bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Three novel antimicrobial peptides from the skin of the Indian bronzed frog Hylarana temporalis (Anura: Ranidae)
Authors: Reshmy V. , Preeji V. , Parvin A. , Santhoshkumar K. , George S.
Published: March 2011

Amphibian skin secretion is considered as a rich source of bioactive peptides. The present work describes the successful identification of three novel peptides named brevinin‐1TEa, brevinin‐2TEa and brevinin‐2TEb present in the skin secretion of Indian bronzed frog Hylarana temporalis. The deduced open reading frame encoding the biosynthetic precursor of brevinin‐1TEa consisted of 70 amino acid residues and brevinin‐2TEa and brevinin‐2TEb consisted of 71 and 72 amino acids, respectively. All the three peptides showed higher antimicrobial activity against Gram‐negative than against Gram‐positive bacteria. On the basis of the antibacterial and haemolytic activity, brevinin‐2TEb is the most potent peptide reported in the present study. Further research on these peptides may provide potential clue towards newer drug development to combat various microbial diseases. Copyright © 2011 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reinventing US Internal Migration Studies in the Age of International Migration
Authors: Ellis Mark
Published: March 2011

I argue that researchers have sidelined attention to issues raised by US internal migration as they shifted focus to the questions posed by the post‐1960s rise in US immigration. In this paper, I offer some reasons about why immigration has garnered more attention and why there needs to be greater consideration of US internal migration and its significant and myriad social, economic, political, and cultural impacts. I offer three ideas for motivating more research into US internal geographic mobility that would foreground its empirical and conceptual connections to international migration. First, there should be more work on linked migration systems investigating the connections between internal and international flows. Second, the questions asked about immigrant social, cultural, and economic impacts and adaptations in host societies should also be asked about internal migrants. Third, and more generally, migration researchers should jettison the assumption that the national scale is the pre‐eminent delimiter of migration types and processes. Some groups can move easily across borders; others are constrained in their moves within countries. These subnational scales and constraints will become more visible if migration research decentres the national from its theory and empirics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Correlations for paths in random orientations of G(n,p) and G(n,m)
Authors: Erick Alm Sven , Janson Svante , Linusson Svante
Published: March 2011

We study random graphs, both G( n,p) and G( n,m), with random orientations on the edges. For three fixed distinct vertices s,a,b we study the correlation, in the combine probability space, of the events $\{a\to s\}$ and $\{s\to b\}$.

For G(n,p), we prove that there is a $pc = 1/2$ such that for a fixed $p < pc$ the correlation is negative for large enough n and for $p > pc$ the correlation is positive for large enough n. We conjecture that for a fixed $n \ge 27$ the correlation changes sign three times for three critical values of p.

For G(n,m) it is similarly proved that, with $p=m/({{n}\atop {2}})$, there is a critical pc that is the solution to a certain equation and approximately equal to 0.7993. A lemma, which computes the probability of non existence of any $\ell$ directed edges in G(n,m), is thought to be of independent interest.

We present exact recursions to compute \input amssym $\Bbb{P}(a\to s)$ and \input amssym $\Bbb{P}(a\to s, s\to b)$. We also briefly discuss the corresponding question in the quenched version of the problem. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2011
Evaluating testing effectiveness during software evolution: a time‐series cross‐section approach
Authors: Hale Joanne E. , Hale David P.
Published: March 2011

As software evolution organizations (SEOs) formalize their activities into standard repeatable processes, capability maturity models suggest that they gather and analyze data to quantitatively manage their activities. This study examines the use of a time‐series cross‐section (TSCS) modeling approach to inform the quantitative management of the testing activities within a mature SEO. This paper describes the TSCS modeling approach and provides an exemplar case study that details its use. Data for the case study come from readily available, commonly gathered production and testing defect reports in the quantitative measurement efforts of ait CMMI‐DEV Level 3 assessed software development and evolution organization. Covering six independent projects for 43 months, the case study defines quality in terms of reported defects in the production code base. The predictors are the six projects and defect data identified in the unit, system, and regression testing activities logs. The case study also details how results from the TSCS analysis triggered causal analysis to improve the testing activities. The study provides evidence that TSCS models can be used as a quantitative problem identification tool for the mature (SMmm Level 3 or higher) SEO's testing activities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Blind channel estimation for single‐input multiple‐output OFDM systems: zero padding based or cyclic prefix based?
Authors: Wang Song , Hu Jiankun
Published: March 2011

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission equipped with multiple receive antennas constitutes a single‐input multiple‐output (SIMO) OFDM system. SIMO‐OFDM systems have been widely used in wireless communications. Compared to those approaches using training sequences, blind channel estimation methods for SIMO‐OFDM systems have the advantage of saving bandwidth and improving energy efficiency and system throughput. As far as blind channel identification is concerned, it is known that zero padding (ZP)‐based single‐input single‐output (SISO)‐OFDM systems have desirable features compared to conventional cyclic prefix (CP)‐based SISO‐OFDM systems. However, it is yet unknown whether ZP‐ or CP‐based SIMO‐OFDM systems are favourable for blind channel estimation. To investigate this problem, we first propose a short‐data effective method for blind channel estimation for ZP‐based SIMO‐OFDM systems. Then we analyse a number of issues surrounding blind channel estimation for ZP‐ and CP‐based SIMO‐OFDM systems. The issues brought up in the paper have not been discussed in the existing research. The significance of our investigation is that it provides a deep insight into blind channel estimation for ZP‐ and CP‐based SIMO‐OFDM systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Art VII.—Notes on Abu Shahrein and Tel el Lahm.
Authors: Taylor J. E.
Published: March 2011

