For the subject of the following Essay, I am indebted to the kindness of Colonel Herbert Edwardes, C.B., late Commissioner of Peshawar. When I was stationed at Peshawar (1859), I heard that Major Lumsden, at Mardān (in the country of the Yusufzies), was trying to collect a corps of Kāfirs, and that he had already succeeded in getting three men of this remarkable race. I lost, therefore, no time in soliciting Colonel Edwardes to beg Major Lumsden to send these Kafirs to Peshawar for a few days, in order that I might have an opportunity to examine them personally. Colonel Edwardes kindly responded to my request, and, in a few days after, I had the pleasure to see the representatives of a race, which has excited so much curiosity in travellers and Oriental scholars.

The following are the results of some observations made at Constantinople during the years 1839–42.

So far as known to me, or as I can gather from any information as yet published, there is no locality in India from which true slates have been obtained of any value. I use the term in the sense in which it is now universally used by geologists, as well as by architects and builders, to imply a rock of homogeneous texture, capable of almost infinite division into thin plates or slabs, splitting with tolerably even surfaces of considerable size.

Reports on the experimental cultivation of imphee in 1860 having been received from nearly all the Collectorates of Bombay, and having perused them with much interest, the Conservator of Forests has the honour to make the following observations.

Praise belongs to God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. May God be propitious unto our Lord and Prophet, Muhammed the Elect, the Messenger whose doctrines are followed, the Seal of the Prophets, the Chief of the Kighteous; also to his Family and to bis Companions, the Pious, as well as to his immediate Followers in goodness; even unto the day of Resurrection and Judgment.

In presenting the following translations to the Royal Asiatic Society, I hope to make a useful contribution to the study of Assyrian Antiquities. They have been prepared quite independently and without any communication with other enquirers. This has been done once before, under the auspices of the Society, in the case of the important inscription of Tiglath Pileser I., and I believe that the result has not been considered unsatisfactory by the Council of the Society and by the learned world in general. It is indeed a cogent argument, and persuasive to all candid minds, that when independent enquirers agree in the interpretation of writings of such extreme diversity and complexity, their opinions must rest upon a foundation of truth.

This very important inscription is written on a cylinder in the British Museum, generally known as Taylor's Cylinder, from the name of its former possessor. For many years it was supposed to be lost, which would have been a great misfortune to archaeological science, since the only copy which had been made of it was a rubbing, or impression on paper, in the possession of Sir II. Rawlinson, which had become partly illegible from time. It was, however, at last discovered to be in private hands in London, and was purchased by the British Museum.

In the name of God the compassionate, the merciful; and may God look favourably upon our prince and prophet Mohammed the elect, the prince of those who preceded as of those who come after him, the messenger sent in victory and conquest, with glad tidings and warnings, to all the spheres of creation; may God look favourably upon him and upon his family, the just, the good, the pure, as also upon his companions, his household, his posterity, and the universality of the church who have responded to his call.

This important inscription was published by Westergaard, in the “Méemoires de la Sociéetée Royale des Antiquaires du Nord,” Copenhagen, 1844, where it is given in Plate XVIII.

After the Singhalese embassy to Claudius, the Indian embassies to Eome were few and far between. To the death of Justinian, A.D. 565, four only have been noticed, and barely noticed, by historians. The first, to Trajan, was present with him at the great shows which he offered to the Roman people, A.D. 107. The second, to Antoninus Pius,8 A.D. 138,161, came to pay homage to his virtues. The third, to Julian,8 though intended, Zonaras asserts, for Constantius, reached him, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, before it was expected, A.D. 361, and included ambassadors from the Divi (Maldives) and the Serendivi (the Singhalese), who now for the first time appear under their own name, and the name by which they were known to the Arabs. And the fourth, to Justinian, brought him gifts, and was at Constantinople, a.d. 530.

