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Art. XVII.—Beginnings of Writing in and around Tibet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Terrien de Lacouperie
Terrien de Lacouperie
Affiliation:
Professor of Indo-Chinese Philology (University College, London).
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Extract

Man writes, as he speaks, by a special aptness of his nature. As a consequence he has used all sorts of methods and devices which are now in practice, more or less, for the transmission of thought by images, symbols, or arbitrary signs. Rude systems of writing are found everywhere in use, survival or tradition. Many more have totally disapppeared in course of time, superseded by some preferable system, either more advanced or better fitted to the surrounding circumstances. It is not a necessity of nature that these low means of communication should always be pictorial. Conventional marks used alone or in connection with figures play quite as great a part as images among these embryonic writings. And combinations of material and conventional symbols are frequently met.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1885 , pp. 415 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1885

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References

page 419 note 1 In Clem. Alex. Stromat, v. pp. 671–672 (ed. Potter, , Venice, , 1757),Google Scholar quoted in Rawlinson, G., History of Herodotus, 3rd edit. vol. iii. pp. 105–106, n.Google Scholar

page 419 note 2 I extract the following sections of bk. iv. (transl. Rawlinson):

“The Scythians had willingly exposed some of their cattle to be seized by the Persians, in order to attack them in a trap.

“131. This they did several times, until at last Darius was at his wits' end; hereon the Scythian princes, understanding how matters stood, despatched a herald to the Persian camp with presents for the King: these were a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The Persians asked the bearer to tell them what these gifts might mean, but he made answer that he had no orders except to deliver them, and return again with all speed. If the Persians were wise, he added, they would find out the meaning for themselves. So when they heard this, they held a council to consider the matter.

“132. Darius gave it as his opinion, that the Scyths intended a surrender of themselves and their country, both land and water, into his hands. This he conceived to be the meaning of the gifts, because the mouse is an inhabitant of the earth, and eats the same food as man, while the frog passes his life in the water; the bird bears a great resemblance to the horse, and the arrows might signify the surrender of all their power. To the explanation of Darius, Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators against the Magus, opposed another, which was as follows:—

‘;Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up into the sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground, or make yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the fens, ye will never make escape from this land, but die pierced by our arrows.’ Such were the meanings which the Persians assigned to the gifts.”

page 420 note 1 Cooper, T. T., Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, p. 310.Google Scholar

page 420 note 2 Bushell, , The Early History of Tibet, pp. 440–1Google Scholar (J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. 1880).Google Scholar

page 420 note 3 Capt. C. A. Moloney, C.M.G., of Bathurst (Gambia), has collected some very valuable information on this custom.—Vid. also an interesting paper in Journal of the Anthropological Institute.

page 420 note 4 Vid. Shway Yoe, The Kachyens—See below § 72.

page 420 note 5 The custom of wearing symbolical objects in a necklace, which are seen on the figures of Assyrian kings, is perhaps a superstitious revival of this early system. Anyhow, it is interesting to see many, if not all of these signs and emblems among the zodiacal ? signs of the land-mark stones, a dozen of which are in the British Museum. And it is very suggestive to meet them among the written-in-relief Hittite hieroglyphics. Vid. below, § 7.

page 421 note 1 Muh-k'i .

page 421 note 2 Shing = piece of wood.

page 421 note 3 Cf. Les sauvages Lyssous du Lou-tze Kiang, par Dubernard, l'Abbé, in Bulletin de la Société de Géographic de Paris, 1875, t. X. pp. 55–66.Google Scholar

page 422 note 1 Spassky, J., De Antiquis quibusdam sculpturis et inscriptionibus in Siberia repartis, Petropoli, 1822;Google Scholarde Rosny, L., Archives Paléographiques, p. 144, pl. xiii.—Vid. our remarks on other graffitti of Siberia, below § 32.Google Scholar

page 422 note 2 Cf. below §§ 46, 47, 49.

page 422 note 3 It is not improbable that one or another of the aboriginal group of tribes possessed a rough kind of writing, at the pictorial stage, such as is found everywhere, and that something of this writing may have crept into the more perfect system brought by the early Chinese rulers. We know that some of these tribes did use knotted cords and notched sticks, but we have no tidings of any other sort of writing than these besides the cup-marks on the river cliffs, which seem to have been found in China by the new comers.—Vid. below § 33.

page 423 note 1 Lih-tcheng, , lat.36° 40′, long. 117° 01′. Vid. Addenda.

page 423 note 2

page 423 note 3 Shui-king comm.; Tax Ping yü lan, bk. 50, f. 7.

page 423 note 4 de Rosny, L. (Archives paléographiques, p. 233)Google Scholar possesses a fac-simile of an old inscription in hieroglyphics from Japan.—Mentchnikoff, Léon, L'Empire Japonais, p. 200.Google Scholar

page 423 note 5 Atsutane, Hirata, Giji Sen (1819, 8vo.), ff.Google Scholar

page 424 note 1 Sui Shu, or Annals of the Sui Dynasty (A.D. 581–618); Tai Ping yü Lan (Cyclopædia of 983 A.D.), bk. 795, f. 3. They were the ancestors of the Tangut.—Vid. also Bushell, S. W., The Early History of Tibet, loc. cit. p. 528.Google Scholar

page 424 note 2 T'ang Shu, ibid.

page 424 note 3 Vid. below §86.

page 424 note 4 De Guignes, , Histoire des Huns, vol. i. part 2, pp. 337–8.Google Scholar

page 424 note 5 Colquhoun, A. R., Lockhart, J. H. Stewart, A Sketch of Formosa (1884, Hong Kong), Excerpta, p. 203.Google Scholar

page 424 note 6 Tung si yang kao, bk. iv.

page 424 note 7 Groenevelt, , Malay Archipelago, p. 117. Vid. below § 39, n.4.Google Scholar

page 424 note 8 Wuttke, H., Die Entstehung der Schrift.Google Scholar

page 424 note 9 Dans certains endroits on a remarqué parmi les alluvions quaternaires, a côté d'armes de pierre de travail humain et de cailloux perforés pour former des grains de colliers en de bracelets et servir de parures, des groupes d'autres cailloux remarquables par leur formes bizarres, leurs couleurs variées, certains hazards de mesure. Ces groupes ont été formés intentionnellement par la main de 1'homme, ou n'en saurait douter quand ou les trouve en place, et d'un autre côté les cailloux qui les composent n'ont été utilisés ni comme instruments ni comme parures.” Vid. Lenormant, Fr., Histoire ancienne, 9th edit. vol. i. p. 401.Google Scholar

page 425 note 1 See below § 88.

page 425 note 2 They consisted in necklaces of beans, the differences of which were suggestive o the intended meaning.

page 425 note 3 “‘This belt preserves my words’ was a common remark of an Iroquois chief in council. He then delivered the belt as the evidence of what he had said. Several such belts would be given in the course of a negociation to the opposite party. In the reply of the latter, a belt would be returned for each proposition accepted. The Iroquois experienced the necessity for an exact record of some kind of proposition involving their faith and honour in its execution, and they devised this method to place it beyond dispute.”—Morgan, , Ancient Society, p. 139.Google Scholar “Among other things, the ancient wampum belts, into which the structure and principles of the confederacy ‘had been talked,’ to use their expression, were produced and read, or interpreted for the instruction of the newly inducted sachem. A wise man, not necessarily one of the sachems, read from them the facts which they recorded. According to the Indian conception, these belts can tell, by means of an interpreter, the exact rule, provision, or transaction talked into them at the time, and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand of wampum consisting of strings of purple and white shell beads, or a belt woven with figures formed of beads of different colours, operated ou the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure; thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory. These strands and belts of wampum were the only visible records of the Iroquois; but they required trained interpreters who could draw from their strings and figures the records locked up in their remembrance.”—Ibid. p. 143.

