The points discussed in the following pages, are the subject of an inquiry into which I was led, some time ago, by finding in the writings of an Arabian geographer, mention made of several places, which attracted my attention from their agreement in name with those to which we read that the Israelites were carried, when Samaria was destroyed by the armies of Assyria. Knowing that it was still a matter of doubt where the captives of Israel were placed, and finding in all that had been written on the subject, nothing which appeared satisfactory or conclusive, I was curious to ascertain, whether, in a case so authentic and so interesting, something like certainty could not be elicited by reflection and research; which led to an inquiry, somewhat longer than I anticipated, which forms the subject of the following pages.

I beg to present to the Society two MS. volumes, containing copies of 595 Inscriptions, collected, during a period of eight years, in the southern Mahratta country, or the district of Dharwar; in the western part of the Nizam's territories; in the northern district of Mysore; and from the province of Sunda, comprised in the Mangalore collectorate.

A short time before my leaving Calcutta, a Maulavi, by name Gholaum Hosain, was introduced to me under the character of a great mathematician and astronomer. I found he was in the service of Mirza Khán Bahádur, the Mohammedan son of Mitrajít Singh, the well-known Mahá Rájá, of Takari, in Bahar. The Maulavi stated, that he had devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, not only as far as they are contained in the Arabian and Brahminical writings, but also as far as he could gain from the interpretation of European books, as given him by European friends, he himself being ignorant of English; that he had, under the patronage of Khán Bahádur, compiled a system of these sciences from all these sources, and that his patron had supplied him with a sum of money to publish this book at one of the lithographic presses of Calcutta. This was the purport of his present errand down the country, and he had already got about 100 pages carried through the press. His object in applying to me was to obtain a recommendation of his work to the Government Education Committee. He produced his MS., but it was much too long to examine minutely in the short time I had to remain in Calcutta, and in my then harassed state of mind and body. I saw enough, however, to convince me that it was a work of very considerable merit and information, compared with the author's opportunities. It commenced with the elements of geometry and arithmetic as known to the Hindús, and thence went on.In the course of the work are explained, the European methods of decimal fractions, logarithms, and trigonometrical tables. The author then gives a system of astronomy, first according to the Brahmins, then according to Ptolemy, and then according to Copernicus, together with an account of astronomical instruments, and the mode of calculating astronomical tables and almanacs. The whole MS., as will appear from the author's own computation, comprehends 900 closely-written quarto pages.

The people of this coast are of three distinct classes,—the Burman, the Món, and the Karean, and they are distinguished also by speaking different languages. The Burmans of Mergui speak a dialect of the language of Ava, as do those of Tavoy.

The accompanying two plates of coins present a type which is quite new to the numismatic world, if we except two or three specimens published in the second part of Vol. I., of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, from the collection of my ingenious and indefatigable friend Colonel Tod, who has left no branch of Indian antiquities unexplored or unadorned. We are informed that he met with these coins in the whole of the district from Oujein to Cutch, as far as the Indus, and he ascribes them to the Balhara sovereigns, mentioned by the Arabian travellers of the ninth century, as translated by Renaudot, who conceives these princes to be the same as the Zamorin. In this attribution I must differ with Colonel Tod for several reasons, independent of one to which I shall now confine myself, and which is to be found in the text of the above work; viz., that the drachms coined by the Balhara princes are said to weigh one-half more than the Arab drachm, whereas the coins in question do not even reach the weight of this last.

1. May that Gananáyaka, by whose worship sovereigns obtain victory and renown in every enterprise! May that destroyer of what is evil, preserve you from calamities!!

2. May that Siva on whose head Jáhnaví shines, as the silver moon on the summit of the golden Meru, protect you!!

1. There was a son of Jimútakétu, most renowned in the three worlds, the ever compassionate Jimúta-Váhana, who, for another's good, considered his own body as grass, and saved Sankhachúra from Garuda.

The present narrative was composed, a few months ago, at Tangier, under my direction. It was written by the Taleb Sidi Ibrahim ben Muhammed, of the town of Messa, in the province of Sús. It was first written in the Berber language, and thence translated into Arabic, from which I made an English version.

Prosperity.—1. May that Samba, who is adorned with brown braided hair, from whom proceed mighty sovereigns, the source of all sciences, knowledge, charity and instruction! may this lord of the three worlds be always victorious!!

