Magic has exercised the deepest influence upon mankind from remote antiquity unto our own days. It either formed part of the religion of the country, as it was the case in ancient Egypt and Babylon and as it is now in some forms of Buddhism (Tibet), or lived an independent life side by side with the recognized religion. In some instances it was tolerated, or rendered less obnoxious, by a peculiar subdivision into white or beneficial and black or evil magic, or was downright persecuted. Wherever we go, however, and especially if we turn to the popular beliefs that rule the so-called civilized nations, we shall always and everywhere find a complete system of magical formulas and incantations. The belief in the witch and wizard, and their powerful filters and charms, holds still stronger sway upon human imagination than, appears at first sight.

The inscription is an interesting one, and well deserves publication in our Journal. It records a march by Shaibānī to the Kirghiz Steppe, and a victory which he gained over the inhabitants at Kindilik in the Ulugh Tāgh country. He began his march from Merv-Shāhijān on 2 Shawwāl, 915 (13 January, 1510), and returned after four months and twenty days on 22 Safar, 916 (1 June, 1510). Mr. Elias considers that the inscription is false and that the so-called victory was a defeat, and he quotes in support of this view the Ḥabīb-as-Siyar and the Tārīkh-i-Rashīdī. But surely a contemporary inscription is better authority than two books—one by a compiler and the other by an enemy—and, moreover, the latter are not, I think, absolutely contradictory of the inscription. Shaibānī was apparently at first successful over the people of the Dasht-i-Kipchāk, though he, or at least his son, was eventually defeated by them, and I take the inscription to refer to the initial victory. That some such victory did occur, seems to be admitted by Haidar Mirza. At p. 230 (Ross's translation) we read: “In the middle of the winter, Shāhi Beg Khan was engaged in plundering on every side, but he soon returned, his object being not to remain too far from his own country.” I think this must be the expedition commemorated in the inscription. That began in the middle of winter (13 January, 1510), and was characterized by wondrous rapidity of movement, as the inscription tells us.

A copper-plate, closely similar to one existing at Calcutta, and successively published by Dr. F. Hall (J.A.S.B., xxvii, 220) and Prof. Kielhorn (Ind. Ant., xviii, 9), has recently come under my notice. It measures 1′ 4″ high by 1′ 6″ broad, and has a hole for a ring at the top and the raised rim described by Dr. Kielhorn, l.c. The plate is at present at Messrs. Terry and Co.'s, of 29, Glasshouse Street, London, W. It is for sale, and I understand from them that it has previously been in the hands of a family in the South of England for about a century.

I trust that English readers will have before them ere long a full account of the very important “Encyclopaedia of Indian Research” (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie), at present in course of publication by K. Trübner of Strassburg, under the editorship of Dr. Bühler. A copy of the editor's own extremely weighty contribution on “Indische Palaeographie” has, together with its accompanying set of excellent plates, reached me by the author's kindness. At his request I now draw attention to an. omission in his chapter on the denotation of numerals (VI. Zahlenbezeichnung, pp. 73–83).