Although my visit this year to Abu Shahrein has been unproductive of any very important results, yet the description of the ruins will, I hope, prove sufficiently interesting, to render the transcription of the rough notes I made upon the spot, not altogether superfluous.
Art. II.—Translation of some Assyrian Inscriptions: No. I.—The Birs Nimrud Inscription
Authors: Talbot H. Fox
Published: March 2011

The last number of the Society's Journal (Vol. xvii, part 2) winch has been very recently issued, has appended to it a Memoir, by Sir H. Rawlinson, on the inscribed cylinders discovered by him at Birs Nimrud.
Art. V.—Memoir of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone
Authors: Colebrooke Edward
Published: March 2011

The subject of this Memoir was born in the year 1779. He was the fourth son of the eleventh Lord Elphinstone, by Anna, daughter of Lord Buthven. The Elphinstone family is one of great antiquity in Scotland, and many of its members took a considerable part in the political events of their times. It maybe sufficient, as connected with the present sketch, to mention that Mr. Elphinstone's father was a General Officer in the British army, was for some time Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and sat for several Parliaments as one of the representative peers of Scotland; also, that several of his relations were connected about the middle of the last century with the trade and settlements in the East. Mr. Elphinstone's uncle, Mr. Fullerton Elphinstone, was, for many years, a Director of the East India Company; and to this circumstance we may attribute the destination of Mr. Elphinstone, and one of his brothers, to the Civil Service of India.
Art. XIV.—Review of the Makámát ul Harírí
Authors: Thompson W. F.
Published: March 2011

The Makámát of Abul Feteh el Harírí, in its own particular department (that of rhetorical gracefulness), is the leading classic of the Arabs. The principal merits then are those we cannot see. A language must be known in its familiar and habitual applications; its relations to all the characteristics of a people and a country, must not only be understood, but felt, pursued, and admired by foreigners, before the merits of style can be properly appreciated. We must wander with them over their deserts, watch with them beneath their skies—join in the pride of the past—the capriciousness of the present—the carelessness of the future—master every national peculiarity, and delight in each—before we can enter into the intellectual system that resulted from the whole.
Article XXV.–On the Cultivation of Cotton in India
Authors: Heath J. M.
Published: March 2011

In the year 1818, the attention of the Madras Government was directed to the subject of the introduction of improved descriptions of agricultural produce into India. At that time I held the situation of Commercial Resident of Salem and Coimbatore, and instructions were sent to me by the Board of Trade, to attempt to introduce the cultivation of Bourbon cotton into those districts.
Art. XXVIII.—On Indian Iron and Steel; in a Letter addressed to the Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Authors: Heath J. M
Published: March 2011

In the month of June, 1837, the Managing Directors of the Indian Iron and Steel Company received a letter from Robert Clerk, Esq., Secretary to the Madras Governor, forwarding a copy of your letter of the 17th of February, 1837, addressed to the Governor of Madras, requesting information on the subject of wootz*, or Indian steel: the purport of Mr. Clerk's letter was to ask us to furnish the information and specimens required by you, provided we could do so without inconvenience or detriment to our own interests.
Art. VI.—Remarks on Professor Brockhaus' Edition of the Kathâsarit-sâgara, Lambaka IX.–XVIII
Authors: Kern H.
Published: March 2011

All Sanskrit scholars must feel obliged to Professor Brock-haus for his edition of Somadeva's Kathâsarit-sâgara, the last part of which, from Lambaka ix.-xviii., was published last year. To copy a work containing 21526 slokas, to select the best readings from a great number of manuscripts, in short, to publish, for the first time, a work in such a manner that the whole affords an almost undisturbed pleasure to the reader, is a heavy task. Indeed, the editor might well say in his preface: “I may say in good conscience that the text, as given by me, is more complete and correct than it is found in any of the MSS. I used. I have corrected faults in orthography, grammar, syntax, and prosody by thousands; there remain, however, many passages which need further correction, partly on account of the condition of the MSS., partly on account of my deficient knowledge.” I willingly subscribe to these words, except the last, in which the editor has scarcely done justice to himself. In so extensive a work the sharpness of the eyes and mind becomes so blunted that it ought not to be ascribed to deficiency of knowledge if some faults are to be met with. Professor Brockhaus would certainly judge less severely of the performance of others than of his own.
Art. VIII.—The Sixth Hymn of the First Book of the Rig Veda
Authors: Müller Max
Published: March 2011

