812 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Hi (fig. 127), one sees on the scepter of this name four masses of rock 

 whicli represent the monntaius.' Prom the explanation given by the 

 commentator it would appear that the great scepter, tdi kwai, was 

 wrapped with cords of five colors. 



The Icwai are not to be confounded with the tablets called fat (Jap- 

 anese, shalcu),' -which were used at audiences in former times, nor with 

 the scepters, H i (jii i ; Japanese, n'ujoi) given in China at marriage and 

 to friends for good luck, and carried in Japan by certain priests'' (fig. 

 130). 



Among the Ainu, in Japan, the men use carved wooden staves to lift 

 their mustache in drinking sake. These staves, which they call ikonit,'^ 

 are commonly known from their present use as " mustache-sticks." They 

 are about 14 inches in length, flat on one side, and rounded upon the 

 other, which is more or less elaborately carved.^ 



An examination of the twelve specimens in the U. S. National Museum 

 (Plates 19-22) shows a general resemblance to the staves which are tossed 

 in gaming. The flat reverses are nearly all scratched with what were 

 scarcely discernible marks, represented in plates 20 and 22. The writer 

 concludes that these "mustache-sticks" were once emblems of rank or 

 authority. 



The only existing objects of remote antiquity with which I am ac- 

 quainted outside of America that might have been used as divinatory 

 implements in the manner of the staves are a set of ivory rods, dis- 

 covered by Prof. Flinders Petrie in Egypt, part of which are now in the 

 Museum of Archtieology of the University of Pennsylvania. 



They constitute a portion of the find made by Professor Petrie in 1895 



1 Le Tcheou-li ou rites des Tcheou. Traduit par Edouard Biot, Paris, 1851, I, pp. 

 431, 484. 



^Of the specimens iUustrated fig. 128 represents a Chinese tablet scepter in tlie 

 University Museum. It forms an accessory of a Cliinese tlieatrical costume of a 

 noble of the imperial court and is made of wood, painted brown and varnished, in- 

 stead of ivory. This scepter is slightly bent, 20 inches in length, about i inch 

 thick, and tapers from 2 inches wide at the base to If inch at the top. The .s7/aA;« 

 (fig. 129) is from a tracing of one in the U. S. National Museum, held in the hand of 

 the statue of the Baron Li, said to have been one actually used by that illustrious 

 man. 



'The a i, literally *'as you wish," is of Buddhistic origin, and is one of the Sajita 

 ratna or "Seven precious things," whicli constitute the insignia of a Tchakravartti. 

 In Japan it is carried by the chief priests of the Zen sect, and is used by them to 

 administer a blow to tlie catechunu^u when he fails to answer correctly. Its origin 

 presents an interesting problem, its form suggesting that of the tlirowing-stick. 

 The fat or shalu are wooden tablets, said to have been originally used for noting 

 memoianda. 



'.J. M. Dixon, The Tsuisliikari Ainos, Trans. Asiatic Soc, .Japan, XI, Pt. 1, p. 47. 



■'■The .Japanese call them hige-age, '■ beard raisers." In "A Glance at ThreeCoun- 

 tries" (Sangokii Tsnran Ziisetsu), Tokyo, 1785, the author, Rin Shihei, illustrates a 

 mustache-stick, which he describes under this name, stating that they are used by 

 the Ainu for the purpose mentioned. 



