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DECEMBER, 1883.]
BOOK NOTICES.
THE TIGER AND THE CAT.
Tigers at first were ignorant until the king of the tigers once came to the cat and begged him for lessons. The cat consented, and taught the tiger to watch, to crouch, to spring, and the other accomplishments familiar to the race. At last, when he thought he had learnt everything the
BOOK NOTICES.
CATALOGUE du MUSÉE GUIMET: Première partie-INDE, CHINE et JAPON, précédée d'un aperçu sur les Reli gions de l'extrême Orient, &c., par L. de Milloué. Nouv. ed. (Lyon, 1883). CATALOGUE AND HANDBOOK of the ARCHEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS in the INDIAN MUSEUM, by John Anderson, M.D., &c. Part I. Asoka and Indo-Scythian Galleries. (Calcutta, 1883).
The importance of good museums both for the scientific study of history, mythology, ethnology, art, products and manufactures, and for the purposes of general instruction and education is now recognised, and can hardly be over-estimated. Museums are beginning to be no longer mere stores for curiosities,' where the contents were generally arranged at hap-hazard, without any idea of classification or aim to be instructive. Unfortunately too many are still so arranged, and their real public value entirely overlooked. Nor can we hope that it should be otherwise until men of influence and means, as well as governments, take an active interest in developing their utility. M. Emile Guimet, of Lyon, has set a noble example. After a mission to India, China and Japan, where he made large collections, he has built and endowed in his native city a large and very complete museum. Opened by the Congress of French Orientalists in 1878, this museum contains(1). A library of books and MSS. in Sanskrit, Tamil, Simhalese, Tibetan, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, and in European languages, treating specially of religions. To these are to be added French translations of such as have not been already rendered into that language. Grammars and dictionaries of almost all the dialects of India, and of the ancient languages of Egypt, Greece, Rome and Phoenicia, will be available for persons desiring to study ancient or oriental languages. (2). A museum of Religions-containing all the gods of India, China, Japan, Egypt, Greece and the Roman empire. (3). A school in which Eastern Students may learn French, and Frenchmen study the living languages and religions of the far East. This school has native professors of different creeds (there are six Orientals in it we believe), who explain the different mythologies and the illustrative objects in the museum.
cat had to impart, the tiger made a spring at his teacher, intending to tear and eat him. Instantly the cat ran nimbly up a tree whither the tiger could not follow. "Come down," cried the tiger, "come down at once." "No, no," replied the cat, "how fortunate for me that I did not teach you more, or you might have been able to pursue me even here!"
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The aim of M. Guimet in establishing this magnificent foundation was "to facilitate the researches of scholars, and still more to extendby popularising-the taste for Oriental studies and the religions of the East."
Notwithstanding the far greater interest that Britain has in India and the East, there is no such establishment so handsomely endowed, either in England or India, for the pursuit of Oriental studies. The only institution of the kind is the Indian Institute at Oxford, still in its infancy, and which is so largely, if not exclusively, due to the personal exertions of Prof. Monier Williams, but which, if properly supported, promises well.
The Musée Guimet at Lyon is a very elegant and commodious building, covering an area of fully 3300 square yards and of three stories, and since its establishment and the publication of the first Catalogue in 1880 (in 112 pages 3vo) the collections have grown so rapidly that the new edition is divided into three volumes-the first alone containing over 330 pages 12mo, and embracing, besides a short introductory sketch of the principal Oriental religions, only the collections from India, China and Japan. The second part will be devoted to the religions of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy and Gaul, with a list of donors to the museum; and the third will describe the collection of the ceramic works of China and Japan.
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The library, we learn, contains more than 12,000 volumes in all languages, printed and in manuscript, relative to the religions, history, philosophy and literature of different peoples, voyages and travels, ancient and modern, palmleaf MSS. from India, Japan, &c." The walls are decorated with Chinese, and Japanese paintings, and with a special series made by M. Félix Régamey in India, China, and Japan. There are also specimens of Chinese, Singhalese and other coins, objects of jade, &c. &c. In the collection are numerous images, of bronze, brass, stone, &c., from all parts. The whole forms a most important collection of mythological and artistic objects. Among them, we observe (p. 43), a stone head (probably of a Bodhisattva) from the Élurâ Caves.
1 Jour. As. Soc. Beng. Vol. LII, p. 88.
