fore us are carefully carved and ornamented; and such astanas seem peculiar to the south of India.* The dread of villagers, Shaka Siam,† is represented on horseback with a long spear, as is the Deccan favorite Kundee Rao, and Pabooji, whose picture may be seen in Tod, and Ramdeo, a Marwari incarnation of Krishn, and many others or we should at once have set them down as the twenty-four Bagrawuts, had not the worship of those worthies been peculiar to Mewar and the countries near it. It would be a mere waste of time and paper to notice the various forms and seasons in which the horse is worshipped in India; we will not therefore weary you with a vain parade of research, but content ourselves with As are a large proportion of the customs described in the Quanoon-i-Islam, quod vide page 279. A corruption probably of Saka Swami, the Lord of Slaughter, for he is principally worshipped, I am told, on fields where a battle has been fought. His statues are more commonly found in company with those of brother spirits, as Goga, Phurna Gee, &c. but he is said to have a temple to himself, at Nursinghur near Bersiah. The following story related to us by an old villager, will remind you of the black rider of the Hartz. A buniah had to return home from a Mela, but the gains of the day were in his pursenight was coming on-the road was of bad repute, and he feared to go alone. A soldier passing by, offered himself as an escort-No, objected the buniah, you are armed, and I am weak; you yourself may rob me. Anxious however to get home, and encouraged by reiterated assurances of protection, he agreed to trust himself in the stranger's company, provided he would swear by Shaka Siam to do him no injury. Shaka Siam is between us (beechmen) replied the soldier; but no sooner was the village out of sight, than he robbed the unhappy merchant of not only his money but his clothes, tauntingly exclaiming, Where is your Shaka Siam? if he be between us why does he not assist you? Hardly had the words passed his lips, when a tall horseman was seen in the distancehis jet black steed outstripped the wind-one moment, and the soldier was transfixed by the lance of the rider. The poor buniah had closed his eyes in terror-when he looked up, the horseman had vanished-the soldier lay dead at his feet. That very singular class of people, the Bhopas, who are the Pundas (poojaris) of most of the heroes I have enumerated, carry round the villages a long cloth called a phow (similar to the puts for which Juggernath is celebrated) on which the history of the twenty-four brothers is painted in glaring colours. I have one six feet long, and a yard high, which, if a novelty, I propose offering to the Society's acceptance; annexing to it the explanatory legends, which though Tod seems to have thought them unworthy of record, are indispensable to one who wishes to understand the theology of these regions. Pabooji has a phur to himself, which shall also be sent if acceptable: of Ram Deo and his worship a description is deferred to another occasion. Tod's Kajastr. 1, 730. 2, 759. [ I sent this down to the Society a year ago, but have not heard of its arrival. The rest of my engagements I must beg to renounce; the fulfilling f them is here impossible.] citing one instance of the superstition which seems to have some connection with the point we are discussing. In the old Happa Raj, a number of brass images, with horses heads, are ranged on the top of a mountain, and held in great veneration: they seem, says Tod,* to mark the site of some victory. Till a better explanation be suggested, we may suppose our images to be something of this nature, and ascribe them (a la mode de Tod and Wilford) to the Hihyas, who anciently dwelt in this neighbourhood; though perhaps the horseworship was rather the characteristic of the children of the sun. ART. III.-On an Aerolite presented to the Society. A short time before the Cabul expedition, I procured through the kindness of the Resident at Indore an Aerolite, which had then lately fallen near Ougein, and of which I have the honor to request the Society's acceptance. Being at the time the stone fell, laid up with fever, I was not able, as I could have wished, to visit the spot on which it lighted, but intelligent persons were sent to report, who gave the following information. On Sunday the 2nd of Asar (sudi) two stones fell from the sky at the village of Doondhoo Dabun, belonging to Manik Chund, Kaith, seven coss from Ougein on the Burnuggur road. It was about nine o'clock in the morning, when a few claps of thunder were heard, but there was no rain: (or to translate my informant's letter literally, a dry cloud thundered once or twice.) Immediately afterwards a sound reached our ears, and we learnt that two stones had fallen, one 200 paces from a Gosaeen's baolee, near the east quarter of the village, the other a stone's throw from the baolee, in a field belonging to Khusal Patail. The last stone dropped one hour and a quarter after the other. Three men were ploughing close to where it fell, who running up to the spot, found that the stone had gone two háts deep in the earth, which had dried up for more than a foot on all sides of the cavity, though the whole ground and beyond that was wet. * Tod's Raj. 2, 303. A horse seems to have been an almost universal type of victory, of which the white horse vale in Berkshire is one well known instance. A number of brass images of horses are scattered about Aboo, A. R. 16, 298. The Bheels, says Sir J. Malcolm, make small mud images of horses; see T. R. A. S. 1, 72. Of these two stones, the smaller (which however when brought to me was nearly the size of a man's head) is the one sent to the Society. A few pieces have been chipped off for specimens. There is nothing peculiar in its appearance. The inside is of the usual grey colour, with here and there small pyrites intermixed. The outside was of a pale brown, and smooth all round. The villagers smeared it over with ochre of which the stain has remained. The other stone has, I understand, had a temple raised over it, at the spot where it dropped. On the same day, a stone fell at Sursanoo (a coss and a half off from Ghorabund) in the Pergunna of Burnuggur, to which last place it has been taken and enshrined as a Ling. I could not learn that any meteoric light attended the fall of these Aerolites.