1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 181 



land along the Granges, sanctified by the passage of Bacchus, who 

 is said to have smitten that country for a neglect of his rites, and to 

 have left behind a tract called the path of Nyssa. 



Regarding the name Nyssa, Mr. Clay has the following remark : — 



" The {)lain of Nyssa, watered by the Granges is mentioned in another 

 place (v. 625) : from which it seems probable that the geographer un- 

 derstood that a place of that name existed somewhere near that river. 

 Nyssa is universally known as the birthplace of Bacchus, but by some 

 placed in Arabia ; by others (Arrian and Curtius, &c.) in India, but at 

 the foot of Mount Paropamisus. The whole matter is also supposed 

 to be merely allegorical, as representing the sun rising in the East, 

 and traversing the land of India : the pillars put up by the god on 

 Mount Emodes being the starting point in his course, and those at 

 Glades and the African coast the final goal. 



It appears to me, at any rate, that the name Nyssa has left its mark 

 in the word which signifies a state of drunkenness in the language of 

 Hindustan." — 



The coincidence in sound of the name Nyssa, the birthplace of 

 Bacchus, with the Hindustani nissah, drunkness, is, at the first sight, 

 striking. But this coincidence is purely accidental ; for the Hindustani 

 nissah is the vulgar pronunciation of the Persian nishsliali *-&3, 

 which is a corruption (tacarruf) of the Arab. 8 l&* nish-aJi, with the 

 jnzrn above the shin. Hence the Hindustani nissali is a recent 

 Mnhammadan importation. 



Til.— Notes on the Stone Implements of Burma ; 

 by W. Theobald, Junior, Esq., Geological Survey of India. 

 The occurrence of stone implements in India, both of the palaeolithic 

 and neolithic type, is a fact which has now been made known some 

 years, and each year seems to add something towards a more extended 

 acquaintance with these interesting relics. But, excepting a short 

 notice in the Proceedings for July, 1865, (p. 126)* nothing that I am 

 aware of, has been published respecting the stone implements found in 

 Burma. They are, however, curious, as differing materially in form 

 and type, not only from anything found in India, but from anything 



* To complete here my account, I shall be obliged to repeat a few of my 

 former statements. 



