The publication of my memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van in the pages of this Journal (Vol. XIV. pp. 377–732) gave an impetus to the study of these interesting texts which was not long in bearing fruit. M. Stanislas Guyard, who had already contributed so much to their decipherment, and whose untimely death is still deplored by science, soon afterwards published a detailed criticism of my work (in his Mélanges d'Assyriologie, Paris, 1883), and followed it by papers in the Journal Asiatique (8th series, vol. i. pp. 261, 517; vol. ii. p. 306; vol. iii. p. 499). M. Stanislas Guyard was succeeded by the eminent Semitic scholar of Vienna, Prof. D. H. Müller, who had been independently studying the Vannic inscriptions, and papers upon them from his pen have appeared in the Oesterreichische Monatsschrift für den Orient (Jan. 1885, and Aug. 1886), and in the 36th volume of the Imperial Academy of Vienna (1886, “Die Keil-Inschrift von Aschrut-Darga”). Prof. Patkanoff has, moreover, been kind enough to sepd me copies of Vannic inscriptions found in the Russian province of Georgia, which I have published with translations and notes in the Muséon, vol. ii. pt. 1 (1883); vol. ii. pt. 3 (1883); vol. iii. pt. 2 (1884); vol. v. pt. 3 (1884).

In 1875 my son, the late George Capper, a Ceylon official surveyor, was employed during nearly two years in making measurements and drawings of the principle ruins at Anurâdhapura. The results of his labours were shown in upwards of thirty large sheets of tracings, which have since been copied and forwarded to the Colonial Office in London.

The most noteworthy part of the history of India must always be that which tells how the people known as Hindoos, speaking languages derived from the Sanskrit, and living in the country between the Himalayas and the Vindhyan Mountains, and in the Valley of the Indus, were formed from originally heterogeneous elements into a nation, and which dfurther describes the origin and development of their system of government and their early religious history. The written materials available for these purposes are unusually abundant, but vary greatly in value.

The first notice of the work that forms the subject of the present paper was given in Dr. Daniel Wright's “History of Nepal,” where, at p. 322, the title of the book occurs in the list of Sanskrit MSS. procured for the University of Cambridge. In examining this collection in the years 1880–3, I noted the work as related to the Pañca-tantra.

The following paper, of which a part only was read before the Asiatic Society on March 19th, is founded on a book published in Russian by Prof. Maxim Kovalefsky. In the author gives the results of his investigations into the manners and customs of the Ossetes, with special reference to the light thrown by them on the evolution of law. The late Sir Henry Maine, who may be justly regarded as our authority on ancient law and early customs, has well said in a passage quoted by Prof. Kovalefsky on his title-page, “In order to understand the most ancient condition of society all distances must be reduced, and we must look on mankind, so to speak, at the wrong end of the historical telescope.”

The subject of Oriental Music is one which offers a large field for research, in which very little work has, as yet, been done.

When Mr. Fergusson commenced the study of Indian Architecture, nothing was really known on the subject. He had first to collect the materials, and after years of work he was able at last to leave the Architecture of India in a classified form. This was in itself a great achievement for one man to do. But he did more than this. He traced back the developments of form and construction in many cases to their early beginnings, and thus gave us their origin. It is only when this has been accomplished that we can truly say “we know” any particular style of architecture. We have still some very interesting problems of this kind to work out in regard to India; and suggestions regarding them, even although they should ultimately be found to have pointed in the wrong direction, may yet be useful in many ways; such speculations may call the attention of men in India to the information that is required, and by this means we have the chance of receiving knowledge. I have often discussed some of these questions of origin with Mr. Fergusson, and he used to refer to some of the unexplored parts of India, where he thought some remains of the older forms of Architecture might yet be found, which would throw light on what we wanted. His mode of expressing himself was, “If some man, with the necessary knowledge, and with an eye in his head, could be sent,” he felt certain that there are old temples in many parts not yet discovered that would clear up most of the doubtful points.

