Al Bîrûni, in his Vestiges of Ancient Nations, written A.D. 1000 (A.H. 390), while describing the customs of the Sabeans, cites the authority of Ibn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in these words:

“Likewise Abd al Masîh ihn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in his reply to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismaîl al Hâshimy, relates of them (the Sabeans) that they are notorious for Human sacrifice, but that at present they are not able to practise openly the same.”

In the works of the poet Pampa, or Hampa as he was called in later times, we have earlier and more definite information than has hitherto been published regarding the period from which the Kannaḍa or Karṇâṭaka (so-called Canarese) language has been used for purposes of literary composition. From his first work, the Âdi Purâṇa, we learn that he was born in Śaka 824. But his second work, called Vikramârjuṇa Vijaya or the Pampa Bhârata, which established his fame, tells us that both were written in the same year—Śaka 863— and adds many particulars full of interest in regard to himself, and the circumstances under which he wrote.

This coin bears evidence of being genuine. The metal is that mixture of silver and copper which obtained under the Pathâns of the date on the coin, 718 A.H. It is also of the same weight, or nearly so. The dated coins of Ala ud Dîn Muhammad Shâh of this type average, according to Thomas, 55·7. Those of Kutub ud Dîn Mubarak Shâh average 55 grs. The coins of Shahâb ud Dîn Umr are 54·5. The inscriptions, omitting names, are exactly similar to those of Ala ud Dîn's No. 135 of Thomas, Shahâb ud Dîn's Thomas No. 141, and Kutub ud Dîn's Thomas No.147.

Dras is a village on the banks of a stream of the same name, about the distance of one march beyond the Bul-tul pass, on the road from Cashmere to Leh. There are two sculptured stones at this place, and as Cunningham has described them in his work on Ladak, I shall quote from him:

“On the side of the road, between the hamlet of Styalbo and the village of Drás, there are two pillars of granitic mica-slate, which the people call Chomo, or ‘The Women,’ but which, I believe, have no connection with Tibetan Buddhism, as the nearly obliterated inscriptions are in Kashmiri Tákri, and not in Tibetan characters. The eastern pillar has one principal figure, a four-armed female, and two attendant females, one on each side, and each with one leg bent. They all wear necklaces, earrings, amulets, and anklets. On the pedestal are several small kneeling figures with their hands raised and joined in attitudes of prayer. This pillar is six feet nine inches high, one foot six inches broad, and one foot thick. The western pillar has the same principal figure, also a four-armed female, with two attendant females on each side. This pillar is six feet high, two feet nine inches broad, and one foot thick. From the style of these figures, as well as from the nature of the alphabetical characters, I have no hesitation in stating my opinion that they are Brahminical statues erected by some Kashmirian Hindus. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that there is a third undoubted Hindu pillar standing close to them, which I believe to be a Sati pillar. On one side is sculptured a horseman, which is the usual emblem, placed on the piUar of a Rajputni Sati, to denote that her husband was a soldier. On the back of the pillar there is an inscription of eight lines in Kashmirian Tákri, which I am. unable to translate satisfactorily.”—pp. 381–82.

I beg leave to call attention to a very curious result, drawn from a comparison of the two versions, viz. that the Vaggi or Vaggians of Vesâlî are the same as the Yue-chi of the Chinese.

My dear Sir,—In reply to your request that I would send a brief account of the present state of Mongolian Researches, I have great pleasure in forwarding to you, for publication in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of London, the following notes—together with a list of the literary works available for the study of the Mongolian dialects.

Noble-minded and learned Sirs! may health and prosperity be ever present with you! Kindly receive the expression of my homage and devotion. O men of knowledge, the ancient Sanskṛit language is at the present day like an aged mother shorn of her beauty and bereft of her ornaments. For a long time, alas! she has remained unhonoured, and now flees to you well-disposed scholars for protection. In the sharpness of her grief she laments with a heart-rending cry of pain. Listen attentively, that her feeble cry of suffering may enter your ears.

The following notes refer to a period which is one of considerable historic interest. In the Far East the Emperor Wu-ti, the most enterprising of the Han dynasty, having broken the power of the Turkish empire of the Hiung-nû, i.e. Kara-Nîrus, was engaged in strengthening the internal administration of China, and in extending its influence abroad. In the west the Romans had, B.C. 146, captured and destroyed Carthage, and had reduced Greece to a Roman province. The Ptolemies yet ruled in Egypt; and, in Asia, the Syrian empire under the house of the Seleucidse still survived, but was showing evident signs of decrepitude. In Asia Minor, Pontus was rising into importance under Mithradates V., who was one of the first of the more important sovereigns of the continent to enter into close relations with Rome. This position of affairs finally resulted in the great war between his son Mithradates VI. and Rome, which afforded that encroaching power the opportunity of firmly establishing the Roman rule in Asia, and of eventually overturning the decadent power of Syria, already frittered away by internal dissensions between the members of the royal house of Seleucidæ.

In no Semitic tongue there seems not to be more than two primitive tenses, not having, however, in each dialect the same force. The form expressing the present in Hebrew is used for the subjunctive in Ethiopian, the perfect in Assyrian, etc. As for comparative purposes a common name is required for each form, we will take those adopted by the late Vicomte de Rougé in his Egyptian Grammar: Aorist-Past to denote the tense which appears to be formed by suffixes, as qabal-ti, and Aorist-Present for that which appears to be formed by prefixes, as ä-qbol.

This splendid MS. on red and blue satin is, in fact, the first that has reached Europe in the language and writing of the Lolos, almost unknown a few months ago; before the important Journey of Exploration in Western Sz'e chuen, by Mr. E. Colborne Baber, now Secretary of the Chinese Legation at Peking, noticed by him in a paper addressed to the Royal Geographical Society of this country. From this paper we learn that Mr. Baber displayed a remarkable diligence in procuring materials for the study of the language and writing of the Lolo population; his paper comprising a vocabulary, copy and tracing of three documents in the Lolo writing; but, till the arrival of this wonderful MS., it must be confessed that we had no other Lolo documents.