I beg leave, in answer to your letter of the 17th instant, to submit it as my opinion to the Council, that the Account of the Constitution of the late Government of the Kingdom of Kandy is of sufficient interest to be published in the Proceedings of the Society.

Although you personally have visited Jaggannát'ha and its famous Hindu temple, yet I am sure that some account from a person who for several years has resided there will not prove entirely uninteresting, and I therefore thought it best to employ my evening leisure hours to put to paper the information I have been able to collect from time to time, trusting to your kindness and indulgence with regard to the imperfections in style, language, and, in fact, every thing else.

I have now the pleasure to forward to you an extract from the private journal of my brother-in-law, Captain Peter Rainier, C.B., of the Royal Navy, giving all the information in his possession respecting the stone discovered by him in the great temple at Kalabshe in Nubia, having a Latin acrostic inscription cut on it, of which the accompanying is an exact copy.

At our last meeting, a visitor having casually alluded to the discovery by Captain P. Rainier, of the Royal Navy, of an avenue of Sphinxes (or Sphinges) at Ben-i-Hassan in Egypt, which has not been noticed by any traveller bitherto, I have the pleasure to lay before the Society a letter from Captain Rainier, giving a description of them, as well as of the excavated temples at Ben-i-Hassan.

In the course of a conversation held not long ago at Canton with Professor Neumann, respecting the affinity between the Chinese and Burman languages, I happened to shew him a translation that I had, which he considered somewhat curious, and recommended me to present to the Royal Asiatic Society; and Doctor Morrison offered me an introduction to the President, which, with the translation, I have now the honour to forward to you.

I. Talismans.—Under this head are arranged some charms which are not properly speaking talismans, but for which no other generic name could be found.

1. Tsëen-këen, “Money-swords.” These consist of a number of old copper coins called cash, strung together in the form of a sword, and kept straight by a piece of iron running up the middle. They are hung at the heads of beds, that the supposed presence of the monarchs under whose reigns the cash were coined may have the effect of keeping away ghosts and evil spirits. They are used chiefly in houses or rooms where persons have committed suicide or suffered a violent death. Sick persons use them, also, in order to hasten their recovery.

La Loubere, Kæmpfer, Finlayson, Crawfurd, and Major Burney have all treated upon a language, either casually or specifically, which is spoken from Quedah, on the western coast of the Malayan Peninsula, to the country of Laos; and is surrounded by its sister languages, those of Camboja, Pegu, Ava, and Laos. The Siamese language is one of the principal dialects of the Indo-Chinese nations, and is the next link in the chain which the Cochin-Chinese language forms between the Chinese and the Indo-Chinese languages. It bears a strong resemblance to that of Laos, has derived much from the Cambojian, but differs remarkably from the Peguan and Burmese.

The materials for the following account of the island of Sivasamudram, together with the description and plans of the bridges which have been built, and are now building across the two branches of the Cáverí, were furnished to me by Rámaswámí Múdeliar, the intelligent and wealthy Jághírdár of the island. As regards the antiquities of this celebrated place, I regret the imperfection of the memoir; but I am willing to hope that it will not be considered wholly destitute of merit. By the curious in architecture, the faithful representation of the bridges, and the plain description of the manner in which they are constructed, will be valued; while, to the observer of the human mind, and the speculator upon the progress of improvement in India, it must be an object of interest to mark the modes of thought and feeling entertained by a Hindu, who, in strict accordance with the precepts of his religion, undertakes a great public work, which would do honour to the professor of any religion, and to the citizen of any country, in any age.

From the little information in our possession concerning the Lycian and Phrygian language and character, it was very gratifying to find some light thrown on the subject by the discovery of certain inscriptions, for which we are indebted to Messrs. Cockerell, Carlyle, and Colonel Leake; and fac-similes of which have been published by Mr. Robert walpole. The valuable information which these inscriptions promised to afford for the illustration of the Archæology of Asia Minor, induced the French scholars, MM. Letronne and Saint-Martin, to republish them in the Journal des Savans, and to add many new observations upon them to those previously recorded by Mr. Walpole. Notwithstanding, however, the numerous explanations given by these scholars of these inscriptions, which Mr. Walpole thought it impossible to decypher, and how far soever the perplexities of them may have been overcome, especially by M. Saint-Martin, still there are many particulars which will allow of different views being entertained; and so far, therefore, it may not be altogether superfluous to submit the whole to a new and careful investigation.

I beg leave to send you an account of the painting upon cloth which I presented to the Society some time ago, and which is a fac-simile of a very ancient banner of the caste of Chalias, or cinnamon-peelers, on the island of Ceylon.

The present numbers and importance of these people, render their history a subject of curious research. As the Cingalese inhabitants of Ceylon were, previous to the thirteenth century, ignorant of the art of weaving fine cloth, which was then known to the Hindu inhabitants of the peninsula of India, the kings of Kandy offered great rewards to any of their subjects who would bring over from the peninsula some weavers for the purpose of introducing that art into Ceylon.

The following extract from a Persian work, entitled the Mirát i Ahmadí, part of which is devoted to a description of the religion and customs of the Jainas, appearing to me a compendious (although in some points a rather inaccurate) account of that people, I have taken the liberty to prefix it, by way of introduction, to my own paper.

Curiosity to be a spectator of the celebration of a religious ceremony, which was reported to draw together annually from 100,000 to 200,000 persons, led me to the resolution of visiting the Hot Wells, situated at the foot of the hills, about fifty miles in. a south-easterly direction from this city.

The communication which Major-General Hardwicke has the honour to lay before the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, though not describing an occurrence of recent date, he trusts may yet be found sufficiently interesting to claim a place in the Transactions of the Society. General Hardwicke has frequently heard the subject mentioned of late, but has found very few persons who were inclined to attach credit to it, owing to its remarkable deviation from the usual course of nature; and having himself not only seen the man designated “ the Sheep-eater,” and witnessed an exhibition of his carnivorous habits, but made notes and drawings in elucidation of the facts as displayed in the presence of many officers of the military station of Futtehgurh and the native inhabitants of the surrounding villages., on the 3d of March 1796; he now proceeds to subjoin the substance of his memorandums, in explanation of the accompanying plate.