February, 1914.] _ Annual Address. xxiii 



temples, images and emblems. Two notes were submitted to 

 the Chairman, one explaining the principles of such a removal 

 and the other giving the details. A large number of manu- 

 scripts of Hindu Law and Rituals had to be consulted with a 

 view to explain the law and customs on the subject. 



The Private Secretary to His Excellency the Governor 

 sent what was represented to him to be a work 5000 years old. 

 It proved to be a very modern print of the Buddhist Golden 

 Book of Burma which is already well known. Another reference 

 came from the same quarter for an expression of opinion on an 

 English poem on " Markandeya. 5 ' 



Dr. Annandale asked for a note on the " Tortoise incarna- 

 tion of Visnu,'' and the notes submitted by the Bureau so 

 pleased him that he made his paper on the " Land tortoises 

 and mud turtles " a joint paper in the Science Congress in 

 which the officer in charge of the Bureau has been associated 

 with him as a collaborator. 



The catalogue of manuscripts in the Bishop's College was 

 delayed for the want of a Lama and a Burmese scholar to help 

 the officer in charge of the Bureau of Information. The Lama 

 of the Society came to Calcutta in August and a competent 

 Burmese student was found in the same month. A catalogue 

 has been completed and is in the Press. 



An enquiry was made by the Government of Bengal as to 

 the usefulness of the Bureau, and a request has been made to 

 reaffirm the Notification of November 1908 which seems to 

 have slipped out of the memory of the Civil Officers. The re- 

 affirmation of the Notification is likely to enhance the useful- 

 ness of the Bureau. 



♦ 



His Excellency Lord Carmichael, President, delivered an 

 address to the Society. 



Annual Address, 1914. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



I find that the addresses of the Presidents of the 

 Asiatic Society have been of three kinds. In former years 

 when men perhaps had more time to give to such things, the 

 President's address used to be a history of the progress of 

 science and literature throughout the world, or of such branches 

 of these as particularly interested the members of the Society. 

 Such were the addresses of Sir Alfred Croft, Director of Pub- 

 He Instruction in Bengal, and of that wonderfully versatile 

 scholar, Sir Charles Elliott, who was Lieutenant-Governor of 

 this province. An address of this kind has not been delivered 



