Few nations, either ancient or modern, have surpassed the Amazirgs, or lineal descendants of the primitive inhabitants of northern Africa, in power to produce a more ingenious and contemplative writer than the one now before us. And yet this writer, equally profound as an historian and as a statesman, has hitherto been so little known in Europe, that the majority of our Arabic scholars have but very confused notions of his scientific and literary merits, and to many, even his name is almost unknown. In the East, and in Africa, however, the great historical work he has composed, has given him a celebrity which no lapse of time, nor any vicissitude of events, will ever impair or lessen.

I beg leave, in answer to your letter of the 17th instant, to submit it as my opinion to the Council, that the Account of the Constitution of the late Government of the Kingdom of Kandy is of sufficient interest to be published in the Proceedings of the Society.

Treatise the Fortieth, comprehending twenty-four discourses on the subject of speech and writing, and the senses external and internal; with, under God's assistance, the preliminary chapter of the Zád-ul-Musafarín, composed by Hakím Nasar Khosru, surnamed Hujat, the Guide.

This work, which comprises seven-and-twenty parts or dissertations (in the original), I have been contented to bring under four discourses, or lectures, as a sufficient conclusion to the key of my dissertation on the repository of meanings. It is a composition of not less than eight hundred years standing, by that genuine philosopher and guide to the true principles of science whose name is above recorded, and whom we acknowledge to have been a lineal and no remote descendant of our venerated Prophet, and who continues to the present day to be the master and instructor of the wisest of the moderns in the sphere of the understanding. To his descent we have the testimony of his own words in the following couplet:—“I, who am the Prophet's truest heir—I, Nasar, the son of Khosru, son of Háreth.” Now Háreth was one among the children of Khorasan's royal Imám: accordingly, all such as have treated on the knowledge of things appertaining to the faculties of the human understanding, have diligently directed their studies to this excellent work, and thus acquired for themselves, distinguished renown.

Although you personally have visited Jaggannát'ha and its famous Hindu temple, yet I am sure that some account from a person who for several years has resided there will not prove entirely uninteresting, and I therefore thought it best to employ my evening leisure hours to put to paper the information I have been able to collect from time to time, trusting to your kindness and indulgence with regard to the imperfections in style, language, and, in fact, every thing else.

The very limited accounts of the varieties of the Wild Dog to be met with in Shaw's Zoology, in Blumenbach's admirable Manual of Natural History, and in the splendid edition of Cuvier's Règne Animal, now publishing in England, in Rees's Cyclopædia, and in one or two other works within my reach, lead me to believe that the accompanying drawing and description of the Wild Dog of the Western Ghats may prove acceptable to the Society.

The Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, fully coinciding with the sentiments expressed by its Secretary at the General Meeting held on the 2d of March, has accordingly ordered that the substance of the remarks made by Mr. Haughton should, in justice to Mr. Colebrooke, be printed with Colonel Vans Kennedy's paper, as follows:—

Substance of Mr. (now Sir Graves C.) Haughton's Remarks.

I have now the pleasure to forward to you an extract from the private journal of my brother-in-law, Captain Peter Rainier, C.B., of the Royal Navy, giving all the information in his possession respecting the stone discovered by him in the great temple at Kalabshe in Nubia, having a Latin acrostic inscription cut on it, of which the accompanying is an exact copy.

The particulars to be brought forward in this paper relative to the travels of the Siamese Budd‚ha, and the Phrabát, or divine Foot, have chiefly been derived from Bali and Siamese books. It must be premised, that this Budd‚ha is the Bali Thakaro Srí Sacya Muní Khodama, or Khodom, who is venerated by all the Indo-Chinese nations, and whose doctrines and ordinances materially cóntribute to form their national character. It is impossible, however, to treat these subjects without being led back to times long antecedent to those of the Siamese Budd‚ha; for his worshippers have frequently mixed up with his history traditions respecting the elder Budd‚ha. The learned Mr. Wilson, as quoted by Mr. Crawfurd in the interesting account of his mission to Siam, describes the original Budd‚ha to have been a Tartar or Scythian, who flourished 1000 years B.C. But the age of the Siamese Budd‚ha was 542 B.C.; and the Bali writings rate it at ten antara calpas of years subsequent to the appearance of the third of that name, or Phokaro Kassapho P‚hutdo. The same number of calpas is supposed to have intervened betwixt each Budd‚ha and his successor. The Siamese one, according to the Bali Ratana Kalapa (head Maha Samatí Wangsa), was Sídd‚hatta Kumara, son of king Sudod‚hana and his queen Maha Maya. Sídd‚hatta married Bimba, alias Subhadda Kachaiyena, and they had a son named Rahula.

This manufacture has been named Lacquered Ware, from an idea, I suppose, that lac forms a part of it; but this is a mistake, no lac is used, and the bright red colour is given by vermilion, which is made by the Burmese from cinnabar (ayain), imported by the Chinese caravans from Yun-nan.