page 425 note 4 Vid. Tang Shu in Bushell, , The Early History of Tibet, p. 400. And below § 88.Google Scholar

page 426 note 1 Wuttke, H., Die Entstehung der Schrift, p. 243Google Scholar.—de Rosny, L., La Civilisation Japonaise (Paris, 1883, 18mo.), pp. 130–131.Google Scholar

page 426 note 2 Tung Kien Kang muh (circ. 1180 A.D.), De Mailla, , Histoire generale de la Chine, i. 4Google Scholar.—Kang Kien y tchi luh by Wu-shing Kiuen (1711 A.D).—Kang Kien tcheng she yoh (1737 A.D.), i. f. 3.

page 426 note 3 Cf. bk. 78. fr. 2–3.

page 426 note 4 San Hwang pun ki, f. 1, where the substitution of shu-k'i to knotted cords by Fuh-hi is mentioned without reference to Sui-jin.

page 426 note 5 Yh-King; hi tze, ii. 23.Google Scholar It is also found in the Tao teh King.

page 426 note 6 i.e. Shu K'i said to mean: “written contracts.” On the interpretation of this expression cf. Tai-ping yü-lan, bk. 747, ff. 1, 5; and Yuen Kien luy han, bk. 325, f. 16; where an explanation by Shin tze (400 B.C.) is quoted. This is a forced interpretation, as K'i is nothing else than “notches.” Cf. The Six Scripts, a translation by Hopkins, L. C. (Amoy, 1881), p. 6.Google Scholar Mr. T. Watters, in the second of his valuable Essays on the Chinese Language, translates it by “indentures,” which is half-way between the original meaning and the moral sense afterwards imputed to the K'i.

page 427 1 Tung tien by Tu yu (850 A.D.) in Tai ping yü lan, bk. 798, f. 7 v. Also Bushell, , The Early History of Tibet, loc. cit. p. 527.Google Scholar

page 427 note 2 Maury, A., Origine de l'Ecriture, in Journal des Savants, Avril, 1875, p. 217Google Scholar. Wuttke, , Die Entstehung der Schrift, p. 143,Google Scholar where other examples are quoted. And also Remusat, , Recherches sur les langues Tartares, i. 65–6.Google Scholar

page 427 3 Mentchnikoff, Léon, L'Empire Japonais, p. 200Google Scholar.—de Rosny, M. Léon, Etudes Asiatiques de Geographie et d'Histoire, p. 4,Google Scholar mentions the knotted cords and notched sticks in Japan. I do not find any reference to this custom in the exhaustive and scholarly introduction of Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain to his careful translation of the Ko-ji-Ki (Yokohama, 1883, 8vo.). Mr. Satow, C., in his the essay on the Transliteration of the Japanese Syllabary, in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (vol. vii. pp. 226–60),Google Scholar has collected and discussed all the authentic information concerning early Japanese writing.

page 428 note 1 Kiung shan hien tchi; Notes and Queries on China and Japan, vol. i. p. 83Google Scholar. Moura, J., Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1882, vol. ii. 8vo.), i. p. 512.Google Scholar

page 428 note 2 Sonthalia and the Sonthals, by Man, E. J., late Assistant Commissioner, Sonthal Pergunnahs (Calcutta, 1867, 8vo.), p. 42.Google Scholar

page 428 note 3 Ibid, p. 75.—“Some method of calculation by means of knotted cords exists among the Sonthals of Bengal, and is mentioned in the Report on the Census for 1872.”—Giles, Herbert R., Historic China and other Sketches (London, 1882, 8vo.), p. 3.Google Scholar

page 428 note 4 Darius (Herodot. iv. 98) made something of the kind, when he took a thong, and tying sixty knots in it, gave it to the Ionian chiefs, that they might untie a knot every day, and go back to their own land if he had not returned when all the knots were undone.

page 429 note 1 Cf. Wuttke, , op. cit. p. 143Google Scholar.—Keary, C. F., The Dawn of History, p. 181.Google Scholar

page 429 note 2 “The quippu was a cord about two feet long, composed of different coloured threads tightly twisted together, from which a quantity of smaller threads were suspended in the manner of fringe. The threads were of different colours and were tied into knots. The word quipu, indeed, signifies a knot. The colours denoted sensible objects; as, for instance, white represented silver, and yellow gold. They sometimes also stood for abstract ideas. Thus, white signified peace, and red war. But the qu pus were chiefly used for arithmetical purposes. The knots served instead of ciphers, and could be combined in such a manner as to represent numbers to any amount required. By means of these they went through their calculations with great rapidity, and the Spaniards who first visited the country bear testimony to their accuracy.”—Prescott, Vid., History of the Conquest of peru, vol. i. chap. iv.Google Scholar “On the quipus devoted to population, the coloured strings on which the number of men in each town and village was recorded had depending from them little strings for the widowers, and no doubt the widows and the old maids had their little strings from the coloured cord that denoted women. One knot meant ten; a double knot one hundred; two singles side by side twenty; two doubles two hundred; and the position of the knots on their string and their form were also of immense importance, each subject having its proper place on the quipus and its proper form of knot. The art of learning to read quipus must have been difficult to acquire; it was practised by special functionaries, called quipucamayocuna, or knot officers, who, however, seemed only able to expound their own records; for when a quipu was sent from a distant province to the capital, its own guardian had to travel with it to explain it.“—Cf. Keary, C. F., The Dawn of History, pp. 181, 182.Google Scholar Sometimes instead of knots the little strings of various colours were of the most elaborate character; they represented all sorts of objects—suns, stars, waxing and waning moons, rainbows, birds, animals, lizards, fruits, and even pandean pipes.—Vide illustrations, p. 20, in L. de Rosny, Les Ecritures Figuratives et Hieroglyphiques.—On the quippus, vide Wuttke, H., Die Entstehung der Schrift, pp. 179–190Google Scholar.“The messages from the Inca were indicated by a characteristic red string. At the end of the last century the Spaniards, advised in proper time, prevented a general insurrection of their Peruvian subjects; the intended rebels had communicated between themselves by quippus, the date, orders, and details of the rising.”—Vinson, Julien, in Dictionnaire d'Anthropologie (Paris, 1885, 8vo.), p. 407.Google Scholar

page 430 note 1 Bushell, , The Early History of Tibet, I.c. p. 440.Google Scholar

page 430 note 2 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, ed. Yule, , 1874, vol. ii. p. 74.Google Scholar

page 430 note 3 Marco Polo.

page 430 note 4 Calcutta, 1874, 8vo. pp. 36, 270.

page 431 note 1 Quoted from a MS. note by Col. Yule in his noble edition of the Venetian traveller, vol. ii. pp. 78–9.Google Scholar

page 431 note 2 Tung K'i sien tchi, by Luh Tze-yun, f. 13 v. (Shwoh ling collection, bk. 29).Google Scholar

page 431 note 3 Tai ping yü lan, bk. 788, f. 3v.

