It is now more than half a century ago that the existence of inscriptions written in the Cuneiform character, and found in different parts of Armenia, first became known. The French Professor, Saint-Martin, in 1823, gave an account in the Journal Asiatique of the antiquities of Van, and drew attention to the fact that the Armenian historian, Moses of Khorene, has described them in such detail as to make it probable he had seen them with his own eyes. In the curious romance, compiled partly from the Old Testament, partly from the legends of Greek writers, partly from the names of localities, which was made to take the place of the forgotten early history of Armenia, these monuments were ascribed to Semiramis, to whom Van was imagined to owe its foundation. Saint-Martin concluded that some of them, at any rate, must still be in existence, and at his instigation, therefore, a young scholar from Hesse, Prof. Fr. Ed. Schulz, was sent by the French Government to Armenia, in 1826, in order to examine them. In 1828, accordingly, Van and its neighbourhood were thoroughly explored by Schulz, who succeeded in discovering and copying no less than forty-two Cuneiform inscriptions. Considering his utter ignorance of both the language and the character, the accuracy of his copies is really wonderful. They were published in the Journal Asiatique (3rd ser. vol. ix. No. 52) in 1840, but the unfortunate discoverer never returned home, having been murdered in 1829 by a Kurdish chief, along with several officers of the Shah of Persia. His papers were subsequently recovered from the Prince of Julamerk.

On the occasion of a recent visit to Cairo, I occupied myself in an endeavour to copy the Cufic inscriptions on the Bab en Naṣr. I only partially succeeded, but what I have been able to decipher is sufficient to show that the inscriptions are of somewhat more than ordinary interest. As far as I am able to discover, they have never been published, —a sufficient excuse, I hope, for offering the Society the imperfect results of my attempt to perform a task, which some other student will perhaps be induced to take up and complete.

My dear Sir,—In reply to your request that I would send a brief account of the present state of Mongolian Researches, I have great pleasure in forwarding to you, for publication in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of London, the following notes—together with a list of the literary works available for the study of the Mongolian dialects.

Noble-minded and learned Sirs! may health and prosperity be ever present with you! Kindly receive the expression of my homage and devotion. O men of knowledge, the ancient Sanskṛit language is at the present day like an aged mother shorn of her beauty and bereft of her ornaments. For a long time, alas! she has remained unhonoured, and now flees to you well-disposed scholars for protection. In the sharpness of her grief she laments with a heart-rending cry of pain. Listen attentively, that her feeble cry of suffering may enter your ears.

The following pages offer an imperfect and unpretending analysis of the opening portions of the Great Indian Epic, the Mahábhárata; with a free version here and there of striking passages, and in most of these instances the Sanskrit text. So cumbrous an introduction to the mighty Poem was, perhaps, compiled in days long subsequent to those of the finer sections of the Epic. It seems principally directed to the exaltation of Brahmans, and the glorification of Royal and Saintly Pedigrees; but a closer study—as, for example, of the long catalogue which occurs in the description of the Serpent-People—would probably give useful results to ethnology and geography.

The following notes refer to a period which is one of considerable historic interest. In the Far East the Emperor Wu-ti, the most enterprising of the Han dynasty, having broken the power of the Turkish empire of the Hiung-nû, i.e. Kara-Nîrus, was engaged in strengthening the internal administration of China, and in extending its influence abroad. In the west the Romans had, B.C. 146, captured and destroyed Carthage, and had reduced Greece to a Roman province. The Ptolemies yet ruled in Egypt; and, in Asia, the Syrian empire under the house of the Seleucidse still survived, but was showing evident signs of decrepitude. In Asia Minor, Pontus was rising into importance under Mithradates V., who was one of the first of the more important sovereigns of the continent to enter into close relations with Rome. This position of affairs finally resulted in the great war between his son Mithradates VI. and Rome, which afforded that encroaching power the opportunity of firmly establishing the Roman rule in Asia, and of eventually overturning the decadent power of Syria, already frittered away by internal dissensions between the members of the royal house of Seleucidæ.

[p. 1.] Ceci est un traité important, substantiel, utile, sur la détermination du derham, du meṭqâl, etc., par le maître, le très docte cheikh Eḍ-Ḍahaby, que Dieu lui fasse miséricorde et nous fasse profiter de lui et de sea connaissances! Ainsi soit-il!

[p. 2.] Au nom de Dieu clément, miséricordieux!

Louange à Dieu, le maître des mondes! Que la prière et le salut reposent sur notre Seigneur Mohammad, sa famille, ses compagnons et les compagnons de ses compagnons (tâbé'yn)!

Or donc, voici ce que dit Moustafa Eḍ-Ḍahaby, le châfé'îte: Ceci est un traité sur la détermination du derham, du metqâl, des monnaies ayant cours en Egypte (Mesr), de la quantité d'alliage qu'elles contiennent et du chiffre qu'elles fournissent comme quotité imposable (nésâb), ainsi que cela a été déterminé a l'hôtel des monnaies, et sur l'exposé des poids et des mesures de capacité.

In no Semitic tongue there seems not to be more than two primitive tenses, not having, however, in each dialect the same force. The form expressing the present in Hebrew is used for the subjunctive in Ethiopian, the perfect in Assyrian, etc. As for comparative purposes a common name is required for each form, we will take those adopted by the late Vicomte de Rougé in his Egyptian Grammar: Aorist-Past to denote the tense which appears to be formed by suffixes, as qabal-ti, and Aorist-Present for that which appears to be formed by prefixes, as ä-qbol.

This splendid MS. on red and blue satin is, in fact, the first that has reached Europe in the language and writing of the Lolos, almost unknown a few months ago; before the important Journey of Exploration in Western Sz'e chuen, by Mr. E. Colborne Baber, now Secretary of the Chinese Legation at Peking, noticed by him in a paper addressed to the Royal Geographical Society of this country. From this paper we learn that Mr. Baber displayed a remarkable diligence in procuring materials for the study of the language and writing of the Lolo population; his paper comprising a vocabulary, copy and tracing of three documents in the Lolo writing; but, till the arrival of this wonderful MS., it must be confessed that we had no other Lolo documents.