202 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Aug:. 



I take it to belong to a series struck by a line of Turkoman Princes, 

 surnamed " Ortokites," from " Artak" or " Ortok," one of their 

 progenitors. The first of their line who figures in history, was this 

 chief named Artak ibn Aksali, who seized Jerusalem about the close 

 of the 11th century. He died about 1091, and his sons were 

 driven out and founded two dynasties, one over 'Iraq, the other in 

 Syria, first at Diyarbakr, then at Mardin. To the latter belonged the 

 celebrated Salahuddin, or Saladin, and to it I think belongs this coin, 

 though I suspect it is an unpublished type. I am not quick at read- 

 ing the old Square Cufic in which the legend is embodied, and the 

 characters, as I say, are very worn. I think, I can read ' Salahuddin, 

 and ' Tartash' or ' Taktash' or ' Tabaktash,' but I can find no name 

 like the latter given in the lists. 



The two elephants have an oriental touch, and the lion and scor- 

 pion belong, I have no doubt, to some zodiacal reference. The coin 

 or medal was probably struck in commemoration of some special event." 



On again receiving the coin, I had hoped that possibly Mr. Bloch- 

 niann would have been able to investigate it more closely. But Major 

 Strutt has requested that it may be returned to him, and there is 

 therefore no time at present to do more than exhibit it to the Society 

 and ask any of the members present if they can throw any further 

 light on the question. 



The following papers were read — 



I. — Extract from a report by Captain R. A. Cole, on Cromlechs in 

 Southern India. 



"The Cbief Commissoner inspected some cromlechs discovered on the 

 top of the Moory Bctta hill in North Coorg, and directed some to be 

 excavated. Some of these had concentric rows of upright stones, and 

 two of them had upright slabs arched above, so as evidently to have 

 formed an arched entrance within the enclosure. Portions of the 

 arches have been destroyed by the ravages of time. The space within 

 the concentric rows of stones was excavated, and earthen vessels of 

 the exaet pattern and description found elsewhere were discovered, 

 but all in miniature. These vessels bear the same relative proportion 

 to the larger vessels found in the cromlechs elsewhere as the small toy 

 chatties of native children do to the larger vessels in common use at 



