and south, which has been pointed out as the most desirable to be selected for the site of water-mills, on account of its proximity to the coal, lime, and charcoal, found in the hills, and also to the bazars belonging to the native villages, many of which are extremely populous. Various places on the banks of this river have been noticed as being well adapted for the purpose above-mentioned; it is a beautiful stream, which runs sparkling and foaming along, plunging, at the end of the table-land of Chirra, over a perpendicular precipice of 2,000 feet; in other places there are abrupt falls of from ten to twenty feet in depth, whence, we are assured, aqueducts might be made, to regulate the supply of water which may be required for any scientific purpose. The ravages Rajah Sing, a fine young man, the successor of Teerut Sing, of Nunklow, whom we were obliged to depose, prefers a residence in Assam, in the Bar Dour, a large tract of country, which he rents from the British Government, to his native hills. He is said to be likely to abandon the faith and the manners of his ancestors; a change scarcely to be desired, since the influence of the brahmins tends so strongly to contract and prejudice the mind. which cholera has made in his people, shew that they have not acted wisely in quitting their mountain-homes for the pestilential climate of the plains; but the predilection which the leaders seem to entertain for the low country, promises to prove advantageous to our government, since they may be induced, by grants of land in our territories, to yield the occupation of the hills to us. It need scarcely be said, that the geologist finds an ample field for his researches amid the Kasiah hills; the writer of this paper conveyed to England round substances, which had been picked up there, somewhat resembling a petrified custard apple, which puzzled all the learned; and a close investigation of these and similar curiosities will doubtless bring many interesting discoveries to light; also one of the double-handed swords, used by the natives, a rude and apparently unwieldy weapon, of considerable length, not very unlike that which is shewn as having belonged to Sir William Wallace. In speaking of the hill-districts of India, it has been before remarked, as matter for surprise, that missionaries have not more frequently endeavoured to spread the Christian religion through places where there are so much fewer prejudices to encounter than amid the bigotted Hindoos of the plains. At Kasiah, there are no distinctions of caste to throw obstacles in the way of conversion; the natives will lose nothing of their privileges by becoming Christians; and though, in one sense of the word, outcasts, since they are regarded with the greatest contempt by those who, upon the plains, boast themselves of pure descent, there is no inequality amongst themselves; neither have they, in consequence of the little intercourse which has taken place between them and the followers of Brahma, become degraded in their own eyes, and deteriorated by their humiliating situation, like the Pariahs of the plains; but, retaining all the native vigour and nobleness of their original character, might be more easily instructed in the great truths of our holy religion. The Kasiahs are not destitute of many of the Christian virtues, being honest almost to a miracle, and scrupulous regarding the utterance of falsehood; bigamy is prohibited amongst them, and conjugal infidelity is rare; they are not slow of comprehension, and are strongly susceptible of good treatment; in short, a docile, tractable race, whose vices are those of ignorance, and who, under a judicious system, may be made to reach a very high state of moral improvement. Nothing would be more delightful than to see sound religious principles diffused amongst these people, who, in the event of being neglected by Christian teachers, will either remain slaves to a debasing superstition, or Asiat.Jour. N.S.VOL.21. No.81. E fall into far worse, and perhaps, as wealth increases, divide themselves into castes: it being incontrovertibly shewn, that unless riches be accompanied by liberality of sentiment, it has always a tendency to exclusiveness. The rajahs, or leaders, are already anxious, upon every occasion, to make out a claim to be considered descendants of the most ancient and the purest followers of Brihm, they will, as we have seen, give up eating beef, and the advantages of their fine climate, to worship the cow, amid the deleterious atmosphere of the plains, in order to be recognized as orthodox ; and, unless better notions shall be instilled, this example will doubtless be followed by many, who, with increasing riches, will desire to obtain increasing respectability; and it is only by shewing the falsehood and folly of the brahminical tenets, that persons, to whom they would secure certain privileges, can be taught to disregard them. AUTUMN gales had strewed the vales with yellow leaves along, Fall on! fall on! thou yellow leaf, upon this path of sorrow, Hide from a mother's eyes the spot where her son will sleep to-morrow!" He ceased-and lo! his lingering step hath passed the forest bound, And now the last autumnal leaf hath fallen to the ground; And see, the glimmering boughs between, a funeral band draws nigh,— Sweetly doth he slumber there-no lover's song is heard But the rustling step of the shepherd-boy, the lowing of the herd! ON THE ANCIENT COINS FOUND IN KABUL. MR. MASSON, who has been able, by his indefatigable exertions, to obtain a large collection of Indo-Grecian coins, has transmitted to the Asiatic Society of Bengal a second memoir " on the Ancient Coins found at Beghrám, in