is the cause of everything that occurs, and which is responsive in the most complete manner to Buddhist wisdom and goodness.

The use of the Devanagari writing for the purposes of magic is an instructive instance of the power of superstition to delude the human mind. The words used by the magician for the most part have no meaning. They are senseless clatter. The sounds are Sanscrit, but the words usually not so. These absurd compositions of unmeaning sounds are of various lengths. They occur frequently in the books of the Great Development. They are engraved on stone monuments on the way side, on imperial roads, and at places of resort for Buddhist pilgrims. They also form a chief part of the liturgies in use in the monasteries and at funerals.

Om-mani-padme-hum is one of the most common. Padme is "lotus;" mani is a "precious stone;" om is a sacred "Hindoo symbol." It is written in Sanscrit characters under the eaves of all the lama temples in Peking. In these temples it meets the eye everywhere.

The Thibetan character is based on the Sanscrit. It is also found cut on monuments, both for charms and for intelligible inscriptions. It is the chief language for liturgical use among the Thibetans and Mongol lamas in Peking, except in two instances. In the Mahakala miau, the Mongol sacred books are read. In a temple, Fa-hai si, near the hunting park, the Manchu is read. The Chinese lamas in Peking read Thibetan prayers, while the Chinese priests of the old Chinese Buddhism read, of course, in Chinese.

In all these forms, the syllables of the charms are the same. They are written in Sanscrit, or in the other languages mentioned.

At the pass called Ku-yung kwan, near Peking, there is a stone monument containing a charm in six languages, viz., Sanscrit, Chinese, Thibetan, Nu-chih, Ouighour, and Mongol. It was cut in the time of the Mongol emperors.

[paragraph continues] It contains the same charm written with the characters employed for all these languages. It was intended as a protection to the emperor in going to and coming from the summer palace, at that time beyond Tu-shi k'eu, and also to all travellers on this much frequented road between China and Mongolia.

There are also some monuments inscribed with Sanscrit charms in Peking at the present time, which date from about seven hundred years ago. They are stone octagonal pillars. One is at the monastery called Hwa-yen si, near the park of the Altar of Heaven and the city gate known as Kiang-cha men. These octagonal pillars are called shi-chwang, and they are placed in the courts of temples. There is one kept on the premises of the London Missionary Society in Peking.

Sanscrit inscriptions are supposed, like pagodas and monasteries, to have a lucky effect on the neighbourhood where they are found, and on those who erect them by their benefactions and goodwill.