Khuddaka Páṭha, or “Lesser Readings,” is one of the books of the Buddhist Scriptures. It is the first of the fifteen divisions of Khuddaka Nikáya, and immediately precedes Dhammapada, The text which I have adopted is that of a manuscript written and collated for me by a Singhalese priest of great learning. I have compared with it the Burmese manuscript belonging to the collection presented by Sir A. Phayre to the India Office Library. This, however, I found to contain numerous clerical and other errors, and it failed to supply me with a single corrected reading.

One of the most interesting articles in the late Sir Henry Elliot's work, “The History of India as told by its own Historians,” is that which consists of extracts from Rashiduddin's Jámi'-ut-Tawárikh. A large part of that worthy's notices of India is indeed taken from Albiruni, but the concluding portion is presumably his own, and speaks of a state of things existing in his own time. It is to this portion of the article that the following observations refer. In the original edition of Sir Henry Elliot's work this was crammed with obscurities. Many of these have been removed by the recent editor, Professor Dowson, through the comparison of various MSS., but obscurities still remain. Eecent studies having directed my attention to this subject, I have been trying to clear these up. In many cases I have utterly failed; in some I trust to have succeeded in throwing a little light, and I venture to submit the result to the Society, in the hope that others, much more competent, will lend aid in cracking some of the hard nuts that are left.

Mr. Thomas has lately done good service to Pahlavî archæology, by collecting all the best copies of the Sassanian inscriptions, that are known to exist, from the various books of travels and unpublished papers in which they have hitherto remained comparatively hidden and neglected. If his tentative translation of the Hâjîâbâd inscription is likely to be less useful, it is probably owing to his treating the language as an unknown one, and only to be interpreted by a free use of all available lexicons, aided by a variety of hazardous guesses. But there is good reason for believing that the language of these inscriptions is not unknown, as the composition, or rearrangement, of most of the Pahlavî literature of the Parsîs, is traditionally ascribed to the time of the Sassanian rule; if, therefore, this tradition be correct, there ought to be a close resemblance between the language of the inscriptions and that of the Pahlavî books, after allowing for probable alterations made in the books, by successive copyists.

1. The Pagoda was built in the reign of king Bodo Piyah, in the Burmese year 1178 (A.D. 1816), by his grandson, Noungdau Gyee, now known as Bagyeedau Piyah, which specifies his relationship as paternal uncle to the present reigning king.

2. It is situated at Mengoon, on the west bank of the Irrawaddy, a couple of hundred yards only from the huge brick ruin which is known as the Mengoon pagoda.

1. Victory to the Allsoul, the source of life, the inseparable ornament of heaven, the Sun, who is adorned with a crown of a thousand beams like unto liquid gold!

2. After studying the subject matter which former Seers have revealed with infallible truth, I purpose to treat of the same in an easy style, and in verses neither too few nor too many.

This subject is of some importance to persons who are resident in Mussulman countries, or our dominions in India, and a brief exposition of it may not be out of place in the Society's Journal.

Evidence is based on testimony, and testimony may be either direct to the point at issue, or to collateral circumstances from which the point at issue may be reasonably inferred. It were, perhaps, more correct to say, that in the latter case testimony is the channel through which evidence is conveyed to the minds of those who have to decide upon it, while in the former case it is the evidence itself. Under the most common systems of jurisprudence testimony of both kinds is received, and the judge is left free to form his own opinion from all the circumstances as detailed by the witnesses. Under other systems, while testimony is equally free, the decision upon it is committed to a separate tribunal, such as a jury. Under both systems there is, perhaps, an inclination to treat testimony, even when direct, as a mere channel of communication, and to take the fact asserted by the witness, entirely stripped of his opinion.

In a paper read to the Royal Asiatic Society towards the close of last session, I gave some account of the Mohammedan law of evidence in connection with the administration of justice in India. I now propose to offer a few observations on the same subject in its bearings on the administration of justice to foreigners in Mohammedan countries. As I shall have to contrast the notions of evidence which such persons may be supposed to derive from the laws of their own countries, with the Mohammedan system, and it may be convenient to run the contrast between only two systems at the same time, I will take our own countrymen as a type of foreigners in general, and I will assume that the ideas of evidence which they carry with them to other countries are the same as those which are prevalent in their own, and are derived from the practice of our courts of justice.

[The Royal Asiatic Society are indebted to Major F. W. Stubbs, R.A., for the illustrative materials of the following paper. The facsimile of the inscription has been executed in so perfect a form as to be freely legible to ordinarily practised eyes. As Professor Dowson had already distinguished himself in the decipherment of Bactrian Pali writing in his previous articles in this Journal, the explanation of this inscription was, as a matter of course, confided to him. The result appears below. The facsimile of the inscription itself has been reserved for publication, in association with the Mathura series alluded to by Professor Dowson.

Some months ago M. Wold. Tiesenhausen, Secrétaire de la Commission Archéologique de St. Pétersbourg, consulted me as to the attribution of a class of coins, representatives of which had newly been brought to light by the discovery, in the Government of Perm, of a small bronze vase containing four pieces of the type in question. M. Tiesenhausen forwarded at the same time impressions in tin-foil and rubbings on paper taken directly from the originals; but as these species of facsimile necessarily suffer from transmission by post, they furnished very unsatisfactory means of tracing the course of the singular and imperfectly-outlined marginal legends, which, in effect, constituted the real enigma to be solved. I therefore applied to my correspondent for more complete copies in less perishable materials, in the form of sealing-wax impressions or electrotypes. To my surprise, in reply I received the three accompanying excellent woodcuts, executed in the Russian Capital, together with engravings of two additional medals of cognate stamp, which, with considerable Numismatic acumen, had been traced in other accessible collections.