SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 285 



might hav^e been confounded by Pliny with another system 

 of dumb bargaining, related of many uncivilised nations, 

 and have given rise to that strange statement of his about 

 the Seres.— \y:?[ 



SHAMBALING. 

 P. 253. 



ShambJiala \ called in Tibetan hde-hbyung, vulgo de- 

 JHUg {' origin of happiness '), is a fabulous country in the 

 north, the capital of which was Kcilapa, a very splendid 

 city, and the residence of many illustrious kings of Sham- 

 bhala. It was situated beyond the Sita River, and the 

 augmentation of the length of the days from the vernal 

 equinox to midsummer amounted to twelve Indian hours 

 {gharis), or four hours forty-eight minutes. 



The Sita is one of the four mighty rivers of the Hindu 

 mythological geography, into which the Ganges breaks 

 after falling upon earth. It is regarded in the Vishnu 

 Purana as flowing eastward, and would find its actual 

 representative in the Tarim, continued to the ocean in the 

 Hoang-ho ; and the Chinese traveller Hwen-thsang does 

 identify it thus. Csoma de Koros, however, interprets it in 

 the Tibetan legend as the Jaxartes, and calculates the lati- 

 tude of Kalapa as between 45° and 50". 



According to some of the Tibetan books, Dazung, a 

 king of Shambhala, visited Sakya Muni, and the latter 

 foretold to him a great series of the kings to succeed him, 

 followed by the rise of Mahommedanism, and then by 

 the general re-establishment and diiifusion of Buddhism, — 

 a prophecy which one is sometimes tempted to think is 

 receiving its accomplishment in modern Europe. Some of 

 the Tantrika doctrines were said in Tibet to have come 

 from Shambhala.' 



Sambhala is in Plindu mythology the place where 



' See Csoma Kdriisi, in y. As. Soc. Bengal, ii. 57 &c. ; As. Rc- 

 si'anhes, чх. 488. 