the Kohistan of Kabul;" with the results of his discoveries in other places, bearing on the history of those countries. We give an abridgment of his Memoir from the Journal of the Society for January : The dasht, or plain of Beghrám, bears N. 15 E. from the modern city of Kabul, distant by computation eighteen ordinary kos; and, as the line of road has few sinuosities or deflections, the direct distance may probably be about twenty-five British miles. It is situated at the south-east point of the level country of the Kohistán, in an angle formed by the approach of a lofty and extensive mountain range, radiating from the superior line of the Caucasus on the one side, and by the inferior range of Síáh Koh on the other. The former range separates the Kohistan from the populous valley of Nijrow, and the latter, commencing about fifteen miles east of Kábul, gradually sinks into the plain of Beghrám. East of the Síáh Koh is a hilly, not mountainous, tract, called Koh Safi, which intervenes between it and the extensive valleys of Taghow. Through the open space extending from west to east, between these two hill ranges, flows the river formed by the junction of the streams of Ghorband and Panjshír, and which forms the northern boundary of the site of Beghrám. Through this space also leads the high road from the Kohistan to Nijrow, Taghow, Laghmán, and Jelálabád. The dasht of Beghrám is comprised in an extensive district of the Kohistan called Khwojeh Keddrí; to the north, the plain has an abrupt descent into the cultivated lands and pastures of the Baltú Khele and Karindat Khán Khele families, which, at the northwestern point, interpose between it and the river, for the extent of perhaps a mile, or until the river leaves the base of a singular eminence called Abdullah Búrj, which, from the vast mounds on its summit, was undoubtedly an appurtenance of the ancient city. East of this eminence, another small space of cultivated lands, with two or three castles, called Káráhíchí, interposes between a curvature in the direction of the abrupt boundary of the dasht, and the direct course of the river; east of Káráhíchí rises a low detached hill, called Koh Butcher, which has an extent eastward of about a mile and a-half, intruding for that distance between the level dasht and the river; at the eastern extremity of Koh Butcher, is one of those remarkable structures we call topes. Parallel to Koh Butcher, on the opposite side of the river, are the castles and cultivated lands called Muhammad Rákhi; and, beyond them, a sterile sandy tract, gradually ascending to a celebrated hill and Zeárat, named Khwojeh Raig Rawán, and thence to the superior hill range before mentioned; east of Koh Butcher, the level plain extends for about a mile, until the same character of abrupt termination sinks it into the low lands of Júlghar, where we find numerous castles, much cultivated land, and, as the name of Júlghar implies, a large extent of chaman or pasture. The lands of Júlghar, to the east, form the boundary of the dasht of Beghrám; to the south, its boundary may be considered the stream called the river of Koh Damán, which, after flowing along the eastern portion of Koh Damán, and receiving what may be spared after the irrigation of the lands from the streams of Shakr Darrah, Beydak, Tugah, Istalif, &c., falls into the joint river of Ghorband and Panjshír, at a point below Júlghar. Beyond the river of Koh Damán, a barren sandy soil ascends to the skirts to the Síáh Koh and Koh Safi. Among the topographi cal features of the dasht of Beghrám may be noted three small black hills or eminences, detached from each other, which in a line, and contiguous to each other, arise from the surface of the soil, a little north of the river of Koh Damán. To the west of Beghrám are the level lands of Mahíghír; at the north-west angle of the plain, is the small village of Killah Boland, where reside about seven Hindú traders, some of them men of large capitals; and, at the south-west angle, are three castles called Killah Yezbáshí, distant from Killah Boland about four miles. From Killah Boland to Júlghar, a distance occurs of four and a-half to five miles; from Júlghar to the skirts of the Síáh Koh, about six miles; from the termination of Koh Síáh to Killah Yezbáshí, may be also about six miles, and from Killah Yezbáshí to Killah Boland, about four miles, as just noted. The whole of the intermediate space between these points, and even beyond them, to the south-east, and south-west, is covered with fragments of pottery, lumps of dross, iron, &c, and here are found the coins, seals, rings, &c., which so much excite our curiosity. Notwithstanding the vast numbers of such reliques discovered on this extent of plain, we have hardly any other evidence that a city once stood on it, so complete and universal has been the destruction of its buildings. But in many places, we may discover, on digging about the depth of a yard, lines of cement, which seem to denote the outlines of structures, and their apartments; on the edge of the plain, where it abruptly sinks into the low lands of Baltú Khele, from Killah Boland to Káráhíchí, is a line of artificial mounds; on the summit of the eminence, called Abdullah Búrj, are also some extraordinary mounds, as before noted and contiguous to the south is a large square, described by alike surprising mounds; on one side of this square, the last year, a portion sank or subsided, and disclosed that these mounds were formed or constructed of huge unburnt bricks, two spans square and one span in thickness. This circumstance, also, enabled me to ascertain that the original breadth of these stupendous walls, for