Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 17 



guages. He is now engaged in preparing this valuable con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of African languages for the press. 

 Dr Koelle informs me that his vocabularies do not extend to 

 those languages spoken in the north-east of Africa. 



The continued lingual researches of Dr Krapf in the dia- 

 lects of the east and north-east of Africa ; those of Mr 

 Appleyard in the south of Africa from east to west, with the 

 researches into the Negro languages of the western coast, 

 seem to render the lines of demarcation between them less 

 trenchant, and to indicate certain affinities which may con- 

 firm the conjecture of Dr Prichard of a close connection be- 

 tween all the African languages. Much, however, remains 

 to be done in collecting vocabularies, shewing the areas in 

 which the languages to which they belong are spoken, and 

 the compilation of grammars. We must not remain satis- 

 fied with the indications of affinities ; we ought from positive 

 knowledge to exhibit the whole of their several relationships. 

 And we must never forget that lingual evidence, however 

 strong and perfect, is only one line of evidence : we must 

 obtain the concurrent testimony of the other lines of Ethno- 

 logical evidence in order to justify our conclusions. 



"Kaflraria, and its Inhabitants," by the Rev. Francis Fle- 

 ming, M.A., Chaplain to the Forces in King William's Town, 

 is a small volume, containing a popular but animated descrip- 

 tion of the country, and so much of its natural history as the 

 author found necessary to introduce an account of its human 

 inhabitants. Mr Fleming^ knowledge is gained from a per- 

 sonal experience of three years' residence. The large space 

 devoted to a description of the native tribes and their lan- 

 guages, displays the author's ideas of the importance of Eth- 

 nological knowledge ; and the little work is likely to be 

 useful in exciting a desire for more extended and systematic 

 knowledge of the South African. 



Asia. — Steady progress continues to be made in decipher- 

 ing the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria. These inscriptions 

 are the original public records of the empire, and are of infi- 

 nitely higher value than ordinary ancient MSS., because, 

 being the originals, they are free from those corruptions 



VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854, B 



