MODE OF TELLING THE BEADS. 289 



The concluding word phdf wHch follows the mystic hunff in many 

 of these spells is cognate with the current Hindustani word phat, and 

 means " may the enemy be destroyed utterly.^'' 



The laity through want of knowledge seldom use with their rosaries 

 other than the well-known lamaic formula ^' Om ! 

 muir"Ommaui/' °'' md-ni pad-nie Huny,^' i.e., "Hail! to the Jewel in the 

 lotus ! Hung.^^ This refers to the Bodhisatwa Ch^r^si 

 (Skt. Padmapdni), the patron-god of Tibet, who, like Buddha, is 

 usually represented as seated or standing within a lotus flower, and 

 who is believed to have been born from such a flower. It has, however, 

 many mystic meanings. And no wonder this formula is so popular 

 and constantly being repeated by both laity and lamas, for its mere 

 enunciation is credited with stopping the cycle of re-birth, and 

 reaching directly to Nirvana. Thus, it is stated in the Mani-kah-bum 

 with extravagant rhapsody that this formula "is the essence of all 

 happiness, prosperity, and knowledge, and the great means of deliver- 

 ance," and that the om closes re-birth amongst the gods, ma among 

 the Titans, ni as a man, jmd as a beast, tne as a "yidag," and Imnff as an 

 inhabitant of hell. And in keeping with this view each of these six 

 syllables is given the distinctive colour of these six states of re-birth, 

 viz. om, the godly white; ma, the titanic blue; ni, the human yelloiu ; 

 pad, the animal green; me, the "yidag" red ; hung, the hellish black. 

 This formula is of comparatively modern origin ; its first appearance 

 seems to be in the legendary history (ikah bum) of King Srong-tsan- 

 gam-bo, which was one of the so-called "hidden" treatises, and 

 probably written about the 14th or 16th century A.D.^ With this 

 formula, which is peculiar to Tibet, may be compared the Chinese 

 and Japanese spells " JVamo Buisu^^ (=Skt, JVdmo Buddhaya, i.e., salu- 

 tation to Buddha!) and Ndmo 0-mi-to-Fu (^ Skt. NCimo Amitdbha, i.e., 

 salutation to the Boundless Light! — a fanciful form of Buddha). 

 The Burmese, so far as I have seen, seem to use their rosary merely 

 for repeating the names of the Buddhist Trinity, viz., "Phra" or 

 Buddha, "Tara" or Dharma, and Sangha. And the number of beads 

 in their rosary is a multiple of 3 X 3 as with the lamas. On complet- 

 ing the cycle the central bead is fingered with the pessimistic formula 

 ^'^ Ani'tsa, Dukha, AndthaP — all is transitory, painful, and unreal. 



' Since the above was in type, I find tliat Bockhill in The Land of the Lamas, 

 London, 1891, page 326, notes that Wilhelm de Kubruk, writing in the second 

 half of the 13th century, A.D. (Soo. de Geog. de Paris, IV, page 283) states 

 regarding the Buddhist monks of Karakorum : " Habent etiam quocnmque 

 vaduiit semper in manibus quandaun testem centum vel ducentorum uucleorum 

 sicut nos portamus paternoster et dicunt semper hec verba on man haccam 

 hoc est Deus, ta nosti, secundum quod quidam corum iuterpretatus est 

 michi, et totiens esspectat, remunerationem a Deo quotiens hoc dicendo memo- 

 ratur." Mr. Rockhill also independently arrives at a similar conclusion to that 

 noted by me above, as to the relatively modern composition of the Maai ikiih 

 Abum. 



