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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY..
[DECEMBER, 1879.
stood aside. And standing aside addressed him strong drink, to be diligent in good deeds, this with this verse.
is the greatest blessing. 2. Many gods' and men, yearning after good, 9. Reverence and lowliness and contentment have held divers things to be blessings"; say thou, and gratitude, to receive religious teaching at due what is the greatest blessing.
seasons, this is the greatest blessing. 3. To serve wise men and not serve fools, to 10. To be longsuffering and meek, to associate give honor to whom honor is due, this is the with the priests of Buddha, to hold religious disgreatest blessing.
course at due seasons, this is the greatest blessing. 4. To dwell in a pleasant land, to have done 11. Temperance and chastity, discernment of food deeds in a former existence, to have a soul the four great truths, the prospect of Nirvana, filled with right desires, this is the greatest this is the greatest blessing. blessing
12. The soul of one unshaken by the changes 5. Much knowledge and much science, the dis- of this life, & soul inaccessible to sorrow, passioncipline of a well-trained mind and a word well less, secure, this is the greatest blessing. spoken, this is the greatest blessing.
13. They that do these things are invincible on 6. To sucoour father and mother, to cherish every side, on every side thoy walk in safety, wife and child, to follow a peaceful calling, this is yea theirs is the greatest blessing. the greatest blessing.
The Song of Blessing is finished. 7. To give alms, to live religiously, to give help | A comparison of this powerful text with the to relatives, to do blameless deeds, this is the rendering given it by the Burmese commentators greatest blessing.
as translated ante, p. 82, will show its immense 8. To cease and abstain from sin, to eschew superiority over the latter.20
ON THE PERIPLÚS OF THE ERYTHRAAN SEA.
BY THE LATE M. REINAUD. (Translated from the Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. XXIV.pt. ii.) The author of the book was a sea captain or com- continent of Africa stretched to the east, and was mercial agent, who is represented to have departed connected with the south-east of Asia, making the from Egypt, and who, after having run along the Erythræan sea a great lake. The author of the western coast of the Red Sea and eastern coast of Periplus arrived at Zanzibar, says distinctly that Africa as far as Zanzibar, the extreme point of from thence the continent bends to the west, and Boman voyages, returns, and coasting the eastern is terminated towards the Atlantic Ocean. Moreside of the Red Sea where the Romans had formed over, as to the unpardonable error of Ptolemy establishments, he passes a second time through who, on leaving the south coast of Persia, seems the Strait of Bab-elmandeb, and coasting the south not to have had a suspicion of the bend which the of Arabia, he enters the Gulf of Persia, and arrives sea makes to the left and then to the right, and at Spasini-Kharax and Obollah. After
who prolongs the Asiatic continent straight to doing business there he sets sail in the direction of the east, the author of the Periplus when he Hormuz; he stops successively at the ports on arrives at Barugaza, does not fail to notify to the the south of Persia; he makes a point in the Valley readers that the coast of the peninsula of India of the Indus, after which, turning southwards, he trends from thence to the south. He even notices visits the ports of Gujarat and Malabar.
the expression by which the natives designate the The author of the Periplás is not a professed southern part of the peninsula among themselves : scholar. But his chief concern being with com- this is the word Dakhinabad, which means in mercial matters, he speaks as an intelligent man Sansksit, the coast of the right hand. Finally, possessed of a clear judgment. Ho treats as they at the end of his narrative, making only one deserved certain absurd geographical theories of nation of the Sêres and Sines or Thines, Ptolemy's. According to one of these theories the which Ptolemy by mistake had made two different
• This latter rendering is a little abridged. I think it is more powerful if given in full :" Approached the Blessed One, and approaching saluted the Blessed One, and stood mide, and standing aside the angel spake to the Blessed One in verse."-R.O.T.
Angela or celestial beings is a better rendering of deva in a Buddhist work.-R.O.T.
Or have devised blessings; achintayuth is a very diffi- L cult word to render.-R.C.T.
• Or tell the greatest blessing.-R.O.T.
10 The rendering referred to seems to be correct enough as applied to the Burmese text or commentary.R.C.T.
i This is an Arab corruption of Apologos custom. house.'-Reinaud, Mém. de l'Acad. des ins., tom. XXIV. pt. ii. p. 213; and see ante p. 187.-ED. $ 18, ante p. 129.
950, ante p. 148. i bid. and Reinaud, Introduction à la gdographie d'A. boulféda, p. 192.
