Scatalogic [!] rites of all nations : A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe / Based upon original notes and personal observation, and upon compilation from one thousand authorities. By Captain John G. Bourke.

  • Bourke, John Gregory, 1846-1896.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scatalogic [!] rites of all nations : A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe / Based upon original notes and personal observation, and upon compilation from one thousand authorities. By Captain John G. Bourke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    into fine flour some roasted grain, then mixing it with pure and sweet- scented water, he makes the necessary amount of paste ; the pills are then made and coated over with red. When all this has been done, a vase is taken which is dry and without any flaw or blemish, aud which is also perfectly clean, and in it the pills are poured until it is two- thirds full. The vase is then wrapped in a silk cover, which is tied on with a silk thread, and scaled. The vase, after this, is put on a stand, in a perfectly upright position, and around the latter are arranged bowls of water and other offerings, two by two. The most revered image of Tug-je-chon-po (i. e., Shouresig) which the lamasery possesses is then clothed in its robes, and placed on top of the vase; then, without shaking the vase, a dorje (a marginal note explains that this is the Thunder-bolt or Sadjra of Indra : it is in constant use in all the Lamaist ceremonies, and is generally held in the right hand, between the thumb and index, while prayers are being read. In the left hand the lama usually holds a bell), wrapped in a clean piece of cotton or woollen stuff, is tied to the string around the neck of the vase. After an interval of meditation and prayer, offerings are made of ' water, flowers, incense, lamps, perfumes, food, etc., . . . while music plays.' Then the help of the god is invoked ' to impart the necessary virtues to the pills, ... for this world is sunk in sin and iniquity, and Shouresig alone can help it, and drag it out of the mire.' As a means thereto he is now besought, in his great mercifulness, to bless these pills, so that the}' may free from the orb of transmigration those who shall have attained maturity of mind,' to impart to them by absorption the peculiar flavor of his resplendent person, so that they may become indistinguishable from it, like water poured into water, etc., etc. This ceremony, which is a most expensive one, and most trying on the Lamas, is not at all common in the Lamaseries of China or Mongolia, and is confined to the larger one in Thibet; the only one at Pekin, where it is sometimes performed, is the Shih-fang-tang, to the west of the Hsi-huang-tsu, outside of the north side of the city. The above ceremony describes a symbolical alvine dejection, and the most plausible explanation is, that the lamas, finding trade good and the Buddhist laity willing to accept more amulets than the Grand Lama was able, unaided, to supply, hit upon this truly miraculous mode of replenishing their stock. Mr. Rockhill explains that the word pedung, used in the above description, meaus remains. Taking into consideration the fact