Verse 1, note 1. This hymn begins with a somewhat abrupt description of a sunrise. Indra is taken as the god of the bright day, whose steed is the sun, and whose companions the Maruts, or the storm-gods. Arusha, meaning originally red, is used as a proper name of the horse or of the rising sun, though it occurs more frequently as the name of the red horses or flames of Agni, the god of fire, and also of the morning light. In our passage, Arusha, used as a kind of substantive, has taken bradhná as an adjective,—bradhná meaning, as far as can be made out, bright in general, though, as it is especially applied to the Soma-juice, perhaps bright-brown or yellow. Names of colour are difficult to translate from one language into another, for their shades vary, and withdraw themselves from sharp definition. We shall meet this difficulty again and again in the Veda.
Art. IX.—Sassanian Inscriptions
Authors: Thomas E.
Published: March 2011

So long ago as the year 1847, during a temporary absence from my duties in India, I volunteered to undertake the classification of certain imperfectly determined and but partially deciphered series of coins in the East India House collection—in continuation and completion of Professor Wilson's comprehensive description of the more popular departments of Central-Asian Numismatics already embodied in his Ariana Antiqua. Among the subdivisions so treated, may be cited the Kufic Mintages of the Grhaznavides, a detailed notice of which was inserted in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1848 (vol. ix.), as well as a second article; bearing more immediately upon the subject under review, on “the Pehlvi Coins of the early Muhammadan Arabs,” which appeared in the twelfth volume of that Journal. In entering upon the examination of the available specimens of the latter class of national representative currencies, I found myself called upon to encounter a novel and very difficult branch of Oriental Palæography, the study of which, indeed, had but recently been inaugurated by the publication of Professor Olshausen's most instructive work “Die Pehlwie-Legenden:” while it was manifest that the obscure language, of which this imperfect alphabet constituted the graphic exponent, was dependent for its elucidation upon still more fragmentary and defective grammatical or lexicographical means: obstacles which the since accelerated progress of modern ethnography has, up to this time, failed to remove. Under these conditions I naturally approached this new investigation with sufficient diffidence, and sought to secure the critical soundness of any suggestive deductions that might present themselves, by a decisive appeal to every archæological test within reach.
Art.II.—On Indian Chronology
Authors: Fergusson J.
Published: March 2011

Every one who has turned his attention to the study of Indian antiquities will probably be inclined to admit that one of the most important desiderata at the present time is a scheme of Chronology which shall fix, within reasonable limits of error, the dates of the Tarious kings or dynasties who ruled between the Christian Era and the Hegira. It is not at present indispensable that any particular king's reign should be ascertained within ten or twenty years of deviation either way; but it is hopeless to attempt to understand the subject while we cannot make up our minds whether the Balabhi kings dated their inscriptions from their own Era or from that of Vikramâditya—a difference of 376 years—or whether the Guptas dated theirs before or after the Era bearing their name (318–19 A.D.). While such discrepancies as these exist, it is idle to suppose we can either understand the history of the Hindus, or appreciate the forms of their arts, or the development of their religions.
Art. VI.—Illustrations of the Lamaist System in Tibet, drawn from Chinese Sources.
Authors: Mayers Wm. Frederick
Published: March 2011

In the following paper some illustrations of the method by which the Lamaist succession in Tibet is perpetuated, are drawn from a work published within the last few years by a Chinese officer of high rank. Its author, Meng Pao, was chief of the two Imperial Commissioners or Residents stationed in Tibet in 1840–44, and on his return to Peking printed, for private circulation, a small volume containing his official correspondence with the Emperor Tao Kwang in the course of some five or six transactions connected with the administration of Tibetan affairs.
Art. I.—The Ishmaelites, and the Arabic Tribes who conquered their Country
Authors: Sprenger A.
Published: March 2011

The commentators of Genesis are unanimous in considering the Ishmaelites as the fathers of the northern Arabians. It i s my intention to show that this view is not correct. But before entering into the subject, I may be permitted to ventilate the arguments which may be adduced in support of it. The indigenous genealogists, it may be said, divide the Arabs into two races: the Ma'addites and the Qaḥṭânians; and derive the former from Ishmael. In the Talmud the Arabs are called the children of Kedar, the son of Ishmael, and the Arabic language Kedar's tongue, And, finally, the whole country once in possession of the Ishmaelites is now, and has been for more than a thousand years, occupied by Arabian tribes.
ART. X.—Northern Buddhism. [Note from Colonel H. Yule, addressed to the Secretary.]
Authors: Yule H.
Published: March 2011

The inclosed is an extract from a letter which Mr. B. H. Hodgson did me the honour to write to me about two years ago, in reference to some passages in a paper on the Senbyú Pagoda in Burma, which appeared in the Society's Journal for 1870, with additional remarks by the late Mr. C. Horne and by Mr. Fergusson. I inclose the original sketch which Mr. Hodgson put into my hands along with the letter, authorizing me to make what use of them seemed best.
Art. I.—The Upasampadá-Kammavácá being the Buddhist Manual of the Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests and Deacons. The Páli Text, with a Translation and Notes
Authors: Dickson J. F.
Published: March 2011

In May, 1872, I was invited by my learned friend and pandit Kewiṭiyágala Unnánsé, of the Malwatté Monastery in Kandy, to be present at an ordination service, held, according to custom, on the full-moon day of Wesak, (May, June), being the anniversary of the day on which Gautama Buddha attained Nirváṇa, B.C. 543. I gladly availed myself of this opportunity of witnessing the celebration of a rite of which Englishmen have but little knowledge, and which has rarely, if ever, been witnessed by any European in Ceylon.
Art. VI.—Note on the Valley of Choombi
Authors: Campbell A.
Published: March 2011

