by the present writer in Æix Sühngedicht der Bonpo (Denkschriften Wiener Akademie, 1900), where textual critieism is fundamentally based on inetrical con- siderations and statistical tables of the various metres.
2) Sketch of Ladakhi Grammar, p. 7 (Calcutta, 1901).
3) My reading of the text is based only on the edition of M. Bacor, the general accuracy of which there is no reason to doubt. Not having had the privilege of checking it with the original, I do not hold myself responsible for eventual errors which may have erept in there. In V. 20, gsat, printed in M. Bacor’s text, is apparently a misprint for gsan; lhir (NV. 24), for Lei (as in V. 6).
4) This graphie peculiarity is explained below, under the heading “Palacographic Traits.”
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 39
9 #s"6-ts o ni yOñs-su gyis
10 Zhd-i mi p'ydg-du abul
11 grägs dgu-r ni ltés myi bltä (+ a) 1) 12 bzdñ nan ni ltis-su gsui
13 dräñ-sron ni lhä adsin là
14 Zh@ ston ni gnén-bai byd (+ a) ) 15 mr sman ni ghén-gis gsüns
16 dréñ Zi ni brtin-por stén
17 p‘d-rog ni dgüñ-gi by
18 adäb drug ni gS6g drug pa (+ a) 19 Zh& yul ni mtô-du p'yin
20 dmyig rno ni shän gsan bäs
21 lhd-i ni mén-ñag stôn
22 myt rtog ni gcig-ma mets
23 yid c'es ni séms rton cig
24 p‘ydys brayad ni ltéñ dan. dgi
25 Lhôn lhon ni bzdñ-por stôn
26 tag tag ni abriñ-du stôn
27 kräg krag ni riñs-par stôn
28 krôg krog ni grôg yoñs smri
29 4 ju ni bar ston yin.
Translation.
1 The Raven is the protector of men,
2 And the offciating priest (carries out) the order of the gods.
4 (Sending him, the Raven) into the middle of the country,
3 Where he has occasion for feeding on yak-flesh in the out- lying pasture-lands,
5 The Venerable of the Gods conveys (his will) by means of the
sound-language (of the Raven).
1) This graphic peculiarity is explained below under the heading “Palaeographie Traits.” 3
12
BERTHOLD LAUFER.
) When in the eight quarters, making nine with the addition of
the zenith,
He (the Raven) sounds his notes, the three means (to be observed) are explained as follows:
The offering must be presented to the bird (the Raven),
And it should be a complete feeding in each instance.
(In this manner, the offering) is given into the hands of the god (or gods).
As to the omens, they are not drawn from the mere cries (of the Raven), |
But in the announcement of the omens a distinction is made between good and evil cries.
The officiating priest is in possession of the knowledge of the gods, He teaches (the orders of) the gods, and it is the bird who is his helpmate (in this task).
The remedies for warding off the demons are announced by the helpmate.
Truthful in his speech, he proves trustworthy,
For the Raven is a bird of Heaven;
He is possessed of six wings and six pinions.
Thanks to his visits above in the land of the gods,
His sense of sight is keen, and his hearing is sharp.
(Hence he is able) to teach (mankind) the directions of the gods. There is for man but one method of examining (the sounds of the Raven),
And may you hence have faith and confidence (in his auguries) ! In the eight quarters, making nine with the addition of the zenith, (the following sounds of the Raven occur:)
The sound {Lo lhon foretells a lucky omen.
The sound ag tag forebodes an omen of middle quality.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 39
27 The sound ƣrag krag foretells the coming of a person from a distance. 28 The sound krog krog anunounces the arrival of a friend.
29 The sound ju ju is an augury of any future event (as indi-
cated in the Table).
NOTES.
V. 1. The raven p'o-rog is still called c‘os skyor (Skr. dharmapala), “pro- tector of religion” (G. SANDBERG, Hand-book of Colloquial Tibetan, p. 170). The word mgon is employed in the sense of Sanskrit natha. Our text gives the word only in the form p‘o-rog, while in Æ. the form bya-rog is used exclusively. The latter, as shown by Mahavyutpatti, seems to be the recog- nized form of the written language, while p'o-rog seems to be more popular; the latter occurs, for example, in the Tibetan prose version of the Avadana- kalpalata, which has been written for children. The distinction of bya-rog as “crow,” and p'o-rog as “raven,” is based on the Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary Amarakosha (T. ZACHARIAE, Die indischen Würterbücher, p. 18), where Tib. bya-rog is the equivalent of Skr. vayasa (“crow”), and Tib. p‘o-rog that of Skr. drona (“raven”), the two words being treated in different stanzas (ed. of Vidyabhusana, Bibl. ind. p. 134, Calcutta, 1911).
The word bya-rog appears twice in the Mahamyutpalti, section on birds (Tanjur, Sutra, Vol. 193, fols. 265b, 266a, Palace edition), — first, as translation of Skr. dhvañksha, “erow” (in Amarakosha rendered by sgra ldan), where the synonyms spyi-brtol-can (the Palace edition writes sbyi-rlol-can\, “the impudent one,” and k‘va, are added; second, as rendering of Skr. dronakaka, “raven,” while the Skr. ka and vayasa are rendered by Tib. w4 (not noted with this meaning in our dictionaries), evidently an imitative sound, in the same manner as Tib. k‘va, kva-ta, and Afa-ta, “raven,” and ko-wag, a word expressive of the voice of the raven. In Se Li {sing wên kien pq FE fi D'é RE (Ch. 30, p. 25) the following distinctions are made: k‘a-la corresponds to wu-ya F *É.. Manchu gaha, Mongol käryä: Tib. bya-rog, to tse-ya Æ *É Manchu holon gaha, Mongol khong käryà; Tib. p'o-rog, to hua po ya
hs, käryä. In the Appendix to this dictionary (Ch. 4, p. 42) we find Tib. bya- rog = kuan jE (according to GILES a species of stork), Manchu sungherti gowara (according to SacHaRov a kind of large horned owl); and Tib. ka-ka = hu ua ying IE anc »] war hese two cases the yinq RE Es Manchu Aurkun qgüwara. In these two cases
Tibetan names seem to be artificial productions made ad hoc in order to
£, HF 4 (‘raven with colored neck”), Manchu ayan gahu, Mongol torok
30 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
translate the Manchu words. The Polyglot List of bBirds in Turki, Manchu and Chinese, published by E. D. Ross (Hem. À. S. B, Vol. IT, No. 9, 1909), though in general a useful work, is incomplete in that the Appendix of the Polyglot Dictionary, containing about two hundred more names of birds, has not been utilized at all. For future work of this kind the following suggestions may be offered in regard to the methods of obtaining identifications of bird- names. In my opinion, it is an incorrect procedure, in most cases, to try to identify any Oriental bird-name with a species of our own ornithological nomenclature, because our scientific research has made out infinitely more species of birds than there are words for the species in any language: all we can hope for, at the best, is to establish the genus, and in many cases we have to be content to ascertain the family. Take, for example, the case of crow or raven, à popular name embracing a large family of birds, Corvidae. In 1877 A. Davip and M. E. OUSTALET (Les oiseaux de la Ghine, pb. 366) stated that nearly two hundred species of it were known on the globe, and twenty-seven from China. At present we certainly know many more in addition. (A. LaUB- MANN, Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Reise von G. Merzbacher, Abhandlun- gen der bayerischen Akademie, 1913, pp. 37—42, enumerates ten genera of the family Corvidae from the region of the Tien Shan.) Who can name those twenty-seven species in Chinese? Nobody. Our species are made from points of view which are entirely foreign to the minds of Oriental peoples. They see different “kinds,” where our ornithologist may establish one species; and they may have one word, where we are forced to admit different species, and even genera; and they may even take the male and female of the same species for two distinct birds. It is further necessary to disillusion our minds regarding the production of the K'ien-lung lexicographers, which must be handled with great caution and pitiless criticism: it teems with artificial makeshifts in Man- chu, Tibetan, and Mongol, which are not genuine constituents of these languages, and is vitiated by numerous blunders in spelling, which are to be corrected. The compilers were philologists, not zoologists; and their combinations of bird- names in the various languages offer no guaranty that these refer to really identical generu, not to speak of species, the greater probability in each case being that the species are entirely different (thus, for instance, as may be determined, in the majority of Tibetan and Chinese bird-names). — Tib. bya rog means “the black bird,” and p'o-rog “the male black one.” There is a dialectic form ,0-rog, ,o-lug (WALSH, Vocabulary of the Tromowa Dialect of Tibetan, pp. 11, 28, Calcutta, 1903), with the prefixed ,& (here ,0 in conse- quence of vowel-attraction) forming nouns (SCHIEFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, p. 362; and MAINWARING, Grammar of the Rông | Lepcha| Language, p. 111). In meaning and grammatical formation this ,0-rog corresponds to Lolo «-nye, “the black one,” à. e. the raven (T“oung Pao, 1912, p. 13). The
common raven, somewhat larger than the European species, is nbiquitous in
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 31
Tibet, Some remarks on it are made by P. LaNDON (Lhusa, Vol. F1, p. 404, London, 1905). According to H. v. SOnLAGINTWEIT (J. R. A. S., 1863, p.15), it oceurs even in the ice-regions of the greatest elevation of the [Himalaya : “some of the species of corvus libelanus accompanied us during our ascent of the {bi Gamin peak up to our highest encampment at 19,326 feet.” Of espe- cial interest with reference to the present case is the following observation of Tuomas MANNING, who travelled in Tibet 1811—12 (C. R. MarkHam, Narru- lives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, etc., p. 249, London, 1876): “Many of the ravens about this lake, and many in Lhasa, emit a peculiar and extraordinary sound, which I call metallic. It is as if their throat was a metal tube, with a stiff metal elastic musical spring fixed in it, which, pulled aside and let go, should give a vibrating note, sounding like the pronunciation of the word poing, or seroong, with the lips protruded, and with a certain musical accent. The other is similar to that of the ravens in Europe, yet still has something of the metallic sound in it. Whether there be two species of ravens here, or whether it be that the male and female of the same species have
each their peculiar note, I cannot say.”
V. 2. Who is the drañ-sro* (corresponding to Skr. riskij? The Lama bsTan-pa du-ldan, whose explanatory notes in Tibetan have been published by M. Bacor, on p. 447 comments that the raven p‘o-rog is “the raven staying near the head of Vishnu,” and that Vishnu should be understood by the term rishi. Itis certainly the mythical bird Garuda, being the vehicle (vahana) of Vishnu, which crossed the Lama’s mind, and it will be demonstrated farther on (V. 18) that an assimilation between Raven and Garuda bas indeed taken place in Tibet (in the (wkuna of Vasantaräja the Garuda commands the kaka as an omen-bird: HuLtzscn, Prolegomena, p. M). The beginnings of such an adjustment are visible even in our text when, in V. 17—18, it is said that the Raven is a bird of Heaven, and possessed of six wings and six pinions; he is, in a word, looked upon as a solar bird. Nevertheless, he is not identical with the Garuda, and 1 do not believe tbat the Lama’s explanation is correct. Above all, drañ-sro* cannot be identified with Vishnu or any other god: for he js the person who executes the orders of the gods (V. 2; in this sense, at least, it seems to me, the passage should be understood), who has the knowledge of the gods (/ha adsin, V. 13), and who teaches the gods (/4a ston, V.14). The Raven is his helpmate (gñen-pa, V. 14), and he announces the will and the wishes of the gods transmitted by the divine bird. The drawx-sro*, accordingly, is a person with a priestly function; and [ should almost feel tempted to pro- pose for the word, in this case, the translation “seer” or “augur.” It is the cäkunika of the Sanskrit texts who is designated also guru and acarya (Huzrzscn, Prolegomena, p. 6). Moreover, we know that the word drañ-sroi
has obtained among the Lamas a meaning like “officiating priest, sacrificant,”
J
3 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
JAsoukE (Dictionary, p. 261) states sub voce, “AT present the Lama that ofers sbyin-sreg [a burnt-offering, Skr. homa] is stated to bear that name, and while he is attending to the sacred rites, he is not allowed to eat anything but dkar-zas [white food, like milk, curd, cheese, or butter|’ Inevitably we must assume that our Table was not directly used by the laity, but that it was placed in charge of a priest who had due control over supernatural events. The layman who had encountered the vision of a raven applied to him for the proper oracle to be ascertained from the chart, and particularly, if necessary, for the making of the required offering, which was a ritual act along established rules. The Lama who fulfilled this function was called the dra-sror. The origin of this word is explained. in the work sGra sbyor (quoted above, p. 19; Tanjur, Sütra, Vol. 124, fol. Gb) by the sentence kaya-vuk- manobhir-riju-çete it rishi, rendered into Tibetan thus: lus dar ñ#ag dañ yid dra-por gnas-biz sro-bas-na drax-srox c‘en-po #es btags, “he who in regard to his body (actions), speech, and heart, remains straight and keeps them straicht, is designated a great Rishi.” Hence it follows that in the minds of the Tibetans the compound drañ-sron is formed of the words drañ-po (Skr. riju, “straight,” in the literal and moral sense) and the verb sron-ba, “to straighten,” and that the Tibetan interpretation is “one who is straight, up- right in his conduct.” Another definition given in the same work is “one who is possessed of knowledge” ($es-pa-dañ-ldan-pa). The notion of “hermit” given in our Tibetan dictionaries is apparently not implied in the Tibetan defini- tions. [t will thus be noticed that the literal interpretation of the word, “one
2?
who straightens out affairs in a straight manner,” could result in the develop- ment of the notion “one who straightens out affairs relating to sacrifice,
augury or divination.” oO
V. 3. Tib. byañn abrog is identified by M. Bacor with the well-known term byañ Fañ, “the northern table-lands.” The two expressions are evidently synonymous (compare VASILYEV, Geography of Tibet, in Russian, p.11, St. Pet., 1895). Byañ abrog appears as one of the thirteen districts assigned by the Mongol emperors to the hierarchs of Sa-skya (dPag bsam ljon bzañ, p.159, 1.1); but [ do not believe that a definite locality in the geographical sense is here intended, any more than I believe that the word dbus (“centre”) in the following verse need refer particularly to the Tibetan province of that name. The term byañ l'añ is also a general designation for uncultivated pastoral high lands (the proper meaning of tan is not “plain, steppe,” as given in our dictiona- ries, but ‘“plateau”), in opposition to ro tl‘añ, the low lands of the valleys. The former is the habitat of pastoral tribes; the latter, the seat of the agri- culturists. ‘The first element in byañ l'an, in all likelihood, was not originally
?
the word byañ, “north,” but the word jan, “green” (byañ and jan are
both sounded jañ: ljañ lan, “green plateau,” is the name of a province in
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 39
mNa-ris aK'‘or-gsum, according to H. v. SCHLAGINTWEIT, Glossary of Tibetan Geographical Terms, J. R. A.$S., Vol. XX, 1863, p. 13); for in Ladakh, for instance, the people apply the word byañ tan to the district of Ru-tog, situ- ated on their eastern border, in the sense that it is more bleak and unre- claimed than their own sheltered and less elevated valleys (compare H, STRACHEY, J. A. S. B., Vol. XVII, 1848, p. 331). The same evidently holds good for our text, for, in understanding byañ «abrog literally, it would be unintelligible why the Raven despatched into the centre of the country should be supposed to
?
gain his livelihood in the pastures of the north. The “centre,” it should be understood, may be any settlement in Tibet with a sedentary farming popu- lation; and the term byañ abrog may refer to any nomadic district in its prox- imity where the Raven stands a better chance for his food than among the husbandmen. ‘The word “centre” is probably chosen in view of the nine quar- ters which come into question for the Raven’s flight; he has to start from a centre to make for the various directions. In regard to man, the cultivated land is conceived of as being centrally located, and surrounded on its outskirts by the wild mountains with their grassy plateaus suitable for cattle-raising. The tribal and social division of the Tibetan people into these two distinct groups of agriculturists and cattle-breeders meets its outward expression in the juxtaposition of the word-groups denoting ,,valley” and mountain” (,.pasture,” »plateau”), the one pertaining to cultivation, the other to everything uncultivated or of wild nature. The “valley pig” (luñ p'ag) is the domestic pig, a seden- tary animal found only among the farmers, but never among the nomads: while the “mountain pig” (ri pag) is the wild boar: hence ri and abbre- viated into the prefix r-, with predilection, enters into the names of wild animals (W. Z K. M., Vol. XIII, 1900, p. 206).