such we must conclude them to have been, could not have been less than sixty feet; probably, much more. Among the mounds near Killah Boland, is a large tumulus, probably a sepulchre, which appears to have been coated with thin squares of white marble; and, near it, in a hollow formed in the soil, is a large square stone, which the Mahomedans call SangRustam, or 'the stone of Rustam,' and which the Hindús, without knowing why, reverence so far as to pay occasional visits to it, light lamps, and daub it with Sindúr, or red lead. In the Mahomedan burial-ground of Killah Boland, is a fragment of sculptured green stone, made to serve as the head-stone to a grave; about four feet thereof is above ground, and we were told as much more was concealed below; this is a relic of the ancient city, and we meet with another larger but plain green stone, applied to a similar purpose, in a burial-ground called Shahidan, or,' the place of martyrs,' under Koh Butcher. In a Zeárat, at Charíkár, is also a fragment of sculptured green stone; and it is remarkable that all the fragments of stone which we discover, and which we may suppose to have reference to the ancient city, are of the same species of coloured stone. The traditions of the country assert the city of Beghráin to have been overwhelmed by some natural catastrophe, and while we vouch not for the fact, the entire demolition of the place, with the fact of the outlines of buildings discoverable beneath the surface, seem not to discountenance the tradition. It is not, however, improbable that this city, like many others, may owe its destruction to the implacable rage of the barbarous and ruthless Genghiz, who, like Attila, described himself as the ' Ghazb Khudú,' or 'Scourge of God.' That it existed for some time after the Mahomedan invasion of these countries, is evidenced by the numerous coins of the Caliphs found on its site. That it ceased to exist at the period of Timùr's expedition into India, we have negative proof furnished by his historian Sherifuddin, who informs us, that Timúr, in his progress from Anderab to Kábul, encamped on the plain of Baran (the modern Báyán, certainly), and that, while there, he directed a canal to be cut, which was called Mahighír, by which means, the country, before desolate and unproductive, became fertile and full of gardens. The lands thus restored to cultivation, the conqueror apportioned among sundry of his followers. The canal of Mahíghír exists at this day, with the same name it received in the time of Timúr. A considerable village, about one mile west of Beghrám, has a similar appellation. This canal, derived from the river of Ghorband, at the point where it issues from the hills into the level country, irrigates the lands of Báyán and Mahíghír, and has a course of about ten miles. Had the city of Beghram then existed, these lands immediately to the west of it would not have been waste and neglected, neither would Timúr have found it necessary to cut his canal, at the city, when existing, must have been supplied with water from the same source, that is, from the river of Ghorband; and, from the same point, that is, at its exit from the hills into the level country; and the canals supplying the city must have been directed through these very lands of Báyán and Mahíghír, which Timúr found waste and desolate. The courses of the ancient canals of Beghrám are now very evident, from the parallel lines of embankments still to be traced. The site of Beghrám has, to the north, the river formed by the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshír streams, and to the south, the river of Koh Damán; but neither of these rivers is applicable to the irrigation of the circumjacent soil, the former flowing in low lands, perhaps 150 feet below the level of the plain, and the latter scantily furnished with water flowing in a sunken bed. It may be farther noted, with reference to Timúr's colonization of Mahighir, that the inhabitants of the district of Kwojeh Keddrí, while forgetful as to whom their forefathers owed their settlement in this country, acknowledge their Turki descent, and alone of all the inhabitants of the Kohistan speak the Turki language. We might expect to detect a notice of Beghrám in the Arabian records of the early caliphs, in the histories of the Ghaznavi emperors, and in those of Genghiz Khán. That Beghrám was once a capital city is evidenced by its tope, a sepulchral monument of departed royalty; while a second, situated in Tope Darah, about nine miles west, may probably be referred to it, as may perhaps a third found at Alisahí, at the gorge of the valley of Nijrow, distant about twelve miles east. The appellation Beghrám must also be considered indicative of the pre-eminence of the city it characterizes; undoubtedly signifying the chief city or metropolis. About three miles east of Kábul, we have a village and extensive pasture retaining this name, which indicates the site of the capital in which Kadphis and his lineage ruled, and whose topes we behold on the skirts of the neighbouring hills. Near Jelálábád, a spot called Beghrám, about a mile and a-half west of the present town, denotes the site of the ancient Nysa; or, if the position of that city admit of controversy, of Nagara; its successor in rank and consequence. Near Pesháwer, we have a spot called Beghrám, pointing out the site of the original city; and that this epithet of eminence and distinction was continued, up to a recent date, to the city of Peshawer, we learn from Báber and Abul Fazl. We have indications in the Kohistán of Kábul of two other ancient cities, which were undoubtedly considerable ones, but which we cannot suppose to |