page 431 note 4

page 431 note 5 Ibid. Bk. 791, f. 9, v.—Cf. the rather loose statements of Ma Tuanlin in the translation by de St.-Denys, Marq. d'Hervey, Ethnographie des peuples étrangers, vol.ii. pp. 81, 91, 139.Google Scholar

page 432 note 1 Bridgman, E. C., Sketches of the Miau-tsze, §§ 3, 9;Google Scholar in J.N.C.B.R.A.S. for 1859.—Clarke, G. W., A Manuscript Account of the Kwei-chau Miao-tzŭ, § § 8, 49Google Scholar. App. to Colquhoun, A. R., Across Chrysê, vol. ii. pp. 368, 383.Google Scholar

page 432 note 2 Vide China before the Chinese.

page 432 note 3 Above § 4, 13.

page 432 note 4 De Guignes, , Histoire des Huns, vol. i. (2), p. 338.Google Scholar

page 432 note 5 Ma Tuanlin, Wen hien tung K'ao, bk. 327.—French translation, vol. ii. p. 440.Google Scholar

page 432 note 6 Wylie, Al., Translation of the Ts'ing wan K'e mung, a Chinese Grammar of the Mandchu Tartar Language (8vo. Shanghai, 1855), p. xviiiGoogle Scholar.—Howorth, H. H., The Northern Frontagers of China, V. The Khitai or Khitans (J.R.A.S. 1881), excerpt, pp. 23–48Google Scholar.—Deveria, G., Examen de la stèle de Yen t'ai, in Revue de l'Extrême Orient, 1882, vol. i. p. 178, n.Google Scholar

page 432 note 7 I have found that the early text of the Yh-King, which has never been understood, will never be so, because the majority of the chapters are made with fragments of an old dictionary, somewhat like the so-called syllabaries of Assyro-Babylonia; the other chapters are very old documents on various subjects, dating, as the others, from the introduction of writing in China. This solution, which is now accepted by nearly all the Sinologists who have scientifically studied the question since my paper has appeared, is established in The Oldest Book of the Chinese (J.R.A.S., 1882–3). Cf. J.R.A.S. 1884, Vol. XVI. p. 460.Google Scholar

page 433 note 1 The eight wands, or arrows of fate, are marked on many Babylonian cylinders as held in the hand of Marduk (Lajard, , Culte de Mithra, pl. xxxii. No. 2; liv. A. No. 5Google Scholar) or of Istar (Ibid. pl. xxxvii. No. 1).

page 433 note 2 Cf. K'anghi Tze-tien, 118 + 5, ff. 8–9.

page 433 note 3 Tai-Ping yü-lan, bk. 598, fol. 1–2.

page 433 note 4 Tch'ih mei , so called because their leader, Fan Ts'ung, with his whole army, adopted the practice of dyeing the eyebrows blood-colour, in order to increase the terror that their appearance inspired.

page 433 note 5 Suh Wen hien tung K'ao,—Ming y tung tchi.—Yuen Kien luy han, bk. 334, fol. 6–7.

page 434 note 1 Tsin tchung hing shu; Tai-Ping yü-lan, bk. 598, fol, 6v.

page 434 note 2 On the K'i K'iuen at large, vid. Tai-Ping yü-lan, bk. 598, fol. 3–7.

page 434 note 3 Where Colonel Yule saw them. Vid. his note in The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. ii. p. 78.Google Scholar

page 434 note 4 I saw those used by bakers in Normandy.

page 434 note 5 Notes and Queries, ser. 1, vol. x. p. 485Google Scholar.—du Méril, Edelestand, Essai sur l'origines des Runes (8vo. Paris, 1844), p. 29.Google Scholar

page 435 note 1 RevTaylor, Isaac, Greeks and Goths; a Study on the Runes (London, 1879), pp. 108–139;Google ScholarThe Alphabet, vol. ii. pp. 225–227.Google Scholar

page 435 note 2 de Jubainville, M. D'Arbois, L'Alphabet Irlandais primitif et le dieu Ogmios, pp. 20–26Google Scholar in Academie Inscr. et Bell.-Lettr. Comptes Rendus, 1881, vol. ix.Google Scholar

page 435 note 3 We neglect here, of course, the obviously Tataric graffitti and inscriptions of Mongol and Kalmuck characters.

page 435 note 4 von Strahlenberg, P. J.: Description of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary, etc., with plates. 4to. London, 1738Google Scholar.—Spassky, Greg.: De Antiquis quibusdam sculpturis et inscriptionibus in Sibiria repertis; 4to. Petropoli, 1822Google Scholar.—An abstract of the latter, with plates, under this title: De quelques inscriptions decouvertes en Siberie in de Rosny, L.: Archives Paléographiques de l'Orient et de l'Amérique; 8vo. pp. 143–6, Paris, 1872Google Scholar.—Meiners, : De Antiquis Monum. in Sibir. Australi extantibus; in Comment. Soc. Reg. Gotting. vol. xiii. 1799Google Scholar. Pallas, , Neue nordische Beytraege, tom. v. St. Petersb. 1781.Google Scholar

page 435 note 5 Vid. above § 8, on a hieroglyphical one.

page 435 note 6 Spassky, G., op. cit. Archives, p. 145, pl. xix. Vid. Addenda.Google Scholar

page 436 note 1 The Oldest Book of the Chinese, § 28.Google Scholar

page 436 note 2 Or Map of the Ho river.

page 436 note 3 Or writing from the Lo river. On these, vid. Mayers, , Chinese Reader's Manual, pp. 56–9.Google Scholar

page 436 note 4 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877, vol. xlvi.Google Scholar Mr. J. H. Rivett Carnac had the kindness to write me from Ghazipur, and to send me his following papers: Pre-Historic Remains in Central India, Calcutta, 1879;Google ScholarOn Stone Implements from the North-Western Provinces of India, Calcutta, 1883;Google ScholarArchæological Notes on Ancient Sculpturings on Rocks in Kumaon, India, similar to those found on Monoliths and Rocks in Europe, 8vo. Calcutta, 1883.Google Scholar

page 436 note 5 Cup-marks, in Saturday Review, Nov. 24, 1883.Google Scholar

page 436 note 6 Some marks, straight lines and circles, on rocks were found along the southern coast of Hawaï. Cf. Bastian, A., Sprachvergleichen Studien …. der IndoChinesischen Sprachen, p. 104 (8vo. Leipzig, 1870).Google Scholar I extract the following note from a contemporary (Feb. 13, 1883): “In many parts of Switzerland, writes our Geneva correspondent, are often found smooth flat stones, evidently handpolished, and covered with dots, lines, circles, and half-circles. The origin and use of these stones, known among country people as Schalensteine, has long been a moot point among the learned. Some have thought they were charms, others that they were meant to commemorate the dead, or that the signs on them were undecipherable hieroglyphics; but it has been reserved for Herr Rödiger, of Bellach, in Solothurn, to throw a new light on these mysterious relics of the past, and suggest a theory concerning them which seems to meet all the necessities of the case. The Schalensteine, he says, are neither more nor less than topographical charts, as a comparison of them with any modern map of the districts in which they are found will show. The engraved dots correspond with existing towns and villages, the lines with roads. Even the fords and mountain passes are indicated. Herr Rödiger has examined many of these stones from various parts of the country, and he possesses a collection, picked up in Solothurn, which form together a map of the entire canton. Another significant circumstance is that the Schalensteine are mostly found at intervals of about two hours (say, six miles) from each other, and at spots where several roads meet. The former Herr Rödiger calls “headstones” (Hauptsteine), the latter he denominates “bystones” (Nebenteine). If he be right in his hypothesis, the places where these stones are met with possessed considerable populations long before the dawn of history; even the villages shown on the Schalensteine must be far older than the Christian era. Herr Rödiger considers the Swiss map stones to be of the same origin as the similar stones which are found in Germany, Scandinavia, India, and further Asia, and sees in them another proof of the high antiquity and common origin of the Indo-Germanic races, and the existence among the latter, in an indefinitely remote age, of civilized habits, organized trade, and more culture than is generally supposed.”

