Mr. Rockhill explains that the word “pedung,” used in the above description, means “remains.” Taking into consideration the fact that these people, although remotely, are related to the Aryan stock, which is the ancestor of the English, German, Irish, Latin, and others, from which we spring, the meaning, as here given, is certainly not without significance. “Dung,” in our own tongue, means nothing more nor less than remains, reliquiæ of a certain kind. Webster traces the word “dung” to the Anglo-Saxon dung, dyncg, dincg,—excrement; Dyngan, to dung; N. H. German, dung, dunger; O. H. German, Tunga; Sw. Dynga; Danish, Dynge and Dyngd; Icelandic, Dyngia and Dy. This shows it to be essentially Indo-Germanic in type, and fairly to be compared with the words “pedung” and “dung-rus” of Mr. Rockhill’s manuscript. In the country of Ur of the Chaldees, which was the home of Abraham (Gen. xi. 2), there reigned a king, “the father of Dungi.” The exact meaning of the name “Dungi” has not been made known. The name of the king himself, strangely enough, was “Urea,” or “Uri,”—it is read both ways. His date has been fixed at 3,000 years B.C. The information in preceding paragraph was furnished by Prof. Otis T. Mason, of the National Museum, Washington, D.C. Lenormant makes him out as of high antiquity,—“the most ancient of the Babylonian kings,” “kings who can vie in antiquity with the builders of the Egyptian pyramids,—Dungi, for instance.”—(“Chaldean Magic,” p. 333.) Smith ascribes him to the date of at least 2,000 B.C.—(“Assyrian Discoveries,” New York, 1876, p. 232.) Mr. W. W. Rockhill, for six years secretary of the Legation of the United States, in Pekin, is a member of the Oriental Society, and a scholar of the highest attainments, more particularly in all that relates to the languages, customs, and religions of China and Thibet, in which countries he has travelled extensively. The sacred pills presented by him to the author were enclosed in a silver reliquary, elaborately chased and ornamented; in size they were about as large as quail-shot; their color was almost orange, or between that and an ochreous red. Through the kindness of Surgeon-General John Moore, U. S. Army, they were analyzed by Dr. Mew, U. S. Army, with the following results:— “April 18, 1889. “I have at length found time to examine the Grand Lama’s ordure, and write to say that I find nothing at all remarkable in it. He had been feeding on a farinaceous diet, for I found by the microscope a large amount of undigested starch in the field, the presence of which I verified by the usual iodine test, which gave an abundant reaction. “There was also present much cellulose, or what appeared to be cellulose, from which I infer that the flour used (which was that of wheat) was of a coarse quality, and probably not made in Minnesota.