prevented him from telling his readers (p. 7) that the "pomphlet" is a favourite breakfast fish among the people of Bombay. But the errors are such as can easily be rectified in a subsequent edition.-B.

CLARENDON PRESS; Oxford, LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK.

3. Marathi Proverbs, collected and translated by the REV. A. ManWARING. The object of collecting and translating these Marathi (Mahráthi) proverbs is stated by the translator to be to preserve as far as possible all proverbial expressions, which depict the thought and character of the people, before they pass out of use; for though they may be well known. to the elders of the present generation, they will probably be less known, less loved, and less used by the coming race, with its Anglicized education and its modern literature. The proverbs in the book are 1,910 in number, and are classified under the heads of (1) Agriculture; (2) Animals; (3) The Body and its Members; (4) Ethical; (5) Food; (6) Health and Disease; (7) The House; (8) Money; (9) Names; (10) Nature; (11) Relationship; (12) Religions; (13) Trades and Professions; and (14) Unclassified. This classification is, of course, arbitrary; but it is probably as near an approach to a reduction of them into proper order as to enable the reader to arrive at their approximate origin.

They would probably be found useful to ethnologists to enable them to trace affinities between the Mahrátha and other races through their common methods of thought; but with the exception of such specialists as might study its pages with a view to acquire information of such a kind, we fear that the book will meet with but a cold reception from the public. The compilation must have been a work of enormous labour, and has been carefully and conscientiously made; on this account it deserves a better fate than it is at all likely to meet. To go into detail, a great many of the so-called proverbs are very ordinary everyday sayings or comparisons of common antithetical ideas which in no way deserve such an appellation, and if these had been omitted from the collection the work might probably have been reduced to a half or one-third of its present size, and thus have had a greater chance of perusal.

To exemplify by a few examples taken at random what is here meant : Prov. 1,024, "Spend according to your income"; Prov. 1,252, “If it ripen, it will sell"; Prov. 1,254, "The flower of the Pimpal-tree" (it has no flower); Prov. 1,263, "It does not take long for the Bor fruit to come on the Bor-tree"; Prov. 1,277, "When there is thunder rain falls " (when the head of the house is angry there will be tears); Prov. 1,286, "A coat for the cold"; Prov. 1,312, "The two wives of one man, let them not quarrel in the house"; Prov. 1,363, "I am glad mother-in-law has gone (is dead); "the whole house is now in my hands." Now, if these and such-like expressions are supposed to be proverbial, they appear to require more explanation as to the circumstances under which they would be applicable, especially such as Prov. 1,277, with regard to which it would be advisable to show in what sense the very ordinary expression, "When there is thunder the rain falls," can be twisted into the meaning of "When the head of the house is angry there will be tears."

In the transliteration of the Mahráthi, the almost universal use of the short sound a after a consonant is not only superfluous, but in most cases altogether vitiates the proper pronunciation. Take, for instance, Prov. 1,245, "Teradyántsá rang(a) tīn(a) divas(a)." The right pronunciation is with the three a's in brackets left out, and the sentence would in conversation be utterly unintelligible if they were retained as written. Examples of this need not be multiplied, for they occur in almost every proverb.

On the whole, with the exception of a few slipshod translations, the work is one of extraordinary perseverance and labour, and will be of much use to those who are interested in the study of languages for ethnological purposes.-A. ROGERS.

4. The "Oxford English Dictionary." A new English Dictionary, on Historical Principles, founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society, edited by Dr. JAMES A. H. MURRAY, with the assistance of many scholars and men of science. Vol. V., I-in (adverb).-This double section, beginning the letter I, of which it constitutes one-fourth, contains 2,503 main words, 201 combinations explained under these, and 544 subordinate entries of obsolete forms. Of the 2,503 main words, 1,700 are current and fully "English," 750 (nearly 30 per cent.) are marked as obsolete, and 53 (2 per cent.) as alien, or not fully naturalized. A double section of G, by Mr. H. Bradley, is published to-day (January 1, 1900). As examples of the exhaustive character of this invaluable Dictionary, we refer to the term Idea, which is explained under four main sections, the latter embracing its modern philosophical developments. The term Idol occupies three columns; the word If five columns; the world Ill and its compounds no fewer than forty-four columns; the word Imperial and its compounds eight columns; Improve, six columns; and In and its phrases down to in position, no fewer than twelve columns. The explana tions of words and phrases continue to be erudite, highly interesting, and most exhaustive.

