There, p. 9b, the prayer is as in our Introduction, but lacks the third line (བདུད་དཔུང་, etc.) and ends with དཔལ་ལ་ཕྱག་ཚལ་ལོ་. Also, instead of འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ in the second line, this text writes འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་. I am informed that the prayer occurs also in many other books with modifications, and that when it is used in connection with ཁྲུས་པ་ or ‘lustration’ rites the closing words after གྲགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་ are changed into སྐུ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་, ‘we baptise thee.’ To p. 17. S. Ch. D., p. 490 b, s.v. གཉན་ཐབ་པ་ mentions a medicinal root used against the plague, called ལྕགས་ཀྱ་ (without zhabs-kyu), but transcribed lcags kyu. To p. 23. Huth, Hor chos byuṅ, trs., p.117, renders མཁའ་འགྲོ་ as ḍāka, also on p. 118 (see note 4). On p. 231 (see note 1) he suggests that མཁའ་འགྲོ་ should be understood as ḍākinī = མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་, not as Sk. ḍāka. The dge rgan understands all these three passages as referring to (female) ḍākinīs. Though according to Grünwedel (‘Mythologie,’ p. 153) in Sk. mythology a male ḍāka exists (a Tantra deity), in Tibet the མཁའ་ འགྲོ་ is always feminine, and a male species or individual does not exist according to my informants. This statement needs testing of course. Grünwedel (loc. cit.) thinks that these female ḍākinīs are original Tibetan spirits or goddesses. The female ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་’s are mentioned indifferently with or without the final མ་. Macdonell in his Sk. Dict. only mentions the feminine form of the word. In the ritual book གཅོད་ཆ་ དྲུག་ “The six cut off pieces” (i.e. chapters, divisions, into which the description of the torma offering is divided) we find the apostrophe: ཀྱེ་མ་མི་མིན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་, “O, wisdom fairy, supernatural (= not-human) mother,” so defining the sex. In Tibetan the form མཁའ་འགྲོ་ must accordingly not be understood as a masculine form of མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་, but as its abbreviated form only. This without prejudice to the question whether in special Tantric texts a male god Ḍāka, མཁའ་འགྲོ་, does occur. S. Ch. D. has for མཁའ་འགྲོ་ an entry giving the meanings ‘god, bird, arrow.’ Here the word has a poetical or metaphorical meaning based on its etymology, ‘sky-goer’, but no mythological value. He adds under མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ ‘a class, mainly of female spirits.’ But the form in མ་ cannot be masculine. In Tibet there is a class of people called ཆོས་རྗེ་, both male and female, whose name may be translated as oracles, shamans or mediums. They are deemed to be obsessed by ཆོས་སྐྱོང་’s who speak through them whilst they themselves are in a state of trance or obsession. Their name is ཆོས་རྗེ་ in Lhasa and other greater towns, and amongst the more educated; but the country-people and the lower orders have a special name for these mediums if they are women and call them རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ or མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་. In Sikkhim the word མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ is general in this sense. In Sikkhim the designation for a male medium of this sort is དཔའ་བོ་ and not ཆོས་རྗེ་ as in Tibet.