¹M.)

² The Påkinls (Tib. Mkhah—hgro—ma [or * Sky—goer >] : Skt Däkinf), fairy—like goddesses possessing peculiar occult powers for good or for evil, are, also, purely Tantric; and, as such, they are invoked in most of the chief rituals of Northern Buddhism. (See p. iaa^s.)

³ Esoterically, the skull (which is human), and the blood (also human) filling it, signify, in one sense, renunciation of human life, the giving up of the Sangsära self—immolation on the cross of the world ; and in the mass—ritual of Låmaism there are resemblances between the blood (symbolized by a red fluid) in the skull and the wine (as blood) in the chalice of the Christian Communion.

⁴ A mudrä is a mystic sign made by posturing the hand and fingers or the body. Some tnudräs are used as signs of recognition by members of occult fraternities, after the manner of the Masonic hand—clasp. Others, chiefly employed by yogis as bodily postures, short—circuit or otherwise change the magnetic currents of the body. Placing the tip of one finger against the tip of another in mudrä controls, likewise, the bodily forces, or life—currents. The mudrä of fascination is of this last sort, being made (with the right hand) by the second finger touching the thumb, the index—finger and the little finger held upright, and the third finger folded in the palm of the hand.