[887] These “magic mirrors,” generally black, are another proof of the universality of an identical belief. In India these mirrors are prepared in the province of Agra and are also fabricated in Thibet and China. And we find them in Ancient Egypt, from whence, according to the native historian quoted by Brasseur de Bourbourg, the ancestors of the Quichès brought them to Mexico; the Peruvian sun-worshippers also used it. When the Spaniards had landed, says the historian, the King of the Quichès, ordered his priests to consult the mirror, in order to learn the fate of his kingdom. “The demon reflected the present and the future as in a mirror,” he adds (De Bourbourg: “Mexique,” p. 184).
[888] Pay’quina, or Payaquina, so called because its waves used to drift particles of gold from the Brazil. We found a few specks of genuine metal in a handful of sand that we brought back to Europe.
[889] The regions somewhere about Udyana and Kashmere, as the translator and editor of Marco Polo (Colonel Yule), believes. Vol. i., p. 173.
[890] “Voyage des Pèlerins Bouddhistes,” vol. 1.; “Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen-Thsang,” etc., traduit du Chinois en français, par Stanislas Julien.
[891] Lao-tsi, the Chinese philosopher.
[892] “The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” vol. i., p. 318. See also, in this connection, the experiments of Mr. Crookes, described in chapter vi. of this work.
[893] Max Müller: “Buddhist Pilgrims.”
[894] Berlin Academy of Sciences, 1846.
[895] Colonel Yule makes a remark in relation to the above Chinese mysticism which for its noble fairness we quote most willingly. “In 1871,” he says, “I saw in Bond street an exhibition of the (so-called) ‘spirit’ drawings, i.e., drawings executed by a ‘medium’ under extraneous and invisible guidance. A number of these extraordinary productions (for extraordinary they were undoubtedly) professed to represent the ‘Spiritual Flowers’ of such and such persons; and the explanation of these as presented in the catalogue was in substance exactly that given in the text. It is highly improbable that the artist had any cognizance of Schott’s Essays, and the coincidence was certainly very striking” (“The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” vol. i., p. 444).
[896] Schott: “Essay on Buddhism,” p. 103.