DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.649#0365
318 TABLES FOR ASTROLOGICAL PURPOSES.
the earth and are fed by water; wood furnishes the
material for fire, but wood, or trees, are felled by iron.
Iron (shovels) are indispensable for irrigation-canals, to
furnish the plants (wood) with the necessary water, of
which, however, they are deprived to a certain extent
by the earth, into which a part sinks and is lost.1 Eire
again renders possible the use of water for cooking, and
thus increases its importance for man.
2. Table with cyclic animals.
All the tribes of Central Asia2 suppose that the different
natures of the elements which constitute the cycle of twelve
years, cause mutual affection or aversity; the rules,
however, which the Tibetans have established on this head,
are very arbitrary; they believe, e.g. that the bird would
pick the horse, &c. They speak of six varieties of relative
feelings, viz.: very great affection; mediocre affection;
indifference; disinclination; great hatred; deadly hatred.
Deadly hatred is incurable, and under such auspices
young people should, properly, not be permitted to
marry; but if the parties are wealthy and liberal, the
hatred may be prevented from breaking out. All other
relations of the animals can be modified—the influence of
the unfavourable weakened or totally counteracted, that
of the favourable strengthened and increased.
Diagrams in the divisions of which such groups of
animals are formed, are very frequent; their arrangement
1 The general dryness of the climate in Tibet makes cultivation much
more dependent upon irrigation than in nearly any inhabited part of the
globe.
2 Comp. Pallas, 1. c, pp. 236, 263.
the earth and are fed by water; wood furnishes the
material for fire, but wood, or trees, are felled by iron.
Iron (shovels) are indispensable for irrigation-canals, to
furnish the plants (wood) with the necessary water, of
which, however, they are deprived to a certain extent
by the earth, into which a part sinks and is lost.1 Eire
again renders possible the use of water for cooking, and
thus increases its importance for man.
2. Table with cyclic animals.
All the tribes of Central Asia2 suppose that the different
natures of the elements which constitute the cycle of twelve
years, cause mutual affection or aversity; the rules,
however, which the Tibetans have established on this head,
are very arbitrary; they believe, e.g. that the bird would
pick the horse, &c. They speak of six varieties of relative
feelings, viz.: very great affection; mediocre affection;
indifference; disinclination; great hatred; deadly hatred.
Deadly hatred is incurable, and under such auspices
young people should, properly, not be permitted to
marry; but if the parties are wealthy and liberal, the
hatred may be prevented from breaking out. All other
relations of the animals can be modified—the influence of
the unfavourable weakened or totally counteracted, that
of the favourable strengthened and increased.
Diagrams in the divisions of which such groups of
animals are formed, are very frequent; their arrangement
1 The general dryness of the climate in Tibet makes cultivation much
more dependent upon irrigation than in nearly any inhabited part of the
globe.
2 Comp. Pallas, 1. c, pp. 236, 263.