I beg to present to the Society two MS. volumes, containing copies of 595 Inscriptions, collected, during a period of eight years, in the southern Mahratta country, or the district of Dharwar; in the western part of the Nizam's territories; in the northern district of Mysore; and from the province of Sunda, comprised in the Mangalore collectorate.

The people of this coast are of three distinct classes,—the Burman, the Món, and the Karean, and they are distinguished also by speaking different languages. The Burmans of Mergui speak a dialect of the language of Ava, as do those of Tavoy.

1. May that Gananáyaka, by whose worship sovereigns obtain victory and renown in every enterprise! May that destroyer of what is evil, preserve you from calamities!!

2. May that Siva on whose head Jáhnaví shines, as the silver moon on the summit of the golden Meru, protect you!!

1. There was a son of Jimútakétu, most renowned in the three worlds, the ever compassionate Jimúta-Váhana, who, for another's good, considered his own body as grass, and saved Sankhachúra from Garuda.

The present narrative was composed, a few months ago, at Tangier, under my direction. It was written by the Taleb Sidi Ibrahim ben Muhammed, of the town of Messa, in the province of Sús. It was first written in the Berber language, and thence translated into Arabic, from which I made an English version.

In the classification of the Tamil castes, the Parawas rank first among the tribes of fishermen, and they are generally allowed to have been the earliest navigators in the Indian Ocean, like the Phœnicians in the Mediterranean. They are described in the Tamil dictionary, entitled Nigundu Súlamaní, under the head of Neythanílémakkal, or inhabitants of the sea-coast. In Sanscrit they are called Parasavas, or Nishadas, and in Tamil, Parathar, Parathavar, and Paravar. The author of the Historia Ecclesiastica (published in Tamil, at Tranquebar, in the year 1735), identifies them with the Parvaim of the Scriptures, and adds, that in the time of Solomon they were famous among those who made voyages by sea; but it does not appear that there is any solid foundation for this hypothesis.

On my arrival here last week, I found that the Royal Asiatic Society had published a lithographic fac-simile of a Phoenician inscription which I had found in Barbary, and which I had forwarded to the Society, through Lieut. Gen. Forbes: and having also heard that this inscription had occupied the attention of several persons, learned in the languages of the East, I am induced to send you the copies of four others, which I discovered in different parts of the Beylek of Tunis, as well as two which were found at Malta, in 1822, by Signor Bonicci, and which I believe have not hitherto been published.

This inscription is a powerful evidence in support of my hypothesis, for it proves two very important facts: first, “that the Phœnician language is the same as the Irish,”—secondly, “that the Irish character is a modification of the ancient Phœnician.”

The work, bearing the title here prefixed, is dated “Halle, August 30, 1835,” and at its close the very learned author expresses his intention of visiting Holland, England, and Paris, in order to examine with his own eyes the Phœnician and Punic inscriptions and coins there preserved. He accordingly passed some time in London, in the Autumn of the same year; and by a personal inspection of some very valuable marbles, of which he and other continental scholars had before published explanations from written copies or plaster casts, he has been enabled to settle several points, which were before uncertain. He thus spares no pains to bestow the highest finish upon a work, which he has been many years engaged in preparing; and which he proposes to publish under the following title; “Marmora Phœnicia et Punica, quotquot supersunt, edidit, et prœtnissâ commentatione de litteris et linguâ Phœnicum et Pœnorum explicuit G. Gesenius.” He proposes that it should be accompanied by a folio volume of copper-plates, and succeeded by a second part, containing the Phoenician and Punic coins. The present work is intended as a preliminary treatise, explanatory of his views upon the subject, and of some of the principal facts, which he will have occasion to develop.

“The following paper on the state of the Medical Art amongst the Chinese, has been recently presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, by the Right Hon. Alexander Johnston. He, as Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of the Society, has for some time instituted a variety of inquiries into the state of that art, in the different parts of Asia. This paper has been sent to him by the Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, the intelligent and zealous Protestant Missionary in China, who forwarded to him, some time ago, the very curious and interesting analysis of the Chinese work, called the Yi She, which has been published in the last number of the Journal. The extent of the Chinese empire; the number of its inhabitants; the progress which they are known to have made from the earliest times in arts, manufactures, agriculture, and different branches of civilization; the nature and value of the mineral and vegetable productions of their country; the knowledge which they possess of the properties and uses of those productions; the variety of the climates to which they are subject in the different parts of the empire; the nature of the numerous diseases from which they suffer; the jealousy with which the Chinese Government have hitherto excluded foreigners from all intercourse with the people, and the obstacles which they have opposed to the acquisition by foreigners of all authentic information relative to their country, render a paper of this description, at the present moment, when the Parliament of Great Britain has opened the trade with China to all British subjects, an object of interest and public utility, the more so, as Sir Alexander Johnston, having submitted it for perusal to Sir Henry Halford, has received from that gentleman, who is so distinguished in his profession, and has transmitted to China a set of queries which are calculated to elicit from the Chinese such information as is deemed valuable by those who are professionally acquainted with the subject in this country.”

Within the last sixteen years, the presses of Tahrán and Cairo have sent forth four works on the biography of Muhammed, which contain a mass of new facts hitherto unknown to all European biographers of the Prophet, and which furnish ample materials for a more characteristic biography than those of Gagnier, Boulainvilliers, Turpin, Savary, Mill, Bush, and the Encyclopedias. Of the four above-named works, the first was published at Tahrán; it forms the second volume of the Haiwat al Kulúb (life of the hearts), 450 leaves in folio, by Muhammed Báter. Three years after its publication appeared at Cairo, the Turkish biography of the Prophet, by Waisí —and three years later the continuation of it by Nábí who rank both amongst the first writers of the Ottomans.

