812 On the History and Literature of the Veda. [Aug. 



and at the surface where the friction is least, and vice versa. To 

 enter more fully on this matter is beyond my proposed object. 



Neve. — That part of the glacier above the line of perpetual snow, is 

 called the neve. It is composed of granular snow alternating with 

 bands of ice and has the appearance of being regularly stratified in beds 

 parallel to its surface. The passage of neve into true glacier ice, is 

 also a point not satisfactorily explained. 



Zur Litteratur tind Geschichte des Weda. Drei Abhandlungen von 

 Rudolph Roth, Doctor der Philosophie. Stuttgart, 1846. {On the 

 Literature and History of the Veda. Three Treatises, by Rudolph 

 Roth, Ph. Dr., Stuttgart, 1846.) 



(Translated by J. Mum. Esq. C. S.) 

 This little book, containing as it evidently does the results of pro- 

 found and accurate research, is a valuable addition to our knowledge 

 of the structure and contents of the several Vedas, and of the interpre- 

 tative literature to which these ancient books gave rise. Some account 

 of the brochure will, it appears to me, be acceptable to the Society, 

 at the time when it has just undertaken the publication of the 

 whole text of the Vedic hymns. Dr. Roth's book consists of three 

 treatises ; the first entitled " The Hymn Collections," extends, with 

 excursuses and remarks, from pp. 1 to 52. The second is headed 

 "The oldest Vedic Grammar, or the Pratisakhya Sutras, pp. 53 — 86, 

 The third (pp. 87 — 144) bears the title " Historical matter in the 

 Rig Veda ; Vasishtha's contest with Viswamitra." The contents of the 

 first treatise will be fully learnt from the following translation of it 

 entire, with one of the notes, which I hope may be considered admis- 

 sible into the pages of the Society's Journal. The second treatise 

 enters into detail in regard to the Pratisakhya Sutras, of which some 

 account has previously been given in the first. The third quotes and 

 translates some hymns from the Rig Veda, which contain traces of a 

 conflict between the rival priestly houses of Vasishtha and Viswamitra, 

 and record the names and wars of a number of petty tribes who at that 

 early period occupied the Punjab. The whole of Dr. Roth's book, 