In the History of Tibet called Rgyal-rabs-gsal-vai-me-lon (‘The mirror illustrating the lineage of the kings’) we find, as sixth chapter, the tale translated here, which corresponds to the Valāhassa Jātaka (Fausböll, ii. 127 ff., also in E. Müller's Pali Grammar, p. 128 ff.). As will be seen, the tale appears here in a richer, and quasi-dra-matic, garb, with the addition of some characteristic traits, as e.g. the marvellous food that makes men forget their bygone troubles (cp. Odyssey, ix. 94 f.), etc., etc.

Without attempting to go back to the obscure traditions concerning the great nomad confederacy or confederacies that ranged the country north of the desert of Gobi, or to the genealogies of the tribes of Turks, Tārtārs, and Muals, descendants of Yāfi (Japhat) son of Nūḥ, who, after coming out of the Ark with his father, is said to have fixed his yūrat or encampment in the Farther East, and who have furnished subjects for the most copious traditions for native chroniclers, and materials for the most intricate controversies ever since; it may perhaps safely be assumed that Mual was probably in the first instance the name of one tribe among many, a clan among clans, and extended to the whole as its chief acquired an ascendency over the rest. The name is most likely locally much older than the time of engiz, but it was hardly known to more distant nations before the tenth century, and became only widely famous in connection with him.

In the course of my reading preparatory to my proposed, trip in September next to Orenberg and the Steppes of Central Asia, I came upon the valuable book by Dr. Radloff, “Aus Siberien,” Leipzig, 1884. His account of the languages spoken in the Zarafshan Valley, of which the famous city of Samarkand is the capital, seems so important, that I have had it translated from the German for publication in the journal.

Nothing could be more important for a student of Indian thought than to have a correct notion of the Moksha of the Vedánta, which is so curiously allied to the Buddistic Nievána. And as there are some methods of translation which seem to me to give an inaccurate tone to some of the most scholarly treatises in Europe on the subject, I venture to submit a few remarks on one or two points of importance. Is it quite correct to treat Moksha as more a matter of metaphysical knowledge than the reward of moral improvement, as Dr. Deussen does in the following passage?

La sagesse des Saints est grande; les gens d'études en s'y appliquant approchent de sa nature. Mais le destin assigné à chacun diffère, le perfectionnement de la vertu n'est pas égal en tous. Les Saints des premièrs âges s'accordent avec ceux des temps ultérieurs, comme les deux parties d'un sceau. On ne doit donc pas s'écarter d'eux; car, si on le fainsait tant soit peu, on s'en irait errant à mille lis de la vérité.

In the Notes of the Quarter for October last it was stated that, owing to the exceptional character of two recent publications, a critical notice of them would be deferred to the January number of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal. These were Dr. Sachau's edition of Al Beruni's India in the Arabic original, and the Introduction and second fasciculus, Part I. of Howell's Arabic Grammar. Neither issue could be dismissed with a hasty line of approval, however unqualified, nor were the names of the authors, however distinguished, and abstract of title-pages, sufficient—in respect of the particular volumes under reference—to convey, to the world without, a clear notion of the long and continuous labour the result of which had been placed at the disposal of Orientalists in Europe. Further consideration led to the conclusion that a separate article might with propriety be devoted to the first of the two works named—both important additions to the library of Arabic scholars.

In an article on Early Buddist Symbolism, in Vol. XVIII. Part 3, of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal (1886), I expressed my belief that the three objects of worship and ornament so commonly seen on Buddhist scultpures in India, the Svastika, triśūla, were not indigenous Indian emblems, but symbols of Western Asian origin—whether Semitic or Aryan matters little—adopted of old by the Hindus, and accepted, originally by Buddists, not as being in themselves Buddist symbols, but as being symbols of religious signification in general use among the people.

1. Several of the collections of coins made in their own country by intelligent and enthusiastic Chinese Numismatists contain specimens of a curiously-shaped scarab-like copper currency. They are various called Y-pi tsien or ‘Ant's nose metallic currency;’ kuei-tou or ‘Ghosts’ heads,' and finally Ho-pei tsien or ‘Cowries Metallic currency.’