“Although Borneo is so large an island, and although some parts of the coast have been known for many years, very little information has been yet received respecting the interior of the country, and the different people who inhabit it. The Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, conceiving that a knowledge of this island has become more than ever an object of importance to the British public, in consequence of the trade with China, and with the islands in the Eastern Sea, having been laid open to all British subjects, has taken measures for procuring translations into English of the different works upon the subject written in Dutch; and for collecting all the information relative to Borneo, which can be obtained from those persons who have visited the coasts of that island. Mr, Earl, who has acquired much knowledge relative to different parts of it, sent a paper to the Society, which was published in the third volume of this Journal; and we have now the pleasure to publish the following paper sent to Sir Alexander Johnston by the same gentleman, who, we hope, will soon have an opportunity of obtaining still further information upon the subject, by joining the expedition which is about to sail for the purpose of making a survey of the Eastern Seas; and which will afford him the means of completing those inquiries which he has already carried on, as appear by the papers we have published, with so much zeal and intelligence.”

It is well known that Damascus was formerly celebrated all over the world for its manufacture of sword-blades, and it is recorded, that when Timúr Lang conquered Syria, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, he carried off all the manufacturers of steel into Persia; since which period, the fabrication of arms has declined at Damascus, and the successors of those workmen, being dispersed over the East, are said either to have lost the secret, or ceased to make blades of more than ordinary goodness. We must, however, first divest ourselves of all prejudice in favour of the exaggerated reports of their qualities, and remember, that at the time when the natives of the East were well acquainted with the art of working in iron and steel, we, and indeed all Europe, appear to have been comparatively in a state of perfect ignorance; the ancient swords of Damascus, therefore, when opposed to those of other countries, were probably found to be infinitely superior in temper and quality; which, combined with their great external beauty, stamped them for ages with so high a character for excellence, that they are even now handed down as heir-looms by Eastern princes to their posterity. The extraordinary prices that have been offered and obtained for them, sufficiently attest the estimation in which they were held, which is certainly not warranted in the present day, when swords of equal, or superior quality, might be manufactured at one-twentieth of the expense. In addition to the foregoing observations, the strength and great dexterity of the swordsmen must be taken into consideration, and much of the apparent superiority of these blades may be undoubtedly ascribed to this cause.

There are very few popular beliefs of any duration, however extravagant or incredible, that cannot be traced to some foundation in truth, however much distorted by ignorance, superstition or folly; and we have a remarkable instance of this in the celebrated Upas, or Poison Tree of Java, whose shade was believed to extinguish life in the unhappy beings who sought refuge under it. It was stated to be in a valley in the interior of Java, but it was surrounded with so many terrors, that its exact locality was not likely to be well defined or understood; and in this uncertainty originated the fables which have so long been before the public. I am indebted to Sir Charles Forbes, for a copy of a letter addressed to the late W. Taylor Money, Esq., Consul-General at Venice, from a gentleman who visited the Guwo-Upas, or Poisoned Valley, near Batur, in Java, on the 4th of July, 1830. I understand that the letter has appeared in print, but I have not seen it; and I deem it necessary to incorporate it in the present paper, to facilitate the comparisons and deductions I purpose making. A perusal of it will, I presume, afford satisfactory reasons to conclude, that in this deadly spot originated the belief in the Poison Tree, the mistake of the mephitic vapour escaping from vegetation, rather than from the soil, being natural and probable. The writer of the letter is a gentleman of the name of Loudon, an Englishman, but a landholder in Java, well known to Doctor Horsfield, and full reliance may be placed on the accuracy of his descriptions. He is disposed to question the resemblance between this Valley of Death and the Grotto del Cane, near to Naples; but I will endeavour to show that the difference is only in the physical features of the localities, and that the probability is, that the effects described originate in precisely similar causes. Dr. Horsfield informs me that he was at Batur in 1815 and 1816, and aware of the vicinity of the poisonous valley, but the natives refused to conduct him to it.

The Paper on the T'hags was drawn up in 1832, from the personal observations of Lieutenant Reynolds, who had been for a considerable time (nearly two years I believe) employed by the Resident at Hyderabad, as a sort of Agent among that extraordinary people. His principal and public object was to gain information as to the extent and scenes of their depredations, by admitting and taking down the testimony of such among them as were willing to become approvers; so that ultimate steps might be taken to put down the systematic practice of such horrid atrocity. In this he succeeded so well, that whilst I was at Hyderabad in 1833, a body of, I think, nearly three hundred of them were brought in as prisoners, were tried by the Resident, under a special commission for that purpose, and were punished by hard labour on the roads, to which, I believe, the awarded sentence of death was commuted.

In the Asiatic Society Journal for September 1835, Mr. Prinsep, the distinguished Editor of that invaluable publication, has given the result of the examination of two bottles of sea-water; one from the Indian Ocean, the other from the Red Sea. The officers of the Hugh Lindsay steamer having reported that, in consequence of the greater saltness of the Red Sea than of the Ocean, it was necessary “to blow-off much more frequently while in that part of the voyage,” Lieut. Burnes had, therefore, brought to India a bottle of the water of the Ocean, and of the Red Sea, which were found to have (at the temperature of 86°), a specific gravity of 1·0254 and 1·0258 respectively; too small a difference to cause any sensible effect in blowing-off. But as lime might exist in greater quantity in the inland sea, the analysis was principally directed to ascertain the proportions of sulphuric acid and lime, the precipitation of which is the cause of the necessity of blowing-off.