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The work has been edited from some MSS. in the Asiatic Society's Library and that of the Sanskrit College. It consists of four sec tions; the first contains a number of allegorical stanzas on various moral subjects, the second a series of amatory commonplaces, the third an elegy on the death of a wife, and the fourth a number of stanzas in praise of Krishna and final liberation. The editor has added a useful commentary to explain any obscure allusions or unusual words-the latter being not unfrequent. The first book is much the most interesting, and some of the verses might remind one of the later epigrams of the Greek Anthology. We subjoin two as specimens.

"When I am dry, and overhead the summer's fiercest splendours burn,

To whom for succour in the drought will the faint troops of travellers turn ?"
To whom indeed? Oh generous lake beside the highway, on thee be
My choicest blessing, but my curse upon the salt and niggard sea.‡

The next re-echoes something of the bitter experience in Dante's lines, "tu proverai," &c., or Johnson's "the patron and the jail.”

Unforced to watch another's door, and sue in vain with suppliant knees
To win a patron's churlish dole,—merrily live the jocund trees!§

E. B. C.

*This elegy was printed by Bohlen as an appendix to his edition of the Ritusanhára.

+ Some, as the frequent faf, 'a bee,' are, we believe, not found in any dictionary.

‡ già awfacıfazıafafecaıgırà: WHATĄ
गन्ता कं प्रति पान्यसन्ततिर सौ सन्तापमालाकुला ।
एवं यस्य निरन्तराधिपटलैर्नित्यं वपुः चीयते
धन्यं जीवनमस्य मार्गसरसेा धिग वारिधौनां जनः ॥
$ परोपसर्पणानन्तचिन्तानल शिखाशतैः ।
अचुम्बितान्तःकरणाः साधु जीवन्ति पादपाः ॥

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, CORRESPONDENCE, &c.

Dr. Sprenger writes in a letter to the President, dated Wabern, 1st October, 1862.

"The Philologen Versammlung at Augsburg was again well attended, particularly by Vienna Orientalists; I had expected Raverty would come, and was disappointed not to find him there. Some interesting papers were read, on Himyaritic and Sinaitic Inscriptions, on the present state of Turkey, on Egyptian Archæology, on Babylonian Antiquities, &c. These meetings are rather riotous, and for this. reason, fatiguing, but very useful for restoring the harmony which literary quarrels have disturbed in the course of the year.

"I wish Mr. Thomas might succeed in obtaining the Tabakáti Násiry from Lady Elliot. It is a very important book. Should you not succeed and feel inclined to publish a Persian text, you might choose extracts from Ways wa Rámyn, of which the only copy known to me is in your Library. On this interesting work see Ouseley, p. 45, Hajy Khalyfu, No. 14318, and my Catalogue of Oudh, p. 338. As your MS. is defective, you cannot give the whole work, nor is it desirable, but you could fill two fasciculi with extracts.

"I am just now engaged in collecting notes on the history of Geography among the Arabs. Dr. Peschel, the Editor of the Ausland, prepares a work on the History of Geography for the press, and the portion of his labour which refers to the knowledge of the Arabs of the Southern Seas, he intends to write in the form of letters addressed to your servant with a view that I might add notes. This proceeding appears to me rather cruel towards me, inasmuch as I should be obliged to enter deeply into a subject on which we shall probably never come to clear results; I therefore prefer to send him as many notices as I can find, and to leave him the responsibility of the use he may make of them, and the conclusions he may draw from them.

"Of literary news I only heard that Wüstenfeld, who intends publishing the large Geograph. Dict. of Yaqut, finds great difficulties in establishing a good text for want of good MSS. When I left India, I

was told a copy was for sale at Lucknow. I tried in vain to get hold of it. If it is to be found it would be worth while to purchase it (the price then named was 100 rupees) and to send it to Wüstenfeld, who, if the opportunity was offered to him, would no doubt be glad to buy it himself,

"Mr. De Goeje of Leiden is preparing an edition of the Geography of Abu Zayd Balkhy and of that of Ibn Hauqal. He farther intends to edit the Asás albilágha of Zamakhsháry. The latter work I consider as useless, or rather worse than useless, but the former two will be a very useful addition not only to eastern geography, but also to our knowledge of the state of civilization of the empire of the Khalifs.

"Should you not like to undertake a poetical work in Persian, I would recommend you the Ayeen Akbaree. It is one of the most valuable historical records we possess. I am aware of the difficulties which will attend the editing it. There is probably not one copy to be found which contains all the tables. Your best plan will be to collect all the MSS. you can find, to collate them and to make a new copy, as perfect as your materials will allow, with all the variants of importance, and if you are unable to give a perfect text, to restore it as far as it is in your power, you might possibly get MSS. from the India House. If not, I dare say Mr. Wright would compare your MS. with those found in England. Sir H. Elliot had the intention of translating it, and he prepared a copy for this purpose. Mr. Thomas might possibly get it for the sake of its being compared. Whatever the result of your endeavours may be, thus much is certain, no one will be able to do as much as your Society."