In regard to the yak-flesh we may remember the passage of the Tang shu (BusHezz, The Early History of Tibet, p. 7): “When they entertain envoys from foreign countries, they always bring out a vyak for the guest himself to shoot, the flesh of which is afterwards served at the banquet.” In the legends of the Buryat, the crow is invited by people to take part in a meal furnished by a slaughtered ox (CHANGALOV and ZATOPL'AYEV, BYpATCKIA eKa3kn u noBbpbA, pp. 17, 21, Irkutsk, 1889).
V. 5. Tib, {ha blsun, correctly translated by M. Bacor “le dieu vénérable,” would correspond to Skr. devabhadanta. It is notable that the coming of /ha bisun is the very first prediction appearing in the Table when the raven's voice sounds in the east during the first watch. His name appears again in Table VII, 6, where it is said that “the helper, or the assistance of the Ven- erable One (btsun-pai-gñen), will come.” (I do not believe with M. Bacor that these words mean ,,un parent de distinction.” In fact, M. Bacor sides with me
in this opinion, for in Table V, 3, he very aptly and correctiy renders the term
40 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
gen lha by ,dieu protecteur”). The helper is referred to in V.15 (gñen), and the expression gñen-bai bya (“the helping bird”) in V. 14 leaves no doubt that the raven is meant. It seems futile for the present to speculate on the nature of this deity called {ha btsun. Al we may infer from this text is, that he seems to be a supreme god presiding over the tha, that he resides in the region of the gods ({ha yul, V. 19), and that.he reveals his will to mankind through the Raven, his messenger, whom he sends down on earth. On the whole, T am inclined to regard this deity as à native Tibetan concept, not as an adaptation to an Indian notion: possibly. he is identical with the Spirit of Heaven DE Mi invoked by the Tibetan shamans, according to Kiu Tang shu (Ch. 196 E, p. 1b). — As regards the name /ka bisur, an analogous expres- sion is met in Taoism in the name of the deity T'ien tsun Re 5) (or Yüan shi T'ien tsun, the first of the three divinities forming the trinity of the Three Pure Ones — # ); Tib. lha and Chin. tien correspond in meaning, both serving for the translation of Skr. deva; and Tib. bisun and Chin. Isun, as already recognized by ABEL-RÉMUSAT and SCHIEFNER (Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, p. 340), are identical words.
M. BACoT translates, “Le dieu vénérable accompagne la parole qu’il prend avec lui,” by taking bda for the verb bda-ba. Even granted that the latter could have this meaning, the construction of the sentence remains ungrani- matical, and the rendering gives no sense. In these ancient texts we must be mindful of the fact that spellings at variance with modern usage occur, or, in other words, that different phonetic conditions are fixed in writing. There is no difficulty in seeing that bda here stands for the common mode of writing brda: and brda skad is a very frequent compound, which, as correctly inter- preted by JAscHkE, means (1) language expressed by signs or gestures, (2) lan- suage expressed by words. Here it refers to the prophetic sounds or language of the Raven by means of which the Venerable One of the Gods conveys (skyel) his will and wishes.
V. 6. In the commentary of the Lama (p. 447), where the verses of the text, which are explained, are repeated in larger type, this verse terminates with the word beu, so that the Lama brings out ten quarters, adding the nadir (fthe region of the Xu, the land below”) as the tenth; but this is
evidently a slip which occurred in the copy taken by or for the Lama.
V. 7. The expression ,a* ton presents some difficulties, as it is evidently an archaic and antiquated term not recorded in our dictionaries. The Lama maintains silence about it. M, Bacor has tentatively proposed to take it in the sense of ,a* dañ-po, and renders the sentence, “Le meilleur est d’énoncer les
»
trois moyens. But this is an entirely un-Tibetan way of speaking, and M. Pacor's conception of the sentence contradicts the iron rules of Tibetan
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 41
word-position. Such à translation would only be permissible if the reading were l‘abs gsum gsuñs jan dañ-po (red). Aside from this, the identification of ah ton with a dañ is hardly acceptable: it is not supported by any native dictionary, nor can it be upheld by any phonetic law. Further, the Sanskrit- Tibetan hybrid, in the written language usually ,a#-gi dañ-po (more rarely a dañ), has only the meaning of the ordinal numeral “the first” (in the enumeration of a series), while in the sense of “first quality, best,” it is a very vulgar expression of the colloquial language, about the equivalent of Pidgin- English “number one.” A few considerations may place us on the right track as to the meaning of the phrase. The preceding verse, “in the eight quarters etc.” demands a verb; in looking up the parallel passages of X., we notice that each of the determinations of the quarters is followed there by the words skad sgrogs na, “if (the crow) sounds its voice,” and this is what is appar- ently required and intended in this passage. In this case we recognize in fon the verb gton (compare sod for gsod in Table IT, 8: VI, 2, and the phonetic remarks below). which, as shown by Jäiscrre (Dictionary, pp 19a, 209a), is indeed used in this sense in Ladäkhi: skad tañ-ce, “to utter sounds:? Au-co, b-ra tuñ-ce, “to raise, to set up a cry.” But the phrase in question occurs also in writing, like many others given by JÂscHkE as dialectic expressions; a number of those could be compiled from the prose version of Avadanakalpalata, The word ,añ (probably derived from the Sanskrit particle añga, pw. ‘“anru-
,
fend oder auffordernd”) means “cry, clamor.” SARAT CHaNDRA Das (Dictionary, p. 1347) cites an example of this kind, without translating it, in the sentence mi-yis bos kyañ ,añ mi kug, which evidently means, “Although the man called, his cries did not draw any attention.” GOLSTUNSKI, in his Monro4cko- pyeckri caogapr (Vol. [, p. 7b), assigns to Mongol a, which has several other meanings, also the significance “shouting of fighters, cries of came!s and don- keys.” It is the same thing when JäscukE quotes ,4% as an interjection with the meaning “well, then! now, then! eh bien!” It isan exclamation Another use of ,a not noticed heretofore’ seems to be traceable to the same origin. A appears as a particle joined to the imperative with or without cig, as well as to the prohibitive. In Bya c‘os (see note to V. 28), p. 39, we meet five times with <og ,an. In sLob güer byed ts ul-gyi bslab bya le Ls'an qgnis, a small work published by the monastery Kumbum (sKu abum), we have sgrims Sig an (fol. 6), gnas-par gyis Sig ,añ (fol. 7), ma byed ,añ (fol. 10), ma rgyugs ,añ (fol. 14), and many other examples. The meaning seems to correspond to French donc (German doch) in connection with an imperative, and this appli- cation seems to be derived from the original significance “cry, exclamation.” In the case above, ,añ is used as a noun synonymous with the word skad of K.. and refers to the cries of the raven which he emits (gton) in his flight toward the various quarters. The phrase ,a* ton linked to the preceding verse is the
psychological subject governed by labs gsum gsuñs: the augury derived from
42 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
the sounds of the raven voiced in the eight quarters is explained as consisting of three means or modes of procedure. The explanation is inspired by the Venerable of the Gods. The three means are the offering (glor-ma, Skr. buli), the discrimination between good and evil cries (and accordingly auguries), and the oracle proclaimed by the priest, with his superior knowledge of the super- natural.
V. 8. Tib. glor-ma gtor-ba (as ltas-lla-ba in V. 11) ïs a hendiadys favorite in Tibetan and other Indo-Chinese languages. A. CoNRaDY (Eine indo- chinesische Gausativ-Denominativ-Bildung, p. 81, Leipzig, 1896) has given a number of good examples of this kind ; others occur in Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo, L. e., p. 27. Compare the synonyms of the crow given in Amarakosha (L. e.), — balipushta and balibhuj, — and the Tibetan synonyms g{or-mas rgyas and glor za in the “Dictionary of the French Missionaries,” p. 86. Several others enu- merated in the latter may be explained from Amarakosha: as aci-med — arishta; gëan gso = parabhrid; lan cig skyes — sakrilpraja, which accordingly does not mean “né une seule fois,” but “one bearing young but once à year;” bdag sgrog (in the translation of Amarakosha, sgrogs-pai bdag-nid-can) —
atmaghoshe.
V. 9. M. Bacor translates, “Plus il y en a d’espèces, mieux cela vaut.” He seems to have thought of {so (“number, host”), but, as already remarked by Jäiscuxe, this- word hardly ever stands alone; in fact, it is only used as à suffix denoting a plural. As shown by the context, {so is written for qtso (“to feed, nourish”), and the duplication indicates the repeated action. Also the Lama, as shown by the wording of his comment, takes {so as à verb by saying that all birds {s'o-nas eat the offering ; but, as he merely repeats {50 in the same spelling as in the text, it is not clear in which sense he under- stands the verb. Gyis certainly is the imperative of bgyid-pa. N. 8 and 10 have been correctly rendered by M. Bacor.
V. 40. The Lama understands this verse, “The raven is à bird soaring in the sky” (nam ldin-gi bya), and possibly thinks again of the Garuda. It seems to me that the Raven as a bird of Heaven is understood to be the messenger sent down from heaven, as previously set forth, and it implies also that he is of celestial origin, as specified in V. 19.
?
V. 41. Tib. grags is not used here in the sense of ,glory,” but with the literal meaning “ery, outery, clamor;? it is derived from the verb s-grog-pa, (“to call, to shout”), which is identical with Chinese kiao HE (“to call out: the cries of certain animals and birds”), in the same manner as Tib. s-ÿr0g-
pa (“to bind”) = Chin. io HA (“to bind”), and Tib, a-grogs-pa (from grogs,
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 43
“friend, to be associated”) = Chin. kiao 78 “to be united, friendship, inter- course” (compare A. CoxRany, Eine indochinesische Causativ-Denominaltir- Bildung, pp. VU, VI, Leipzig, 1896). Hua à yi yù (Hirth’s copy in the Royal Library of Berlin, Ch. 11, p. 67b) correctly renders Tibetan grag by miny PE. — Tib. dqur is not the word “crooked,” as M. BaCor thinks, but is to be analyzed into dqu-r, terminative of du (“nine, many”, and particle expressing the plural (FOUCAUX, Grammaire de la langue tibétaine, p. 27; A. SCHIERNER, Üeber Pluralbezeichnungen im Tibetischen, $ 23, in Mém. Acad. de St-Pétersbourg, Vol. XXV, N°0. 1, 1877). The question may be raised whether grags-dyu denotes the various kinds of cries of the raven, of an in- definite number, or whether exactly nine sounds are understood. It would be rather tempting to assume the latter possibility, and to set the nine sounds in relation with the nine quarters; but at the end of the Preface only five sounds of the raven are enumerated in accordance with Æ. Again, the fact that this section of the Preface is preceded by the verse, “In the eight quar- ters, making nine with the zenith,” leads one to think that, besides the series of five, a series of nine sounds, corresponding to the nine quarters, may have simultaneously existed, and that the matter is confused in this text. A posi- tive decision on this point, however, cannot be reached, and [ prefer to regard dqu as a mere designation of the plural.
V. 12. As plainly stated in the first horizontal column of the Table, an oflering is necessary whenever the voice of the Raven sounds ill luck. M. Bacor translates this verse, “Le bon et le mauvais, après qu’on l’a vu, qui en parle?” He accordingly accepts su as interrogative pronoun, while it is evidently the particle of the terminative belonging to /tas. Such slips are certainly excus- able, and have been committed by other translators. Thus, for example, E. SCALAGINTWEIT (Die Lebensbeschreibung von Padma Sambhava W, Abhandl. der bayerischen Akad., 1903, p. 547) took the final s-0, denoting the stop, as the noun so (“tooth”), and translated the sentence pandita-rnams kun-gyis ma l'ub grags-so mts‘ams abyed-pas, “AÏ pandits praised him as the power- ful one of the Abhidharma; if a tooth is hollow, its removal is desirable.” There is nothing to this effect in the Tibetan words, which simply mean, “He is known under the name ‘the One Unexcelled by all Pandits:; he began solitary meditation,” etc. In the same authors Die tibetischen Handschriften der k, Hof- und Slaatsbibliothek zu München (Sitzungsberichte der bayeri- schen Akad., 1875, p. 73) occurs, in the title of a book, “the tooth of the ful- filment of the great Lama Rig-adsin:” the Tibetan bskañ-s0, of course, is a
mere graphic variant of bskañs-so, and means “the fulfilment of vows.”