As this valley bas never been visited by an European traveller, the little I have to say about it may make it acceptable to the Society. On one occasion I tried to visit it in company with Dr. Hooker, but unsuccessfully, as, after reaching the top of the Chola Pass—14,900 feet—which leads into it from Sikim, we were met by an officer of the Chinese Government at Lassa, with a military escort, who refused us permission to enter the valley. The particulars I have to state may, I believe, be relied on, as during many years I had constant opportunities of communicating with traders and others residing in the valley, in addition to the officials of the Sikim Raja, who annually sojourned in it from May to November. The route from Darjeeling to Choombi was described by me many years ago, as also the route from it to Lassa; but no one has described the valley itself.
Art. XII.—Inedited Arabic Coins
Authors: Poole Stanley Lane
Published: March 2011

Few men have done more for the science of Oriental Numismatics than Frederic Soret. And yet among his writings we may search in vain for any work of great extent. The largest he ever published is his handbook, Éléments de la Numismatique Musulmane, and even this appeared in parts in the Belgian Revue, and was reprinted as a separate work after his death. Frederic Soret's work was done by small pieces, which, when put together, form a very considerable whole. The line he took was chiefly that of publishing such coins as he found in his own or other collections, and which were as yet unknown to the numismatic world,—if I may apply so large a term to so small a thing. And those short monographs of his are among the most precious additions to the knowledge of Oriental coins which the century has seen. Nor does Soret stand alone in this system of publishing inedited coins. He has been vigorously followed by a very able and sufficiently numerous body of German and other scholars, who have made known all the noteworthy coins which have come across their path.
Art. XVI.—Oriental Proverbs in their Relations to Folklore, History, Sociology; with Suggestions for their Collection, Interpretation, Publication.
Authors: Long J.
Published: March 2011

Eleven years ago I had the honour to read a paper before this Society, entitled “Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the People of India.” That paper has been widely circulated, and has excited some interest on the subject. Since then, I have prosecuted one department of it—Oriental Proverbs in Relation to the Life and History of the People in India.
Art. VII—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part III.— The Kara Khitai
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

The history of Central Asia before the days of Jingis Khan is singularly complicated and obscure; and if we are to make our way among its mazes, we can only do so profitably by concentrating our attention on the larger empires which then floúrished, and integrating the scattered facts that have survived to our day about the lesser powers around them. The empire which held this dominant position at the accession of Jingis was that of Kara Khitai, a short-lived, but also an important power, which held sway with more or less authority from the Caspian to the borders of China, and thus formed in some measure a model, upon which the later Mongol Empire was framed, assisting, also, very considerably in its formation, since, when it fell, a large, disciplined and compact territory was added to it. With your permission, I propose to collect together so much of its history as I can meet with, and to clear up some difficulties that attach to it.
Art. IV.—On Ruins in Makrán
Authors: Major Mockler
Published: March 2011

Gwáder is a seaport on the coast of Makrán (ancient Gedrosia), and Makran the name of the southernmost portion of the country marked Baluchistán in our maps. The derivation of the word “Makrán” is doubtful; indeed, I have never heard a satisfactory derivation. Baluchistán, viz. the country of the Baluchis, is so called from the people by whom it is now principally inhabited, who, themselves, claim to be of Arab extraction (Arabs of the Koreish tribe), stating that they were forced to emigrate, about the latter end of the seventh century, from the neighbourhood of Aleppo, in Syria, by the tyranny of the Khalif Yezid, in consequence of their having taken the part of Husain (the martyr), grandson of Muhammad; and that, passing through Persia, they eventually reached Makrán, which they gradually overran and became masters of. Their traditions are, however, meagre and unsatisfactory. They do not appear to have preserved the name of a single place through which they passed in their journey through Persia; nor have they any recollection of the people inhabiting Makran at the time of their advent. This state of oblivion may, perhaps, be accounted for by the gradual manner of their coming into the country, viz. clan by clan at a time; but, in the lists of their ancestors, as I have received them, many names must have been omitted.
Art. V.—Inedited Arabic Coins
Authors: Poole Stanley Lane
Published: March 2011

Some years ago the late Colonel Seton Gruthrie showed me some coins of a totally different appearance to any I had before seen. They did not, I think, form part of his collection, but belonged to a friend who had received them from a relation in the Yemen. Colonel Guthrie, however, allowed me to take impressions of them, with a view to deciphering and publishing the inscriptions at some later time when I had more leisure to devote to their inspection.
Art. VII.—Note on Pliny's Geography of the East Coast of Arabia
Authors: Miles S. B.
Published: March 2011

At the period Pliny wrote his Natural History, the whole coast of Arabia appears to have become tolerably well known to the Greeks and Romans. With the western and southern portions of the peninsula they had perhaps long been acquainted; but their knowledge of the eastern and more remote parts was of much more recent date. Regarding the history of their gradual acquisition of this knowledge, the light afforded us is very faint. Arrian mentions that the first attempt to sail round the Arabian Chersonese was made from the Red Sea in the hope of reaching the Persian and Susian shores, but that the expedition, after having coasted along the greatest part of Arabia, was compelled by want of water to sail back again. Who these navigators were, and by whose command they undertook the journey, he does not say, but it seems probable they came from Egypt.
Art. II.—Notice of the Scholars who have Contributed to the Extension of our Knowledge of the Languages of British India during the last Thirty Years
Authors: Cust Robert N.
Published: March 2011

