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0199 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 199 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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SUf'I'LFIrENTAII.Y NOTES.

clxxxiii

neither Hebrew nor Greek, but which, as far as I understand, contain the same names, in order that if by chance some one from abroad should come who could not read the writing of the country, he might, perhaps, be able to understand these foreign characters.

"C Passing afterwards through Cochin on my way to Cranganor, the residence of the Archbishop of the Coast, I consulted on the subject of those letters Father Antonio Fernandez of our Society, who was very learned in the literature of those St. Thomas Christians, and he told me that the letters were Syriac, and the same as were in use by that body." (P.197 seq.)

The following account is given in a Chinese work entitled "LAICHAI'S Brief Examination of inscriptions on Stone and Metal."

" At present this inscription exists in the enclosure of the monastery Kinching ('Golden Victory') to the west of the city of Singan. In the years Tsungching of the Ming (1628-1643) the Prefect of Singan, Doctor Tseu Tsingchang, a native of Tsinling, had a young child called Hoaseng who was endowed from his birth with a very rare degree of intelligence and penetration. Almost as soon as he could speak he would already join his hands to adore Fo. When he had reached his twelfth year, the child, without knowing where was the seat of his ailment, pined away ; his eyes insensibly closed ; he opened them for an instant with a smile, and died. Chang, seeing that his son was gone, cast lots, and these indicated for the place of his burial a spot to, the south of the monastery Thsungjin ('Sublime Humanity') in Changgan. After digging here to a depth of several feet, they hit upon a stone which was no other than that bearing the inscription," etc. (From Pauthier, L'Inscription Chretienne cle Singanfou, pp. 70-71.)

NOTE XI.

TIIE KINGDOMS OF INDIA IN THE NINTII CENTURY,
SPOKEN OF BY THE ARAB WRITERS IN THE
RELATIONS TRANSLATED BY REINAUD.

The first king named is the BALHARA, who is said to have been regarded as the most exalted of Indian princes, and whom the Indians and Chinese classed with the Khalif, the Emperor of China, and the King of the Romans, as the four great kings of the world. There is, however, scarcely anything definite stated about him except that his empire began at the country of Komkam (the Konkan) on the sea coast.

The name of Balhccra Lassen considers to be a corruption of Ballabliirc a or raja, the title of a great dynasty which reigned at Ballabhipura