GG Buddliism and Odinism. [No. 1. 



vere." Now the word cms of the Gothic language is identical with 

 the As of the ancient language of Norway.* 



" It is probably the same dynasty of which the Chinese annals 

 make mention when they say that in the first century after Christ 

 the prince of Kuei-Chuang, conquered all the country of the Amszus 

 around Kabul, Kandahar and Kophen.f The same annals speak, in 

 another place, of a people or a dynasty of Amsi in Soghdiana, in the 

 first century before Christ. J 



" I hope I have now produced satisfactory arguments to prove 

 that the Asaland of Snorro is identical with the country of the 

 Azes, of which we have spoken above. We shall now demonstrate 

 that Buddhism had extended into those countries in less than 

 two centuries before Christ, and continued to be professed for 

 several centuries after that period. 



" The first powerful sovereign who embraced Buddhism was the 

 king of India, Asoka, who reigned in the third century before Christ ; 

 and to record that event he erected pillars and large blocks of 

 stone with inscriptions mentioning the adoption of that religion. 

 One of these blocks has been discovered in Kabulistan. This 

 monarch sent envoys to the Greek kings of Syria and Egypt, to 

 obtain their permission to preach Buddhism in their dominions. 



" The Chinese annals record that in the second century before 

 our era, their general Hukiuping, when carrying on a war against the 

 Hiungnus, met at the king of Hin-thia, to the West of the mountains 

 of Yarkand, a gilt statue to which offerings were made ;§ and the 

 commentators of the Chinese historian Pan-ku declare that that statue 

 was of Buddha. || I have already shewn from those annals that in 



* When the vowel a receives the long accent (a), in the Norwegian language, 

 it is pronounced as au or ao, and often corresponds with the syllable an in the 

 cognate languages ; for example Sanskrit liansa ; German, gans ; Norwegian, gas 

 " goose." The Norwegian as and the Gothic, am, are undoubtedly derived from 

 the Sanskrit, ansu, a "ray," "light," "splendour," and consequently ansi or asi 

 means splendid, a very convenient epithet for a distinguished family. 



t Foe Koue Ki, p. 83. 



£ A. Kemusat, Nouv. Melanges, t. I. p. 175. 



§ Lassen's Indische Allerth. II. p. 54. 



U Journal des Savants, 1854, p. 280. 