At our last meeting, a visitor having casually alluded to the discovery by Captain P. Rainier, of the Royal Navy, of an avenue of Sphinxes (or Sphinges) at Ben-i-Hassan in Egypt, which has not been noticed by any traveller bitherto, I have the pleasure to lay before the Society a letter from Captain Rainier, giving a description of them, as well as of the excavated temples at Ben-i-Hassan.

That the extensive island of New Guinea (by the Malays denominated Tanah Papūah or land of people with frizzled hair) should be less known to Europeans than almost any other part of the Eastern Archipelago, may be chiefly attributed to the savage manners of its inhabitants, whom the more civilized race of people in the neighbouring islands have always represented as cannibals; but of the justness of which imputation no direct proofs have hitherto been furnished by our navigators. How far the following detail of circumstances may warrant a belief that a practice well ascertained to exist in Sumatra and New Zealand, prevails also in a district of this country, the reader will form a judgment for himself, upon estimating the degree of credit to which it is entitled. The evidence of what is so abhorrent from our nature ought, doubtless, to be free from the suspicion either of credulity, or of a disposition to the marvellous; but on the other hand it may be questioned whether those who, from attachment to preconceived opinions, endeavour by captious arguments, or by ridicule, to discredit what is supported by unexceptionable testimony, are not equally enemies to the cause of truth, with those who by plausible relations give colour to what is false.

In the course of a conversation held not long ago at Canton with Professor Neumann, respecting the affinity between the Chinese and Burman languages, I happened to shew him a translation that I had, which he considered somewhat curious, and recommended me to present to the Royal Asiatic Society; and Doctor Morrison offered me an introduction to the President, which, with the translation, I have now the honour to forward to you.

I am induced to offer to the Society a sketch of the personal ornaments on the alto-relievo figures, male and female, in the Budd'ha cave temple of Carli, from having remarked an apparent identity in the majority of the sculptured ornaments, with those worn by that remarkable, erratic, carrying and armed, but essentially pastoral people, the Brinjaris; a people whose origin and history admit of further development. My acquaintance with the Brinjaris is too limited to justify me in advancing any opinion on a community of taste between them and the ancient Budd'has, and although such community, if existing in the constitution of European society, would not excite attention, it will be considered, at least, curious in India, where the classes of society are not less marked by caste than by habits of life, opinions, dress, and personal ornaments.

In China the Imperial dignity is not the certain inheritance of the Prince next in succession, but of him whom the deceased Monarch may have left named in a note, which is deposited in a casket: the reigning Prince having the power of preferring not only the younger sons to the eldest (though this should be the son of the Empress and those the children of concubines), but also his grandsons. Women have but little influence on this nomination in the present dynasty, but in some of the former they have exercised it so far as to promote a concubine to the dignity of Empress Mother, obliging the latter to abdication, or imprisonment.

It would give me great pleasure, were it in my power to explain the little I have remarked on the nature of the pearl-oyster, in the style the subject requires. Having had opportunities of obtaining a general knowledge of most fisheries, I cannot but regret that my attention was so wholly absorbed by professional pursuits, that very little was bestowed on the natural history or habits of the animal in question.

I. Talismans.—Under this head are arranged some charms which are not properly speaking talismans, but for which no other generic name could be found.

1. Tsëen-këen, “Money-swords.” These consist of a number of old copper coins called cash, strung together in the form of a sword, and kept straight by a piece of iron running up the middle. They are hung at the heads of beds, that the supposed presence of the monarchs under whose reigns the cash were coined may have the effect of keeping away ghosts and evil spirits. They are used chiefly in houses or rooms where persons have committed suicide or suffered a violent death. Sick persons use them, also, in order to hasten their recovery.

The intaglio, of which the engraving is a fac-simile, represents Baladéva, the Hercules of the Hindus, naked; the head encircled with a diadem, or fillet, the ends flowing behind. His lion's hide (Bágambra) thrown over his right arm, extended; on which is perched a figure presenting him a wreath, or coronet. In his left he grasps a club; adjoining which is a monogram, composed of two letters, of an ancient and still undeciphered character, found on monumental rocks and pillars wherever the Pándús colonized. In various points of view, this gem will be considered a relic of more than ordinary curiosity.

I, Ashu Gosha, first invoking Manja Ghosha, the Guru of the world, with all my soul and all my strength, proceed to compose the book called Vajra Suchi, in accordance with the Shastras (Hindu or Brahmanical Sastras).

Allow then that your Vedas and Smrittis, and works involving both Dharma and Artha, are good and valid, and that discourses at variance with them are invalid, still what you say, that the Brahman is the highest of the four castes, cannot be proved from those books.

La Loubere, Kæmpfer, Finlayson, Crawfurd, and Major Burney have all treated upon a language, either casually or specifically, which is spoken from Quedah, on the western coast of the Malayan Peninsula, to the country of Laos; and is surrounded by its sister languages, those of Camboja, Pegu, Ava, and Laos. The Siamese language is one of the principal dialects of the Indo-Chinese nations, and is the next link in the chain which the Cochin-Chinese language forms between the Chinese and the Indo-Chinese languages. It bears a strong resemblance to that of Laos, has derived much from the Cambojian, but differs remarkably from the Peguan and Burmese.