V. 14. M.'Bacor takes gen-bai bya in the sense of “devoir des parents.”
It may be granted that these words could have such a meaning, though as a
+4 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
rule bya-ba retains its suffix, when it has the rôle of the word assigned to it by M. Bacor. But the point is that such a viewing of the matter has no sense in this context. 1 should think that bya is simply “bird,” as it occurred in V. 8; while the suffix bai or pai sufficiently indicates the verbal character of gen, “to help, assist” (in its sense somewhat synonymous with mgyon, V. 1). The whole term is to be construed like a Sanskrit Babuvrihi: the Drañ-sron is one having the bird as a helper. The fact that the helper refers to the Raven is manifest also from the foilowing verse.
V. 15. M. BacoT translates, “remède de douleur, parole des parents.” The meaning of gen (V. 5) has been explained. The construction of the sentence IS simple: in regard to the remedies, they are announced or explained by the helper (the Raven). The only difficulty is presented by the word mu preceding San. Also M. Bacor has clearly seen that the word mu (“border, limit,” etc.) cannot here come into question. In my opinion, we have to apply the rule laid down under V. 5, that à prefix has been dropped in mu; and I should like to propose to read dmu or rmu “evil demon,” which befits the case very well; dmu is a demon causing blindness, dropsy, and other infirmities. In the Table (X, 1) the coming of demons is indicated as an oracle, and the augur is certainly obliged also to announce the means of escaping the evil effects or consequences of an oracle. In a wider sense, mu sman, accordingly, signifies the remedies releasing the person concerned from any threatening calamity in consequence of a prediction.
V. 16. This verse is explained by our Lama commentator (p. 442), “He who does not tell lies is reckoned as good by all men,” which fairly repro- duces the general sense, while the translation of M. Bacor is untenable. Ile takes drañ £in in the sense of “en conduisant,” and accordingly derives it from the verb «dren-pa; but “en conduisant” could be expressed only by wdren #in. The descriptive particle ci is hardly ever joined to a future tense (no example from literature is known to me), usually to a present tense, in the majority of cases to an adjective, rarely to a past tense (compare the examples in the grammars 0f FOUCAUX, p. 19, and JAscHKkE, p. 56). The chances, as a rule, are that the word preceding ci is an adjective with verbal force. As such it is used here, drañ standing for drañ-po (any suffixes may be dropped in verse), “honest, upright, truthful,” and this attribute refers to the truthful sound- language of the raven. The phrase brlan-por ston cannot mean ,,on montre sa fermeté;” s{on-pa with the terminative means “to show one’s self as, to prove as, to furnish proof of being,” etc. The word brlan-po or brtan-pa (also rton-pa, as in V. 93, brlon-pa), with or without yid, means “to place confidence in a person” (JÂscuke, Dictionary, p. 215a); brlan-po. more spe-
cifically, refers to a permaneney of condition in which a person continues to
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 45
enjoy the confidence once obtained, while brlan-pa signifies a temporary ac- tion. It occurs in Saddharmapundarika, where Foucaux (Parabole de l'enfant égaré, p. 54, Paris, 1854) renders it by “homme digne de confiance,” and in Bharatae responsa (ed. SCHIEFNER, p. 46: fidem habere). The sense of this verse, accordingly, is, “(Le corbeau), en disant la vérité (ou, parce que ses
augures sont véritables), se prouve digne de confiance.”
V. 18. The two Tibetan expressions would theoretically correspond to Skr. shatpaksha, shatparna, but such Sanskrit terms do not exist. The whole idea apparently is not Indian. (M. Bacor's rendering, “six plumes devinrent six ailes,” is not justified by the text, and yields no significance.) Here we must briefly touch on the religious ideas revealed by our text. Our knowledge of Tibetan folk-lore, and particularly of that of the past, is certainly still so scanty that for some time to come all speculations on such-like subjects must remain of a more or less tentative character. But with all their brevity, the twenty-nine verses of this Preface contain à good deal, and also, from the viewpoint of religious history, present a document of some importance. Above all, we notice that the ideas expressed by it are absent from the text of Xükajarili, and aptly fill the gap which we were obliged to point out there. It is the rôle of the Raven as a bird of divination which is here depicted. At first sight it is tempting to regard this description as breathing a certain Tibetan spirit. We know that the Raven plays à part in the sacred pantomimic dances of the Tibetan Lamas performed at the time of the New Year: he makes attempts at stealing the strewing oblation (g{or-ma), and is driven away with long sticks by two Atsara, skeleton ghouls, a skeleton being designed on their white cotton garbs, and their masks having the appearance of skulls. The mask of the Raven, though it is styled bya-rog by the Tibetans, has not at all the form of this bird, but that of the Indian Garuda, with big curved and hooked beak (while the raven’s beak is straight). A specimen in the Field Museum, where are complete sets of Tibetan masks, shows the Raven's mask of dark- green color, with red bill, a blue eye of wisdom on his forehead, flamed eye- brows, and gold painted flames protruding from his jaws. The entire make-up is so unlike a raven, that the Chinese workman of Peking who manufactures the masks for the Lama temples of the capital styles it a parrot (ying wu). In the Veda the eagle carries off the soma or amrila for Indra, and in the Käthaka it is Indra himself who in the form of an eagle captures the beverage (A. A. MACDoNELL, Vedie Mythology, p. 152; and H. OLDENBERG, Die Religion des Veda, p. 176). The Mahabhärata (Astilaparvan XXXID) tells how Garuda, in order to take hold of the amrita, defeats the host of the Deva, kills the guardians, and extinguishes the fire surrounding the amrila. This Indian tradi- tion seems to me in some way or other to be responsible for the cast of the
Raven in the Tibetan sacred dances. and for certain elements of a sun-bird
46 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
attached to the Raven in our text. The Indian source which has transmitted
these ideas to Tibet certainly remains to be pointed out. IF the raven was made the substitute of the Garuda in Tibet, this may be due to the world- wide reputation of that bird as a clever pilferer. The ancients regarded him
as an all-round thief, particularly of sacrificial meat. In the sacred groves of Greece many ravens subsisted on the flesh which they seized from the altars and consumed in the trees (0, KELLER, Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. If, p. 93).
The Kachin of Burma look upon the raven as the very first thief who sub- sequently was duly imitated by man (GILHODES, Antluropos, Vol. IV, 1909
p. 134).
On the other hand, the Tibetan mask of the Raven reminds us of the first of the seven degrees of initiation which the mystic successively assumed in the Mithraic cult, — the name of Raven (corax); the others being Occult, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Runner of the Sun, and Father (F. CumonrT, The Mystleries of Mithra, p. 1952). CumonNT regards tliese as animal disguises going back to a prehistoric period when the deities themselves were represented under the forms of animals, and when the worshipper, in taking the name and semblance of his sods, believed that he identified himself with them. To the primitive titles of Raven and Lion others were afterward added for the purpose of attaining the sacred number seven, the seven degrees of initiation answering to the seven planetary spheres which the soul was forced to traverse in order to reach the abode of the blessed. It is in the Tibetan mystery-plays that we find the masks of the Raven and the Lion. In the belief of the Persians, the Raven was sacred to the God of Light and the Sun. On the Mithraic monuments he sits behind Mithras, sacrificing a bull, and, according to O. KELLER (Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. TI, p. 104), the idea of the sacred Ravens assigned to Helios in Thessalia may have originated from Persia. The “six wings and six pinions” assigned in our text to the Raven in his quality as a bird of Heaven cannot be accounted for by any Indian notions, and it may well be doubted whether this feature is due to a creation of Tibetan mythology. It seems to me that also this trait savors of Mithraic elements, somehow inspired by the grotesque monsters of West-Asiatic imagination, par- ticularly the winged griffins (see, for example, PERROT and Cuniprez, History of Art in Persia, Figs. 71, 72, 158, also 187; another Tibeto-Mithraic parallel is pointed out by GRüNWEDEL, Baessler-Archiv, Vol. UT, 1919, p. 145). The Per- sian influence on Tibetan religion is established, though it remains for the future to work up the details of the problem (GRüNwWEDEL, Mythologie des Buddhismus, p. 205, note 38). The historical foundation of the Bon religion of Tibet, as shown by me (T“oung Pao, 1908, p. 13), is Persian. The most significant feature revealed by this Preface, as already pointed out, is the Raven’s function as the messenger of a god, so that his predictions appear as the expression of divine will. The Raven as a heavenly messenger is conscions
of his presages. The same idea is expressed by PLINY (Nat.sHist ,.X, 49,82:
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 47
ed. Mayuorr, Vol. I, p. 229): corvi in auspiciis soli videntur intellectum
habere significationum suarum,
V. 19. M. BacoT renders this verse, “La terre des dieux arrive au ciel.” He has apparently been led into error (the same matter occurs in V. 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 18) by assuming that the particle ni distinguishes the subject of the sentence. This was the erroneous view of [. J. Scamipr, which was refuted by SCHIEFNER (Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, p. 384). Ni is simply an emphatic particle added to any word or group of words in order to single them ont (Jäscuke, Tibetan Grammar, p. 66). It may follow any adverb and any phrase expressing space or time, the genitive, dative, instrumentalis, or locative; and in metrical composition, it may take any place where a syllable is to be filled in (a peculiar case not discussed in our grammars is #@ ni forming the unreal conditional sentence). There are assuredly numerous cases where stress is laid upon the subject by the addition of this particle, then corresponding in meaning to Japanese wa and ga; but this rule must not be turned into the opposite, that wherever ni is employed, the subject is hinted at. Our text is very in- structive as to the application of ni, since in each verse it occurs in the third syllable with intentional regularity, and lends to the style a somewhat oracular tinge. First of all, it is employed because of the metre to produce a dactyl in the first foot of each verse: simultaneously, certain words, as p'o-rog and drañ- sroñ in V. 4 and 2, are singled out with strong emphasis by its presence. In V. 4, 10, 11, 16, A1, 93, it is entirely superfluous and merely a rhythmic fac- tor. As to V. 3 and 19, we should have n« in its place in a prose text, in V. 9 nas, in V. 18 dañ. If the author should have pinned his faith to a purely trochaic metre, which is the most frequent in Tibetan, he could easily have accomplished his purpose by dropping all the ni, and yet the sense of his words would have remained exactly the same.
V. 29, M. BacorT renders this verse, “Homme et raison ne font pas un.” Whatever this may mean, it is evident that the Tibetan people do not indulse in metaphysical speculations of that sort, and that such a sentence has no raison d'êlre in this context. We notice that this text is a plain account of the Raven as a bird of augury, and that everything logically refers to it in a palpably concrete manner. For this reason we are justified in seeking the inter- pretation of the verb rtog-pa in the same direction. We met it in the Tibetan title of the Kakajariti, where it is used in regard to the “examination” of the sounds or cries of the crow, and I believe it is here used in exactly the same sense. The word myi preceding it is in parallel opposition to /hai of the pre- vious verse, and, like the latter, may be construed as à genitive (“examination of the auguries on the part of man”) or in the sense of a dative depending
on mcis (“to man...thereis”), The particle ma can, of course, be looked upon
JS BERTHOLD LAUFER.
as the negation, as M. Bacor considers it, but this does not make sense, TL prefer to read geig-ma, “unity, oneness,” (regarding -4 with words denoting space, time, etc. see SCHIEFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, pp. 385, 386), and under- stand the verse to the effect that there is for man only one and the same method of examining the forebodings of the Raven, that is, the method laid down in the Table. This interpretation seems to be in keeping with the spirit of the text. If the Raven is a heavenly bird, a messenger of the gods, and the herald of their commands, if he 1s truthful and trustworthy, it is logical that there should be but one way ofstudying and interpreting his notes. The comment furnished by the Lama is quite in harmony with this point of view. He like- wise understands the words geig ma mc‘is in a positive sense by transcribing them geig adra byed, “make like one, might be one,” and his note mi l‘ams- cad rtog-pa ni sufficiently indicates that these words mean an examination referring to all men, and that »loy-pa is not intended for rlogs-pa, “knowl- edge, perception.” The copula meis belongs to the estilo cullo.
Analogous examples for the use of gcig-ma are rai gcig-ma “one- footed,”” rkañ gnis-ma “two-footed” (SCHISFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. II, p. 12); ral geig-ma = Skr. ekajata (P. CORDIER, /. c., pp. 199, 194, 195); skad cig-ma “a moment,” skad geig-ma “instantaneousness” (in the philosophy of the Sautrantika: VasiLyev, Der Buddhismus, p. 305); and skad cig-ma- ñid, “the short (instantaneous) duration of life” (in the commentary of Suhril- lekha). The title of a small treatise describing the offerings to Vajrabhairava is drug beu-pa-ma. The title ratnamala is once translated in the Tanjur rin en preñ-ba-ma (usually p'reñ-ba), where ma is to express the feminine gender of Sanskrit; and so it may be concluded that the influence of Sanskrit is
responsible also for the other cases of this kind.
V. 93. M. Bacor translates, “Croyance et confiance de l’esprit font un.” This is in contradiction to an elementary rule of Tibetan grammar. The final cig does not mean “one,” but is the well-known sign of the imperative ; besides, the form rlon is an imperative in itself (from rlen-pa), and also the Lama has plainly indicated another imperative form, l'ob cig. The phrase sens rlen (rlon) in this passage corroborates the interpretation given for brtun-po in V. 146. Yid c'es may be taken as adverbialis (“with faith, faithfully”?), or as a verb to be supplemented by the following cig (“have faith and” ...). The Lama explains this faith as “prayer to the gods” (/ha-la gsol), which is hardly necessary. Both faith and confidence, first of all, refer to the Raven and his auguries, as presented in the Table; and faith in him naturally implies faith
in the sods who sent him.
V. 97. In Table IV, 1, M. Bacor translates the sentence riñs-pa ëig où-
bar sion by “indique qu'une personne vient en hâte” But riñs-pa ëig is the
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 49
subject of the sentence, and means “a distant one, a person coming from a distance.” True it is, riñs-pa means also “swift, speedy.” The spelling, however, must never lead us astray: it is here intended for »iñ-ba, meaning “distant” as to space and time, hence “long” (the K‘ien-lung Polyglot Dictionary con- fronts it with yüan jé and Manchu goro). The word riñs-par in rer, in my opinion, contains an allusion to the passage of the Table quoted. M. Bacot’s translation, “est signe de rapidité,” has no meaning. Also the Lama is on my side when he interprets mi yon, “a man will come.” — Compare Subäshilaratnanidhi 66 (ed. Csoma, J. À. S. B., Vol. VIT, 1912, Extra No, p. 116): rin c'en glin-du riñ-nas adu, “they flock from a distance to the Island of Jewels.”
