1903.] Annual Address. 21 



by a modest diffidence from entering the portals of a learned Society, 

 but we demand no thesis for admission into our ranks, and we do not 

 expect, although we are always gratified, to receive contributions from 

 our members. In the words of Sir William Jones, we do not require 

 " any other qualification than a love of knowledge and a zeal for the 

 promotion of it ; " and that zeal may manifest itself by general support 

 to the Society as well as by active labour on its behalf. 



I now pass to a brief notice of our publications and of the papers 

 read at our meetings during the past year. The former include three 

 works in the Bibliothecaludica Series, of which the first is a Commentary 

 on the best handbook of the later Mahay ana School of Buddhism. A 

 copy of this work, which was greatly needed for the proper translation 

 of the handbook, was discovered by Mahainahopadhyaya Haraprasad 

 Shastri in the Durbar Library of Nepal, and an edition of it and of the 

 handbook is being brought out, Professor Poussin of Ghent having under- 

 taken the task for the Society. Another philosophic Buddhistic work in 

 Sanskrit under publication is in the editorial charge of Babu Pratapa 

 Chandra Ghosa. The first portion of a translation, by Maulvi AbdusSalam, 

 Deputy Collector, of the Riyazu-s-Salatin, a well-known Muhammadan 

 history of Bengal written in the eighteenth century at Malda, has also 

 been published. Of the Journal of our Philological Section three Parts 

 appeared during the year, of which two were Extra numbers containing 

 Dr. Hoernle's erudite report on a collection of antiquities from Central 

 Asia, and a valuable contribution from Colonel J. Davidson, in the form 

 of notes and. short sentences, on the grammar and language of the Bashgali 

 dialects of Kafiristan. The publication of Sir George King's Materials 

 for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula was continued in the Natural 

 History Part of the Journal, the Government of the Straits Settlements 

 contributing largely to the cost, in appreciation of this important work. 

 Of the Anthropological Part of the Journal three numbers were publish- 

 ed, containing, among others, papers of great interest by Mr. Holland on 

 theCoorgs and Yeruvas of Southern India, by Mr. Friend- Pereira on the 

 Marriage Customs of the Khonds, by Mr. Bompas on the Folk-lore of 

 the Kolhan and by Babu Monmohan Roy on the Rajvanci Caste of 

 North-Eastern Bengal. I would congratulate Mr. Holland on his 

 versatile excursion into research outside of his special domain of Geology, 

 in which he has done so much good work for the Government, and 

 express the hope that both he and the other gentlemen whose papers 

 I have mentioned will place us under further obligation for many 

 interesting contributions to our Journal. Dr. Ross, our Philological 

 Secretary, has drawn attention to the delay which occurs through the 

 printing in India of contributions to our Journal by home residents, 



