NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET 735 



mouths of the valleys leading up to them. Though in all probability 

 they had no religious signitication originally, they have acquired one, 

 and the stone which every traveler as he passes by does not fail to 

 throw on the heap, is now put there as an offering to the gx)ds, and 

 when throwing it down each one makes a short prayer, which ends 

 with, '^Lhajya-lo, Ilia jyaW ''Gods, (give me) a hundred years; gods, 

 (give me) a hundred years." 



In these stone heaps are usually stuck large bunches of brusliwood 

 and also freciuently huge wooden arrows, the meaning of which latter 

 I have failed to ascertain. Bits of wool, rags, and pieces of cotton on 

 which are stamped mantras and dhdranis flutter from the branches or 

 hang in long rows from strings tied to them and to some big stone 

 fifty or more feet oft'.* 



Stone heaps similar in shape and built for similar purposes are found 

 in the Navajo and Moqui countries in Arizona. Speaking of the 

 Moqui, Fewkes says : 



Ma-sau-wub shrines are simply heaps of sticks or piles of stones, and it is cus- 

 tomary for an Indian toiling up the trail with a heavy bundle of wood on the back 

 to throw a small fragment from the load upon these shrines or to cast a stone upon 

 them as he goes to his farm. These are offerings to Ma-sau-wuh, the fire god, or 

 deity of the surface of earth. (.1. Walter Fewkes, Journ. Araer. Ethnology and 

 Archaeology, iv, p. 41.) 



The custom of making ofteiings on mountain tops is too common in 

 other countries, especially in South America, to require more than a 

 passing reference here. Acosta, in his History of the Indies (ii, p. 309, 

 Hakluyt Soc. Edit.), says of the Peruvians; 



They have used as they goe by the way, to cast in the crosse ways, on the hilles, 

 and toppes of mouutaines, which they call Apachitas, olde shooes, feathers, and 

 coca chewed, being an herb they use much. And when they have nothing left, 

 they cast a stone as an offering, that they might passe freely, and have greater 

 force, the which they say increaseth by this means. ** * * They used another 

 offering nolesse absurd, pulling the hair from the eyebrowes to offer it to the Sunne. 

 hills, Apachitas, to the winds, or to any other thing they feare. 



VYe also find this custom of offering rags at sacred shrines in Ire 

 land and among the Mohammedan peoples of northern Africa. 



The custom of walking around a sacred building or monument, a 

 custom called li'onca in Tibetan, was followed in India in the early 

 days of Buddhism as well as by the wild Turkish tribes which inhab- 

 ited northern and northeastern Asia in the second century B. C. Thus 

 in the Ch'ien Han shu, book 94, it is said that the Hsiung-nu and the 

 Sieu-pi, at the great autumnal sacrifice to heaven, rode three times 

 around a little clump of trees. It is also common in parts of Africa, 

 as, for example, among the Oromo of Abyssinia (Borelli, L'Ethiopie 

 meridionale, p. 210), and was followed centuries ago in northern Europe 

 and m other parts of the world. (See Land of the Lamas, p. 67.) 



* On this subject the reader should also consult Emil Schlagiutweit's valuable 

 work, pp 198-200. 



