Amongst the contributions to a recent volume commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Ugaritic studies is a paper devoted to analysis of the problems involved in description of Semitic prosody. While the data adduced there are explicitly limited to Ugaritic and Hebrew verse, the author's method entails consideration of such general matters as the definition of metre and parallelism. Since these are, as is well known, the traditional parameters in virtually every discussion of Biblical poetry, Professor Pardee's study evokes (and is clearly intended so to do) examination of all the categories and terms hitherto employed to describe the several and occasionally disparate phenomena collectively adduced as evidence of poetic composition. Historical surveys of the subject are now abundant, more or less easily accessible and not very often undertaken except as preface to special pleading on behalf of one or other of the criteria so far discerned for distinguishing poetry from prose.

‘The life and achievements of Saladin constitute one of the great moments in the history of the crusades. In literature he appears most frequently as a conquering hero, who fought his enemies victoriously and in the end beat them to a standstill. But a closer examination of his actual life reveals him not only as a conqueror, but as a man who struggled with enemies of his own side who finally joined him and fought along with him under his sole command. From this angle we see him as a man who fought for his ideals, and fought, not victoriously, but in a measure that fell short of his hopes and ambitions’.

The Dizi (as they call themselves) have hitherto been generally known as the Maji, a term derived from the name of their largest chiefdom, in which there also lies the most important Amhara town of this region. They are one of the least studied groups of south-western Ethiopia.

The following study contains a translation of al-Bīrūnī's rendering into Arabic of the third chapter of Patañjali's Yogasūtra cum commentrary. (On this point see our translation of al-Bīrūnī's rendering of the first two chapters of Patanñjali's Yogasktra). This translation is based on Ritter's edition of the Arabic text. Comparison has been made with the unique MS of Ritter's Text: KöprÜlÜ, 1589, fols. 412a–419a (writen on the margins). We have also compared the text with paralled passages and expressions in al-Bīrūnī's India.

Some years ago I received from the India Office Library a xerox copy of a short document found at Kew among the papers of Sir Joseph Hooker, with an inquiry as to whether it was a permit for him to travel in Sikkim for the botanical research described in his Himalayan Journals (1854/1905). I knew enough Lepcha to be able to report to the India Office Library that the 42 lines of Lepcha script (romanized and translated at (II) below) were some sort of statement of accounts in East India Company rupees (kúm-pá-nyi kóm tsu; line 1); but I was not able to arrive at the sense of the text in detail until my present stay in Kalimpong again put me in touch with Lepchas, especially Mr. A. Foning, of the Kalimpong Lepcha Association, whose help it is a pleasure to acknowledge.

The Chinese Manichaean ‘hymnscroll’ was discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Tunhuang and is now preserved in the British Library, under the number Or. 8210(2659). Apart from Chinese translations from Iranian originals, it contains three hymns in Chinese transcription. These hymns were studied and partly reconstructed by Waldschmidt and Lentz. In particular, the third hymn was identified with the Parthian fragments M259c and 529 in the German Turfan collection together with their Sogdian translation TM351 and reconstructed almost completely, W.-L. i, pp. 80–93. Verses 12 and 13 of the first hymn were identified with the common Middle Persian phrase pr'zyśt 'wd j'yd'n zm'n 'wh byẖ, W.-L. i, p. 111, n. 4. The second hymn was identified with an Iranian fragment M260, W.-L. i, p. 6, and its verses 5–7 were reconstructed by Waldschmidt and Lentz in JRAS, 1926, 116–22, 298–9.

In a previous article discussing the text entitled al-Lughāt fī'l-Qur'ān attributed to Ibn 'Abbās, mention was made of two manuscripts of Gharīb al-Qur'ān also attributed to Ibn 'Abbās. A recent visit to Istanbul allowed an examination of these works, leading to the discovery that, in fact, these manuscripts contain two additional copies of al-Lughāt fī'l-Qur'ān and that an independent text Gharīb al-Qur'ān attributed to Ibn. 'Abbās does not exist. A proliferation of titles has taken place regarding this text and, most significantly of course, around the figure of Ibn 'Abbās and his role in Qur'ānic lexicography.

Readers of Father Serruys's two articles on the Ordos salt lakes may be interested in the evidence relating to the episode referred to in his documents, which is provided by the reports, 1917–22, of the Sino-foreign salt inspectorate. The evidence is twofold: direct, relating to the episode itself, and indirect, relating to the context. In preliminary clarification it should be stated that both Chinese and Sino-foreign sources refer to three Ordos salt lakes at this date: Pei-ta-ch'ih, the northern great lake, ‘200 li due north of Hua-mach'ih’; Wo-po-ch'ih, evidently a transliteration; and Kou-ch'ih, the dog or petty lake. These would seem to be equivalent, respectively, to Father Serruys's Great Lake, Lake of the Cairn or obo, and Little Siker Lake.

Scholars working with problems in ethnology, languages and history of the Manding-speaking peoples and some of their western Sudanic neighbours have long been aware that while much in the impressive range of works by Maurice Delafosse demands consultation, the writings of this prolific but fallible pioneer in West African studies must be treated with an extra measure of caution. The more one makes use of what is perhaps Delafosse's best-known work, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, the more apparent it becomes that a critical reassessment of his writings would be desirable.