984 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Nov* 



12. In that egg the great power sat inactive a whole 3^ear of the creator, at 

 the close of which by his thought alone he caused the egg to divide itself: 



13. And from its two divisions he framed the heaven above and the earth 

 beneath, in the midst he placed the subtil ether, the eight regions, and the per- 

 manent receptacle of waters. 



Sir William Jones, considered it indubitable that the Hindu 

 doctrine of the creation was in part borrowed from the opening of 

 Birdsit or Genesis, ' the sublimity of which is considerably diminished 

 by the Indian paraphrase of it with which Menu, the son of Brahma, 

 begins his address to the sages who consulted him on the formation 

 of the universe.' The Assamese seem to have gone a step further, in 

 expanding and adulterating the tradition with the introduction of the 

 fresh metaphors of a spider's web and a honeycomb : the latter, we 

 suppose, representing the fixed firmament or dome spangled with 

 lights. 



While thanking Major Jenkins, and the zealous band of American 

 missionaries, of whose studies and researches he often speaks in flatter- 

 ing terms, we must remind him that we still lack a translation of the 

 Khamti passage, published in January. Will not Mr. Brown yet save 

 our volume from closing without it ? — Ed. 



IX. — Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



Wednesday Evening, the 6th December, 1837. 

 William Cracroft, Esq. C. S. in the chair. 



Mr. Joseph Willis, Dr. Colin James Macdonald, Major A. Irvine, 

 and Captain H. Dhummond, proposed at the last meeting, were ballotted 

 for, and duly elected members of the Society. 



Nawab Jabar Khan, proposed at the last meeting, was upon the favor- 

 able Report of the Committee of Papers elected an honorary member. 



J. H. Batten, Esq. proposed by the Secretary, seconded by Mr. 

 McLeod. 



Babu Conoy La'l Tagore, proposed by ditto, seconded by Mr. Hare. 



Charles Elliot Barwell, Esq. proposed by Mr. Cracroft, seconded by 

 the Secretary. 



Maulavi Abdul Mojid requested the loan of the Harishamin and the 

 Suwadiq Mahriqa to collate with an edition he is now printing. 



He also made an offer of 1000 rupees for the broken series of the 

 Fatuwa Alemgiri, undertaking to reprint the first two volumes at his own 

 expence :— referred to the Committee of Papers. 



Read a letter from Dr. McClelland, accepting a seat in the Committee 

 appointed at the last meeting for the superintendence of the Museum. 



Babu Ramdhan Sen announced that he had completed the second volume 

 of the Inaya, and in compliance with his agreement presented 50 copies 

 of the work to the Society for distribution at their discretion. 



Letters from the President of the Geographical Society of Paris, 

 M. Roux de Rochelle, and from the Baron MacGuckin de Slane, for- 

 warded their publications (see 'Library'). 



The following extract from the Baron de Slane's letter will interest oriental 

 scholars : 



" Sachant combien vous vous interessez, Monsieur le President, au progres 

 de la culture des langues orientates, je profite de cette occasion pour vous informer 

 que la premiere livraisoa du texte Arabe de la geographie d' Aboulfeda sera 