Professor Monier Williams, of Oxford, in the course of his speech at our Annual Meeting in May, 1878, remarked on the scant interest shown in Oriental studies by the University Commissioners, and by the University itself. It is true that there is not in England, as in France and Russia, a special School for Instruction in the living Oriental languages; but I think I can show, that the out-turn of work done by volunteer scholars during the last thirty years is most creditable. Many of their names are either unknown in Europe, or have not received that honour, of which they are deserving.
Art. XI.—A Specimen of the Zoongee (or Zurngee) Dialect of a Tribe of Nagas, bordering on the Valley of Assam, between the Dikho and Desoi Rivers, embracing over Forty Villages
Authors: Clark
Published: March 2011

In romanizing this Naga language, a has the sound of a in ‘far,’ ‘ah’ ‘ah’; ā has the sound of a in ‘fate,’ ‘rate’; c has only a soft sound, never that of k; e (single) has the sound of e in ‘met,’ ‘net’; g has only a hard sound as in ‘give’; i has the sound of i in ‘pin,’ ‘sin’; u has only the sound of u in ‘but,’ ‘nut.’ One object of this style of romanizing is to reserve this mark (′) for accent only. The accent mark is needed to distinguish some words spelt alike, but with different meanings, indicated by accentuation, as ázu, first syllable accented, means ‘a dog,’ but azu, without special accent, means ‘blood.’
Art. XII.—The Gaurian compared with the Romance Languages. Part I
Authors: Brandreth E. L.
Published: March 2011

By “Gaurian” are meant what Mr. Beames, in his comparative grammar, has called the “Modern Aryan Languages of India,” but, as this last is too long a title for frequent use, and as the name, Gaurian, given by Professor Hoernle, has been adopted by Dr. Caldwell, I may venture to make use of it also. These languages, in order to make their origin, may also sometimes be termed the Neo-Sanskrit languages, as the Romance are spoken of for the same purpose as the Neo Latin or Novo-Latin Languages.
Art. VII.—Extracts from Report on the Islands and Antiquities of Bahrein
Authors: Durand  , Rawlinson H. C.
Published: March 2011

These Islands, from which the Portuguese were expelled by a British fleet aiding Shah Abbas in 1622 A.D., and of which the advantages were tersely put to me by a native the other day in the words, “The land is silver and the sea is pearl,” are situated generally in lat. 26° and long. 50°, the exact position of the Portuguese fort on the larger island being given as lat. 26° 13′ 53„ N., long. 50° 31′ 45„ E. They are surrounded by shoal water on every side, which greatly adds to the beauty of the place. Thus, on looking out to sea on the morning of a clear sky and a fresh nor'-wester, it would seem as if Nature, at all times lavish of effect, had here, however, exhausted every tint of living green in her paint box; and then, wearying of the effort, had splashed an angry streak of purple into the foreground. The water itself is so clear that you can see far down into the coral depths, while springs of fresh water bubble up through the brine, both near the entrance of the harbour and at several other places along the coast.
Art. VIII.—Notes on the Locality and Population of the Tribes dwelling between the Brahmaputra and Ningthi Rivers
Authors: Damant G. H.
Published: March 2011

My object in the following paper is to give a brief account of the wild tribes dwelling in the tract of country lying between the Brahmaputra and the Kaiendwen, Namtonai, or Ningthi, as it is indifferently called, the great western branch of the Irrawaddy.

I shall not attempt to give any description of the manners and customs of these tribes, but shall confine myself to indicating the localities which they inhabit, their probable numbers, their principal villages, and the names by which they are known among themselves and to the people of the plains; this last is very important, as many instances have occurred where inquirers working in different parts of the same country have described what is essentially one and the same tribe under different names, and the result has been that people residing at a distance have in more than one instance supposed them to be distinct tribes.
Art. X.—The Megha-Sūtra
Authors: Bendall Cecil
Published: March 2011

The following article was originally suggested by a notice in Beal's “Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese.” The sūtra is there selected as a type of the latest phase of Buddhist literature, not only on account of its own peculiarities, but owing to its religious importance among the Chinese, which caused the imperial rescript for its translation and general promulgation, of which an English version is there given. The two parts of which this sūtra is composed are mentioned as Nos. 15 and 16 of vol. 14 of the Tibetan “Gyut,” by Csoma Körösi in As. Res. xx. p. 529; the names of the translators fix its date as earlier than the ninth century.
Art. XVI.—Grammatical Sketch of the Kakhyen Language
Authors: Cushing J. N.
Published: March 2011

The Kakhyen or Singpho are the most numerous people occupying the mountainous region stretching from Upper Assam across Northern Burma beyond the Chinese boundary into Yunan. In Burma they extend as far south as Momeit and Theinni.

