1834.] Brown Liquid discovered at Manikyala. 567 



is supposed to be identical with this, the interpretation is at once over- 

 turned ; for it is no longer possible to construe even the first cypher 

 into Hajdj, in accordance with the Baron de Sacy's reading. 



Be this as it may, the undoubted Arabic names and sentences upon 

 so many of the winged-cap Sassanian coins, tend strongly to unsettle 

 the date I had assumed, on the authority of these coins alone, for 

 the Manikyala tope, and to bring their construction down into the 

 seventh century. But here again an additional difficulty arises with 

 regard to the Roman coins just discovered by M. Court. Is it like- 

 ly that in a distant and semi -barbarous country coins of seven hundred 

 years' old, should have been preserved and selected for burial in a 

 shrine or tomb then erected ? 



The more we endeavour to examine the subject, the more difficul- 

 ties and perplexities seem to arise around us ; but it is only by bring- 

 ing every circumstance forward that we can hope to arrive at last at 

 any satisfactory conclusion. The two coins published in Piute XXI. 

 will doubtless be considered of great interest by the illustrators of the 

 Sassanian dynasty in Europe — they may destroy a favorite theory 

 with them, as their evidence of the Arabic names tends to shake our 

 deductions here ; but we shall both be the gainers in the end, and 

 eventually the service of an obscure history will be materially promot- 

 ed by the collision of discoveries. 



V. — Note on the Brown Liquid, contained in the Cylinders from Mani- 

 kyala. By the same. 



The important discovery made known by M. Court, in the memoir 

 just read, of another metallic vessel or urn filled with brown' liquid 

 evidently analogous to that found by General Ventura, in the great 

 tope of Manikyala, reminds me that I have not communicated to the 

 Society, the results of my examination of this curious liquid. I will 

 now proceed to supply this omission, referring to page 314 of the pre- 

 sent volume, and to Plate XXII., for the particulars of its preservation, 

 and of the vessels containing it. It now appears certain that the li- 

 quid was originally deposited in these receptacles, for had it permeated 

 from the superincumbing structure, it would have filled the stone recess 

 as well as the urn, whereas M. Court particularly-describes the former 

 as empty and dry. 



"When the Manikyala relics reached Calcutta, the liquid in the 

 outer copper vessel was nearly dried up, and the sediment had the 

 form of a dark-brown pulverulent crust, adhering to the inner surface 

 of the vessels. It was washed out with distilled water, and preserved 

 in glass stoppered bottles, in which, after several months, the greater part 

 fell to the bottom, but the liquid remained still of a deep brown, and 

 passed the filter of the same colour. 



