PRAYER FLAGS. 347 



most of them being quite new, and some of the more elaborate ones, 

 which contained in their centre figures of the weapons charmed 

 against, viz., swords, muskets, &c., had cost their wearers as much as 

 twenty-five rupees apiece. 



And for torturing one's enemy short of death there is the same 

 popular practice as obtains amongst occidentals, namely, of making 

 a little clay image of the enemy and thrusting pins into it. 



The "Prayer-flags." 



The most extensively used of all the so-called "prayer-flags," or 

 Da-cho, ^ is that for Luck, and called Limg-ta, ^ 



The Z«cA.flags. n^erally ''the airy horse,'' which, Pegasus-like, is 

 supposed to carry the luck of the individual through the air in every 

 direction wished for. This practice has something in common with 

 the ancient Hindu rite of " Tlie raising of Indra's Banner" {DMoaja\ * 

 and it seems to be like " the prayer-wheel," a mystic perversion of 

 one of the earlier symbols of Buddhist mythology. In the Buddhist 

 scriptures there constantly occurs the metaphor of "turning the Wheel 

 of the Law " with reference to Buddha's preaching, and this figure of 

 speech seems to have suggested to the lamas, who are ever ready 

 . f ^ , n to symbolise trifles realistically, their materialistic 



ngmo uc - ag. jjjygjj^JQjj ^f jj^g prayer- wheel, whereby every 



individual may "turn the Wheel of the Law " conveniently. In like 

 manner the "Airy Horse of Luck " seems to me to have its origin in 

 the Jewel-Horse of the Universal Monarch, such as Buddha was 

 to have been had he cared for worldly grandeur. The Jewel-Horse 

 carries its rider, Pegasus-like, through the air in whatever direction 

 wished for, and thus it seems to have become associated with the 

 idea of realization of material wishes, and especially wealth and 

 jewels. This horse also forms the Vahan or throne-support of the 

 mythical Dhyani Buddha named Ratna Sambhava, or "the Jetvel-hovn 

 One," who is often represented symbolically by a jewel. And as 

 evidence of this identity we find m many of the Lung-ta flags that 

 the picture of a jewel takes the place of the horse which is not figured. 

 It is also notable that the mythic people of the northern continent, 

 over whom presides Kuvera, or Vaisravana, the God of Wealth, are 

 " horse-faced." The flags are printed ont he unglazed tough country 

 paper, and are obtainable on purchase from the lamas, but no lama is 

 necessarily needed for the actual planting of the flag and its attendant 

 rites. When the Lung-ta-tiag is expended it is said to be dar-ha. 



' Dar-?choy. I ' rLung-rta. 



' And the Totive pillars of the earlier Buddhists ofEered for railings to stupas were called 

 Dhwdja. 



2 A 



