NOTES OF THE QUARTER.

(September, October, November.)

I. REPORTS OF MEETINGS OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, SESSION 1887-88.

First Meeting, 21st November, 1887.-Sir THOMAS WADE, K.C.B., President, in the Chair.

There were elected as Resident Members: Macar David, Esq., Modan Gopal, Esq., Francis Hewitt, Esq., Sadder-uddin Khan, Rang Lal, Esq.; and as Non-Resident Members: the Very Rev. Dean Butcher, D.D., Syed Ali Bilgrami, E. G. W. Senathi Raja, Henry Cousins, Esq., Ernest A. Floyer, Esq., Spencer Pratt, Esq., Philip R. Valladares, Esq.

The Secretary, in the absence of the author, read an abstract of a paper by Dr. Edkins on "Foreign Elements in Early Japanese Mythology," in which it was argued that there were distinct traces of fire-worship and other Persian ideas in ancient Chinese history, and that the Japanese in borrowing from China had also adopted Persian ideas. Quotations were given from the legend of Izanagi and Izanami, and other myths, and the conclusion drawn that the Persian elements in Japanese religion were: 1. That the dual principle is made the basis of the universe; 2. That many powerful spirits were formed before the physical universe; 3. That things were created in the same order; 4. That the Japanese goddess Amaterasu is a form of the Persian Mith-ras; 5. That the great angels ruling the wind, fire, earth, water, wood, etc., resemble the Persian; 6. The purification ceremonies; 7. The dedication of white horses in their sun-temples.

Mr. SATOW said: I do not think any one who has carefully studied the early literature of Shintōism will deny that it contains

foreign elements, especially since the publication of Mr. Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki in the tenth vol. of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. He has pointed out the influence which Chinese ideas had in the composition of that book, and the Nihon Shoki, to which Dr. Edkins refers more than once, contains a much larger portion borrowed evidently from China. Since it is undoubted that the Japanese had no written language before the introduction of Chinese learning, it seems very natural that in committing to writing their legends, which to them were a part of history, they should, either wilfully or unconsciously, have copied their masters. Native Shintoists of the last two centuries have looked on the Nihon Shoki as corrupt, and they base their accounts of the primitive religion mainly upon the Kojiki and the rituals contained in the Engishiki. The last are almost entirely pure Japanese in style, and are probably among the oldest compositions in the language. They were used in religious services, but there seems to me to be no evidence that the myths of the Kojiki were ever chanted by priests as Dr. Edkins conjectures. In saying that the rituals are among the oldest specimens of the language, I must, however, add that the poems embedded in the text of the Kojiki, and some of those contained in the collection entitled Manyō Shu, are of equally great antiquity. Later on Shinto was greatly influenced by Buddhism and probably Tauism, but this is beside the present question. What Dr. Edkins has tried to do is to get at the earliest form of Shintō, and trace in it Persian elements. It is unfortunate, therefore, that he should have relied so much on the Nihon Shoki, which, as said before, is not so much Japanese as Chinese in tone.

One personal explanation I think myself entitled to make. Dr. Edkins asserts that I say the mirror is not found in Shinto temples unless they have been under the influence of Buddhism. He has slightly misunderstood me. What I did say was that the mirror hanging in front of Shinto temples was Buddhist, and it is evident, from my account of the emblem of the sun-goddess, that I never meant to assert that the mirror was Buddhist. As far as one can see, with the old Japanese the sword was the commonest emblem of the male sex, as the mirror was that of the female.

The identification of seven elements in the Persian religion and in that of the early Japanese is certainly ingenious; but I think it is erroneous to state that white horses are dedicated to the sungoddess. They are or were to be found at the temples of many

other deities, e.g. at the temple of Hachiman at Kamakura. I think it would not be difficult to point out as many fortuitous resemblances between Shintō and Judaism.

I have elsewhere given reasons for thinking that the origin of Shinto was ancestor-worship, and that the worship of fire, wind, and other powers of nature dates from after the introduction of Buddhism. I would not however be understood to mean that these portions of the Shinto practice are borrowed from Buddhism.

Everything goes to show that the Japanese islands were peopled long before the neighbouring state of Corea became civilized; whether they be a homogeneous people descended from a section of the race to which the Coreans belong, or whether they come from an amalgamation of settlers from Corea with a later immigration of Malays or Polynesians, is an open question. But whatever they knew they brought with them from their home on the Continent, and probably developed during a long period of isolation into the civilization they possessed at the time of the introduction of Chinese letters. No date earlier than about 300 or 400 A.D. can be regarded as authentic, and to assume, as Dr. Edkins does, that the Japanese chronology is to be implicitly accepted when they make Jimmu ascend the throne in 660 в c. seems to me somewhat extraordinary, seeing that a mere perusal of the tables of Japanese history from Jimmu downwards for about 1000 years, shows that the whole is incredible. That a person afterwards canonized as the Divine Warrior (Jimmu) did lay the foundations of the Japanese monarchy one can hardly doubt, since everything must have a beginning. But if anything is to be assumed, on the basis of the early history of the Japanese, it is that Jimmu reigned about the 1st century A.D. I will not say that it is much more trustworthy than the history of Britain before the Roman Conquest, but even if you accept the orthodox succession of sovereigns, at any rate you cannot swallow the chronology.

