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140
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1887.
he be acquainted with trade technicalities. the singer; and, before tadingana was out of By the rules of this secret language tiru means 'them, the traders separated into parties of *three,' puli means 'ten,' and sávana (or shortly three, and each party pounced upon a thief. sa) means 'one.' So the leader by his song The remaining one—the leader himself, for to meant to hint to his fellow-traders that they him the other nine left the conclusion-tore were ten mun, the robbers only three, that if up into long narrow strips a large piece of three pounced upon each of the robbers, nine cloth six cubits long, and tied the hands and of them conld hold them down, while the re- feet of the robbers. These were entirely maining one bound the robbers' hands and humbled now, and rolled on the ground like
three bags of rice ! The three thieves, glorying in their victory, The ten traders now took back all their and little anderstanding the meaning of the property, and armed themselves with the swords song and the intentions of the dancers, were and cudgels of their enemies; and when they proudly seated chewing betel and tambák reached their village, they often amused their (tobacco). Meanwhile the song was sang a friends and relatives by relating their adventhird time. Ta tai tôm had left the lips of ture.'
feet.
BOOK NOTICE. THE SACRED BOOKS OF CHINA-THE Texts or CONFU Han dynasty. The third book of the Ll-Kt, the
CIANISM; translated by James Legge; Part III. The LI-KI, Two Vols., p. xiv., 484; viii., 196. SACRED
20 Royal Ordinances, was compiled at the order of BOOKS OF THE EAST; Yols. XXVII.-XXVIII.)- the emperor Wan (B.O. 179-157), by the Great Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1885.
Scholars of his Court. It required two centuries The LI-K1 is one of the “Five-King" or classical
or more of Li-scholars, and several general books of Confucianism, and is "& collection of
searches for old records, to arrive at last at the treatises on the rules of propriety or ceremonial
present compilation of the L-KI, of which the usages," in fact, a sort of code of social inter
definitive redaction was done by MA-Yung (A.D. course. The translation by Mr. Legge is the first 79.166) and his pupil King Hsuan (A.D. 127-200). that has been published of the whole of the
In its present form, the LA-Ki is composed of fortyLA-K; the valuable translation by Callery (L1-K six books; and the reader will find, in Mr. Legge's on Mémorial des Rites) having been done as an introduction, notices of the different books and what abridged and expurgated edition, which contains is known about the authorship and date of each. hardly more than a half of the great editions
The high authority which the LS-Ki enjoys of the Thang and present dynasties, which Mr. in China invests it with a special value in the Legge has followed.
eyes of the Western scholar, as being the best In an interesting introduction, the translator
and most faithful representation of the social. gives a brief history of the LA-K4; from which
ideal of the Chinese. Mr. Legge's estimate of it appears that, very likely as early m the time
that ideal seems to be a fair and judicious one. of Confucius, most certainly in the time of
We are apt to overlook many deep and thoroughly Mencius, there were in existence treatises about
human aspects of the Chinese ideal, which are ceremonial usages, of the same nature as the L-KO
hidden from our sight by the strangeness of if not of the same contenta. In B.C. 213, when
expression or the dead formalism of modern China. Shih Hwang Tt ordered the destruction of the
The truth is that, as Mr. Legge observes, a nation's old literature, there were two books of 4 in
creed is generally better than its practice. The existence, the 1.LA and the Kdu-L4, which were
ceremonial, which now seems to be everything, recovered in the great revival of Confucianism that was originally only the natural outapring and took place under the Han dynasty,--the 1.14 outward sign of the inward feeling, whether in in the reign of the emperor Wa (B.O. 140-87), and worship, or in mourning for the dead, or in the the K.11-LA under the same emperor, and again in joy of family festivities, or in the relations between the next century. The LA-K has taken a higher rulers and subjecta. Subsequently, what was the position than the other two, and may contain natural sign of the feeling became its convenparts as old or older ; but, as a collection in ita tional sign, till the sign was supposed to be allpresent form, it does not go higher than the sufficient, and did away with the feeling itself.
Traders have also certain secret symbols for mark. interesting as showing that the customs mentioned, ante, ing their prices on their cloths.
Vol. XIV. p. 155 fr., as being prevalent at Delht, regard[This story, apart from its folklore value, is specially ing secret trade language are universal in India.-ED.)
