criticism of a larger number of readers than at present; for, unfortunately, the "serious" study of this grand Oriental tongue does not command the attention which its importance justifies. In the meanwhile, a word may be said on its particular contents, the table of which will be found in English as well as Arabic in the volume now before us.

Besides the Introduction the work is divided into eighty chapters varying in length, but averaging nearly four pages each. About half the number treat of Religion and Belief, Customs, Literature, and Laws; and half of Astronomy, Geography, and General Science. An example has already been given of the Editor's analysis of Albirúní's style: but this will scarcely be needed by those who have become familiar with the "Chronology of Ancient Nations"—a book which, whatever merit may be accorded to it in the original, is in the translation a marvellous record of industry and scholarship. Something of presumption might perhaps be attributed to a reviewer of the original text, were he to anticipate its Editor's promised translation and put forward a specimen by quotation in an English dress; but the charge could hardly be held to apply to the three or four opening lines of a chapter selected at random, which will suffice to show the train of the author's ideas and spirit in which he writes, and further, the tone in which a Muslim who lived some nine hundred years ago could adopt in reference to Christianity:

من

الخد

في العقوبات و الكفارات-مثال الحال فيهم على شبيه بحال النصرانية فانها مبنية على الخير وكفّ الشر من ترك القتل اصلا القمصان خلف غاصب الطيلسان وتمكين لاطم الخد ورمی الاخرى و الدعاء للعدو بالخير و الصلوات عليه و هي لعمرى سيرة فاضلة و لكن أهل الدنيا ليسوا بفلاسفة كلهم و انما اكثرهم جمال ضلال لا يقومهم غير السيف و السوط و مذ تنصر قسطنطينوس المظفّر لم من الحركة فبغيرهما لاتتم السياسة كذلك الهند. كلا هما

يسترح

which may be thus interpreted:-" Chapter 71, On Punish"ments and Expiations.

66

"Their state (i.e. doctrinal position of the Indians) resembles "that of Christianity; for it is based upon (the principle "of) doing good and abstaining from evil; as (for instance) absolutely refraining from the infliction of death, throwing "one's tunic to the snatcher of one's cloak,' turning the one "cheek to the smiter of the other, and praying for and bless"ing one's enemies. Such, by my life, is a noble rule of "conduct! But worldly people are not all philosophers, and, "indeed, the greater part are ignorant and transgressors. "The sword and scourge can alone restrain them, and since "the conversion of the Conqueror2 Constantine, these (two agencies) are in constant operation; for without them the regulation of society (administration of justice) cannot be "accomplished. Thus it is with India . . ."

It need hardly be pointed out that Albirúní, in writing this, must have had in mind the verses in St. Matthew v., wherein are the words, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," and "If any man will . . . take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." How little the existence of an Oriental author of this stamp has been taken into account by Western teachers until comparatively recent years, may be readily understood by reference to pamphlets and periodicals embodying the conceptions of the day, which have appeared at any time since the institution of printing up to the dawn of the nineteenth century. But an age has been reached, one of the main characteristics of which is a search after truth; and it is not impossible that among

1 One meaning of many to be found in dictionaries. I had originally written "scarf." The word used is táilasan, evidently borrowed from the Persian at or talshán or ta/sán “a kind of coif wrapped round the head, with a lappet or sash hanging down" (Johnson). Mr. H. C. Kay, who has kindly revised the whole translation of the above extract, calls attention to the fact that De Sacy renders it by manteau, the same interpretation given by Baron de Slane;

66

طَيَلسَة طَيْلسَان طَيْلِسَاَنَّ “ : and I find the following in Freytag

(plurimi ex Persico et, alii exortum esse dicunt vocem). Amiculum, fere ex pilis caprinis vel camelinis contextum, quod humero injectum dependet de dorso, vel etiam capiti impositum deorsum promittitur: quale philosophi et religiosi, imprimis apud Persas, usurpare velut pro insigni solent. Inde Arabes convicii causa dicunt.e. Persa et Barbare!"

