272 Translation of a Tibetan Fragment. [ July, 



in Tibetan but in Sanscrit. Now, neither of the former translators had 

 any knowledge of Sanscrit, nor was aware that these passages were in 

 that language. Fourmont considered them to be Tibetan, as well as 

 the rest, and very deliberately translated the Sanscrit words with the 

 help of his Tibetan Dictionary. As he could not find the exact words, 

 however, he was content to take those most like them ; and at the ex- 

 pence of a few letters omitted or inserted, he contrived equivalents for 

 the mantras equally satisfactory with those he had devised for the 

 other sentences of his text. Thus he converts the Mantra Nama 

 Sdmanta Buddhdnam,Sdmantanugate,varaja, Dhermannirgata, Mahd 

 Mahd Swdha, into Na-ma Sam-tam Pou-tra Nan-hi-tsi cha-ya r~pa 

 sa-n-ha, which he translates, u iEgrotavit (restititmorbo) Sam tarn pou- 

 tra per annum dum hujus mundi evanesceret, &c." The same import- 

 ing, as far as such things admit of being translated, " Salutation to 

 the chief Buddhas. Obtainer of pre-eminence ; best born ; who proc 

 eeded from virtue. Great great adoration." 



Giorgi is more upon his guard, and discovers that the mantras are 

 not in ordinary Tibetan. He has no suspicion however of their real 

 character, and calls them magical expressions. He prints them there- 

 fore without any translation, but nevertheless pretends to explain their 

 purpose in his notes on the text, in which he assembles a crude mass of 

 extravagancies from Hebrew, Chaldaic, Coptic, and Syriac, and compares 

 these Tibetan characters to the mystic numbers and letters of the an- 

 cient Scythians and Egyptians, and of some of the early Sectarians 

 and Heretics of the Christian Church. This display of unprofitable 

 erudition is in fact only a shelter for his ignorance, and he knows no 

 more about the matter than did Fourmont, without having the merit 

 of his blundering simplicity. 



We shall now proceed to the translation. 



Translation of an Extract from the T. or 9th volume r^Gyut class 

 of the Kdh-gyur, the 337 — 339 leaves. 



Ignorant men do not know that all these (doctrines) have been 

 thus explained by Chom dan das (the Supreme), the knower of all 

 and possessor of all, who in remote ages, through compassion for all 

 living beings, addressed his mind to meditation upon the affairs of ani- 

 mate existences, (a Stanza) The ignorant do not perceive the moral 

 signification of moral things. It has been distinctly taught (by Buddha) 

 that the essential principle of morality is the non-entity of matter. 



The performer of mystic rites must always dwell upon that idea, and 

 discharge his duty accordingly. 