page 437 note 1 Vid. below § 44.

page 437 note 2 It was apparently not yet current in the tenth century, if we may so infer from the silence of the Tai-ping yü lan, bk. 785, f. 2, which mentions only the second mission.

page 437 note 3 K'ang Kien tcheng she yoh, 1737, bk. i. f. 9,—Kang Kien y tchi luh, 1711; Medhurst, , Ancient China, p. 330Google Scholar.—T'ung Kien Kang muh (twelfth cent.), bk. vii. f. 18.

page 437 note 4 On these embellishments and their subsequent development, cf. some remarks in my paper on The Old Numerals, the Counting Rods and the Swan-Pan in China, London, 1884, p. 1Google Scholar (excerpt Numismatic Chronicle, vol. iii. pp. 297–340).Google Scholar

page 438 note 1 Lenormant, Vid. Fr., Histoire ancienne de l'Orient, 9th edit. vol. i. p. 399Google Scholar; Dr. Broca, Sur les Troglodytes de la Vézère.

page 438 note 2 de Mortillet, G., Le Préhistorique, p. 408 (Paris, 1883).Google Scholar

page 438 note 3 Such, for example, as the marks on the stones of the dolmen of Mané-Lud. SirSimpson, J. has collected all these marks in his work, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., on Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England, and other Countries. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1867.Google Scholar

page 438 note 4 A French scholar, Mr. C. Schoebel, published in 1882 a learned but not convincing paper, Mémoire sur les Origines de l'Ecriture Alphaletique (in Actes de la Societé Philologique de Paris, pp. 137–213Google Scholar), where he denies the evolution towards alphabet from a hieroglyphical basis.

page 438 note 5 Cf. Sanaki-bara yoshi-no: Bun-gei rui-san, bk. i. f. 22.—Atsutane, Hirata, Giji hen, ff. 14, 15, 16, 17.Google Scholar

page 439 note 1 “Constructed out of the Arabic alphabet, after the Arabs had come into contact with the Varangians in the ninth century.”—Taylor, Isaac, The Alphabet, ii. 226n.Google Scholar

page 439 note 2 Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained, …in the Arabic language, by Ahmad ben Abubekr ben Wahshih. Transl. by Hammer, Joseph. 8vo. London, 1806, pp. 38, 45.Google Scholar

page 439 note 3 Siebold, Heinrich, Ethnologische studien über die Aïnos auf der Insel Yesso (Berlin, 1881, 8vo.) s. 19.Google Scholar

page 439 note 4 Ibid. Taff. II.

page 440 note 1 Die Aïnos, Taff. vii. Inschrift zweifelhaften Ursprungs bei Oturanai. Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur-und Völkerkuude Ostasiens, 26 stes Helft. Februar, 1882, Band iii. pp. 220–256. Vid. Addenda.Google Scholar

page 440 note 2 M. Léon de Rosny thought he had found proofs of the early use of this writing in Japan, and he communicated the fact to the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Vid. Les sources des plus anciennes de l'histoire de Japon, pp. 105–116Google Scholar, and L'écriture sacrée et les inscriptions de l'antiquité Japonaise, pp. 170–177Google Scholar of Comptes rendus A.I.S.-L., 1882, t. ix. But his supposed discovery turned out to be a misconception according to the severe criticism of MrChamberlain, Basil Hall, On two Questions of Japanese Archœology, pp. 315–332Google Scholar of J.R.A.S. 1883, Vol. XV.Google Scholar

page 440 note 3 Vid. the specimens dating from 1477 A.D., in the Bun-gei rui-san (1878), bk. i. ff. 14–15.Google Scholar

page 440 note 4 Vid. my paper On a Lolo Manuscript written on Satin in J.R.A.S. Vol. XIV. pp. 119–123.Google Scholar The great interest of this writing lies in its bearing on the history of Indian writing. The oldest specimen of writing hitherto known in India is a stone seal found in some ruins at Harapa, near Lahore, upon which General Cunningham writes as follows:—“Its age is of course quite uncertain, but I do not think its date can be later than 500 to 400 B.C. I now think it may be archaic Indian letters of as early an age as Buddha himself.”—Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, p 60Google Scholar. Now these characters are the same writing as that now possessed by the lolos, as I have shown in the above pamphlet by juxtaposition of the two writings.

page 441 note 1 Vid. my remarks in Baber's, E. C.Travels and Researches in Western China, pp. 142–143 (London, 1882, R.G.S., suppl. pap. vol. i.),Google Scholar and also in J.R.A.S. 1882, Vol. XIV. pp. 802–803;Google Scholarde L., T., On the History of Archaic Chinese Writing and Texts, p. 8 (London, 1882, 8vo.);Google ScholarThe Academy, July 2, 1881.

page 441 note 2 These tribes are reported to have a written language of over 600 characters. These, he says, are symbols of sounds and not of things, as the Chinese characters. Such was the saying of a Mandarin of Kueitchou province, to Deka, , Notes and Queries on China and Japan, vol. i. p. 104.Google Scholar

page 441 note 3 Up till now we have five texts in this writing. Three fac-similes were published in E. C. Baber's Travels and Researches. The fourth is the MS. written on satin described in my pamphlet On a Lolo MS, above quoted. The fifth consists of three pages sent by the missionaries MM. Gourdin and V. Crabouillet to my friend Mr. E. C. Baber, who gave them to me. They will appear in my book China before the Chinese. A sixth exists in the Library of the Asiatic Society of Shanghai; it has been described in Revue de l'Extreme Orient, 1884, vol. ii. pp. 582–83.Google Scholar

page 441 note 4 There are many traces in some parts of Borneo of Chinese influence, shape and ornamentation of roofs, etc. Important Chinese colonies were formerly settled there from the fifteenth century. A Dayak tribe in the interior claim to be descendants of Chinese. Cf. Groeneveldt, W. P., Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca, compiled from Chinese sources, pp. 101–115 (8vo. Batavia, 1876).Google Scholar

page 442 note 1 I was acquainted with this inscription through a fac-simile sent to ray learned friends, Col. H. Yule and Dr. R. Rost, by Dr. A. B. Meyer, Keeper of the Museum. This writing is not without some apparent connection with one of the writings of Sumatra. On the other hand, it presents no less a curious semblance with an inscription dug out in Japan at Usuki in Fiuga Kuni in 1821 (Bem-sei, fourth year). Cf. the fac-simile in Ta Jihpon ti Ming, f. 189v.

page 442 note 2 I do not know in what part of Borneo the vase was found. It is, however, curious to point out that the Chinese annals of the Ming dynasty (1368—1643), Ming she, bk. 323, in the notice about Bandjermasin, speaking of the people, say that “they very much like earthen jars with dragons outside.”

