TheEncyclopediaof Religion----------~~~--------

Mircea EliadeEDITOR IN CHIEF

Volume 10

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LIBRARYCalifornia State College

Bakersfield

30 MOUNTAINS

In defending the doctrine of universal love, Mo-tzu re-erred to men's predilections and preferences on the oneand and the sanction of Heaven on the other. Given thehoice between a man committed to universality andne committed to partiality, anyone would naturally'refer the former as a master, a friend, or a person tovhom one would entrust the care of one's parents, wife,nd children. At the same time, Heaven provides divineanction for the practice of universal love among men.Vhen a disciple asked, "How do we know Heaven loves.ll men?" Mo-tzu replied, "Because Heaven teacheshem all, claims them all, and accepts sacrifice fromhem all."Mo-tzu's stand on religion makes him unique among

~hinese philosophers. While the general tendency waso regard Heaven as a moral principle or as a naturalorce, Mo-tzu described Heaven as a living god. Heavenias a will, and the will of Heaven is to be obeyed andiccepted as the unifying standard of human thoughtmd action. "What is the will of Heaven that is to beibeyed? It is to love all people in the world univer-.ally."Mo-tzu was at the same time a man of ideas and a

nan of action. A corollary tenet of universal love is con-lemnation of offensive war. It is recorded that to pre--ent a large state from making a predatory attack on a.maller one, Mo-tzu walked ten days and ten nights,earing off pieces of his garment to wrap up his soreeet.Inspired by his example of self-sacrifice, Mo-tzu's fol-

owers organized themselves after his death into a reli-~iousorder led by a succession of Elder Masters, with a.izable congregation of devotees. At one time, it was.aid, as many as 170 followers were ready to give upheir lives at the command of the Elder Master. But thevloist religion was short-lived and by the third centuryICE had passed into oblivion.The most famous among Mo-tzu's critics was Meng-

zu (Mencius; 372?-289?), the second sage of Confucian-sm. Meng-tzu said, "Mo advocates universal love,vhich fails to recognize one's special relation to one'sather. To fail to recognize one's special relation to one'sather ... is to act like a beast." As if in anticipation ofvleng-tzu's criticism, Mo-tzu asked, "How would a sonvish others to behave toward his parents? Clearly, hevould wish others to love his parents. So his duty like-vise is to love others' parents." Universal love is thus aNay of conduct that assures the greatest happiness for:he greatest number. Another well-known critical re-nark is that of the Confucian thinker Hsun-tzu (306?-~12?).Referring to Mo-tzu's advocacy of an economy so.trict it would eliminate music as a wasteful luxury,

Hsun-tzu said, "Mo-tzu was blinded by utility and didnot know refinement."[See also Moism.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For a translation of the Mo-tzu, see my book The Ethical andPolitical Works of Motse (London, 1929). Apartial translation isavailable in Burton Watson's Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, HsunTzu, and Ban Fei Tzu (New York, 1973). My own study, Motse,the Neglected Rival of Confucius (1934; reprint, Westport, Conn.,1973), provides an extensive bibliography of works treatingMo-tzu,

Y. P. MEI

MOUNT AINS have an important place in the sym-bolic geography of religious traditions the world over,although the ways in which mountains are significanthave differed. Some have been seen as cosmic moun-tains, central to an entire worldview; others have beendistinguished as places of revelation and vision, as di-vine dwelling places, or even as geographical manifes-tations of the divine.Attitudes toward mountains in general have varied

widely. Chinese poets such as Hsieh Ling-yun (fourth tofifth century CE) and Han-shan (eighth to ninth centuryCE) were attracted by mountains through a sense thatthese peaks piled one upon the other led not only to theclouds, but to heaven. And yet in the West, the image ofjutting mountain peaks touching the clouds has not al-ways had a positive symbolic valence. In the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries, for example, Luther and oth-ers held the view that mountains appeared in an other-wise pleasingly symmetrical world only after the flood,which scarred the surface of the earth with "warts andpockmarks" and signaled the fall and decay of nature.Mountains were, in the view of the sixteenth-centuryEnglish writer Edward Burnet, the ruins of the post-diluvial world, a sign of chaos and fractured creation.However, in the late seventeenth century with the "aes-thetics of the infinite" came a new appreciation of thesplendor and height of mountains as stretching theimagination toward God. One writer of the time de-scribed his response to the Alps as "a delightful Hor-rour, a terrible Joy, and at the same time, that I wasinfinitely pleas'd, I trembled" (quoted in Nicolson,1959, p. 277).The Cosmic Mountain as Sacred Center. As the center

