lendar of the first importance and utility. It must do everything in its power, not only to point out to its numerous subjects the distribution of the seasons, . . . . but on account of the general superstition it must mark in the almanac the lucky and unlucky days, the best days for being married, for undertaking a journey, for making their dresses, for buying or building, for presenting petitions to the Emperor, and for many other cases of ordinary life. By this means the Government keeps the people within the limits of humble obedience; it is for this reason that the Emperors of China established the Academy of Astronomy" (Timk. I. 358). The acceptance of the Imperial Almanac by a foreign Prince is considered an acknowledgment of vassilage to the Emperor.

It is a penal offence to issue a pirated or counterfeit edition of the Government Almanac. No one ventures to be without one, lest he become liable to the greatest misfortunes by undertaking important measures on black-balled days.

The price varies now, according to Williams, from 1d. to 5d. a copy. The price in 1328 was 1 tsien or cash for the cheapest edition, and I liang or tael of silver for the édition de luxe; but as these prices were in paper-money it is extremely difficult to say, in the varying depreciation of that currency, what the price really amounted to.

We may note that in Polo's time one of the principal officers of the Mathematical Board was Gaisue, a native of Folin or the Byzantine Empire, who was also in charge of the medical department of the Court. Regarding the Observatory, see note at p. 365 suprà. The cut on the next page is from a French source, and some licence appears to have been taken with the disposal of the subject. We had proposed to give an accurate view of one of the instruments ascribed to the era of Kublai, a great armillary sphere borne by dragons, a work of marvellous art in bronze casting. But doubts have been cast upon its date, which demand inquiry.

On these auguries, and on diviners and fortune-tellers, see Semedo, p. 118 seqq.; Kidd, p. 313 (also for preceding references, Mid. Kingdom, II. 152; Gaubil, 136).

NOTE 2. The real cycle of the Mongols, which was also that of the Chinese, runs: 1. Rat; 2. Ox; 3. Tiger; 4. Hare; 5. Dragon; 6. Serpent; 7. Horse; 8. Sheep; 9. Ape; 10. Cock; 11. Dog; 12. Swine. But as such a cycle is too short to avoid confusion, it is combined with a coefficient cycle of ten epithets in such wise as to produce a 60-year cycle of compound names before the same shall recur. These coefficient epithets are found in three different forms: (1) From the Elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Iron, Water, attaching to each a masculine and feminine attribute so as to make ten epithets. (2) From the Colours, Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Black, similarly treated. (3) By terms without meaning in Mongol, directly adopted or imitated from the Chinese, Ga, Yi, Bing, Ting, &c. Thus 1864 was the first year of a 60-year cycle :

1867

(Fem.) Fire-Hare Year

(Fem.) Red-Hare Year.

1923 = (Fem.) Water-Swine Year (Fem.) Black-Swine Year.

=

And then a new cycle commences just as before.

This Calendar was carried by the Mongols into all their dominions, and it would appear to have long survived them in Persia. Thus a document issued in favour of Sir John Chardin by the Shaikh-ul-Islám of Ispahan, bears the strange date for a Mahomedan luminary of "The year of the Swine." The Hindus also had a 60-year cycle, but with them each year had an independent name.

The Mongols borrowed their system from the Chinese, who attribute its invention to the Emperor Hwang-ti, and its initiation to the 61st year of his reign, corresponding to B.C. 2637. The characters representing what we have called the ten coefficient epithets, are called by the Chinese the "Heavenly Stems;" those equivalent to the twelve animal symbols are the "Earthly Branches," and they are applied in their combinations not to years only, but to cycles of months, days, and hours, such hours being equal to two of ours. Thus every year, month, day, and hour will have two appropriate characters, and the four pairs belonging to the time of any man's birth constitute what the Chinese call the "Eight Characters" of his age, to which constant reference is made in some of their systems of fortune-telling, and in the selection of propitious days for the transaction of business. To this system the text alludes. A curious account of the principles of prognostication on such a basis will be found in Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese (p. 579 seqq.; on the Calendar, see Schmidt's Preface to S. Setzen; Pallas, Sammlungen, II. 228 seqq.; Prinsep's Essays, Useful Tables, 146.)

CHAPTER XXXIV.

[CONCERNING THE RELIGION OF THE CATHAYANS;' THEIR VIEWS AS TO THE SOUL; AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

As we have said before, these people are Idolaters, and as regards their gods, each has a tablet fixed high up on the wall of his chamber, on which is inscribed a name which represents the Most High and Heavenly God; and before this they pay daily worship, offering incense from a thurible, raising their hands aloft, and gnashing their teeth three

2

times, praying Him to grant them health of mind and body; but of Him they ask nought else. And below on the ground there is a figure which they call Natigai, which is the god of things terrestrial. To him they give a wife and children, and they worship him in the same manner, with incense, and gnashing of teeth, and lifting up of hands; and of him they ask seasonable weather, and the fruits of the earth, children, and so forth.3

Their view of the immortality of the soul is after this fashion. They believe that as soon as a man dies, his soul enters into another body, going from a good to a better, or from a bad to a worse, according as he hath conducted himself well or ill. That is to say, a poor man, if he have passed through life good and sober, shall be born again of a gentlewoman, and shall be a gentleman; and on a second occasion shall be born of a princess and shall be a prince, and so on, always rising, till he be absorbed into the Deity. But if he have borne himself ill, he who was the son of a gentleman shall be reborn as the son of a boor, and from a boor shall become a dog, always going down lower and lower.

The people have an ornate style of speech; they salute each other with a cheerful countenance, and with great politeness; they behave like gentlemen, and eat with great. propriety. They show great respect to their parents; and should there be any son who offends his parents, or fails to minister to their necessities, there is a public office which has no other charge but that of punishing unnatural children, who are proved to have acted with ingratitude towards their parents.5

Criminals of sundry kinds who have been imprisoned, are released at a time fixed by the Great Kaan (which occurs every three years), but on leaving prison they are branded on one check that they may be recognized.

The Great Kaan hath prohibited all gambling and sharping, things more prevalent there than in any other