48 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Feb. 



traditionary inventor or introducer of the Greek alphabet, was also 

 a slayer of the serpent, that is, was at least in hostile contact with 

 the serpent race ; and perhaps the singular legend of the sowing of the 

 serpent's teeth may be explained as an example of a custom, probably 

 of remote antiquity, but of which familiar modern instances were to 

 be found in the institutions of the Janissaries and Mamelukes — the 

 custom, that is, of forming military bodies of male children captured 

 from the enemy in war. 



There was on this occasion no time to follow out this subject, nor 

 did Mr. Bayley consider himself justified in anticipating the re- 

 sults of General Cunningham's researches ; but he believed that it 

 was probable that these would show a strong similarity, not merely in 

 names, but in customs and religion, as existing in these regions which 

 the western Snakes appear to have trod, with the traces of the same 

 nature which they have left behind in India. And as regarded 

 the Grecian alphabet, without entering into the arguments which 

 had been assigned in support of its Phoenician origin, Mr. Bayley 

 would only remind the Society of the strong impression which the 

 resemblance between the Greek and the Lath alphabet made on the 

 minds of the first decipherer of the latter, the late James Prinsep ; and 

 at any rate it was curious that in Greece, as in India, the long vowels 

 and especially the double letters seem to have been added to facilitate 

 the proper expression of Aryan sounds, proving that it was, at least 

 in its first stage, not fully adopted to the requirements of an Aryan 

 language, and was therefore evidently not originally invented to meet 

 these, but was probably borrowed. 



Mr. Campbell said that he had supposed Mr. Bayley to speak of 

 the Snake races as distinguished from the early Aryans, in a way which 

 might lead to the supposition that those Snake races were not Aryans. 

 Now the term was chiefly applicable to the Rajpoots and Jats and 

 cognate tribes, and he thought no one could see these peoples and 

 doubt for an instant that they are Aryans of the very highest type. 

 At the same time, these people have not generally had very literary 

 tendencies, and it might be questionable whether they invented ai 

 original alphabet. The whole question, however, of the first inventioi 

 of the alphabet used in India, seemed to him to merge in a much 

 better one, not yet solved, viz. what were the first religious civilizations 