Capt. E. Smyth writes from Camp Srinugur, Gurhwal, November 20th, 1862.

"I crossed the Niti pass into Gurhwal on the 21st October. It was tolerably cold before I left, but not so cold as last year. One day the thermometer was at 8° at sunset and the same next morning. (It probably went down to zero during the night.) Last year it sank below zero on several occasions. I crossed the Johar pass into Thibet on the 15th September. I was benighted and had to bivouac without

tent or fire-wood near the top of the pass. When I awoke next morning at two, I found myself covered with snow, as it had snowed all night, but I did not feel the cold in the slightest, being wrapped in a suit of Canadian furs I had sent to me from England. I met about twenty Tartars at the foot of the pass on the Thibet side. I had made no secret of my intention of going from here forty or fifty miles eastward to our district of Byause, then re-crossing the Byause pass into Thibet and going eighty miles westward through Thibet to the Niti pass. These Tartars had accordingly been sent to stop me, so next day, I halted and shot four fat burral, and gave them one, When they had eaten it, I sent for them, and after a good deal of talking and tobacco smoking I had it all arranged to my satisfaction. I could have forced them easily enough, but it was better policy to manage the thing peaceably. At Byause, I received your last letter containing a list of desiderata for the museum from Mr. Blyth. I have had very little sporting since I received your note, but I have managed to procure a few of the things mentioned in the list, and will send them on my arrival at Almorah after the Bagesur fair in January, and I will at the same time send your birds, and as many more as I can procure between now and then.

From Niti I crossed a very high and seldom used pass between Niti and Budrinath. It is about 18,000 feet and being within reach of the rainy season, there is much more snow and glacier than on the passes leading into Thibet. We mistook our way and had to bivouac on some rocks close to the top of the pass without food, water or fire-wood, and where there was not room to lie down, on the face of a sheer precipice. Here we had to remain squatted until 10 a. m. next day when the sun made its appearance, as the rocks were too cold to touch with our hands. The thermometer all night and until 10 A. M. next day remained at 10°. I had only two loads with me. I did not feel the cold at all, and slept all night in a sitting posture, but all the men with me I am sorry to say suffered. Some were sick all night, and three men had their feet frost-bitten more or less, only one at all severely. This was on 1st November, which is very late for crossing a high glacier pass. No European had ever crossed the pass before.

If the Government allow Stewart and me to go, I will send you a sketch of the plan by which I propose to reach Lhassa. We may per

haps fail, but if we do, no harm will be done, and we can then return to our appointments.

I do not remember whether I have ever told you that an immense quantity of the villainous stuff called brick tea is sent from Lhassa to the Gurtokh authorities, which is forcibly sold to the people, who are obliged to take much more even than they can consume themselves; and our Bhootiah traders find that they are obliged to take the surplus in exchange for their wares.

Until this system is stopped, there will be never any great demand for our hill tea.

This should be one of our objects if we go to Lhassa."

The following is a communication from E. Thomas, Esq. to the President, dated London, 28th December, 1862.

I send you by this mail an elaborate facsimile of the Taxila Inscription, alluded to in my note p. 108, Journal R. A. S. Vol. XX. a copy of which is enclosed.*

I think you may rely upon this as a faithful copy† and accept it as fit to be placed, at once, in the hands of your lithographer. The pencil lines, over which I have written in ink, formed the original transcript from the copper plate, made, through the medium of a

"Professor Dowson has succeeded in mastering the inscription on a steatite funereal vase, preserved in the Peshawur Museum, which proves to refer to the erection of a tope by the Brothers Gihilena and Siha-rachhitena. And finally Mr. Norris, in concert with Mr. Dowson, is engaged on a most promising inscription from the neighbourhood of Hussun Abdal, near Ráwul Pindee, in the Punjab, presented to the R. A. S. by A. A. Roberts, Esq., C. S. regarding which, Professor Dowson has obligingly communicated to me the following notice: "The plate, which is fourteen inches long by three and a half broad, is broken in the middle, where many of the letters are lost; a connected reading of the whole cannot, therefore, be hoped for. The King's name is Chhtrapa Siliako Kusuluko; these words are followed by nama, so there can be no doubt that they form the name. After the name there are some letters obliterated, and then follow the words Takhasilaye nagare utarena prachu deso, which probably mean "the country north-east of Taxila." The words Chhatrapa liako are stamped as an endorsement on the back of the plate." I myself have not had an opportunity of examining this inscription, but I should be inclined, as a first conjecture, to identify the Kusuluko with some of the Kozola Kadapes family. The figured date on the plate is ××2333, which is followed by the words Maharaysa maháta, &c. (Prinsep's Essays ii. 202, 203 )"

The words Patipasa Chatra pa Liako are reversed in the plate as they are in the original, being indorsed on the back of the plate and shewing through reversed.

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