4i4 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1908. 
moreover, the long vowels are now distinguished by the slanting 
stroke (accent re a sign that should naturally be reserved to 
indicate word-stress or an accented syllable. It is true the 
changes thus iesdueid are, after all, but few, and, as they con- 
cern only letters of infrequent occurrence, any inconvenience 
occasioned is but slight. None the less one would have preferred 
a cordial an ee a compliance with the urgent recommenda- 
pee. oe a Society that has proved itself so true and constant a 
frien £ Oriental scholarshi 
Turthe er, when consulting this volume, one pu bear in mind 
that the order in which the mints are arranged is the English 
ete order, 2 the Preface Mr. Wr right peal states : 
urposely avoided an arrangement according to the 
Pasion ‘aiphatee in ths belief that the majority of those using 
the volume are likely to be more readily conversant with the 
former than with the latter.” Now in this belief Mr. Wright is 
quite probably correct; but even so it might still have been well 
exercised, 
et in consulting convenience, the presentment of fe subject 
i f 
fine a piece of honest work, one feels that, if only for saautbeeneys 
sake, the Persian alphabetical order of the mints should have been 
shall I say, so Philistine? But clearly Mr. Wright is willing to 
be, even in his scholarship, English rather than German. Well! 
we, as Englishmen, must try not to complain. 
Exe . for the method of transliteration and the alphabetical 
rrangement—and these, after am relate merely to the form not to 
the nation —all else in the Book is of distinctly the highest quality. 
Though crowded with details and cross-references, its accuracy 1s 
beyond all ego tha Urdii should not only occasionally but 
a rdii with its first vowel short; and on page 
aie. 
Many coin-collectors have, we are sure, felt at times a doubt 
as to which side of a coin should be called the “obverse” and 
which the “reverse,” but, thanks to Mr. Wright’s lucid sie ana- 
tion, no one henceforward ‘need atetng It is only necessary 
ar in mind that the obverse of a coin is conventionally held to 