C. J. CLAY AND SONS, AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON, 1899. 5. Studia Sinaitica, No. 7, edited by MARGARET DUNLOP GIBSON, M.R.A.S. We here have another of the masterly and elaborate productions of the fruitful pen of Mrs. Gibson. It consists of an Arabic version of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles; also of the Seven Catholic Epistles, or "Epistles General "--to wit, the Epistles from James to Jude inclusive -from an eighth or ninth century manuscript in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai; also, from the same codex, a treatise on the "Triune Nature of the One God." The work includes also an interesting anecdote entitled "The Monk's Prayer," and several suggestive "Sayings" of the Arabs. Thus far all is in the Arabic language, and Mrs. Gibson has supplied a very learned and elaborate Appendix to the Biblical portion of the work, exhibiting the "various readings" of the Pesheeto, or Syriac text, when compared with the Greek; also a translation into English of the treatise on the "Nature of God," and the other documents mentioned above.

In the room in which Mrs. Gibson and her sister (Mrs. Lewis) were at work in the convent there is a staircase, at the foot of which was a little closet in which the "find" now published was discovered stowed away in an old box or basket. At her request the manuscripts were fetched out by the monks, and thus the materials of the present publication were brought to light. The narrative of the process of photographing and editing the manuscripts will be found interesting reading. The treatise on the "Nature of God" was the work of a Christian apologist, who thus sought to defend his religion against the apologists of the religion of Muḥammad. It follows that the treatise must have been written after the propagation of Islám. This circumstance, however, throws no light on the question of the date of the Biblical portion of the "find." The author of the treatise is guilty of several anachronisms and other mistakes in connexion with Old Testament history. But the age in which he lived was not an age of criticism.

It is impossible to commend too highly the indomitable perseverance with which these excellent ladies, Mrs. Gibson and Mrs. Lewis, are serving their day and generation, and the cause of Biblical literature. Their interest in this matter, and in the precious contents of the Sinaitic monastery, passes all praise. They long ago discovered that seed-plot, and they have. turned their discovery to account in the publication from time to time of materials which but confirm the sacred documents of the canonical Scriptures. The printing is excellently well done-the Arabic, the Hebrew, the English, and the Greek.-B.

LONGMANS, GREEN AND Co.; LONDON, 1899.

6. Auld Lang Syne, by MAX MÜLLER; second series of "My Indian Friends." The present work is largely of an autobiographical nature. In point of style, it is chatty rather than literary; but the "chat" of Max Müller is better than the elaborate efforts of most men. The question might arise, "But what to us are Max Müller's Indian friends ?" We shall see. In the present work this distinguished veteran deals for the most part with reminiscences of personal acquaintances. Some of these he has seen, and some he has not seen; some of them are cotemporaries, and others are known to us only through the productions of their genius-the authors and compilers of the ancient literature of the Aryas. It is not so certain that the authors, say, of the Veda were "Indians" at all. But we would not be overcritical; it is, anyhow, by way of India that all the knowledge we have of them has come to us.

Among his Indian friends of the present day Max Müller includes the honoured names of Dwarka-Nath Tagore, Debendra-Nath Tagore, Rājā Radha-kaṇṭa Deva, Nila-kantha Goreh, Keshab Chandra Sen, and Behramji Malabari among male persons, and Rāmabāi and Anandibãi Jōshee among Indian women-all well known the world over for their published thoughts and their useful lives. It is pleasing to note that, notwithstanding his very ardent admiration of the Hindús, the Professor speaks of the custom of child-marriage as "that pernicious system" (p. 113) and "those unnatural unions" (p. 121). We have heard Brāhmaṇs defend it on principles to which he would not care to apply terms so very strong. His views of Sati

shew that, enthusiastic admirer though he is of the Veda, he evidently is not an omnivorous admirer of all that the Veda contains (p. 121). The work is, however, exceedingly interesting and instructive, as are all Max Müller's books. The history of the "friends" of such a man means the history of a good deal besides-such, for instance, as the history of the enterprises which interested him and them. On this account the present volume will prove to be a work of permanent value.

