420 pfaat T^ore, "bege^^^/, anil "bijrlc/. 



This sentence forms the Alpha and Omega of Lama worship, and 

 is unceasingly repeated by the devotees of Thibet and the slopes of 

 the Himalayas. For the easy multiplication of this prayer, that ex- 

 traordinary contrivance, the pra3nng-wheel, was invented. In ac- 

 cordance with the principles of this belief, Jin-ch'au represents 

 all creation as a succession of worlds, typified by Lotus-flowers, 

 which are contained one within the other, until intelligence is lost 



in the effort to multiply the series ad infinitum. A legend con- 



necfled with Buddha runs as follows : — In an unknown town, called 

 Bandmimah, Bipaswi Buddh arrived one day, and having fixed his 

 abiding place on a mountain to the east of Ndg-Hrad, saw in a 

 pool a seed of the Lotus on the day of the full moon, in the month 

 of Chait. Soon afterwards from this Lotus-seed sprang a Lotus- 

 flower, in the middle of which appeared Swayambhu, in the 

 form of a luminary, on the day of the full moon in the month 



of Asvins. Another Buddhist legend relates that the King Pandu 



had the imprudence to burn a tooth of Buddha, which was 

 held in high reverence among the Kalingas: but a Lotus-flower 

 sprang from the middle of the flame, and the tooth of Buddha 



was found lying on its petals. In Eastern India, it is popularly 



thought that the god Brahma first appeared on a sea of milk, 

 in a species of Lotus of extraordinary grandeur and beauty, 

 which grew at Temerapu, and which typified the umbilicus of that 

 ocean of sweetness. To that flower is given eighteen names, which 

 celebrate the god's different beauties; and within its petals he is 



believed to sleep during six months of the year. Kamadeva,the 



Indian Cupid, was first seen floating down the sacred Ganges, 



pinioned with flowers, on the blossom of a roseate Lotus. The 



Hindus compare their country to a Lotus-flower, of which the 

 petals represent Central India, and the eight leaves the surround- 

 ing eight divisions of the country. The sacred images of the Indians, 

 Japanese, and Tartars are nearly always found seated upon the 



leaves of the Lotus. The sacred Lotus, as the hallowed symbol 



of mystery, was deemed by the priests of India and China an 

 appropriate ornament for their religious structures, and hence its 

 spreading tendrils and perfecft blossoms are found freely introduced 



as architectural enrichments of the temples of the East. Terms 



of reverence, endearment, admiration, and eulogy have been freely 

 lavished by Indian writers on the flowers of the Lotus, dear to the 

 sick women of their race from the popular belief of its efficacy in 

 soothing painful feelings. Nearly every portion of the human 

 body has been compared by Indian poets to the Lotus; and in 

 one of their works, the feet of the angels are said to resemble the 



flowers of that sacred plant. The Persians represent the Sun 



as being robed with light and crowned with Lotus. By the 



Japanese, the Lotus is considered as a sacred plant, and pleasing 

 to their deities, whose images are often seen sitting on its large 

 leaves. The blossom is deemed by them the emblem of purity 



