Oui, in Thibetian, means centre, middle; and hence the name was given to the province which occupies the centre of Thibet, and the capital of which is Lha-Ssa. Charmanas (in Sanscrit, S’raman’as) are monks in the Lamanesque hierarchy. Goucho is a title of honour, given to the Lamas by the Thibetians. Tchanak is the Mongol name of Peking; Kampo means Pontiff. Dalae-Lama is altogether an erroneous form of this designation; the words are TalÉ-Lama. TalÉ, in Thibetian, means sea, and the appellation has been applied to the Grand Lama of Thibet, because this personage is locally supposed to be a sea of wisdom and power. Siao-ti, an expression used by the Chinese when they speak of themselves in the presence of Mandarins. The Chinese name for Mr. Elliot, the English Plenipotentiary at Canton, at the commencement of the Anglo-Chinese war. The class of reptiles comprehends fish, mollusks, and all animals that are neither quadrupeds nor birds. Strabo, speaking of the customs of the nomadic Scythians, as retained among the Sogdians and Bactrians, writes: “In the capital of Bactria, they breed dogs, to which they give a special name, which name, rendered into our language, means buriers. The business of these dogs is to eat up all persons who are beginning to fall into decay, from old age or sickness. Hence it is that no tomb is visible in the suburbs of the town, while the town itself is all filled with human bones. It is said that Alexander abolished this custom.”
Cicero attributes the same custom to the Hyrcanians, in his “Tusculan Questions,” (Lib. i. § 45): “In Hyrcania plebs publicos alit canes; optimates, domesticos. Nobile autem genus canum illud scimus esse. Sed pro sua quisque facultate parat, À quibus lanietur: eamque optimam illi esse censent sepulturam.”
Justin also says of the Parthians: “Sepultura vulgÒ aut avium aut canum aniatus est. Nuda demum ossa terr obruunt.” “Asia,” vol. v., p. 800, German edition, 1833–1837. See “Asiatic Journal of London,” vol. xxi., p. 786, and vol. xxii., p. 596. A notice of Moorcroft’s manuscripts was inserted in the “Journal of the Geographical Society of London,” 1831. Vol. xii, No. 9, p. 120. M. Gabet. In the province of Oui there are three thousand. Ki-Chan, in fact, is now viceroy of the province of Sse-Tchouen. Nouveau Journal Asiatique, 1st series, tome iv. and vi. We had for a long time a small Mongol treatise on natural history, for the use of children, in which a unicorn formed one of the pictorial illustrations. A centimetre is 33–100 of an inch. The unicorn antelope of Thibet is probably the oryx-capra of the ancients. It is still found in the deserts of Upper Nubia, where it is called Ariel. The unicorn (Hebrew, reem; Greek, monoceros), that is represented in the Bible, and in Pliny’s “Natural History,” cannot be identified with the oryx capra. The unicorn of holy writ would appear rather to be a pachydermous creature, of great strength and formidable ferocity. According to travellers, it still exists in Central Africa, and the Arabs call it Aboukarn. Kouang-Ti, was a celebrated general who lived in the third century of our era, and who, after many and famous victories, was put to death with his son. The Chinese, indeed, say that he did not really die, but that he ascended to heaven, and took his place among the Gods. The Mantchous, who now reign in China, have named Kouang-Ti the tutelary spirit of their dynasty, and raised a great number of temples in his honour. He is ordinarily represented seated, having on his left hand his son Kouang-Ping, standing, and on his right, his squire, a man with a face so very dark, as to be almost black. The Kiang-Kian are the highest dignitaries of the military hierarchy in China; they are decorated with the red button. Each province has a Kiang-Kian, who is its military governor, and a Tsoung-Tou, or viceroy, who is its chief literary Mandarin. On Andriveau-Goujon’s map, this place is called Chamiton. Bathang signifies in Thibetian, plain of cows.
