There is an indication in Koeppen's references that the followers of the Bon doctrine are sometimes called in Tibet Nag-choi, or "Black Sect," as the old and the reformed Lamas are called respectively the "Red" and the "Yellow." If so, it is reasonable to conclude that the first appellation, like the two last, has a reference to the colour of clothing affected by the priesthood.

The Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes from Lahaul : "There are no Bonpos in our part of the country, and as far as we know there cannot be many of them in the whole of Western Tibet, i.e., in Ladak, Spiti, and all the nonChinese provinces together; we know, therefore, not much more of them than has been made known to the European public by different writers on Buddhism in Tibet, and lately collected by Emil de Schlagintweit. Whether they can be with certainty identified with the Chinese Taossé I cannot decide, as I don't know if anything like historical evidence about their Chinese origin has been detected anywhere, or if it is merely a conclusion from the similarity of their doctrines and practices. . . . But the Chinese author of the Wei-tsang-tu-Shi, translated by Klaproth, under the title of Description du Tibet (Paris, 1831), renders Bonpo by Taossé. So much seems to be certain that it was the ancient religion of Tibet, before Buddhism penetrated into the country, and that even at later periods it several times gained the ascendancy when the secular power was of a disposition averse to the Lamaitic hierarchy. Another opinion is that the Bon religion was originally a mere fetishism, and related to or identical with Shamanism; this appears to me very probable and easy to reconcile with the former supposition, for it may afterwards, on becoming acquainted with the Chinese doctrine of the 'Taossé,' have adorned itself with many of its tenets. . . . . With regard to the following particulars, I have got most of my information from our Lama, a native of the neighbourhood of Tashi Lhunpo, whom we consulted about all your questions. The extraordinary

asceticism which struck Marco Polo so much is of course not to be understood as being practised by all members of the sect, but exclusively, or more especially, by the priests. That these never marry, and are consequently more strictly celibatary than many sects of the Lamaitic priesthood, was confirmed by our Lama." (Mr. Jaeschke then remarks upon the bran to much the same effect as I have done above.) "The Bonpos are by all Buddhists regarded as heretics. Though they worship idols partly the same, at least in name, with those of the Buddhists, . . . their rites seem to be very different. The most conspicuous and most generally known of their customs, futile in itself, but in the eyes of the common people the greatest sign of their sinful heresy, is that they perform the religious ceremony of making a turn round a sacred object in the opposite direction to that prescribed by Buddhism. As to their dress, our Lama said that they had no particular colour of garments, but their priests frequently wore red clothes, as some sects of the Buddhist priesthood do. Mr. Heyde, however, once on a journey in our neighbouring

county of Langskar, saw a man clothed in black with blue borders, who the people said was a Bonpo."

The identity of the Bonpo and Taossé seems to have been accepted by Csoma de Körös, who identifies the Chinese founder of the latter, Laotseu, with the Shen-rabs of the Tibetan Bonpos. Klaproth also says, "Bhonbp'o, Bhanpo, and Shen, are the names by which are commonly designated (in Tibetan) the Taoszu, or follower of the Chinese philosopher Laotseu." * Schlagintweit refers to Schmidt's Tibetan Grammar (p. 209) and to the Calcutta edition of the Fo-kouè-ki (p. 218) for the like identification, but I do not know how far any two of these are independent testimonies. General Cunningham, however, fully accepts the identity, and writes to me: "Fahian (ch. xxiii.) calls the heretics who assembled at Râmagrâma Taossé,† thus identifying them with the Chinese Finitimists. The Taossé are, therefore, the same as the Swastikas, or worshippers of the mystic cross Swasti, who are also Tirthakaras, or Pure-doers.' The synonymous word Punya is probably the origin of Pon or Bon, the Tibetan Finitimists. From the same word comes the Burmese P'ungyi or Pungi." I may add that the Chinese envoy to Cambodia in 1296, whose narrative Rémusat has translated, describes a sect which he encountered there, apparently Brahminical, as Taossé. And even if the Bonpo and the Taossé were not fundamentally identical, it is extremely probable that the Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists should have applied to them one name and character. Each played towards them the same part in Tibet and in China respectively; both were heretic sects and hated rivals; both made high pretensions to asceticism and supernatural powers; both, I think we see reason to believe, affected the dark clothing which Polo assigns to the Sensin; both, we may add, had "great idols and plenty of them." We have seen in the account of the Taossé the ground that certain of their ceremonies afford for the allegation that they "sometimes also worship fire," whilst the whole account of that rite and of others mentioned by Duhalde,‡ shows what a powerful element of the old devil-dancing Shamanism there is in their practice. The French missionary on the other hand shows us what a prominent place female divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon,§ though we cannot say of

*Shen, or, coupled with jin "people," Shenjin, in this sense affords another possible origin of the word Sensin; but it may in fact be at bottom, as regards the first syllable, the same with the etymology we have preferred.

† I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal's new version of Fahian, and the older one I cannot refer to.

Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopædia of modern "Spiritualists." Duhalde mentions among their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the figures of the Laotseu and their divinities in the air, and of making a pencil to write answers to questions without anybody touching it.

§ It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic impurities of the Tantrists. The Saktián, or Tantrists, according to the Dabistan, hold that the worship of a female divinity affords a greater recompense (II. 155).

either sect that "their idols are all feminine." A strong symptom of relation between the two religions, by the way, occurs in M. Durand's account of the Bon Temple. We see there that Shen-rabs, the great doctor of the sect, occupies a chief and central place among the idols. Now in the Chinese temples of the Taossé the figure of their Doctor Laotseu is one member of the triad called the "Three Pure Ones," which constitute the chief objects of worship. This very title recalls General Cunningham's etymology of Bonpo.

(Hodgson in J. R. A. S. XVIII. 396 seqq.; Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi, XXXVII. 301-2, 424-27; E. Schlagintweit, Ueber die Bon-pa Sekte in Tibet, in the Sitzensberichte of the Munich Acad. for 1866, Heft I., pp. 1-12; Koeppen, II. 260; Ladak, p. 358; J. As. ser. 2, tom. i. 411-12; Rémusat. Nouv. Mel. Asiat. I. 112; Astley, IV. 205; Doolittle, 191.)

NOTE 14.-Pauthier's text has blons, no doubt an error for blous. In the G. Text it is bloies. Pauthier interprets the latter term as "blond ardent," whilst the glossary to the G. Text explains it as both blue and white. Raynouard's Romance Dict. explains Bloi as "Blond." Ramusio has biave, and I have no doubt that blue is the meaning. The same word (bloie) is used in the G. T., where Polo speaks of the bright colours of the Palace tiles at Cambaluc, and where Pauthier's text has "vermeil et jaune et vert et blou," and again (infra, Book II. chap. xix.) where the two corps of huntsmen are said to be clad respectively in vermeil and in bloie. Here, again, Pauthier's text has bleu. The Crusca in the description of the Sensin omits the colours altogether; in the two other passages referred to it has bioda, biodo.

BOOK SECOND.

(1.) ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY; OF HIS PALACES AND CAPITAL; HIS COURT, GOVERNMENT, AND SPORTS.

(2.) CITIES AND PROVINCES VISITED BY THE TRAVELLER ON ONE JOURNEY WESTWARD FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE FRONTIERS OF MIEN IN THE DIRECTION OF INDIA.

(3) AND ON ANOTHER SOUTHWARD FROM THE CAPITAL TO FUCHU AND ZAYTON.

VOL. I.

Y