1887.] Dr. Eoemle on the Itli International Congress of Orientalists. 125 



social gathering the same evening. At this gathering the members 

 of the Congress met for the first time, and made each other's acquaint- 

 ance. 



" Next morning (27th September) the first formal general meeting 

 took place at 10-30 a. m. in the Fest-Saal of the University. His Impe- 

 rial and Royal Highness the Archduke Rainer presided, and on his 

 declaring the Congress open, the delegates and members were welcomed 

 by His Excellency Dr. P. Gautsch von Frankenthurn, Austrian Minister of 

 Public Instruction, in the name of the Government. The President, 

 Baron von Kremer, next thanked the Archduke for undertaking the 

 protectorate, and the Government for its support, and read his inaugural 

 lecture on the connections between Europe and the East. We were 

 then welcomed by the Burgermeister in the name of the City of Vienna, 

 and after a few addresses by various delegates and presenters of books, 

 the President requested the members to constitute themselves into- 

 sections. 



" The following sections were then constituted : — 



(1) Arabic. 



(2) Semitic (omitting Arabic). 



(3) Aryan. 



(4) African and Egyptian. 



(5) Chinese and Polynesian. 



" We enrolled ourselves as members of the Aryan Section, and shall 

 confine our remarks to it. We were, of course, unable to attend the 

 meetings of the other sections. 



" At the first sitting of the section, officers were appointed, viz. :— 

 Professor R. von Roth — President. 



Professor A. Weber and Professor C. Lignana — Vice-Presidents. 

 Professor Ch. Michel and Dr. J. Hanusz — Secretaries. 



" The Session then adjourned till 2 p.m., when business was regularly 

 begun. The first person called upon to read his communication was 

 Mr. Grierson. He had two papers to read, one a short note suggesting 

 a systematic survey of Indian vernaculars, and the other a historical 

 Bketch of mediaeval Hindi poetry. He requested to be allowed to post- 

 pone reading the latter for a day or two as it was not quite ready, and, 

 in connexion with the note, laid on the table a set of the grammars of 

 the Bihar dialects, and a copy of Bihar Peasant Life, as specimens of 

 what the Government of Bengal was doing in the way of surveying the 

 vernaculars in its territories. Dr. Hoernle and Professor Buhler spoke in 

 support of his proposal, and it was finally agreed to postpone any formal 

 resolution, till his paper on Hindi poets, which was fixed for the follow- 

 ing Wednesday, should have been read. 



