La langue. Le bafia est une langue bantou parlée dans le centre sud de la République Unie du Cameroun, plus précisément par les autochtones de la ville de Bafia (chef-lieu du département du Mbam) et de ses environs. Cette ville se trouve à quelque 150 km au nord-ouest de Yaoundé, la capitale du Cameroun.

One unit of Firthian prosodic analysis is the anaptyctic vowel: ‘such common phenomena as elision, liaison, anaptyxis, the use of so-called cushion consonants or “sounds for euphony” are involved in this study of prosodies. These devices of explanation begin to make sense when prosodic structure is approached as a system of syntagmatic relation’ (Firth, 1948, 57 f.).

Thinkers in the Zhànguó period of Chinese history debated intensely whether men were by nature “good” or “bad”. This debate has for many years been an important focus of sinological interest, but usually these properties were not attributed to men, but rather to so-called “human nature” (xìng 性) – thus, in effect, mirroring well-known (and problematic) “European” positions and discussions. The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to redirect attention to the original Zhànguó positions and to explore the reasons for their variance by offering novel and close historical readings of relevant passages, and on the other, to propose a viable historical reconstruction of the common anthropological assumptions underlying these positions by blending it with the traces of a dominant cognitive image present in the texts. This calls for a systematic rethinking of the role of hearts (in the plural), desires, and behavioural patterns in their interplay and as elements of a concept of the psychological build of human beings current in early China.

In modern English the pun as a form of word-play tends to be associated with wit and humour. It has long been recognized that Japanese literature of various genres abounds in the punning type of word-play, although it is not necessarily humorous. A typical example would be matsu ‘pine tree’ and matsu ‘to wait’, often neatly translated into English as ‘pine’ in both senses. This pun is so frequent in classical Japanese literature that the mere mention of a pine tree can connote yearning for or missing a loved one without further overt reference. The pun thus even creates a metonym.

WÖrter vom Stamme kommen mehreremal im Ḳurān vor. So 20, 56: Speiset und weidet euer Vieh. 28, 23: die Hirten. Die Weide heisst: 79, 31.87, 4. Im Sinne von “ hüten, beobachten” 23, 8.70, 32: und die ihre Verpflichtung einhalten, beobachten. 57, 27: aber (das Wohlgefallen Gottes) beachten sie (die Christen) nicht der richtigen Beachtung gemäss. In 2, 98 wird denjenigen, verboten zu sprechen, dafür sollen sie schaue auf uns, beachte uns, behüte uns gebrauchen. In 4, 48 wiederum wird denen der Vorwurf gemacht, dass sie zu sprechen pflegten; besser wäre für sie (v. 49), wenn sie statt dessen sagen würden. Da die beiden verschiedenen Wörter verwandte Bedeutung haben, in fast synonymem Sinne gebraucht werden können, so ist nicht einzusehen, weshalb Muḥammad den einen Ausdruck zu verwenden befahl, den anderen hingegen, der ihm offenbar missfiel, zu verwenden verbot.

The Chinese demonstrative fwu has recently been examined in an article by Dr. B. Schindler.1 The use of as a final particle is, however, discussed only in connexion with the combination and Schindler does not commit himself to a definite decision as to its function. That the final f￡ deserves a detailed investigation is sufficiently shown by a glance at the definitions given by standard Western authorities:

Viśvarūpa Tvāṣṭra, the son of Tvaṣṭar, is the name of a certain demon of whom we hear in the Rig-Veda and elsewhere. Indra, the demon-hunter par préférence, fought with him and killed him ; but his chief adversary no doubt was originally Trita ሀptya, an old Aryan water-god, whose deeds and fame have slowly been usurped by the all-overshadowing Indra. Reasons which cannot here be dwelt upon, as I have already explained them elsewhere,2 make it probable that Viśvarūpa was originally a serpent deity of the class which was later on generally styled nāgas. We shall here try to find out something more definite concerning his original surroundings and sphere of activity.

[In view of the curiosity which has been aroused by the examination of the works of Father Thomas Stephens, S.J., preserved in the Marsden Collection—which has now been transferred from King's College to the School of Oriental Studies—the following biography of this first Englishman to visit India cannot fail to be of interest to our readers. The letter addressed by Thomas Stephens to his father, in which he recounts the incidents of his voyage to India, does not appear in print for the first time, but on account of its innate charm of style, and of the vivid picture it presents of a voyage round the Cape in the second half of the sixteenth century, it certainly deserves to be better known, and no excuse is required for its reproduction. —Editor.]

“He was not of course a critical historian: in his materials fact was mixed with myth and folklore in varying proportions and he was not competent to sift them…. His forte is vivid and picturesque description, the lively presentation of scenes and actions, characters and states of society.” These words were written of Herodotus. That they might well have been written of, the author of the Sějarah Mělayu or Malay Annals, whoever he may have been, is the theme of this article.

In the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London, at pp. 107 to 117 of III, 1, are to be found some criticisms by Messrs. Krishna Pishāroḍi and Rama Pishāroḍi on my views of Bhāsa and his authorship of Svapna-Vāsavadatta and the connected dramas published in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series. Their arguments are summarized hereunder with replies thereto:—

I. “Every open-minded critic must perforce admit that Pratimā-nāṭaka must come after Kālidāsa, Chārudatta after Śūdraka, and Avimāraka after Daṇḍin.”

TheRānī Pokhrī (Queen Lake) is situated at the northern end of the Ṭuṇḍkhel, the large parade ground of Kāṭhmāṇḍu, and near Kamalāchiṭol, the north-eastern sector of the town. The lake is rectangular in shape, and the lines of its banks run roughly north-south and east-west. In the middle of the lake is a Śaivite temple, which is connected to the western bank by a straight causeway. A few years ago the lake was enclosed by a high metal fence, built some ten yards back from the edge of the water.

Abū Dāwūd Sulaimān b. al-Ash'ath al-Sijistānī (202–275/817–889) was the author of the Sunan which has come to be recognized as one of the six authoritative books of tradition accepted by Sunnīs. Ibn Dāsa is frequently quoted as authority for the statement that Abū Dāwūd selected the 4,800 traditions in this work from a mass of 500,000 traditions which he had collected, those given a place in his book being ‘sound traditions, those which seem to be so, and those which are nearly so’. But he adds that only four traditions are necessary for one's religious guidance: (1) Deeds are judged by intentions; (2) To abstain from what does not concern him is a part of a man's good observance of Islam; (3) A believer is not a believer till he likes for his brother what he likes for himself; (4) What is lawful is clear and what is unlawful is clear, but in between are dubious matters.