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MISCELLANEA.
DECEMBER, 1891.]
town, founded chiefly on the large work of Weljaminof-Zernof, entitled The Tsars and Tearéviches of Kassimof.
4. Persian, Arabic and Turkish MSS. in the Tashkent Library (Russian), by E. Kahl.-A description of 87 MSS. The chief interest lies in the historical part of the Persian MSS., where some good and old copies of interesting works are to
be found.
5. Journal of the East-Siberian Section of the Geographical Society, Ethnographical Section, Vol. I., p. I., Buriat Folktales (Russian). A very carefully made collection of 51 folktales, with interesting notes and excellent indices.
6. Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum, Vol. IX., by Stanley Lane Poole. An excellent catalogue of a splendid collection; in this volume we find more than 200 inedited coins. On pp. 312-313 the reviewer proposes to read
as the b is clearly to be ايش instead of ايش
seen on two dindre in the Museum of Baron Stieglitz. Other different readings are proposed.
7. Modern Persian Comedies, etc., edited by Dr. A. Wahrmund. No. I, Monsieur Jourdan, with German translation, notes and glossary. These comedies, which first appeared in a Russian shape (Tiflis, 1853), were translated into Turkish (ib. 1860) and lastly into Persian (1874). They are very bad representatives of modern Persian, and in many passages are only adaptations of the Turkish, and even of the Russian, original. From this point of view they can be hardly welcome, and are not to be put in the hands of beginners. The reviewer gives some corrections to text, translation and glossary.
8. Glossary of Iberian and Latin words used by the Mozarabes, etc. (Spanish,) by D. F. J. Simonet. The first part of the book is an ardent panegyric of the Mozarabes (Mosarabs), who, according to the author, have created the so-called Arabic civilisation in Spain. The somewhat too passionate argument does not always sufficiently reason out many other facts, which indeed do not quite corroborate the fundamental idea of the author.
The second part is the Glossary, which is quite on a par with the first part. It is not everybody that will agree with D. Simonet's conclusions, but to all Arabic scholars, interested in the history of Spain, it will give much useful information.
9. The Tale of a certain Old Man (Russian), by Ch. Loparef. This is a diary of a voyage to the Holy Land in the XVIth Century, by a Russian. M. Loparef has edited the text with
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copious notes. Two postscripts on the MS. are interesting, as giving some facts of the intercourse between Russia and Turkey at that time. Appended to the Review is a notice by Baron Rosen on the word Tchelebi, which occurs in one of the postscripts. From different explanations he adopts that of Aḥmed-Vefik-Pasha in his Lehjehi-Othmanich. Cheleb goes back to Persian Chelipd, which goes back to the Syriac Tslíbá (the Cross). Cf. Arab. The learned Pâsha is wrong only in referring its origin to the time of Christian influence in the reign of Changêz Khân. We know now that this influence is to be dated much earlier, from the time of the first Nestorian missionaries. In this way we have, as the oldest meaning of the word, "Man of the Cross," Christian. As the first who adopted the Christian faith were persons of high and even of royal descent, it was afterwards applied to them, and still later, as a designation of all educated people. The oldest hitherto known mention of this interesting word is from 1313. More facts will enable us to decide the question definitively.
10. A Historical Grammar of the Modern Armenian language of Tiflis (Russian), by A. Thomson. This is a perfectly worthless, unscientific compilation, written without any knowledge of the most elementary principles of philology. The painful impression produced by M. Thomson's book is greatly relieved by a series of most interesting philological notes by the reviewer (M. Marr).
11. Journal of the East-Siberian Section of the Geographical Society, Vol. I. Parts 2 and 3. Vol. II. p. 1. (a) Buriat legends, Yakut folktales, songs, riddles and proverbs (collected by T. A. Khudjakaf) (b) New materials bearing on the Shamanism of the Buriats (by M. Khangalof in Russian); copious materials, carefully collected.
12. Journal of the Society of Investigation of the Amûr Country, Vol. I. (Russian). This recently founded Society has started a periodical. The contents of its first number are interesting. We may point out an article of the President, M. Busse, "On Archæological remains in the valleys of Lefû, Daubikhe and Oulakhe." The report of the Society tells us that it has an Archæological Museum with 285 objects.
13. The Sarts, Ethnographical Notes. Vol. I., by N. Ostroumof. A series of articles.(1) Historical and Ethnographical notes on the Sarts. (2) Characteristics of the Sarts; (3) Russian Influence; (4) Reminiscences of Sattar Khân 'Abdul-ghafarof; (5)A description of the journey of the
7 It is adopted from the same source by M. Barbier de Meynard in his Dictionary.
