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156
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1889.
the presses are most active about the Ramazan with a long extract describing the journey of and the fair of Nizni Novgorod, on account of Pazukhin. the assembling of Musalmans. They are mostly (2) On the modern Sect of the Challe, by V. stereotyped. But there are large works for Zhukovski. These secte ascribe to their imme educated Russian Musalmans also in Arabic and an incarnation of the deity. T&tår. Originally the latter were in a kind of (3) 4 Note on Two Discoveries recently made jargon which the author elaborated for himself; in Egypt, by V. Golenistcher. These are a whole in this hotch-poteh might be found elements of series of cuneiform tablets of clay discovered various Turkish dialecta, from the simple speech at Tel-el-Amons; and a collection of portraits of the Kazan Tatár to the elaborate literary style of persons at the end of the epoch of the Ptolemies of the Effendi of Constantinople. At the present and beginning of the Roman period, found in the time the local writers of Kazan imitate the Usmånli Oasis of Fayam. Till this time no cuneiform style, as seen in the latest works of Abdu'l-Kaium. inscriptions have been found in Egypt. Monla-Nasirov, and others. Especially note- The tablets consist of the letters of various worthy is the work of a certain Mosk Ak-Tigit, Asiatic rulers to two Egyptian kings, Amenh'otep published at Kazan in 1886. The author has III and IV. One of those who corresponded with received a good education and imitates such writers these kings was the Babylonian king Burnabaas the Turk, Aḥmad Midhat Effendi. He has riash. Already some Egyptian scholars were written a novel on modern Tatar life in a kind of inclined to fix the eighteenth dynasty of the Uemånli dialect of his own. It is said that some Pharaohs at about the fifteenth century B.C., time ago the author went to Stambal and has not while Assyrian scholars had referred to the same returned. But he has left imitators. To the fifteenth oentury, the date of the Babylonian king class of more useful publications belong the Burnaburiash. calendar of Kaium Nazirov, with some essays on | Another correspondent of the Egyptian kings general topics, and some manuals of Geography is Dushratta, king of the country of Mittani. and Arabic Grammar. A rhymester named Mev. This city the Egyptians called Naharina, and leghei Yumachikov, has written several poems in a meant a place situated on the left bank of the dialect akin to Khirgiz. He appears too often Euphrates, almost opposite to the town of Car. as a vulgar fanatio, and some of his poems were chemish, the modern Jerabis. Judging by the repressed by the censorship.
independent tone of the letters of the king of The writer takes an entirely different view from Mittani, the country, at least at the commencethat of Dorn on the education of the Tatars. ment of the reign of Amenh'otep III., was so The press among them is only used to encourage important that its king might enter into negotiaobscurantism.Works on magic, on domestic tions with the principal Egyptian king on a footing medicine, and others full of charlatanism abound. of independence. Besides the royal letters oonBooks of this kind appear every year in great tained in the correspondence, we meet with numbers, and are increasing. If we find a man from persons calling themselves the slaves of of education among the Tatare, it is one who has Pharaoh. For the understanding of the cuneibeen brought up at a Russian school.
form correspondence received at the court of (1) Miscellaneous Notes :
Pharaoh, it is obvious that there must have been (1) Old Russian accounts of Moro, by D. interpreters. Sometimes men of this sort were Kobeko. In 1669 the Russian Ambassador, Pasu- sent with the letters, e.g. in one of the king of khin, was sent to Abdu'l-Aziz, the Khan of Mittani's epistles, such a man has the title tar. Bukhara. He went there through Astrakbån to gu-ma-an-m, i.e. 'translator.' For the interpreKhiva, and accomplished the return journey tation of these interesting tableta we must wait through Charjat, Merv, Mashhad and Lankurin. for the decision of MM. Winkler and Lehmann, of At Merv, then belonging to Persia, Pazukhin was Berlin, the museum of which oity has bought the hospitably met by Zenar Khân, the governor of whole collection through the instrumentality of the city, and lived there from December 1672 to Graff, the Viennese dealer in Eastern carpets. March 1673. In obedience to instructions given, The second discovery consists of 60 portraits Pazukhin traced the route from Astrakhan to the as previously mentioned. These have been des city Junabatu (i.e. JabAnabad Dehli) through cribed by Ebers in Beilage sur Allgemeinen Zeitung, Khiva, Balkh, Kabul and P&shAwar. The route | Nos. 135-7, 1888. They were taken from the tope was rendered dangerous by the war going on of ooffing. The type represented is only Coptie in between the Persian Shah 'Abbas II. (1642-1666), one instance; in others Greek and Semitic; and the great Mughal Shah Jahan, in the territory No. 64 is a negro, with perhaps a mixture of which is now Afghanistan. The article winds up Greek blood; 8 represent old men, 24 men of