of the world, linking heaven and earth and anchoringthe cardinal directions, the mountain often functions asan axis mundi-the centerpost of the world; it is acosmic mountain, central to the order and stability of I.•:["

the cosmos. [See Center of the World.] One of the mostimportant such mountains is Mount Meru, or Sumeru,the mythical mountain that has "centered" the world ofthe majority of Asians-Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain. Ac-cording to Hindu cosmology, four lotus-petal continentsspread out from Mount Meru at the center and beyondthem the seven ring-shaped seas and ring-shaped conti-nents of the wider universe. Mount Meru rises heaven-ward as the seed cup of the world lotus. As an axismundi, this mountain, rooted deep in the netherworld,rises high through the realms of heaven, where itspreads out to accommodate the cities of all the gods.Interestingly, Meru does not form a peak, for the geo-graphical texts of the Puranas agree that Meru is widerat top than at bottom, true to both its seed-cup proto-type and the polytheistic consciousness that accommo-dates many gods at the top. Meru has four sides of dif-ferent colors (van:zas) and is flanked by four directionalmountains. Above Meru stands the polestar, and dailythe sun drives his chariot around the mountain. Theheavenly Ganges in its descent to earth first touches thetop of Meru and then divides into four rivers that runin the four cardinal directions to water the earth.As the center of the world-circle, or mandala, Mount

Meru is symbolically repeated in many Hindu templesthat take the mountain as an architectural prototype.The sikhara (spire or peak) of the temple rises highabove the cavelike womb-chamber of the sanctum andis capped with the cogged, ring-shaped amalaka, thesun itself, a symbol of the heavens. The mountain is alsorepeated in the architecture of the Buddhist stupa, thereliquary dome with gateways in the four directionsand a multileveled mast at the top marking the bhumis("worlds") that lead to heaven. The mountain symbol-ism is most elaborately seen in the stupa of Borobudurin Java, which is actually built over a small hill. [SeeStupa Worship.] There one sequentially circumambu-lates the nine bhumis of the cosmos to reach the top. InChina and Japan, the vertical dimension of the stupabecame attenuated in the structure of the pagoda andcame to predominate over the dome-shaped tumulus ofthe reliquary. Even so, the pagodas of the Far East pre-serve the basic mountain symbolism of the stupa. InSoutheast Asia, one of the many duplicates of Meru isMount Gunung Agung, the great volcanic mountain thatis at the center of the island of Bali. Throughout Bali,individual temples repeat the mountain symbolism andare called merus. Their nine roof-layers again signify thevertical dimensions of the cosmic mountain linkingheaven and earth. [See also Cosmology, articles onHindu and Jain Cosmologies and Buddhist Cosmology.]Like Meru, other mountains have been seen as cosmic

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MOUNTAINS 131

centers. Mount Hara Berezaiti has a central place in theancient cosmology of the Zoroastrian tradition. Accord-ing to the Zamyad Yasht, it was the earth's first moun-tain, and its roots the source of the other mountains ofIran. Like other cosmic centers, it is the pivot aroundwhich the sun and the stars revolve, and like manyother sacred mountains, it is also considered to be thesource of heavenly waters. In Japan, the great volcanicpeaks, among which Fuji is the most famous, have been. thought to link earth and heaven. In Morocco, the greatAtlas range in the territory of the Berbers is sometimescalled the "pillar of heaven." Mountains that center andstand at the quarters of a fourfold cosmos are numer-ous, as can be seen in the quadrant mountains of Chinaand in the "Encircled Mountain" of the Navajo, aroundwhich stand four peaks, each identified with a directionand a color.Mountains not considered "centers" in any cosmology

