8 
A. F. R. Hoernle — The Weber Manuscripts. 
[No. 1, 
changed with aspirates, sonants with surds, cerebrals with dentals, etc. 
But there can be no shadow of doubt as to the identity of the words. 
They are Sanskrit names of medicinal plants. I have not yet been able 
to give to the subject any thorough examination, but I suspect that we 
have in Part IX a medical treatise written in some Mongolian (Tibetan) 
or Turk! language, treating of Indian medicine, and hence using Sanskrit 
medical terms. 
The curious circumstance, however, with regard to this Part IX is 
that, both with reference to the characters (square variety) and the 
language, it clearly belongs to the same class of manuscripts as the 
Kashgar. MS., published by Mr. Oldenburg. Of the latter manuscript 
I shall give some account at the end of this paper. 
On the age of the Weber MSS., I am not able to give such a 
definite opinion as on that of the Bower MSS., though I am not disposed 
to believe that any portion of it can be referred to a date later than the 
7th century A. D. In the Indian portions of the manuscript (Parts I 
to IV) no other than the old tri-dentate form of y ever occurs. On this 
ground these portions should be of the same date as the Bower MSS., i. e., 
belong to the 5th century A. D. In some points they are even more 
antique than the Bower MSS. Thus the compound r, preceding another 
consonant, is uniformly written level with the line of writing (never 
above it, like the vowel marks). The consonant p has also preserved a 
more ancient shape. 
The Central Asian portions of the Weber Manuscripts show occasion- 
ally in Part V, the old tri-dentate form 1SJ of y, and otherwise through- 
out the intermediate bi-annulate form Z/J . No trace of the modern square 
form is seen anywhere. I call the bi-annulate form “ intermediate,” not 
because it presents a stage of development intermediate between the old 
tri-dentate and the modern square forms, but simply because it is clearly 
a “ current ” form grown out of the older tri-dentate. It seems to me 
doubtful whether it was ever superseded by the later Indian “ current ” 
square form. On the other hand, it is so easily formed out of the 
older tri-dentate form, that it may have been and probably was nearly 
contemporaneous with it. I am disposed to believe, that the Gupta ya 
(the old tri-dentate form) as it was carried from Kashmir into the more 
northern and north-eastern parts (Kashgar, Yarkand, Khoten) of 
Central Asia, assumed and always retained the bi-annulate form, while 
in the more south-eastern parts (Western Tibet) it retained at first its 
tri-dentate form and was afterwards gradually changed into the modern 
(Indian) square form. When Sambhota went to “ Khache ” (Central 
Asia, i. e. Kashmir, Liyul, Khotan) to bring thence the letters in 630-650 
A. D., he evidently found the tri-dentate form in use in the particular 
