________________
SEPTEMBER, 1889.]
off its skin, and a hundred to sew it into pillows and cushions; and its bones were made into hairpins, which are worn by the Queen."
The aged parents of Maung Pauk Kyaing overheard the conversation of the crows, and with increased speed they resumed their journey. They were just in time to save the life of their son; and the Queen, in accordance with the terms of the wager, offered herself to be killed. But the King, with great magnanimity, characteristic of a real hero, spared her life.
Eventually the Queen became reconciled to Maung Pauk Kyaing, who assumed the title of Thadonaganaing; and they reigned happily together.
MISCELLANEA.
MISCELLANEA.
PROGRESS OF EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP. No. XVIII.
Transactions of the Eastern Section of the Russian Archaeological Society, Vol. III. Part 3. (a) The finding of a hoard of Bulgarian Coins in the year 1887; by A. Likhachev.
On the subject of Jachi numismatics there is an interesting question, which remains to the present time unsettled. Among the coins of the Juchi dynasty relating to the XIIIth-XVth centuries, a whole series is met with, struck in the city of Bulgar in the name of the Baghdadi Khalifa An-Nasir-li-din-Allah who is known to have ruled the Eastern Khalifate from 585 to 622 A.H. (=1180-1225 A.D.). On these coins are no dates, and the time when they are coined can only be ascertained relatively. The obverse contains the Khalifa's name and title 'Commander of the Faithful': the reverse the name Bulgar and some pious expression. It is found both in silver and copper. Among the latter some are stamped with the Juchi mint in the name of Mangu, the Mongolian Khân. The name of the Khalifa AnNasir li-din-Allah is met with earlier than that of Mangu Khân. In consequence of this fact, Ch. D. Fachu thought that the money coined at Bulgar in the name of An-Nastr was an independent coinage during the XIIth and the first quarter of the XIIIth century, before the country had been conquered by the descendants of Changêz Khair. This opinion gained ground from the antiquity of the coins. Thus these coins were considered the last monument of independent
277.
Bulgaria on the Volga, which from the tenth century became connected with the Eastern Khalifate and Muhammadan. Fachu found that the Bulgarian maliks as they were called, coined their own money, like the Sâmant dirhams. He found among the hoards of Kufic money some Bulgarian coins, upon which are recognised the names of Talib, the son of Ahmad, who coined money, A.H. 338, in Suvar, and his brother Mumin, A.H. 366, in the towns of Bulgar and Suvar. He was able to furnish a quantity of dynastic knowledge, adding to the information gained from coins thus preserved in their histories. The coins discovered by Fachu are very rare. They differ from the Såmani dirhams by the inscriptions which resemble those found on monuments on the soil of ancient Bulgaria, and sometimes barbarous corruptions of words are found. Besides the coins described by Fachu, there was found at Bulgar in 1868 a dirham of Tâlib, the son of Ahmad, coined A.H. 338. It has come into the writer's collection, and as so far as concerns the place where it was struck it is still unpublished, he calls attention to it. After these coins, till the end of the twelfth century, no independent Bulgarian money is met with, and the cause of the long interval is unknown. Judging by the rarity of these Bulgarian coins of the tenth century, we may conclude that they were never much used and could not supplant the Kufic money introduced into the country in large quantities. Consequently they are only attempts at establishing a national coinage. But the plan was abandoned, probably because, there was not
8 ThadonAganaing = "the Prince who conquered the Nagas:" vide note 2.
The above tale is widely known among the Burmese. It was narrated to me by Maung Tin, late Sayegy! (clerk) of the Hluttaw (Late Royal Council Chamber at Mandalay), but now employed in the Burma Secretariat.
[This tale is common in many variants throughout India. See Wide-Awake Stories, p. 401, where many instances are quoted and again pp. 24, 25, above, where the tale crops up in Bombay. S. D'Oldenbourg, quoted in Trübner's Record, 3rd series, Vol. I. Pt. I. pp. 14-15, says-"The oldest known version of the legend about the snake and the girl is found in Kathasarits@gara, vi., 8ff, where Gunadhya is the child. For other versions of the birth of Salivahana, see the Simhasanadvâtrimska. In Buddhist books serpents and Naga tribes are often confounded with one another. Concerning jimútavdhana, compare a number of snake stories in Tarantha's History of Buddhism, especially pp. 108, 109. For Buddhistic stories about serpents, see further the portion of the Mghasutra ed. Bendall (J. R. A. S., April, 1880): Th. Pavie, Quelques observations sur le mythe du serpent ches les Indous (Journal Asiatique, 5th series, Vol. V. pp. 409 529), and the Nagapajavidhi, a small Buddhist tract (Paris, Bibl. Nat. D 117)." These serpent tales are by no means confined to Aryan and the old world folklore, but are common to America: See Journal of American Folklore, Vol. I., No. 1, pp. 44f, and 74ff.-B. C. T.]
