In the spring of 1938 I was able with valuable help from the Royal Air Force and the material support of the Iraq Petroleum Company to carry out a survey of ancient remains along a portion of Rome's Mesopotamian Limes in the extreme north-west of Iraq. These explorations were closely connected with the researches which Père A. Poidebard, S.J., had effected before on the Syrian Limes and recorded in a masterly publication. In the following autumn the survey was resumed by me with the same generous aid and continued until May, 1939, along all routes protected by Roman defences that could be traced from the Tigris and Euphrates into the Syrian desert and thence through Transjordan down to the Gulf of Aqaba.

Seldom has a work had such world-wide success and been translated into so many languages as the Indian stories and animal fables known as the Panchatantra. In the sixth century of our era they were translated from Sanskrit into Pehlevi. Thence they passed into Arabic; and from the Arabic text, called by Muhammadans the Fables of Bidpai or the Book of Kalila wa Diṁna, were made all those different versions through which these stories were transmitted to the countries of Europe.

The only existing alphabetical list of Bast India directors for the period 1758–1858 was prepared and published in 1885 by Charles Prinsep in his book, The Services of Madras Civilians. Unfortunately it is an extremely inaccurate list, mistakes in the directors' years of service having been made in a great number of cases. Among other errors, Prinsep endowed two of the directors, John Smith Burgess and William Thornton Astell, with dual personalities; the two David Scotts, on the other hand, he treated as one; and although going so far as to invent one director, Joseph Bosanquet, he omitted at least five others—R. Atkinson, A. Campbell, G. Johnstone, R. Jones, L. Peel.

§ 9. Somavaṁśa II. The successor of King Yayāti was his son Pūru, whose line of descent follows in Mbh, i, 89; H, 31; and B, 12. Even in details the similarity of the narratives is great. But the end is very confused in Mbh (i, 89). Only H (Kirfel, 555), has carried on the line up to Janamejaya (cf. Mbh, i, 90, 85 sqq.; Vi, iv, 20, 12), and even further. The slokas of B (Kirfel, 555, 128, 1 sqq.) are to be found in H, too (184, 3–18; not noticed by Kirfel), and must belong therefore to the original H-B vaṁśa.

Ibn ḥubaish is mentioned by Francisco Codera as a source of Ibn al-'Abbār who deserves attention. Caetani also stresses his importance as a representative of the Medinese tradition which aṭ-Ṭabarī neglected. There is very little about him in the standard books of reference.