1854.] Literary Intelligence. 723 



the Armenians at Venice are yet engaged on the publication of a 

 series of their national authors. The l colossal enterprize' of our 

 own Elliot is noticed in connexion with this subject, and with a 

 touching allusion to the heavy loss occasioned by his death. 



No. III. of the Zeitschrift of the German Oriental Society opens 

 with a notice, by Professor Pott, of the recent contributions to Com- 

 parative Philology in the works of Norris, Eiis and Crowther on 

 several dialects of Central and Western Africa. Graf discusses 

 with reference to statements put forth by V. Hammer and Spiegel, 

 the interpretation to be put on the ' D'Sulkarnein' or * two-horned' 

 of the 18th Surah of the Koran. He maintains with the best 

 commentators on this work, that the allusion is to xilexander the 

 Great. Some suggestive remarks follow, by Benfey, on the figures 

 and names of divinities on Indo-Scythian coins, and on the inter- 

 pretations given to them by Lassen. Dr. Roth translates passages 

 from the Rig Veda which describe the ceremonies attending the 

 burial of the dead in ancient India, and which show how opposed 

 were the tendencies of the old Hindu ritual to the practice of 

 Sutti, subsequently introduced by the Brahmans. A paper by Blan 

 on the modern history of Syria, and the continuation of one com- 

 menced some months back by Von Hammer on Saalchi conclude 

 the No. 



Among the correspondence, is a letter from Dr. Von Erdmaun of 

 Novogorod on the question lately discussed by Dr. Sprenger and 

 Professor Fleitcher regarding Muhammad's communications with 

 the Monk Boheira during and subsequent to the prince's journey 

 to Syria. 



No. 2 of the Journal of the American Oriental Society opens 

 with a translation, by Mr. Harrington of Ceylon, of the Siva-Pira- 

 kasam, a metaphysical and theological treatise in Tamul, about two 

 hundred years old. Then follow a notice, by Mr. Whitney, on 

 the Vedic texts, a paper on the Talaing language, by Dr. Mason, 

 and two others on the Karens, with a comparative vocabulary of 

 their two dialects, the latter by Mr. Brown of Assam. A notice 

 of Mr. Perkins's translation of a Syriac Life of Alexander the 

 Great found in MSS. at Ooroomiah, but which proves to be nothiug 

 more than a Syriac version of Callisthenes, concludes the original 

 contents of the No. 