still share this image of stability and permanence, ofboth height and unshakable depth. The Book of Psalmsspeaks of the "foundations" of the mountains and hills.Among the Yoruba, myths stress the durability of thehills and, therefore, their ability to protect. The Yorubasay "Ota oki iku," meaning "The rock never dies." InEast Africa, one might receive the blessing "Endure, likeKibo." Kibo is the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro andmarks, for the Chagga people, the direction of all thatis powerful and honorable.In a similar vein, there are many traditions of the

mountain that stood firm during a great flood. MountArarat in Turkey is known as the mountain where Noahfound land and the ark came to rest. Among the NativeAmerican peoples of the Pacific Northwest, Mount Rai-nier was a pillar of stability during the flood. Peruvianmyths from the Sierran highlands claim the same forseveral of the high peaks of the Andes.The mountain as nature's great link between heaven

and earth has also been widely symbolized architectur-ally, as in the case of Meru. In ancient Mesopotamia,the seven-storied ziggurat, with its high temple at thetop and its low temple at the bottom, allows for the de-scent of the the devine. The pyramids of Mesoamericancivilization, such as the ruins at Teotihuacan, areclearly aligned to stand at the center of ceremonial av-enues. The Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan is fur-ther aligned with Mount Cerro Gordo, which it dupli-cates. [See also Pyramids and Temples, article onMesoamerican Temples.]Mountains of Revelation and Vision. There are many

mountains that may not have a central role in cosmol-ogy but that are, nonetheless, places of powerful contactbetween the divine and the human. For example, on top

132 MOUNTAINS

of Adam's Peak, or Sri Pada ("auspicious foot"), in SriLanka is a large indentation said to be a footprint. Ac-cording to Buddhists, it is the footprint of the Buddhahimself, matched by a similar imprint at Phra Sat inThailand. For Hindus, it is the imprint of Siva; for Mus-lims, that of Adam; for Christians, that of the apostleThomas. In any case, the belief that the peak was oncetrod by one larger than life is held by the people of allfour traditions who climb to the top on pilgrimage.In the Islamic tradition, it was on Mount Hira on the

outskirts of Mecca that Muhammad heard the revealedword of the Quran, At nearby Mount Arafat, the entireassembly of pilgrims stands from noon to sunset on theninth day of the lJajj pilgrimage. This collective act ofstanding, before God and around Arafat, is consideredby many to be the most powerful moment of the fJajj.Mount Sinai, where Moses encountered Yahveh face

to face, is one of the most striking examples of themountain of revelation. There Yahveh appeared to theHebrews as a storm, with fire and lightning, or as acloud that covered the peak. And there Yahveh also ap-peared directly, when Moses and the elders ascendedthe mountain and "saw the God of Israel" (Ex. 24:10).In the Elohist and Deuteronomic traditions, Yahveh ap-peared on Mount Horeb. There Moses enountered Yah-veh in the burning bush. And there Elijah stood beforethe Lord, who, after the rock-breaking wind, the fire,and the earthquake, spoke to him as "a still smallvoice" (1 Kgs. 19:11-12). And Jesus was transfiguredupon a high mountain, sometimes said to be MountHermon, and appeared to Peter, John, and James witha glowing countenance, in dazzling raiment, andflanked by Moses and Elijah (Mt. 17:1-8; Mk. 9:2-8; Lk.9:28-36).The mountaintop is a revelatory landscape, its height

offering both the vision of heaven and a broad perspec-tive on earth. Mountain ascent is associated with visionand the acquisition of power, as is clear in the visionquest of many of the Native American traditions and inthe ascents of the yamabushi, the' mountain ascetics ofJapan. In both cases, transformation, including spiri-tual insight, is part of the mountain experience. For thepilgrim who is not an adept, a shaman, or an initiate,the mountaintop still affords ecstatic vision. In thewords of the great Chinese mountain poet Han-Shan,"High, high from the summit of the peak, / Whateverway I look, no limit in sight" (Cold Mountain, trans.Burton Watson, New York, 1970, p. 46).The Dwelling Place of the Divine. For the Hebrews,

God's "dwelling place" was surely not Sinai, the placeof revelation, but Mount Zion, the sturdy, rocky mountof Jerusalem. Zion, neither lofty nor dramatic, was thefirm foundation of Jerusalem, the "City on a hill." Here

