Amongst the most remarkable instances of the result of careful observation and systematized thought which Western Asia has given to the world at large, are the Signs of the Zodiac, and the ancient extra-zodiacal constellation-figures, northern and southern; and by ‘ancient’ I mean those which have been enshrined for all future time in the Phainomena of Aratos. Of the Twelve Signs I shall only speak incidentally. It is now many years since Ideler and Guigniaut, contrary to the views of Letronne, arrived at the correct conclusion that the Signs of the Zodiac came, with so much else of archaic thought and civilization, from, the Euphrates Valley; and, having firmly established themselves in Hellenic usage, were afterwards carried by Greek conquerors as far as India in the east and Egypt in the south. But, although modern research has supplied an immense amount of material for the purpose, it is remarkable that the classic work of Ideler still gives the best account of the constellation-figures and their various stars. Surely, then, it is time that an effort was made to utilize in a connected form some at least of the results of subsequent investigation; and, although the inquiry, like all such, is progressive, and, like all researches into the ancient and archaic past, is beset with numerous difficulties, yet the principles to be applied and the general outlines of the subject are clear and distinct.

It may interest students of Buddhism to learn that the famous Questions of King ‘Milinda’ appear to be known to the Tibetans.

Last year (1895), when I was making inquiries on this subject from Lāmas at Darjiling, I found that most of the Lāmas knew of the existence in their literature of conversations purporting to have been held between Nāgasēna and a certain ancient king, who, however, was named ‘Ananta,’ and not ‘Menander’ or ‘Milinda.’ I failed to procure any Tibetan text or book bearing on this question, except the few references which will presently be cited. But from the character of the questions, as quoted from memory by the Lāmas, and the statement that this king Ananta was the greatest of Nāgasēna's converts, there could be little doubt that he is intended for the same person as the ‘Milinda’ (or Menander) of the Pāli text.

It is probably well known to most readers interested in tenure questions, that the villages of the Dakhan Districts of Bombay are in that form in which no joint-ownership of the whole (separately named) area appears: the holdings within the village are entirely separate, and no area of waste land is included as the ‘ common ’ property of the whole body, and capable of partition. But apart from the fact that the village is a geographical unit, the feeling of being a ‘ community ’ is maintained by the common interests and customs of the local group, by obedience to one hereditary headman, and by its self-contained life : having its own staff of artizans and servants, the village does not need to look outside its own limits for the supply of its ordinary wants. This constitution is quite different from that of the joint-village of Upper India, though some features (such as the artizan staff) must necessarily be common to both.

The Alaṅkṅaraśāstra may be said to bear somewhat the same relation to the Plays and Poems that the Vedānta system does to the Upanishads, and the student of that general literature is not fully equipped without it. The most popular and probably the most generally useful work of this class is the Kāvyaprakása, and the main object of this paper is to assist the unlearned by indicating as far as possible the sources from which its illustrations were drawn. As, however, much of its material was derived from older treatises of the same kind, it will be desirable in the first instance to notice them very briefly in chronological order, especially as no such epitome exists at present; and in doing so I shall not only draw from my own resources, but also endeavour to bring together valuable items of information scattered about in Reports, Prefaces, Periodicals, and such like literature not always easy of access. The first section of the paper will, therefore, be devoted to Notes on the date and authorship of the Kāvyaprakāśa, and on the treatises which preceded it; and before that work itself is dealt with I hope to give the hitherto unpublished text of Udbhaṛa's short treatise, to which reference is made below.

In 1866, I first visited Baku on the Caspian Sea on a journey from India to Nijni Novgorod Fair. Travelling with me at the time was a Hindu trader from Scinde, who was going to Russia to sell jewellery. He had previously heard of the Hindu Fire-Temple near Baku, and was most anxious to visit it.

The regular Greek inscription on the coins of Hermaeus is ΒΑΣι٨ΕΩΣ ΣΩТΗΡΟΣ | ΕΡΜΑ;ΙΟΥ; but, on some of his bronze coins, and on the whole bronze series issued by him conjointly with Kujula Kadphises, there appears an inscription which differs from this in two respects— (1) the substitution of ΣТΗΡΟΣ for ΣΩТΗΡΟΣ, and (2) the addition of the syllable Σ;Υ.

The Dîwân of the Huḏeilites must be regarded as our single remaining inheritance of a great mass of literature which formed an important part of the results obtained by the Arab philologians in their first endeavours to collect the old poetry of the Arabs.

Indeed, the history of Arabic literature, which—if it be ever once realised—must suffice for the oldest period with recording many lost productions of learning and diligence, has exactly this office to fulfil when it begins to give an account of the labours of philological workers in the field of ancient poetry.

The Royal Asiatic Society is indebted to the courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects for a copy of the article published in its Journal (vol. iv, 3rd ser., Nos. 2 and 3)—a paper read at a meeting of the Society in November last, by Mr. R. Phene Spiers, F.S.A., on the great mosque of Damascus. The paper offers us an historical account of the building, adescription of the surviving vestiges of the old temple, and of the Christian Church of St. John the Baptist, including the well-known Greek inscription over the Southern Gateway, particulars on the conversion of the building into a mosque by the Omayyad Khalīfahal-Walīd, of the changes the mosque has undergone during the past period of well-nigh twelve centuries, and last, though not least, itgives us a careful and minute description of the building as it existed previous to the fire of 1893. Thenumerous plans and drawings with which the paper is illustrated, whilst attractingnotice by their beauty, are of no small assistance to the reader in studying the text.