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The Fourth International Congress of Orientalists, held at Florence in September, otherwise in every way a satisfactory and pleasant meeting of one hundred and twenty-seven members of the association, has had a most mournful close by the somewhat sudden death, after only two days' illness, of Professor C. Seager, of the Catholic College, Kensington, on the 18th September. He had been actively engaged in SEZIONE II., Semitica Antica, Ebraico e Assiriologia, of which M. Ernest Renan was President, and on the 14th of September had closed the proceedings of the sitting by some striking and valuable remarks in the Latin language. Every respect was paid to Prof. Seager's remains, by the Government officials and leading men of the city, and by Professor Amari, of Florence, the President of the Congress, and other members, who accompanied them to the railway station, whence they were conveyed to Leghorn under the care of Professor Sayce, of Oxford, who had been unremitting in his attention to his deceased friend during his short illness.

The final meeting of the Congress, which met on the 13th, took place on the 18th of September. Its labours had been entrusted to seven sectional committees. SEZIONE I. Egyptology and African Languages, was presided over by Professor Maspero, of Paris, with Professor Sapeto, of Genoa, and Professor Lieblein, of Christiania, as Vice-Presidents, and the wellknown Egyptologist, M. Ed. Naville, of Geneva, as Secretary. Among its more prominent members were the Abbé Beltrame, of Verona, Mr. Robert Cust, of London, Professors Lenormant and Oppert, of Paris, and Professors Peyron and Schiaparelli, of Turin. The Abbé Beltrame read portions of a paper "On the African Races of the Blue Nile," giving his experiences of his missionary residence of some twelve years in the regions of the White Nile and the Tomat, illustrating the ethnography and linguistics of the native races. This led to an animated discussion on "click" in the pronunciation of many languages of Africa, in order to discover the affinities between the languages to which this phonetic peculiarity belongs. The lucid and sensible observations of the Italian missionary respecting a country, hitherto only visited by English and German travellers, were highly appreciated by his audience.

From the recent discoveries in Central Africa the discussion passed to the study of ancient Egyptian culture, more especially in regard to its relation to that of the West. Most interesting were the explanatory remarks of Canon Fabiani and Professors Lieblein and Lenormant on some Egypto-Phoenician remains lately discovered. The latter considers that Sardinian bronzes are totally distinct from those of Italy and Corsica, resembling more those of the Balearic Islands and the recent discoveries of Dr. Schliemann in the Troad. The Egyptian remains found in Italy and Greece belong to a later date, corresponding to XXVI. dynasty, a period at which Egypt was largely visited by strangers. M. Lenormant thinks that the inscription on the Coupe de Palestrina belongs to the close of the seventh or to the eighth century. The Duc Lancia di Brolo suggests that Phoenician ascendency in Sardinia came from the town of Motya in Sicily, and he hopes to learn soon of important discoveries being made there.

M. Edouard Naville, the Secretary, read a paper on "The Book of the Dead," the publication of an elaborate edition of which was voted by the Congress, of London, in 1874. Several other subjects were introduced by MM. Schiaparelli, Tortoli, Lenormant, Gennarelli, Sapeto, and Hommel, and these closed the labours of Sezione I. In conclusion I must not omit to notice a paper read by M. Letourneaux, of Alexandria, on a Berber Inscription, which greatly elucidated that study.

• It is intended to publish a fuller Report of the Transactions of the Congress in an early number of TRÜBNER'S RECORD.

SEZIONE II.-Ancient Semitic Languages, and Assyriology.-The Semitic studies were arranged in two sections on account of the large number of members, as well as of the many subjects of inquiry. In compliance with the proposition of M. Ernest Rénan, one section was named the Ancient Semitic, and consisted of Hebrew and Assyrian studies, and the other section was devoted to the Study of the Language and Literature of Islamism; otherwise termed the Arabic Section.

