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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1895.
nants of the side-stroke and of the central vertical or slanting stroke. But they have been placed on the left, instead of on the right. The mutilation of the letter is no doubt due, as has been suggested by others, to the introduction of the vowel signs, which would have given awkward forms, and the fact of the mutilation is indicated by its size, which is always much smaller than that of the other Kharoshthi signs. The curved head appears in the Saqqarah Mem, which I have chosen for comparison, as well as on Babylonian Seals and Gems (Euting, Col. 8 e) and in the Carpentras inscription (Euting, Col. 13 c), and the later forms from Palmyra prove that it must have been common. The Mem of the Papyri are again much more cursive and unsuited for comparison.
No. 13. Regarding na (Col. III. a), which is clearly the Nun of the Saqqarah (Col. I. a-b) Teima, Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, it need be only pointed out that the forms of the Papyri are also in this case further advanced than those of the Kharôshthi. The na, given in Col. III. b, is a peculiar Indian development, not rare in the Asôka Edicts.
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No. 14. The identity of sa with the Aramaic Samech (Col. I.) has hitherto not been recognised. Nevertheless, the not uncommon form of sa with the polygonal or angular head, given in Col. III., permits us to assert that also in this case the Gandharians used for the notation of their dental sibilant the sign which one would expect to be employed for the purpose. The top atroke and the upper portion of the right side of the Kharôshthi sa correspond very closely to the upper hook of the Samech of Teima, being only made a little broader. The little slanting bar in the centre of the Samech may be identified with the downward stroke, attached to the left of the top line of sa, and the lower left side of sa appears to be the corresponding portion of the Samech, turned round towards the left in order to effect a connexion with the downward stroke. These remarks will become most easily intelligible, if the component parts of the two letters are separated. Then we have for Samech and for sa 7. The forms, in which the right portion of the head of sa is rounded, are of course cursive. The Teima form of the Samech with the little horn at the left end of the top stroke is unique in the older inscriptions. But the Palmyrenian letters (Euting, Cols. 24-29, 32-33, 37, 39-40), though otherwise considerably modified, prove that the Samech with an upward twist must have been common. Finally, the corresponding Nabatean characters (Eating, Cols. 46-47), are almost exactly the same as the Kharôshthi sa and shew that the changes, assumed above, are easy and have actually been made again in much later times. The signs of the Papyri are again far advanced and unsuited for comparison.
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM. BY J. M. CAMPBELL, C.LE., I.C.S.
(Continued from p. 267.)
Kiss. The sense of the religious or ceremonial kiss seems to be that in a kiss a spirit passes. The cases of kissing detailed below come under the four following main heads: (a) In the kiss the kisser draws to himself and so imprisons the sickness or ill-luck that haunts the kissed; (b) the kisser passes to the kissed the kisser's virtue or lucky influence which scares from the kissed the spirit of evil; (c) the kisser with a kiss sucks into himself the healing influence of the holy kissed; (d) the same spirit passes between the kisser and the kissed.
In an English Court of Law the order to the witness to kiss the Book or Bible which he holds-in his hand means that in the oath the swearer has called God to witness that he speaks the truth. By the kiss the spirit of truth passes from the Book, whose word is truth, into the swearer, and, if the witness lies, this outraged indwelling spirit of truth will rend him to destruction. That in certain cases the object of kissing is to suck the virtue or good influence of the person kissed, is shewn in eighteenth-century England by the eagerness of pregnant