During the last forty years, at different times, more or less attention has been called to this interesting people. On the Assam side, Hannay, Robinson, Bronson, Brown and Dalton, and on the Burman side, Anderson, Bowers, and Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries have published sketches of their language and mode of life.
Art. XVII.—Notes on the Libyan Languages in a Letter addressed to Robert N. Cust, Esq., Etc., Hon. Secretary R.A.S
Authors: Newman F. W.
Published: March 2011

Dear Sir, — You have requested, me to write some account of the work which I have in hand concerning the Libyan languages. I cannot satisfy myself without a rather lengthy introduction, which must begin with some account of my sources of knowledge. It may be best to open these historically.

Venture de Paradis, Professor of Turkish in the Paris School of Living Languages, initiated the study of the native language spoken on the highlands and slopes of Mount Atlas. He was well acquainted with Arabic and Persian, and was selected by Napoleon the First as “Secretary Interpreter” to the Chief of the Army in Egypt. The celebrated Amédée Jaubert, his successor in the Turkish Professorship, gives high testimony to his powers and activity.
Art. V.—The Invention of the Indian Alphabet
Authors: Dowson John
Published: March 2011

The origin of the Indian alphabet is a matter of very considerable interest and importance. Was the art of writing introduced from foreign lands, or was it an indigenous invention; and in what age did it first make its appearance? Opinions differ on these points, for there is no certain evidence; and the conclusions arrived at are based entirely on inference and probability. The balance of opinion has perhaps, hitherto, inclined to the theory of a Semitic origin, and a late writer on the subject, our learned colleague Dr. Burnell, has given a very decided opinion on that side of the question. To his judgment I pay due deference, but the arguments with which he supports it seem to me inconclusive and unsatisfactory. I propose, therefore, to review briefly the whole subject.
Art. XIV.—Lettre à M. Stanley Lane Poole, sur quelques monnaies orientales rares ou inédites de la collection de M. Ch. de l'Ecluse
Authors: Sauvaire H.
Published: March 2011

Les auteurs orientaux mentionnent tant de petits dynastes dont les monuments monétaires nous sont encore inconnus qu'il n'est pas étonnant que de temps en temps quelques exemplaires nouveaux viennent au jour et nous permettent d'étendre le champ illimité de la Numismatique musulmane.
Art. XVIII.—The L-Poem of the Arabs, by Shanfarà
Authors: Redhouse J. W.
Published: March 2011

Hajjī Khalīfa gives the pedigree of Shanfarà in the following manner: Shanfarà , son of Aws , son of Hujru-'l-Hinwu , son of Azd , son of Gawth , son of Zayd , son of Kahlān , son of Saba' .
Art. I.—The Apology of Al Kindy. An Essay on its Age and Authorship
Authors: Muir William
Published: March 2011

Al Bîrûni, in his Vestiges of Ancient Nations, written A.D. 1000 (A.H. 390), while describing the customs of the Sabeans, cites the authority of Ibn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in these words:

“Likewise Abd al Masîh ihn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in his reply to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismaîl al Hâshimy, relates of them (the Sabeans) that they are notorious for Human sacrifice, but that at present they are not able to practise openly the same.”
Art. VI.—On the Present State of Mongolian Researches. In a Letter to Robert N. Cust, Esq., Hon. Sec. R.A.S.
Authors: Jülg B.
Published: March 2011

My dear Sir,—In reply to your request that I would send a brief account of the present state of Mongolian Researches, I have great pleasure in forwarding to you, for publication in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of London, the following notes—together with a list of the literary works available for the study of the Mongolian dialects.
Art. VII.—Sanskṛit Ode addressed to the Fifth International Congress of Orientalists assembled at Berlin, September, 1881
Authors: Ramā-Bāī
Published: March 2011

Noble-minded and learned Sirs! may health and prosperity be ever present with you! Kindly receive the expression of my homage and devotion. O men of knowledge, the ancient Sanskṛit language is at the present day like an aged mother shorn of her beauty and bereft of her ornaments. For a long time, alas! she has remained unhonoured, and now flees to you well-disposed scholars for protection. In the sharpness of her grief she laments with a heart-rending cry of pain. Listen attentively, that her feeble cry of suffering may enter your ears.
Art. XIII.—Grammatical Sketch of the Haúsa Language
Authors: Schön J. F.
Published: March 2011

The word consists of three syllables, and must not be tortured into Housa as is frequently done. Ha-ou-sa conveys the correct pronunciation. The meaning of the word itself is not quite certain. From two expressions in the writer's collection it may be inferred that it means ‘language’. The first is, “He speaks another ha-u-sa,”that is, another language; and the second, in answer to the question, “Do many people speak Haúsa?” The reply given was, “How can they be Haúsa unless they speak Ha1sa?” Barth also admits that it means ‘language,’ although it is not confined to that meaning. The word itself was probably unknown to Leo Africanus, who says that Zāria Kano and Katsena speak the language of Gober, instead of Haúsa, Gober being at Leo's time the most prominent and noble among the provinces of the North. Whether the name, Aúsa given to the northern side of “the great river” in contrast to Gurma on the southern side, has anything to do with Haúsa, is left undecided by Barth. Sultan Bello derives the Haúsa from a Bornu slave, named Bāwu. This Bāwu has a real historical existence in the traditions of the Haúsa people, though not as a slave, the Haúsa word for ‘slave’ being Bāwa not Bāwa, a fact of which Sultan Bello could not have been ignorant; and besides this, it must be argued that, if the Haúsa derived their origin from the Bornu or Kanúri, there would exist a greater similarity between these two languages than is found to be the case. Both languages have a few words in common, but the grammars are most distinct.
Art. XVIII.—Arab Metrology. IV. Eḍ-Ḍahaby
Authors: Sauvaire M. H.
Published: March 2011

[p. 1.] Ceci est un traité important, substantiel, utile, sur la détermination du derham, du meṭqâl, etc., par le maître, le très docte cheikh Eḍ-Ḍahaby, que Dieu lui fasse miséricorde et nous fasse profiter de lui et de sea connaissances! Ainsi soit-il!

