Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/186

 152 ASOKA MAUEYA and has little claim to be regarded as a first-rate au- thority. The North Indian legends are at least as old, but, being recorded in fragments scattered through many books, Indian, Nepalese, Chinese, and Tibetan, have received scant consideration. All legendary material must of course be used with extreme caution, and only as a supplement to authentic data, but a moment's con- sideration will show that legends preserved in Northern India, the seat of Asoka's imperial power, are more likely to transmit genuine tradition than those which reached the distant island of Ceylon in translations brought nobody knows how, when, or whence, and sub- sequently largely modified by local influences. This presumption is verified when the two groups of legends are compared, and it then clearly appears that, in cer- tain matters of importance in which they differ, the Northern version is distinctly the more credible. ASSYRIAN HONEYSUCKLE ORNAMENT FROM CAPITAL OF LAT, AT ALLAHABAD.