CONTENTS. Page. ART. I.-Traditions concerning the Migration of Buddhists into Europe. By the Reverend B. SCHMID...... II.-A brief notice of some of the Persian Poets.-By Lieu- 229 232 A. MACKINTOSH, 27th Regt. Madras Native Infantry.. 238 IV. Statistical Observations on the Vurragherries, or Pulney ... 290 Mountains.-By ROBERT WIGHT, M. D. Surgeon...... 280 V. Further Observations regarding the Homöothermal method of Acclimating Extra-Tropical Plants within the Tropics....... VI.-On two new Genera of Rasorial Birds.-By B. H. HODGSON, Esq. British Resident in Nipal................ VII.-Remarks upon the Plans proposed for Constructing a 300 "Self-Registering," and an " Indestructable" Barometer.-By T. G. TAYLOR, Esq. of the Madras Observatory. 306 VIII.-Contributions to Indian Botany, No. 2.-By ROBERT WIGHT, Esq. M. D., F. L. S., &c.... IX.-Notice of an Observation of the Lunar Spot Aristarchus. 309 By T. G. TAYLOR, Esq. H. E. I. C. Astronomer....... 313 X.-Horary Meteorological Observations made at the Equi noxes and Solstices, agreeably with the suggestion of 1st.-At the Madras Observatory-By T. G. TAYLOR, Esq. 315 XI.-PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIEties. XII.-NOTICES OF BOOKS... XIII.-SELECTIONS.. Letter from Mr. N. B. WARD to Sir W. J. HOOKER, on By N. WALLICH, M. D...... 318 319 330 340 347 351 Note on the Medicinal Properties of the root of the Page. On the identity of the bark of the Strychnos Nux Vomica with the false Angustura of writers on Materia Medica. -By W. B. O'SHAUGHNESSY, M. D...... Account of the Province of Rámnád, Southern Peninsula of India. Compiled from the “ Mackenzie Collection," and edited by the Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society. 371 Mr. Hodgson on the Scolopacidæ of Nipal...... Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of London.... 412 On the discovery of the Tea Plant in a Province of Bri- tish India.-By M. A. DE CANDOLLE....... Abstract of a Report on the Climate and Diseases of Van Dieman's Land.-By W. MILLIGAN, Esq. M. D....... 416 Delightful Smell on approaching tropical lands from sea. 422 British Association for the advancement of Science.... 423 Artificial Crystals and Minerals.-By A. CROSSE, Esq.... 424 Præmia offered for investigations on various subjects.... 425 POSTSCRIPT.-On the Camboge Plant.-By Dr. WIGHT. 428 Directions for preserving Plants.-By Dr. WIGHT...... 430 MADRAS JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. No. 15.-April, 1837. Traditions concerning the Migration of Buddhists into Europe.. By the Reverend B. SCHMID. The Icelandic historians, to whom we owe our knowledge of the most ancient history of the north, and amongst whom Snorro Sturlesen is the chief, state that Odin or Wodan was the first conqueror and legislator of the north of Europe. In their writings the following notices are scattered. About sixty years before the Christian era, when the Romans subdued the world, Odin, in order to remain independent, left his country, named Tyrkland, on the Caspian sea, between the Borysthenes and the Tanais, and came with his followers to the shores of the German ocean, where the nations, astonished at his wisdom and splendour, took him and his companions for messengers from the gods, and submitted willingly to their rule and instructions, because they acted with mildness and benignity. Odin united those tribes under one form of government, and made his sons their leaders. Odin being informed that there were fine meadows in Sweden, went thither and built a town which he called Sigtun, either after himself, for he was also called Sigge, or after one of his sons. But the Swedes named that town, Asegarth, i. e. the habitation (city) of the Asiatics. Odin established the worship of the god Thor and the belief in immortality in Walhalla. A temple of Thor, near old Upsála, built by him, is said to exist still and to serve as a village church. Sieg, in German, means Victory; Sigtun, therefore, may mean the town of Victory, er the town of the Victor. He extended his power far and wide, and constituted his sons viceroys in Saxony, Denmark and Norway. He even returned several times to his native country to fight against the Romans. When Odin had firmly established his power in the countries subject to him, many Asiatics emigrated thither. A number of Swedes seems to have withdrawn from his authority and to have fled to Finland, and still farther to the north, whither Odin did not penetrate. These people were called Lappes,* i. e. fugitives. But they called themselves Sáme or Sabni. His tomb and the tombs of his wife, Freia or Frigga, and of twenty of his successors, are