'The Tungani live in the country, the chief towns of which are Salar and Sairam. Alexander the Great is said to have penetrated as far as Salar, and to have left a colony of his soldiers in the country, from whom the Tunganis are descended. They derive the name from several Turkish and Persian words signifying "left behind," "looking back," &c.'[1] This shows how old is the question of the obscure etymology of the name. The most probable seems to be that assigned by Vámbéry, from a Turki word signifying 'a convert.'—[Y.]
RED AND YELLOW LAMAS.
P. 151.
Col. Prejevalsky's definition of the radical difference between these would better have been described as loose, than as 'not to be relied on.' Some notion of the distinction may be obtained by reading what is said about Tsong-kaba's reform of Lamaism, in the Introduction. Marriage of the clergy was admitted by the Red, or unreformed. Lamas in some cases, and under some restrictions. But it does not appear that it is by any means a general or present characteristic of them. Ladak, Bhutan, and Sikkim are nurseries of the Red Sect, since the predominance of the Yellow in Tibet Proper.—[Y.]
DIFFICULTY AS TO FIRES AT GREAT ALTITUDES.
P. 183.
Marco Polo notices this in his account of Pamir; and a note on that passage (2nd ed. i. p. 187) gives some remarks on the subject by Humboldt, and some of the experience of my friend Col. Montgomerie, R.E.—[Y.]
- ↑ Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, iv. 655.