In his essay on the heretical schools of the Hindus, Mr. Colebrooke has given an account of the tenets of the Chāarvāakas, or Materialists (Misc. Essays, L, 402 ff). Professor Wilson also, in his “Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus” (As. Ees., Vol. XVI., pp. 5, 6), alludes to the attacks made by the founder of the atheistical, or materialistic school, Vrihaspati, on the Vedas and the Brahmans, and quotes some verses attributed to that author, in which he asserts that “the whole Hindu system is a contrivance of the priesthood to secure a means of livelihood for themselves.” I am not aware whether either the aphorisms of Vrihaspati (Vāarhaspatya Sŭutras), to which Mr. Colebrooke refers (Misc. Ess., L, 404) as having been quoted by one of the commentators on the Vedanta, or the work which contains the verses adduced by Professor Wilson, be still extant or not. As, however, the Sarva Darśsana Sangraha of Māadhava ÃAchāaryya (a work containing a concise account of the different philosophical schools of India, both orthodox and heretical), from which Professor Wilson derived the verses which he cites, contains a good many more of a similar tendency, which are both satirical and clever, I shall translate the whole, and compare them with passages of the same tenor which occur in the Vishnu Purāana and in the Rāamāayana.

The subject of the cultivation of tea in Assam was first brought under the notice ofthe Committee of Trade and Agriculture of this Society on the 10th November, 1838, when “An Account of the Manufacture of Black Tea as practised in Upper Assam by the Chinamen sent thither for that purpose,” which had been drawn up by Mr. W. Bruce, the Superintendent of the Tea Culture, on the part of the Indian Government, was presentedby the Secretary of the East India Company.

The following paper contains a translation of a Hymn to the Earth, from the Atharva-Veda, followed by some remarks on the structure of the original composition, whichthe translator conceivesto be made up of verses (in different metres) drawn from different quarters and thrown together by the compiler. The translator then proceeds to explain the conception of the earth which the hymn exhibits, and to compare therewith some representations of ancient Greek writers on the same subject.

The ordinary account of the introduction of Buddhist books and tracts into China is the following:—

“ In the fourth year of the reign of Ming-Ti, of the Han dynasty, the Emperor dreamt that he saw a divine personage, with a body like gold, and six chang in height, his head surrounded with brightness like the sun. Flying towards him, this Being entered his palace.

The district of Dharwar, which is likely to become the field of important operations in reference to the supply of superior cotton to England, lies within the presidency of Bombay, and is comprised in the Southern Mahratta couutry; the chief town of the district, which bears the same name, is 288 miles south-east of Bombay.

Nothing is more important for the right understanding and analysis of the North Indian vernaculars, than a thorough comparison of their minute details with their noble mother-tongue, and the two intermediate languages, which we call Pāli and Prākrit. Many things, which have hitherto remained doubtful, will thereby receive light, and their true structure will be laid open, if we take the trouble to follow the old Präkrit down into its more modern branches. It is unquestionable that we shall never be able to decide what words in the modern vernaculars are of Sanskrit origin, and what are derived from some foreign (Tatar) source, until we have accurately defined the laws by which the system of sounds is regulated in the present (Sanskritical) vulgar tongues of India. An attempt of this kind I have made in an essay, entitled The Sindhī System of Sounds, &c., published in the “Journal of the German Oriental Society,” vol. xv. 4. It is my object in the present essay to show in what way the modern tongues of India have supplied their declensional necessities, and how far their method is in accordance with Sanskrit or Prākrit usage; from this will follow, naturally, how far they have a claim to be considered true daughters of their common mother, the Sanskrit-Prakrit. We shall also find occasion, in the course of the following investigation, to oppose some claims which hare lately been made in the name of the Drāvidian tongues of South India, and vindicate the original structure of the northern tongues, independent of any Dravidian influences. As we tread on ground which has, to our knowledge, never been investigated, many of our conclusions may prove abortive, for which we beg the reader's kind indulgence.