The President of the first Section was M. Ernest Rénan, with MM. Merx and Oppert as Vice-Presidents, and M. Perreau, Librarian at Parma, as Secretary. Professor Socin, of Tübingen, was added as Assistant-Secretary. The principal scholars in this division were MM. Cust, Seager, and Sayce, of England; Professors Justi, of Marburg, Hommel, of Munich, Krehl, of Leipsic, Lagus, of Helsingfors, Pertsch, Librarian at Gotha, Prym, of Bonn, and Volck, of Dorpat; and Professors Ascoli, De Benedetti, Castelli, and Lasinio, of Italy, besides many others.

Epigraphic studies mainly occupied this Division. First the President discoursed on a Phoenician Inscription; after which M. FABIANI gave the description of a Latin-Palmerian inscription. M. Lenormant read a paper on a small stone relic, probably a knife or other cutting implement, found in Chaldea, and bearing a Cuneiform inscription of the earliest period, presenting many paleographic peculiarities. A most important communication on epigraphic subjects was that of Professor Ascoli respecting the Hebrew Inscriptions in the Neapolitan Provinces, of which he presented a collection, showing that these supplied a great void in the series of Hebrew Inscriptions. The Minister of Public Instruction was present, and Professor Ascoli expressed in the name of the Congress the desire that this collection of Neapolitan Inscriptions should be issued stematically by the Government. The Minister promised that this desire should be complied with immediately.

Professor SAYCE gave an account of some inscriptions obtained in the recent excavations in Assyria and Babylon, which illustrate the history of the Creation, and other periods of history. MM. Oppert, Rénan, and Lenormant took part in this interesting discussion, which showed that in England the initiatory studies of Rawlinson are followed with great success. M. Rénan then communicated a notice of twenty Phoenician and Aramaic frescoes, discovered by M. Mariette at Abido.

The critical and exegetical study of the Bible had an able exponent in Professor Oppert, in his researches respecting the chronology of Genesis, and the Assyrian inscriptions relating to the Creation. Biblical comments were communicated by MM. De Benedetti, Merx, and Berliner. Professor Hommel spoke on the subject of Semitic lexicography, and Professor Volck about the new edition of the Hebrew lexicon of Professor Gesenius. After this a most lively discussion took place in Latin, between Professors Seager and Volck.

Great applause was accorded to the announcement of Professor Lasinio, as to a new general Catalogue of all the Semitic manuscripts of Italy, some of which were exhibited at the Congress. It is astonishing how great is the number of Semitic Codices preserved in the many Italian libraries. Professor Merx for Germany, and Professor Lenormant for France, suggested that Codices and Italian works on Semitic studies should be made known to the learned world by means of an annual bulletin. The fourth and last meeting of the Semitic section was held on the 17th of September.

SEZIONE III.-The Arabic Section.-This Section opened on the 13th of September, meeting at nine o'clock in the morning, and was continued at the same hour on the 14th, 16th, and 18th. Prof. Schefer, of Paris, presided. Prof. Weil, of Heidelberg, read an interesting paper on the question "Whether Mahomet could read and write?" Astronomy and Geography were of prominent importance in this section, as was to be expected. Belonging to the first, astrolabes were exhibited, and their use illustrated by the Conte Almerigo da Schio; and Professor Meucoi gave an account of an astrolabe found at Florence, and belonging to the eleventh century.

Concerning geography Prof. Lagus spoke at some length on the sources of the Arabian geographer Edrisius, especially in regard to the Balkan lands. The President followed on the new edition of the geography of Edrisius by Prof. Amari and his learned scholar, Prof. Schiapparelli Celestino. Prof. Cusa, the Vice-President, announced his edition of the history of the town of Fez, and discoursed about Western Africa, to which his studies related; while, in relation to historical studies, Prof. Mehren, the other Vice-President, presented his work "Exposé de la Reforme de l'Islamisme commencée au troisième siècle de l'Hegire par Abu'l Hassan Ali Il-Ash'ari.”

