Among the tales that make up the well-known Kalilah and Dimnah cycle, or the Fables of Bidpai, there is one which has a history of its own. In the Syriac version published by Bickell, probably the oldest text available, it is called the “Gate of Bilar” (German translation, p. 93 ff.). In the Arabic recension, and in the Syriac which rests upon it, it is called similarly, “The Story of the Wise Bilar.” A full account of this text, together with an English rendering, has been given by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer (“Kalilah and Dimnah,” Cambridge, 1885, p. xxxi ff., 219 ff., and notes p.301 ff.). By referring the reader to these “notes” I can dispense with any lengthy discourse on the history of this chapter within the frame of the Panchatantra. In one form or another it has travelled, together with the rest of the book, from one country to another, always forming an integral portion of it. The curious point about this chapter is, that hitherto no Sanscrit text of it has as yet come to light. The reason assigned for its disappearance has been, that it is of a pronounced Buddhist character and that a humiliating position is given to the Brahmins in this tale. The Brahmins, not being able to modify it by some slight eliminations, have suppressed it entirely. To Schiefner is due the merit of discovering a Tibetan counterpart of it, thus making the Indian origin and Buddhist character of the tale perfectly clear.

In a recent number of the Journal (July, 1899, p. 671 seq.) I briefly described a manuscript, now in my possession, of the Risāalatu'l-Ghufrān, and promised to give some further account of it at an early date. The work in question is mentioned by Safadil and probably, as I have shown, by Ḥājī Khalīfa. Dhahabī, in his list of Abū'l-'Alā's writings, includes it tacitly under the heading dīvānu'l-rasā'il, but he makes ample amends by setting it in the very forefront of his article on Abū'l-'Alā, which begins:

In pursuance of the plan set forth in my article on the Sources of Dawlatsháh (J.R.A.S. for Jan., 1899, pp. 37–69), I propose in this place to give a translation of that section (the sixth of the fifth chapter) of the Táríkh-i- Guzída which treats of the Persian poets. On the importance of that excellent historical manual, which I hope to include in my Persian Text Series, I have already insisted in the above-mentioned article (pp. 39, 40, and 53–54); and of this particular section, to which my attention was especially directed by the references made to it by Dawlatsháh, I long ago prepared a text and translation. These I was more than once on the point of publishing, but certain difficulties remained, on each revision, insoluble; and I waited in the hope of obtaining further material or fuller light. Of these difficulties the chief were the so-called “Pahlaví” (i.e. dialect) verses of Abu'l-Májid Ráyagání, U'yánj or U'tánj, Júláha of Abhar, 'Izzu'd-Dín Hamadání, Káfí-i-Karají, and other poets, who, not content with the classical language, chose to employ the dialects of their native places as the vehicle of their thoughts. These dialects have, in most cases, either become extinct, or undergone great changes, since the time when the Táríkh-i-Guzída was written (a.h. 730 = a.d. 1330); and since we possess but little knowledge of them, while such fragments as are preserved have generally been hopelessly mutilated and corrupted by a succession of scribes, copying one from another, to whom they were as unintelligible as they are to us, there is but little hope that we shall ever arrive at a complete understanding of them.

Malayalam is the language of the south-west of the Madras Presidency. It is the third most important language of the Presidency, the first and the second being Tamil and Telugu respectively. It is spoken in Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. Out of a total of 5,932,207 inhabitants of these parts, 5,409,350 persons are those who speak Malayalam. These countries, taken as a whole, are bounded on the north, by South Canara, on the east by the far-famed Malaya range of mountains, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the west by the Arabian Sea.

Since writing my last paper on the coins of the Pathán Sultáns of Dehli I have had the opportunity of examining with some minuteness the rich collections of the British Museum and Dr. L. White King, C.S.I. In the former are to be found the choicest specimens of General Cunningham's Muhammadan coins, of which many have already been brought to notice by Mr. Gibbs and Mr. C. J. Rodgers, but others are now, through the courtesy of the Museum authorities, described for the first time.