Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/346

 October, 1875.] BOOK NOTICES. 319 appear to be the palace of Jodhpur, and further that Mr. Lumsdaine thinks that the famous Swayamvara took place there ! The passage is so spirited and interesting that we give it at length, although it is hard to see what connection either the place or subject has with the census of the Bombay Presidency, except through the person of its compiler. " Such tales" (viz, as the story of the Swayam- vara) " find spell-bound listeners, and it haa ao chanced that I have read them. The castle of the Rahtor is no longer threatened ; and it ha8 been my good fortune to look down from its grim old towers, and by torchlight, upon a scene which as a scene was simply perfect. The occasion is an annual festival in honour of Mata Devi, whose wrath is to be so appeased, that the scourge of small-pox may be stayed for the com- ing year. Groups of girls dressed in every colour and every shade of colour pass up to the palace to receive the usual propitiatory offering and take it to the 6hrine of the goddess. There the most beautiful amongst them is chosen, and a lighted taper is given to her, and placing it in an earthen vessel she is to carry it to the king. If it reaches him alight it is a good omen, but if it be quenched it is a presage of evil— quod Bern it! The ceremony is of the simplest, but it is all that is left to them of pomp and power. The procession of the girls is itself the very poetry of colour, and with it come stately elephants in housings ablazo with gold and silver embroidery. From end to end the route is illuminated j the terraced roofa are crowded ; each coin of vantage is occupied ; and the street has a background of torchlit matchlocks and men, wildly effective, and between them is borne the sacred light. " And then come the very flower of Rajput chival- ry, splendidly dressed, superbly mounted ; rich armour and jewelled plumes, inlaid shields, the burnished axe, the glittering mace, the pennoned lance; and everywhere the play of sword-blades. The picture is perfect, and carries one back to the Crusades, but it tells us that ages before the i arms were wielded by the an- cestors of the men who now carry thorn." We hare the ■ Buddhists', of course, 190,620 Of thorn, in whom the public of Bombay will be surprised to recognize the familiar Maiv;ll., with numbers eked out by certain Gujarat! Jainas, and a few Southern Jainas who are cultivators or small traders in the Dekhnnand South Mar&tha Country. As there is a good account of them at p. 83 (indeed the whole chapter on Religions is • Does not Mr. Sayce, however, rather nan ,-n i tt ■• Bnd in Prof, Wh.tuey 's EftfS ^J*™^ Language the following assertion regarding the large lamuy the best in the Report), it may be presumed that this classification is used under orders from Bupt-rior authority. It is scarcely necessary to say here that there is not an indigenous Buddhist in the Presidency. To conclude : the orthography of the Report varies from the pure Jouesian of Dr. WilBon to the ugly but still systematic Gilchristian of Mr, Steele, with every possible form of intermediate bastard and barbarous kakography. This fault reaches its acme on the map, which has besides, on its own geographical account, the merit of putting Thana on the mainland, and the source of the U 1 a s river under the M a I s e j Ghat, with other new discoveries of the same sort " too numerous to mention." The Pbisciplbs or Comparative Philology. By A. H. Sayce, Fellow and Tutor of Qw -ford. (Loudon : Tnibner and Co., 1874.) pp. 381. Mr. Sayce is a zealous philologist who has already done excellent service, especially in the investigation of the Assyrian branch of Semitic. He is well entitled to an attentive hearing on the subject or Comparative Philology. He characterizes his own work as " devoid of the graces of style," " rough-hewn/' and " brisi ling with uncouth words," and, so far as the matter of tt is concerned, as being " critical" rather than " constructive." We certainly cannot praise tho style. Mr. Sayce is full of thought and knowledge ; but he seem* o have tilted the water- jar on one side and allowed the stream to ruth as best it, might. And Mr. Sayce is nothing if not critical. He haa very strong convictions, and is ever bold in expressing them. No matter who crosses his path, Tros Tyrinm, the comer is greeted with a war-whoop and a blow. We are glad taut we criticizing Mr. Sayce, instead of being criti by him. We shall deal more mercifully by him than he would by us. But, in fact, our work is exposition much rather than criticism. Mr. Sayco holds that one far- reaching error on the part of philologists has been tho assumption that the Aryan family of language affords a complote solution of the pro- blems of the science of language. We cannot admit that philologists have overlooked -agues ; but the tendency which Mr. Sayce tnto states, and considerably overstates, to some extent, exist. He would give as an instance of such pcrdously rapid generalisation the canon that the roots of all languages are monosyllabic* This canon, he states, is set aside of M.davo- Polynesian dialects:— " The roota are prevailingly disiyUabic" li- W).