God was said to dwell in the midst of the people. Theawesome mountaintop, where God appears in fire andlightning, is replaced with the security and protectionof a fortress mountain.The hills of Canaan were the high places of powerful

local baalim, and Mount Zaphon was the abode of thegreat Baal Hadad. In the Ras Shamra Ugaritic texts,Baal describes his dwelling place "in the midst of mymountain, the godly Zaphon, in the holy place, themountain of my heritage, in the chosen spot, the hill ofvictory" (Clifford, 1972, p. 138). Many of Zaphon's tra-ditions have likely become attached to Zion.Perhaps the earliest evidence for mountaintop sanc-

tuaries is in the Middle Minoan period (2100-1900 BCE)

on Crete, where peak and cave sanctuaries such as thoseat Mount Juktas, Mount Dikte, and Mount Ida havebeen found, along with evidence of votive offerings tothe goddess. In the Greek mythological tradition, Olym-pus is the dwelling place of the gods, especially of Zeus,whose cult was widely associated with mountaintops.Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, and Pan had mountain sanc-tuaries as well.The hilltop and mountain shrines of both local and

widely known gods are also important in the sacred ge-ography of India. Siva is called Girlsa, the "lord of themountains." He dwells upon Mount Kailasa in the Hi-malayas and has mountain shrines all over India, suchas Sri Saila in Andhra Pradesh and Kedara in the Hi-malayas. Siva's consort, Parvatt. is the daughter of themountain (parvat), and she too dwells on mountaintopsin countless local forms-as Vindhyavasini in centralNorth India or as Ambika at Girnar in Gujarat. Simi-larly, in South India, Skanda has hilltop shrines atPalr}.iand Tirutani, Ayyappan dwells on Mount Sabariin Kerala, and Sri Veilkatesvara dwells on the SevenHills of Tirupati.In China, there are four mountains that came to be

associated with the four directions and four prominentbodhisattvas. Most famous among them is the northernpeak, Wu-t'ai Shan, associated with Manjusrt. the bo-dhisattva of wisdom. When the Japanese monk Erminvisited Mount Wu-t'ai in the ninth century CE, it was abustling center of monastic learning and of lay pilgrim-age. The others are Mount Chiu-hua in the south, MountO-mei in the west, and the hilly island of P'u-t'o Shanoff the Chekiang coast in the east. According to populartradition, the bodhisattvas associated with these moun-tains were to be seen not merely in the temples butwould take human form and appear as a beggar or anelderly monk to pilgrims along the way.In addition to this group of four Buddhist mountains

there are the five mountains of the Taoist tradition,again situated at the four compass points, with a center

1!

mountain shrine at Sung Shan in Honan Province. T'aiShan in Shantung Province is perhaps the most famousof the five, with seven thousand stone stairs leading tothe top where, next to the Taoist temple, a stone mon-ument stands uninscribed but for the word ti ("god").The poet who was supposed to honor the mountain onthis tablet was silenced by its splendor.Mountains Charged with Divine Power. Japanese tra-

ditions recognize many mountain divinities-the yamano kami. In a sense, they dwell upon the mountain, butit might be more correct to say that the yama no kamiare not really distinct from the mountain itself. In theShinto traditions of Japan the separation of nature fromspirit would be artificial. In the spring, the yama nokami descend from the mountains and become ta nokami, kami of the paddy fields, where they remain forthe seasons of planting, growth, and harvest, returningto the mountain in the autumn. Even as the kamichange locus, they remain part of the nature they in-habit.In the Heian period, with increasing Shinto-Buddhist

syncretism, the mountain kami came to be seen asforms of Amida Buddha and the various bodhisattvas,and the Shugendo tradition of mountain ascetism be-gan. Among Japan's important mountain sanctuariesare Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan, Mount Yoshino,Mount Omine, and the Kumano mountains, identifiedwith the Pure Land of Amida Buddha. Religious associ-ations called ko organize locally or regionally for theascent of particular mountains, taking the name of themountain itself (Fujiko, Kumanoko, etc.).Many Native American traditions share this sense of

