P. 256) the most powerful and most feared of sorcerers
[in Chinese Turkestan] is the djaduger, who, to produce rain or fine
weather, uses a jade stone, given by Noah to Japhet. Grenard adds (II.
406-407) there are sorcerers (Ngag-pa-snags-pa) whose specialty is to make
rain fall; they are similar to the Turkish Yadachi and like them use a
stone called "water cristal," chu shel; probably jade stone.
Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 245, note) writes: "Rashideddin states that
when the Urianghit wanted to bring a storm to an end, they said injuries
to the sky, the lightning and thunder. I have seen this done myself by
Mongol storm-dispellers. (See Diary, 201, 203.) 'The other Mongol
people,' he adds, 'do the contrary. When the storm rumbles, they remain
shut up in their huts, full of fear.' The subject of storm-making, and the
use of stones for that purpose, is fully discussed by Quatremere,
Histoire, 438-440." (Cf. also Rockhill, l.c. p. 254.) - H. C.]
An edict of the Emperor Shi-tsung, of the reigning dynasty, addressed in
1724-1725 to the Eight Banners of Mongolia, warns them against this
rain-conjuring: "If I," indignantly observes the Emperor, "offering prayer
in sincerity have yet room to fear that it may please Heaven to leave MY
prayer unanswered, it is truly intolerable that mere common people wishing
for rain should at their own caprice set up altars of earth, and bring
together a rabble of Hoshang (Buddhist Bonzes) and Taosse to conjure the
spirits to gratify their wishes."
["Lamas were of various extraction; at the time of the great assemblies,
and of the Khan's festivities in Shangtu, they erected an altar near the
Khan's tent and prayed for fine weather; the whistling of shells rose up
to heaven." These are the words in which Marco Polo's narrative is
corroborated by an eye-witness who has celebrated the remarkable objects
of Shangtu (Loan king tsa yung). These Lamas, in spite of the
prohibition by the Buddhist creed of bloody sacrifices, used to sacrifice
sheep's hearts to Mahakala.
