The following abbreviations have been used: L. = Lamu dialect, Mb. = Mombasa, Z. = Zanzibar, Kr. = Krapf, M. = Madan, T. = Taylor, H. = Howe (this refers to information or suggestions furnished by the Eev. W. G. Howe—formerly of the United Methodist Mission, Ribe—who has rendered valuable help in the preparation of these notes)

The Makonde language is spoken by a tribe inhabiting the plateau between the Lukuledi and Ruvuma Rivers (in the southern part of Tanganyika territory), conjointly with the Ndonde, Mavia, Maraba, and (near Newala) the Matambwe, Ngoni, and Makua. With the exception of a short grammatical sketch by the late Bishop Steere and a vocabulary included in Sir H. H. Johnston's Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages, little or nothing relating to this language has hitherto been published. (See Cust, Modern Languages of Africa, ii, 341, where it is called, mistakenly, “Konde.”) A good deal of information as to the above group of tribes is to be found in the works of K. Weule (Negerleben in Ostafrika, 1908, and Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse meiner ethnographischen Forschungsreise, 1908).

Nothing is more disconcerting to the student of early Muslim history than the way in which Tabarī and the other historians alternate between detailed and comprehensive narrative and jottings of the most meagre and involved nature, filled out, in some cases, by picturesque but obviously legendary tales. These faults, which are to a large degree inherent in the method of compilation from oral tradition, come out most clearly in the narrative of the brilliant series of campaigns by which the Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered and annexed the lands eastward from Herāt and the Oxus to the Pamīr, during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Walīd I (a.d. 705–15). Thus we are given a fairly sufficient account of the long drawn out operations against Bukhārā, but none of the actual conquest and colonization of the city : much 'of the expeditions against various princes subject to the kingdom of Tukhāristān, but practically nothing of the annexation of Tukhāristān itself.

The subject to which I venture to invite your attention is not altogether new to the members of the Royal Asiatic Society. Three years ago, at a meeting of the Society on 14th March, 1916, with Sir Charles Lyall in the chair, when the Campbell Memorial Gold Medal was awarded to Professor Macdonell, of Oxford, the latter in his reply touched upon the desirability of creating, on behalf of British Sanskrit scholars, some opportunity of study and research in India. “The only remedy,” Professor Macdonell said, “seems to be the establishment of a school of research for Europeans at some centre of Sanskrit learning, preferably Benares, like the School of Classical Archæology at Athens or the French School at Hanoi in Indo-China. It will be a reproach to this country if we cannot establish something of this kind in India, with all our obligations to advance education and learning in connexion with the ancient civilization and literature of the vast Indian Empire.”

Although even at the present day nothing is certain in regard to the origin of the Kurds, even less was known to ancient writers, whose accounts are purely mythical. They were, however, generally so little studied that speculation on this question does not seem to have become common until a comparatively late period, and even then to have been almost exclusively confined to eastern scholars.

When in 1916 the School of Oriental Studies was established on the old premises of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, an agreement was come to whereby King's College, University College, and the University of London handed over to the School as a temporary loan all their Oriental books, in exchange for an equivalent number of European books belonging to the Library of the Institution.

It is difficult to write correctly about the grammar of a language; it is almost impossible to be accurate about its pronunciation. It follows that the weakest and most unsatisfactory part of books on a language is nearly always that which deals with sounds. The reasons are various. I give some of them here with special reference to Urdu and Hindi.

In the spring of 1921 Captain Geoffrey Bailey sent me two pairs of tracings made from Indian standards captured in the battle of Seringapatam, 4th May, 1799. The standards are among the treasures of the chapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. On examination they proved to be of considerable interest, and readers of the Bulletin will perhaps be glad to have an opportunity of studying them in the facsimiles which, through the kindness of the editor, I am able to present, along with such notes as may be necessary for their elucidation.