still to be seen near Gamla Upsála. The northern nations came every year to the temple of Upsála, where they sacrificed, burned children, and hanged men. Until this day the peasants make pilgrimages to a spring, about a mile distant from Upsála, and memorable through ancient traditions. They drink of the water of that spring and pronounce prayers. Another tradition affirms that Odin concluded his active life at Odensee, one of the most ancient towns in Denmark. Thus far the Icelandic historians. A tradition from quite a different and unsuspected source, remarkably coincides in the main point with these narrations of the Icelanders. It is one preserved by Tacitus, who says in the third chapter of his Gèrmania: "Some imagine that Ulysses, in the course of his long and fabulous wanderings, was driven into this ocean, and landed in Germany; and that Ascipurgium, a place situated near the Rhine, was founded by him and named Aokuruptov. These allegations I shall neither attempt to confirm nor to refute: let every one believe concerning them as he is disposed." Who was this Ulysses?-We know that the original seat of the Pali and Sanscrit dialects, the language of the Buddhists and of the ancient Brachmanes, is to be sought in the Himalaya range, or more generally speaking, in the mountainous countries of middle Asia, from whence various tribes must have, in different ages, descended into the plains of India, and likewise emigrated towards the north and the west; -we know, likewise, that the ground-work of the Greek, Latin and German languages is Pali, Sanscrit or Pracrit; and it is a most remarkable fact that the very same day of the week, which the Tamulians call Buden-külamei (40 or Buddhu's day), is denominated by the Teutonic nations, Wodans-day, (in English, Wednesday). This coincidence cannot have its origin in mere accident! Moreover, Ulysses certainly never came to Germany; but when the Germans related to Tacitus, or to some other inquiring Roman, that a certain Odin Laufen in high German, and lopen in the nether Saxon dialect, means to run, to fleè,→ hence the English word elope. had come amongst them from a far country, what is more natural than that the Roman took it for granted that the Germans alluded to Odysseus, changing this name into Odin, which is certainly not so great a corruption of the Greek word, as the word Ulysses. The meaning of Ascipurgium is clear from the Icelandic tradition; burg (a fortress) in German is the same as burgh or borough in English; and puri and puram (4, and 4) in the Sanscrit dialects of India, and is identic with garth in the word, Asegarth, since garth is the same as guard in English, and garde, garder in French, viz. an enclosure, a fortress, a city, as well as a garden ;-and " Asburg in the county of Meurs" may as well have been built by the Asiatic followers of Odin, as Asegarth in Sweden, and Odensee in Denmark. But I abstain from further etymologies. Thus much seems to be evident, that Tacitus mistook Odysseus for Odin or Wodan. The same author says in his second chapter, "The Germans, in their ancient songs, which are their only records or annals, celebrate the god Tuisto (or Tuiscon), sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the father and founders of their race. To Mannus they ascribe three sons"-whose names are supposed to have been Ingäff, Islaf and Hermin. We must infer from these passages, that in Tacitus' time, Wodan had not yet attained to divine honours (at least not in the western parts of Germany where Tacitus had gathered his information), and that consequently the tradition of the Icelandic historians is correct, that one of the last immigrations of Asiatics into Germany took place at the time of the Mithridatic war. I say, one of the last, for the Huns came from the mountains of middle Asia, possibly by the very same road as Odin; and the Greek and Latin languages are evidences that, long before Odin, various other tribes who spoke Sanscrit, settled on the continent of Europe. In conclusion I cannot but advert to the judiciousness and truly philosophical spirit, which Tacitus displayed in not rejecting at once as nonsense and passing over in silence, a national tradition, although he individually was not prepared to credit it. Posterity, after nearly 2,000 years, understand the hint thus given by him, and thank him for it. And I feel persuaded that many, apparently absurd, legends scattered in the Puránams or preserved in the mouth or songs of quite illiterate tribes, if critically examined and cautiously compared with collateral historical facts, will lead to discoveries still more curious and important. |