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Original Communications.
Memoirs of Eminent Persons.
History, Antiquities, Poetry.

Natural History, Geography.
Review of New Publications.
Debates at the East-India House.
Proceedings of the Colleges of Haileybury
and Fort William, aud the Military
Seminary at Addiscombe.

India Civil and Military Intelligence, Ap-
pointments, Promotions, Births, Mar-
riages, &c. &c.

Missionary and Home Intelligence, Births,
Marriages, Deaths, &c.

Commercial Intelligence.

Shipping Intelligence, Ship Letter-Mails,
&c.

Lists of Passengers to and from India.
State of the London and India Markets.
Notices of Sales at the East-India House.
Times appointed for the East-India Com-

pany's Ships for the Season.

Prices Current of East-India Produce.
India Exchanges and Company's Secu-
rities.

Literary, and Philosophical Intelligence. Daily Prices of Stocks, &c. &c. &c.

VOL. IV.

FROM JULY TO DECEMBER 1817.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR BLACK, KINGSBURY, PARBURY, & ALLEN,
BOOKSELLERS TO THE HONOURABLE EAST-INDIA COMPANY,

LEADENHALL STREET.

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THE

ASIATIC JOURNAL

FOR

JULY 1817.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

-

curious,

SIR,-1. THE similarity in the usages, customs, &c. of distant regions and of remote ages, has amusingly and profitably attracted the notice and employed the pens of many writers. The same may be said, in a greater degree, of the affinity of language among people geographically and chronologically remote from each other. Such coincidences are sometimes very striking and unaccountable, and have given rise to speculations of various descriptions; learned, profound, extravagant, &c. But I do not recollect any writer attempting to amuse or instruct the public in a branch of coincidence, if I may be allowed to speak, that appears to me to be as curious and striking as any above noted, and indeed nearly related to them; and which as naturally gives rise to speculations that, if pursued, might ramify into all the descriptions just enumerated. I mean in the names of places; such as cities, towns, hills, rivers, &c. which may be generically classed under the head of geographical nomenclature.

2. I have little pretension to the power of amusing or instructing Asiatic Journ.-No. 19.

the public; but perhaps some of your readers may condescend to excuse, and accept this attempt to contribute somewhat to their amusement, by pointing out sundry coincidences in the geographical nomenclature of India and other parts of the world, between which, it is not easy to perceive the channels of intercommunication.

3. For the subject of this letter I will take the interior of Africa, and show that many of its towns, hills, &c. have Sanskrit names. What their signification may be, if they have any, in the languages of Africa, I have no means of ascertaining. Some sound like corrupt Arabic; but perhaps have no meaning in modern language.

4. I beg leave to premise, that although in all parts of the world, all original names of places may reasonably be supposed to have been significant in the local lan-. guage; yet, in the lapse of time the sounds have altered, and the sense has been forgotten in so many instances, that etymological research has been often put to the test, and not seldom extended to whimsical lengths, in the attempt

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