It is well known that the style and character of melody, with the tonalities and scales upon which it is composed, differ in different ages and countries to a great extent; and it is obvious that a more perfect acquaintance with these than that which we possess, would be of great consequence to the art of music in various ways. Those forms of melody which are solely recognised as legitimate, according to the modern European system, may possibly be the best which can be adopted; but this can only be known for certain by an extensive comparison with other systems. The furtherance of such inquiries, therefore, may lead to a direct improvement in the cultivation of music, while there can be no doubt that the resources of that art would be immensely enriched by a more complete knowledge of the different styles of melody which prevail in foreign countries, and copious and authentic collections of the airs themselves.

The Biographical Dictionary of lbn Khallikán, although it hardly merits the extravagant praise bestowed upon it by Sir William Jones, has always, and deservedly so, been held in great estimation by all those who have been induced to enter upon the study of the noble language and extensive literature of the Arabs. There is, perhaps, no other book in the whole range of the learning of Islamism which throws so much light upon Arabic literature; while the extensive erudition, and general accuracy of the writer, have caused it to be considered of great authority upon all such subjects of information as come within the design of the work. It has consequently been very frequently referred to by Orientalists, and many detached lives have from time to time been given in different publications. Within the last four years two complete editions of the entire work have been undertaken by the zeal and industry of two distinguished Oriental scholars: the one by M. Wtistenfeld, lithographed, 4to. Göttingen, 1835–31), of which seven fasciculi, comprehending six hundred and ninety-eight lives, have been published; the other, in type, by the Baron Mac Guckin de Slane, 4to. Paris, 1838–40, of which three livraisons have appeared.

In former notices on this subject, I have given probable reasons for believing, that those objects of worship among the Hindús which by custom are denied the use of temples—denominated demons by the Brahmans, which do not require the aid of Brahmans for the celebration of the rites by which they are honoured, and even if at all venerated by them have the worship paid them represented as if it were a boon given to Rakshas, slain by some one or other of the Brahmanical gods,—were adored prior to the ascendency of the priestly caste in this part of India.

Whilst I was engaged last year in making a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. comprised in the libraries of the Society and the Oriental Translation Committee, I met with the historical MS. which is the subject of the following letter. I, at that time, applied to the Council of the Society for permission to forward a description of the MS. to M. Quatremere, who is employed in editing the only portion of the work hitherto known, in the hope that he would represent the matter to the French Government, and cause our MS. to be published in the “Collection Orientale,” as a sequel to his “Histoire des Mongols.” The council acceded to my request, and I accordingly wrote to M. Quatremère on the subject, but whether on account of my letter not having reached its destination or from the press of business, he has not as yet returned any answer to my communication. In the mean time, I think it desirable that the existence of this important volume should be made known to the public, and I have accordingly drawn up the following account of the MS. for insertion in the Journal of the Society.

Tammana Nuwera hold sa very important place in the Singhalese history, as having been founded by Vijaya, the first in the list of the kings of Ceylon, so far back as 2382 years from the present time, or 5.13 before the Christian era. It bears in pali the name of Tambapanni, which it is surmised the Greeks and Romans corrupted into Taprobane, and applied as an appellation to the island itself. Tambapanni signifies “copper-coloured,” and is said to refer to the reddish colour of the soil in the place, as Albion did to the colour of the chalky cliffs on the southern coast of England.

This vocabulary was compiled by Mr. Christopher during his residence on the Maldive Islands. I have prefixed to it an extract from a communication referring to it, with which I was favoured at the time that it was forwarded to me, and which will sufliciently explain several circumstances connected with its preparation.

By the kindness of the Right Honourable Lord Western, an ancient painting is exhibited to the Society, which merits attention, if it were merely as a curious specimen of antiquity; but it will interest the Meeting more 1 especialy from the nature of its subject and the circumstances connected with its being brought into Europe at all, and with its appearance here this day.

In a paper of mine published in the 4th and 6th numbers of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, on Land Tenures in Dakhun (Deccan), I endeavoured to prove, and I believe successfully, from the authority of the Mahratta princes themselves, that the proprietary right in the soil in Dakhun was vested in the subject, and not in the prince, and I expressed my belief that such was the case all over India, and had been so from antiquity. It was therefore with no ordinary gratification, that I found a confirmation of my opinion in an inscription on the colonnade of a Buddhist tope or chaitya, at Sanchi, near Bhilsa in Bhopal, recorded in the 6th volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, p. 456., and the translation of which, from the ancient Deva Nagari character, we owe to the indefatigable zeal, the singular ingenuity, and the varied knowledge of the lamented Mr. James Prinsep.

