The problem of how human nature is constituted, we have good reason to believe, was current before Mencius and, from the time of Shyuntzyy onward, has been one of the central problems throughout the history of Chinese philosophy. The point at issue between Mencius and Shyuntzyy has traditionally been taken to be something like this. There is a thing called human nature, which is good according to Mencius, but bad according to Shyuntzyy. The same thing cannot be both good and bad at the same time, hence at least one of the two philosophers must be wrong. That this was how most thinkers of subsequent ages understood the position can be seen from the remedies they recommended. There were two ways of reconciling the conflicting views.

It is now established practice in descriptive linguistics to treat the subject-matter at separate, and definably separate, levels of analysis. Indeed the traditional categories of Phonology and Grammar represent such an employment of two different levels. Present-day linguists in Great Britain and America recognize the setting up and denning of the various levels of analysis as a basic procedure in handling the utterances of the speakers whose language is being studied.

Brian h. hodgson's vocabulary of the ‘Kirānti’ contains a jumble of dialects, those in adjoining columns seldom being closely related to each other. But his vocabulary has the advantage that all the dialects listed by him belong to one Tibeto-Burmic group, which we may call East Himalayish.

In my first article on this question the following conclusions were reached: (1) that all the five letters referred to were spurious; and (2) that letters 1, 2, and 3 were probably written by one and the same author. In this article I shall attempt to show that the themes, style, and atmosphere of the three letters in question lead to the further conclusion that their author was probably Jiang Ian of the Liang Dynasty (tzyh Wen-tong , A.D. 444–505). Before discussing this special case of literary ‘forgery’ it may be helpful to cast a glance at the practice of literary forgery in China generally, while directing our attention especially to the motives for such activities.

‘Particle’ and ‘Noun’ are not a priori categories of universal applicability. Ad hoc definition of their ‘meaning’ is given under A. Detailed description of structural relations observable between them follows at B.

The Swahili poet, Sayyid 'Umar bin Amin bin 'Umar bin Amin bin Nadhir al-Ahdal, Kadhi of Siu, c.a.d. 1856, left a number of poems upon religious themes. These include the best acrostic poems in traditional Swahili literature, e.g. Waji-waji, written in takhmis verse-form.

The title of the present work is given in the last verse: ya dura mandhuma, a Swahili form of the Arabic al-Durr al-Manẓum, or ‘Strung Pearls’. The manuscript copy, pasted on two pieces of cardboard, was written by Muhammad Abubakar bin 'Umar al-Bakariy, better known as Muhammad Kijuma, the well-known Swahili poet and scribe at Lamu, who produced most of his best work in the first two decades of the present century.

Wolfram eberhard's recent A History of China has attracted great interest. Reviewers have praised it for its readability and broad sweep and for the way in which it goes beyond a mere chronicle of political and cultural events and tries to penetrate to underlying causes. At the same time they have noted many errors of detail and have expressed surprise and incredulity at the many new generalizations presented with an air of established finality. It was, of course, impossible for Eberhard to present detailed evidence or argumentation in support of his views in a brief general history. The subsequent publication of Das Toba-Reich Nordchinas and Conquerors and Rulers has enabled us to form a better judgment of the value of at least a part of his work.

A. F. L. Beeston (in Muséon, lxiii, pp. 53 et seqq.) has convincingly shown that the contexts in which South Arabian mgl occurs require a translation as ‘watch-tower’ and not as ‘cistern, reservoir’ as had hitherto been the usual rendering. He is content to retain the present etymological connexion with Arabic mağal ‘swamp, pool’ and adduces in support of this view Hebrew agam ‘with precisely the same range of meaning’ as both ‘stagnum’ and ‘propugnaculum’.

No one interested in the Classical Hindu Law could read Dr. S. K. Belvalkar's Critical Note to Śāntiparva, Adhyāya 121, śl. 14 and ff., without experiencing a great curiosity. The important account given by Bhīṣma of the nature and purpose of Daṇḍa (Punishment) incidentally produces an Indian counterpart to the Roman jus naturale, the full implications of which deserve investigation elsewhere. Amongst the details we find a description of Daṇḍa as follows:—

nīlōtpala-dala-śyāmaś=caturdaṃṣṭraś=caturbhujaḥ

aṣṭapān=naikanayanaś=śankukarṇōrdhvarōmavān

jaṭī dvi-jihvas tāmrāsyō mṛja-rāja-tanucchadaḥ ētad-rūpaṃ bibharty=ugraṃ Daṇḍō nityaṃ durāvaraḥ.

