This
very title recalls General Cunningham's etymology of Bonpo.
[Illustration: Tibetan Bacsi]
[At the quarterly fair (yueh kai) of Ta-li (Yun-Nan), Mr. E. C. Baber
(Travels, 158-159) says: "A Fakir with a praying machine, which he
twirled for the salvation of the pious at the price of a few cash, was at
once recognised by us; he was our old acquaintance, the Bakhsi, whose
portrait is given in Colonel Yule's Marco Polo." - H. C.]
(Hodgson, in J. R. A. S. XVIII. 396 seqq.; Ann. de la Prop, de la
Foi, XXXVI. 301-302, 424-427; E. Schlagintweit, Ueber die Bon-pa Sekte
in Tibet, in the Sitzensberichte of the Munich Acad. for 1866, Heft I.
pp. 1-12; Koeppen, II. 260; Ladak, p. 358; J. As. ser. II. tom. i.
411-412; Remusat. Nouv. Mel. Asiat. I. 112; Astley, IV. 205;
Doolittle, 191.)
NOTE 18. - Pauthier's text has blons, no doubt an error for blous. In
the G. Text it is bloies. Pauthier interprets the latter term as "blond
ardent," whilst the glossary to the G. Text explains it as both blue and
white. Raynouard's Romance Dict. explains Bloi as "Blond." Ramusio
has biave, and I have no doubt that blue is the meaning. The same word
(bloie) is used in the G. Text, where Polo speaks of the bright colours
of the Palace tiles at Cambaluc, and where Pauthier's text has "vermeil
et jaune et vert et blou," and again (infra, Bk. II. ch. xix.), where the
two corps of huntsmen are said to be clad respectively in vermeil and in
bloie. Here, again, Pauthier's text has bleu. The Crusca in the
description of the Sensin omits the colours altogether; in the two other
passages referred to it has bioda, biodo.
["The Tao-sze, says Marco Polo, wear dresses of black and blue linen; i.e.
they wear dresses made of tatters of black and blue linen, as can be seen
also at the present day." (Palladius, 30.) - H. C.]
NOTE 19. - ["The idols of the Tao-sze, according to Marco Polo's statement,
have female names; in fact, there are in the pantheon of Taoism a great
many female divinities, still enjoying popular veneration in China; such
are Tow Mu (the 'Ursa major,' constellation), Pi-hia-yuen Kiun (the
celestial queen), female divinities for lying-in women, for children, for
diseases of the eyes; and others, which are to be seen everywhere. The
Tao-sze have, besides these, a good number of male divinities, bearing the
title of Kiun in common with female divinities; both these circumstances
might have led Marco Polo to make the above statement." (Palladius, p.
30.) - H. C.]
[1] This distance is taken from a tracing of the map prepared for Dr.
Bushell's paper quoted below.
