In Lat. 7° 59′ N., Long. 81° E., about fourteen miles N.E. of Dambulla, and about seventeen miles nearly due W. of Parâkrama Bâhu's capital, Pulastipura, is the singular natural stronghold referred to in the Thirty-ninth Chapter of the Mahâvamsa, and first re-discovered by Major Forbes, of the Ceylon Civil Service, in the year 1831. Sir Emerson Tennent (Ceylon, vol. i. p. 15) says of it: “Sîgiri is the only example in Ceylon of those solitary acclivities, which form so remarkable a feature in the table-land of the Dekkan, starting abruptly from the plain with scarped and perpendicular sides; and converted by the Indians into strongholds, accessible only by precipitous pathways, or steps hewn in the solid rock.” And, again (vol. ii. p. 579): “This gigantic cylindrical rock starts upward to a height prodigious in comparison with its section at any point, the area of its upper surface being little more than an acre in extent. Its scarped walls are nearly perpendicular, and in some places they overhang their base. The formation of this singular cliff can only be ascribed to its upheaval by a subterranean force, so circumscribed in action that its effects were confined within a very few yards, yet so irresistible as to have shot aloft this prodigious pencil of stone to the height of nearly 400 feet.” The height of the rock above the sea is probably more than this—a point which soon will be (if it is not already) settled by the Surveyors engaged in the Trigonometrical Survey of that part of Ceylon. I am also informed that the occurrence of so circumscribed and yet so irresistible a subterranean force is almost, if not quite impossible, and that the present position of Sîgiri, like that of the many similar strongholds in the table-lands of South India, may be more easily explained by a general subsidence of the soil around it. It is to be regretted that the geological history of Ceylon altogether has received so little attention; but it seems certain that Sîgiri owes its origin to the same force to which is due the great elevation which stretches for more than 150 miles in a N.E. direction from below Adam's Peak to Trinkomali, and forms the principal gneiss and granite mountain ranges of Ceylon, which, since their first appearance above the waters, have certainly undergone no second immersion. If this be so, then the crag of Sîgiri, which lies almost in the centre line of that upheaval, must be among those parts of the now habitable globe which first emerged from the deep, and have been longest accessible to man.

The researches of Schott have thrown considerable light on what was previously a very obscure question, namely, the Origines of the Mongols—a question I propose to reexamine, with his assistance and that of other recent authors. There are three methods of approaching such a question. We may analyze the Mongolian tongue, and thus discover the elements which went to make up the race; we may collect the references to the race that we find in contemporary authors; or we may examine the traditions current among the people themselves as to their origin. The first of these methods I shall not at present deal with, inasmuch as it is complicated by many extraneous elements, the Mongols having borrowed from Chinese, Thibetans, and Turks both materials for their civilization and also for their language.

Few men have done more for the science of Oriental Numismatics than Frederic Soret. And yet among his writings we may search in vain for any work of great extent. The largest he ever published is his handbook, Éléments de la Numismatique Musulmane, and even this appeared in parts in the Belgian Revue, and was reprinted as a separate work after his death. Frederic Soret's work was done by small pieces, which, when put together, form a very considerable whole. The line he took was chiefly that of publishing such coins as he found in his own or other collections, and which were as yet unknown to the numismatic world,—if I may apply so large a term to so small a thing. And those short monographs of his are among the most precious additions to the knowledge of Oriental coins which the century has seen. Nor does Soret stand alone in this system of publishing inedited coins. He has been vigorously followed by a very able and sufficiently numerous body of German and other scholars, who have made known all the noteworthy coins which have come across their path.

Every collector of early Muhammadan coins must have observed that the dînârs of the fifth and two subsequent Khalîfahs are of two kinds: that is to say, some are plain, like those of the earlier Khalîfahs; whilst others have various Muhammadan names upon them, generally beneath the ordinary inscription on the area of the reverse.