page 442 note 3 Over de Opschriften uit Koeter in Verband met de Geschiedenis van het schrift in den Indischen Archipel. 8vo. Amsterdam, 1882, p. 18Google Scholar.—Also Holle, K. F., Tabel van Oud- en Nieuw-Indische Alphabetten. Bijdrage tot de palaeographie van Nederlandsch-Indië (8vo. Batavia, 1882), n. 80–1.Google Scholar

page 442 note 4 Bilderschriften des Ostindischen Archipels, pl. I. 1. 11.

page 442 note 5 It is interesting here to note that a bronze bell bearing an inscription in ancient Tamil characters, has been discovered at Wangarei.—Cf. Taylor, T. R., Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, p. 34Google Scholar.—de Quatrefages, A., Hommes fossiles et homines sauvages (Paris, 1884, 8vo.), p. 476.Google Scholar

page 443 note 1 Señ. Gonzalez de la Roza has exhibited a tracing of these signatures, which were reproduced by MrHarrison, Park, op. cit. pp. 14, 15, pl. 27Google Scholar.—Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. iii. pl. xxvii.Google Scholar For instance, one of these signatures is a big monogram Inu, which was apparently used as an ideogram, while the other signatures are written in a concise form of the characters and monograms of the inscriptions.

page 443 note 2 Harrison, J. Park, The Hieroglyphics of Easter Island (8vo. London, 1874), p. 16,Google Scholar with five plates.—Note on Five Hieroglyphic Tablets from Easter Island, p. 2Google Scholar.— Vid. also Nature, Sept. 17, 1874.—Palmer, J. Linton, Davis or Easter Island (with plate) in Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, 1875, xxix. pp. 275–97;Google ScholarOn some Tablets found in Easter Island (with plate), Ibid. 1876, xxx. pp. 255–63.—A small inscription enlarged is given in Meyer's, Bilderschriften des Ostindischen Archipels, pl. viGoogle Scholar.—Also one in Tour du monde, 2e sem. 1882, A. Pinart, L'île de Paques.

page 444 note 1 Burnell, A. C., Elements of South Indian Palæography, from the fourth to the seventeenth century A.D., being An Introduction to the Study of South Indian Inscriptions and MSS. 2nd edit. 4to. London and Mangalore, 1878Google Scholar.—Plates i. vii. viii. are specially interesting for the forked matras.

page 444 note 2 I had withheld the publication of this discovery with the hope of spending more time over it, and giving a transcription and translation of several of these inscriptions. Though it is still my intention, I find my hands so full for a time to come, that I venture to print the above information for the use of some scholar conversant with these matters.

page 444 note 3 It is said in their records that their writing was in use at the time of their sending a mission to the Chinese King Tching of Tchou (viz. 1109 or 1039 B.C.), and that it required translation into Chinese. Vid. Truong-vinh-ky, P. J. B., Cours d'histoire Annamite (Saigon, 1875), vol. i. pp. 11.Google Scholar

page 444 note 4 The question is discussed at length in China before the Chinese.

page 444 note 5 Remarks on the Indo-Chinese Alphabets, in J.R.A.S., 1868, Vol. III. pp. 65–80.Google Scholar

page 445 note 1 de Rhins, Dutreuil, Notice sur le Tong-King, in Bulletin de la Société de Geographie de Paris, Avril, 1880, p. 311.Google Scholar

page 445 note 2 Vid. the official geography of Annam, published in 1829, Hoang viet dia du chi, vol. i. pp. 1, 9; vol. ii. p. 31.Google Scholar The Yueh-tchang or Viet-thüong region is now covered by the provinces of Nghê-An, Thuan-hoa and Quang-nam.

page 445 note 3 Vid. Truong Vinh Ky, Ibid. p. 27.

page 445 note 4 Scott, James George, France and Tongking (London, 1885), pp. 353–354.Google Scholar

page 446 note 1 This unexpected conclusion, to which I was long adverse, has cost me many years of patient work before I could conceive and understand it. But it is now so clear that any scholar conversant with the matter who examines without prejudiced views the facts I put forward in my publications, cannot fail to be convinced. I am now myself rather ashamed not to have found it out at the beginning of my researches. Vid. §§9, 17, 19, 33, 49.

page 446 note 2 In favour of this result of my studies I find the following views:—Tai Tung, a renowned palæographer of the thirteenth century, author of the Luh Shu Ku, arrived at the conclusion that hieroglyphics do not constitute the only original ground of the Chinese writing. Vid. Nacken, J., A Chinese Webster, in China Review, 1873, vol. ii. p. 176Google Scholar. de Rosny, M. Léon, Les Ecritures figuratives et hiéroglyphiques des differents peuples anciens et modernes (2nd edit.Paris, 1870, 4to.), pp. 3 and 4, expresses a similar opinion.Google Scholar

page 447 note 1 On its curious effect on the phonetic reading of the ancient groups cf. The Oldest Book of the Chinese, § 23, and also a valuable article in The Times, Aug. 26, 1884, Further Progress in Chinese Studies.Google Scholar

page 447 note 2 Such is also the opinion of RevChalmers, J., The Origin of the Chinese; an attempt to trace the connection of the Chinese with western nations in their religion, superstitions, arts, language, and traditions (8vo. London, 1868), p. 60.Google Scholar A rather indifferent work, which does not repose on a sufficiently extensive knowledge for the ground it seeks to cover.

page 447 note 3 For instance, in the first volume of his great work on China, the well-known German traveller, Von Richthofen, F. (China, vol. i. p. 371)Google Scholar, has given a sketch of a bronze vase with its inscription as a specimen of the oldest bronze industry under the Tchou dynasty, 1000 B. C. NOW the inscription proves that the vase is a forgery. The founder, to escape detection, has dropped the first or left columnline, and the last character of every other five column-line of an old inscription of six lines, which is known from two ancient objects on which it was inscribed. Fac-similes have been published in the Ku yü t'u, bk. iii. ff. 7–8, and bk. xvii. ff. 14–5. A splendid bronze vase brought back by Gen. Malcolm contains an inscription in twelve characters, copied simply from the 16th, 17th, and 18th columns of the well-known San she pan inscription. Mr. J. Drury Fortnum, of Stanmore, has in his collection a beautiful vase, containing the half of an old inscription, etc.

page 449 note 1 This is established by a formidable array of facts. Some of them are most convincing. We have learned from the Chinese palæographers, for characters identified with ancient Babylonian, some meanings still unknown, and deciphered afterwards by Assyriologists. On the other hand, in May, 1880, I was able to announce that the Chinese signs of the cardinal points, similar to those of Babylon, exhibit a shifting then unexplained; three years afterwards Mr. T. G. Pinches made a corresponding discovery on the Assyro-Babylonian side, cf. de L., T., Early History of Christian Civilization, 1880, p. 29;Google ScholarPinches, T. G., in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archœology, 6 Feb. 1883.Google Scholar I read myself at the Royal Asiatic Society, on April 30th of the same year, a paper On the Shifting of the Cardinal Points, as an illustration of the Chaldœo-Babylonian culture borrowed by the Early Chinese, which will soon appear in my book on the Sources of Chinese Civilization, where it is shown that it gives a clue to the road followed by the civilizers of China. And I had the satisfaction at the Royal Asiatic Society's meeting, on March 14th, 1884, to hear Sir Henry Rawlinson, the founder and the most prominent member of the Assyriological school in this country, state his belief (after three years of opposed opinion) in my discoveries of the derivation of the early Chinese civilization from that of Assyrio-Babylonia through the intermediary of Susiana.