Mr. Dickins thought with Mr. Satow that the early history of Japan was quite unworthy of trust. The mythology, as we have it, was so mixed up with Buddhism and Taouism, that it was extremely difficult to eliminate the autochthonous elements from the mass, for even these had almost always been preserved with a foreign colouring. It struck him that the method lately applied by Mr. Chamberlain to the investigation of place-names might with profit be applied to that of the myth-names of primitive Japan. As an instance, simply by way of illustration, the case of

Nikko was cited, a Sinico-Japanese place-name, now written with two characters, signifying the glory of the sun, but anciently with characters of somewhat similar sound signifying in Japanese futa ara, two storms, from a myth that two storms yearly issued from a cave in Nantai Futa ara might be a Japanese pronunciation of an Aino name, hence the last-mentioned myth, while the ceasing of the storms, when Kōbō changed ni kō (futa ara) into nikkō, sun's glory, was involved in the latter name. In Dr. Edkins's hypothesis Mr. Dickins could see no force whatever.

The discussion was continued by Mr. Bouverie-Pusey and Mr. Freeland, and was closed by the President.

II. PROCEEDINGS OF ASIATIC OR ORIENTAL SOCIETIES.

ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL.

1st June, 1887.-Five copper and one forged silver coin forwarded by the Deputy Commissioner of Rawal Pindi were submitted with a report by Mr. Rodgers.

In was announced that Mr. Smith's Index to General Cunningham's Archæological Report was nearly ready, and would be issued as vol. xxiv. of the series.

Papers by Dr. Führer on three grants of Govinda Chandra Deva (twelfth century), and by C. J. Rodgers, Esq., on the coinage of the kings of Ghazni, were read. They will be published in the Journal.

6th July, 1887.-Dr. Rajendralala Mitra exhibited a copper plate received from Mr. Metcalfe, the Commissioner of Orissa.

Mr. Rodgers wrote concerning coins he had purchased and archæological discoveries he had made. Of the latter one was a group of rock-cut temples near Kangra, hitherto unknown.

Dr. Rajendralala Mitra and the Babu Sarat Chandra Das, C.I.E., read papers on Ekoţibhāva, on which a discussion followed. The Babu's paper is the same as appeared in the Academy of December the 3rd, with remarks by Professor Max Müller and Professor Rhys Davids.

Mr. Oliver read a paper on the Safwi dynasty of Persia and their coins.

Mr. Smith read a paper on sixteen gold coins of Chandra Gupta II. and Kumāra Gupta Mahendra found in Gorakhpur.

3rd August, 1887.-Mr. Bruce Foote, of the Geological Survey, read a paper on prehistoric remains in South India.

Mr. Beveridge, C.S., read a paper on the era of Lakshmana Sena.

Babu Sarat Chandra Das, C.I.E., read a paper on the sacred and ornamental characters of Tibet.

Pandit Mahesachandra Nyayaratna read a paper on the authorship of the Mricchakaṭikā.

2. SOCIÉTÉ ASIATIQUE.

24th June, 1887.-M. J. Darmesteter read a paper in which he argued that the legend as to the renunciation and ascension of Yudishthira in the 16th Book of the Mahābhārata was a reproduction of the Persian legend in the Shah Namah of the renunciation and ascension of Kai Khosru; and that it was brought to India by the Magi at an uncertain date, probably in the second or third centuries of our era.

III. CONTENTS OF FOREIGN ORIENTAL JOURNALS.

1. ZEITSCHRIFT DER DEUTSCHEN MORGENLÄNDISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT. Vol. xli. pt. 2. 1. Georg Ebers. On Gustav Seyffarth, the Ægyptologist.

2. Carl Lang. Mu'taḍid as Prince and Regent (continuation). 3. F. Spiegel. On the Origin and Date of the Avesta (2nd article).

4. J. H. Mordtmann. The Topography of Northern Syria, from Greek inscriptions.

5. H. Hübschmann.

6, 7. Felix Liebrecht.

Jus primæ noctes.

On the Formation of Nouns in Ossetian.

On a Madagascar sentiment, and on the

Reviews of Schwarzcose's' Waffen der Alten Araber' and Payne Smith's Thesaurus Syriacus' (Fasc. vii.).

Vol. xli. pt. 3. 1. Karl Vollers. On Arabic as now spoken in Ægypt.

2. M. Klamroth. On the Extracts from Greek Writers found in al-Ja'qubi (continuation).