Philosophical studies were represented by a paper of the same professor, on A Philosophical Correspondence between the Philosopher Ebn Sahin and the Emperor Frederick II., of Hohenstaufen; and by a paper of Prof. Dieterici, of Berlin, on the Philosophical Studies of the Arabians of the tenth century. M. Sabatier presented a Repertoire des Formes Grammaticales Arabes en Tables Synoptiques. Finally, in relation to the poetry of the Arabians, Prof. Valerga presented his translation of the Divan of Omar ben el Fared, which he compared with the Canzoniere of Petrarca.

These were the principal labours of the Section, whose meetings ended with speeches of the President and of VicePresident Mehren, alluding to the progress of Arabic studies in later times, and to the part taken by Italian scholars in

these studies.

SEZIONE IV.-Indo-European and Iranian Studies -The Indo-European and Iranian Studies were combined in a single section, the fourth, in order to give greater sphere to the Indian Studies, in which the subjects were very numerous, and which consequently had a whole section-the fifth-appropriated to them. This Section was presided over by Prof. Benfey as President and Prof. Ascoli as Vice-President. Meetings were held on the 15th, 16th, and 17th September, at 10 o'clock in the morning. The Iranian Section was that which principally occupied its time, on account of its importance and length. Prof. Ascoli first, and Prof. Oppert afterwards, addressed the Congress at the first meeting. Prof. Ascoli's observations, evincing rare precision and numismatic knowledge, were devoted to eleven Sassanidan coins, which are preserved in the National Museum of Naples. Having pointed out the symbolic character of these coins, and the times And names of the princes to whom they belonged, he classed them in three series: true Sassanidan money; a coin of Sassanidan Kings, put in circulation by the Califfs; and last, coins of Taberistan. The subject, and its manner of atment, were greatly appreciated by the audience.

Prof. OPPERT spoke at some length on the origin of the Cuneiform Persian alphabet, showing that in that language the Tonetic alphabet developed itself from ideographic writing. He attempted to prove that the first letter of a word is nothing else than a reduction of the figure that originally represented the thing itself; for instance, T by the Persian Cuneiform assimilates to the form of house, or its top, called in ancient Persian tac'ara; M represents still the form of a osed fist, ancient Persian musti; P resembles the number representing five, ancient Persian panc'a. In this manner one finds that nine ideographic figures had been the origin of the Cuneiform Iranian alphabet. He next proceeded to the explanation of syllabic combinations, in order to test his observations with several etymologies.

After this the meeting was addressed by Prof. GORI, who exhibited photographs of the discoveries at Spoleto, and of a Mitreum, which he accompanied with explanatory observations.

M. WELIAMINOFF exhibited a collection of Musulman arms, with inscriptions and names, which greatly assist philological and historical researches.

Prof. I. PEZZI read a paper on the Zend radical Karet, in the names of dagger or knife in Asia and Europe, seeking to rove by linguistic arguments that the most famous Oriental nations, except the Assyrians, did not use swords, but only arms of a short kind, thus showing the importance of philological researches as aids to prehistoric science.

One of the most valuable communications, as was to be expected from such a great scholar, was that of Prof. SCHIEFNER, on certain peculiarities of the Caucasian language, of which he analyzed the morphology, finding them similar in their grammatical organization to European languages, as the Latin and German. He discoursed especially on the language husch, and its relation to the Tshetshenz language.

The communication of Prof. Schiefner elicited an observation from Prof. AscOLI, in which he elucidated the phenomenon called by Prof. Schiefner inner flexion, as produced by phonetic reflexion of a following assimilated element to the named flexion.

The last meeting was dedicated entirely to the languages of the Gipsies. Professor BALBU COSTANTINESCU, of ucarest, gave the sketch of a work by himself, on the language used by the Gipsies of Roumania; and he placed before the ngress a specimen of his treatment of the subject: Probe de limba si literatura Tiganilor din Romania, historical, literary,

and philological. About the special suffix -ja, expressing the "sociable" case, that Prof. Costantinescu thinks he discovered in the Gipsy languages of Roumania, Professor ASCOLI observed that the suffix -ja may be only a phonetical lengthening of the suffix -a derived from the ancient -sa.

Mr. LELAND wound up the discussion with a communication on the dialect of the English Gipsies, for which the VicePresident thanked him in the name of the Section.

