Sanscrit Writing and Language. 101 



Many Instances of discoveries of the kind, it is probable, might be adduced; but 

 it is unnecessary to search for further confirmation of a fact that is already 

 sufficiently established. What the inquiry more calls for, is to ascertain whether, 

 previously to the limit of time assigned to the first formation of the ruder part of 

 this alphabet, any communication was carried on between the Indians and 

 Abyssinians. 



Now the first circumstance that would, I think, be apt to strike one here, is 

 the remarkable similarity between the distribution of men into castes in India 

 and that which formerly subsisted in Egypt, as described by Herodotus* and 

 Diodorus Siculus.f The Greek historians indeed were not agreed as to how 

 many of those castes there were in the latter country, nor are the modern writers 

 as to how many there are in the former ; it is no wonder, therefore, that the 

 accounts we have of the number of classes in the two systems of arrangement 

 should be somewhat different, though even, as respects this point, there is the 

 remarkable correspondence of the priests constituting the first caste, and the 

 soldiers the second in both systems. But the extraordinary principle of com- 

 pelling every man to follow the same profession and way of life that his father 

 liad done, and never allowing him under any circumstances to change his occu- 

 pation, is common to the two institutions. Herodotus records the enforcement 

 of this regulation with respect to the class of soldiers,| and he implies it as to the 

 rest by calling them distinct races of men ; but Diodorus Siculus extends it 



a small Hindu temple, under which a little pot was found with Roman coins and medals of the 



second century This happened while I was governor [of Madras], and I had the choice of 



two out of the whole. I chose an Adrian and a Faustina, Some of the Trajans were in good pre- 

 servation. Many of the coins could not have been in circulation ; they were all of the purest gold, 

 and many of them as fresh and beautiful as if they had come from the mint but yesterday." 



* "EoTt ci AljviTTiuv tirra yivsa. koI tovtuv, oi fiiv, Iphg, oi Si, fia\i.}ioi KiKXLaraC 

 oi Se, /3ouKoAof ol Se, crvfiiorai' ol Si, KaTnjXof o'l Si, IpjujjvMc* oi Si, KVjStpvJjrai. yivea 

 fiiv AiyvTTTiwv ToaavTa tori, ovvofiara Si a^i keetoi otto tu)v Tf)(yiwv. — Herod, lib. ii, 

 cap. 164. 



t Instead of the last five classes of Herodotus's division, Diodorus substitutes three, as follows : 

 "EoTt Se ETEpa (TwrayfiaTa rrig TroXiTtla<; rgia, to, te raiv vofiiwv, koX to twv ytwpyiov. In 

 Si TO Twv TE^viTwy. — DiodoH, lib. i, p. 67. 



t 'OuSe TOvToiai E^EOTi Ti\vr\v iiraaKtiaai ovSsfiir)v, aWa Ta ec TfoXtfxov iiraffKiOvai 

 fiovva, iraig trapa Trarpoc (KScKOfisvog. — Herod, lib. ii, cap. 166. 



