1850.] Descriptive notice of the District of J hilum. 43 



which he found commixed the graves and hieroglyphs of an Egyptian 

 race, lying over the ruins of an Assyrian palace, the language of the 

 cuneiform or arrow-headed character, occurring on slabs with a primi- 

 tive form of the Indian Lat writing, and (apparently) the letters of 

 some Phoenician dialect, — will have declared itself to be the classic 

 tongue of the ancient conquerors of India. Are we about to see ful- 

 filled the prediction of Vans Kennedy as to the Babylonian origin of 

 Sanskrit, and the Hindu mythology, — or, in other words, are we not 

 approaching the solution of the affinity between the Hindu and the 

 Egyptian ? 



" Time sadly overcometh all things and is now dominant, and sitteth 

 upon a Sphinx, and looketh into Memphis and old Thebes ; while his 

 sister oblivion reclineth semi-somnous on a pyramid, gloriously trium- 

 phing, making puzzles of Titanian erections, and turning old glories 

 into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. The traveller as he 

 paceth amazedly through those deserts, asketh of her, who builded 

 them ; and she mumbleth something but what it is he heareth not."* 



So wrote two centuries ago, the great enquirer into vulgar errors ; 

 but those who sneer or doubt in these days as to the earthly limits of 

 human enquiry, read their rebuke in the present refutations of a con- 

 clusion made then by even such a master-mind as his. 



Descriptive notice af the District of Jhilum. By L. Bowring, Esq. 



The district of Jhilum as at present constituted, extends from the 

 Jhilum river on the E. to the Attock on the W. On the north it is 

 bounded by the various talukas of Rawalpindi as the Pubbi coun- 

 try, Potwar, Syudkusran and Nurali, the river Suan and Pindi Gheb ; 

 on the south, its limit is the Jhilum river as far as Dhak, whence it 

 stretches due west, being bounded to the south by the districts of 

 Khushab, Mitta, Tuwanah and Kuchi. In this extent of 130 miles, 

 with a range of hills traversing the centre, it is natural that the charac- 

 ter of the country should vary much ; the ravine country to the north, 

 the hills of the centre, and the fine fertile plains to the south, are well 



* Fragment ■ on Mummies,' by Sir Thomas Browne. Works, IV. p. 273, ed. 

 1836. 



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