Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/277

 The Rosary m Maoic and Religion. 267

In Tibet the rosary is used for other purposes besides that of prayer, sometimes serving as a personal ornament, and also as a means of reckoning sums,^ It is also used in divination,^ the ceremony being performed by the more illiterate people and by the Bon priests. First a short spell is repeated, and then the rosary is breathed upon and a fairly long prayer is recited in which the petitioner begs various religious protectors and guardians that " truth may descend on this lot," that light may descend on it, and " truth and reality appear in it." After the repetition of this prayer, the rosary is taken in the palm and well mixed between the two revolving palms, and the hands clapped thrice. Then, closing his eyes, the devotee seizes a portion of the rosary between the thumb and finger of each hand, and, after opening his eyes, counts the inter- vening beads from each end in threes. The result depends on whether the remainder is one, two, or three in successive countings.

The Lamas sometimes use their rosaries to drive off evil spirits. A procession is formed once a year, and part of the performance consists in the Lama flourishing his rosary round about to drive away devils from the village.^ Rosaries are also used to drive away hailstorms.^

China. The full Buddhist rosary in China has the usual number of 108 beads, with three dividing beads of a different size and colour. As in other countries, the materials com- posing them vary. There is also a smaller rosary of eighteen beads, corresponding to the eighteen Lohans (chief disciples of Buddha), each bead being sometimes carved into an image of a Lohan. The Chinese name for rosary is su-chu. The ends of the rosary strings are usually passed through

•W. W. Rockhill, A',-/'. U.S. A'atioiial Mtis., 1893, p. 695. ("f, the Ahaius in China and Japan.


 * Gazetteer of .Sikkim, pp. 330 f.

^Journ. Anthrop. Soc. Bengal, vol. x. (1914), p. 156.


 * Rev. Ekai Kawaguchi, Three Years in Tibet, pp. 271-276.