44 
Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
No. 77, and the relic-carrying elephant on No. 53. Old Persian 
(Zoroastrian) are the fire-altar on No. 75, and the fire-worshipper (F) 
on No. 34. 
With reference to No. 23, I maj^ explain that there is a certain sys¬ 
tem of divination, well-known all over Northern India. It is practised, I 
believe, only by men of the extreme North-West, “ Kashmiris ” as they 
are commonly called, who are, as a rule, Muhammadans. They use a 
double set of four brass dice, strung on two short iron rods, round which 
they freely revolve ; four dice on each rod. The eight dice are all made 
exactly alike; being rectangular parallelopipeds (PI. XIX, 5), with 
only four equal sides (not cubes), and marked, on the long oblong sides, 
with the numbers 2, 3 and 4, denoted by dots, in such a manner that 
2 stands on the side opposite to 4, and 3 opposite to 3, as shown in 
the subjoined woodcut. 
1 
1 he short square sides, of course, which are perforated for the iron 
rod, bear no numbers; nor is the number one used. The dice look 
as if they were made of brass, but they are said to be of a special 
alloy of seven metals, consisting of brass, pewter, iron, lead, silver, 
gold, and copper. The operator throws the two strings of dice so 
that they fall parallel to each other, and then counts the dots in 
parallel lines; thus, lines a and b give 6 each, arranged as 2 + 24-1 + 1 
and 2 + 1+ 1 + 2, or a combination of 12. Each of the two lines might 
give any number from 4 to 8, and between them a great variety of 
arrangements and combinations. From these variations the-diviner 
makes his forecasts. 441 The object, described under No. 23 looks very 
much like one of such a set of dice, only that its faces are marked 
differently from what is the custom at the present time. 
44 A description of the alloy ns well as of the modus ojperandi in divining with 
such dice will also be found in the “ Third Report of Operations in Search of 
Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bombay Circle, April 1884 to March 1886,” by 
Piofessor Peterson, pp. 44-46, printed as an Extra-Number of the Journal of the 
Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Both the description and the sketch 
of the dice are not quite accurate. 
No. 10. 
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