V. 28. The foretelling of the arrival of a friend, in all likelihood, is fraught with a deeper significance than may appear on the surface. [In the Table (VII, 6; and X, 3) we find twice the prophecy of a meeting with a great friend. The word used in each case is grog, which is pronounced and written also rog, rogs. Now, the Tibetans, for this reason, pun the word (bya-)rog, “raven” with rog, grog, “friend.” An excellent example of this fact is furnished by the interesting little work Bya c'os rin c‘en ap‘ren-ba, “The Precious Wreath (ratnamala) of the Teachings of Birds,” the text of which has been edited by S. CHANDRA VIDYABHUSAN under the title Bya-Chos or the Religion of Birds: being an Old Tibetan Story, Calcutta, 1903 (40 p.). JäscakE (Dic- lionary, p. 372) mentions this graceful work, styling it also Bya skad, “Bird Voices,” or Bya sgruñs, “Bird Stories,” and characterizing it as a book of satirical fables, in which birds are introduced as speaking. IT am under the impression that no satire is veiled under this text, at least not in the edition quoted, and that it belongs to the class of Nitiçastra, as indicated by its very title. In order to teach the birds the tenets of the Buddhist doctrine, Avalo- kitecvara transforms himself into the king of the birds, the large cuckoo (iokila), and finally attracts the attention of the other birds by his medi- tation carried on for many years in a sandal-tree. The birds congregate around him, and each recites in its language a number of stanzas in praise or sup- port of Buddhist ethical teachings (compare Mantic Uttair ou le langage des oiseaux, poème de philosophie religieuse traduit du persan de Farid Uddin Attar par M. GarciN DE Tassy, Paris, 1863, and the same authors La poésie philosophique et religieuse chez les Persans d'après le Mantic Uttair, Paris, 1864; this Persian work has doubtless received its impetus from that genre of Buddhist literature, as I hope to demonstrate in a future translation of the Tibetan book). The Bya c'os is not a translation from Sanskrit, but a witty Tibetan produetion, though fundamentally based on Indian thought; it is full of fun and pun. The verses recited by the birds terminate in a refrain, and this refrain consists of a catchword forming a pun upon the name of the par-
4
p0 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
ticular bird. The snipe (tiñ-tiñ-ma), for instance, puns upon gti riñ, “a deep abyss,” in this style: “The ocean of the misery of Sarnsara is a deep abyss, the hell of Mara is a deep abyss,” ete. Or the jack-daw (skyuñ-ka) puns upon the verb skyuñ-ba, “to leave behind ;” the’ owl (ug-pa), on u-sdug (= u-l'ug), “destitute:” the ptarmigan (goï-mo), on go-dha, “difficult to understand.” And the watchword of the raven (p‘o-rog) is grogs yon grogs yon, “a friend will come, a friend will come,” exactly as in the above verse of the document Pelliot. In this case, the coming of the friend is interpreted in the figurative sense of Buddhist blessings. The Raven speaks thus:
“When moral obligations have been fulfilled, happiness will come as a friend.
“When alms have been distributed, wealth will come in the future as a friend,
“When religious functions have been performed, thy tutelary deity will come as a friend.
“When the vows are pure, the delight of heaven will come as a friend.
“When the sacrificial feast was vigorous, the Protector of Religion (dAar mapüla) will come as a friend.
“When thy achievements correspond to the length of thy life, Buddha, in the future, will come as a friend.
“This siddhi of ‘the friend who will come’ take to heart and keep in mind!”
The coming of the friend appears also in Æ. (I, south; HI, north), and - from the viewpoint of Sanskrit, a play upon words can hardly be intended. We might therefore infer that simply the transmission of this Indian idea gave rise in Tibet to the formation of the quibble “raven — friend,” which is ap- parent in Bya c‘os (compare also the identical formations ,a-rog, “friend,” and 0-r0q, “raven”). The date of this work is unfortunately unknown; the mention of the Siddha Saraha in the introduction, in a measure, may yield a {erminus a quo. At any rate, Bya c'os is far posterior to K. and document Pelliot. Does the prophecy 9rog yon in the latter imply an allusion to the name of the raven? The case would be interesting from a philological point of view; if the allusion could be established as a positive fact, it would prove that the word grog was sounded rog as early as the ninth century, for only under this condition is the bon mot possible: or another possibility would be that the two forms grog and rog co-existed at that time. At any rate, there is in our text an obvious relation between the sound krog krog and the word grog, accord- ingly a divination founded on punning (krog krog is a recognized word of the language and recorded as such in Za-ma-tog: Studien zur Sprachwissen- schaft der Tibeter, p. 574). This etymological kind of augury finds an interest- ing analogy among the Arabs, among whom the appearance of a raven indi- cates parting or pilgrimage, as the word for raven comes from a root meaning
L
“to be a stranger;” the name for the hoopoe suggests “guidance,” whence its appearance is of good omen to the wanderer (HasriN@s, ÆEncyclopaedia of
Religion, Nol. IV, p. 816). Among birds, the ancient Arabic poets most fre-
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 51
quentlv mention a black and white spotted species of crow and a black one which it is disastrous to scare, and whose croaking signifies separation from a mistress (G. JacoB, Allarabisches Beduinenleben, p. 22, Berlin, 1897). Another explanation than the above is given by D. C. PmzLotr (Note on the Common Raven, J. À. S. B., N.S. Vol. III, 1908, p. 115); the Arabs, according to him, call the raven “raven of separation,” because it separated itself from Noah and failed to return. This bird of ill omen alights on the deserted habitations of men; it mourns like one afflicted; when it sees friends together, it croaks, and its croaking foretells “separation ;” and when it sees well-peopled habitations, it announces their ruin and desolation. If it croaks thrice, the omen is evil; but if twice, it is good. Possibly the two explanations exist side by side. — Similar etymological punning in augury takes place in Annam with reference to the bird khéc. “Le mot khdch, étranger, devient par corruption patoise, khkéc, comme le nom de l’oiseau. De là un jeu de mots sur le nom de l'oiseau: Si le khéc crie à la porte d’entrée, c’est signe de l’arrivée de visiteurs venant de loin: sil crie derrière la maison, ce sont des parents qui vont arriver” (L. CADIÈRE, B. E. F. E. O., Vol. I, 1901, p. 196).
V. 29. M. Bacor translates “est signe d’intermédiaire.” I do not believe that this is the sense intended, as omens of middle quality (wbrin) are referred to in V.26. The Lama understands that “the sound iv ,iu is continually his (the raven's) note.” It is not intelligible to me how he arrives at this view of the matter. The phrase bar ston is somewhat embarrassing. 1 should be inclined to construe bar as an abbreviation of bar-c'ad, “accident, calamity,” and as referring to the prophecy of calamities given in Æ., where this word is used; but the fact remains that it does not occur in our Table, and it is cer- tainly to this our Table that we have to look for the interpretation of the term, as in the two preceding verses. There we observe that the greater number of oracles close with the words 0% bar ston, and that in fact each of the ninety oracles ends in the two syllables bar ston, or, what is practically the same, par ston. This typical formula, I believe, should be recognized in the bar ston of V. 29, which accordingly means that the sound ,iu ,iu points to any of the ninety oracles enumerated in the Table, and therewith the Preface is happily closed with a direct appeal to the latter. This conception of the matter is satisfactory also from a grammatical point of view; for bar in this case is ba + r, and the terminative is required in connection with ston, as shown by V. 25—27 and the ninety examples of the Table, while bar taken in the sense of “intermediate, middle,” would be the formless casus indefinitus, and decidedly present a grammatical anomaly.
54 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
Palæographie Traits.
The plain consonant, according to the rules of Tibeto-Indian writing, implies the vowel a. In seven cases we find an additional letter a following a consonant in this document, where no a is admissible in modern writing. The word dgra is four times written this way (Table II, 9; IV, 4; V, 2; VIIL 8); further, the suffix pa in V. 18, blla in V. 11, and bya in V. 14. Mr. BaRNerT (in A. Stein, Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. 549) has made a similar ob- servation in the fragments of the Cülistambasütra. He says that before a short pause a final «a sometimes appears to be lengthened to a, the letter a being added on the line; and on p. 500 he adds in a note that this lengthening seems due to the short pause fol- lowing. TI regret being unable to share this opinion; Ï can see no reason (and Mr. Barnerr gives none) why this addition of a should indicate a lengthening of the vowel. True it is, a subjoined a (the so-called a «dogs) denotes à in the Tibetan transcription of Sanskrit words; and it may even be granted with reserve that in the word gso (p. 593, note 6), as Mr. BarNerrt is inclined to think, the sub- joined letter «a may be intended to give the phonetic value of long 0.1) But there must be some difference between a written beneath and a written alongside a consonant, Why, if the lengthening of the
vowel is intended, is the letter a not subseribed too in the other
1) An analogous case is known to me in the Tibetan version of the Jafakamäla, a print of 1430, where (vol. II, fol. 9) the word rgya-mts‘o is equipped with an additional letter a under the letter /s°. — The subseribed letter & occurs also in Tibetan transerip- tions of Chinese words; and it would be wrong to conclude, that, because it denotes length in Sanskrit words, it does s0 also in the case of Chinese, which has no long vowels. In the Tibetan inscription of 822, line 15 (see plate in Busuezz, 74e Early History of Tibet), we have Tib. Üux ba (each with subjoined a) as transcriptions of Chin. D' nu wën vu (Japanese burn bu). Most certainly, the additional & was not intended by the Tibetans to express a Chinese %, but a peculiar Chinese timbre of x, which was not sufliciently repro-
duced by the plain Tibetan «.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 53
cases mentioned? The further question arises, If the ancient Tibetan language should have made a clear distinction between short and long a, and if an attempt at discrimination between the two in writing should have been contempiated, why is this distinction not carried through with regular and convincing persistency? Why does it only appear in a few isolated cases? And if this project were once set on foot, how could it happen that it was dropped so soon, as not a trace of it has survived in later literature? Con- siderations like these should render us cautious in accepting the view of Mr. BarnerT. It is highly improbable that long & (and in weneral long vowels) existed in Tibetan. It seems to me that long vowels are in Tibetan merely of secondary origin, being the out- come of a fusion of two joining vowels, or arising from the elision
of final consonants. ') In our text we notice that the word bya,
1) Jäscure (Tibetan Grammar, p. 4), who assuredly possessed a good ear, expressly states, “It ought to be specially remarked that all vowels, including € and o (unlike the Sanskrit vowels from which they have taken their signs) are short, since no long vowels at all occur in the Tibetan language, except under particular cireumstances mentioned
»”
below.” Compare the same author’s Ueber die Phonetik der tibetischen Sprache (Monats- berichte Berliner Akademie, 1866, p. 152). For the same reason I am unable to sharethe opinion of Mr. WappEeLcz (J. R. A. 8. 1909, p. 945) when he tries to make out short and long À in the Tibetan inscription of À. p. 783. The short À following its Indian Deva- nägari prototype, according to Mr. WapbpELr, is represented there by a reversion of the tail of the superposed sign to the left, which is not found in modern Tibetan manuscripts. But what evidence is there that the letter 2 with tail to the left should denote in Tibetan a short, and 2 with tail to the right a long vowel? This is an arbitrary and unfounded opinion. Why should — taking the examples from the text of the inscription as tran- seribed by Mr. Waddell — gyi, kyi, srid, myi, ni, yin, rit, Krims, adi, ete., have a short i, but bris, Sin, geig (gtsig in line 2 is a misprint), dyyis, Zin, bkris, bi, cin, Zi-ba, E'rim, drin, p'yin, p'rin, rhin, lei, etc, have a long À, — words which at present are all pronounced with the vowel short? There are, further, several inconsistencies due either to the original or to Mr. Waddells transcript, The interrogative pronoun ci has the long vowel in line 3, the short vowel in line 45; the particle of the genitive #y2, otherwise short, becomes long in line 68; r#ir is long in line 55, but short in line 66; +, the sign of the genitive, is usually long, but short in line 60. The author remarks that the dis- tinction of the short à by reversal of the superscribed limb has not been noted in every
instance. On p. 1276, where two other inscriptions are transcribed, he says, “In this copy
4 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
“bird,” is followed by the letter a in but a single case (V. 14), while in two other cases (V. 8 and 17) it is written without it, Why should it be by& in the one, and byà in the two other cases ? In fact, however, the vowel of bya is not long, but short or quite indeterminate in regard to length. Nor can it be argued with Mr. Barnert that the juxtaposition of « and the alleged vocalic lengthening are due to the pause, for we have bya {- a at the close
of V. 14, and bya without a at the close of V. 17. Now, what is
the distinction between the long and short z has not been recorded.” An important palaeo- graphic and phonetic fact is revealed by these inscriptions: in the one case it is dealt with in a perfectly arbitrary manner, as suits the author’s convenience; in the other case it is simply suppressed. This is a singular method of editing texts. The student who is desir- ous of investigating this phenomenon will therefore turn away from these artifacts and for the time being have recourse to the facsimile reproduction of the Tibeto-Chinese inscription of A. D. 822 appended to Dr. BusneLr’s Early History of Tibet, where the same distinc- tion of the two £’s occurs. The inscriptions published by Mr. WaDpELz, for this and several other reasons, will have to be studied anew in the future, on the basis of facsimile rubbings actually taken from the stones. In regard to this peculiar form of #, Mr. WADDELL is wrong in asserting that it is not found in modern Tibetan manuscripts. It occurs in all good manuscripts and prints denoting the vocalie # and / of Sanskrit words, as may be seen, for example, in pl. I of CHaANDrA Das, Te Sacred and Ornamental Characters of Tibet (J. À. S. B., Vol. LVII, pt. 1, 1888); and this is the only positive fact which we thus far know about the meaning of this sign in Tibetan. It is frequently employed in P'yi rabs mi-la bslab bya, à manuscript of the India Office Library alluded to by Scxrer- NER (Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. VIII, p. 624), in words as #1, yèn, p'yts, k‘ri, adi, andin the particles of the genitive #yi and -?, but with no apparent regularity. The sign, further, occurs in the rock-carved inscriptions of Ladakh published by A. H. FRANCKE (/adian Antiquary, Nol. XXXII, 1903, pp. 361—363, pl. VIII); there we meet it in the endings of the genitive, gi and -, which proves how unfounded Waddell’s opinion is, for the sup- position that the genitive sign -2 should be short in Ladakh and long in Central Tibet would be absurd, ‘The distinction of the two 2’s, in my opinion, does not relate to quantity, which did not exist, but was made to express two different phonetic values or timbres of i, which are determined farther on. The vowel system of Tibetan, also at the time of the introduction of writing, was far richer than it appears from the five main vowels 4, e, 1, 0, u, the only ones expressed in writing; and for a certain length of time an attempt at discriminating between two values of 2 seems to have been made. — The inverted sign 2 is still employed also, for typographical reasons, in cases where there is no space for the ordinary vowel-sign; as occurs, for instance, when in the line above a word with the vowel-sign « (especially the combinations -yx, -rx hanging beneath the line proper) is
printed.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. D)
the rule? Our material is certainly still too scanty to admit of positive conclusions. We have to wait till more ancient documents turn up. Meanwhile it is incumbent upon us to record all pecul- iarities le cas échéant, and to beware of premature and generalized judgments, which will do more harm than good to the future stu- dent, and which may be exploded at any moment by the reading of a new document. A conclusion as to the existence of long and short vowels in ancient Tibetan is certainly a case of importance, not only for Tibetan but also for Indo-Chinese philology, as the latter is vitally affected by the former; but such a case must be founded on facts, not on guesswork. Basing my opinion on the document Pelliot, 1 am under the impression that the addition of the letter a is not charged with a phonetic value, but has a mere graphic function. The writing of such words as dgra and blta with an additional a moves along the same line as words like dga, bka, mék'a, dma, ete. where the vowel a is still expressed by the presence of the letter a to avoid ambiguity, as without it the readings dag, bak, dam, would be possible (Csom4a, Grammar of the T'ibetan Lan- quage, p. 17). Writing was then in its initial stage; and the rule as to when the letter a was a necessity, and when it could be dispensed with, was not yet clearly developed. To all appearances it was then granted a wider latitude; and for the sake of greater distinctness, the «a was rather added than omitted. In other cases it is neglected where it is demanded by modern rule: thus, in the Calistambasütra, the word mk°a is once expressed by the two letters mk° (Ancient Khotan, p. 552, D 9). One point is clear, that at the time wben, and in those localities where, the d& drag was still in vogue, the rule necessarily had to meet a more extensive appli- cation; for there the word brda, for instance, if unaccompanied by the letter a, could have as well been read bard. As this word
is written bda in our text, it was certainly necessary to add the
b6 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
letter a; but it is just this word brda which even in modern prints is spelled with a as well as without it; the spelling with a is, for example, the rule in K‘ien-lung's Dictionary in Four Languages. If
it should turn out through further investigations that this a occurs
with special predilection in the suffixes pa, ba, ete., at the end of a sentence, it may very well be that it is a graphic sign employed to mark a certain stress or emphasis, or to denote a stop.