Be Prosperity.–—2. The frontal ornaments of the Silahar family, the increaser of the fame and power of the children of Jimúta-Váhana, on whose flag is the figure of a golden eagle (Garuda) possessor of this ocean-girt globe. A king whose praises are celebrated by the princes of the Karnataka country, who hath the auspicious mark called Malayanka, king of kings endued with great wisdom; dreaded by inimical princes; protector of the country of the city of Tagara (or the Tagaranagara-country-protector), “Tagaranagara-bhupalakah,” of splendid fame, of unchangeable determination, of renowned valour, who dwelt as a lion in the strong hill-fort of Pannala; of fair and vast valour, supreme lord of great princes, who seized the treasures of his enemies; such was the king Sri-Jatiga.

In the classification of the Tamil castes, the Parawas rank first among the tribes of fishermen, and they are generally allowed to have been the earliest navigators in the Indian Ocean, like the Phœnicians in the Mediterranean. They are described in the Tamil dictionary, entitled Nigundu Súlamaní, under the head of Neythanílémakkal, or inhabitants of the sea-coast. In Sanscrit they are called Parasavas, or Nishadas, and in Tamil, Parathar, Parathavar, and Paravar. The author of the Historia Ecclesiastica (published in Tamil, at Tranquebar, in the year 1735), identifies them with the Parvaim of the Scriptures, and adds, that in the time of Solomon they were famous among those who made voyages by sea; but it does not appear that there is any solid foundation for this hypothesis.

Destitute of the prospect of leisure to complete a general description and comparison, long since undertaken, of the cave-temples and excavations, Boodh, Jain, and Brahminical, on the western side of India, involving also the placing in juxtaposition the various inscriptions in unknown characters, to be found in these excavations, I am happy to anticipate a distant period, and at once to lay before the Society some inscriptions obtained lately from the Boodh excavations in the neighbourhood of the town of Joonur in the Poona collectorate. The multiplication of Boodh inscriptions in the hands of the learned, and the early introduction of any new inscriptions to the notice of the profound Orientalists in Europe, may facilitate the attempts now making to understand the lithographic records of a mighty people, who, equally with their language, have disappeared from India, leaving, however, such multitudinous and stupendous monuments of their industry, taste, power, wealth, and numbers, as to excite the most unlimited astonishment in the contemplative mind, that a great nation should have gone down the stream of time without leaving a tradition even of its existence in its native country, the present inhabitants of Western India being more ignorant of the origin of these mighty works of art, than the European stranger who visits them from curiosity.

In the third volume of Anquetil du Perron's translation of the Zand-Avastá, there are versions of two small liturgical works of the Pársís, entitled by him the “Lesser Si-rozé,” and the “Greater Sirozé.” There is another Sirozé, however, possessed by the Pársís, which he does not translate. It treats of the qualities of the thirty days of the month, as auspicious or inauspicious. Though its intimations are absurd in the highest degree, it exercises great influence over the whole body of Zoroastrians. It is so much regarded by them, that there is scarcely a family without a copy, and there are few individuals who have not its precepts written on the tablet of their hearts. On this account, as well as because of the brief information which it gives respecting the Amsháspands and Izads, to whom the days of the month are sacred, it is not unworthy of the attention of Europeans. It exists in the Persian language; but there are several Gujaráthí versions, which are generally used. The translation which I give is very literal, and is formed from a collation of these versions, and a careful comparison with the original. I have added a few explanatory notes. The only general remark which I would make on the Precepts of Fate which this Sirozé contains, is that its framers seem to have made such a distribution of good and evil throughout the month, and its different days, as is calculated to render those who credit it, neither much elated, nor much cast down, on account of any of its portions. Blessings and curses are made to go hand in hand during the whole journey of the moon.

On my arrival here last week, I found that the Royal Asiatic Society had published a lithographic fac-simile of a Phoenician inscription which I had found in Barbary, and which I had forwarded to the Society, through Lieut. Gen. Forbes: and having also heard that this inscription had occupied the attention of several persons, learned in the languages of the East, I am induced to send you the copies of four others, which I discovered in different parts of the Beylek of Tunis, as well as two which were found at Malta, in 1822, by Signor Bonicci, and which I believe have not hitherto been published.

This inscription is a powerful evidence in support of my hypothesis, for it proves two very important facts: first, “that the Phœnician language is the same as the Irish,”—secondly, “that the Irish character is a modification of the ancient Phœnician.”

It has been uniformly acknowledged by those travellers who have visited Siam, that scarcely any correct knowledge can be gained of its institutions and resources, beyond what may be gathered within a very confined range of personal observation.

It is the aim of the court, and the duty, if not the inclination, of the people, consequent on their state of political degradation and slavery, to involve a stranger in a constant delusion regarding all that concerns them and their country. And while they distort or magnify such pieces of intelligence as their interest prompts them to communicate, they carefully block up every avenue to truth, which they wish to keep concealed.

