TIIANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 103 



shows that they had some serious purpose. But the author can conceive of no 

 common purpose which can have induced men of such dissimilar religions as tlie 

 Iliudu, the Buddhist, and the Mussulman to erect similar monuments. 



One supposition suggested itself, which was that these cairns are monuments of 

 the Buddhist faith, which is the only one known to have ever prevailed over the 

 entire region of Tihet aud Turkista'n. But there is this objection, that although 

 similar monuments are found in the Buddhist districts, yet they exist in opposition 

 to the Buddhist priesthood, who will have nothing to do with them, and thus are 

 not likely to have implanted them in other districts. 



The author thinks that he recognized in these cairns the remains of an early 

 kind of wor.^hip (anterior to Buddhism) which undoubtedly existed at one time 

 throughout those hills, and which perhaps overspread the entire region between 

 India and Turkistan. There are traces of the adoration of local deities all over 

 this region. In the outer Himalaya such sacred spots are numerous, and occupy 

 exactly similar positions with the "Lhato" of Tibet and the "Mazars"' of the 

 KuenUm Mountains, viz. eminences and remarkable places. The influence of 

 these divinities is not supposed to extend beyond a few hundred yards from their 

 local habitation, which is marked also by red paint, rusty iron tridents, aud flutter- 

 ing rags. Outside the magic circle the worshippers will often mock at the object 

 of then- adoration, but within it they are all devotion. These supernatural beings 

 are generally called after " Devi," the Hindu goddess of destruction, who seems to be 

 indetinitely subdivided or multiplied by lier worshippers in the hills, contrary, as the 

 author was informed, to the orthodox practice of pure Hinduism. They talk of this 

 m\i and that Devi as Italians do of the Madonna of such or such a place, honour- 

 ing some more than others, as Louis XI. was wont to do in the familiar pages 

 of'^Yalter Scott. 



Besides the Devis there are numerous other local worships in the Hindu part of 

 the Himalaya ; and, with a change in the names, we have just the same in Tibet and 

 in Eastern Turkistan. Moreover at the boundaries or the neutral ground between 

 the three religions we find the very same cairns or symbols of local influences 

 worshipped in common by the followers of both the neighbouring Faiths, who 

 bestow each their own designation on the same object. 



Those monuments and localities which the Hindus associate with the name of 

 " Devi," " Indur," &c. are in Tibet called " Lhato " (Lha meaning a god or super- 

 natural power, as in Lhassa, which means " the abode of the gods "). 



In the Mussulman districts, on the other hand, these cairns are known by the 

 name of " Mazar," which means the shrine or tomb of a saint; and such is the 

 origin they ascribe to them, regardless of the improbability of so many holy men 

 retiring to the tops of almost inaccessible rocks to be buried. 



Several times the author found abandoned cairns in most desolate and uufre- 



cairns as " Mazars," though in every respect resembling those which they revered 

 so much. They told him that these mounds had been raised by a race who frequented 

 that country long before tJiej/ had migrated into it. In fact they had no certain 

 tradition ; and they are but new comers themselves. 



Some Yarkandis who were questioned, stated that these were "Kafir" or 

 " infidel " monuments, and that similar ones were to be foimd throughout Eastern 

 Turkistan but not in Western. , 



Af-ain, the Tibetans who accompanied the author into Turkistan immediately 

 identified both the honom-ed and also the abandoned "Mazars" as their own country's 

 " Lhato." One in particular attracted their attention. It was in a level part of the 

 upper Karakash valley, and there seemed to be no reason for its existence there ; 

 until at last one of them spied out a remarkable peak in the distance, which first 

 came into sight at the point where the cairn was erected. This peak had a triple 

 point ; and this, the author was informed, woidd in Tibet have been quite sufficient 

 to ensure even the most distant view of such a summit the honour of being marked 

 by a Lhato ; for 3 is a mystic number. ■. i • 



K these may aU be referred back to a primitive religion consisting of the worship 