page 449 note 2 Vid. some instances, The Oldest Book of the Chinese, § 23, and notes.

page 450 note 1 Vid. The Oldest Book of the Chinese, § 23n. J. R. A. S. Vol. XIV. p. 800.Google Scholar

page 451 note 1 Cf. Lenormant, François, La langue primitive de la Chaldée et les idiomes Touraniens (8vo. Paris, 1875), pp. 278–279.Google Scholar

page 451 note 2 The purpose of my forthcoming work, China before the Chinese, is to disentangle the nexus of all the non-Chinese tribes which have occupied the country before the Chinese, in order to permit me to consider exclusively the Chinese origin in a following work. A short abstract of a part of it forms my paper, The Cradle of the Shan Race, introduction to Colquhoun's, A. E. book, Amongst the Shans (8vo. London, 1885).Google Scholar

page 451 note 3 Vide a clear classification of this phenomenon, Adam, Lucien, De l'harmonie des voyelles (8vo. Paris, 1874).Google Scholar

page 452 note 1 Lenormant, François, Chaldœan Magic, its origin and development (8vo. London, 1878), p. 271.Google Scholar

page 452 note 2 Vid. my Early History of the Chinese Civilisation (London, 1880), p. 29.Google Scholar But these affinities date from a period very remote, when we may safely assume that the present Ugro-Altaïc and Turko-Tartar groups were not yet bent by their surrounding circumstances to their present distinct course of evolution. This distinction of the two groups is by no means clearly established, as shown by the late contention about the classification of the Magyar (cf. A Magyarok eredete irta Vambéry Armin, Budapest, 1882.Google Scholar Also a valuable article by Kuun, Count Géza on Les Origines Hongroises in Revue Internationale, Mai, 1884, pp. 465–495).Google Scholar

page 452 note 3 Cf. on the syllabic pronunciation, Sweet, Henry, A Handbook of Phonetics, pp. 87,Google Scholarseq.—ProfSayce, A. H., Introduction to the Science of Language, vol. i. pp. 286,Google Scholarseq

page 452 note 4 Otherwise “tone.“—On Tone and Accentuation, vide my book, Du Langage, Essai sur la nature et l'etude des Mots et des Langues (8vo. Paris, 1867), §§ 22–30.Google Scholar

page 453 note 1 For some examples, vid. J.R.A.S. Vol. XIV. p. 799, N.S.Google Scholar

page 453 note 2 The curious Chinese system of indicating the pronunciation of a word by the initial of one word and the final of another, called the fan-tsich, was apparently suggested by a similar phenomenon, with this difference, that it was not the final of the second word, but that of the first and the initial of the second of two syllabic characters in a group which were dropped in pronunciation. The Rev. J. Edkins states that the fan-tsich was introduced by Sun shu yen in a work on the Erh-ya, about A.D. 230 (Introduction to the Study of Chinese Characters, p. 179Google Scholar). But I have found in the Tsa luh of Ku yen-wu (A.D. 1613–82), a very great scholar, that the system was originated by Yang Hiung (B.C. 53—A.D. 18), the author of the Fang yen, a comparative dictionary of the Chinese dialects.

page 454 note 1 The character must be read here as so, and not sie, its otherwise common pronunciation. The K'anghi tze tien gives this equivalent and quotes the names of Lo-so (Lhassa), Mo-so and Tu-kuang-so as examples of this special pronunciation. Vid. ii. 5, f. 30v.

page 454 note 2 Vid. Garnier, F., Voyage d'Exploration en Indo-Chine, vol. i. p. 520.Google Scholar

page 454 note 3 Their own native name is Na-shi.

page 454 note 4 “Le nom de Mosso, tout injurieux qu'il était dit-on dans le principe a fini par dominer tellement que les Mosso actuels l'acceptent sans repugnance et s'appellent eux-mêmes Mosso.”

page 454 note 5 The Wan-y tchi (quoted in the Tai Ping yü lan cyclopedia (A.D. 977), Kiv. 789, f. 6) locates them above and below the Iron bridge (in the N.W. of Li-Kiang).

page 454 note 6 Sa in Tibetan means: earth, country, place, spot, ground, etc. Vid. Jaeschke, H. A., Tibetan-English Dictionary, p. 569b (London, 1881, 8vo.).Google Scholar

page 455 note 1 The passage, without quotation as usual, is reproduced by Tuanlin, Ma. Vid. Ethnographie des peuples étrangers à la Chine, vol. ii. p. 297 (transl. St.-Denys, d'Hervey),Google Scholar where the name is inadvertently transcribed Mo-sie-man.

page 455 note 2 The Mo here is written with the same character as that of Mo-so, and suggests apparently a relationship between the two populations.

page 455 note 3 Their name is not quoted, nor any other, in the Historical Documents concerning Yunnan, where it is stated only that the country fell into anarchy after the death of Shun-hua, and that several tribes threw over the yoke. Cf. Rocher, E., La province Chinoise du Yunnan (Paris, 1879), vol. i. p. 166.Google Scholar

page 456 note 1 On Mr. E. C. Baber's map, Djedam is written under the name of Tchungtien, half-way between Li-Kiang, and Bat'ang, (Vid. Travels and Researches, p. 93);Google Scholar but as he does not give his authority, we do not know which of the two conflicting statements is genuine.

page 456 note 2 Desgodins, , La Mission du Tibet, p. 258.Google Scholar

page 456 note 3 Desgodins, Père A., Notes Ethnographiques sur le Thibet, in Annales de l'Extrême Orient, Juillet, 1879, pp. 10–12.Google Scholar

page 456 note 4 Under the Han dynasty it was called Ting-tso (Cf. Playfair, , The Cities and Towns of China, n. 4147Google Scholar). Sadam is perhaps the same two syllables inverted with a dialectal pronunciation. The case would not be isolated in that part of China, as we know several other instances of the same phenomenon. Cf. Teng-yueh, which was also Yueh-tan.

page 456 note 5 From p. 21 we are informed that the members of the tribe in the prefecture of Li-Kiang are all surnamed Ho , but intermarriages are not on this account forbidden (as would be the case according to Chinese customs), so that there are at least two great subtribes among the Mo-so, the Mu and the Ho.

page 457 note 1 Guiong = Djiung. The latter orthography is that of MrBaber, Colborne, Travels and Researches in Western China, p. 88nGoogle Scholar. In Jaeschke's, H. A.Tibetan Dictionary, p. 75Google Scholar, I find a word gyong-, meaning, “rough, rude, impolite,” but I do not find anything like god, with the meaning of ‘head,’ in the same work. The latter word is apparently a dialectal form corresponding to the ancient Chinese Get, modern hiet, hieh.

page 457 note 2 “Aux vices des Tibetains dont j'ai parlé ailleurs, dit le courageux missionaire, il faut ajouter un esprit chicanier, querelleux, ladre et aimant les procès; ajoutez à cela l'ivrognerie et vous aurez une idée de ces êtres dégradés. Quant aux traits physiques ils sont bien altérés et ne representent plus le vrai type Mosso, cependant en peut le reconnaître à certains caractères; front plus fuyant, nez plus aquilin, les deux os maxillaires inférieurs moins écartés, menton plus fuyant que chez le Thibétain ….” Notes Ethnographiques sur le Thibet, l.c.

