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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Every man should use his utmost endeavours to have his daughter married before she is nine years of age; and when he shall have accomplished that object he will obtain his reward in the like manner as if he had performed a religious sacrifice. If from poverty, or any other unavoidable cause, he should be prevented from marrying his daughter sooner, he should not on any account postpone it after she arrives at the age of ten years, or else shame and disgrace will fall upon him. When a man is desirous of marrying his daughter, he first ascertains an auspicious day, on which he relates his intentions to his Brahmin and his barber, and giving them money and betel-leaves he deputes them in search of a youth, who must be three or four years older than his daughter, of a respectable family, and of the same caste with his own. He advises them to consult some learned astrologer as to the favourable marks, signs, and nativity of the youth, and to point out if possible a suitable husband for his daughter. When they shall have ascertained a proper person, and communicated to him the result of their search, he sends them with a letter to the youth's father, containing proposals for a marriage between their children; he instructs them to ask for a genealogical table of his and his wife's family, that he may ascertain whether they are of a proper rank and condition in life, or in anywise related to him, at the same time he sends a similar table of his own family. If the parties agree, these tables are laid before their respective relations, and if approved by them they express their satisfaction. They then make up balls composed of turmerick and orange juice, which they dry and scrape, and rub the dust over the tables; they return them in this state, as a mark of their approbation that the proposals are accepted, and that no relationship subsists to prevent the marriage.

The existence of perfectly white elephants has been called in question by many; and it was long supposed that the kings of Siam imposed on the credulity of foreigners, and that the light colour of the elephant was artificial. No doubt can now remain respecting the existence of this deviation from the common course of nature. In the stables of the king of Siam there are elephants, the colour of which, although not pure white, is yet sufficiently light-coloured to admit of the appellation they have received being with propriety bestowed upon them. Strangers at Siam are taken to see these elephants, and no mystery is made respecting them.