Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 40

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1878.
small room in the hill-side, arched overhead, the conciseness. The copy he has is tolerably correct, only peculiarity about it being an excavation in and he hopes to print it shortly. He has also Asthe rocky floor about the size of a small coffin, certained the existence of a Brálnana, as yet intended for the fuel, or to create a draught. unknown, which belongs to the Jaiminiya Sakha The following is a brief description of the process, of the Sama Veda, and expects to have a copy soon, as given by a priest :-Three days after death, and also authentic information respecting the the body, seated cross-legged and enclosed in a chants of this SakhA, which differ widely from box, is taken to the furnace. Fuel is placed round those known already. What he has heard of the it, and after a suitable religious ceremony the Jaiminiya chants makes him think that they are torch is applied, and the whole pile is soon in reality far more simple, and perhaps older than wrapped in flames. It requires several hours and the others-e.g. of the Kauthumas.-The Academy. 400 pounds of wood to complete the process.The Academy
Some new Zend pablications have been brought
out by two young scholars, K. Geldner and W. NOTES.
Geiger, the arst of whom is a pupil of Roth, the Dr. A. Burnell has discovered a MS. of the long- second of Spiegel. Geldner deals with the metrical sought Prdtibdkkya of the Sama Veda. It consiste parts of the Zendavesta, and proposes a great many of about 280 sutras with a commentary, and is ingenions corrections of corrupt passages, while attributed to Sakatayana; but, as it is, it is a re- Geiger confines himself to the Pehlavi version of latively modern work, and much like the Atharva- the first Vendidda. His conclusions show that prátisakhya (edited by Prof. Whitney) in style and I this version is of no great value for the Zend text.
BOOK NOTICES. ITER PERSICUM, O Description du Voyage en Perse Grand Duke Boris Fedorovich. Leaving this on
entrepris en 1602 par E'tienne Kakasch de Zalonkemeny, envoyé comme ambassadeur par l'Empereur Rodolphe the 8th December, Salankhomeny and his suite II. à la cour du grand-duc de Moscovie et à celle de Chih proceeded by Nijni Novgorod to Kazan and down Abbas, roi de Perse. Traduction publiée et annotée par Ch. Schefer, Premier Secrétaire interprète du Gouverne
the Volga to Astrakhan, which they reached on ment, Administrateur de l'Ecole des Langues otientales 27th May. The author's account of Russia-then. vivantes. (18mo, pp. xxii and 190. Paris : E. Leroux, 1877.)
separated by the Don from the Turkish Khannte
of the Crimea-and of the court of the Grand Duke After the treaty of Madrid, Francis I. had sought is full of curious information. In August they an alliance with the Porte, which power, as well landed at Langheran, in the province of Guilan, a3 France, had a vital interest in weakening the where, from bad food and water, all fell ill. Robert influence of Austria (then Germany). This alliance Shirley met them there to conduct them, but on continued, in spite of short interruptions, till reaching Lanzan, two miles from Langheran, Sathe peace of Versailles in 1756, and during lankhomeny died on the 25th October 1603. Tecthe reigns of Henry II. and Henry IV. the tander and George Agelastes then proceeded to influence of France in Turkish councils was so carry out the mission, but the latter also died, of great as to force Austria to seek allianoes against scarlatina, at Kasbin. Tectander found Shah Abthem. In 1592 the Turks had commenced a war bas at Tabriz, which he had just taken from the on Austria, that was still being continued in Turks, and he gives an interesting account of that Hungary-which Turkey held from Presburg to celebrated Sufawi ruler and his court. He acthe Theiss-when Sir Anthony Shirley appeared companied the Persian army for some time durat the court at Prague, bearing a letter from ing the campaign in Armenia, and then returned Shah Abbas the Great, proposing an alliance. with a Persian ambassador through Circassia to The emperor Rudolf II. determined to accept Koïs on the Caspian, and thence to Tereka and the offer, and appointed Stephan Khakhas von Astrakhan, finding his way back to Moscow by Salank homeny, a Transylvanian, as his envoy to the route he had come. There he met Henry of the Shah. Khakhas took as his secretary a Saxon Logau, the Austrian ambassador, who left Moscow Protestant named George Tectander von der Ja- with him on the 24th August 1604, when Teobel, who on his return presented to the Emperor tander's narrative closes. An appendix of 27 pages an account of the journey and mission, which he contains two letters of Salankhomeny's from Mosafterwards published under the title of Iter Per- cow, his address to the Grand Duke Boris, a lotter sicum. The embassy left Prague 27th August from Boris to Rudolf, and an extract from a ro1602, and passing through Breslau, Cracow, War- port by Henry of Logau. saw, Wilna, and Smolensk arrived at Moscow on The original work is very scarce, and M. Schefer the 9th November, where it was received by the has done excellent service in preparing this