It is well known, that dirhams and filses were struck in many parts of the then vast Muhammadan Empire; but it does not appear that under the first four Khalîfahs dînârs were struck in any other mint than that of the Capital.

Page 281, on coin dated 236, readinstead of …

Page 296, No. 20 (Soret 89), dele the statement ‘Distant from,’ etc., and read, ‘A town on the banks of the Caspian Sea, also called Darband.’

Page 297, No. 33, readinstead of.

For the name Manchu several etymologies have been proposed. Klaproth says that the Chinese characters representing it mean a well-peopled island, and that it is probably of Chinese origin; the Tatar hordes in early times liking to adopt Chinese soubriquets. The Thibetans transcribe the name Mandjhau, and some have thought it to be of Thibetan origin. Remusat has devoted several pages of his magnum opus to a discussion of the subject, but without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. Palladius tells us that the name Mantszuin, i.e. Chinese soldiers, was applied to a large number of Chinese emigrants settled by Khubilai Khan on the borders of Corea to resist a threatened attack from Japan. It may be that it was from these emigrants that the name was first derived. It may be, again, that the name is connected with the Corean deity Manchusri, who lived, says Palladius, according to the Corean Buddhists, in the Changpo Shan mountains, i.e. in the cradle-land of the Manchus, vide infrà This last appears to me to be the most reasonable etymology.

On February 9th, 1874, I read a paper before the Royal Geographical Society entitled, “Notes of a Journey outside the Great Wall of China,” made by the Hon. T. G. Grosvenor and myself in the autumn of 1872, including an account of a visit to the ruins of the city of Shangtu, the ancient northern capital of the Yuan Dynasty, described in such glowing terms by Marco Polo, who was there in the reign of its founder, the famous Kublai Khan. They are situate on the northern bank of the Lan-ho—the Shangtu River—about twenty-five miles to the north-west of Dolonnor, the populous city founded by the Emperor Kang-hi, as a trading mart between the Chinese and the Mongolian tribes. These ruins were identified by the existence of a marble memorial tablet, with an inscription of the reign of Kublai, in an ancient form of the Chinese character. A more detailed account of the history of the city so frequently referred to by mediaeval travellers, derived from Chinese and other sources, has been drawn up; and a plan of the ruins, with a facsimile and translation of the inscription, added, in the hope that it may prove of some interest to the Members of your Society.

Eleven years ago I had the honour to read a paper before this Society, entitled “Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the People of India.” That paper has been widely circulated, and has excited some interest on the subject. Since then, I have prosecuted one department of it—Oriental Proverbs in Relation to the Life and History of the People in India.

Of the following two inscriptions, the former is edited from a MS. in Dambulla Wihāre, of which I have a transcript in the Roman character by a native copyist; and the latter from a copy made by Nāranwiṭa Unnānse, which I owe to the courtesy of Mr. R. C. Childers. In the Dambulla MS. the inscription is repeated twice, and the readings of the two copies differ pretty frequently, as will be seen from the various readings given below the text.

In Trübners Record of June, 1871, I gave a notice of a short Inscription, of which a rubbing was brought from Takht-i-Bahi by Dr. Leitner. The rubbing showed the Inscription to be in a very defective state, and, according to General Cunningham, the original stone has been used for grinding spices on. A photograph of it has since been obtained, from which the accompanying plate has been copied. Many of the letters are indistinct, but the photograph would seem to indicate that the blank space in the middle was blank from the first. The stone is now in the Lahore Museum. I quote what I said in the Record.

Among other curiosities dispersed at the sale of the late Col. C. S. Guthrie's Oriental Collection, Lot 118—described as “A Dark-green Jade Jar, the neck engraved with an inscription”—realized £60, and was wisely retained in the family by Mr. Arbuthnot Guthrie.

Page 17, line 9, read ‘Madura,’ instead of ‘Madras.’

Page 23, line 12, dele ‘(see sketch).’