The She King, usually translated the Book of the Odes, or the Classic of Poetry, is not so well known to the outside world as it deserves to be. It is one of the Classics or Canons of Chinese learning, and, like its companion books, is supposed not only to contain deep lessons of morality for the instruction of future ages, but to have been compiled, if not written, for the express purpose of their inculcation. The events recorded or alluded to in it are said to have taken place between 1765 and 585 B.C. Confucius himself is acknowledged to have been the compiler. Ssŭ Ma ch'ien states: ”The old poems amounted to more than 8000. Confucius removed those which were only repetitions of others, and selected those which would be serviceable for the inculcation of propriety and righteousness.” In other words he brought out a revised and expurgated edition. Constant allusions to the Odes are found in the Confucian Analects, the Master on all occasions expressing the highest admiration for the work, and enjoining on his disciples the necessity of a thorough study of it.

The original inhabitants of Mount Atlas, and of nearly all the provinces of Maghrib-ul-Aksa, or the present empire of Marocco, are usually divided into two tribes — namely, the Berebbers and the Shelluhhs, both descended from the ancient Mauritanians and Gætulians; perhaps even from the Libyes of Sallust. These two tribes differ essentially from each other; and it is not without reason, that those travellers and geographers, to whom we are indebted for the best information with respect to Marocco, have asserted that the Shelluhhs are not Berebbers. The Moors, or Arabian inhabitants of the country, consider them as two nations of a different origin; as well on account of their manners and the diversity of their natural dispositions, as from the entirely distinct profile of the face, and from their dialects, which differ so much, that they cannot converse together without the aid of an interpreter. Mr. James Grey Jackson, in his Account of the Empire of Marocco, and of the District of Sus, confirms this assertion by a list of words of common use in both languages; and, most certainly, they prove nothing less than a common origin. But such differences, radical or accidental, may be met with in almost all the sister languages. It is, for instance, a curious fact, that the very leading Shelluhh words, which Mr. Jackson quotes as altogether differing from the Berebber, as woman, wife, boy, girl, &c. differ just as much, if not more, in the Swedish, Danish, German, and Dutch languages, which, most undoubtedly, are of one and the same origin. This observation holds good even with respect to the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian languages. What is more certain, and beyond all doubt, is, that the pretended Berebbers and Shelluhhs live separately and that they bear very little, if any, relation to each other. Although their habitations are sometimes very near, they never have any social intercourse; nor does an instance exist of individuals of one tribe having intermarried with the other.

In all ages the ascendancy of the hierarchy is observable; it is a tribute paid to religion through her organs. Could the lavish endowments and extensive immunities of the various religious establishments in Rajast'han be assumed as criteria of the morality of the inhabitants, we should be authorized to assign them a high station in the scale of excellence. But they more frequently prove the reverse of this position; especially the territorial endowments, often the fruits of a death-bed repentance, which, prompted by superstition or fear, compounds for past crimes by posthumous profusion, although vanity not rarely lends her powerful aid. There is scarcely a state in Rajpootana in which at least one-fifth of the soil is not assigned for the support of temples, their ministers, the secular Brahmans, bards, and genealogists. But the evil was not always so extensive; the abuse is of modern growth.

There exists in some parts of Ceylon an occult ceremony called the Kohobā Yakkama, which according to tradition was introduced into the island by the three sons of Sita: Malaya, Kit-Śrī, and Sadalidu, among whom Malaya, the flower-born prince, took the leading part. This is the story connected with the first ceremony of its kind.

[Since the publication in this Journal of Paṇḍit Bhagvānlāl's article on the Western Kshatrapas, a period of no less than four years has elapsed. The delay in issuing this, the final portion of his notes, is due to the fact that a study of these notes convinced me of the impossibility of publishing them in anything like their original form; and my task was postponed, until Dr. Bühler most generously undertook to revise the most important part of the Paṇḍit's work, viz. that which deals with the inscriptions engraved on the Lion Capital. Dr. Bühler's results, which are published in another article in the present number, have enabled me to deal with the rest of the work. While I have been obliged to omit some portions and to correct others, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to give a concise and connected exposition of the Paṇḍit's own views.

Dozy's Dictionnaire des Noms des Vêtements long ago settled the meanings of the great majority of the terms used for clothes and clothing in Arabic. Texts not available at the time of its compilation have come to hand in the meanwhile, and, further, something still remains to be said on the social and historical aspects of the subject.

The Jews have never practically lost sight of the Samaritans, unlike the Christians, who for at least a thousand years had entirely forgotten their existence, as no writer or pilgrim to the Holy Land speaks of them with the solitary exception of Mandeville. It was therefore a great surprise to the Western world when at the beginning of the seventeenth century the darkness began to be lifted, and through Scaliger, Huntingdon, and Della Valle for the first time authentic news about the Samaritans, their language, and their Bible began to reach Europe.

The large province of Gujarát, or Guzarát, including the peninsula of Katiawár, extends from Banswárah to Dwarka, or, from east to west, about two hundred and ninety miles; and from Bírgaon, in Jalór, to Damán, or, from north to south, about three hundred miles. It is watered by several considerable rivers; among which the Narbada and the Mahi were known to Ptolemy. This, which is one of the most productive districts of India, supplies the greater part of the commercial articles exported from the port of Bombay: these are cotton, opium, saltpetre, indigo, tobacco, grain, and gold-cloths.

Consider the following passages from vocabularies:—

(1) CT. xiv, 3, K. 4325, iv–vi, 11. 18–25: ib. 5, K. 4368, iv–vi, 11. 8–16; and for col, iv, presumably 81–7–27, 147 (Meissner, Suppt., pl. 27):—

(2) CT. xiv, 14, K. 4396, 11. 10–13, dup. ib., S. 995, rev. 4–7:—

Amongst the Persian manuscripts belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society is one, now numbered 180 (not described in Morley's Catalogue), which contains a very interesting monograph on the city of Iṣfahán. As these local histories are often of very great importance in supplementing the large general histories, with the contents of which we are gradually becoming acquainted, I was desirous of reading it through, which, thanks to the laudable generosity of our Society in lending its manuscripts to private individuals, I was enabled to do. Of the notes which I made during its perusal this article is the outcome.

My object in the following paper is to give a brief account of the wild tribes dwelling in the tract of country lying between the Brahmaputra and the Kaiendwen, Namtonai, or Ningthi, as it is indifferently called, the great western branch of the Irrawaddy.

I shall not attempt to give any description of the manners and customs of these tribes, but shall confine myself to indicating the localities which they inhabit, their probable numbers, their principal villages, and the names by which they are known among themselves and to the people of the plains; this last is very important, as many instances have occurred where inquirers working in different parts of the same country have described what is essentially one and the same tribe under different names, and the result has been that people residing at a distance have in more than one instance supposed them to be distinct tribes.