Our text is characterized by two negative features, — the absence of the final o, which may be explained by the fact that this text is written in colloquial style, whereas the final o is restricted
to the written language; !) and the lack of the so-called da drag.
1) Itis in full swing in the Stein fragments of the (Ais/ambasatra and in the sgrafliti of Endere, as well as in the ancient inscriptions of Lhasa, — all documents of the written language. The origin and meaning of this final o have not yet been explained. À. Csoma (Grammar of the Tibetan Language, p. 84) has merely noticed the fact. When Foucaux (Grammaire de la langue tibétaine, p. 17) observes that the particle o has the signification of the verbs “to be, to have, to make,” this is only to the point in that the sentence, in some instances, may thus be translated by us, but it is not correct from a Tibetan view- point. From Jäscuxe (Zibetan Grammar, p. 45) it only appears that the principal verb of a sentence closing it receives in written Tibetan in most cases the mark 0, by which the end of a period may be knowu. This 0, in my opinion, is identical with the now anti- quated demonstrative pronoun © (compare Lepcha 0-re) which, according to SCRIEFNER (Ergänzungen, ete., p. 49), very rarely occeurs. He points out pagma o-ni, “this lotus,” in the Kanjur (Vol. 74, fol. 46), and gron-k'yer o-nir agro, “to go into that town,” in aDsañs-blun (compare also Mélanges asiatiques, Nol. I, p. 385 ;: and Ueber Pluralbezeich- nungen, 1 c, $$ 21, 22). In the Tibetan prose version of Avadaünakalpalata (p. 262, line 20) we find, #yed ni ...lus so in bein skam-pa añ srid, “this your body seems to be dried up like wood; and (p. 134, line 19), o ri-doags gser-logs adi-o ëes, “this one here is that gazelle gSer-logs by name” The latter example is very instructive in showing the pronoun o preceding a noun, and again at the end of the sentence linked to the related pronoun «di, adi-o apparently meaniug “this is” The frequent phrase 0-14, abbreviated into ox, embodies a survival of this pronoun, the literal meaning being “if this is 80.” The pronoun o itself represents the remains of the entire vowel series which must have originally had pronominal significance. In Ladakhi (A. H. FranCkE, Ske/ch of Ladakh Grammar, p. 23, Calcutta, 1901) we have 2 or 1-40, “this,” and a or a-bo, “that. in eastern Tibet we have e, for example e-de mi, “that man” (beside 0-de; A. DESGODINS, Essai de grammaire thibétaine, p. 39, Hongkong, 1899), and in Tsang and Sikkim #-4i (JäscnkE, Dictionary, p. 499, and G. SANDBERG, p. 85; also according to the writer”s own
observation), with the survival z-xir, o-mir, “hither,” in the written langnage. Also the
Qt =]
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS.
This term means “strong d’’ or “strengthening d.” A. Usoma was already acquainted with the occurrence of this phenomenon in an- cient orthography, as shown by the spellings stond-ka, dbyard-ka, rgyald-ka (Grammar of the Tibetan Language, P. 28); gsand-tam, Kyerd-tam, gsold-tam (p. 29); gsand-to, gyurd-to, gsold-to (p- 30), and his note on p. 11. Foucaux (Grammaire de la langue tibétaine,
p. 14), in accordance with Csoma, speaks of three ancient double
affixes, — nd or nt, rd or rt, ld or Lt (the d was evidently pronounced
with auslautschürfung, as the final media in many modern dialects), —
and adds that this 4 is now omitted, and that probably, under the influence of this ancient spelling, gyur-to, gyur-tam, zin-to, are still written. The terminations fo and tam cannot be considered as sur- vivals; for the dental is nothing but the very da drag itself, the terminations proper being o (see the note below) and am. It is therefore wrong to say that the dra drag is obsolete: it is obsolete
only as a graphic element, in that it is no longer actually written;
personal pronouns #-cag, u-bu-cag, o-cag, o-skol, ete. must be explained from this demonstra- tive pronoun. In the same manner, there was extant in a primeval period of the language a complete vowel series in the Z group of the demonstrative pronoun, of which only ad and dé have survived. But we have such remnants as da nak and da rañs, “this morning ;” da lo, “this year;” do nub, “this evening;” do gdon, “to-night;” do Zag or do mod, “to- day,” — examples in which da and do doubtless have the function of a demonstrative pronoun. — The Tibetan verb is, strictly speaking, a verbal noun, which for this reason could easily be connected with a demonstrative pronoun: the sentence as mt'on-no literally means “by me this seeing (is done)” The fact that this final o is not a verbal particle proper follows from its association with any word category; it may be joined to a noun, an adjective, a pronoun, a numeral, the original function of the demonstrative pronoun still being in prominence, with the significance of a completed action or deserip-
? while its
tion (hence the Tibetan name for this final is rdsogs {s'ig, “word of completion,” other designation, s/ar bsdu-ba, refers to its position at the end of the sentence). There is, for instance, bs/an bcos agyur-r-0-cog (LAUFER, Dokumente, 1, p. 49), and such combina- tions appear as subject or object within a sentence; compare gso/-l-u mc‘od-d-0 sruñ skyobs mdsod (A. H. FraANœkE, Der Wintermythus der Kesarsage, p. 9), “guard these prayers and these offerings!” (where FRaANCKE, p. 66, comments that “the termination 0 is here inexplicable, unless it may have arisen from the emphatic articles bo, po”). — It is note-
worthy that at the conclusion of the Preface we find, not s{on-n0, but the popular s/on yin.
DS BERTHOLD LAUFER.
but it is fully alive phonetically, as soon as certain aflixes, to which also ei, ces, and cig belong (Studien zur. Sprachwissenschaft der Tibeter, Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akad., 1898, p. 584), are joined to the word. We are easily deceived by the appearance of writing. In the Tibetan alphabet is developed the principle of writ- | ing separately each syllable of a word and of any composite forma- tion; this, however, does not mean. at all that what is separated by the use of the syllabic dot in writing presents also an inde- pendent part phonetically. If dissyllabic words, as me-tog, me-lon, mu-ge, p'o-ha, ta-ga(-pa), are written in two syllables for the mere reason that the monosyllable is the basic principle of Tibetan writing, it does not follow that these words are compounds; on the contrary, they are stem words consisting of two syllables, and should phonetically be written metog, melon, muge, p'oïa, l'aga (from tag, “to weave”). In the same manner we find rdsogs-s0 written in two syllables, and rdsoyso written in one graphic syl- lable; the pronunciation is not rdsogs so, but rdsogs-o. In other words, this is not a case of phonetie, but merely of graphic redu- plication, caused by the principle of writing. lLikewise it does not make any difference from a phonetic viewpoint whether the Tibetan spells gyurd-to or gyur-to; phonetically it is neïither the one nor the other, but gyurt-o. Consequently the rule as expressed by JÂSCHRE (Tibetan Grammar, p. 45, and Dictionary, p. 246) — “da drag is a term used by grammarians for the now obsolete d as second final, after », r, {, e. g. in kund, changing the termination du into tu; no, ro, lo into to; nam, ram, lam into tam’ — is, from a scientific standpoint, wrong. The rule ought to be formulated that a number of stems at present terminating in », », |, were for- merly capable of assuming a final 4 sharpened into #, and quite regularly assumed the terminations -u, -0, and -am; of course, the
proper form of the particle denoting the terminative is -w, and not
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 19
ru, Lu, du, su, as our grammars merely state for practical purposes, the consonants »,t, and 4 being inserted for euphonie reasons, and su joined to a word with final s being solely a graphic picture of uo phonetic value (e.g., nags-su of writing — nags-u phonetically). The presence of the da drag was known to us for a long time only through the medium of the native grammarians, till Mr. BarNerr (J. R. A. S., 1903, p. 110, and Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. 549) found it written in a large number of cases in the Stein frag- ments of Calistambasätra. But, Mr. Barnærr observes, “in isolated instances it is omitted in our MS. from roots that elsewhere have it, a fact indicating that it was already beginning to be dropped in actual speech.” This is a point which I venture to challenge. Spelling and speech are in Tibetan two matters distinct; and, as shown above, spelling is not a true mirror of the phonetic state in the present case. The vacillating spelling in the Cülistambasutra simply proves that there was no hard and fast rule for the appli- cation of this d in writing; but it does not at all prove that if or because it was not written, it was not sounded, at least in many cases. !) In other cases when it was omitted, there was surely
no necessity for it; and the problem, after all, amounts to this,
?
— What is the significance of this additional 4? This question is raised neither by Mr. Barnerr, nor by Mr. A. H. FRANCKE (Ancient Khotan, p. 564), nor by Mr. WappeLL (J. R, À. S., 1909,
1) There is a practical example in our Preface from which it may be demonstrated that the da drag, though not fixed in writing, nevertheless may have been sounded (see note on p. 61). Further, Mr. Barnett may be refuted with examples furnished by his own text. In D 3 (p. 551) occurs the writing ryen adi, and in the next line rkyend adi. Now, should this indicate two different pronunciations co-existing atthattime? Certainly not. The pronunciation simply was rlyendi in either case. The two spellings solely indicate two modes of writing these words in that period; they could be written either way, say, for instance, in the same manner as we have the two systems of Webster and Worcester
in English spelling, and the latter days’ questionable boon of simplified spelliog.
60 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
pp. 942, 1250), who notes the absence of da . in the inseription of A. D. 783 and its occurrence in another inscription from the first part of the ninth century. The latter document, Nr. to Mr. Waopecz, retained the old popular [why popular?] style of orthography, while it is lacking in the older inscription, because | it was revised by the staff of scholarly Indian and Tibetan monks working under the orders of King Kri-sroñ lde-btsan [there is no evidence for such a statement]. The document Pelliot is highly popular and even written in the language of the people, and shows no trace of the writing of a da drag. The whole argumentation of Mr. Waddell, owing to its subjective character, is not convin- cing; ') and it is difficult to see how anybody could argue out this case with any chance of suecess, without previously examining what à da drag :s.
First, we have to note that the application of this sign is not quite so obsolete as heretofore stated. It is upheld, no doubt under the force of tradition, in many manuscripts; I observed it repeat- edly, for instance, in eighteenth century gold and silver written manuseripts of the Ashtasahasrikaprajnaparamita with the Tibetan title Ses-rab-kyi p'a rold tu p‘yin-pa. The mere occurrence of a da
drag is therefore no absolute valid proof for the antiquity of a
1) On this occasion Mr. WabpELz remarks that the drag “has always [?] been recognized by the English lexicographers of Tibetan as a genuine archaism.” ‘he English lexicographers of Tibetan! — I regret that they are unknown to me. The first Tibetan dictionary edited by Scarôrer (Serampore, 1826) is based on the materials of a Roman Catholic missionary, Father Juvenal (see 7’%e Academy, 1893, pp. 465, 590; Father Feux, J. 4. S. B., Vol. VIII, 1912, p. 385, without knowledge of this article, attributes the materials of this dictionary to Orazio delle Penna). Csoma, as known to everybody, was a Hungarian. I.J. Schmidt, A. Schiefner, H. A. Jäschke, were Germans. Vasilyev, to whom also Tibetan lexicography owes much, was a Russian. “Les missionnaires catholiques du Thibet,” figaring as the authors on the title-page of the Tibetan-Latin-French Dictio- nary published at Hongkong in 1899, were assuredly not Englishmen; and Sarat Chandra Das is a Bengali. Or does Mr. Waddells philosophy include every English-speaking or
English-writing person in the category of Englishmen ?
