a ry s it ally . time ged its (for it ther dis on of the position in ceration into ords towards ake it public; ,ectural render as a basis for NSCRIPTION. . अशए ज : रजस कने ha, not as now established, in sts for a period of several to 9, were the initial epresented by p for ving been already - ashtu word is Salor, gures are given in two g to this theory ('Journal of I now await the publication of ich has guided the author to the of numeration. I must add, however, proves to be Pashtú-which is more g the figures to have a like derivation is, so the writing on the slab discovered in the lesser Manikyála tope by M. Court. The state of the stone itself is not very favourable for the obtainment of an exact fac-simile, as it would seem that the inscription must have been originally engraved on a badly-prepared and uneven surface; and time and circumstances have necessarily still further damaged its legibility. I must frankly add, that my transcript (for it pretends to be nothing else) has been made under other disadvantages; first, of a limited time for the verification of the minor details, and secondly, of the unfavourable position in which the stone is fixed. As respects the transliteration into modern Devanagarí, seeing the scanty aid it affords towards any linguistic explanation, I almost hesitate to make it public; but as it claims to do no more than give conjectural renderings of each letter, it may perchance serve as a basis for future and more successful tentative readings. refer to the Buddhist era of the Nirvána of Sákya Sinha, not as now established, in 543 B.C., but as generally believed in by the early Buddhists for a period of several centuries," [i.e., 477 B.c.] p. 704. Major Cunningham adds, in a note: "In 1852, I discovered that these numeral figures, from 5 to 9, were the initial letters of their Pashtu names written in Ariano-Puli. Thus 5 is represented by p for pinz; 6 by sp for spag; 7 by a for avo; 8 by th for atha, the a having been already used for 7; and 9 by n for nah. Even the 4 is a ch, but as the Pashtu word is Salor, this form must have been derived from India. The first four figures are given in two distinct forms, the second set being the older," etc. I have already stated some of my reasons for objecting to this theory (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vii.,' of 1855, p. 556). I now await the publication of further details concerning this singular stone, which has guided the author to the discovery of the enigma of the Bactrian system of numeration. I must add, however, that if the language of these inscriptions proves to be Pashtú-which is more than doubtful-the difficulty of admitting the figures to have a like derivation is, so far, removed!] The same plate (xxxiii., 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. iii.) represents (reduced onethird) the position of the three cylinders, or urns, of gold, silver, and copper, as they stood in the niche of the under stone, surrounded by eight coins of copper, arranged in the direction of the cardinal points. The coins are mostly corroded, but they can all be recognised as belonging to Kadphises and Kanerkos. Fig. 12, the |