I Have lately been occupied with the examination of the legends stamped on a series of leaden coins recently discovered at Kolhapúr. These legends are found to illustrate, in a curious manner, the local custom of the children being designated after and identified by the name of the mother, and reproduce the dominant idea of recording the Metronymic to the subordination or exclusion of the Patronymic of the race or family.

Professor Monier Williams, of Oxford, in the course of his speech at our Annual Meeting in May, 1878, remarked on the scant interest shown in Oriental studies by the University Commissioners, and by the University itself. It is true that there is not in England, as in France and Russia, a special School for Instruction in the living Oriental languages; but I think I can show, that the out-turn of work done by volunteer scholars during the last thirty years is most creditable. Many of their names are either unknown in Europe, or have not received that honour, of which they are deserving.

An indescribable charm surrounds the early poetry of the Arabs. Dwelling in the wonderful creations of their genius with these ancient poets, you live, as it were, a new life. Cities, gardens, villages, the trace of even fields, left far out of sight, you get away into the free atmosphere of the desert; and, the trammels and conventionalities of settled society cast aside, you roam with the poet over the varied domain of Nature in all its freshness, artlessness, and freedom.

In A.D. 1653 was published at Rome a small quarto of 470 pages, containing the “Itinerary of Missions in the East Indies, made by P. Maestro Fra Sebastian Manrique, an Eremite Monk of S. Augustine.” The first fifty-six chapters describe the travels of the missionary in Burma, Bengal, and Bahar; but, in chapter fifty-seven, we find him going to Hindustan; and the next ten chapters are devoted to an account of the cities of Agra and Lahore and of the Court of “the Mogul.” Then follows a journey to Multan, then one to Candahar; after which is a fresh description of the Mogul system, wealth, power, etc. Then comes a relation of the fall of Hughli some years before; and of the imprisonment and sufferings of the Catholic Priests of that place, especially of Prior Antonio de Christo, whose liberation the author undertook with success. The remainder of the book shows how the enterprising Father returned to Rome through Persia and the Levant.

[The following fragments were found among the papers of the late R. C. Childers. When his last illness overtook him, he was known to have been engaged for some time on a comprehensive handbook of the Pali language. Before, however, he had far proceeded with the elaboration of the greater work, he proposed to bring out an elementary grammar first, to meet the pressing want of intending students of that language. After his death, it was hoped that some other Pali scholar would be found willing to complete the work in either form from the materials collected by Mr. Childers: and with this view these were submitted to Prof. Pischel at Kiel. But as this gentleman has since expressed his intention of publishing a grammar on a plan of his own, it is thought that the following two fragments may, even as such, be of interest to Pali students. Each of them treats of the Sandhi rules, and is complete in itself. But while the former, intended for the shorter work, was left ready for the press, the latter, intended for the larger, had not yet received the benefit of the gifted author's revision.—R. R.]

The language of the Ḱorán has always teen beloved, and, I may almost say, worshipped by Muhammadans. Arabic, and especially the Arabic of the Ḱorán, is justly admired for its expressiveness, its subtle gradations of meaning, its cadence and rhythm, but above all for its adaptability to religious formulæ and pious ejaculations. Indeed, to the eloquence of Muḥammad and of his coadjutors, in their use of this rich language, may, in a great measure, be attributed the unparalleled success and the speedy propagation of Islám.