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NOVEMBER, 1891.]
work on the formation of the plural of IndoGermanic neuters, in which it is contended that the Indo-European neuter plural, so far as we can judge from the scanty remains available, is not a single but a multiple category, and that its prinoipal peculiarities must be referred, not to a true plural, but to a singular collective noun of the feminine gender. Thus *yugd, the yokes'(Vedic yuga, Gr. (vyá, Lat. juga, &c.), was primitively a substantive feminine, declined *yuga, #yugas, and the inflexion #yuga, #yugam, is only due to false analogy. M. Henry combats. this conclusion at some length. The points are too technical to be reproduced here.
MISCELLANEA.
The following number contains another review, by the same writer, on Dr. Otto Hoffman's treatise on the Flexion and Stem-formation of the Presont in the Original Indo-Germanic Language. The work is designed to be suffi ciently clear to be intelligible to a beginner in the newer paths of linguistic study, and at the same time sufficiently complete to be useful to the specialist who wishes to find quickly any detail which may have escaped his memory. The author has well succeeded, though the excessive brevity rendered necessary by the scale of the work is sometimes misleading.
In the number for October 7th, we have a criticism of Van den Gheyn's European Origin of the Aryana, by M. S. Reinach. The author is one of those who combat the theory referred to in the title of his work. The book is a very complete résumé of all the arguments for and against this theory. The argument based on language, viz., that Lithuanian is more nearly related to the original language than Sanskrit, is far from conclusive, even if the foundation were solid in all points, (which it is not). The Canadians speak a more archaic dialect of French than the Parisians, and the Jews of Salonica speak that dialect of Spanish which is nearest to the language of! Cervantes. Similarly are disposed of the Palæontologico-linguistic arguments, founded on the alleged flora and fauna of the Primitive Aryans; the anthropological argument, founded on the equation, Aryana Fair-complexioned Dolichocephalic; the archæological argument, dealing with the Swiss lacustrine cities; and the geographical one, founded on the theory that the Aryans would not have had sufficient pasture in Central Asia. In conclusion, the reviewer,
Die Pluralbildungen der Indogermanischen Neutra. Weimar, Herman Bölau, 1889.
5 Das Præsens der Indogermanischen Grundsprache in seiner Flexion und Stammbildung. Vandenhæck & Ruprecht, 1889.
Göttingen,
395
agreeing with M. Van den Gheyn, adheres to the Asiatic theory, and maintains that it is still better to say nothing about the cradle of the Aryans, and to talk only of the centre of dispersion of Indo-European languages. As Prof. Max Müller remarks, when an ethnographist speaks of an Aryan race, or of Aryan blood, he is committing an error as great as if he spoke of a dolichocephalic dictionary, or a brachycephalic grammar.
Passing over a review by M. S. Lévi of Prof. Darmesteter's Letters on India, which are directed more to the general reader than to the Indian student, and a short but favourable notice by Mr. G. Drouin on Mr. V. Smith's Coinage of the Early Guptas, (in which the reviewer regrets that the author has not added a Plate giving facsimiles of the coin legends, with a comparative alphabet), we come to the last article which will interest readers of the Antiquary - a review by M. V. Henry of Dr. Otto Franke's treatise on Indian Genders. The work contains texts of the
Lingánusasanas of Sakaṭayana, Harshavardhana and Vararuchi, together with extracts from the commentaries of Yakshavarman and Sabarasvamin, and an appendix on Hindû proper names. Each stanza in the text, which is not perfectly clear, has been translated, the portions of the commentaries are well selected, and a copious index enables the reader to find each word wherever it occurs. The introduction occupies half the volume, and in it Dr. Franke describes, amongst other matters, certain Lingdnuédsanas hitherto unknown, and the chronology of the various Lingdnusdsanas, Sakațâyana and Vararuchi. The appendix deals with the principle of the formation of Indo-European proper names, with special reference to those of Greek and Sanskrit-India.
Académie des inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. The Proceedings for 1889 possess few features of interest to Indian scholars. At the meeting of the 4th October, Dr. Leitner described the language, religion and customs of the Hunzas. This wild tribe nominally professes Islamism, but is in reality very far from it. Their religion is connected with that of the famous Hashishin or Assassins, and recognizes a prince, now resident in Bombay, as an incarnation of the deity. Their language is composed of words, each of which expresses an entire group of ideas, and
6
L'origine Européene des Aryas. Paris, Bureaux des Annales de l'hilosophie chrétienne, 1889.
7 Number for October 21st.
8 November 11th.
9 Die Indischen Genuslehren. Kiel, Hæseler, 1890.
