Im Jahre 1928 erschien bei Luzac in London ein Buch unter dem Titel Munda–Magyar–Maori. An Indian link between the Antipodes. New Tracks of Hungarian Origins. Der Verfasser dieses Buches, Herr W. F. von Hevesy, der sich hier unter dem Pseudonym F. A. Uxbond verbarg, verehrte mir ein Exemplar (15. 1. 29) mit seiner persönlichenx Widmung und bat mich, darüber eine Besprechung zu veröffentlichen. Obwohl ich die schöne Alliteration des Titels “Munda-Magyar-Maori” und den grossen Mut, den der Verfasser bei der Konstruktion seiner Theorie zeigte, anerkennen musste, konnte ich mich doch nicht entschliessen, der Sache näher zu treten.

The publication of the first volume of M. René Groussef's history of the Crusades, which is review'ed elsewhere in this issue, brings out again, and all the more vividly because of its wealth of detail and effort to present a complete and rounded-off picture, the very serious gaps in Orientalist research on this period. Whereas the study of the Western and Greek sources has progressed to a point at which it may be said that little more remains to be done, research on the Oriental sources is incredibly backward.

Corresponding to Av. anra-, angra-, the Pahlavi has the word (occurring also with the doubledotted ). Numerous explanations had already been proposed when Bartholomae, Zur Kenntnis der mitteliranischen Mundarten, i, 1916, 18 ff., discussed the word more fully than had till then been done. He concluded that the Pāzand ganā was ùntrustworthy, rejected Spiegel's explanation of gan- as equivalent to zan-, equally Darmesteter's zanāk, his own earlier reading zūrāk, and Andreas's druvāk, to suggest a new interpretation dawāk ‘deceiving’.

Aύana has been referred to Skt. āpana, but there is nothing to suggest that it means “market” or “bazaar”. On the contrary, it is clear from the documents that it means “village”, “parish”, or “local township”, i.e. the small country towns or villages administratively dependent on Caota, the capital of the province. Further, -ύ- (= w) almost always occurs, not -v- which we would have expected out of an original -p-. It is possible, of course, that āpana might have been used in an extended sense “market-town”, but it can be explained perhaps easier out of Iranian. O.P. āvahana, Arm. lw. avan, both meaning “village”.

The present is perhaps a good time to recall some of the vicissitudes of the Maltese tongue. Close on a century ago G. P. Badger wrote: “As a dialect of Arabic, the present Maltese spoken at Gozo and the casals of Malta is nearly as good as that of any other Arabic country, and it is sad to observe how little it is appreciated by the people. With a little cultivation the Maltese might possess a written language which would yield to none in the beauty of its phrases and the extent of its vocabulary.” Of the few then existing schools he remarks: “All instruction being communicated in the Italian the Maltese child cannot begin his studies on a par with the children of other countries, because he must first learn a language entirely different from his own as a means of acquiring the knowledge he seeks after”.

In the whole history of religious controversy in China there never was a period when the Chinese phrase I kuo san hung; wu shui shih ts'ung1: “One state, three leaders; whom should I follow ?” was more applicable than that which succeeded the introduction of Buddhism in the first century of our era. To understand the conditions of the period in question it is necessary to review briefly the situation before Buddhism arrived. Europeans have long been familiar with the early religion of China as described in the classics; but accepted interpretations are being revised in the light of modern archæological and ethnological research.

Of the 7, 000 manuscripts (including fragments) which were taken by Sir Aurel Stein, almost at random, from the great hoard in Tunhuang, some 380 bear dates, ranging from A.D. 406 to 995. Six are of the fifth century, and forty-four of the sixth. A few of the undated MSS. may be even earlier than 406, while it is highly probable that others are later than 995, seeing that the date 1035 is found in the similar collection at Paris. But in any case the period covered does not greatly exceed 600 years.

he originating cause of this article lies in an attempt to overcome the difficulties encountered by students when learning Swahili, especially of those, who, having spent a few years in East Africa, are yet unable to attain a fair standard of proficiency.

The difficulties met with by one student, and the mistakes he falls into, appear to be common to many. ‘This suggests that all view Swahili from the same standpoint, and this in turn leads one to think that the study of Swahili needs to be represented from an entirely new angle. This article, therefore, is an attempt to present that new view-point, in subject matter representative and suggestive rather than exhaustive.

The Southern Sudan may be regarded a, s one of the most interesting of African fields for the comparative linguist and anthropologist, for it is here that the Eastern “ Sudanic ” and the Western “ Hamitic ” races meet, and it is here also that one finds that peculiar wedge of people who, for want of a better term, are called “ Nilotes ”.

It is getting to be a commonplace of modern linguistic studies that the method of interpreting one language in terms of another simply by assigning equivalents to isolated words cannot lead to a profitable understanding of systems of speech, each of which is inseparably bound up with the particular culture in which it is used. The work of Ogden and Richards and of A. H. Gardiner on civilized and of Malinowski on primitive language has shown conclusively that meaning cannot be regarded as something inherent in words and possessing an independent existence, but must be sought for in the context, if not of an actual situation, of the associations which form the experience of the speaker and hearer. In regard to primitive language, Malinowski has shown how the most apparently simple phrases, of which only one rendering might seem possible, can be misinterpreted by failure to recognize the special reference which they have to the native speaker.