ORIENTAL SCiKNCt: IN AMERICA. 679 



William Hayes Ward concludes that there is no clear evidence, on 

 Assyrian and Babylonian seals, of human sacrifice. He considers the 

 so-called gate god a conventionalized form of the sun-god coming out 

 of the gates of the east. 



Hugo Winckler translated in Hebraica a cuneiform text describing 

 the building of Nebuchadnezzar's artificial reserV'Oir. One inscription 

 records that the royal canal was built because the river Euphrates had 

 departed from the city of Sippar. 



D. A. Walker gave a historical sketch of the reign of the Assyrian 

 king Asurbanipal. 



BUDDHISM AND SANSKRIT. 



A. H. Edgreen wrote a criticism of Van den Gheyn. His conclusion 

 is that of the thirteen roots which have been referred to the eighth 

 class of verbs in Sanskrit five are fictitious, and the remainder must be 

 referred to the fifth class. 



T. B. Forbush described the Hindu doctrine of death and immortality. 

 The early Hindus had no dread of death. The future life was a joyous 

 one, when all good people reap the reward of virtue. The terrible 

 conception of hell is no part of the primitive Vedic faith. The funda- 

 mental i)ostulate of Hindu ontology is that the soul is eternal. It is not 

 born, it can not die, and is itself changeless. At different times it wears 

 different garments;, sometimes it assumes the form of a man, sometimes 

 the disguise of an animal, and sometimes it is clad in the robes of a 

 spirit of light. 



James T. Hatfield edited a Vedic text on omens and portents from 

 two MSS. in the British Museum. 



E. W. Hopkins continued his inquiry into the conditions of civiliza- 

 tion in the Hindu middle age from the point of view of the ruling power 

 or warrior caste, and discussed the quantitative variations in the Cal- 

 cutta and Bombay texts of the Mahabharata. 



A. V, W. Jackson, called attention to a new reference in the Avesta 

 to "the life-book" hereafter. 



S. H. Kellogg discussed the origin of certain Rajput forms of the 

 substantive verb in Hindi. 



David Ker described Burmah's mighty river and the capital cities of 

 the past, the old caverns, site and great temple of Moulmein, Lower 

 Burmah ; a trip by rail u[) the Himalaya; temples and Buddhist 

 shrines that have been used as fortresses in times of war ; the street 

 scenes and play-houses of llangoon, the Liverpool of Burmah, and the 

 famous Shway Dagohn of Rangoon, the golden pagoda of Burmah; 

 also a trip among the Circassian mountains. 



Edward A. Lawrence gave an account of his visit among the mis- 

 sionary stations in South India. Churches and Christian worshii> are 

 described. The ])opulation of South India is largely aboriginal, of 

 Dravidian stock. The social institutions are primitive and interesting 

 to the student of early customs. 



