NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 671 



the growth of the country and its advance in civiUzatiou they are 

 fortunately of a little more use. 



I will here briefly give the principal data bearing on the subject which 

 interests us, contained in a "Book of Kings," or Gyal-rabs sal-vai 

 m6-long (Dr.Emil Schlagiutweifs edition, 18G6), which it must, however, 

 be admitted is of comparatively modern origin and was unquestionably 

 compiled under Chinese influence. 



From this work we learn that in the first century B. C. there 

 appeared in Tibet, in the valley of the Tsaugpo ch'u and to the south 

 of the city of Lh'asa, a marvelously endowed child whom the wild 

 natives thought heaven had sent to rule them, and whom they took as 

 their chief. This would point to intercourse with India during the 

 earliest days .of their national existence, but as the work goes on to 

 show that this prince was a direct descendant of the Buddha Gautama, 

 a descent than which none could be higher in the eyes of the devout 

 Tibetans, we may doubt the accuracy of the record on this point. 



In the reign of this first prince's seventh successor, consequently 

 sometime in the second century A. D., it is stated that charcoal was 

 made for the first time, and iron, copper, and silver were extracted from 

 the ore, plows were introduced, and the irrigation of fields made known. 



In the fifth century A. D., in the reign of Tri-nyan zung-tiin, fields 

 were for the first time fenced in, skin garments were made, walnut trees 

 were planted, and reservoirs dug to supply water for irrigating the 

 fields. 



In the reign of his successor the yak was crossed with the domestic 

 cow and the valuable cross-breed called djo obtained. Mules were 

 imported into the country and the people were taught how to make 

 bundles of hay. From the fact that grass is still at the present day 

 twisted into heavy cables and allowed to dry in this shape and is so 

 kept, both in Kashmir (see W. Moorcroft, Travels, II, 153) and in Tibet, 

 it is probable that this method of bundling hay was learned from the 

 former country. 



In the seventh century Srong-tsan gam bo ascended the throne of 

 Tibet and in his long reign the country made rapid strides in civiliza- 

 tion. Under his rule Tibet became an aggressive power and its armies 

 attacked all the neighboring countries, China not excepted. 



The King sent T'onmi Samb'ota to India to there find a system of 

 writing applicable to the Tibetan language, and also to open negotia- 

 tions for his marriage with a ]S"epalese princess. 



TV)nmi brought back an alphabet based on the nagari in use at the 

 time in Kashmir, and composed of 30 consonants, 34 of wliich repro- 

 duced more oi; less closely their prototypes, and G were invented for 

 sounds which did not exist in Sanskrit. 



It is recorded m the Bodhimur (I. J. Schmidt, Geschichte der Ost 

 Mongolen, p. 329) that the King wrote a treatise on horse breeding, 

 besides several other lighter works. 