At the close of the meeting, a paper was read by Mr. BRANDRETH, in which are traced the analogies in the historical development of modern Ario-Indian or Gaurian, and of the Neo-Latin languages. These analogies seem, in the exact and careful communication of Mr. Brandreth, to be very numerous, the greater part of the grammatical categories and phonetical peculiarities from which the evolution was determined of the two classical languages, belonging also to their followers. This interesting paper was accompanied with a request to Italian philologists, relating to the quantity of the vowel -a- in fixed conditions; to which Professor Flechia answered most satisfactorily.

Want of time prevented the reading of other papers announced by Professor Ascoli: Sulle Unitá subalterne delle Lingue Indo-Europée; by Wsevolod Miller, Saltini, and Professor Baudouin de Courtenay; which will all be published in the Acts of the Congress.

This Section was the most numerously attended, and consisted of 37 members. The Secretaries were Professor Kerbaker and Professor Pullé. Beyond the members already mentioned were Dr. Brunnhofer, of Aarau; Professor De Gubernatis (who presented his book on The Mythology of Plants), Professor De Vincentiis, and Professor Ferrai, Italy; Professor Justi, of Marburg; Dr. Leitner, of Lahore; Dr. John Muir, of Edinburgh; Professor Pertsch, Librarian, of Gotha; Dr. C. Piehl, of Sweden; Professor Rost, Professor Sayce, and Mr. Nicolas Trübner, of England; Professor Teza, of Pisa, and Professor Villari, of Florence.

SEZIONE V.-Indian Studies.-In this section were Professor Roth, of Tübingen, as President, Professors Weber and Flechia as Vice-Presidents; and as Secretaries Dr. da Cunha and Professor Pullé. There were 23 members, among whom, Professor Benfey, of Göttingen; Dr. Brofferio of Milan; Mr. Cust, Dr. Hyde Clarke, Colonel Pearse, Mr. Fenton, the Rev. James Long, Professor Sayce, and Mr. Nicolas Trübner, of England; Professor de Rosny, of Paris; Professor Schiefner, of St. Petersburg; MM. F. Scerbo and A. de Rada, two young students of the Superior College of Florence, and the Dr. Barone Sardagna of Padua. Meetings were held every day at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Professor ROTH communicated a most interesting account of a manuscript of the Atharvaveda, which is totally different to those hitherto known. This difference is such that one is warranted in saying that the subject is treated in quite a fresh manner. It presents the readings of the Caunakiya school, which being expelled (verdrängt) by the Paippalâda school, found refuge in Cashmere, where it continued in safety, but ignored. And indeed the present manuscript was found in Crinagara, written in another character than the Devanagari, not known in Europe, and retained only at Crinagara, where it is called Sarada. By Dr. John and Sir William Muir the manuscript was brought to Professor Roth, and this codex furnishes to the student of the Atharvaveda invaluable aid in his researches.

In support of what the President, Professor Roth, stated about the characters used in the manuscript, Dr. Leitner presented an inscription in stone of the same character, found at Crinagara by himself. He said that till now only two sach inscriptions are known, and that after he had searched for others most diligently, he could not find any more in that place. About the language and about the discoveries made in Cashmere, he gave most interesting particulars, having personally investigated them on the spot.

At the second meeting two papers were read, and listened to with great interest by all present. These were (1) by Dr. J. Gerson da Cunha, of Goa, on the history of the Sanskrit researches of the Portuguese; and (2) by Mr. R. Cust, on the Non-Aryan languages of East India.

After this two propositions were generally approved by the meeting-the first suggested by the Rev. James Long, to promote a collection of proverbs, especially in India, which would lead to the comparative study of Oriental nations; to which Mr. De Rosny and Colonel Pearse added suggestive additions. The second proposition, highly approved by all, and especially by Professor Weber, was made by Dr. R. Rost suggesting the publication of the second volume of the Manuscript of the late Dr. Blochmann's translation of the Ain-i-Akbari.

