4 Babu Saratchandra Das — Tibetan Zodiac. [Jan. 



From the yellow belly of the tortoise sprang the old mother earth, 

 called Ehon, whose bowels held ndgaloha, the nether world. 



Explanations. 



The heaven and earth united together at the horizon and gave birth 

 to three sons and three daughters : — 



1st son was called Gin, which means mountain. 

 2nd son „ „ Bva „ „ iron. 



3rd son „ „ Kliam „ „ water. 



1st daughter was called Sson, which means wind. 

 2nd daughter ,, „ Li „ „ fire. 



3rd daughter ,, ,, Ssin „ „ tree. 



Hence sprang forth the eight great elements of this world viz. : — 

 Heaven, earth, mountain, iron, water, wind, fire and tree, which were 

 called " Parkha hrgjad " and believed by the Tibetans to be the most 

 potent factors of human destiny. 



The Tibetans evidently derived their knowledge of the origin of the 

 world from the Chinese, who believed that heaven was the father, and 

 earth the mother of the universe, though the latter may have had a 

 diiferent version of the story of the great tortoise. 



The idea that the great tortoise was the primeval source from which 

 the first parents — heaven and earth,' — originated was probably conceived 

 from the semi- spherical appearance of the heaven, which appeared to 

 the unthinking herdsmen of Tibet as resting on the earth at the horizon, 

 and these, when combined together, resembled the body of a tortoise — a 

 moving house with life inside. 



The earth was, therefore, called Sa-gishi, or the terrestrial basis. 

 The art of divination is said to have been first discovered by the 

 Chinese from some curious figures which existed on the breast of a 

 certain yellow tortoise captured in the river of Honan. Whatever may be 

 the Chinese mode and arrangement for calculating and drawing the for- 

 tunes of individuals from these marks, thus far it is certain, that the 

 Tibetans have shaped Nag-tse, their own art of divination, with Chi- 

 nese materials, obtained from the archives of the great Tang dynasty, to 

 suit their peculiar superstition, and borrowed religion which they had 

 obtained from India at the same period. 



The manner in which they ascertain the auspicious and inauspicious 

 periods of time, and directions for the purpose of setting out on a journey, 

 and also for making offerings to gods and demons, is very simple. 



In the figures described on the breast of the great toi'toise, which 

 is supposed to lie upon its back, there are eighty-nine mansions, inclusive 

 of the central square which encloses the little tortoise. 