2 I have translated muzaffar literally: it may simply imply an Arabic equivalent for the common designation of "the Great."

its salient features will be a re-action in favour of Muhammadanism generally. In such case the danger, at the outset, would seem to lie in the investment of the new cause with a robe of honour to which it has no just claim. When worthy Muslim thinkers do appear, we should be thankful that there arise Sachaus in after centuries to recall their appearances, lest indeed-to use the magnificent images of the Apocrypha-they pass away "like a shadow, and as a post that hasted by;" or as a ship whereof "the pathway of the keel in the waves cannot be found; or "as when an arrow is shot at a mark, it parteth the air which immediately cometh together again, so that a man cannot know where it went through." But it must be remembered that Albirúnís are few and far between.

1

1 Wisdom, chap. v. 9. 10. 12.

CORRESPONDENCE.

1. THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF AFRICA.

December 5th, 1887.

SIR,-In the last issue of the Journal, I announced the forthcoming publication, by the Roman Catholic Missionaries of Senegambia, of a Dictionary of the Susu language. I was then unaware of the fact that this book had already been published two years ago, and I have only just found it out from a German Catalogue of second-hand books. The Dictionnaire français-8080 et soso-français, to which are prefixed a grammatical sketch and a collection of common phrases, will prove a very valuable Handbook of this language, which is spoken along the coast between the Rio-Nuñez and Sierra-Leone. The author is the Rev. P. RAIMBAULT, and the work, though printed in Paris, has been issued by the Mission du Rio-Pongo, Vicariat apostolique de Sierra-Leone, 1885.

What the said Missionaries were going to publish was really a practical Grammar of the Bambara language, which has now been issued (Eléments de la Grammaire Bambara, etc. 1 vol. 16mo. vii. and 218 pp., Saint-Joseph de Ngasobil, 1887). It contains numerous exercises with lists of words, and it is followed by some texts with a Bambara-French Dictionary: this is the most complete and elaborate work ever published on that interesting language.

I must also quote here a little work, issued by the same Missionaries in 1880, which is not noticed in Cust's Modern Languages of Africa, and which would prove very useful to Englishmen, because it contains an English translation of all words and sentences; its title is (in French and in English) as follows: Guide of the Con

versation in four languages, ENGLISH-WOLOF-FRENCH-SARAR, 1 vol. 32mo. 329 pp., Saint-Joseph de Ngasobil, 1880.

The Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society.

CAPT. T. G. DE GUIRAUDON.

2. NOTES ON AFRICAN PHILOLOGY.

December 20th, 1887.

SIR,-Amongst the Notes contributed by the Hon. Sec. to the last issue of the Journal, I read as follows:

The

"Vocabularies of the Hadendoa and Beni Amir.Hadendoa is a Dialect of the Bishári language, of the Hamitic group (see page 126 of Cust's Modern Languages of Africa, 1883). The Bani Amír are wrongly entered as a Dialect of the same language, but the Vocabulary shows that the language is Semitic, and akin to the Tigré of Abyssinia."

So, if I understand rightly, we are told by Dr. Cust himself that he has been wrong in entering the Beni Amír as a Dialect of the Bishári language: we shall see hereafter that this statement should really be understood in a way quite different from that suggested by the phrase quoted above.

I must observe, in the first place, that Bani Amir, or, more correctly, Beni Amer, is a plural ethnic tribal name (Hebrew Amrim), meaning "Sons of Amer," and I fail to understand how the "Sons of Amer" could be styled a Dialect. We could not say that the Dutchmen are a Dialect. With regard to these Beni Amer, as the Vocabulary alluded to has not yet been published, I must postpone my opinion on the question whether the language is Hamitic or Semitic. But both suppositions are possible: for some of the Beni Amer, who are of Tigréan descent, have preserved their original Semitic dialect, while the rest of them now speak a Hamitic dialect (see W. Munzinger's Ostafrikanische Studien and Vocabulaire de la langue Tigré). Therefore, if Dr. Cust confesses himself wrong in entering the Beni Amer as a dialect of the Bishari language, he would have rightly corrected himself by entering their name as that of a tribe speaking partly a dialect of