278 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 



Avith the meaning of ' north ' is lost. Klaproth {Asia Poly- 

 glotta) quotes the following explanation from a Mongol 

 vocabulary : — ' Dcdgnn {Dziin) ; the quarter in which the 

 sun rises is called Dziin, i.e. the Left hand. It is also 

 called Doroiia! And it is easy to understand how the 

 Mongols, whose tents always faced the south,^ should make 

 the east left and the west right. Tibet Proper was called 

 by the Mongols Baron-tala, the Right, i.e. West quarter, 

 whilst Mongolia was Dznn-tala, the Left, i.e. East quarter.^ 

 It is not so easy to understand how Dzungaria (Dzun- 

 gar = Left-hand) got its name, for that region is the most 

 westerly part of Mongolia.^ 



The foregoing remarks indicate a probability that the 

 Mongols of whom our author speaks were using the words 

 right SiVidi left in their proper sense when he supposed them 

 to be using the words east and zvest. 



What Colonel Prejevalsky means by the Mongol north 

 being our south I do not understand. In Chinese maps, 

 as in our own medieval maps, I believe the south is gene- 

 rally at the top ; and in the Chinese compass the needle is 

 regarded as pointing south. To these circumstances per- 

 haps he refers. — [Y.] 



THE CHINESE YEAR. 

 P. 6s. 



The author's account of this matter is far from exact. 



There are 1 2 ' moons ' or months in the ordinary year. 

 These are some of 29 and some of 30 days, not alternat- 

 ing, but regulated by certain fixed rules, and the common 



'^ Marco Polo, bk. i. ch. lii. 



^ Ibid., 2nd ed., i. 216. 



' The fact stated in the following extract of a letter from Mr. Ney 

 Elias may be involved in the explanation : * throughout the Altai I 

 noticed that Khalkas, Kirghis, and Kalmucks all pitched their tents 

 facing East. The prevailing wind there, in winter, is from the west- 

 ward.' {Dated Aug. 2, 1873.) In such a region left would mean 

 north, and Kovalefsky does give Baron as signifying cote droitc, midi, 

 ou Occident. 