the inseparability of mountain and spirit power. Thepeoples of the Pacific Northwest, for instance, often be-gin their tales with "Long ago, when the mountainswere people .... " The mountains, such as Tacoma,now known as Rainier, are the mighty ancestors of thepast. Farther south, the divine personification of moun-tains can be seen in Popocatepetl and his spouse Iztac-cihuatl in Mexico or in Chimborazo and his spouse Tun-gurahua in Ecuador. The Zinacantecos of Chiapas stillhonor the tutelary ancestors, the Fathers and the Moth-ers, in shrines at both the foot and summit of their sa-cred hills. Among the Inca, the localization of power iscalled huaca, and is often manifest in stones or onmountains, such as the great Mount Huanacauri aboveCuzco.The mountain is the temple. Mount Cuchama in

southern California, known as the Place of Creation,was one of the four exalted high places of the nativepeoples. For worship and initiation, it had no temple,for it was itself nature's own temple. India has manysuch striking examples of divine mountains, among

MOUNTAINS 133

which is Arunacala (Dawn Mountain) in the Tamillands of South India. This holy hill is said to be the in-candescent hierophany of Siva and is reverently circu-mambulated as a temple would be.Life and Death. As givers of life, mountains are the

source of rivers and, thus, the source of fertility. This ismade explicit in the relation of the mountain and rice-field kami in Japan. On the south side of Mount Atlas inMorocco, fruits are said to grow spontaneously. And onthe mythical Mount Meru the divine trees are said toyield fruits as big as elephants, which burst intostreams of nectar when they fall and water the earthwith divine waters. As the prophet Amos said of theLand of Israel. "The mountains shall drip sweet wine,and all the hills will flow with it" (Am. 9:13).Mountains are the source not only of nourishing

waters but also of rains and lightning. Storm gods areoften associated with mountains: Zeus, Rudra/Siva,Baal Hadad of Ugarit, Catiquilla of the Inca, and manymore.Mountains, the source of the waters of life, are also

seen as the abode of the dead or the path to heaven forthe dead. Among the Shoshoni of the Wyoming, for in-stance, the Teton Mountains were seen primarily as thedangerous place of the dead. The Comanche and Ara-paho, who practiced hill burial, held similar beliefs.The Japanese elegy literature makes many references tothe mountain resting place of the souls of the dead. Acoffin is called a "mountain box," choosing a burial siteis called "choosing the mountain," and the funeralprocession chants "We go to the mountain!" Through-out the Buddhist world, the stupa, which originally issaid to have housed the relics of the Buddha, has be-come on a miniature scale the symbolic form in whichthe ashes of the dead are housed. [See also Iconography,article on Buddhist Iconography, and Temple, article onBuddhist Temple Compounds.]The Persistence of the Mountain. Through the ages

many sacred mountains have accumulated many-lay-ered traditions of myth and pilgrimage. Moriah, themount of the Temple in Jerusalem, is a good example.First, it was an early Canaanite high place, a threshingfloor and sanctuary for harvest offerings. According totradition, it was there that Abraham came to sacrificeIsaac. And it was there that Solomon built the greatTemple, and Nehemiah rebuilt it after the Babylonianexile. And much later, according to Islamic tradition, itwas there that Muhammad began his ascent from earthto heaven on his mystical "night journey" to the throneof God.In Mexico, Tepeyac, the hill of the Aztec goddess To-

nantzin, became the very place of the apparition of OurLady of Guadalupe when the Catholic tradition was lay-

134 MUDRA

ered upon indigenous traditions. Similarly, the greatmountain-shaped pyramid of Quetzalcoatl at Cholulabecame, in the age following the conquest, the site ofOur Lady of Remedios. In Japan, Mount Koua andMount Hiei, both charged with the power of their par-ticular kami, became in Buddhist times the respectivecenters of the Shingon and the Tendai traditions. Incountless such cases, the mountain persists as a sacredcenter, while myths and traditions change.

[See also Architecture and Geography.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benson, Elizabeth P., ed. Mesoamerican Sites and World-Views.Washington, D.C., 1981. A collection of essays on the world-view of the ancient Aztec and Maya civilizations by DorisHeyden, Horst Hartung, Linda Schele, and others, alongwith an essay on the sacred geography of highland Chiapasby Evon Vogt.

