1866.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 69 



call for no further remark than that the information available in 

 the subject is as imperfect as in the case of nouns and verbs. 



I may say the same of adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. For 

 the purpose of analysing words, a thorough knowledge of prepositions 

 is of the utmost importance ; without it, to attempt the task is to 

 attempt an impossibility ; but of prepositions the two essays give next 

 to nothing. 



But I need not any further multiply examples. It is the furthest 

 from my wish to find fault with Mr. Edge worth and Major Leech. 

 They were pioneers in an untrodden field, and as such, they deserve 

 our thanks for what they have done, and not our reprobation for 

 what they could not do ; and in noticing their papers, my only wish is 

 to point out what remains to be done, and the rich field that lies 

 open to the scholar who would devote a season in the " happy 

 valley" to the philology of that place. 



Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed, since the publication of 

 the papers under notice, and Kashmir has been visited year after 

 year by shoals of intelligent summer tourists, but nothing has been 

 done to throw any new light on the language of that country, and 

 it remains to this day as ill known to us as the trans-himalayan 

 Aryan dialects of the Hindu Kush, or mount Kailasa. The paper of 

 the Rev. E. Trump on the so-called Kafir language — an Aryan ver- 

 nacular of the Indian Caucasus, is even more imperfect than those 

 of Mr. Edgeworth and Major. Leech, and the vernacular of Kailasa 

 is all but unknown to us, and yet great interest is attached to the 

 history of those languages. They stand as landmarks of the spread 

 of the Aryan races from the plateaux of Central Asia, and as such, 

 have a peculiar interest for the antiquarian." 



Mr. Riddell thought that it was incumbent on the Society, in 

 making such a proposition, to indicate the course which they consider 

 should be pursued, to attain the the object in view. 



Mr. Campbell said that he could hardly take upon himself to indicate 

 the exact method to be followed — that, he thought, must be left to the 

 Council as the executive of the Society. He only desired to suggest the 

 subject to the Council, leaving it to them to follow it out by such methods 

 as they might deem most proper. With reference to further observations 



