ART. XI.-A Specimen of the Zoongee (or Zurngee) Dialect of a Tribe of Nagas, bordering on the Valley of Assam, between the Dikho and Desoi Rivers, embracing over Forty Villages. By the Rev. Mr. CLARK, Missionary at Sibsagar... ART. XII.-The Gaurian compared with the Romance Lan- guages. Part I. By Mr. E. L. BRANDRETH.... ART. XIII.-A Comparative Study of the Japanese and JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. ART. I.-On the Position of Women in the East, in Olden Time. By EDWARD THOMAS, F.R.S. I HAVE lately been occupied with the examination of the legends stamped on a series of leaden coins recently discovered at Kolhapúr. These legends are found to illustrate, in a curious manner, the local custom of the children being designated after and identified by the name of the mother, and reproduce the dominant idea of recording the Metronymic to the subordination or exclusion of the Patronymic of the race or family. We were already in possession of vague notices of such a custom in the metronymics occurring amid the Inscriptions in the Rock-cut Caves of Násik, and the corresponding coins now repeat the identical names of Vásithi (Vashti) and Gautami, and contribute a third example in the maternal designation of Madári: together with, in each numismatic instance, an undefined reference to a tribal or sept community, we may suppose of a quasi-hereditary character. Before describing the coins, or illustrating at large the various Indian forms of marriage and inheritance, or referring to the extraneous examples of self-government in that land, I propose to trace the parallel instances of female ascendancy which we find to have obtained and survived among the traditions of other countries of the Old World. VOL. XI.-[NEW SERIES.] 1 In the first place I may frankly say that I am disposed to attach much credit to the statement of Epiphanius as to the extended prevalence, if not next to the universality of Scythism, "its heresy," and its concomitant manners and customs, before it was superseded by Aryanism, whether Greek or Persian. The passage I refer to is, in purport, as follows: "The first is Barbarism,1 which prevailed without a rival from the days of Adam. "The second is Scythism (Exubioμòs), which prevailed from the days of Noah and thence downwards to the building of the Tower and Babylon, and for a few years subsequent to that time, that is, to the days of Phalec and Ragau. But the nations which incline upon the borders of Europe continued addicted to the Scythic heresy and the customs of the Scythians to the age of Thera, and afterwards; of this sect also were the Thracians. “The third is Hellenism, which originated in the days of Seruch with the introduction of idolatry: and as men had hitherto followed each some demonolatrous superstition of his own, they were now reduced to a more established form of polity and to the rites and ceremonies of idols. . . . . The Egyptians, and Babylonians, and Phrygians, and Phoenicians were the first propagators of this superstition of making images, and of the mysteries."—Epiphanius, Cory's Fragments, p. 53.2 The predominance of the Scythic element among the races of the ancient world receives important confirmation from the lights of modern science. Professor Huxley, in his bold Map of the "distribution of the principal modifications of Mankind," covers nearly three-fourths of the world, now above water, with his three types of Mongoloids.3 We need 1 Cory inserts a query "Patriarchism?" 2 I must premise that in this Essay, in all cases embodying matters that concern an Indian reading public, simple translations in English have been preferred to the original Greek and Latin texts; where critically necessary, the latter will be exceptionally admitted into the context or reproduced at large in the footnotes; and, further, I may add that many notes and references, which would be freely understood and taken for granted by classical scholars, are intentionally quoted in full terms, where available, in simple English versions. 3 "An enormous area, which lies mainly to the east of a line drawn from Lapland to Siam, is peopled, for the most part, by men who are short and squat, with the skin of a yellow-brown colour; the eyes and hair black, and the latter straight, coarse and scanty on the body and face, but long on the scalp. They are strongly brachycephalic, the skull being usually devoid of prominent brow-ridges, while the nose is flat and small, and the eyes are oblique."-Journ. Ethnolog. Soc. 1869-70. |