196 REPORT — 1872. 



of mountain-demons (including in the Himalaya the veneration of tree- and water- 

 demons, other natural divinities of which many traces remain), then the three 

 newer religions which have since occupied this region, the Hindu, the Buddhist 

 and the Mussulman, have each adopted this part of the old belief and assimilated 

 it into its own system. It is curious to see their difierent treatment of the same 

 belief. The Hindu gives the most supernatural turn to it. All these spots, how- 

 ever mmierous or distant, have become the special habitation of one and the same 

 divinity of the Hindu Pantheon, who by the common people is conceived as being 

 entirely separate and distinct deities. The Mussulman gives a purely human and 

 ordinary explanation : certain holy men have died and been_ buried there. The 

 Buddhist, on the other hand, leaves the old superstition alone, giving it a wide berth. 

 The country people pay their devotions to these cairn-deities to ward off their dis- 

 pleasure from their fields and cattle ; but the Lama gives them no place in his 

 books or in his worship. His veneration is reserved for the deified saints of Budd- 

 hism, following each in his proper rank after the great Sakya-Moonee. It is true 

 the Lamas sometimes help their superstitious countrymen with charms against the 

 power of these cairn-deities and of other evil spirits, such as the serpent demon ; 

 but this is probably illicit connivance. 



The fact is that all over these mountains, under one excuse or another, the 

 country people propitiate certain localized influences, which are supposed to be 

 confined within certain limits. For instance, the inhabitants of an hamlet are not 

 supposed to pay any attention to the object of their neighbours' fear or veneration, 

 unless they place themselves locally within its power. The Mussulman bestows 

 the least superstition on them, and the Buddhist gives them the smallest amount of 

 recognition and sanction. 



The author mentioned a ceremony which he witnessed in Ladak, and which is 

 probably a relic of the supposed ante-Buddhist worship. A certain female deity 

 or demon is supposed to be revealed each year at the village of Sh6, embodied iu 

 one or other of the members of a certain family who hold this heritage. The in- 

 dividual chosen by the goddess on this occasion was dressed out in fantastic though 

 costly garments with a regal tiara on his head, and when first seen was dancing in 

 a weird fashion on the lofty battlements of one of the Buddhist monasteries, which 

 are often so picturesquely perched on the top of a steep clifi". On this dizzy emi- 

 nence the goddess danced in human form, while in a little green plain below a dense 

 crowd watched every motion with upturned faces. At last the mystic personage 

 descended. Making his way through the crowd, he approached a spring of water 

 which bubbles up in the midst of the little plain, converting half of it into a swamp, 

 which can only be crossed by a stone causeway. This causeway terminates at the 

 spring, and on its extremity stands one of these stone erections called Lhato, but of 

 a more finished character than those before described. On the Lhato a dish of 

 burning incense was placed ; and as the inspired mortal paced up and down in its 

 fumes, many of the crowd approached one by one and asked him questions regard- 

 ing futuritj', which by the power of the goddess he was supposed capable of 

 answering correctlj^. 



Now iu all this there was one noticeable fact. Although in Tibet the Lamas 

 iisually form as large a part of a crowd as monks and priests used to do in Naples 

 and Home, yet on this occasion not a single Lama was visible. Not one could be 

 found to sanction by his presence the worship of this local deity. 



The author has witnessed almost similar devil-dances amongst the Hindu hill- 

 men of the outer Himalaya. There, however, more than one person takes part in 

 the ceremony, which is generally performed before the rude shrine of one of these 

 local deities or of the snake god the Nag. A sudden Bacchic fury seems to seize 

 individual members of the crowd, who rush forward, trembling in every limb, and 

 with glaring eyes, and baring the upper part of their body as they go, they dance 

 round, lashing their backs with a sort of iron cat-o'-nine tails, which is handed round 

 froni one to the other. In this state they are consulted by the standers bj-, who 

 receive their words as oracles. Sometimes ten or a dozen of these devotees are 

 hopping around the circle at the same moment. Their excitement is undoubt- 

 edly accompanied with something resembling an hysterical affection, which 

 leaves them faint and exhausted. "When they reach this stage, their friends stand 