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 61
manuscript; nor does its suppression constitute evidence against antiquity, as demonstrated by the document Pellict and the inscrip- tion of 783. Secondly, we have to consult the Tibetan gramma- rians, and to study what they know anent the subject. The most complete native grammar is Si-tui sum-rtags, edited in 1743 by gTsug-lag c‘os-kyi snañ-ba of Si-tu in the province of K‘ams, and reprinted by the Bengal Secretariat Press in 1895.) In this work, grammatical rules are illustrated by numerous examples, and the da drag, wherever applicable, is strictly maintained. Thus we meet on p. 19 the forms kund-tu, p'a-rold-tu, mts'ard-tu, «dsind-la, *) adsind-na, adserd-la, adserd-na, stsald-la, stsald-na; on p. 24, abreld; on p. 30, bstand kyañ, abyord kyañ, stsald kyañ; on p. 35, gyurd tam, atsald tam; on p. 102, bstand, bkand, bkard, bstard, beald, mnand, baard, bsald, mk'yend, mts'ard, akruld, adund byed, adserd byed, gsold byed, mt'ard byed, up'end byed, bstund bäin-pa, gsold b£in-pa, etc, but gnon b£in-pa, gtor béin-pa; on p. 108, rtsald, rold, sbrand, zind, smind, byind, p'yind, tard, ts'ard, but dul, $ar, bor, ts'or, t'al, further stond, stend, rtend, sbyind, skurd, spruld, speld, lend, smond, seld, hand, but sgrun, snron, sqyur, k°ur; on p. 108, stond-ka (‘autumn’), berd-ka (‘staff’), mk‘yend-pa, p'and- pa, p'yind-pa, stond-pa; and on p. 110, dkond-coy, rind-c'en, lhand eig. On pp. 15 and 16 the part played by this d is explained
1) This work is mentioned by A. Csoma, Ænumeration of Historical and Grammati- cal Works to be met with in Tibet (J. À. S. B., Vol. VII, 1838, p. 152); but Situ or IDom-bu-pa are not the names of the author, as stated by Csoma, but merely titles. He is styled “the great Paudita of Situ” (compare Si-fui sum rlags, p. 137, and CHANDRA Das, Dictionary, pp. XXXI and 1272).
2) While the preface of document Pelliot (V. 13) has adsin-la. In V. 3 rkyen, while rkyend is repeatedly found in the fragments of (&lis{ambusutra; in V. 14 ston ni instead of stond ni; in V. 23 rlon cig instead of r/ond cig. But in the latter example, cig in the place of 2, as required by the present rule, is testimony of the effect of a da drag; the palatal € or & is certainly a composite sound of the value of z$, and, though not actually
written, the da drag may have nevertheless been actually sounded — 7/ont-t3iy.
62 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
as purely euphonie (brjod bde-ba), and there is surely much in favor of such a view, at least in the final stage of the develop- ment of the matter, though this does not exclude the idea that in a former period of the language a more specific function of a for- mative character may have been attached to it, When in the fran ments of the Calistambasütra the adverb on kyañ is written o%d kyañ, we doubtless have here a wholly secondary application sug- gested by analogy where no other than a euphonie reason for the
presence of d can be given; for the element on has arisen from o-na (“if this is so”), hence the d cannot have originally inhered in it, but must be a later addition to facilitate pronunciation (com- parable to the French euphonie # in a-t-il, etc). The euphonic character of da drag is visible also in its restriction to stems termi- nating in », r, L; and even in these limited groups a certain selection seems to take place, in that certain stems are not capable of receiv- ing it, as evidenced by the examples quoted, and many others oc- eurring in literature. Thus, t‘ar-ba forms only #'ar-ro, never t'ar-to, while skul-ba always forms bskul-to. An interesting case is presented by the verb skur-ba, which in the sense “to abuse” forms s£ur-ro, but in the sense “to send” skur-to. Here we almost gain the impression that the additional d was resorted to in order to discrim- inate between two different homophonous words.
In questioning the formative elements of the language, we observe that there is an affix -d forming transitive verbs from intransitive or nominal roots: for example, skye-ba, “to be born,” — skye-d-pa, “to beget;”” nu-ma, “breast” — nu-d-pa, “to suckle;” «bye-ba, “to open” (intr.), abye-d-pa, “to open” (tr.); adu-ba, “to assemble” (intr.) — sdu-d-pa, “to assemble, gather” (tr.); «bu-ba, “to be
2
lighted, kindled,” — «bu-d-pa, “to blow;” dma, “low,” — smo-d
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 63
(dmo-d)-pa, “to blame, contempt.” 1) Also byed-pa, “to do,” com- pared with bya, “to be done, action,” belongs here; and IT am in- clined to think that byed (phonetically byüd or b'üd) has arisen from a contraction of bya +- yod, lit. “he is doing.” [t is conceiv- able that this final -4 may in general be a remnant of the copula yod: as, for instance, sgo «bye, “the door is open ;” sgo «byed (= abye + yod, abyüd), “(LE am) opening the door.” This possible origin of the transitive -4 would account also for the fact that formations with -Z denote a state or condition, as there are rga- d-pa, “old man,” from rga-ba, “to be old ;”” na-d, “disease,” from ma-ba, “to be sick.” If this -d is a survival of a former yod, then nad formed of na yod is “the state of being ill;” rgad formed of rga — yod is literally “one being old.” Likewise we have «gro- ba and agrod-pa (also bgrod-pa), “to go, travel,” without apparent distinction of meaning at present, while the latter originally meant “to be on a journey.”
The conclusions to be derived from these considerations may be sammed up as follows. It is probable that the so-called da drag, in the beginning, was a formative element of grammatical char- acter, or at least derived from such an element. In the earliest period of literature, this significance had entirely vanished from the consciousness of the speakers; and we then find the d applied in the n, r, and / stems inserted between stem and suflix for purely
euphonic reasons. The degree to which the euphonic d was culti-
1) Compare SHTSHERBATSKOI in Collection of Articles in Honor of Lamanski (Vol. I, p. 646, St. Petersburg, 1907). The author who abstains from indicating what he owes to his predecessors is neither the discoverer of this law nor others propounded by him. The case unéer consideration has already been treated by A. Conrany (Line indochinesische Causativ-Denominativ-Bildung, p. 45); before the time when Professor Conrady published his fundamental book, I enjoyed the privilege, in the course of over a year, of being engaged with him in so many discussions of the Tibetan verb, that I am no longer conscious of
what is originally due to him or to.me.
64 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
vated must have varied in different localities, or, what amounts to the same, dialects; it was not a stable or an indispensable constituent of the language, but could be used with a certain amount of free- dom. This accounts for its uncertainty in writing, being omitted in some ancient documents, and being fixed in others, and even in these not consistently. The state of writing, in this case, does not allow of any safe inferences as to phonetic facts. In the spellings t-0, t-am, t-u, still in vogue in the modern written language, the da drag is practically preserved, the alteration inspired by simpli- fication being of a graphic, not phonetic nature. For this reason it is justifiable to conclude that also in other cases the da drag, without its specification in writing, may have continued to be
articulated.
Phonology of the Tibetan Language of the Ninth Century.
The Tibetan scholars distinguish two main periods in the devel- opment of their language, which they designate as “old language” (brda rhiñ) and “new language” (brda gsar).}) The difference be- tween the two is largely lexicographical and phonetical, the latter distinction being reflected in the mode of spelling; the grammat- ical differences are but slight, while stylistic variation commands a wide latitude. The existence of a large number of archaïc terms in the older writings, no longer understood at present, has led the
Tibetans to prepare extensive glossaries, in which those words and
1) The translations “old and new orthography” proposed by Jäscake (Dictionary, p. 298) take the meaning of these terms in too narrow a sense. Questions of spelling in Tibetan are at the same time those of phonetics and grammar, and in the native glossa- ries the two terms strictly refer to old and new words. They consequently bear on gram- mar and lexicography, and comprise the language in its total range. For the distinctions made by Mr. Wanpezx (J. R. A. S., 1909, pp. 1269, 1275) of pre-classic and classic periods (even “fully-fledged classical style,” and semi-classie, p. 945) I see no necessity;
the Tibetan division is clear and to the point, and is quite suflicient.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 65
phrases are defined in modern language. The most useful of these works is the Za-%i gur Kañ.') The well-known dictionary r Togs- par _sla-ba ?) contains a long list of such words in verses; and the ICañ-skya Hutuktu of Peking, Rol-pai rdo-rje (Lalitavajra), a volu- minous writer, who has composed a number of special glossaries for various departments of literature, offers in this series a “List of ancient compared with the modern words” (brda gsar rniñ-qi skor).) There is, further, a work under the title Bod yul-gyi skad gsar rhiñ-gi rnam-par dbye-ba rta bdun snañ-ba, which has been carefully utilized in the “Dictionnaire thibétain-latin-français par les Missionnaires catholiques du Thibet’ (Hongkong, 1899).4) It is a particular merit of this dictionary that the words and phrases of the ancient style are clearly indicated as such, and identified with the corresponding terms of the modern style (by the reference A — R, ancien = récent). This as well as another feature, the treat- ment of synonyms, constitutes a point in which the French work is superior to Jäschke. JÂAscuke, it is true, includes a goodly num- ber of archaisms (though far from being complete), but in most
cases does not indicate them as such. As regards spelling, the
1) Scuminr and BoExTuiNGK’s Verzeichnis, p. 64; SCHIEFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. 1, p. 3. There is a good Peking edition (26 fols) with interlinear Mongol version, printed in 1741.
2) Keleti szemle, 1907, p. 181.
3) It is published in Vol. 7 of his Collected Works (gsuñ abum) printed in Peking (compare Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, p. 411).
4) According to kind information given by Father A. DEsaopins in a letter dated from Hongkong, October 7, 1901. Father Desgodins, with whom I was in correspondence on Tibetan subjects from 1597 to 1901, and whose memory is very dear to me, was good cnough to furnish me with a list of the seven Tibetan dictionaries compiled for his great enterprise. It was at my instigation that Father Desgodins consented to send to Europe the single sheets of his Dictionary as they left the press, s0 that I was in a position to make practical use of his material in my work as early as 1897 and 1898. It seems singular that, perhaps with the sole exception of Mr. v. Zach, I have thus far remained alone in recognizing the special importance of this dictionary and the way of using it.
5
606 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
system now generally adopted is traced by Tibetan tradition to the reform of two scholars, dPal-brtsegs (Crikuta) from sKa-ba, !) and klui rgyal-mts‘an (Nagadhvaja) from Cog-ro, ?) assisted by a staff of scholars, at the time of King K‘ri-lde sroñ-btsan (first part of the ninth century; according to Tang shu, his reign began in 816).) Prior to this time, as we are informed by Rin-c'en c'os skyon bzañ-po (1440—1526) in his ‘remarkable work Za-ma-tog,
there were different systems of spelling in vogue, but all traceable
1) dPal-brtsegs took part in the redaction of the first catalogue of the Tibetan Tripitaka (Dokumente, 1, pp. 50—51), was familiar with the Chinese language (Roman, p. 4), and figures as translator in the Kanjur (Auxales du Musée Guimet, Vol. I, pp. 182, 233,337). In the Tanjur, for instance, he cooperated with Sarvajñadeva in the translation of Nägarjuna’s Subrillekha (translated by H. Wenzec, p. 32), and in that of Candrago- min’s Çikshalekha (ed. by A. Ivanovskt, Zap., Vol. IV, pp. 53—81). His portrait is in GrüNweDeL, Mythologie des Buddhismus, p. 49.
2) This name oceurs in the list of names of the Tibetan ministers in the Lhasa inscription of 822 reproduced by Busngzrz (The Early History of Tibet, J. R. À. S., 1880); he belonged to the Board of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (p‘y2 blon 6ka-la gtogs- pa). The name Cog (or Cog) -ro is transcribed in Chinese S#w-lu LE JE , which indi- cates that the former character was sounded in the T‘ang period Cuk (compare Hakka c#w#, Yang-chou #swk, Hokk. &iuk, and Conrapy, Eine indochinesische Causativ-Denominativ- Bildung, p.165). An analogous case occurs in Yäan shi: ji} H = Tib. c‘os, indicated by PeLLior (/ournal asiatique, Mars-Avril, 1913, p. 456), and formerly by E. v. Zac (China Review, Vol. XXIV, 1900, p. 256b). Compare p. 75, No. 14.
3) This king was honored with the epithet Ral-pa-can (Skr. hesarin), “wearing long hair,” because he wore his hair in long flowing locks. NF. Küpren (Die lamaische Ilierar- chie und Kirche, p. 12), with his sarcastie humor, has described how the weak and bigot monarch became a plaything in the hands of tke clergy and allowed the Lamas to sit on the ribbons fastened to his locks; he intended, of course, to imbibe the strength and holi- ness of the clergy, Mr. WapoeLz (J. R. A. S., 1909, p. 1253) tries to establish two new facts, — first that the king wore a eue, and secondly that the cue is à Chinese custom introduced by the king into Tibet (the undignified vernacular word “pigtail” used by Mr. Waddell, in my opinion, is out of place in an historical treatise). The attribution of a cue to the king is a rather inconsiderate invention. No Tibetan tradition ascribes to him a eue or its introduction from China; on the contrary, it is expressly related that the ribbons mentioned above were fastened to the hair of his head (déx skra, see dPag bsan ljon bzañ, p. 175, line 14). The difference betwéen wearing long hair and a eue is self- evident. Neither could the king have introduced any eue from China, since in the age of the T'ang dynasty, as known to every one, the Chinese did not wear eues; nor is the eue
a Chinese invention at all,
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 67
to the teachings of T‘on-mi Sarnbhota, who, during the reign of King Sroû-btsan sgam-po (seventh century), introduced writing from India to Tibet.!') That reform of the language is expressly recorded in Tibetan history. I. J. Scaminr *) has already pointed out this fact from the Bodhi-môr, the Kalmuk version of the Tibetan rGyal rabs, where it is said that at the time of King K‘ri-lde sroñ-btsan (the name as given by Scxwipr is erroneous), besides the new trans- lations, also all previous translations were “recast and rendered clearer according to a more recent and corrected language.” In dPag bsam ljon bzañ (p. 175, line 12) the same is told still more distinctly in the words that the translations were made afresh (ysar- du añ) in a newly cast language. The reflex of this tradition 1s conspicuous in the colophons of numerous treatises of the Kanjur translated at that period, where we meet the same phrase, stad gsar cad kyis kyañ bcos-nas gtan-la p'ab-pa.