[p. 2.] Au nom de Dieu clément, miséricordieux!

Louange à Dieu, le maître des mondes! Que la prière et le salut reposent sur notre Seigneur Mohammad, sa famille, ses compagnons et les compagnons de ses compagnons (tâbé'yn)!

Or donc, voici ce que dit Moustafa Eḍ-Ḍahaby, le châfé'îte: Ceci est un traité sur la détermination du derham, du metqâl, des monnaies ayant cours en Egypte (Mesr), de la quantité d'alliage qu'elles contiennent et du chiffre qu'elles fournissent comme quotité imposable (nésâb), ainsi que cela a été déterminé a l'hôtel des monnaies, et sur l'exposé des poids et des mesures de capacité.
Art. XXI*.—The Identification of the Sculptured Tope at Sanchi
Authors: Simpson William
Published: March 2011

The Sculptured Tope in plate xxviii. fig. i. of Tree and Serpent Worship suggested, from its height, to Mr. Fergusson, that it was formed after the Afghanistan models. He also hinted the possibility of the figures, who are performing pujah round it, being a race from the North, and perhaps from the Kábul Valley. The Rev. Mr. Beai has just added some most interesting evidences which tend to confirm the original suggestion. As the point is of great importance in many ways, the following additional evidence may be worth giving:— In the early part of 1879, when General Sir Samuel Browne's column was at Jelalabad, Mr. Jenkyns, who afterwards lost his life in the massacre at Kábul, somehow picked up a man from Kaffiristan. He had been born a Kaffir, but had been caught by the Mahomedans, and converted, — such persons are called “Nimchas.” He lived somewhere close to the borders of Kaffiristan, and Mr. Jenkyns commissioned him to return to his own district and bring back a couple of pure unconverted Kaffirs. Mr. Jenkyns' object in this was to study their language, and learn as much as he could as to their customs and other matters. The man promised to do this, and he was to bring them to Peshawer, or wherever Mr. Jenkyns was quartered. I went by appointment to make a sketch of this man, and I noticed that he did not leave his shoes on the outside of the tent-door; he doubled his legs under him, but after a little I noticed that his shoes were pieces of leather tied about his feet, and bound by thongs round the ankles. This explains why the “jooti dustoor” does not exist in Kaffiristan. Colonel Tanner, who was then on the Survey Department, caught some Chugunis, who belonged to the Northern slopes of the Ram Koond; this tribe is Mahomedan, but their district is not far from Kaffiristan.
Art. IV.—The Tattva-muktâlî of Gauḍa-pûrṇânanda-chakravartin
Authors: Cowell E. B.
Published: March 2011

The following poem was written by a native of Bengal, named Pûrnânanda Chakravartin. Nothing is known as to his date; if the work were identical with the poem of the same name mentioned in the account of the Râmânuja system in Mâdhava's Sarvadarśanasamgraha, it would be, of course, older than the fourteenth century, but this is very uncertain; I should be inclined to assign it to a later date. The chief interest of the poem consists in its being a vigorous attack on the Vedânta system by a follower of the Pûrnaprajña school, which was founded by Madhva (or Ânandatîrtha) in the thirteenth century in the South of India. Some account of his system (which in many respects agrees with that of Râmânuja) is given in Wilson's “Hindu Sects;” but the fullest account is to be found in the fifth chapter of the Sarvadarśanasamgraha. Both the Râmânujas and the Pûrnaprajňas hold in opposition to the Vedânta that individual souls are distinct from Brahman; but they differ as to the sense in which they are thus distinct. The former maintain that “unity” and “plurality” are equally true from different points of View; the latter hold that the relation between the individual soul and Brahman is that of a master and a servant, and consequently that they are absolutely separate. It need not surprise us, therefore, to see that, although Râmânuja is praised in the fifty-third sloka of this poem as “the foremost of the learned,” some of his tenets are attacked in the eightieth.
Art. V.—Two modern Sanskrit ślokas
Authors: Cowell E. B.
Published: March 2011

Professor Wilson left Calcutta in 1832, having been appointed to the Boden Professorship of Sanskrit at Oxford. He had been one of the leaders of the Orientalist party in the General Committee of Public Instruction, as opposed to the pure “Anglicists”; and since each party held extreme views as to the respective value of Eastern and Western learning, his departure was naturally regarded as an evil omen to the cause of Sanskrit by the students and teachers of the Calcutta Sanskrit College. My old Pandit, Rámanáráyana Vidyáratna, was a pupil in the College at that time; and he has often described to me the scene when the pandits met to bid Wilson farewell, and one of them addressed him in a Sanskrit śloka, which is still well remembered by every native scholar in Calcutta. The college tradition is that Wilson's stern face was softened to tears, as he heard its pathetic appeal.
Art. XVI.—Suggestions on the Voice-Formation of the Semitic Verb. A Comparative and Critical Study
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2011

