30 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
us to see the reverse of the medal. For just as the Muham- 
madan chronicles are more copious in particulars referring to 
mp 
materials available for a history in their respective States, 
catalogue them, and preserve them with all the care which such 
precious documents demand. Time will come when their 
descendants will cease to believe the stories of the bards and 
will search for materials from which to compile a real history. 
And if they will not find them, they will have painfully to 
confess to the world that nothing positive is known about the 
history of their State and of their family. Much has gone lost 
already, and the necessity for preserving what has been left 
could never be inculeated too strongly. 
would demand, I hope that by a judicious choice of the most 
typical examples, I shall be able to give the reader a fairly 
impse 
rst specimen which I give below, is taken from an 
historical sketch of the Rathdoras contained in an old manu- 
ipt 
script preserved in the Darbar Library in the Fort of Bikaner,! 
1 MS. 2 of Descr. Cat. of Bard. and Histl. MSS., sect. i, pt. ii, pp. 16-18. 
