Indian Antiquary Vol 16

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 89

FEBRUARY, 1887.]
and silver, a silversmith being a necessary artizan in every village. Another important manufacture is lacquer-work. In the larger towns, also handsome clothes and curtains are woven. The principal exports are rice, cotton, buffalo hide and horn, dried fish and fruit, spices, and timber. The hides and katechu go mainly to Singapore. The principal imports are silken stuffs and German salt. Germany exported 8,000 tons to Upper Burma, receiving wheat in exchange.
An amusing paper on the Glories of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, and another on German Affairs in the South Sea follow. Then comes the conclusion of Mr. Todd's papers on the Diamond Fields of South Africa.
MISCELLANEA.
Amongst the Miscellaneous Notes may be mentioned an important article on the town and the climate of Korea.
The Reviews are (a) Alphabetic Index of the Assyrian and Akkadian words in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. II., by J. N. Strassmaier, S.J., Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1886. It is reviewed by Herr C. Bezold, who says of it: "The beauty, accuracy, and care with which the whole work is carried out, bear witness to the most eminent industry." He also calls it "A monumental work." (b) Travels on the PersoRussian Frontier, by Dr. Gustave Radde, Leipzig, Brockhaus, reviewed by Herr Friedrich Müller. The most valuable portion of the work is the contributions to geography, geology, botany and zoology (especially ornithology). (c) Internationale Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (International Journal for General Philology), Leipzig, Barth, Vol. II., 2nd half, reviewed by Friedrich Müller. This is a new philological magazine and is most favourably reviewed:-"We rejoice that our hopes of the continued existence of this Magazine have been fulfilled, and that the first volume has been so quickly followed by a second."
The number concludes with a notice of Shankar P. Pandit's new edition of the Atharva-Véda, and a note on some new Asoka Inscriptions found in the North-West Provinces, both from the pen of Dr. Bühler.
(4) Notes from the Proceedings of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.-At the meeting of the 21st May 1886 M. Bergaigne read a paper on the Order of Classification of the hymns in the Rig-Véda, and found himself able to formulate the following rules:(i) The Rig-Véda was originally composed of seven books, which followed each other according to the number of hymns in each, arranged according to increase. (ii) In each book each series of hymns addressed to the same god or written in the
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same metre succeeded the one preceding it according to the number of hymns in each, arranged according to decrease. (iii) In each series the hymns followed each other in decreasing order, according to the number of verses which each contained. (iv) If two hymns, which followed each other, had the same number of verses, that with the longer verses preceded that with the shorter ones. The apparent exceptions explain themselves on the principle of alterations or interpolations.
M. Derenbourg pointed out that an analogous principle of classification was followed in certain parts of the Pentateuch, in the Quran, and especially in the Mishna, where it is observed with great rigour. In each of the sections of the Mishna, the tractates fellow each other in decreasing order according to the number of chapters which compose them.
At the meeting of the 28th May M. Derenbourg gave further information on the same subject. He cited, as an example, the liturgical division of the Pentateuch into péricopes or Sabbatic lectures, distributed through the different feasts of the year, like the epistles and gospels for Sundays and Holidays in the Catholic Church. The first book of the Pentateuch, Genesis, contains twelve péricopes; the second, Exodus, eleven; the third Leviticus, ten; the fourth, Numbers, nine; and the fifth, Deuteronomy, eight. It is true that Numbers is at the present day divided into ten péricopes, but according to ancient tradition the eighth and the ninth originally formed only one. Deuteronomy appears to have eleven, but the ninth, tenth and eleventh are reserved for the feasts of the month Tishri, which is not a portion of the ordinary liturgical year.
At the meeting of the 10th June, the priz Stanislas Julien was awarded to P. Séraphin Couvreur, for his Dictionnaire français-chinois, contenant les expressions les plus usités de la langue Mandarine.
The meeting of the 9th July was rendered more than usually interesting by M. Dieulafoy's report of the recent archæological investigations at Susiana.
5) Revue Critique.-The number for June 7th is rendered specially interesting to Orientalists by a review of a Notice sur le livre de Barlaam et Joasapk, accompagnée d'extraits du texte grec et des versions arabe et éthiopienne, by H. Zotenberg, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1886, (reprinted from the notices of and extracts from the MSS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale). The history of Barlaam and Joasaph has been thoroughly gone into in the present work. According to the reviewer (who signs himself G. P.), the Greek text as we have it now has come to us from Indian sources, through the Pablarf and then the