________________
426
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
DECEMBER, 1891.
4. On some Witty Etymologies of the Sarts, by N. Ostroumof. The article gives some instances of alterations by the common folk in the names and titles of Russian officials in Turkist&n. The name of the late Governor-General, Tchernjajef, the Sarte pronounced as Shir-naib (the Lion's Representative): the title “Procuror" (Attorney General) they pronounce " Birkurar" and explain it as the title of a person who at once sees and decides," (Bir-Kurar). General (Jandaral) they explain as alash, Jandar Ali, &c."
5. A stone document of the Conquest of Korea by the Manjúrs, by A. Pozdnejef. This is a text and translation of an inscription in Manja and Mongol relating to the conquest of Korea by the Manjurs. The text was published in the September Number (1889) of the Journal of the China Branch, R. A. S., with a note promising an edition of the Chinese text and asking persons acquainted with Manja to give explanations on this part of the text. In answer to this Prof. Pozdnejef undertook a translation, and found out that, besides the Manja, there is also a Mongol text, in some points differing from the Manjů. The inscription is interest. ing from two points of view; (1) as furnishing us with some new facts on the relations between Korea and China, and (2) as offering us the hitherto oldest known specimen of Manja writing, the inscription being only seven years posterior to the introduction of the Manja alphabet, which took place definitively in 1632. To the last point we may now add that Prof. Pozdnejef has since found in the Paris National Library a very interesting MS. relating the udaptation of the Mongol Alphabet to the Manja Language. A detailed account of this MS. will shortly be published.
6. Contribution to the bibliography of the Kalmuck folktales. N. Vesselofsky. In a short note the author points to a translation of the popular poem of Jangar, by M. Bobrovnikof in the Imp. Russ. Geographical Society's Messenger for 1354, omitted by Prof. Pozdnejef in his last article, and to the Kalmuck (Qalmaq) tales collected by Lehr in Russian and published at Moscow in 1873.
II.-Persia. 1. Some notes on the Parsi Schools in Persia. 4. Orlof. - This is a translation, with some ex.
planatory notes, of an article, signed by four Persian Parsis and dated 19th September, 1884, in an Ispahận newspaper, called Farhang. Accord ing to the article, there were then in Yezd 6,737 Parsis, showing some increase as compared with the 6,483 in 1879 (according to Houtum-Schindler). There were 7 schools with 402 pupils, and in one of these schools the Avesta and Pahlavi were taught. " It would be very interesting to know how this teaching is going on," remarks M. Orlof, and he quotes an article of M. Shukofsky (Journal of the Public Instruction Office for 1885), to show that, so early as in the reign of Muhammad Shah, a beginning had been made of teaching these languages, which was, however, unfortunately unsuccessful. So far as one can judge from the scanty information we have as to the position of the Parsis in Persia, the teaching is improving, chiefly through the help of their Indian brethren.
2. Persian versions of the old Russian tale called "Shemjaka's Judgment," by V. Shukofsky. This is a tale, which once had a wide circulation both in the East and West. It relates the story of a man, who, by a series of accidents, gets accused of many crimes and is liberated by a wise judge, who, in some versions, pronounces his judgment from a sense of justice, and in others in expectation of a bribe. The oldest known version is in the Jatakas. M. Shukofsky gives two Persian versions, one in verse, from a chap-book (text and translation), and the other in prose (translation only, as the text was published in a Persian lithographed Reading-book in St. Peters. burg in 1869).
(3). Indo-Persian humour, by V. Shukofsky. In this article are quoted some satirical verses from an Indo-Persian Tazkira called
. The verses relating the wonderful feats of a sham hero, are ascribed to a certain Ja'fir, the jester.' This little poem is a delightful pendant to the Persian folksong treating of the same subject, published by M. Shukofsky in Vol. I. of the Zapisky.
III.-India. 1. Popular dramatic entertainments at the Holi festival in Almôrá. I. P. Minayef. - This account of twelve dramatic entertainments was found in the papers of the late Prof. Minayef, who wrote them down most probably from the mouth
[It is interesting to note that precisely the same process goes on in Burma, among the joke-loving population there, as regards British officials. Mr. Lightning is a title common to one or two quick-tempered officials. As to folk-etymologies of European names and words in India, they are simply innumerable.-ED.]
• Prof. Pozdnejef is printing an account of the wars
between the Manja and Korea.
* See ante, Vol. XX. p. 87a.
o Gamanichandajafaha, translated by the Rev. R. Morris in the Folklore Journal, and analysed and partly translated by Mr. C. Tawney in the Journal of Philology. A list of the different versions of this tale has been published by the present writer.