page 458 note 1 Vid. Baber, E. Colborne, Travels and Researches in Western China, p. 88.Google Scholar

page 458 note 2 Playlair, G. M. H., The Miao-tzǔ of Kweichau and Yunnan, n. 21. A. 108, 63Google Scholar, gives only a part of the same text. Vid. China before the Chinese, s.v.

page 458 note 3 Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtails and Petticoats; or, An Overland Journey from China towards India, by Cooper, T. T., London, 1871, 8vo. pp. 312–315.Google Scholar

page 459 note 1 T. T. Cooper, ibid, p. 314. This traveller has mistaken the names of Ya-tse and Mooquor (Mukua) as appellatives of tribes instead of localities.

page 459 note 2 Mots principaux de certaines tribus qui habitent les bords du Lan-tsang Kiang, du Lou-tze-Kiang et Irrawaddy, Desgodins, par l'Abbé, missionnaire au Thibet (Yerkalo, 26 Mai, 1872);Google ScholarBulletin de la Societé de Géographie de Paris, vi. serie, t. iv.

page 460 note 1 The fact is not recorded in the published record of his journey, but I have it from the traveller himself.

page 460 note 2 Capt. Gill was not more successful than myself in a similar attempt.

page 460 note 3 Add. MSS. Or. 2162. Published in fac-simile on Plates I. II. herewith.

page 460 note 4 The River of Golden Sand; being the Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burma; London, 1880, 2 vols. 8vo. Introd. pp. 90–2.Google Scholar

page 462 note 1 Letter from Père Desgodins to the author, dated from Darjiling, 21 Avril, 1882. In forwarding this letter, the amiable Mr. Desgodins, of Nancy, brother of the Missionary, had the kindness to send me two pages and a half more of MS., completing the whole of the copy made by Père Desgodins from the Tong-ba's MS. Published in fac-simile on Plate III. herewith.

page 463 note 1 Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, vid. above, § 8.Google Scholar

page 463 note 2 Vid. the able translation of this notice with annotations by DrBushell, S. W., The Early History of Thibet, p. 440Google Scholar in J.R.A.S. 1880, Vol. XII.;Google Scholar and also DrGanzenmuller, K., Tibet, Stuttgart, 1878, p. 103.Google Scholar

page 464 note 1 Cornhill Magazine (Oct. 1882, pp. 466–476) by Toe, ShwayGoogle Scholar (MrScott, J. G., once resident in Burma, and the author of the best book ever written on its subject, The Burman, London, 1882, 2 vols. 8vo.).Google Scholar

page 465 note 1 Mots principaux de certains tribus …. loc. cit.

page 466 note 1 Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine, vol. i. p. 520n.Google Scholar

page 467 note 1 Is this na the same as the Tibetan nag, ‘woman,’ the old Chinese nok?

page 468 note 1 Mentioned by Père Desgodins in Ms paper, Mots principaux, etc., loc. cit.

page 468 note 2 Vid. Elias, Ney, Sketch of the History of the Shans, Calcutta, 1876, 8vo. p. 12Google Scholar.—And also below, § 100, Addenda.

page 469 note 1 Cf. Ney Elias, loc. cit.; MajorSpearman, H. R., British Burma Gazetteer, vol. i. p. 236;Google ScholarSirPhayre, Arthur, History of Burma (London, 1883, 8vo.), p. 8.Google Scholar

page 469 note 2 More is said of this once famous and important state in my introduction on The Cradle of the Shan Race, to Colquhoun's, A. R. book, Amongst the Shans (London, 1885, 8vo.). Excerpt, pp. 27–8.Google Scholar

page 469 note 3 We find this word connected with the following which will have the same meaning: Tchung Miao Jen; Singpho Ntsin; Kakhyen Intzin; Munnipuri Ishing, etc.

page 471 note 1 Cf. a valuable paper by DrBushell, S. W. of Peking, The Early History of Tibet, from Chinese Sources, in J.R.A.S. 1880, Vol. XII. pp. 435–541.Google Scholar Vid. p. 440. Since, a very promising scholar, MrRockhill, W. Woodville, has compiled from Tibetan sources The Early History of Bod-yul (Tibet), pp. 203–229Google Scholar of his valuable work The Life of the Buddha (London, 1884).Google Scholar

page 471 note 2 I have treated at length this question in a special paper: Tibet: why so called?

page 471 note 3 Annals of the Wei dynasty or Weishu in Tai-ping yü-lan, bk. 800, f. lv., and bk. 101, f. 1.

page 471 note 4 Cf. Li-tai Ti-wang-nien-piao, Tsin, E., ff. 11–13.Google Scholar

page 471 note 5 Vid. Histoire des Huns, vol. i. part i. pp. 197–198.Google Scholar

page 471 note 6 The Coreans are still called Sien-pi by the Japanese.

page 472 note 1 Cf. Tang shu, in T.P.y.L., Bk. 795 f. 3 v.; where it is written, a variant which leaves no doubt as to the equivalence of all these forms.

page 472 note 2 Also read Juan-Juan and Jan-Jan.

page 472 note 3 Nan she (420–589 A.D.), monography of the Y meh in K'anghi tze tien, 142 + 14, f. 64.—Vid. above § § 13, 27.

page 472 note 4 They were the first who are known to have used the title of K'an. Vid. Deguignes, , Histoire des Huns, vol. i. (1) p. 188.Google Scholar

page 472 note 5 Their chief relationship was with the Jurtchi, Dzhurtshit, Tshurtshit, Zhudzhi, otherwise Nyudzhi, Neu-chin, Nio-tchi, and Tchortchog (Uighur orthography), Jurjeh, Jurji (Persian orthography), also Soh-shin, Nuhtchi (in older Chinese transcriptions), of which the names of the Tchachourche and Nakhtchusi are perhaps survivals in the Caucasus. I have found myself many affinities between the Awar and the Mandchu languages in vocabulary and ideology. The Caucasian affinities of languages of the far East have bee pointed out by Klaproth, Latham, Norris, Logan, Hodgson, Charencey, Schiefner, etc., but have not yet been established on a scientific footing.

page 473 note 1 Cf. my remarks in my paper on The Cradle of the Shan Race, in excerpt, pp. 6–9.Google Scholar It was printed before the valuable article of ProfMüller, Max, The Savage, appeared in the Nineteenth Century, January, 1885.Google Scholar

page 473 note 2 Vid. The Early History of Tibet, from, Chinese Sources, by DrBushell, S. W., in J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. 1880, pp. 435–541. Cf. p. 440.Google Scholar

page 473 note 3 This first king was Gnya- Khri btsan-po, who ruled five hundred years before the birth of the King Thotori, according to Csoma's, Tibetan Grammar, p. 194.Google Scholar

page 474 note 1 Cf. The Life of the Buddha and the Early History of his Order, derived from Tibetan works, in the Bkah-hgyur and Bstan-hgyur. Followed by notices on The Early History of Tibet and Khoten. Translated by Rockhill, W. Woodville, Second Secretary U.S. Legation in China. London 1884. 8vO. p. 208.Google Scholar

page 474 note 2 A copy of the Za-mag-thog bkod-pai mdo or Karandavyuha sûtra, an almsbowl (patra), the six essential syllables (Om maṇi padme hum), a golden tchaitya, and a clay image of the chintamaṇi, are said to have fallen from Heaven in the royal palace (Rockhill, Woodville, The Life of the Buddha, p. 210).Google Scholar

