The commentators of Genesis are unanimous in considering the Ishmaelites as the fathers of the northern Arabians. It i s my intention to show that this view is not correct. But before entering into the subject, I may be permitted to ventilate the arguments which may be adduced in support of it. The indigenous genealogists, it may be said, divide the Arabs into two races: the Ma'addites and the Qaḥṭânians; and derive the former from Ishmael. In the Talmud the Arabs are called the children of Kedar, the son of Ishmael, and the Arabic language Kedar's tongue, And, finally, the whole country once in possession of the Ishmaelites is now, and has been for more than a thousand years, occupied by Arabian tribes.

In his Life of Gaudama, Bishop Bigandet remarks that “the voyages of two Chinese travellers, undertaken in the fifth and seventh centuries of our era, have done more to elucidate the history and geography of Buddhism in India than all that has hitherto been found in the Sanskrit and Pali books of India and the neighbouring countries.” Feeling strongly impressed with the truth of this observation, I attempted, in a paper published in a recent volume of this Journal, to utilize the scanty materials afforded by the Chinese travellers to settle some of the disputed points of Mediæval Indian chronology; and I now propose to examine a portion of the much more copious materials their works afford for determining the geography of India at the period it was visited by them.

I venture to lay before the Society a brief notice of four Arabic MS. works on the History and Geography of Arabia, which appear to me sufficiently interesting from their rarity and the nature of their contents to merit attention.

The inclosed is an extract from a letter which Mr. B. H. Hodgson did me the honour to write to me about two years ago, in reference to some passages in a paper on the Senbyú Pagoda in Burma, which appeared in the Society's Journal for 1870, with additional remarks by the late Mr. C. Horne and by Mr. Fergusson. I inclose the original sketch which Mr. Hodgson put into my hands along with the letter, authorizing me to make what use of them seemed best.

In the year 1857 one of the travelling Llamas from Llassa came to Lahoul, in the Kûlû country on the Himalêh, and hearing of the mutiny was afraid to proceed. Major Hay, who was at that place in political employ, engaged this man to draw and describe for him many very interesting ceremonies in use in Llassa, amongst which was the method there employed in disposing of dead bodies. This so exactly confirms the accounts given by Straboand Cicero, and is, moreover, of itself so curious, that I have transcribed it, with as many passages relating to the subject as readily came to hand; and as the Llama was a very fair draughtsman, I have had facsimiles made of his drawings to illustrate this paper. I will first give the extracts, and then the account of the Llama.

In my recent paper on Hwen Thsang's Geography of Tokháristán, I made what may have seemed a rash suggestion, that the Folichisitangna of the Traveller, a territory at the foot of Hindu Kush, might represent the country of the Parâchis of Baber. But the suggestion has received corroboration from a passage that I recently observed in the Travels of Sidi ' Ali (Journ. As., tom, ix., p. 203). The admiral being at Kàbul, and about to cross the Hindu Kush, the Governor sent Mir Nezir, chief of the Tribes of Farâshi and Bashâtsi ( and ) to demand 300 men of those tribes to conduct the horses and camels across the Pass. The party then proceeded by Karâbâgh and Chârikarân to Parwân. There they entered on the territory of Mir Nezir, and found the tribesmen assembled. This seems to show that the territory of the Farâshis (or Parâchis) was about Parwán, i.e. close to Hupiân, which is supposed to be the Hupinah of Hwen-Thsang, called by him the capital of Folichisitangna. Bashâtsi is, I imagine, a clerical error for Bashâi (), the well-known name of a tribe (Pashâis) which I have supposed to be possibly connected with that of the adjoining kingdom of Kapiçca or Kapisha.

An aerial city in the north is detrimental to the court priest; one in the east, is so to the sovereign; one in the south, to the commander of the troops; one in the west, to the prince royal. A white one is pernicious to Brahmans, a crimson one to Kshatriyas, a yellow one to Vaiçyas, and a dusky one to Çûdras.

To gratify clever astrologers, I now proceed to compose a work on the art of building, such as it has been transmitted from the Creator to our days, through an unbroken series of sages.