The work, bearing the title here prefixed, is dated “Halle, August 30, 1835,” and at its close the very learned author expresses his intention of visiting Holland, England, and Paris, in order to examine with his own eyes the Phœnician and Punic inscriptions and coins there preserved. He accordingly passed some time in London, in the Autumn of the same year; and by a personal inspection of some very valuable marbles, of which he and other continental scholars had before published explanations from written copies or plaster casts, he has been enabled to settle several points, which were before uncertain. He thus spares no pains to bestow the highest finish upon a work, which he has been many years engaged in preparing; and which he proposes to publish under the following title; “Marmora Phœnicia et Punica, quotquot supersunt, edidit, et prœtnissâ commentatione de litteris et linguâ Phœnicum et Pœnorum explicuit G. Gesenius.” He proposes that it should be accompanied by a folio volume of copper-plates, and succeeded by a second part, containing the Phoenician and Punic coins. The present work is intended as a preliminary treatise, explanatory of his views upon the subject, and of some of the principal facts, which he will have occasion to develop.

From all that is preserved in the Holy Scriptures, and in those ancient histories which treat of the subject now under discussion, we are justified in assuming, that from the days of Adam till the time of Noah, and subsequently till the confusion of languages at Babel, “the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.”— Genesis xi. 1. The question, therefore, resolves itself simply into this: Was the confusion of tongues which took place at Babel confined to those who were engaged on that great work of impiety and rebellion in the plains of Shinar, or was the punishment inflicted on the innocent as well as on the guilty, so as to affect Noah and those of his descendants who remained with the venerable patriarch in Armenia? For if it be acknowledged that the language of Noah remained unchanged, I hope to be able to prove satisfactorily, that that language was the Armenian.

A paper has been entrusted to me for communication to the Society by one of its members, Mr. Romer, which offers some valuable contributions towards the determination of a question of considerable difficulty and great literary importance,—the authenticity of the Zand and Pahlaví languages, as they appear in the religious writings of the Parsis. A very wide and irreconcileable difference of opinion has prevailed, and continues to prevail, with regard to the genuine or fictitious character of these dialects, and every thing which tends to establish either beyond the possibility of controversy, cannot fail to be interesting to the Society and the public.

“The following paper on the state of the Medical Art amongst the Chinese, has been recently presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, by the Right Hon. Alexander Johnston. He, as Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of the Society, has for some time instituted a variety of inquiries into the state of that art, in the different parts of Asia. This paper has been sent to him by the Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, the intelligent and zealous Protestant Missionary in China, who forwarded to him, some time ago, the very curious and interesting analysis of the Chinese work, called the Yi She, which has been published in the last number of the Journal. The extent of the Chinese empire; the number of its inhabitants; the progress which they are known to have made from the earliest times in arts, manufactures, agriculture, and different branches of civilization; the nature and value of the mineral and vegetable productions of their country; the knowledge which they possess of the properties and uses of those productions; the variety of the climates to which they are subject in the different parts of the empire; the nature of the numerous diseases from which they suffer; the jealousy with which the Chinese Government have hitherto excluded foreigners from all intercourse with the people, and the obstacles which they have opposed to the acquisition by foreigners of all authentic information relative to their country, render a paper of this description, at the present moment, when the Parliament of Great Britain has opened the trade with China to all British subjects, an object of interest and public utility, the more so, as Sir Alexander Johnston, having submitted it for perusal to Sir Henry Halford, has received from that gentleman, who is so distinguished in his profession, and has transmitted to China a set of queries which are calculated to elicit from the Chinese such information as is deemed valuable by those who are professionally acquainted with the subject in this country.”

The Society is indebted to Sir Charles Forbes, Bart., for the following interesting Narrative. It has been selected from a voluminous collection of the MSS. of the late Governor Duncan, which have been kindly entrusted to the care and inspection of the Editor, and of which a great portion, will, he trusts, from time to time, appear in this Journal. Some additional interest may perhaps attach to this narrative, from its correspondence with what has lately appeared relative to the Gaikwár affairs in the able and valuable “Dispatches of the Marquess Wellesley,” compiled by Mr. Montgomery Martin.

Within the last sixteen years, the presses of Tahrán and Cairo have sent forth four works on the biography of Muhammed, which contain a mass of new facts hitherto unknown to all European biographers of the Prophet, and which furnish ample materials for a more characteristic biography than those of Gagnier, Boulainvilliers, Turpin, Savary, Mill, Bush, and the Encyclopedias. Of the four above-named works, the first was published at Tahrán; it forms the second volume of the Haiwat al Kulúb (life of the hearts), 450 leaves in folio, by Muhammed Báter. Three years after its publication appeared at Cairo, the Turkish biography of the Prophet, by Waisí —and three years later the continuation of it by Nábí who rank both amongst the first writers of the Ottomans.