Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/274

 224 NOTES AND QUERIES. w* s. vi. SBPT. 22, woo. that the steps of chickens rendered their sacred roll wholly unreadable (J. Lowin the 'Journals of the Indian Archipelago,' vol. iv. p. 415, 1850). A legend similar to that of the Samoan god already quoted supplied the subject of a celebrated poem by Chang Hang (78-139 A.D.). The story runs that primitively the moun- tains Hwa-Shan and Shau-Yang were united into one, compelling the mighty stream of the Hwang-Ho to move on in curves along its side. In order to deliver the neighbouring inhabitants from the inundations thus fre- quently caused, Kii-Ling, the god of that river, split the mountain in twain,and hishandprints are visible to this day on the top of Hwa-Shan, his footprints at the bottom of Shau-Yang ('Yuen-kien-lui-han,' torn, xxvii. foil. 33-4). There are at Han-Yang footsteps of the King Chang Kang, which he is said to have stamped in a rock by his trampling on receipt of unexpected news of his enemy's ap- proach in 206 B.C. ('Ku-kin-tu-shu-tseih-ching,' 1723, sec. vi. torn. dxi. fol. 5 b). From the imperial cyclopaedia so repeatedly quoted above, the 'Yuen-kien-lui-han,' 1701, 1 may enumerate the following examples of re- markable foot-impressions, most of which are of the Tauist savour : the marks of a recluse's hands and feet on and below the Tuh-Shan (torn. xxvi. fol. 47 a); those of clogs of the warrior Ma-Tang, near the estuary of I-Ning • one of the "dragon-horse" in Yun-Nan, said to give rain if prayed for (ibid., 41 a); of a hermit and a dragon on the Lun-Shan (ibid., 7 b); of the two birds at Yung-Kang, both traditionally said to have been found fighting and to have been turned into golden ingots on capture (32 b); of a hermit with his deer in the notorious villa of Li, a minister who flourished in the ninth century (fol. 39 a); of the shoes worn by the first emperor of the Tang dynasty, marvellously penetrating through two rocks (xlyii. 12 b); of a golden bull which ran upon a hill near Lake Tung-Ting in the third cen- tury A.D. (xxxvi. 15 b); of a horse and tiger, as well as of a gigantic crane at Shun-Ngari (cccxxxviii. 7 a); of the white deer on whose back Koh-Hung ascended to the heaven* (ibid., 18 b); of an angling saint near Chung- Hing (xxxiv. 11 a): of the horse which was ridden by the classic poet Kiuh - Yuer when he went to a stream to be drowneti (cccxx. 10 a) : of the shoes of a king al I-Chang; of a scribe who drew the eight signs for divination on a rock near Shun- Hmg (xxvi. 50 b); of a hermit and of a dragon at Ih-Chan (cccxxxvi. 6 a); of a donkey be longing to the magician Chang- Ko on a bridge in Chau-Chau (cccxxxv. 7 b); of the dragon in a stalactite cavern on Lin-In Mountain .xxvi. 9 a); of a remarkably muscular and swift - paced bull presented to the em- 3eror from Syria in 112 B.C. at the thence so-called Pier of Flowery Bull (cdxxxv. 25 b); of a dog on Dog Mountain in Lo-Chau cccxxxv. 11 a); of the six Tauist saints, and dogs and fowls, who accompanied the Kin" of Hwi-Nan in his ascension in 122 B.C. on lah- Kung Mountain (xxiv. 8 a); of a horse epony- mous of the "Path of the Celestial Horse" near Tsing-Chang (ccclii. 25 b); the pairs of hand and foot marks of a mystic individual in Kinchau (cccxxxv. 9 b). And the follow- ing are those of clearly Buddhist origin : the impression of the pedal dorsa) of a pious daughterof Kublai Khan in Tan-yii Monastery (ibid., cccliii. fol. 7 a); four vestiges of the horse belonging to the priest Chi Tau-Lin at Nan-Fung (cccxxiii. 19 a); of an arhat on Shih-Pau Mountain, Yunnan (cccxxxix. 30 b); the marks of Avalokites'vara's knee-joints at Shih-Tsiuen (xxv. 25 a); a pair of Kasyapa Buddha's footprints in Yueh-Chau (Genkai, 'T6daikwash6 T6seiden,' 779, reprint 1898, p. 544); those of the guardian-gods of the four corners of the world at Kiang-Ning (ib., p. 549). In the Temple of Po-ta-la at Lhassa prints of the hand and foot of Tsongkapa are seen in butter and never effaced (Ma and Slung, ' Wei-Tsiang-tu-shih,' 1793, torn. iv. fol. 24 b). In Khotan a Pratyekabuddha's steps existed in a rock ('Tang-shu,' tenth century, sub ' Yu-Tien'). In Ferghana a rock was formerly pointed out with tracks of the celestial horse on it ('Yuen-kien-lui-han,' cdxxxiii. fol. 31 b). So far as my scanty reading goes, I have not met a single instance in the Far East of such usage of foot-outlines as a pilgrim's re- cords as is prevalent in the European states; nevertheless such a practice is very likely to continue to be witnessed in certain parts thereof. An allied custom prevails with the Cambodjans, who, from very, early times, have kept as a memorial the impression on silk of a hand or foot of a relative or a tutor who gave them first lessons in reading and writing (J. Moura, ' Le Royaume du Cambodje,' 1882, vol. i. p. 197); and there is a record of the Japanese hero of Kamada (seventeenth century), whose alleged thumb- print was visible on a pillar in Asakusa Temple, Yedo, in the eighteenth century (Kydden, 'Kinsei Kisekikd,' 1804, vol. v ch. x.). Of all the external attributes of man and animals, only the shadow, the reflection, and partly the voice, can equal the footsteps in the constancy of their presence with his bodily existence, nor was the footstep considered