In most of the modern discussions on the ancient religions of India, the point at issue has been confined to the relative claims to priority of Buddhism and Brahmanism, a limitation which has led to a comparative ignoring of the existence of the.exceptionally archaic creed of the Jainas.

This third competitor for the honours of precedence has lately been restored to a very prominent position, in its archæological status, by the discovery of numerous specimens of the sculptures and inscriptions of its votaries on the sacred site of Mathurá, the Μόδουρα τν Θεν of the Greeks, that admit of no controversy, either as to the normal date or the typical import of the exhumed remains.

In concluding my former paper on the Manchus, I ventured to say that it condensed the history of their origin so far as it could be gathered from authorities accessible to western students, and to express a hope that new materials might enable us to clear up its crooked story. These have reached me sooner than I could have expected, and are contained in two papers by M. Gorski, who was attached to the Russian Mission at Peking, and have been published in the first and second volumes of the publications of that Mission. These two volumes have been translated into German under the title of Arbeiten der Russischen Gesandtschaft zu Peking, by Dr. Carl Abel and F. A. Mecklenburg. From this translation I shall give the following account, on which I am dependent entirely as to all new facts and authorities.

The new facts collected by M. Gorski clear up a good deal of obscurity about the darker period in the traditions, of the Manchus. His conclusions as to their ancestry are, however, quite at one with those which are now universally held, namely, that they are descended from the Kin Tatars, and that their royal family is descended from the Kin Emperors. In the Saga, Aishin Gioro appears among the three families as a stranger and a boy. Are such waifs and strays made into sovereigns in Asia, save when they have some ancestral claims? Is it not probable, rather, that during the Yuen dynasty, which only lasted about eighty-seven years, some members of the old royal stock were hidden away, and when the Mongol power collapsed, re-appeared again among their own people? We know that, notwithstanding the heavy hand which was laid upon it, the Sung Imperial family managed to survive until the days of the Ming, and even through the two hundred years of Ming rule. The only argument to the contrary is one which may be drawn perhaps from a statement in a letter of the Manchu Tai tsun to Su do shu, the defender of Da lin che: “The house of the Ming is not related to that of the Sung, and I am not akin to the dynasty of Kin. That was a peculiar epoch; now it is different.”

The following letter, addressed to me by M. Henry Sauvaire, late of the French Consulate at Alexandria, at present Secrétaire-Interprète, Chargé du Vice-Consulat de France à Casablanca, Rabat et Mazagan (Maroc), appeared to me to be of so interesting and curious a nature that I requested the writer to permit me to offer it, together with the accompanying translation, for publication to the Royal Asiatic Society. The subject is at present very obscure, and the light thrown upon it by M. Sauvaire's researches, soon I hope to be more fully set forth in the work he is now preparing for the press, will be cordially welcomed by Orientalists.

The collection of specimens of imperial titles which will be found in this paper was begun during the recent discussions in Parliament, and with reference to India only. When it was proposed to add to the titles hitherto borne by the Sovereigns of the British Isles another, which was supposed to be more expressive of the relation of the Crown of England to the people and princes of India, it seemed to me important to inquire what were the titles borne by the sovereigns of dynasties in the East whose power could alone compare with our own. Many of the titles of honour, and especially sovereign titles, which have been at different times current in the East, bear a different significance to those in Europe; and to apply to an Eastern dominion titles which had their origin in the public law and policy of the Western world seemed an anachronism, and likely to lead to confusion of language and ideas. Popular language has, indeed, long applied the title of Emperor to the sovereigns of extensive dominions in the East. So far is this carried that it is almost universally used in speaking of all the great monarchies in Asia in modern times, and by grave historians. We read of Emperors of China, of India, of Tartary, and of Constantinople.

When investigating the ethnological and linguistic characteristics of the various tribes of the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions, Mr. B. H. Hodgson was, especially, struck by finding lingual affinities which led him to connect certain broken and degraded tribes near the western boundary of Nipál with the vigorous and comparatively civilized Bhotiya races.

About a mile and a half from Damghan is a mound called Tepeh i-Hissár, in which, during last autumn, some human bones were found. The people thinking that there had been in ancient times a burial-place, began digging in different parts of the mound, and discovered some black earthenware pots together with silver and copper ornaments. As soon as Government heard of this, a person was ordered to excavate this mound; and, since then, a number of objects, with about seventy or eighty skeletons, have been brought to light. The objects are, most of them, in the Shah's Museum, but the skeletons have unfortunately been thrown away as useless. I visited the mound in March last, and again in September. At my first visit, I saw that most of the objects were damaged or destroyed by unskilful digging, and I recommended a water-course being led to the mound, so that the objects might be washed out. They followed my advice, and a number of earthenware vessels, ornaments, etc., have been got out intact.