The origin of the Tibetan race is attributed to a fabulous union between a she-demon and an ape. Some refer their origin to India, others to China, others again to the Mongols or Turks. They admit five races among themselves, according to the countries they live in; their pronunciation differs much, but they all understand each other. Except the Mohammedans of Ladak and Baltistan, they all profess the religion of Buddha, whose records are written in the same language and character. [[179]]
III.
Translation of a Tibetan Fragment, with Remarks by Dr. Wilson.
In the ninth volume of the Gyut class of the Kahgyur occurs the original of a Tibetan fragment which created in the beginning of the last century a lively sensation amongst the learned men of Europe, and the history of which furnishes an amusing instance of the vanity of literary pretensions, and of the patience and pain with which men of talent and erudition have imposed upon themselves and upon the world.
In the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century the Russians, in their incursions into Siberia, came upon various deserted temples and monasteries, in some of which considerable collections of books were deposited. These were in general destroyed or mutilated by the ignorant rapacity of the soldiery; but fragments of them were preserved, and found their way as curiosities into Europe.
Among these some loose leaves, supposed to have been obtained at the ruins of Ablakit, a monastery near the source of the Irtish, were presented to the Emperor Peter the Great. Literature being then at a low ebb in Russia, no attempt was made to decipher these fragments, and they were sent by the Czar to the French Academy, whose sittings he had attended when in Paris, and who deservedly enjoyed the reputation of being the most learned body in Europe. In 1720 the Abbé Bignon, on the part of the Academy, communicated to the Czar the result of their labour, apprising him that the fragments sent were portions of a work in the Tibetan language, and sending a translation of one page made by Abbé Fourmont with the help of a Latin and Tibetan Dictionary. The letter was published in the “Transactions of the Academy of St. Petersburg,” and the text and translation reprinted by Bayer in his “Museum Sinicum.” Müller, in 1747, criticised Fourmont’s translation, and gave a new one of the first lines, prepared with the double aid of a Tangutan priest, who rendered it into Mongol, and a Mongol student, who interpreted it [[180]]to Müller. It was afterwards reprinted, with corrections and additions, and a new translation, by Giorgi in his “Alphabetum Tibetanum,” and was at the beginning of the present century made the subject of animadversion by M. Rémusat in his “Recherches sur les Langues Tartares.”
Of the previous performances M. Rémusat thus speaks: “On avait d’abord admiré la profonde érudition qui avait permis à Fourmont de reconnaître seulement la langue dans laquelle le volume était écrit; on a vanté depuis celle de Giorgi, qui avait rectifié le texte et la traduction. Je ne sais comment on peut traduire ou corriger un texte qu’on n’est pas même capable de lire. Il n’y avait rien à admirer dans tout cela; interprètes et commentateurs, panégyristes, et critiques, tous étaient presque également hors d’état, je ne dis pas d’entendre une ligne, mais d’épeler une syllable du passage sur lequel ils dissertaient.”
The consequence was what might have been expected, and the attempts at translation and correction were most ludicrously erroneous. The greatest liberties possible were taken with the words, letters were omitted or inserted at pleasure, and the translation was not only unlike the original, but unlike common sense, and the Latin was quite as unintelligible as the Tangutan.
The three translations are given—namely, that of Fourmont, of Müller, and of Giorgi. Regarding the last, Dr. Wilson remarks, “This display of unprofitable erudition is in fact only a shelter for his ignorance, and Giorgi knows no more about the matter than did Fourmont, without having the merit of his blundering simplicity.”