In order to study successfully the phonology of a Tibetan text of the ninth century, it is an essential point to form a correct idea of the condition of the language in that period. This task has
not yet been attempted. The material for the solution of this
1) It is known to what fanciful conclusions Messrs. BARNETT (J-. RAS; 1903; p. 112) aad Francke (Ancient Khotan, p. 565; Indian Antiquary, 1903, p. 363; Mem. A. S. B., Vol. 1, 1905, p. 44) have been driven in regard to the introduction of Tibetan writing. Mr. Bagnerr, sensibly enough, later withdrew his former view; while Mr. FranckE, who stamps as a myth, without any historical criticism, every Tibetan account not suiting his fancy, continues to create his own mythology. ‘There is no reason to dwell on these fantasies, or to waste time in their discussion. Mr. WaApDDELL (./. R. A.S., 1909, pp. 945—947) has already risen against these views with what seems to me to be perfect justice, and it gives me pleasure to acknowledge that T fully concur in Mr. Wap- DELL's opinion on this point.
2) Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, p. 358. The passage of rGyal rabs (fol. 89) runs thus: cos l'ams-cad skad gsar bcad-kyis glan-la p'ab, “all religious treatises were cast into a new language and re-edited.” JäscukE translates the phrase ysar gcod-pa by “to inquire into, investigate, examine ;”” but the literal significance is “to cut anew, to do some- thing from a fresh start, to recast.” An examination of the language of the texts would have
sense only if alterations in the language, its style, phonology, and spelling, were to be made.
GS BERTHOLD LAUFER.
problem is deposited in the Tibeto-Chinese inscriptions of the T'ang period and in the Chinese transcriptions of Tibetan words embodied in the Chinese Annals of the T‘ang Dynasty. The bilingual epi- graphical material in which Tibetan words are recorded, in compar- ison with their renderings in Chinese characters reprodueing the contemporaneous Tibetan pronunciation of the language of Lhasa, is of primary importance; for it enables us to frame certain con- clusions as to the Chinese method of transcribing Tibetan sounds, and to restore the Tibetan pronunciation of the ninth century on the basis of the ancient Chinese sounds. Thus equipped with a certain fund of laws, we may hope to attack the Tibetan words in the T‘ang Annals. The most important document for our pur- pose is the sworn treaty concluded between Tibet and China in 821, and commemorated on stone in 822, known to the Chinese archæologists under the name Tang T'u-po hui méng pei HE nt SZ ë Hi 14. This inscription has been made the object of a remärkable study by the eminent scholar Lo Chên-yü A Pr Æ in No. 7 of the journal Shén chou kuo kuang tsi (Shanghaï, 1909).') This article is accompanied by two half-tone plates reproducing the four sides of the stone monument erected in Lhasa, which is 14 feet 7 inches (Chinese) high and 3 feet 1'}, inches wide. The recto contains a parallel Tibetan and Chinese text; the verso, a Tibetan text exclusively. The lateral surfaces are covered with the names of the ministers who swore to the treaty. There were seventeen Tibetan and seventeen Chinese officials participating in the ratification. The names of the Tibetan officials are grouped on one of the small sides; those of the Chinese, on the other. Both series of names are given in interlinear versions, — the Tibetan names being transeribed
in Chinese, the Chinese names in Tibetan. It is obvious that from
1) Compare P. P£cutor, B. E. F. E. O., Vol. IX, 1909, p. 578.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 69
a philological point of view, material of the first order is here offered to us. From the reproductions of Lo Chên-yü it follows that BusueLz, !) who has given a translation of the Chinese text, *) merely reproduced half of the stone. The first plate attached to his paper contains the list of the Tibetan ministers, which is, accordingly, one of the small sides of the stone; this part is not translated by Bushell or referred to in his text; his second plate gives the recto of the stone, while the verso and the other small side with the names of the Chinese ministers are wanting. Bushell’s photo- lithographic reproduction is very readable, and my reading of the Tibetan names is based on his Plate I. The Chinese reproduction is too much reduced, and the glossy paper on which it is printed considerably enhances the difficulty of reading. But Lo Chén-yü deserves our thanks for having added in print a transeript of the entire Chinese portion of the monument, inclusive of the thirty- four names às far as decipherable; this part of his work proved to
me of great utility, as Bushell's small scale reproduction, in mauy
1) The Early History of Tibet (TJ. R. 4.8., 1880).
2) A drawback to BusHeLL's translation is that it appears as a solid coherent account, without indication of the many gaps in the text. Bushell filled these from the text as published in the Ta Ts‘ing à t'ung chi. As the notes of Lo Chèn-yü rectify and supple- ment this edition of the text on several points, a new translation of this important monu- ment would not be a futile task, if made on the basis of Lo Chên-yü’s transcript, in which the lacunes are exactly indicated. — A. H. FRanCkE (Æpigraphia Indica, Vol. X, 1909— 19, pp. 89—93) has given, after BusmeLL's rubbing (PL. Il), a transeript of the Tibetan version, and what, from a Tibetan point of view, he believes to be a translation of it. Busuezr’s Plate I, the list of the Tibetan ofticials, is not mentioned by Francke. It goes without saying that this Tibetan text, as well as the other Tibetan epigraphical documents of the T‘ang period, cannot be translated merely by the aid of our imperfect Cibetan dic- tionaries; sinology is somewhat needed to do them. These documents were drafted in the Tibeto-Chinese government chancery of Lhasa; and the Tibetan phraseology is to some extent modelled after the Chinese documentary style, and must be carefully studied in the light of the latter. Busuecs (p. 102), it seems to me, is not correct in stating that the Chinese text of the monument is a translation of the Tibetan original; the question as to which of the two is the original is immaterial. Both express the same sense, and were
drafted simultaneously by the Tibeto-Chinese clerical staff of Lhasa.
10 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
passages, left me in the lurch. The account of the erection of the monument as given in the Tibetan annals (rGyal rabs, fol. 92) may be of some interest, “During the reign of King Ral-pa-can, the son-in-law and father-in-law [the sovereigns of Tibet and China] were still in a state of war, and the Tibetan army, several tens of thousands, conquered all fortified places of China. ‘The Ho-shang of China and the clergy of Tibet intervened and concluded à sworn pact. The son-in-law despatched pleasing gifts, and an honest agree- ment was reached. In the frontier-post rMe-ru in China, the two sovereigns each erected a temple and had a design of sun and moon engraved on: a bowlder, which was to symbolize that, as sun and moon form a pair in the sky, so the sovereign son-in-law and father- in-law are on earth. It was agreed that the Tibetan army should not advance below rMe-ru in China, or the Chinese army above this place. In order to preserve the boundary-line, they erected visible landmarks in the shape of earth-mounds where earth was available, or stone-heaps where stone was available. Then they fixed regulations vouching for the prosperity of Tibet and China, and invoking as witnesses the
Triratna, Sun and Moon, Stars and Planets, and the gods of vengeance, !)
1) This passage occurs in the inscription —= F4 LA ÉA4 EX En H Æ Æ ER Et S 1 (BUSHELL : 1) F& - Tib. (line 62) dkon mcog gsum dan ap'ags-pai dam-pa-rnams gi la dañ ga skar-la yañ dpañ-du gsol-te, “the Three Precious Ones (Skr. #riratna), the Venerable Saints, Sun and Moon, Planets and Stars they invoked as witnesses.” Mr. FRANCKE (4. c., p. 93) translates, “The three gods(!), the august heaven, etc., are asked to witness it’ He has the wrong reading ap'ags-pai nam-k'a where dam- pa, “holy,” is clearly in the text; the plural suflix #ams is inferred by me from the context (the stone is mutilated in this spot). The Tibetan phrase, as read by me, exactly corresponds in meaning to the Chinese chu hien shéng, “the holy sages.” There is no word for “heaven” in the Chinese text, nor a Tibetan word for “heaven” in the above cor- responding passage in »Gyal rabs; consequently zaw-k'a cannot be sought in the Tibetan version of the inscription, either. The gods of vengeance (/ka gñüan rnams) are omitted in the inscription, presumably for the reason that no exact Chinese equivalent for this Tibetan term could be found. ‘The interpretation as above given is derived from JäsCHKE (Dictionary, p. 192), with whom I. J. Scumipr (Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, p. 361),
translating from the Bodhi-mür (“die rächenden Tenggeri””), agrees. The ya are a class
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. 71
the two sovereigns swore a solemn oath by their heads.') The text of
of demons whose specific nature is still somewhat uncertain; in the Bon religion they form a triad with the Æ/x and sa bdag (see the writer’s Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo). The word ghan means also a species of wild sheep, argali (Ovis ammon L. or Ovis Hodgsoni Blytb., see M. DAUVERGXE, Bull. Musée d’hist. nat. Vol. IV, 1898, p. 216; the definition of CHanpea Das | Dictionary, p. 490]— “not the Ovis ammon but the Ovis
Hodgsonÿ’ — is wrong, as both names, in fact, refer to the same species). Now, we read in
Kiu Tang shu (Ch. 196 E, p. 1b), in regard to the ancient T'u-po, #. fl FE L, DL :
“they serve the spirits of quan ti;” nguan (this reading is given in the Glossary of T'ang shu, Ch. 23, by the characters Æ É nu kuan; Tib. gñan and Chin. van are
perhaps allied words; rh ya reads yian T) likewise refers to a species of wild sheep
or argali, and fi is a ram. We know nothing to the effect that the Tibetans ever worshipped argali, nor can the Chinese words be explained as the transcription of a Tibetan word. It seems to me that Chin. #gvan li is a literal translation of a Tib. gñan-p'o (or -p'a, “male of an animal”) caused by the double sigoificance of the Tibetan word gñan, and that the Chinese annalist means to convey the idea that the Tibetans worship a class of spirits styled y%ar. On two former occasions it was pointed out by me that the word g#an, presumably for euphemistic reasons, is frequently written yñez (“friend, helper”). In the Table of document Pelliot (V, 3) we mect the oracle, g%en lha skyes-po-la ats'e-ba-ëig où-bar ston, where I am under the impression that gñen ha should be taken in the sense of g#an Zha, and accordingly be translated, “It indicates that a terrific spirit doing barm to men will come” (the injury is not done to the god, as M. Bacor translates).
1) Tib. dbu bshuñ dañ bro bor-ro. Jäscuke (Dictionary, p. 382a) has already given the correct translation of this phrase. Mr. Wappezz (J. R. A. S., 1909, p. 1270) has misunderstood it by translating dhu säuñ gnañ-ste “(the king) was sick with his head.” The word säuñ in this passage has nothing to do with the word säw, “disease,” but is the verb säwi-ba (causative from #w-ba, “small”), “to make small, diminish, reduce.” The phrase Zbu sAuñ is a form of adjuration corresponding to our “I will lose my head, if...” The beginning of the inscription therefore is, “Land was granted (sa gnañ, which does not mean ‘honvr be given’)... "The father, the sovereign K‘ri-sroñ Ide-btsan [the translation “the king’s father’s father” is wrong: the father, yab, is a well-known attri- bute of King K‘ri-sroñ] formerly made the grant under his oath.” On this mistranslation the following speculation is based (p. 1268): “King K'ri-sroû Ide-btsan is stigmatized as being of unsound mind — a condition regarding which there never has been the slightest hint in the national histories — and the rule of the kings generally is declared to have caused a cycle of misfortunes to the country.” The entire “historical” interpretation of this inscription is unfortunately not based on the national histories, but is a dream of the äuthor. There is nothing in the text of “the Sacred Cross of the Bon,” which is plainly a Svastika designed on the silver patent (diw/-gyi yi-ge, translation of yin p'ai 4 HU }; nor is there “the P'an country of the Secret Presence of the Bon deity,” which simply means “the district of +P'an in sXuw sruñs” (name of a locality). Neither
the translation nor the explanation of this inscription can be accepted.
va BERTHOLD LAURER.
the treaty was inscribed on three stone tablets. On the two large surfaces was written the text containing the sworn treaty concluded between the two sovereigns; on the two small sides of the stone was written the list of the nanies !) of the Tibetan and Chinese officials who were accredited as ministers of state. One of these stone monuments was erected at Lhasa, another in front of the palace of the Chinese emperor, another at rMe-ru on the frontier of China and Tibet. ‘If regardless of the text of this treaty, the Tibetans should march their army into China, the Chinese should read three times the text of the inscription in front of the palace of the emperor of China, — then the Tibetans will all be van- quished. On the other hand, if the Chinese should march their army into Tibet, all Chinese will be vanquished in case the text of the inscription of Lhasa should three times be read,’ — this oath was stipulated between the state ministers of Tibet and China and sealed with the signets of the two sovereigns.”
The purpose of the following study is purely philological, not epigraphical or historical, though it simultaneousiy furnishes à not unimportant contribution to the then existing offices in Tibet; the latter subject, however, calls for a special investigation, for which also the numerous references in the Tibetan annals must be uti- lized, and it is therefore here discarded for the time being. The inquiry is restricted to the Chinese transcriptions of Tibetan words; their pronunciation is ascertained by restoring, as far as possible, the Chinese sounds, such as were in vogue during the T'ang period. It will be recognized that the Chinese applied a rigorous and logi- cal method to their transcriptions of Tibetan words, and that in
this manner a solid basis is obtained for framing a number of
1) Tib. min rus. The same expression written »yin rus occurs likewise in the inscrip- tion of 822 (compare No, 12, p. 74), where it corresponds to Chin. #22 wei Æ, fr É
1 ©9
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS.
important couelusions as to the state of Tibetan phonology in the ninth century, with entirely convincing results, which are fully con- firmed by the conditions of the ancient Tibetan documents. First the material itself is reviewed, to place everybody in a position to form his own opinion, then the conclusions to be drawn from it are discussed. The single items are numbered in the same manner as has been done by Lo Chên-yü. Nos. 1—3 contain no transcrip- tions, and are therefore of no avail for our purpose; in Nos. 4—8, the Tibetan text, with the exception of a few words, is hopelessly destroyed. Nos. 9—20 run as follows:
9. C‘ab-srid-kyi ‘) blon-po c'en-po Zañ Eri btsan *) k‘od ne stañ — SE À co ES fi fai 11. F4 FE Li 4 fé ts‘ai siang lung p'ing chang shi shang ki li tsan k'u(t) ning se “ss The name of this minister, accordingly, was sounded ‘ri tsan kod(t) ne *) stan. His Tibetan title means “great minister of state,” rendered into Chinese “minister and superintendent of affairs.” *)
10. C‘ab- -srid-kyi blon-po c‘en-po ai kri Zer lta mt'où — SE AH El FE & ef Si dr ) & ts‘ai siang t'ung p'ing chang shi shang Ki li £e(je) t'am (tan) t‘ung. The Tibetan name of this minister, accordingly, was articulated k‘ri 3e(r) tam-
ton (for explanation see farther on).
