In December 1828, when quartered in Colombo (Ceylon), I joined a party on a shooting excursion, in the course of which we visited Anarájapura, and some other places of interest. Having made a few rough sketches and some memoranda, which I have been led to believe are not devoid of interest, and having found that the information which I procured on the spot is borne out and confirmed in a remarkable manner by the Mahávansi, the Rájavali, and the Rájaratnácari, three native histories, for translations of which, now in progress of publication* by Mr. Upham, we are indebted to Sir Alexander Johnston, I have been induced to lay a few of the outlines and memoranda before the Society.

The materials for the following account of the island of Sivasamudram, together with the description and plans of the bridges which have been built, and are now building across the two branches of the Cáverí, were furnished to me by Rámaswámí Múdeliar, the intelligent and wealthy Jághírdár of the island. As regards the antiquities of this celebrated place, I regret the imperfection of the memoir; but I am willing to hope that it will not be considered wholly destitute of merit. By the curious in architecture, the faithful representation of the bridges, and the plain description of the manner in which they are constructed, will be valued; while, to the observer of the human mind, and the speculator upon the progress of improvement in India, it must be an object of interest to mark the modes of thought and feeling entertained by a Hindu, who, in strict accordance with the precepts of his religion, undertakes a great public work, which would do honour to the professor of any religion, and to the citizen of any country, in any age.

Every man should use his utmost endeavours to have his daughter married before she is nine years of age; and when he shall have accomplished that object he will obtain his reward in the like manner as if he had performed a religious sacrifice. If from poverty, or any other unavoidable cause, he should be prevented from marrying his daughter sooner, he should not on any account postpone it after she arrives at the age of ten years, or else shame and disgrace will fall upon him. When a man is desirous of marrying his daughter, he first ascertains an auspicious day, on which he relates his intentions to his Brahmin and his barber, and giving them money and betel-leaves he deputes them in search of a youth, who must be three or four years older than his daughter, of a respectable family, and of the same caste with his own. He advises them to consult some learned astrologer as to the favourable marks, signs, and nativity of the youth, and to point out if possible a suitable husband for his daughter. When they shall have ascertained a proper person, and communicated to him the result of their search, he sends them with a letter to the youth's father, containing proposals for a marriage between their children; he instructs them to ask for a genealogical table of his and his wife's family, that he may ascertain whether they are of a proper rank and condition in life, or in anywise related to him, at the same time he sends a similar table of his own family. If the parties agree, these tables are laid before their respective relations, and if approved by them they express their satisfaction. They then make up balls composed of turmerick and orange juice, which they dry and scrape, and rub the dust over the tables; they return them in this state, as a mark of their approbation that the proposals are accepted, and that no relationship subsists to prevent the marriage.

Tuesday, the 8th of Rajab 1209 (29th January 1795), having been fixed upon for delivering, with splendour and ceremony, the imperial letters and presents entrusted to me, the , or officer acting as master of the ceremonies, and the secretary to the King, waited upon us three days previous, and announced that they had His Majesty's commands to regulate the forms and ceremonies of the audience, and that they were most anxious to do every thing in their power to honour and oblige us.

The existence of perfectly white elephants has been called in question by many; and it was long supposed that the kings of Siam imposed on the credulity of foreigners, and that the light colour of the elephant was artificial. No doubt can now remain respecting the existence of this deviation from the common course of nature. In the stables of the king of Siam there are elephants, the colour of which, although not pure white, is yet sufficiently light-coloured to admit of the appellation they have received being with propriety bestowed upon them. Strangers at Siam are taken to see these elephants, and no mystery is made respecting them.

The Baron De Sacy, in his essay on the inscriptions and sculptures at Naksh-i-Rustam, by way of reconciling the historical relation to the representation itself, is led to assert that the design illustrates the conquest of Ardashír over the last sovereign of the Arsacidœ, or the contest for the crown. The inscription on the horse belonging to the monarch, supposed to be one of the Arsacidœ, as copied from Niebuhr's plate, is ΤΟΓ ΤΟΠΡΟCΩΠΟΝ ΔΙΟC ΘΕΟΥ, and M. de Sacy imagines that the Greek who traced it, if the word be ΘΕΟΥ, was ignorant of the deity whose name is inserted in the other inscription, i.e. μασδασνγ, and gives it as his opinion that the inscription, rightly translated, originally meant,

“This is the representation of the god Hormuzd,”

one of the last Sassanian kings. From an inspection of the monument, I conceive this to be an error.

From the little information in our possession concerning the Lycian and Phrygian language and character, it was very gratifying to find some light thrown on the subject by the discovery of certain inscriptions, for which we are indebted to Messrs. Cockerell, Carlyle, and Colonel Leake; and fac-similes of which have been published by Mr. Robert walpole. The valuable information which these inscriptions promised to afford for the illustration of the Archæology of Asia Minor, induced the French scholars, MM. Letronne and Saint-Martin, to republish them in the Journal des Savans, and to add many new observations upon them to those previously recorded by Mr. Walpole. Notwithstanding, however, the numerous explanations given by these scholars of these inscriptions, which Mr. Walpole thought it impossible to decypher, and how far soever the perplexities of them may have been overcome, especially by M. Saint-Martin, still there are many particulars which will allow of different views being entertained; and so far, therefore, it may not be altogether superfluous to submit the whole to a new and careful investigation.

