Xvi Annual Address. [February, 1920. 
these two Frenchmen have now become classic and, though 
scholars may not agree with them in all points, they cannot 
help admiring their patience and their marshalling of facts, 
widely diffused in space and time. Intimately connected with 
the Archeological Depart t. has grown up within these twenty 
years, activity in Central Asian explorations. The discovery 
of Bower manuscripts by Lieutenant Bower and their decipher- 
ment by our late lamented friend Dr. Hoernle, the recovery of 
Weber manuscripts, Godfrey manuscripts, Macartney’s manu- 
scripts by Afghan treasure-seekers, half of which went to St. 
Petersburg and the other half to Calcutta, the widespread rumour 
that there are cities buried in the sands of the deserts of Tak- 
lamakan and Gobi which are being exploited by the Afghan 
treasure-seekers, directed the attention of the scholars of Europe 
towards Central Asia as a likely field from which much of the 
from Pekin and lord it over the desolate caves. Sir Aurel 
made friends with this monk and learnt from him the secret of 
the walled-up caves. Both the Chinese monk and Sir Aure 
part with the hoarded treasure of centuries for a few thousands 
of the horse-shoe money. They were more than sixty mule- 
loads. Their despatch to Europe, their distribution to differ- 
ent countries and their study and decipherment engaged the 
attention of a number of scholars. In a short time they 
discovered translations of Sanskrit Buddhist works in Khotan- 
ese, old Chinese and Toknari written on daphne apers, 
some of which are more than 1,800 years old. They treate 
of all subjects—religious, philosophical, medical, astrological 
and meromantic. Only a very small portion had been deci- 
phered, when the devastating war came in and put a stop to 
all activities in this direction in Germany and Russia. Pro- 
fessor Sylvan Levi is still pursuing his not-very-smooth course 
of studies, and the publication of the results of his labour is 
eagerly awaited by scholars all over the world. 