Clifford, Richard J. The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and theOld Testament. Cambridge, Mass., 1972. A study of cosmicmountain traditions of El and Baal in Canaan; the Genesis,Sinai, and Zion traditions of the Old Testament; and thecosmic center in intertestamental literature. Backgroundalso provided on the cosmic center and mountain in the an-cient Near Eastern traditions of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Cohn, Robert L. The Shape of Sacred Space: Four Biblical Stud-ies. Chico, Calif., 1981. Four essays on sacred space in theHebrew Bible: "Liminality in the Wilderness"; "Mountainsin the Biblical Cosmos"; "The Sinai Symbol"; and "The Sen-

ses of a Center."Eliade, Mircea. "The Symbolism of the Centre." In Images and

Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism (1952), translatedfrom the French by Philip Mairet, New York, 1969. One ofthe several places where Eliade discusses the cosmic moun-tain and its homologies in the symbolization of the world

center.Evans-Wentz, W. Y. Cuchama and Sacred Mountains. Edited byFrank Waters and Charles L. Adams. Chicago, 1981. An ex-ploration of the significance of Mount Cuchuma in southernCalifornia, sacred to the Cochimi, Yuma, and other NativeAmerican peoples. Included also is a long chapter entitled"Other Sacred Mountains throughout the World" that fo-cuses primarily on the mountains of Japan, India, CentralAsia, and North America.

Hori, Ichiro. "Mountains and Their Importance for the Idea ofthe Other World." In Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity andChange, edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Allan L. Miller.Chicago, 1968. A general essay on the significance of moun-tains in Japan, including their role in cosmology, their ritesand pilgrimages, and their sacred waters.

Mullikin, Mary Augusta, and Anna M. Hotchkis. The Nine Sa-cred Mountains of China. Hong Kong, 1973. An illustratedrecord of the pilgrimages made by these two women in 1935and 1936 to the five sacred mountains of the Taoists and thefour sacred mountains of the Buddhists in China.

Nicholson, Marjorie Hope. Mountain Gloom and Mountain

Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite. Ithaca,N.Y., 1959. The classic Western study of attitudes towardmountains, including theological, philosophical, and emerg-ing scientific dimensions. The focus of the study is thechange in the view of mountains in the literature of seven-teenth- and eighteenth-century England, from the view thatmountains are the "Warts, Wens, Blisters, Imposthumes" onthe face of Nature to the view that mountains are the grandnatural cathedrals of the divine.

DIANA L. ECK

MUDRA. The basic meanings of the Sanskrit word mu-dra include "stamp," "mark," and "seal" (or the imprintleft by a seal). It is largely in this latter sense that theterm is used in Esoteric Buddhism; there the mudrti actsas a magical seal that guarantees the efficacy of themagico-religious act. Since the seal in Esoteric Bud-dhism is made with various gestures of the hands, theterm mudra has also come to mean the manner of hold-ing the fingers to act as seals or guarantees for the man-tras, or magic sounds, that they accompany. Mantrasplay an important role in interiorizing certain cosmicforces. The use of the hands for the purpose of guaran-teeing the efficacy of a mantra doubtless came to Bud-dhism from the wellsprings of Indian religious practice.Certainly, hand signs were, and still are, commonlyused in Indian dancing, where their presence plays ahighly important expository role. Thus symbolic handgestures fall into two main types: those used by the of-ficiant in Esoteric ceremonies and those that appear inthe iconography of Esoteric Buddhist sculpture and pic-torial art. Gestures of the first type are multitudinousand mobile, while those of the second type are rela-tively restricted and, by the very nature of sculpture orpainting, immobile.Buddhist Mudras. The great number of ceremonial

mudras performed by the Esoteric officiant requires anarduous period of training on the part of the neophyte.The imparting of these mudras is usually accomplishedby an Esoteric master, thus reflecting Indian origins, forin India the master-student relationship has alwaysbeen important. Since mudriis are meant to act as sealsthat guarantee the veracity of magic words (mantras), itis indispensable that they be impeccably formed andthat they correspond to the words they are meant to ac-company. Mudras made incorrectly to "seal" or guar-antee a mantra do not achieve their intended effect andin fact invalidate the magical act. [See Mantra.]Despite the importance traditionally accorded the di-

rect transmission of these hand seals by a master to astudent, in the course of time they became so compli-cated that illustrated collections were compiled for the

(