And whirl round the fire, striking at
the devils with a straight Roman-like sword, and sometimes wounding
themselves as the priests of Baal and Moloch used to do.
(Astley, IV. 671; Morley in J. R. A. S. VI. 24; Semedo, 111, 114;
De Mailla, IX. 410; J. As. ser. V. tom. viii. 138; Schott ueber den
Buddhismus etc. 71; Voyage de Khieou in J. As. ser. VI. tom. ix. 41;
Middle Kingdom, II. 247; Doolittle, 192; Esc. de Lauture, Mem. sur la
Chine, Religion, 87, 102; Peler. Boudd. II. 370, and III. 468.)
Let us now turn to the Bon-po. Of this form of religion and its
sectaries not much is known, for it is now confined to the eastern and
least known part of Tibet. It is, however, believed to be a remnant of the
old pre-Buddhistic worship of the powers of nature, though much modified
by the Buddhistic worship with which it has so long been in contact. Mr.
Hodgson also pronounces a collection of drawings of Bonpo divinities,
which were made for him by a mendicant friar of the sect from the
neighbourhood of Tachindu, or Ta-t'sien-lu, to be saturated with Sakta
attributes, i.e. with the spirit of the Tantrika worship, a worship which
he tersely defines as "a mixture of lust, ferocity, and mummery," and
which he believes to have originated in an incorporation with the Indian
religions of the rude superstitions of the primitive Turanians.
