256 MAJOR C. BR. CONDER, R.E., D.C.L., LL.D., M-RB.A.S., 
still, on the whole, it is exceedingly good, and it falls in, in fact, 
with what was stated at the late congress of Orientalists, by 
Professor Hommel, the Rev. C. J. Ball, and others (who spoke 
on that occasion in the Semitic or Babylonian sections), viz.: the 
connection that must have existed between ancient China, Heypt 
and Babylonia. I think we may regard this connection as 
exceedingly probable, and further researches will, no doubt, give 
us more light upon the subject. I hope that Major Conder will 
continue his interesting researches and will give us some further 
information from his wide experience at some future time. 
Rev. Kenner S. Macponaup, D.D.—I cannot speak with 
authority upon this subject; but there is one little point I should 
hike to receive light upon, or throw alittle light upon, if Ican. Itis 
with regard to the question of vowel harmony (treated on in the 
section on Mongolic languages). Major Conder, in his most 
admirable paper, is not able to throw any light on the subject as 
far as the Aryan languages are concerned. Now Max Miller tells 
us in his Gifford Lectures of 1890, that there is a law in accor- 
dance with which the vowels of every word must be changed and 
modulated so as to harmonize with the keynote struck by its chief 
vowel; he finds this law pervading the Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, 
Samoyedic, aud Finnic classes of languages, and even in dialects 
where it is disappearing it has often left traces of its former 
existence behind—nay, more, ‘“‘ the same law has been traced in 
the Tamulic languages also, particularly in Telugu, and in these 
languages it is not only the radical vowel that determines the 
vowels of the suffixes, but the vowel of a suffix also may react on 
the radical vowel.” But he adds: ‘“‘No Aryan or Semitic lan- 
guage has preserved a_ similar freedom in the harmonic 
arrangements of its vowels, while traces of it have been found 
among the most distant of the Turanian family.” Such is 
Professor Max Miller’s opinion. 
Now all scholars are agreed that Gaelic, the Celtic language of 
the Highlands of Scotland, and Irish, the language of our fellow 
subjects in the Emerald Isle, are Aryan, indeed the oldest branches 
of the family. Here are extracts from two or three of the Gaelic 
grammars accessible to me :— 
1. Forbes, at p. 9 of his grammar, gives two rules on the 
spelling of Gaelic words, a knowledge of which, he says, makes 
Gaelic orthography extremely easy :—‘ 1. When the last vowel in 
