230 R. Hoernle —Three further Collections of [No. 4, 
three times, of the syllable gri in No. 9 is very curious. It is tlie 
solitary instance of a word with a distinctly Sanskrit sound, and seems 
to suggest that the following group of letters ajhatai is a name with the 
well-known Sanskrit honorific prefix gri. It is noteworthy that the 
cursive Brahmi characters of this set occur side by side with Chinese 
on No 16 of the following 8th set. The frequent occurence of numeral 
figures on these sheets is also a noteworthy circumstance, so also the 
repetition of the same phrases. Seeing that the Chinese fragment 
No. 16 refers to taxes and rents, it suggests itself that these sheets may 
be the records of an ancient revenue office in Turki (Uighur) territory, 
possibly under Chinese rule. Could they be in the Chinese language, 
though written in non-Chinese characters ? My own impression is that 
the several pieces of this set do not form any connected series of the 
pages of a book, but that they are separate documents, though all of a 
similar character. 
(8.) Of this set there are two specimens, Nos. 16 and 17 on Plate 
XIV. Both are fragments. No. 17 is of very coarse paper, a sort of 
packing paper. It looks as if it was one-quarter of a sheet of the size 
of No. 8. It is inscribed on one side only. No. 16 is of paper like 
Nos. 2 and 3 ; it is well covered with a sizing of a pinky-white colour. 
It looks like the fragment of an oblong leaf, of unknown length, and 
2£ inches breadth. Both leaves appear to be inscribed with what looks 
like Chiuese characters, but on No. 16 there is also a line of the same 
cursive Central Asian as on Nos. 6-15. The outer lines on this No. are 
Chinese ; of the two inner lines, the left is Chinese, but the right is 
Central Asian Brahmi. The latter does not run vertically like the 
Chinese, but horizontally, the three letters which compose the line being 
placed side by side parallel with the long side of the leaf. The first 
letter adjoins the broken line of the leaf. The three letters, as I read 
them, are 
%T % n hau de , 
but I do not know what they mean. A similar group of letters occurs 
also on Nos. 10 and 11 (see infra , p. 236). Mr. A. Foucher, whom I had 
the pleasure of meeting in Calcutta, was good enough to submit a 
photograph of No. 16 to the well-known Chinese scholar Mr. Chavannes 
in Paris, who has had the great kindness of supplying me with the 
following explanation, reading the characters from top to bottom : 
Colonne de droite. 
1, “ et autres ” (marque du pluriel par rapport a ce qui precede.) 
2, anciennes 
3, (et) nouvelles 