It is recorded in a number of standard works on the western Sudan and northern Nigeria that about the year A.D. 1300 Sākūra, the usurping King of Mali, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and was murdered by the Danakil on the return journey. Delafosse writes: ‘C'est en revenant des lieux-saints par le Yémen et l'Erythrée, vers l'an 1300, que Sakoura trouva la mort: il fut dévalisé et assassiné par des Danakil sur la côte de Tadjourah, comme il venait de débarquer sur la terre d'Afrique.’ Meek, de Pedrals, and Bovill give the same story, and the last-named comments: ‘He was not returning by the customary route through Cairo, but through Eritrea and the Eastern Sudan, following what has now become the great pilgrim road of West-Central Africa.’ Now if Sākūra was killed in what is to-day French Somaliland, or for that matter anywhere in Somali or Dankali country, he was far to the south of ‘the great pilgrim road’, which does not cross Eritrea at all. Nor is it conceivable that it should ever have done so. It goes through Bornu, Wadai, and Darfur to the Nile and now reaches the Red Sea at Port Sudan. There is no reason why pilgrims should have gone so far to the south of the latitude of Jidda and so have given themselves the task of climbing over the Abyssinian plateau which was, moreover, in Christian hands. A glance at the map will show what a very strange route Sākūra is alleged to have chosen. Having landed at Tajura he would have had three alternatives. The first was to follow approximately the line of the modern railway to Addis Ababa, climbing the steep escarpment in Shoa, and then making his way across Ethiopia and down the other side of the plateau to the Nile valley in Sennar, whence he could have reached Darfur. This would have been very difficult for topographical reasons and would have necessitated a long journey through Christian territory. The second possibility was to travel northwards along the coast until he reached a place such as Suakin where he could have turned westwards and headed for the Nile. This would have been even more difficult, given the character of the Danakil and their country. Last and most difficult of all, he could have attempted the little-used and circuitous route that led through the Sidama States, on the southern borders of Ethiopia, to the White Nile. It is almost inconceivable that he should have been trying to do any of these things.

Hardly had the article ‘A Farewell to the Khagan of the Aq-Aqatärān’ been printed, when my eye fell on a passage in Pliny which settles the problem posed by Mšyk. Shapur, it will be recalled, defeated the Roman army, under Gordianus (who fell in the battle), at Mšyk = MHCIXICH and MICIXH, and renamed the town (and district) Pērōz-Šabūr. The ancient name, in a form which precisely corresponds with the Parthian spelling Mšyk, is mentioned by Pliny, v, 21, 4 (§ 90): scinditur Euphrates a Zeugmate dlxxxxiv mp. circa vicum Massicen, et parte laeva in Mesopotamiam vadit per ipsam Seleuciam, circa eam praefluenti infusus Tigri; dexteriore autem alveo Babylonem … petit; a later passage, vi, 30, 3 (§ 120), indicates that the left branch referred to is the Narmalchas, the ‘Royal River’. The identity of Massice with Pēroz-Šabūr could have been recognized, even without the help of the inscription, by comparing Pliny with Ammianus Marcellinus, who made a statement in similar terms, xxiv, 2, 7, hinc pars fluminis scinditur … ducens ad tractus Babylonos interiores …, alia Naarmalcha nomine … Ctesiphonta praetermeat; the latter branch was crossed by the Roman army, which immediately came upon Pirisabora.

The object of the present note is to draw attention to another source— qualiscunque est—on the Ṣaqālibah, Bulgars, etc., which has not hitherto been investigated. A full discussion of the literary and historical relations of the text is not proposed, but it seems desirable to signalize its existence.

The scarceness of published material renders difficult a true estimate of the development of political ideas in Egypt in the nineteenth century. Nor is it any less difficult to trace the origins of the first political parties.

The Arabi Rebellion of 1881-1882 was preceded by a long period of unrest, which finally crystallized in a self-styled National Party. This faction, led by army officers and civilians, kept its secret character for a few years, coming into the open only at the beginning of the Arabi Rebellion. Its importance in the anti-foreign struggle, however, has drawn attention to its humble but interesting origins. Research has provided us with fairly adequate, if still incomplete, material on this point. But hardly anything has been published, on the other hand, about another secret organization of that time, called ‘Young Egypt’.

In S. H. Taqizadeh's article, BSOAS., xiv, p. 606, line 24, the first word should have been Ayāθrima in the place of Paitišhahya; and, pp. 610 sq., Nātanz is wrong for Natanz (Natanz). As I was responsible for seeing the article through the press, it is for me to apologize for these mistakes.

So said the learned Chief Justice in the year 1912, when he held, after ‘consulting the authorities’, that ‘inheritance is not from father to son’ in Accra custom!

For many years learned judges in the Gold Coast courts have expressed a similar opinion, each taking comfort as to the correctness of his decision from the words of his predecessors. This colossal pyramid of error rests on several facts:—

1. The earliest customary law with which British judges in the Gold Coast became familiar was that of the Fantes, especially around Cape Coast.

2. In Fante custom inheritance is matrilineal.

3. Practically the sole written authority as to customary law consulted by the judges has been Sarbah's work, which, despite its title of Fanti Customary Laws, has frequently been invoked to decide cases concerning Gã and Ewe custom.

4. The evidence submitted in each particular case tending to disprove the proposition that Gã succession is matrilineal has been rejected as a result of the prejudice (derived from facts 1, 2, and 3) that ‘the ordinary rule of native customary law [sic] as to descent of property through the female line prima facie applies’ —Aryeh v. Dawuda: (1944) 10 W.A.C.A. 188; and sole reliance has been placed on the ‘expert’ witnesses who have solemnly sworn that Gã inheritance is matrilineal.