At the final meeting Dr. Brofferio read a most valuable paper on comparative mythological psychology of the IndoEuropean nations, founded chiefly on myths and legends. As connected with these investigations Professor Pullé pre

sented his volume of Tales of the Jainas, in the press at Florence, together with his Crestomazia Sanscrita e Vedica published at Padua, as specimens of the new Devanagari presses of Florence and Padua. The labours of the Section were closed with an expression of the wish that the Governor-General of India would accord his sanction and aid to the collection of proverbs and popular legends and tales; and in general to the European researches in India. At this meeting a paper by Mr. Hyde Clarke on the Ceremonial Languages of the tribe Lepcha was also read.

SEZIONE VI.-Altaic Studies.-The attendance at this Section was less than at the others, notwithstanding that the most celebrated scholars were on the committee, as, for instance, the President Weliaminoff-Zernoff; Professors Vámbéry and Teza. Vice-Presidents; Professors Bérezine, von der Gabelentz, Lesoueff, De Rosny, Schiefner and Volck. Only two meetings were held, on the 16th and 17th. At the first Professor Vámbéry read a memoir relating to a work of his on the primitive culture of the Turco-Tartarean, to which Professor Schiefner and the President added some valuable remarks. At the second meeting the Secretary, Professor Donner, spoke on the affinity of the Samoyede language with the Finnic, followed by a discussion in which Professors Schiefner and von der Gabelentz took part. The Session closed with a learned communication from Professor Teza on the attempt to explain the Cris language by means of the Algonquin, and on the result of his own investigations.

SEZIONE VII.-Chinese and Yamatological.-Professor Legge was elected President of the Chinese and the Yamatological Section. After an introductory oration delivered in Latin, the President read a paper on the state of Chinese studies. Professor von der Gabelentz spoke as to the possibility of establishing affinity between the Indo-Chinese languages; and Professor De Rosny gave some interesting extracts as to the proofs of the ethnographical affinity of the Indo-Chinese and the Malayas, from ancient Chinese authorities. After this M. Andreozzi communicated his translation of the names of a number of products of natural history, found in the Pen tsao kang mou (different things under the same name). Messrs. De Rosny and Wylie added some remarks, the latter showing the value of these works, in regard to increased knowledge on the development of Chinese lexicology. On the earliest European Sinologist, M. Ricci, M. Nocentini read a memoir, and M. Cordier presented a catalogue of the Jesuits who have visited China, since the death of Francis Xavier up to 1872. Several other interesting communications were made, including a most valuable one on the ancient Corean language by Mr. Wylie; and another on the Manchu language by Mr. Hoffmann.

Among other eminent members of this Section we have still to mention Dr. Berman Berend, Professor von der Gabelentz; Dr. Grube. of St. Petersburg; M. Lesoueff, M. Tomasoni, of Padua, and others. Professor Severini, of the Superior College, of Florence, who was not present at the Congress, was elected Honorary President of this Section; he was, however, represented by M. Nocentini and Professor Puini, two of his pupils.

The labours of the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists ended with the assemblage of the 18th, held at 3 o'clock, in the hall of the Senate, in which also the introductory meeting was held. A most distinguished public attended it. The speeches of the President of the Congress, of Professor Michele Amari, and of Professor De Gubernatis, were greatly applauded, and it was settled by common consent that the next Congress is to be held in Germany in three years. After the speech of M. Ernest Rénan, thanking the city of Florence for its hospitality, the Congress was dissolved.

This final meeting derived additional interest by the reading, by Professor Ascoli, of the official communication as to the prize offered by the Italian Minister for the best work, "On the Vicissitudes of Aryan Civilization in India," being adjudged to M. H. Zimmer, of Castellaun, in Rhenish Prussia, for the half of it (2500 it. lire); to Mahadeva Moreshwar Kunte, B.A., Fellow of the University of Bombay, for the third-tenth (1500 it. lire); to Pranatha Nath Bose, University College, London, and to Dr. J. Gerson da Cunha for a tenth (500 it. lire) to both. F. L. PULLÉ.