In his admirable introduction to the Kharoṣṭhi Inscriptions discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan, Professor Rapson has analysed the various compound letters of the Kharoṣṭhī alphabet in such a way that his results will generally be accepted as final. It will no doubt in future be possible to throw fresh light on some minor details, but it is hardly conceivable that any serious objection will be raised against his deductions.

My object in writing these lines is, in the first place, to join those fellow students who wish to give expression to their sincere admiration of Professor Rapson's scholarship and work, and then to bring together some additional material which, in my opinion, will have to be considered in connection with one small detail dealt with in the said introduction, viz. the interpretation of the sign which has been variously transcribed as tsa and tśa.