1) By the transcription ? the inverted vowel sign ? commented on p. 53 should be understood. Its phonetie value will be discussed hereafter.
2) The two words k‘r bsan are destroyed on the stone, but can be correctly restored on the basis of the Chinese equivalents #°i li {san; Chin. 4#‘i li corresponds to Tib. ki in No. 10, and Chin. /san is the frequent and regular transcription of Tib. éfsan.
3) As indicated by Chin, »#ing, the vowel of Tib. xe was nasalized (pronounced like French rain).
4) See Grces, Dictionary, 2d ed, p. 1132b.
5) Lo Chën-yü transcribes this character fe, but this is an error. The reproduction of BusxELz shows that the character is as given above, and this is the one required for the rendering of the Tibetan sounds. This reading, moreover, is confirmed by Kiu T'ang
shu (Ch. 196 +, p. 11b), where exactly the same personage is mentioned fñ Ki 21 EE
.
who in 825 was sent on a friendly mission to the Chinese Court.
14 BERTHOLD LAUFER.
Li C'ab-srid-kyi blon-po c'en-po blon rgyal brain adus hu ") — SE A Fi] 2p TA 3 am NA Jrg zx AH, JK ts'ai siang Lung p'ing chang shi lun kia(p) (y'ap) tsang *) nu”) se kuñ. The name of this minister was pronounced g'al (or y'al) za dus kun.
12. Bod c‘en-poi blon-po ts'al-gyi t'abs dañ myin rus — K DA É: ER ES 2 he ke P, RL Ta Po chu liao no téng tan che ming wei. The Tibetan is a free translation from Chinese, the phrase tng tan, “those who ascended the altar” (in order to swear to the treaty) being omitted. Note that Bod c'en-po, “Great Bod,” does not oceur in Tibetan records, but is only a stock phrase modelled in the Tibeto-Chinese chancery of Lhasa after the Great T'ang
Dynasty TS FE j
13. nañ blon mceims Zañ rgyal bier kon ne btsan — E En ZÀ
fi KE] 2j es Fà nang lun ch'êm (ck'ên) shang kia(p) (y'ap)
£e(je) Eu(t) ning tsan. In the name of the Minister of the Interior we note the pronunciations c‘im (or é‘im) for mcims, £e for béer, and again the nasalized vowel in ne.
14. p‘yi blon bka-la gtogs-pa Cog-ro | blon btsan béer lo goù —
1) In Bushell’s reproduction, an. But the rubbing was sharply cut off around these last two words, so that the sign # may have been lost during this process. ‘he Chinese transcription #w»g calls for a Tibetan Long or kung.
2) It doubtless represents an ancient *ze2g (*dzang); compare the Japanese reading 20.
: _. sm k ‘ : es ; CE Also in Väan shi Tib. Yzañ-po is transcribed DE P and Tib. 4/o bzan Para JE (E. v. Zacn, Tibelica, China Review, Nol. XXIV, 1900, p. 256a). The character DEN tsang serves in Z'ang shu (Ch. 216 K, p. 6a) to render Tib. g{san, the name of the main river of Central Tibet.
3) Nu 2% seems to have had the phonetic value 44 (Japanese do), and du se is intended for Tib. dus. An analogous example occurs in Aiu T'ang shu in the name of
the Tibetan king A‘ nu si lung 2e LS 7K FF answering to Tib. Æ‘ri du sron
(usually styled Dax sron manñ-po). Compare Lo ZË transeribing Turkish 4% (CHAVANNES D : : .… 4 : and PELLIOT, Journal asiatique, 1913, No. 1, ». 175). The character Ze 2 rendering Tib. Zde (pronounced de in the ninth century) in the name of King X°72 sronû de btsan
Æ F2 A ê | (= (Kiu Tang shu, Ch. 196 EH, p. 8b), offers another instance HN di Æ
of Chinese initial / corresponding to 4 in a foreign language.
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS. (5)
A 2e Un RE 6 DE DES Jon 27 26 E 2$ pi lun kia lo”) tu(l) po Su (éuk) lu lun tsan £e (je) tu kung. The Tibetan words were accordingly articulated at that time, p”'i lon ka-la tog-pa (the Minister of Foreign Affairs) éog-ro lon tsan £elr) to gon.
15. snam p'yi-pa mcims éañ brtan béer snag*) cig — H F4
DS #H JÉ ER fr H eo H En nn se nam(nan) p'è po ch'ém.(ch'én) shang tan £e(je) se nak (no) shi. Tibetan pronunciation, snam p'i- pa c‘im £añ tan Ze(r) snag(k) ct.
16. mñan pon bañ-so o-cog gi blo ubal blon kru bzañ gyes rma —
BE 28 LE HE FIRE D RE ZE GS AE a JE O JE 0 ven pér
(pôn, pun) mong (Cantonese and Hakka mang, Japanese Lo) su lu
(Cantonese u, Ningpo wu, Japanese o) *) &u (*éuk) pu lo mo (Hakka
1) Sounded a; see VozpiceLLI, Prononciation ancienne du chinois, pp. 161, 181, 183 (Actes XIe Congrès Or., Paris, 1598).
2) Written as if it were s/ag, but the seeming # may have bcen intended for z which is required by the Chinese transcript; likewise in No.17. The palacographic features of Tibetan epigraphy of the T‘ang period remain to be studied in detail. — The char- acter Sfr is sounded »4k in Korean, #akw in Japanese. The phonetic element ke has the value #ik; in the Manichean treatise translated by M. CHAvANNES and M. PEL- LI0T (Journal asiatique, 1911, No. 3, p. 538) it is combined with the radical [I into a character which otherwise does not occur; but as the Pahlavi equivalent rendered by it is ag, this artificial character must have had also the sound af, in the same manner
—_
LUNT
3) Lo Chên-yü transcribes the last two characters #, a . The first of these does not seem to be À though I cannot make it out in the reproduction of BusueLz,, which is too much reduced ; but A cannot be the correct reading, as the sound ing is incapa- ble of reproducing anything like Tib. ges. The second character left a blank by Lo, I distinctly read #0 (anciently 4), as above, in BUSHELL's plate, and this very well an- swers as transcription of Tib. r#4 (sounded wa).
4) The equation F = Tib. o allows us to restore theoretically the name (#E) of King K'ri sroñ de bisan given in Tang shu (Ch. 216 %, p. 1b) in the form Hu lu Fi F JË PE into Lib. © ro lde. Chin. {u = Tib. ro we had in No. 14. The ancient sounds of fi were */, de (Japanese fei, dei), hence Tib. de or {de frequently vecurring in the names of the kings may be inferred (it occurs likewise in the name of the ancestor MH of the l'ibetans, Au d'à pu si ye #5 PE 29] 7 if where ‘à pu corresponds to Tib. de-po or /de-po; the other elements of this name are treated farther
on). A name of the form © ro /de, however, does not oceur in Tibetan records; but in
16 BERTHOLD,LAUFER.
mat, Korean mal; ancient sounds *mwat and mwar !)) lun kü li tsang © mo (ma). The sign of the genitive, gi, is not transeribed in Chinese. Tib, man, accordingly, was douA El ñan ; blo was sounded blo (Chin. pu-lo), not Lo, as at present; «bal was sounded bal, or possibly mbal or muwal; kru was sounded £ru (Chin. kü-li), not as now {ru Or fu; rma Was sounded ma. Tib. man pon must be a compound written for mia dpon (“rulers and lords”), the prefix d being altered into n under the influence of the initial guttural nasal ñ and then pronounced and written #an pon. The meaning of the above passage is, “The minister Xru bzañ gyes rma, who was in charge of the sepulchres of the sovereigns and lords.” It was hitherto unknown that such an office existed in Tibet, and this fact is of great culture-historical interest. We know that the ancient kings of Tibet were buried. under elevated tumuli, and the rGyal rabs has carefully recorded the exact locality and its name where each
king was interred.?) The ‘ang shu (Ch.216 KA, p. 6) imparts a
the inscription of 783 edited and translated by Mr. WappeLL (J. À. 4. 5., 1909, p. 931) the name of a primeval king © Zde spu rgyal is mentioned. 1 am therefore inclined to regard the Chinese transcription Æx Zu ti as a reproduction of Tib. © /de, the Chinese syllable Zx rendering the prefix Z in /de, which was sounded on account of the preceding vowel, as still at present the prefix is articulated in the second element of a compound when the first terminates in a vowel. The name © Zde has not yet been pointed out as a name or title of King Æyi-sron in any Tibetan document; it remains to be seen whether it will be confirmed. The comment made by Mr. WaDDELL (p. 933) on the king named © de spu rgyal is erroneous; he does not follow the Seven Celestial Rulers in Tibetan tradition. This king whom Mr. WaADDELL has in mind is styled in 7 Gyal rabs “Spu de quñ ryyal” (mentioned also by Rockuizz, The Life of the Buddha, p. 209, but the name does not mean “the tiger-haired king”), but there is no reason to assume that he is identical with © 4e spu rgyal. Although Mr. WaDDErL (p. 949, note 3) expressly states that there seemed no trace of a final 4 in the word o, Mr. A. H. FRANCKkE (J. A. S. B., Vol. VI, 1910, p. 94) boldly and arbitrarily alters this name into Od lde spu rgyal, and translates this O4 {de by “beautiful light,” which is pure fancy, as is the whole article in which Mr. FRANCKE, to his great satisfaction, shifts the theatre of action of Tibetan tradition connected with King gNa kri bésan-po from central to western Tibet.
1) CHAVANNES and PELLIOT, Journal asiatique, 1911, No. 3, p. 519.
2\ The interment of King Sroñ-btsan sgam-po is thus described in »Gya{ rabs (Ch.
1 1
BIRD DIVINATION AMONG THE TIBETANS.
vivid description of the sepulchral mounds E4 of the Tibetan nobles scattered along the upper course of the Huang-ho, white tigers being painted on the red-plastered walls of the buildings belongiog to the tombs; when alive, they donned a tigers-kin in
battle, so the tiger was the emblem of their valor after death.
17. bkai p‘rin blon cen') ka?) blon snag béer ha ñen = Xf
1f Ÿ) O {mm oi H, sh ft 6 ER ki shi chung p'o (pu) © ia bun se nak(no) Ze (je) ha (ho) yen.
18. rtsis-pa c‘en-po © *) blon stag zigs rgan Kod — À H
JE #r NE $E 54 4 O =: Hg É tse-se po ché pu ngo(Æ) lun
18, fol. 76): “His sepulchre (4-s0) was erected at aC'‘oû-po (in Yar-luñ), being a mile all around. It was quadrangular in shape, and there was a vault made in the centre. The body of the great king of the law (Skr. dharmaräja) was laid ia a composition of lonm, silk and paper, placed on a chariot, and to the accompaniment of music interred in the sepulchre, The vault in the interior was entirely filled with treasures, hence the Sepulchre became known under the name Nañ brgyan (‘Having ornaments in the interior’). Five chapels were set up in the interior, and the erection of quadrangular sepulchres took its origin from that time. They are styled sXu-ri smug-po (‘red grave-mounds’).” I.J Scawinr (Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, p. 347), translating from Bodhi-mür, the Kalmuk version of rGyal rabs, erroneously writes the latter name sMwri, and makes an image of the king fashioned from clay and buried in the tomb, while the burial of the body is not mentioned. The Kalmuk version is not accessible to me; the Tibetan text is clearly wurded as translated above. The same work (fol. 87) imparts the following information on the tomb of Kiog K‘ri-sroñ Ide-btsan: “His sepulchre was erected on Mu-ra mountain, in the rear, and to the right, of that of his father. The king had it built during his lifetime. The posthumous name aP'rul ri gtsug snañ was conferred upon him. At the foot of his sepulchre there is a memorial inscription in stone. The sepulchre became known by the name P‘yi rgyan can (‘Ornamented in the exterior’).”
1) See ZPag bsam ljon bzañ, p.151,1. 25. This term is not explained in our Tibetan dictionaries. The Chinese rendering shows that it is the question of supervising censors.
2) For éka.
3) This word is badly mutilated in the stone. The Chinese parallel is #g0(#), so that Linfer Tib. r#og, a well-known clan name. The Tibetans have no family names but clan names (Lib. rs, Chin. #5 h&: compare the account on the Tang-hiang in T‘ang shu, RockHizL’s translation in 74e Land of the Lamas, p. 338) named for the localities from which the clans originated.
4) This lacune corresponds to Tib.s{ag. The character ZÈ la may be inferred from the name Lun si la je fi LS À #J (Tib. Blon slag rje) in T'ang shu (Ch. 216 %, p. Ga).
TS BERTHOLD LAUFER.
se © si(Æ) han!) Fu(t). The word rtsis-pa was accordingly sounded tsis-pa. The Chinese transcription of this ministry (instead of trans- lation as in the preceding cases) indicates that there was no cor- relate institution for it in China. In the modern administration of Tibet, the rtsis dpon had charge of the accounts, ?) from which it may be inferred that the rtsis-pa c'en-po of the T'ang period haa
a similar function. 3
19. p'yi blon ubro an (the remainder is almost destroyed and
cannot be positively deciphered) — 4H M A JE fr pi lun mu- lu shang. The transcription mu (compare Japanese botsu)-lu hints
at a pronunciation bro for ‘Tib. «bro. 20. £al-ce-ba*) c'en-po £al-ce © © god(?) blon rgyud ñan li
bisan = Ji] FR fi + © fi AE XfT F& É+ hing pu shang shu
© lun kie(y’et) ngan(yen) li tsan. The transcription of rgyud is
of importance ; it was sounded g'ut or y'ut, the prefix r being silent.
1) Chin. kan, accordingly, renders Tib. ga», which, after the elimination of the prefix r, was presumably sounded %a». In a passage of Y#an shi, the same Tibetan word is transcribed an 72 (E. v. Zac, Ze, p. 255). Chin. 4, therefore, in transcriptions, does not usually correspond to Tib. 4, but to Tib. g with or without prefix. The following case is of especial interest. Tib. Z p‘ug, “radish,” is a Chinese loan word derived from lo p‘o LA Æ#] (see BrerscHNE1DER, Bot. Sin, pt. 2, No. 39); consequently also T