None of the Spanish historians who lived before the present century possessed even the slightest knowledge of the Arabic language, and even they stumbled at every step when they had to treat of the Muhammadan dynasties, and their hostile or friendly relations with the Christians. Casiri alone, in his catalogue of the MSS. in the library of the Escurial, edited and translated some extracts from Arab authors; and this was all that had been done down to 1820, when the first volume of Conde's History appeared, and the world imagined that the light of this newly-risen sun was at length, in a great measure, to dissipate the darkness that had for ages enveloped the doings of the Arab and the Berber on the soil of Spain.

When laying before the Society the results of my examination of the Girnár, Dhauli and Kapur di giri inscriptions of Raja Priyadarsí I expressed an opinion, that, although the tenor of the inscriptions was not incompatible with a leaning to the religion of Buddha, yet the total absence of any positive indication of the usual epithets of Buddha, or any reference to the peculiarities of the Buddhist system, left some uncertainty; with regard to the actual creed of the Raja, and his intimate connection with the followers of Buddha.

No one who takes the trouble to investigate the various Mythological systems of the Heathen world, can fail to be struck with the very remarkable similarity which exists between them. To account for this similarity is an interesting, and, at first sight, a difficult undertaking.