Praying-ma-chine′.
We have never heard that any of our driving business men have made prayingmachines for the
Oriental market, although castiron gods, bronzed and varnished, have been made by the ton in
Birmingham, England, and exported thence to heathen lands.
Praying-machines are in vogue in all the lands which acknowledge Thibet as their religious center.
This includes
India,
Ceylon,
Burmah,
Siam,
China, and
Japan.
Divided as it is from the mainland of the continent, and superior to
China as
Japan appears to be, there is much affinity between their forms of civilization and government, and in many details of their manners and religion.
In Thibet the art of praying has been brought to a high state of advancement.
It is no longer difficult to utter long prayers, for the prayer written on a piece of paper or a leaf and fastened to a wheel is understood to be uttered once for every revolution of the wheel.
The motion of the written is the mechanical equivalent of the vocal exercise.
When before an idol, it is understood to be presented toward the god once during each revolution: and the women, who do most of the praying there, saunter into the temple, chat over the news and compare babies, meanwhile turning the wheel diligently.
They go down from thence feeling justified and comfortable.
Anon comes one who is struggling in spirit with a great unfulfilled wish, and, flinging herself on the floor, turns the wheel with energy as she utters her prayer for a “bull child,” or some other fervent desire of her heart.
A praying-cylinder seen by
Dr. Hooker at Simonboug in Sikkim consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame; a projecting piece of iron struck a little bell at each revolution, the movement being caused by an elbowed axle and string.
Within such cylinders are deposited written prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is considered to have repeated his prayers as often as the bell rings.
The machine is driven in a direction contrary to that of the apparent motion of the sun. This is probably important.
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Praying-machines. |
The
barrel corresponds to the
beads and
rosaries of regions farther west.
The rosary, in fact, is borrowed from the
East.
These mechanical developments of mental emotions are the natural outgrowths of a certain grade of civilization.
In another machine, two small rings are placed on each spoke of the wheel, the jingling thereby produced being to attract the attention of the god.
The greater the noise the greater the certainty of being attended to. The credit for prayers is in proportion to the energy of the action and the number of revolutions.
Some of these legends are to invoke the attention of Buddha to the condition of the souls of the departed, the metempsychosis being a form of purgatory; others are aphorisms which are understood to be devout expressions of patience.
I would not harshly scorn, lest even there
I spurned some elements of Christian prayer, —
An aim, though erring, at a “world ayont,” —
Acknowledgment of good, — of man's futility,
A sense of need and weakness; and, indeed,
That very thing so many Christians want, — Humility.
These mechanical aids to prayer and substitutes for pilgrimage are to be found on roads in Thibet.
You see pasteboard barrels, fixed on an axle and inscribed with choice prayers.
The devout give the barrel a turn, and it revolves for a long time, according to the perfection of its workmanship, the force of the impulse, and the lubrication of the axle.
The barrel prays for the persons, as one traveler remarks, “as long as gravitation and friction will permit.
They sometimes fight for the privilege of turning the barrel” The poor fellows at the pool of
Bethesda may have done the same in settling the question of precedence.
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Sonnettes used in churches (Bonanni, 1776). |
The words “
Om Mani Padmi Om” (
Hail to him of the Lotus and the Jewel) are frequently painted on the cylinders of these machines and prayers placed within.
One noticed by
Hooker, the naturalist, on a stream in Bhotan, was made to rotate on its axis by a spindle which passed through the floor of the building into the water, where it was terminated by a wheel.
Such prayingcylin-ders are called
mani by the Lamas
The
Japanese praying-machine is somewhat similar.
The proper subjects for prayer are displayed on the pillar, and the wheel in its recess is understood, during each revolution, to repeat the legend on the shaft.
This reminds one of the warning, “Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do.”
[
1783]
Fig. 3932 is a representation from the “Description des Instrumens Harmoniques, en tous Genre, par le
Pere Bonanni.”
Published at
Rome, 1776.
It is described as “Sonnettes used in churches,” having a wheel with small bells on its periphery, and rung by a cord attached to the center of the wheel.
Though somewhat indistinct in the original, it appears that the cord is attached to a wrist so as to revolve the wheel.
It seems to have been adopted into Christian worship in
Bretagne by a woman who renounced the worship of “The star,” but brought along the paraphernalia of the temple, intending to sanctify an esteemed and musical observance to the worship of a new object.
So the jingling has proceeded for many centuries, from almondeyed
Cathay and old Zipango to the Bretons and Basques by the ocean of
Atlantis.