To descend from great things to small, the punctuation of Max Müller, in this and other works of his, leaves much to be desired. He evidently writes rapidly, and this leads to his overlooking the fact that incorrectness in punctuating occasions misgiving to the reader. We are open to correction; but Max Müller says (pp. 125, 126) that the corpse of one of poor Ramabai's parents was conveyed to the burning-ghat by Brāhmaṇs. During three decades of years passed in India, we never heard of this task having been performed by any excepting Dōms. It would be interesting to know under what circumstances the mournful duty is performed by persons of the Brāhmaṇical caste. The new system of the transcription of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet is adopted in part in the present work. That system has this disadvantage,-that at the very point at which the English reader is in need of guidance, it throws away its opportunity. What difference, for example, would an English reader make between the pronunciation of "Asrama" and "Asrama"? Secondly, in either case he would be wrong. No English reader could ever be guided by either of these forms to the correct pronunciation. And what difference would such a reader make between the sibilants of “ Asoka" and "Asvin”? or between "Givātman" and "Givātman"? No pleasure have we in mere faultfinding; but even Max Müller would appear to have "shied" at some of the misleading details of the system, for he fairly "throws it over" when it comes to writing the names of Chaitanya and of Keshab Bábú. Nor is the learned Professor consistent even with himself; for since the sibilant letter in "Asva" has to be in italic, why should not also that in the name of King "Asoka"? In either instance the italic letter is misleading and conveys no meaning, and equally misleading is the Roman letter also. No English reader could possibly produce the correct sound of the Tālavya sibilant with no better guidance than that. It is, again, no more pedantic to write "Jagannath " for "Juggernath " (p. 2) than it is to write "Asvin" for "Ashwin" (p. 194). Max Müller is looked up to by multitudes, and for their sakes he should keep consistently to one principle or the other. There is a great deal we should like to have added respecting this production, but we have already exceeded our limit.-B.

7. The History of Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, 1876 to 1880, compiled from Letters and Official Papers, by LADY BETTY BALFOUR. This volume is not a biography, but a history of one of the important epochs of our administration in India. It is formed from a compilation of public and private correspondence of great interest and value, minutes of Council and speeches, so well arranged that it graphically describes the continuous and successive stages of Lord Lytton's services as Viceroy during four years of great labour and anxiety. What gives a charm to the book is the

classic and refined style of Lord Lytton's letters, speeches, and despatches, and the forcible, manly, and straightforward arguments by which he presents his views on the various imperial and native questions with which. he had to deal. Besides Finance, the Salt duties in the various provinces, the Cotton duties, Public Works, Famine organization, the rights and liberties of the Vernacular Press, and the Indian Civil Service, he had to expound and maintain, against great opposition at home and in India, what is called "the forward policy" on the North-West Frontier, as against the "waiting policy," or the "policy of masterly inactivity." In reference to this question, his speech in the House of Lords, after his return home, and when there was a change in the Government from the Conservative to the Liberal, exhibits in no ordinary manner his grasp of the subject, his eloquence, and his profound conviction of the wisdom of his policy.

His description of the great assemblage at Delhi, when he proclaimed the new title of Her Majesty as "Empress of India," or "Kaisar-i-Hind," is specially interesting. We may repeat here that the originator of the rendering of this title into the vernacular, which met with the enthusiastic and unanimous approval of all the assembled Princes of India, was the late lamented Dr. Leitner. In reference to this title, "Kaisar-i-Hind," Lord Lytton observes: "The translation of the new title in the vernacular was a matter for careful consideration and consultation. The Government of India finally decided to adopt the term 'Kaisar-i- Hind.' It was short, sonorous, expressive of the imperial character which it was intended to convey, and a title, moreover, of classical antiquity, the term 'Kaisari-Room' being that generally applied in Oriental literature to the Roman Emperor, and still representing the title of Emperor throughout Central Asia" (p. 110).

The genesis of the alienation of Sher Ali to the British power is explained by his son Yakub Khan. He said: "The diaries received from Noor Mahomed Shah during his stay in India, and the report which he brought back on his return, convinced my father that he could no longer hope to obtain from British Government all the aid that he wanted, and from that time he began to turn his attention to the thought of a Russian alliance" (p. 370). And Lord Lytton, on commenting on Sher Ali's Firman, on his flight from Kabul, makes the following distinct affirmation : "I affirm that Sher Ali had ceased to be the friend and ally of the British Government, and that for all practical purposes he had become the friend and ally of the Russian Government at least three years before I had any dealings with His Highness, or any connection with the Government of India. And, finally, I affirm that the real and the only cause of the Afghan War was an intrigue of long duration between Sher Ali and the Russian authorities in Central Asia, an intrigue leading to an alliance between them for objects which, if successfully carried out, would have broken in pieces the Empire of British India" (p. 309). Lord Lytton was warmly supported by Lord Salisbury, then Secretary for India; and Lord Beaconsfield, as Prime Minister, addressed a letter to him at the close of the Session of 1879, in which he says: "Greatly owing to your energy and foresight, we have secured a scientific and adequate frontier for our Indian Empire" (p. 331).