It may be proper to mention here our belief, that a very slight metrical pause was made after every foot in reciting Latin as well as Greek hexameters. See on this subject the first part of the "Critical Investigation of the Versification and Prosodial Usages of the Iliad and Odyssey."

2. When a syllable formed as above is so situated as not to have a metrical pause after it, it is to be considered long or short, according as it does or does not receive the metrical accent; the two consonants, of themselves, requiring little more exertion to be pronounced together than a single consonant requires. So, Ecl. vII. 36. Si fœtură gregem suppleverit, aureus esto. Geor. 1. 235. Quam circum extremæ dextra lævaquě trahuntur.

320. Sublime expulsam eruerent: ita turbine nīgro. 11. 217. Quæ tenuem exhalat nebulam, fumosque volucres. We have to observe in the third place, relative to the power of the ictus metricus in Virgilian hexameters, that occasionally, in virtue of it, a final short syllable, formed by a short vowel followed by a consonant, occupies the place of a long syllable; as in the verses cited in the beginning of this treatise, and the following:

Ecl. 1. 39. Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsæ te, Tityre, pinus. x. 69. Omnia vincit amōr: et nos cedamus amori. Georg. 1. 138. Pleïadās, Hyadas, claramque Lycaonis Arcton. IV. 463. Atque Getæ, atque Hebrūs, atque Actias Ori

thyia.

Æn. 1. 308. Qui teneant, (nam inculta vidēt,) hominesne, feræne.

X11. 883. Te sine, frater, erīt. O quæ satis ima dehiscat. The instances of this usage in Virgil's poems amount in number to more than fifty.

We remark, fourthly, that in three cases a short syllable, formed by a short final vowel before an initial consonant, is put for a long one, in consequence of the lengthening efficacy of the ictus metricus. The verses referred to are,

En. 111. 91. Liminaque, laurusque Dei: totusque moveri. 464. Dona dehinc auro gravia, sectoque elephanto. XII. 363. Chloreaque Sybarimque Daretaque Thersilochum

que.

It should appear that this usage is not only of very rare occurrence, but is also restricted to the case when the initial consonant is a liquid, or the letter s.

Lastly, the metrical emphasis occasionally enables the first syllable of religiō, reliquia, rèpĕrit, retulit, quătŭor, and a few

others, to stand for the first of a dactyl, as in the subjoined lines,

Geor. 1. 270. Religio vetuit, segeti prætendere sepem.

En. 1. 30. Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillei. Geor. 11. 22. Sunt alii, quos ipse via sibi reperit usus. En. v. 598. Retulit, et priscos docuit celebrare Latinos. Geor. 1. 258. Temporibusque parem diversis quatuor annum.

It remains only to observe, that in the last three cases the accent probably rested particularly on the consonant. We have the authority of Mss. for considering that religio, the first syllable receiving the ictus, was uttered, in measure, relligio; and in reference to the third and fourth cases mentioned, the fact, that the writers of correct Latin hexameters studied to let the consonant be one of those which most forcibly reverberate in pronunciation when accented, as r, l, s, furnishes a strong presumptive evidence in favor of the position, we have assumed. And let it be remembered, that in respect of most points of metrical science, great probability is the utmost at which we can arrive by critical deduction: to positive and absolute certainty we are almost entire strangers.

ZEND AND PAHLAVI MANUSCRIPTS.

FROM Some of those ingenious correspondents who occasionally diversify the classical pages of your Journal with articles illustrating Eastern literature, I would beg leave to solicit information respecting a large and valuable collection of manuscripts, brought from India above thirty years ago by Mr. Samuel Guise, and announced for sale by private contract. One of the printed catalogues which described this collection is now in my possession. The Arabic and Persian books were numerous, and some among them appear to have been rare and curious; but the Mss. that form the subject of my present inquiry, are those works composed in the ancient dialects of Persia called Zend and Pahlavi, many of which have been ascribed to authors of very remote antiquity, and some even to Zerátusht, or Zerdusht, the great Zoroaster himself. Mr. Guise procured those extraordinary writings at Surat, where be resided many years as a physician or surgeon: most of the Zend and Pahlavi manuscripts were purchased at a considerable price from the widow of Daráb, a learned destour or priest of the Parsee fire-worshippers, who had some time before instructed the accomplished Frenchman, M. Anquetil du Perron, in the different

dialects used by the ancient Persians, as far as their modern descendants could understand them through the assistance of books and of verbal traditions. Thus informed, M. Anquetil, on his arrival in France, published the " Zendavesta," a work of considerable labor and ingenuity, in three quarto volumes; one of which comprises a list of the Mss. collected by himself in India. On a comparison, however, of this list with Mr. Guise's catalogue, it appears that our fellow-countryman was fortunate in obtaining some works which the French Orientalist had been unable to procure. Now the object of my inquiry is to ascertain whether Mr. Guise's collection has been purchased for one of our universities or other public institutions, or by some private individual of this country; whether it has found a place in any continental library, or whether it still continues unsold, and, in this case, how an application for the purchase of it should be made.

I am aware that many doubts have been entertained respecting the age and authenticity of those Zend and Pahlavi compositions; and a work lately printed at Bombay from a manuscript supposed by some to be a genuine specimen of the ancient Persic language, has been condemned as spurious by able critics, or regarded as a modern fabrication. That the learned Dr. Hyde of Oxford, who, about one hundred and thirty years ago, published his elaborate treatise "De Religione Veterum Persarum," expected some important results from a knowlege of the old Persian language, is evident, not only from the time and labor which he devoted to the study of it, but from the expense incurred in causing a font of metal types to be very handsomely and accurately cut in imitation of the Zend and Pahlavi characters. Whether these metal types are still preserved at Oxford, or were removed several years ago, as I have heard, to the British Museum, is another circumstance on which information would be highly acceptable.

