face., and down his left forearm runs the mongoose by
which jewels* are fetched from the centre of the earth.
Conventionally there is a rank and degree for every
member of this supernatural company ; but even the
educated Tibetan is quite willing to allow these
complications of mythology to be understanded of
the priests alone/and it is practically sufficient for
the traveller to recognise at sight the four terrible
guardian deities of the four quarters of Heaven, Tamdin,
so-called because of the horse’s head and neck which
are always to be found in the flames with which his
head is crowned, Shin-je, the god of Hell, and Palden-
lhamo.
Besides these are the mischievous gods which the
lamas use to subjugate the common folk— gods of lesser
and local influence. They are malignant sprites with
strictly limited powers. They have a thousand different
shapes. Some are gnomes or hobgoblins, creeping and
peeping among the rocks. Some are gigantic brutes a
mile in height, with tiny mouths which prevent them
swallowing even the smallest crumb ; naturally they
suffer from hunger, and in their agonised writhings they
are the immediate cause of earthquakes. Others again
confine themselves to peaks and passes— the noi-jinsf
are of this class. They do not, however,, do much harm
to mankind except that of course avalanches are their
work, and they seem also to be responsible for breathing
* Jewels are conventionally represented in Tibetan art like turnips of different.colours.
The strange and apparently meaningless coloured circles on the shelf at the foot of the
seated Buddha in my own drawing (IV.) in the first volume are jewels, and it may perhaps
give some small estimate of the sizé which this painting was intended to indicate if
it is remembered that the two tiny spikes of white beside these jewels are really long
éléphant tusks.
t The first word in Nichi-kang-sang is really Noi-jin, but it is never so pronounced:
out what the Tibetans call la-druk— the poison of the
pass.” This, of course, is merely th? attenuated air
which even in the hardiest Tibetan will bring on mountain
sickness and nausea. Then there are imps who hide
themselves during the day and come out and hold high
revels all the night. They ride over the hills and plains
on foxbaek, and if you hear one of these animals yelping
in the distance, you may be sure that it is being overdriven
and beaten sorely by one of these “ lan-de.”
However, as the only whip which they are allowed to
use is the hemlock stalk, the wounds cannot be very
severe.
Every village and every district has its own particular
god, and, it is part of the duties and the emoluments of
the lamas to instruct travellers (for a moderate fee) as to
the deity proper to be invoked at the entrance of each
commune. Fevers and diseases of all kinds are caused
by minute but malignant spirits. Thus, when you see a
rainbow, you may know that these infinitely small folk
are sliding down it Iris-like to the water at its foot, and
then beware of that place, for ague lies thereby. If one
wished to put into a fanciful form the last theories, at home
about malaria, this would be as pretty a way of telling
them as any. They amuse themselves (here, perhaps, we
have the missing Anopheles) by playing on guitars.
Some of these elves, live, solely on odours. They inhabit
the air, and flit like fairies to and fro. They feed
upon any kind of scent or stench, good or bad, and
butchers burn offal round their shops in order that by
a more overpowering smell than that of their own wares,
these spirits may be attracted away. Finally, there
are the shn, the commonest and perhaps the most
dreaded goblins of them all. It is to be noticed that