A short time ago, a casual reference to the complicated Greek monograms stamped on the earlier Bactrian coins suggested to me an explanation of some of their less involved combinations by the test of simple Greek letter dates, which was followed by the curious discovery that the Bactrian kings were in the habit of recognizing and employing curtailed dates to the optional omission of the figure for hundreds, which seems to have been the immemorial custom in many parts of India. My chief authority for this conclusion was derived from a chance passage in Albírúní, whose statement, however, has since been independently supported by the interpretation of an inscription of the ninth century A.D. from Kashmír, which illustrates the provincial use of a cycle of one hundred years, and has now been definitively confirmed by information obtained by Dr. Bübler as to the origin of the Kashmírí era and the corroboration of the practice of the omission of “the hundreds in stating dates” still prevailing in that conservative kingdom.

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.

Dr. Hincks once spoke of Assyrian as the Sanskrit of the Semitic languages, and the progress of cuneiform decipherment has tended to show that his words were not greatly exaggerated. It is true that Assyrian belongs to the northern branch of the Semitic family, which includes Hebrew and Aramaic, and not to the southern, which comprises Arabic and Ethiopic; it is true, also, that it bears a closer relationship to Hebrew and Phœnician than to any other Semitic idiom; but it is no less true that it has thrown an unexpected light on several of the problems of general Semitic philology. The reasons of this are clear enough. We possess contemporaneous monuments of the language from a very remote date, far beyond the antiquity which can be ascribed to any other record of Semitic speech; the language, even at that time, was already a literary one, and so stereotyped certain early grammatical forms that have been lost or obscured in the other dialects which did not become literary until at a much later period of growth; the syllabic character of the writing has preserved the vowels exactly as they were pronounced; and the monuments were inscribed while the speech of the people was still a living one, and not handed down through the doubtful channels of tradition and copyists.

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.”

According to the Brahmândapunâna, where the world is created from an egg (anda), four beings come first into existence, through the penance performed by Brahmâ; two of these are Sananda and Sanatkumâra, and the other two are not named. Then, the heavens, the rivers, the sea, the mountains, plants, shrubs, time, etc., come into existence. He (Brahmâ) further creates the Devarsis (the divine Rĕsis), Marîchi, Mrĕgu, Anggira, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Daksa, Atri, Wasista. It is not till he has done this that he creates the Paramesvara (the Supreme Lord; a name for Siva); the latter is at once regarded as Brahmâ's grandfather! He is called Bawa (nature); Sarwa (all); Îsa (lord); Bîma (the terrible one); Mahâdeva (the great god). His body consists (1) of Âditya-Sarâra i(sun-body); (2) Wesarîra (water-body); (3) Bâyusarîra; (4) Agnisarîra (fire-body); (5) Âkâsa (the higher invisible heaven); (6) Mahâpandita (the great Pandita); (7) Chandra (the moon); (8) Batara Guru (the teacher). He is therefore called Astatanu (with eight bodies). He must be worshipped through the Sâdaka (the full priest, or the performer of the ceremonies). Kalpa (form) and Darma (justice) are children of Brahmâ, sprung from his spirit. It is stated here from which parts of the body of Brahmâ the Devarsis came forth.

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.

Gwáder is a seaport on the coast of Makrán (ancient Gedrosia), and Makran the name of the southernmost portion of the country marked Baluchistán in our maps. The derivation of the word “Makrán” is doubtful; indeed, I have never heard a satisfactory derivation. Baluchistán, viz. the country of the Baluchis, is so called from the people by whom it is now principally inhabited, who, themselves, claim to be of Arab extraction (Arabs of the Koreish tribe), stating that they were forced to emigrate, about the latter end of the seventh century, from the neighbourhood of Aleppo, in Syria, by the tyranny of the Khalif Yezid, in consequence of their having taken the part of Husain (the martyr), grandson of Muhammad; and that, passing through Persia, they eventually reached Makrán, which they gradually overran and became masters of. Their traditions are, however, meagre and unsatisfactory. They do not appear to have preserved the name of a single place through which they passed in their journey through Persia; nor have they any recollection of the people inhabiting Makran at the time of their advent. This state of oblivion may, perhaps, be accounted for by the gradual manner of their coming into the country, viz. clan by clan at a time; but, in the lists of their ancestors, as I have received them, many names must have been omitted.

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.

Some years ago the late Colonel Seton Gruthrie showed me some coins of a totally different appearance to any I had before seen. They did not, I think, form part of his collection, but belonged to a friend who had received them from a relation in the Yemen. Colonel Guthrie, however, allowed me to take impressions of them, with a view to deciphering and publishing the inscriptions at some later time when I had more leisure to devote to their inspection.

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.

In a late Number of the Journal (Vol. VII. p. 376) I published a fac-simile of an Inscription from Takht-i Bahi, with some readings and observations. The stone on which this inscription is graven is damaged, and the fac-simile was not satisfactory. The original stone is in the Lahore Museum, and since the date of my publication, Colonel Maclagan, Superintendent Engineer in the Panjab, has had a series of photographs taken, under his own direction, of all the sculptures in the Lahore Museum. These photographs have been arranged in a book, a copy of which has been sent to the Library of the Society. The Takht-i Bahi inscription is among them, and from this new photograph the accompanying cut has been made of the words containing the date. I must add, however, that none of the copies are as satisfactory as the rubbing first received.

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.

The part of Belúchistán now under Persian rule is bounded upon the north by Seistán, upon the east by Panjgúr and Kej, upon the south by the Indian Ocean, and upon the west by Núrámshír, Rúdbár, and the Báshákerd mountains.

This country enjoys a variety of climates; almost unbearable heat exists on the Mekrán coast, we find a temperate climate on the hill slopes and on the slightly raised plains as at Duzek and Bampúr, and a cool climate in the mountainous districts Serhad and Bazmán. The heat at Jálq is said to be so intense in summer that the gazelles lie down exhausted in the plains, and let themselves be taken by the people without any trouble.