page 474 note 3 Bodhimur, in Setsen, Sanang, p. 327, edit. Schmidt.Google Scholar

page 475 note 1 I am indebted to Dr. Wentzel, a fervent pupil of the late Dr. Jaeschke, for the following note:—“A detailed description of the introduction of writing into Tibet is contained in the tenth chapter of the Gyalrabs (rgyal-rabs), a history of the kings of Tibet, made use of by Jaeschke for compiling his Dictionary. (Another copy of this work is in the library of the Petersburg Academy, N. 433a in the catalogue in the Bullet. hist. phil. 1851;Google Scholar a third is mentioned in Schlagintweit's, Die Könige von Tibet, p. 19Google Scholar of the separate edition from the Abhandl. d. Kgl. Bayr. Ak. i. cl. x. iii.) In Jaeschke's copy, the tenth chapter reaches from the end of fol. 29 to the beginning of 34. The substance of it is translated into German (from Bodhimör, the Mongolian version of the work) by Schmidt, in the annotations to his edition of Setzen, Sanang, Gesehiehtu des Ost-Mongolen, p. 327sqGoogle Scholar. There it is said (fol. 31b 3, Schmidt, , p. 328Google Scholar) that Thonmi Sambhota formed the square writing Dbu-djan out of the characters of the gods Lāñcha, and the cursive writing (here zurdjan ‘the angular,’ properly the half-cursive, which itself then was developed to the more current dbu-min) out of the characters of the Nagas, Vartula. What Indian alphabet may have had this last name is not known. Devalipi and nāgalipi occur also side by side among the 64 alphabets that Siddhārta is instructed in (Lai. 144, 2, of the Calcutta edition).”

page 475 note 2 Cf. ProfDouglas, R. K., China, London, 1882, p. 318Google Scholar.—Rev. ProfBeal, Samuel, Abstract of Four Lectures on Buddhist Literature in China, London, 1882, pp. 1–2;Google ScholarBuddhism in China, London, 1884, pp. 47–48.Google Scholar The Po sie lun, by Fa-lin, where the tradition is reported, was written between A.D. 624–640, according to Nanjio, Bunyiu, A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, Oxford, 1863, col. 331, n. 1500.Google Scholar

page 475 note 3 Cf. Mayers's, Chinese Reader's Manual, 340, 754.Google Scholar

page 476 note 1 Das, Baboo Sarat Chandra, Contributions on the Religion, History, etc., of Tibet, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 1. 1881, pp. 187–251; vol. li. 1882, pp. 1–75, 87–128, cf. p. 219.Google Scholar

page 476 note 2 The title of this important Tibetan work is Rgyal-rabs-kyi gsal-bai mé-long or “A bright mirror of the history of kings” (cf. Jaeschke, Tib. Engl. Dict., p. 417)Google Scholar. It was compiled by the fifth Gyalwa-Rinpochhe, or Great Lama (Das, Sarat Chandra, op. cit. p. 212).Google Scholar

page 476 note 3 The name slightly altered was still used in the last century, and figures in D'Anville's map as Anonkek or Anongen.

page 476 note 4 Translated by Schmidt in the Annotations to his edition of Setzen, Sanang, Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, p. 327 sqGoogle Scholar. Ssanang Setzen Khung taidshi completed in 1662 his work entitled Mongol Khadun Toghudji or “A History of the Mongol Khans” (Howorth, H. H., History of the Mongols, i. xvi.).Google Scholar

page 477 note 1 Shang dehoh Khantouktou in the preface to his Tibetan-Mongol Dictionary, states that Taomisamkandra, when back in India framed two Tibetan alphabets, the tsab from the Landza, and the char or kchar from the Vardo, cf. Journal Asiatique, 1822, p. 331.Google Scholar

page 477 note 2 Rom=‘thick, big, stout,’ whence rom-yig as a distinction from the p'ra yig or cursive writing, where p'ra means ‘thin, fine, minute,’ cf. Jaeschke, , Tibet Engl. Dict. pp. 353, 536.Google Scholar

page 477 note 3 They are said to have retained faithfully the primitive forms which were cut on wooden blocks for printing in the seventh century, soon after their introduction into Tibet (cf. Wuttke, H., Die Entstehung der Schrift, p. 471).Google Scholar Printing was introduced from China, where the art was flourishing, especially in the west, on the borderland of Tibet. It began by the habit, still in use, of taking rubbings of engraved stones (i.e. of blackening, with a pad, paper squeezed on the inscribed stone, so that the deepened marks appear white on black ground). Such rubbings were in circulation under Han Tchang-ti (A.D. 76), and Tsin Wu-ti (A.D. 265). The engraving of the texts of the sacred books on stone, in A.D. 175, by Tsai-yung, and in A.D. 240–9. afforded facilities for such rubbings. The art was improved in the region of Shuh, i.e. Szetchuen, and much used by the Buddhists for the propagation of their texts and images of Buddha. But we do not see it adopted by the Chinese government before the year 593 A.D. for printing the pictures, autographs and neglected texts. Printing on blocks was carried to Korea and Japan, where it was in use in A.D. 764. Two specimens of the latter date printing are in the British Museum. As to the printing with moveable types, the art was known or invented in China circ. 1041–1049 by Pi-shing and improved by Tch'en Kuoh (circ. 1080) and Yang K'oh; most of their types were in clay. A century afterwards printing moveable types in copper were made in Korea. Copies of books so printed later (in 1317) are still in existence.

page 478 note 1 According to Rockhill, Woodville, op. cit. p. 210.Google Scholar It is mentioned by Hodgson, Brian H., Essays on the Language and Literature of Tibet, vol. i. pp. 17, 37.Google Scholar

page 478 note 2 Ka-p'reng dbu-djan, i.e. the capital alphabet, the same as the yi-ge dbu-djan, or more simply u-djan.

page 478 note 3 Sum-dju=thirty. Cf. Jaeschke, , Tibetan-English Dictionary, p. 426.Google Scholar

page 479 note 1 Jaeschke, ibid, p. 418.

page 479 note 2 Baboo Sarat Chandra Das arranges it still otherwise, and reads Wurtu in his text, while in his note thereon he says, “Wartu is probably the language of the people of Kafiristan and Bactria.” Cf. his Contributions, loc. cit. p. 2.Google Scholar But the reading vartula is quite plain, though arranged after the fashion of the Tibetan lexicographs vartu-la.

page 479 note 3 Jaeschke, , Tib. Dict. p. 105.Google Scholar

page 480 note 1 Vid. above, § 90n. As to the date of the Lalita Vistara it is not known. It was first translated into Chinese during the Shuh Han dynasty, A.D. 221–263 (cf. Nanjio, Bunyiu, A Catalogue of the Buddhist Tripitaka, n. 159). The date of A.D. 76 first given by Stanislas Julien was the result of a mistake.Google Scholar

page 480 note 2 No satisfactory explanation has hitherto been given of the name Nagari, though four hypotheses were put forward. Cf. Burnell, A., Elements of South Indian Palœography, 2nd edit. p. 52n.Google Scholar

page 481 note 1 On all the senames, vid. Jaeschke, , Tibet. Engl. Dict. pp. 60, 327, 392, 508. For specimens of the writings see Csoma de Körösi's Grammar.Google Scholar