Our Sanskrit scholars have sought, in the depths of Brahmanical literature, for the means of illustrating the political, the religious, the moral, and social condition of that ancient people, over whose minds it has hitherto been believed, that Brahmans exercised from the earliest times unbounded sway. The inquirers sought for facts and they found fables; they looked for historic lights, and they found poetic coruscations, which served only to render the darkness in which truth was enveloped more impenetrable. An Orientalist, Mr. Wathen, has said, that on the Mussulman conquest of India the Brahmans destroyed all previous historical documents; they seem, nevertheless, to have carefully preserved, or invented, or adapted, such compositions in Sanskrit, as attested their own religious supremacy or establisbed their cosmogony; and which have fettered the minds of Indians, as well as foreigners, to an unreserved admission of such pretensions as in their arrogance, caprice, or selfishness, they chose to advance.

The following extract was originally made with the view of forming a collection of such passages relative to India as may occur in Arabic writers. The further prosecution of this design appears to be rendered unnecessary by the publication of a work by Mr. Gildemeister, of Bonn, of which the first fasciculus has appeared, entitled Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula inedita, 8vo. Bonn, 1838. At page 94, he has spoken at some length of the names of Indian authors and books, which occur in this chapter of Ibn Abu Usaibiâh; and Dietz in his Analecta Medica, Lips. 1833, p. 117, has given a great part of the chapter. The whole of it is now supplied, as, independently of the information which it affords relative to the scientific intercourse between India and Bagdad, it contains some interesting aneedotes of the time of Harún Alrashíd.

Various associations have long existed in China, of which secrecy was at an early period the prominent feature, since the jealousy of the imperial government declares the association of even five persons to be illegal, and punishes the crime of belonging to these associations with death. Among these fraternities may be enumerated—1st, the Great Ascending Society; 2nd, the Society of Glory and Splendour; 3rd, the Union of the Three Great Towers, viz., Heaven, Earth, and Man; 4th, the White Jackets; 5th, the Red Beards; 6th, the Short Swords; 7th, the White Water-Lily; 8th, the Sea and Land Society; 9th, the Righteous Rising Society, &c. The third of these associations, which, from all that can be gathered, assimilate in their origin, is the one that prevails in Canton, and obtains almost exclusively in the Straits of Malacca, and the vast islands of the Indian Archipelago; and which will principally form the subject of this notice. It is commonly known under the terms of Tien-ti-huih, or San-ho-huih, and is sometimes divided into two branches—the Canton and Fokien, to which provinces most of the Chinese emigrants belong. Those from Canton, are, I believe, by far the most numerous. Other societies or Kongsis exist, with the benevolent object of raising funds for the assistance and support of those among their number in distress; but they are almost all subject, more or less, to some of the objections that exist against the Tien-ti-huih.

On a recent-excursion through part of Asia Minor, being accompanied by a friend who spoke Turkish and Armenian perfectly, I noted some information that he collected, first regarding the long famed silvery white-hair goat of Angora, and next about a goat resembling the shawl goat of Thibet, that exists throughout the country to which the first beautiful animal is peculiar. I was about to forward the said notes from Constantinople, with a box of specimens for the Society, when learning that the second species of goat alluded to abounded in other parts of Turkey, through or near which I should shortly travel, I put my memorandums aside in the hope of being able to extend them. I now beg to offer the result of the whole inquiry thus far, having for the convenience of illustration separated the details concerning each race of the animal under remark.

A fac-simile in plaster, from which the accompanying lithograph is copied on a reduced scale, having been presented by Sir Grenville Temple, Bart., to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, it has been submitted to the inspection of the members of the Society as well as of visitants: and, attempts have subsequently been made, in this country, at deeiphering and translating it.

The following Memoir, bearing date the 2nd July, 1816, was written on the occasion of Lord Amherst's Embassy to Pekin. A few copies were printed at the Company's press at Macao, early in the year 1817, for private circulation only, and were very sparingly distributed, so that this memoir has now become scarce, and not to be found, except in a few public and private libraries. The publication of it, therefore, at the present moment, when our relations with China are exciting an intense interest, seems highly desirable. The time is now come when we are called upon to decide what new privileges we have to demand of the Chinese: and since a more unrestricted intercourse with that country is looked for, it becomes an object of the first importance to ascertain at what Ports these privileges may be best obtained; for on that decision the future interests of the trade depend. It will be found that this memoir enters upon that subject with a minuteness of detail and fulness of illustration, not even attempted in any other publication. And though the principles laid down and course of arguments employed, may seem exclusively confined to the state of the trade under the control of the East India Company, yet they will be found, in fact, equally applicable to the circumstances of the trade at the present moment, and to contain matter eminently worthy of the attention of the public. It has been deemed advisable not to alter the original text, but to add a few notes, marked thus, where any change of circumstances in the trade, or matter furnished by more recent information, seemed to render such observations necessary. For greater ease of reference, the Chinese names of places have been altered and adapted to the orthography of Arrowsmith's map.—Edit.