* ART. IV.-Extracts from the Mohit (the Ocean), a Turkish work on Navigation in the Indian Seas. Translated and communicated by JOSEPH VON HAMMER, BARON PURGESTALL, Aulic Counsellor, and Professor of Oriental Languages at Vienna, &c. &c. Of the fundament (Oss) which is generally used of the Solar and Lunar years -the Roman, the Coptian, and Persian year-in seven Sections. SECTION I. Of the Lunar and Solar years. The solar year is of 354 a fifth and a sixth part of a day, and has twelve months (alternatively), one perfect, and the other deficient; if the last month is also a perfect one of thirty days, the year is an intercalar one, the regular alternation in the middle way. Of the fundament of the Lunar years. The way of obtaining it is to subtract from the years of the Hedjrat the imperfect year; for example, of the year 961, you subtract one, and multiply the rest, which is sixty, with four; (1) calling the result Mahssool (product); * See Journal Asiatic Society, 7. 668. قسمت خارج (2) lay this beside, multiply again sixty with eleven, divide what you obtain with thirty, and add the issue (2) of the division to the Mahssool; if that what remains of the thirty, is less than nineteen it is not counted, if it is more it is counted for thirty. The Mahssool and what issues by the division in seven parts, (3) أس أس سبع what remains is called the fundament (3). If there be no fraction, it is called fundament of the seven. The beginning is from Tuesday, and the day with which the calculation ends is the first Moharrem of the year. If you wish to know the first day of any other month, you must count each two months of the lunar ones for three, viz. the first for two, and the second for one; subtract them of the lunar fundament; if it exceeds seven, that number and the rest gives the fundament; if it is no fraction it is again the fundament of seven; the day to begin with is Tuesday, on the last day is the first of the month inquired for. For example, if you wish to know the first of Moharrem of the year 961, throw away the hundreds, (900) and from the rest one; multiply the rest (4) with four, which makes 240; this is called the Mahssool; multiply again sixty with eleven, which gives 600; divide it with 30, the quotient is 22, which added to the Mahssool gives 262; if you divide this with seven, there remains three for the fundament, beginning with Tuesday, the last day is Thursday, which proves to be the first of Moharrem. (4) كسوردن which I suppose stands for Now if you wish to know the first day of any other month, for example the first of Ramasan, begin to count from Moharrem, which gives eight months, counting Moharrem for two, Isafer for one, and so on (the first month counting for two, the second for one) so the above eight gives twelve; add to it the fundament of this year (3) you obtain 15; subtracting from it the seven (contained therein twice) remains one. Beginning again to count from Tuesday, you arrive at the end again to Tuesday, which is the first of Ramasan, and so on. SECTION III. Of the fundament of the Solar year. The solar year is called also the year of the Boroody (the 12 constellations of the zodiacus) the Roman and Coptic year. The way of finding it is the following. You throw away the hundred and the exceeding year. The rest, whatever it may be, multiply with eleven, the result of the multiplication is called Mahssool (product); the rest multiply with seven, throw away 30, divide what remains with 60, subtract the quotient from the Mahssool, the remainder is the fundament of fundaments. أس الا and the odd called Mahs This is the fundament of the Solar, Roman, and Coptic year. Another way to find out this fundament is the following. You must multiply (after having thrown away from the year of the Hedjrat the hundred number) the remainder with 10. This is also sool. The remaining 50 you multiply with 3, the result of this question you add to 30, divide the whole, whatever it may be, with 60, add the quotient to the Mahssool, and you have then the fundament of fundaments; if this number exceeds the number of the solar year, this must be subtracted, and the remainder is the fundament of fundaments. For example, if of the year 961 you wish to find the fundament of the Solar, Roman, and Coptic year, you throw away the hundred and odd number so that 60 remains; multiply with 11, the product is 660, multiplying this with 7, you obtain 420, throw away 30, and divide the remaining 390 with 60, the quotient 6 is reckoned as seven; because the half and what is beyond is reckoned as one, and what is below the half is not reckoned at all; subtract this seven from the Mahssool, the remainder is 653. Subtracting from this sum the solar year you obtain 288, which is the fundament of fundaments. The second method is as follows ;-of the year 961 you throw away the hundred and unity, multiply the remaining 60 with 70, this gives the Mahssool 600; multiply this with 53 you obtain 3180, add to it 30 it makes 3210, which sum divided by 60 gives the quotient 53, adding this to the Mahssool you get 653, of which subtracting the solar year you have 288, the fundament of fundaments. SECTION IV. Of the method to know the Solar, that is to say Zodiacal, year. The beginning of it is the entry of the sun into Aries, which is called Nawroozi Sultauni, that is the Sultanic new year. Be it known to you that the first day of Nawrooz is the same day (of the week) which follows the next Nawrooz; for example, if the Nawrooz falls on Saturday, it will fall the next time on Sunday, and in intercalar years one day more, on Monday. Be it also known to you that the Nawrooz Sultauni and the intercalar year are not the |