NOTE 2.—­ + The real cycle of the Mongols, which was also that of the Chinese, runs:  1.  Rat; 2.  Ox; 3.  Tiger; 4.  Hare; 5.  Dragon; 6.  Serpent; 7.  Horse; 8.  Sheep; 9.  Ape; 10.  Cock; 11.  Dog; 12.  Swine.  But as such a cycle [12 earthly branches, Ti-chih] is too short to avoid confusion, it is combined with a co-efficient cycle of ten epithets [celestial Stems, T’ien-kan] in such wise as to produce a 60-year cycle of compound names before the same shall recur.  These co-efficient epithets are found in four different forms:  (1) From the Elements:  Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, attaching to each a masculine and feminine attribute so as to make ten epithets. (2) From the Colours:  Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Black, similarly treated. (3) By terms without meaning in Mongol, directly adopted or imitated from the Chinese, Ga, Yi, Bing, Ting, etc. (4) By the five Cardinal Points:  East, South, Middle, West, North.  Thus 1864 was the first year of a 60-year cycle:—­

1864 = (Masc.) Wood-Rat Year = (Masc.) Blue-Rat Year. 1865 = (Fem.) Wood-Ox Year = (Fem.) Blue-Ox Year. 1866 = (Masc.) Fire-Tiger Year = (Masc.) Red-Tiger Year. 1867 = (Fem.) Fire-Hare Year = (Fem.) Red-Hare Year. 1923 = (Fem.) Water-Swine Year = (Fem.) Black-Swine Year.

And then a new cycle commences just as before.

This Calendar was carried by the Mongols into all their dominions, and it would appear to have long survived them in Persia.  Thus a document issued in favour of Sir John Chardin by the Shaikh-ul-Islam of Ispahan, bears the strange date for a Mahomedan luminary of “The year of the Swine.”  The Hindus also had a 60-year cycle, but with them each year had an independent name.

The Mongols borrowed their system from the Chinese, who attribute its invention to the Emperor Hwang-ti, and its initiation to the 61st year of his reign, corresponding to B.C. 2637. ["It was Ta-nao, Minister to the Emperor Hwang-ti, who, by command of his Sovereign, devised the sexagenary cycle.  Hwang-ti began to reign 2697 B.C., and the 61st year of his reign was taken for the first cyclical sign.” P.  Hoang, Chinese Calendar; p. 11.—­H.  C.] The characters representing what we have called the ten coefficient epithets are called by the Chinese the “Heavenly Stems”; those equivalent to the twelve animal symbols are the “Earthly Branches,” and they are applied in their combinations not to years only, but to cycles of months, days, and hours, such hours being equal to two of ours.  Thus every year, month, day, and hour will have two appropriate characters, and the four pairs belonging to the time of any man’s birth constitute what the Chinese call the “Eight Characters” of his age, to which constant reference is made in some of their systems of fortune-telling, and in the selection of propitious days for the transaction of business.  To this system the text alludes.  A curious account of the principles of prognostication on such a basis will be found in Doolittle’s Social Life of the Chinese (p. 579 seqq.; on the Calendar, see Schmidt’s Preface to S.  Setzen; Pallas, Sammlungen, II. 228 seqq.; Prinsep’s Essays, Useful Tables, 146.)