The Geography of Mesopotamia during the epoch, of the Baghdād Caliphate has not, I think, received the attention which the subject deserves. With the exception of the small maps found in the Spruner-Menke Atlas, I believe no detailed description or delineation of the country at this date has been attempted. Yet it must be admitted that the history of the Abbasids is almost incomprehensible without such an aid; for the physical and political condition of the country was not then what it is now, as a glance at the accompanying map will show.

The Literature of China has been arranged by its scholars, as is well known, in four great divisions, bearing the names of Classical, Historical, Philosophical, and Belles-lettres or Polite Literature. Under each division there are various sub-divisions, but of the four the last is by far the most extensive. The Chinese name for it is Chî (), meaning “Collections,” and it is of this only that the Papers which I now propose to submit to the Society lead me to give a somewhat particular account.

Yü of Hsia “was styled Wênming.” Yü's father was Kun, whose father was the Emperor Ch'uanbsü, whose father was Ch'angyi, whose father was Huangti; so Yü was Huangti's great - great - grandson, and Ch‘uanhsü’s grandson. Yü's great-grandfather Ch'angyi and his father Kun were both unable to sit on the Imperial throne, being simply officials. In the time of the Emperor Yao “the deluge assailed the heavens, and in its vast expanse encompassed the mountains, and overtopped the hills, so that the common people were troubled about it. Yao sought for one capable of controlling the waters. All the officials and presidents of the four mountains said, ‘Kun might do it.’ Yao said, ‘Kun is a man who disobeys orders, and ruins his companions. He will not do.’ The president of the four mountains said,” Among his equals there is no one so worthy as Kun; I wish your Majesty would “try him.” Upon which Yao, giving heed to the president of the four mountains, employed Kun to control the waters “for nine years,” but the waters did not abate, “and the work was unaccomplished.” Then the Emperor Yao sought a man in his stead, and secured Shun. Shun being employed in the public service was associated with the Son of Heaven in the administration.

The remarkable divergences and alterations which a very slight difference in locality causes to exist in the tongues of the Tibeto-Burman hill-tribes have been frequently adverted to, and are, in fact, one of the stock examples of the birth and growth of dialectic change in language. In truth, it must be admitted that in no part of the world are the conditions more favourable to such growth than in the mass of mountains which extends from the Himalayas to Cape Negrais, and which forms the habitat of many of the most interesting of these tribes. Favoured by an abnormally heavy rainfall, the dense jungles which everywhere cover these hills would successfully defy the efforts of even civilized people for their destruction. As it is, except for temporary clearings for cultivation, and somewhat more permanent ones immediately round the villages, these forests remain practically intact, forming, together with the extraordinarily broken character of the ground, one of the most powerful obstacles conceivable to intercourse between the various villages. Such intercourse, therefore, except when it partakes of a raid or foray, is usually on a very limited scale; nor, as a matter of fact, was anything more extended desired by the villagers until quite recently. As McCabe says of the Nagas: “They have remained isolated on their hill-tops, only deigning to visit their immediate neighbours when a longing for their heads has become too strong to be resisted.”

The IAVs. closely follow the rules of the Sanskrit stress-accent (as distinct from the ancient musical accent) which have been noted by Prof. Jacobi in ZDMG. xlvii. 574 and ff. The only difference is that the IAVs. do not usually throw the accent further back than the antepenultimate if the word ends in a long syllable. The general rules are as follows:—

(1) The stress-accent falls on the penultimate if it be long. Examples—Skr. and Ts. kīrti ‘fame’; G. janōi ‘a sacrificial thread’; M. gīdh(a) ‘a vulture’; kāṇā ‘one-eyed’; S. rahāū ‘a dweller’; H. asūj'hā ‘invisible’; kisān(a) ‘a husbandman’; B. choṭákkā ‘small.’

One of the sculptures discussed by Dr. Bühler in his highly interesting paper on Specimens of Jaina Sculptures from Mathura (Epigraphia Indica, vol. ii. part xiv. pp. 311 seqq.) bears the perfectly legible inscription bhagavā Nemeso, “divine Nemesa.” Dr. Bühler (l.c. p. 314) refers these words to the goat-headed figure just above them, identifying this Nemesa with Hariṇegamesī or Naigameshin, a divine being mentioned in Jaina legends as presiding over the procreation of children. In support of this explanation Dr. Bühler refers (p. 316) to “the occurrence of the Sanskrit words Naigamesha and Nejamesha, which in the Gṛhyasūtras and the medical Saṃhitās are the names of a deity with a ram's head, particularly dangerous to children.” “There can be no doubt,” Dr. Bühler adds, “that the Naigamesha or Nejamesha of the Brahmans, who seizes children and sorely afflicts them with disease, and the son-granting and embryo-exchanging Naigamesha - Naigameshin of the Jainas are in reality identical.”

The habitat of the Bor Khámtis, who are said to number 20,000, is in a valley high up the Irrawaddy, in latitude 27° and 28° east of Sadiya. The Khámtis that we know in Assam are those that have emigrated from “Bor Khámti” and have settled in Assam after the breaking up of the kingdom of Pong by Alomphra. These settlers established themselves early in this century on the “Tenga pani” (a river in, the vicinity of Sadiya), with the permission of the Ahom kings. Before proceeding further, it will be interesting to note that this Khámti movement is the second instance of Tai emigration that we have on record. Some considerable time previously the Ahoms, who spoke a language much akin to the Khamti tongue, and who are also of the Tai race, made an irruption over the Pátkoi range and invaded and conquered Assam. The Khámtis, who had apparently been given hospitality by the Ahoms because they were almost kinsmen, before long rose against the Ahom king, and ejected the Ahom governor of Sadiya or “Sadiya Khówa Gohain.” The Khámti chief took the governor's place and retained it. The Ahom king, not being strong enough to oust the Khámti usurper, had to recognize him. During the rule of this chief the local Assamese were reduced to slavery, and they were not released till our own Government interfered in 1839. Out of revenge the Khámtis rebelled against our Government, and the Sadiya garrison, including its commander, Col. White, was surprised and cut up.

Viṣṇu, the supreme god of one of the two great divisions of the Hinduism of the present day, is already a leading deity in the Rigveda, though he plays a less prominent part there than Varuṇa, Indra, Agni, or Soma. His essential character as the Preserver in Hinduism is displayed in his Avatārs or incarnations, by means of which he appears on earth as the friend and helper of humanity in distress. “For the defence of the good and the suppression of the wicked,” he is made to say in the Bhagavadgītā (IV. 7–8), “for the establishment of justice, I manifest myself from age to age.” The Brāhmaṇas know nothing of the theory of Avatārs, which are not mere transitory manifestations of the deity, but the real presence of the supreme god in mundane beings. In the great Epics, however, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, the theory is already fully recognised.