There is something in a name. Properly it ought to comprise all, or at least much of what is contained in the thing named. The name is therefore a very weighty and important word. In dealing with it, we may be struck as the Tartars were, when they first handled iron; for it evidently gave them the impression that it contained some mysterious substance, some kind of stuffing, concealed under its surface; and therefore they called it timur, i.e. ‘a stuffing, a filling, or something filled, stuffed.’ The Turkish language is remarkably transparent in an etymological point of view, most of its names being still easily traceable to their roots and to their original signification.

In the Journal for 1879 I was permitted to insert a notice of the scholars who have contributed to the extension of our knowledge of the Languages of British India during the last thirty years; and upon the occasion of its being read at one of the Society's meetings, considerable interest was shown in the subject. I venture now to intrude upon the Society with a kindred notice upon those great scholars who have devoted their talents, and in many cases their lives, to enlarging our knowledge of the Languages of Africa.

The word consists of three syllables, and must not be tortured into Housa as is frequently done. Ha-ou-sa conveys the correct pronunciation. The meaning of the word itself is not quite certain. From two expressions in the writer's collection it may be inferred that it means ‘language’. The first is, “He speaks another ha-u-sa,”that is, another language; and the second, in answer to the question, “Do many people speak Haúsa?” The reply given was, “How can they be Haúsa unless they speak Ha1sa?” Barth also admits that it means ‘language,’ although it is not confined to that meaning. The word itself was probably unknown to Leo Africanus, who says that Zāria Kano and Katsena speak the language of Gober, instead of Haúsa, Gober being at Leo's time the most prominent and noble among the provinces of the North. Whether the name, Aúsa given to the northern side of “the great river” in contrast to Gurma on the southern side, has anything to do with Haúsa, is left undecided by Barth. Sultan Bello derives the Haúsa from a Bornu slave, named Bāwu. This Bāwu has a real historical existence in the traditions of the Haúsa people, though not as a slave, the Haúsa word for ‘slave’ being Bāwa not Bāwa, a fact of which Sultan Bello could not have been ignorant; and besides this, it must be argued that, if the Haúsa derived their origin from the Bornu or Kanúri, there would exist a greater similarity between these two languages than is found to be the case. Both languages have a few words in common, but the grammars are most distinct.

A student of Buddhism cannot proceed very far in his inquiry without being confronted with a tremendous contradiction. Perhaps I may be allowed here to speak from personal experience. I read Le Bouddha et sa Religion, by M. Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, and one or two well-known works; and soon learnt that annihilation (sûnyatâ) was the lot of the Saint when he had reached the Bodhi or Highest Wisdom, and freed himself from the cycle of new births. I then came across Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet, which contains a sort of litany called The Buddhas of Confession. In it is the following passage:—

“I adore the Buddha Sa-la'i-rgyal-po. Once uttering this name shall purify from all sins of theft, robbery, and the like.” This puzzled me. This being was a Buddha. In consequence he had suffered, or enjoyed, complete annihilation. Why then should the pronouncing the name Sâ-la'irgyal-po purify from all sins of “theft, robbery, and the like?” Then I remembered that in old religions very holy names like I.A.O., A.U.M., etc., had often got to be thought more potent than the God himself. I mention all this to show that I am not at all surprised at people clinging to the idea that the Bodhi in the earliest Buddhism meant annihilation in spite of the strong evidence that can be brought against it. I myself for some time did the same.

If I faults in friend discover, Find him not in acts the same, I, by friendship moved, pass over What in him provoketh blame. What a friend of evil doeth I to him will never do; Fault which unto him accrueth I with grace indulgent view. To a friend's defects the blindness Of a friend is friendship's part, Friendship this preserves through kindness Worthy of a noble heart.

On the occasion of a recent visit to Cairo, I occupied myself in an endeavour to copy the Cufic inscriptions on the Bab en Naṣr. I only partially succeeded, but what I have been able to decipher is sufficient to show that the inscriptions are of somewhat more than ordinary interest. As far as I am able to discover, they have never been published, —a sufficient excuse, I hope, for offering the Society the imperfect results of my attempt to perform a task, which some other student will perhaps be induced to take up and complete.

The following pages offer an imperfect and unpretending analysis of the opening portions of the Great Indian Epic, the Mahábhárata; with a free version here and there of striking passages, and in most of these instances the Sanskrit text. So cumbrous an introduction to the mighty Poem was, perhaps, compiled in days long subsequent to those of the finer sections of the Epic. It seems principally directed to the exaltation of Brahmans, and the glorification of Royal and Saintly Pedigrees; but a closer study—as, for example, of the long catalogue which occurs in the description of the Serpent-People—would probably give useful results to ethnology and geography.

[p. 1.] Ceci est un traité important, substantiel, utile, sur la détermination du derham, du meṭqâl, etc., par le maître, le très docte cheikh Eḍ-Ḍahaby, que Dieu lui fasse miséricorde et nous fasse profiter de lui et de sea connaissances! Ainsi soit-il!

[p. 2.] Au nom de Dieu clément, miséricordieux!

Louange à Dieu, le maître des mondes! Que la prière et le salut reposent sur notre Seigneur Mohammad, sa famille, ses compagnons et les compagnons de ses compagnons (tâbé'yn)!

Or donc, voici ce que dit Moustafa Eḍ-Ḍahaby, le châfé'îte: Ceci est un traité sur la détermination du derham, du metqâl, des monnaies ayant cours en Egypte (Mesr), de la quantité d'alliage qu'elles contiennent et du chiffre qu'elles fournissent comme quotité imposable (nésâb), ainsi que cela a été déterminé a l'hôtel des monnaies, et sur l'exposé des poids et des mesures de capacité.