Every race has in the course of time endeavoured, as the want of new expressions made themselves felt, to enlarge its vocabulary according to its turn of mind, or what is called its genius, either by mere agglutination or by affixes, etc. The Greeks, for example, have multiplied the number of their verbs in combining them with prepositions: the Semites seem to have followed a similar, though not identical process, which, however, has till now resisted all analysis. I propose, therefore, in this paper to examine those formatives which, with the verbal stems, have given birth to the voices. It must be remembered that the word “voice” is not used here as in the Aryan Grammars, but is. used to designate the various modifications suffered by the stem and altering its meaning.
Art. XVIII.—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part VI. Hia or Tangut
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

In tracing out the very crooked story of the history of Central and Eastern Asia, in which we have to deal with a succession of empires founded by a number of races, which have necessarily overrun its more desirable areas, there is only one method of inquiry which seems to be at once safe and fertile. This is to commence with the latest revolutions. To gradually unravel the tangle into which the story has been twisted, by first understanding the latest changes, about which we have abundant evidence, and then to work back to that earlier and more obscure period which must always have a great interest and romance for those who speculate on the origin and early history of our race. This is the method I have ventured to adopt in the series of papers on the Northern Frontagers of China, which I have been permitted, by the favour of the Royal Asiatic Society, to commence in the pages of its Journal, and in which I hope, if allowed, to pass in review the different races who have dominated over Central Asia and China from the earliest times.
Art. XII.—Some Further Gleanings from the Si-yu-ki
Authors: Beal S.
Published: March 2011

There are several passages in the Si-yu-ki that deserve more notice than can be given in a foot-note by a translator. To some of these I will call attention in this paper. My remarks may appear in some cases too discursive; but I trust this may be pardoned, as they are but “Gleanings.”
Art. XIII.—On the Sites of Brahmanábád and Mansúrah in Sindh; with Notices of others of less note in their Vicinity
Authors: Haig M. R.
Published: March 2011

Notwithstanding the labours of the various authorities who have from time to time written upon the ancient topography of the lower Indus Valley, the subject remains in much need of further investigation. Attempts to identify places mentioned by the historians of Alexander's Expedition, by the author of the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, the geographer Ptolemy, the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang, the historians of the Arab conquest, and by later writers, have not usually been attended with the happiest results. Nor, when the difficulties which beset investigation are considered, is it at all surprising that this should be so. It is hard enough to have to contend with the vagueness, inconsistencies and contradictions of old writers; but these are as nothing compared with the obstacles which the physical characteristics of the country itself oppose to the inquirer. For ages the Indus has been pushing its bed across the valley from east to west, generally by the gradual process of erosion, which effectually wipes out every trace of town and village on its banks; but, at times also, by a more or less sudden shifting of its waters into entirely new channels, leaving large tracts of country to go to waste, and forcing the inhabitants of many a populous place to abandon their old homes, and follow the river in search of new settlements.
Art. XVI.—On the Origin of the Indian Alphabet
Authors: Cust R. N.
Published: March 2011

This subject was first mooted by Sir William Jones in the Asiatic Researches. Some of the most distinguished Scholars have at different times expressed opinions, totally irreconcileable with each other. New direct or indirect fragments of evidence have been contributed, sometimes narrowing, sometimes widening, the arena of the controversy. Last year Mr. Isaac Taylor summarised the facts of the case in his Book on “The Alphabet.” I myself contributed a paper on the subject to the Indian Section of the Sixth Oriental Congress at Leyden, in September 1883, which led to a lively discussion, occupying the best part of two days of the Session. In January of this year I again, brought the subject before this Society, and I now place the whole case before the Members of the Society in the pages of our Journal.
Art. XIX.—S'uka-sandeśaḥ A Sanskṛit Poem by Lakshmî-dâsa
Authors: Râma-Varmâ H.H. , Keraḷa-Varmâ
Published: March 2011

The ancient Sanskṛit literature of India is attracting daily the increasing attention of Orientalists of Europe. Sanskṛit works, hitherto unknown, are being brought to the notice of the public by the labours of European scholars like Doctors Bühler, Cowell, Burnell, and others. Those labours, however, have been but very imperfectly extended to the purely Sanskṛit literature of Keraḷam or Malayâḷam in the South-Western extremity of India. In the blessed isolation which that Land of Paraśu-râma had for ages enjoyed, the cultivation of Sanskrit literature was far from being neglected. Poets have flourished who would yield superiority to none in the rest of India, except perhaps to the great Kâlidâsa and one or two others of the highest rank. It cannot, therefore, be labour wasted to bring some of the works left by them to the notice of European Orientalists. The manuscript here printed for the first time is a poem called “Śuka-sandeśa,” or “Śuka-dûta”— “Parrot-messenger.” It is very much on the plan of Kâlidâsa's celebrated “Megha-dûta,” so admirably translated into English verse by the late Professor Horace Hayman Wilson. The metre is the same—Mandâkrântâ.