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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
establishing the bona fides of the Rev. Jacob Gass, the chief finder. in all he did. Without entering into the rights of the controversy one or two things strike ns as most important in it for the future well-being of Au erican research.
In the first place the Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology are issued under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institute and of the Government, are endorsed in fact by the Director of the Bureau; so that they are put before the world with all the authority, scientific and official, at the command of the United States. Now we notice that in the quotations from the Report, Mr. Henshaw-backed up, be it remembered, by the official authority of Major Powell, the Director-in addition to his attack on the personal character of Mr. Gass, practically tells him and his fellow-workers to cease from exploration. And we further notice that one object of the Bureau of Ethnology appears to be to centralize, and bring under its own direction all the research in the United States, and it seems to have taken steps to bring this about. Nothing could be more unsafe than this. Let a Government subsidize and encourage research as much as it finds itself able, and let it appoint official Directors of any branch of research that seems likely to be forwarded by such a step, but let it keep carefully clear of one thing-the official direction of all the research in the country. This means, of course, the centralization of research in the hands of one man or of a clique, and it might easily mean also the stifling of all independent labour.
The existence of the controversy under review points emphatically to the danger of such a system. Here we have an official employed in the direction of scientific research-backed up by his Director-warning certain outsiders against continuing in a certain line of exploration, and this official is criticising archæology, though his special training appears to be in ornithology. This kind of universal versatility-as we so well know in India-is more or less unavoidably to be expected of officials, but suppose such an official had it in his power to stop any particular line of research, what then? And if the Smithsonian. Institute or the Bureau of Ethnology had all the direction of science in their hands in the United States, would not this sometimes happen? It seems to us a matter of the first importance to scientific men in America.
One more point. If Mr. Henshaw be rightly reported, his main reason for impugning Mr. Gass's good faith is that no one else has yet discovered similar important relics. The Indian Evidence Act lays down that no particular number of witnesses is required to establish a fact. One may be
[SEPTEMBER, 1885.
enough and one hundred insufficient. This seems to us to be common sense. The converse doctrine would render valueless many a paper in the Indian Antiquary on which it justly prides itself.
The SANKHYA APHORISMS of KAPILA, with illustrative extracts from the Commentaries. Translated by JAMES R. BALLANTYNE, LL.D., late Principal of the Benares College. Third Edition (London: Trübner and Co., 1885). 8vo., pp. 464.
Dr. Ballantyne's translation of the Sankhya Aphorisms, in three volumes, printed at Allahabad in the years 1852 to 1856, was for long well and favourably known in India, but has for some time past been very scarce. The abridgment. published in the Bibliotheca Indica (1862 and 1865), contains nothing of the Sanskrit text, and was therefore not so useful to students. In the volume now under notice, Messrs. Trübner and Co. have brought out, under the careful scholarly editorship of Dr. Ballantyne's old friend, Dr. FitzEdward Hall, a new and carefully revised reprint of the original work, which will doubtless be heartily welcomed. The corrections introduced in the readings of the aphorisms are very numerous, and all blemishes of idiom have been carefully removed from the translation, while the editor has evidently spared no pains in verifying references. and his numerous footnotes, supplying the variant readings of the commentators and other illustra tive information, are most valuable. It is rarely one meets with a book of this kind, edited with such care and masterly acquaintance with the subject. It will be found to be of sterling value to the student.
KALILAH AND DIMNAH: OR THE FABLES OF BIPPAI.
BY J. G. N. KEITH-FALCONER, M.A., Cambridge. University Press, 1885.
This book is a very welcome addition to the literature of the well-known fables of Bidpai. The edition of Kalilah and Dimnah, by Prof. Wright, issued last year, being merely the Syriac text, was of no use to any but Semitic scholars, if the valuable introduction be omitted. The great value of this edition is that it translates Prof. Wright's text and so brings it before the student of general folklore. The introduction, too. which extends to lxxxv pp., gives a good detailed account of all the chief recensions of these universal fables and a capital résumé of what has up to date been written as to their origin and migrations. It is to be observed that at p. lxix, the author notices that the 'lydr-i-Danish version, drawn up by Abu'l-Fazl for the delectation of Akbar in 1587 A.D., has never been edited, though Capt. Roebuck edited an Urdû version of it in 1815 as the Khird Afroa. Here is a chance for Persian Scholars.