A'ryab'hatta, who flourished in the beginning of the thirty-seventh century of the Cáli Yuga, of which four thousand nine hundred and twenty years have passed, has in his work, the Aryab'hatiyam, in which he mentions the period of his birth, exhibited the proportion of the diameter to the circumference of the circle as 20000 to 62832, in the following verse:

Chaturadhicam ṣatamashṭaguṇandwáshashṭistathá sahasráṇám Ayutadwaya vishcambhasyásannó vritta pariṇáhah.

I beg leave to send you an account of the painting upon cloth which I presented to the Society some time ago, and which is a fac-simile of a very ancient banner of the caste of Chalias, or cinnamon-peelers, on the island of Ceylon.

The present numbers and importance of these people, render their history a subject of curious research. As the Cingalese inhabitants of Ceylon were, previous to the thirteenth century, ignorant of the art of weaving fine cloth, which was then known to the Hindu inhabitants of the peninsula of India, the kings of Kandy offered great rewards to any of their subjects who would bring over from the peninsula some weavers for the purpose of introducing that art into Ceylon.

The foundation for the following remarks, or the text, as it were, on which I shall comment, will be Mr. Erskine's very learned and curious essay “on the sacred books and religion of the Pársís.” My opinion, it is true, differs almost entirely from that of Mr. Erskine; but I feel convinced that neither this truly liberal and amiable scholar, nor the Literary Society, will be displeased at seeing the same object represented in two different points of view. Either of the opposite opinions, or perhaps both of them, may be false, and yet the discussion of the subject may effect a step towards that truth and clearness which are the noble ends of every reasonable inquiry. But should you think my remarks fall too far short of this object, or are otherwise too crude and imperfect, I beg you will pardon the attempt, and purify the pages in the favourite element of the Pársís.

The following extract from a Persian work, entitled the Mirát i Ahmadí, part of which is devoted to a description of the religion and customs of the Jainas, appearing to me a compendious (although in some points a rather inaccurate) account of that people, I have taken the liberty to prefix it, by way of introduction, to my own paper.

Curiosity to be a spectator of the celebration of a religious ceremony, which was reported to draw together annually from 100,000 to 200,000 persons, led me to the resolution of visiting the Hot Wells, situated at the foot of the hills, about fifty miles in. a south-easterly direction from this city.

In my late researches in that part of the Deccan lying between the sources and junction of the Bíma and Mota Mola rivers, I met with the cocoons of the silk-worm which is called Kolísurra by the Mahrattas. The insect is an object of interest to the manufacturer from the strength of the fibre in the silk it produces.

The communication which Major-General Hardwicke has the honour to lay before the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, though not describing an occurrence of recent date, he trusts may yet be found sufficiently interesting to claim a place in the Transactions of the Society. General Hardwicke has frequently heard the subject mentioned of late, but has found very few persons who were inclined to attach credit to it, owing to its remarkable deviation from the usual course of nature; and having himself not only seen the man designated “ the Sheep-eater,” and witnessed an exhibition of his carnivorous habits, but made notes and drawings in elucidation of the facts as displayed in the presence of many officers of the military station of Futtehgurh and the native inhabitants of the surrounding villages., on the 3d of March 1796; he now proceeds to subjoin the substance of his memorandums, in explanation of the accompanying plate.

The sepulchral stone with the Phænician inscription, I found at Maghráwah, a little village in the Beylik of Tunis, situated on the northern declivity of the range of hills, which separates Muhadhar-al-Hammaáah Walád Ayár, the ancient Tucca Terebenthina, from the plain of Zirrz inhabited by the Bení Riss, a branch of Dthrídis, and on which are seen the ruins of Assura, now called Zanfür. I feel inclined to imagine that Maghráwah occupies the situation of one of those Libyo-Phœnician towns or villages which were never colonized by the Romans; for though we find several fragments of coarsely-executed basreliefs representing men and animals, evidently of a date anterior to the epoch when sculpture attained any degree of perfection, yet I saw not a single vestige of the workmanship either of the later Carthaginians or of their conquerors. Not the smallest fragment of either capital, frieze, or cornice is descernible. About an hour and a-half's distance from Maghráwah, in the direction of Zanfúr, is the small village of Lheys, where are found similar remains, mixed however with fragments of Roman inscriptions and sculpture.

In the north-western extremity of our Indian possessions, and under the tropic, is situated the small and sterile territory of Cutch, of importance to the government from its advanced position, but of more attraction to the student of history from its western shore being washed by the waters of the classic Indus and from its proximity to the scene of Alexander's glories. Divested, however, of these alluring enticements to enter on its history, Cutch is a country peculiarly situated. To the west it has the inconstant and ever varying Indus. To the north and east the tract called Runn, which is alternately a dry sandy desert and a muddy inland lake. To the south it has the Gulf of Cutch and the Indian Ocean, with waters receding yearly from its shores.