The discovery of an undisturbed hoard of no less than 13,500 coins in Kooch Bihár, inhumed some five centuries since, recently claimed attention both from the number and importance of its representative specimens, which so effectively illustrated the history of the kingdom of Bengal for a consecutive period of some 107 years. The earliest date thus accorded towards the purely Initial Coinage of the country under its newly-installed Muslim administrators did not reach higher than the reign of the Empress Riẓíah, A.H. 634–637 (A.D. 1236–1239), or more than 34 years after the first entry of the adventurous Khilji and Túrkí troops into the recognized Hindú capital of the lower Ganges. A still more recent discovery of a comparatively poor man's cache, in the fort of Bihár, elucidates an earlier chapter of the local annals; and though the contents of the earthen vessel in this case are limited in number to a total of 37 pieces, and restricted in their dates to a term of 13 years, they, in some respects, compete advantageously with the previously-recovered unexampled store, in the value of their contributions to the obscure records of the Gangetic Delta, and in priority of date bring us more than 20 years nearer to the first occupation of Bengal by Muhammad Bakhtyár Khiljí in 600 A.H. As in the larger and almost-regal treasure trove of Kooch Bihár, the specimens in the present instance prove to be essentially of home or indigenous fabric.

Recently engaged in compiling a Map of Badakhshán and the adjoining regions, to illustrate a paper for the Geographical Society, I have naturally been led to consider the interesting geographical details which the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang gives of those countries, as well as the current interpretations of his routes and localities. In several instances those interpretations seem to me open to amendment. The most eminent of Hwen Thsang's geographical illustrators are Major-General Cunningham and M. Vivien de St.-Martin; both of whom have dealt ably with the whole series of the Chinese Traveller's wanderings. If, after the careful study of a small part of these, I venture to differ from both accomplished commentators in regard to some of the identifications which concern that part only, I trust that I shall be guilty of no presumption. Recent documents, in part as yet unpublished, afford advantages for this discussion which were not available to my predecessors.

In the year 18 B.C. Ælius Gallus, a Roman knight, then Governor of Egypt, undertook, by order of Augustus, a campaign into Arabia. Strabo, p. 780, says, “Observing that the Red Sea is extremely narrow, and forms an inconsiderable barrier between the Æthiopians and the Arabs, the Emperor ordered Gallus to ‘explore’ both countries, being determined either to make these nations his friends and allies, or to subdue them. As they had from time immemorial been selling the spices and precious stones of their countries for cash, and never imported goods from foreign parts, they were proverbial for their wealth; and this was the principal inducement for making an attempt to win them as friends, or to subdue them in case of resistance. The Emperor was, moreover, encouraged by the Nabatæans, who were allies of the Romans, and promised to further his views.”

From a brief examination of a work in the India. Office Library, called “K'ai yuen shĭ kiau,” (one volume of which is unfortunately missing), I find that the number of books included in the Chinese Buddhist Canon, down to the time of Tchi-Shing, the compiler of the work in question (who lived A.D. 730 during the Tang dynasty (618–904 A.D.), and shortly after Hwen-Thsang), amounted altogether to 1076, divided into 5048 chapters (kiouen), and included within 480 wrappers (chih). Of these, 330 belong to the “Little vehicle,” and 968 to the “Great vehicle,” leaving 108 miscellaneous and unclassified. Of the “Little vehicle,” 240 are Sûtras, in 618 chapters, and 48 wrappers; 54 belong to the Vinaya Piṭaka, in 446 chapters and 45 wrappers; 36 belong to the Abidharma Piṭaka, in 698 chapters and 72 wrappers. Of the 968 belonging to the “Great vehicle,” 515 are Sûtras, in 2173 chapters and 203 wrappers; 26 belong to the Vinaya Piṭaka, in 54 chapters and 5 wrappers; and 97 belong to the Abidharma Piṭaka, in 518 chapters and 50 wrappers.

On the 3rd of Ramazán, I left Ramlah, and went to a village called Khátún, and from thence to another, which they styled Kariatu-l-'Anab (Grape hamlet). On the road I observed plenty of wild rue growing spontaneously on hill and dale. I also noticed at this village a very delightful spring of water gushing out of a rock, where they had constructed reservoirs, and built edifices. From thence I proceeded up some rising ground, under the impression that I was ascending a hill, and that on going down the other side the city would lie before me. After I had climbed the ascent however for a short way, a vast wilderness lay in my front, partly stony, and partly showing merely the bare earth. At the summit of the hill stands the city of the “Baitu-l-Mukaddas” (Sacred Tabernacle, i.e. Jerusalem), between which and Tarábulis, whichis on the coast, are 56 parasangs, and from Balkh to Jerusalem 876.

Since the above paper was printed off, it has occurred to me that the Konkanapoura mentioned at page 266 has nothing whatever to do with the Concans now below the Grhâts, as I was inclined to think was possible, but may have been the capital of the Kongadesa or Chera kingdom, which we know, at the period of Hiouen-Thsang's visit, was one of the three great kingdoms occupying the south of the peninsula.