These Islands, from which the Portuguese were expelled by a British fleet aiding Shah Abbas in 1622 A.D., and of which the advantages were tersely put to me by a native the other day in the words, “The land is silver and the sea is pearl,” are situated generally in lat. 26° and long. 50°, the exact position of the Portuguese fort on the larger island being given as lat. 26° 13′ 53„ N., long. 50° 31′ 45„ E. They are surrounded by shoal water on every side, which greatly adds to the beauty of the place. Thus, on looking out to sea on the morning of a clear sky and a fresh nor'-wester, it would seem as if Nature, at all times lavish of effect, had here, however, exhausted every tint of living green in her paint box; and then, wearying of the effort, had splashed an angry streak of purple into the foreground. The water itself is so clear that you can see far down into the coral depths, while springs of fresh water bubble up through the brine, both near the entrance of the harbour and at several other places along the coast.

On trouvera dans le Journal, 1900, p. 345, une description sommaire de la petite collection de MSS. que C. Bendall avait empruntés à la Bibliothèque de Kaṭhmaṇḍu et dont il m'a laissé de bonnes photographies. La maladio, hélas! ne lui a pas permis de la publier dans son ensemble: il n'en a fait paraître que deux pièces, d'ailleurs infiniment curieuses, un fragment du Cullavagga et une page du Bhikṣuṇīprātimokṣa de l'Eglise du Mahāyāna. Mais de nombreuses notes manuscrites faciliteront ma tâche d'éditeur, et continueront pour moi le charme mélancolique d'une collaboration qui fut naguères la meilleure joie de mes études.

The poet now offers reverence to the forty-two Harivallabhas, who were specially dear to the Lord In the text I have numbered these for convenience of reference.

PROFESSOR Nikolsky has been kind enough to send me a photographand copy of a new and important Vannic inscription which he has published, with translation and commentary, in the Reports of the Imperial (Russian) Archaeological Commission, 37. The inscription was found at Armavir. Its importance for the study of Vannic philology, as well as the fact that I believe I can improve upon Professor Nikolsky's translation, induces me to reproduce it here. In continuance of my previous notation its number will be XCI.

The two principal terms of lineal measure adopted by Fa-hian, Yuan Chwang, and other Chinese pilgrims, in their narratives of the different countries in India and on its frontiers, are the yojana and the li.

Hsü Shên in his postface to the Shuo wên gives a list of eight styles of script practised in the Ch'in period. The fourth of these is called ch'ung shu and a note is added by Hsü Ch'ieh one of the editors of the revised text which was published in a.d. 986 at the emperor's command. He remarks that the term is equivalent to niao shu “bird script”, so called because the tops of the characters represent bird forms. There is, however, tangible evidence that this fanciful variety of writing was in vogue earlier than the Ch'in period.

Much, of what I shall say to-day will be familiar to those members of the Society who have lived in Northern India. A good deal has been written about Tulasī Dāsa, but it has always been addressed to a comparatively small audience—those directly interested in the details of modern Indian folk-religion. I therefore gladly take this opportunity of repeating on a larger stage what has been said before. Tulasī Dāsa is surely deserving of more notice than is usually bestowed upon him in histories of the development of the religious idea in India. He was not merely a reformer who stirred the emotions of his contemporaries and then went his way. He wields greater influence at the present day than when he died two centuries ago. Modern Hinduism has many forms and many beliefs, and yet the character of every Hindu of Upper India has been moulded in part by his teaching.

In the Middle Ages the learned, who expected to control public behaviour and belief, tried to give their theories the force of law. Theology was the peak of the system, and canon law, though autonomous, naturally developed in parallel, and without conflict. True and false data about Islam were set in the framework of Catholic theology, and Islam, and the history of the Prophet as well, were defined in European terms unrecognizable by Arabs. The theology of Crusade was the theology of European relations with Islam; theology and history alike were little more than supporting propaganda for aggression, while canon law defined the limits within which the war was supposed to take place.

In the year 1837, Dr. A. Burn transmitted to Mr. James Prinsep, then Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, transcripts and facsimiles of four Copper Plate Inscriptions. “These plates,” he said, “were found in the town of Kaira, about ten years ago. The river Watrua runs close to the walls on the north-west side, and was the cause of the discovery, by washing down the walls and earth. They had been handed about the country among the natives for translation, it being supposed they were connected with some deposit of treasure. At last they were brought to me by a fakir, of whom I purchased them.”

[The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Trustees of the British Museum for permitting the publication of the plate, and to the Librarian of the Library of Congress at Washington for supplying photostat copies of Chinese texts.]