Another combination shows the animals which may but do not necessarily prove unfavourable; it comprises four divisions, and in each is seen an animal ridden by a monster with the heads of three animals. In the first division the hog is ridden by the bird, serpent and dog; in the second the ape by the mouse, sheep, and tiger; in the third the tiger by the horse, ox and ape; in the fourth the serpent by the dragon, the hog and hare. These figures are the same as those which occupy the four first spaces of the table which is described on p. 313, as used for consultation in cases of sickness. V. A SOOTHSAYING TABLE WITH NUMEROUS FIGURES AND SENTENCES. It was but after great hesitation on the part of the Lamas that Adolphe and Robert obtained this table at Mángnang, in Gnári Khórsum; they were repeatedly assured that no other copy could be procured, except after much delay, direct from Lhássa. As my brothers did not succeed in obtaining information from the Lamas of Mángnang concerning its application, I addressed myself to Mr. Schiefner, in order to obtain details about analogous objects; but though he inquired with his usual kindness about such materials, I remained limited to the translation of the inscriptions, and, for the interpretation of the figures, to the analogy of the forms with those on other tables. A SOOTHSAYING TABLE. 321 The original is 21 inches long, and 18 inches broad; its principal part is divided into 78 rectangles which contain either a figure, or a sentence, or both combined; some, however, are empty. Along its sides two vertical stripes are left to receive explanatory directions for the use of the table; of these, however, one is empty. In order to facilitate the explanation, I give as usual the outlines of the compartments; where a number is omitted, the space is empty. In the translation here given the sentences, in order to the distinguishing of them from the figures, are placed between marks of quotation. A. The central table with its figures and sentences. The numbers at the commencement of the line have reference to those in A of the preceding diagram; the numbers at the end of the sentences refer to Plate XX., where the respective sentences are printed in Tibetan characters. 1. "The celestial chair, is it empty or not?" (No. 1.) 2. A lion. 3. "The twisted snare, shall it slip through (under the object) or not?" (No. 2.) A twisted rope. 4. The skin of a man. 5. The walls of a religious establishment. 6. "Shall every track be lost of the residence of the king of eloquence or not?" (No. 3.) A Lama. 7. "The peacock beneath the throne of lions, shall it be victorious or not." (No. 4.) 3 8. The peacock riding a lion: this is a symbol of the throne of lions. 9. "The residence of turquoise colour, shall it be destroyed or not?" (No. 5.) The figure is meant for an altar with a cone of sacrifice (Zhalzai) + upon it." 10. A string of beads, symbolizing human skulls. 11. The vessel Namgyal bumpa,5 with flowers put into the neck. 12. "The golden Dorje, shall it open itself like a 1 The snare, in Tibetan Zhagpa, is a symbol of power, see pp. 213, 216. It occurs again sub Nos. 18, 21, 48. The words in parentheses are paraphases of the Tibetan texts. 2 Manjusrī is meant, the god of eloquence and wisdom (see p. 65). 3 See p. 211. 4 See p. 228. 5 See p. 247. To face p. 322. QUERIES A TAKEN FROM A SOOTHSAYIN 1. ལྷ་ཁྲི་སྟེང་གདན་ས་སྟོང་སོ་སམ་མི་སྟོང། ། 2. ཞགས་ཆིང་སུལ་འོག་དུ་ཤོར་རམ་མ་ཤོར། ། 3. རྗེས་པ་ངག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཐུགས་པའི་གདན་ས་སྟོང་སོ་སམ་མི་སྟོང་། ། 4. སེང་ཁི་སྟེང་ནས་རྨ་བྱ་རྒྱལ་མ་རྒྱལ༑ ། 5. གཡུའི་གདན་ཞིག་སོ་སམ་མ་ཞིག། ། 6. གསེར་གྱིས་རྡོ་རྗེ་གནམ་དུ་འབར་སོ་སམ་མ་འབར། ། 7. མུ་སྟེགས་ངན་ངག་འབྱུང་སོ་སམ་མ་འབྱུང། ། 8. ཞུགས་ལྡན་སྟན་སྐོལ་མོ་སམ་མ་སྐོལ༑ ། 9. ནམ་མཁའ་བྱང་བུ་འདྲི་ལ་ཐལ་ཆོད་སོ་སམ་མ་ཆོད༑ ༑ 10. བློན་པོའི་གདན་ས་སྟོང་སམ་མི་སྟོང། ། 11. སྤྲུལ་གྱི་བེར་ཀ་ཕྱག་སོ་སམ་མ་ཕྱག། ། |