There are two or three corners in the world's surface, in which a strange collection of diverse languages is found, the survivals of extinct races, once great and strong. The Central Provinces of India, the refuge of the Kolarian aboriginal tribes; the hills and valleys of Abyssinia, in which remnants of Hamitic, or even Pre-Hamitic, races, pushed aside by the advent of the powerful Semites, are still found: the plateau of Tibet, and the Eastern slopes of that plateau: all these three are instances of the phenomena, which I describe: but none is so noticeable as the Range of the Caucasus, one of the dividing lines of Europe and Asia. As after a great hunt animals of all descriptions and sizes take refuge in some secure copse, or some unapproachable mountain, so, when the great Procession of the Indo-European or Aryan, races from their primeval home on the Hindu Kúsh commenced, all the Pre-Aryan races, which were not destroyed, were pushed aside. In the West of Europe there is one solitary survival, the Basque in the Pyrenees: on the extreme East of Europe we find a cluster of languages in the Caucasus, which are neither Aryan, nor Semitic, nor Altaic.

The writer desires to say something regarding the Vernacular Languages of Southern India; to urge upon Englishmen whose work lies there the value of their cultivation; to give some account especially of a certain department of Tamil literature; and to lay before English scholars a few specimens of what is believed to be unique among the productions of Oriental thought.

The accumulation of materials for the history of the Pallavas during the last few years has been remarkably rapid and extensive: and those materials are of high quality and great importance. The broad outlines of the history of these old kings during the greater portion of their long political existence are now known fairly well: and we may wait hopefully for a similar discovery of such additional details as are wanted to fill up the open spaces within those outlines. A great gain has thus been obtained for the students of the ancient history of Southern India: the rule of a powerful and enlightened dynasty over a large portion of the Dakhaṇ now fills up a long period of time which until quite recently was supposed to have been occupied by the wanderings of a few half-savage nomads; and a natural position has been thus found in the civilized progress of these kings, for some of the most remarkable works of ancient Indian art, lying as they do within the limits which are now known to have formed the territory of the Pallavas. It is a very remarkable rehabilitation; and all the more so because it was so unexpected: and it is not the less welcome though it has destroyed the old pet theory of the Daṇḍakáraṇya in its numerous shapes and chameleon colourings, which has so persistently claimed to be the key of the ancient history of the Dakhaṇ.

The Mahâtmya Devî is an episode of thirteen chapters (81–93) occurring in the Mârkaṇḍeya Purâṇa, and, as the title suggests, is occupied with an account of the Great power of Devî, or Durgâ, the wife of Śiva. The story is introduced by a Râjâ, named Suratha, and a Vaisya, named Samâdhi. The Râjâ has been overcome by enemies, and finally driven from his kingdom by his ministers, who have taken possession of his treasures. The Vaisya's own family have risen against him and sent him adrift, after seizing on his riches. Both of these two unfortunate persons retire into solitude to meditate on their troubles, and in the course of their wanderings in a certain forest, they meet and become acquainted. They mutually relate their difficulties, and in comparing notes, find with astonishment that they are both possessed by the same feeling—attachment or affection for those who have ill-treated them. The Râjâ, is full of anxiety for the welfare of the ministers and people who have risen against him; the Vaisya still retains his affection for his unworthy wives and children. They ask each other—What means this ? How is it that we still feel affection for worthless people, even though they be relations ? Unable to discover any solution of this difficulty, they agree to consult the Sage, whose dwelling was not far distant.

In p. 7, col. 5, of the Times newspaper for Saturday, 30th August, 1884, may be read the following paragraph of the opening Address of Prof. E. B. Tylor, President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered in Montreal, Canada, on the day before that date : “ The comparison of peoples according to their social framework of family and tribe has been assuming more and more importance since it was brought forward by Bachofen, M'Lellan, and Morgan. One of its broadest distinctions comes into view within the Dominion of Canada. The Esquimaux are patriarchal, the father being head of the family, and descent and inheritance following the male line. But the Indian tribes further south are largely matriarchal, reckoning descent not on the father's but on the mother's side. In fact, it was through becoming an adopted Iroquois that Morgan became aware of this system, so foreign to European ideas, and which he supposed, at first, to be an isolated peculiarity. No less a person than Herodotus had fallen into the same mistake over two thousand years ago, when he thought the Lykians, in taking their names from their mothers, were unlike all other men. It is now, however, an accepted matter of anthropology, that in Herodotus's time, nations of the civilized world had passed through this matriarchal stage, as appears from the survivals of it retained in the midst of their newer patriarchal institutions.

De Mailla tells us that the Shato were descended from the horde Chu yué of the Western Tu kiu (Chu yué was the family name of its chiefs, vide infra), who had settled to the south of the mountain Kin po shan, and to the east of the lake Pu lei hai (i.e. the Kukunor), and near the stream called Shato, whence they derived their name (op. cit. vol. vi. p. 378). Hyacinthe tells us they lived south of Kara Mannai Ola, in Khur-Kara-Ussu (Borgs, Hyacinthe, p. 277). He derives their name from the Mongol word Shato, meaning a leader (id.). De Guignes tells us the Chu yué Turks lived in the neighbourhood of lake Lop, near which was a great desert which the Turks called Shato, whence these Turks derived their name (cf. Hist. des Huns, vol. ii. p. 37). Like Klaproth, De Guignes identifies them with the Ta ghaz ghaz, a view to which I shall revert in a future paper on the Uighurs. De Guignes tell us the Shato horde was subject to the Great Khans of the Western Turks, and assisted them in their various expeditions.