But the exertions of Dr. Hyde, however laborious, have not in any considerable degree facilitated our acquiring a knowlege of the ancient Persic dialects: in his time England possessed but few Zend or Pahlavi Mss., and he wanted the assistance of vocabularies or dictionaries. It was reserved for M. Anquetil du Perron to furnish ample and curious specimens of those dialects, which have for some centuries been considered by the Parsee fire-worshippers as genuine remains of the language used in Persia, not only while the Sassanidan monarchs governed that empire, but during the age of Darius, and, as I before remarked, of Zoroaster himself. The Mss. brought to France by M. Anquetil, and now preserved in Paris, if they were collated with those brought to England by Mr. Guise, would furnish materials for some interesting works which might be printed in the types cut under Dr. Hyde's inspection. Our public libraries contain a few volumes of this rare class, and others are deposited in the private collections VOL. XXXIX. CI. JI. NO. LXXVII.

B

of individuals who have lately returned from the East. Sir Wm. Ouseley mentions (in the account of his travels) that he procured several Zend and Pahlavi works from the fire-worshippers or Parsees of Bombay, and from their brethren of the same religion, the Gabrs, in Persia; and among those manuscripts perhaps the most curious are two or three vocabularies of the ancient dialects, written in the Zend, Pázend and Pahlavi characters, and explained in the modern Persian. Such works we may justly regard as literary treasures; and in this department they should certainly be the first selected for publication. Without some lexicographical assistance the knowlege of various characters must prove an acquisition rather tantalizing than useful. The engraved tables given by Anquetil du Perron in his "Zendavesta," would in a few days enable any person to acquire a sufficient acquaintance with the Zend and Pahlavi alphabets; but his vocabularies are brief and imperfect, the words being expressed in our common French or English letters, as he wanted types capable of representing them in their original and proper characters. To remedy such a defect, the metal types of Dr. Hyde might be successfully employed in printing those vocabularies above mentioned, with the explanations in modern Persian, English, or Latin, and some philological notes. Assisted by a manual of this kind, our Orientalists would easily ascertain whether the Zend and Pahlavi Mss. that have not yet been examined are more worthy of translation than those which afforded to Anquetil du Perron the materials for his Zendavesta: a work abounding with information respecting the religious opinions, rites, ceremonies, liturgies, and prayers of the modern Parsees, or fire-worshippers; but still leaving much of historical, geographical and antiquarian matter (subjects more generally interesting) to be sought in other Zend and Pahlavi writings with which we are hitherto unacquainted.

I had written so far, and was preparing to offer this article for insertion in the Classical Journal, when an odd coincidence induced me to protract it, and gratified me at the same time by showing that ancient Persic literature is not wholly neglected, as I had begun to apprehend. From an ingenious member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Mr. Huttmann, I received a roll very neatly and accurately lithographed, in length about six feet and a half, and in width nearly fifteen inches; it is printed on different sheets pasted together, and consists of twelve compartments: the first describing what the others contain, with some useful and interesting observations on the Zund and Puhluwee characters, as those names are generally written by Englishmen who have learned Persian in Hindustan, although Sir Wm. Jones expressed the same words by Zend and Pahlavi, much more in conformity with the true pronunciation of Shiráz and Isfahan, as I have been assured by gentlemen who resided many years in Persia, and were inti

mately acquainted with some of the Gabrs or fire-worshippers of Yezd and other places. According to the same corrupt system of pronunciation, a book which native Persians would call Sad-der, (or Sad-dar, the a in dar being short,) is here written Sud-dur: this name signifies "the hundred gates." The first compartment of the roll is not numbered: that marked No. 1. exhibits an extract from the book Sad der, the Goozuratee translation incorporated with the original Zend, each in its proper character, the language being Persian. No. 2. The original text without the Goozuratee; Zend character. No. 3. The same text translated into Zend and Pahlavi, with the modern Persian underwritten. No. 4. A Sanscrit translation. No. 5. Persian text of No. 2. No. 6. Goozuratee (Jutee) translation of No. 2. in the language of Malwa. No. 7. Modern Goozuratee translation. No. 8. The first section or chapter of the Sadder in its poetical version. No. 9. Dr. Hyde's Latin translation of No. 8. No. 10. The text No. 1. language Persian, in Zend and Pahlavi characters, "to show the different modes of orthography and of employing the same or cognate letters," &c. No. 11. The Persian, Pahlavi and Zend alphabets. Now, however useful these specimens may be to those who study the different characters exhibited in this roll, we must regret that the labor and ingenuity employed on them have not been expended on some more interesting subject than the Sadder : a most contemptible work, of which Dr. Hyde (in his "Religio Veterum Persarum") has given a Latin translation, and which, after all, are (as Mr. Richardson says in the Dissertation prefixed to his Arabic and Persian Dictionary,) nothing more than "the wretched rhymes of a modern Parsi destour (priest) who lived about three centuries ago." To our best thanks, however, the gentleman is fully entitled, under whose direction and at whose expense these specimens have been executed-Mr. Romer, lately chief at Surat, now member of council at Bombay and I am persuaded that if his researches among the fire-worshippers or Parsees had been successful, he would have favored us with specimens of Zend and Pahlavi works more interesting and more useful (such as the vocabularies above mentioned) than the Sadder with its "hundred gates."

P. Q.