History of the Rhinoceros 123 



part, is known as "the six subjects of long life" (ts'e rih drug skor). 

 These are, — the Buddha Amitayus (the Buddha of Endless Life), the 

 long-lived wishing-tree idpag bsam Sin ts'e rih) figured as a peach-tree 

 in Chinese style, the long-lived rocks {brag ts'e rih), the Chinese God 

 of Longevity Shou-sing (in Tibetan Mi ts'e rin) seated on a mat and 

 holding a rosary, a pair of cranes (kruh kruh ts'e rih) pecking at some 

 peaches (k'am-bu) that are planted in a jar, and a pair of bse-ru. Though 

 apparently inspired by the deer, which is the emblem of the Chinese 

 God of Longevity, their outlines considerably differ from the latter, and 

 approach the Tibetan notion of the appearance of a'bse-ru; l but, curiously 

 enough, they are without any horns. There can be little doubt, ac- 

 cordingly, that in recent times, when the rhinoceros had almost vanished 

 from the memory of the Tibetan people, the word bse-ru was transferred 

 to a species of deer or antelope ; and, as the ancient tradition of the bse-ru 

 being a single-horned animal had persisted through the centuries, the 

 single horn, in popular imagination, was fixed on the antelope. When 

 we inquire why it was just the antelope, and not any other animal on 

 which the idea of a unicorn was projected, the story of Ekacrihga pre- 

 sents itself again as the happiest solution. We know that this legend, in a 

 Tibetan translation, has been incorporated in the Kanjur; and A. 

 Schiefner 2 has translated it from this version. It is likewise extant 

 in Kshemendra's Avadanakalpalata, of which a literal versified rendering, 

 and an abridged prose edition made for children by order of the Fifth 

 Dalai Lama, exist in the Tibetan language. This plain version has ren- 

 dered the story immensely popular among Tibetans; and, as pointed out, 

 it is current also in a dramatized form. The Tibetan mask of Ekacrihga 

 (Plate X) is equipped with an unmistakable antelope-horn. 3 The 

 psychological process is therefore quite clear. The rhinoceros was grad- 



1 My explanation is based on the interpretation of this woodcut given me by an 

 intelligent Lama. A. Grunwedel, in his Russian Description of the Lamaist Collec- 

 tion of Prince Uchtomski (Bibl. Buddhica, No. 6, p. 26), has figured a similar woodcut, 

 but without explanation. The God of Longevity bears the Mongol legend Tsaghan 

 Abughan ("The White Old Man"), who is certainly, as stated on p. 117, a national 

 Mongol deity; but from an iconographic point of view, as he appears in Grunwedel's 

 drawing, he is nothing but a copy of the well-known Chinese God of Longevity. 



2 In Ralston, Tibetan Tales, p. 253. 



3 On the lid of a Tibetan censer in the Field Museum (Cat. No. 122,522) are 

 represented the full figures of two gazelles opposite and turned away from each other 

 (the wheel of the law being placed between them), the well-known Buddhist motive 

 symbolizing Buddha's first sermon in the Deer-Park (Grunwedel, Buddhist Art in 

 India, p. 143). One of these is provided with a single horn on its forehead; the other, 

 apparently conceived as the doe, is hornless. The former seems suggested again by 

 a reminiscence of Ekacringa, but it is not known to me whether the Tibetans would 

 name it bse-ru. Other Tibetan censers are surmounted by a monster of Chinese 

 style, showing a horn on its nose and another on its forehead, — manifestly derived 

 from the two-horned rhinoceros. 



