NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 739 



top of the other, sheets of paper or leaves of a book on which =' the 

 manV^ or some other spell is printed in very fine characters, the tiner 

 the better. The sheets are wonnd on the axle from right to left, aud 

 the wheel when set in motion must revolve in the opposite way, so that 

 the writing passes in front of the person turning the wheel in the Tfnj 

 in which it is to read, i. e., from left to right. 



A roughly made hand prayer-wheel with a felt barrel covered with 

 coarse woolen cloth is represented in pi. 38. An iron pivot runs through 

 the barrel and fits in a roughly carved wooden handle. The cylinder 

 is covered with a piece of red cotton cloth, to the corners of which are 

 attached glass beads. 



On pi. 39, fig. 2 is shown a hand prayer- wheel. The cylinder is of 

 bronze, the top being ornamented with a silver wheel decorated with 

 coral aud turquoise beads. The bottom has four dorje, aud on the 

 sides is the six-syllable spell in landza characters in silver. On a band 

 above this are dorje, and on a band around the bottom are lotus leaves. 

 On the top is a wheel in silver in which are set coral and turquoise 

 beads. This is a' very fine specimen of Tibetan workmanship. The 

 top of the axis terminates in a silver ornament of pineai^ple shape. 



On this plate is also represented a small stationary table or wheel 

 (fig. 1), the axle of which projects above the top, so that it maybe put in 

 motion without moving it from the stand on which it rests. The cyliu- 

 dei is of bronze with raised ornamentation of tJorje, and the mani 

 prayer in Xepalese Sanskrit characters. 



In tig. 1 there is also represented a strip of Chinese paper on one side 

 of which is printed the forumla Om, mani padine^ hum. This formula 

 is repeated nearly 400 times on this sheet, and in one of the small 

 prayer- wheels previously described about lOOx^ages can be wrapped in 

 the cylinder. Consequently a complete revolution of the wheel is equiv- 

 alent to repeating the formula 40,000 times. A prayer- wheel complete, 

 from Darjeeling, India, is also shown in fig. 3. 



The cups used with the small j)rayer-wheels turned by the force of 

 the wind are cut out of pieces of pine wood and are in shape exactly 

 like the cups of an anemometer. (See Smithsonian Report, 1802, p. 

 076, where is also shown a prayer- wheel turned by water.) 



Bits of cotton with prayers printed on them and tied to strings or to 

 high poles placed over houses, and knowu as la-der, belong to the same 

 class of objects as the prayer- wheels; each time these bits of stuff 

 flutter in the breeze it is as if the prayer written on them had been 

 recited. The figure of a horse is frequently stamped on these pieces of 

 cloth and around it is a long formula. These are called Unig ta, or '' wind 

 horses," and are, among many other uses, for the special protection of 

 travelers. (See Bmil Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, p. 253 et seq., 

 and Waddell, op. eit., p. 408 H seq.) 



The j)riucipal objects used by lanms in church ceremonies, or while 

 reading the sacred books, are the small hand drum {damaru), frequently 

 made of children's skulls and covered with snake skin, the bell {drilbu), 



