What the profound observer, quoted above, pronounced generally of fiction, is peculiarly pertinent, when applied to the Hindus. The history of their progress, in the arts of civilized life, is so clouded with mythology, and overcast by time, that our efforts to penetrate the obscurity, have been hitherto of little avail. As the mind, therefore, has little substantial gratification to expect, from this branch of intellectual enjoyment, it may be permitted to indulge in the shadows, that are abundantly presented, and dwell with more interest, than the subject would otherwise excite, on the copious materials afforded by the mass of Hindu fable, within its reach.

The Pádma Purána, which in the Pauranic lists occupies the second place, and in its own enumeration the first, is a work of considerable extent; according to the best authorities, and to its own statements, it consists of fifty-five thousand slokas, and the copies that are current actually contain little less than that number, or about 50,000.

[The Royal Asiatic Society having- determined to reprint occasionally papers which may be considered of interest, or may contain useful information, and which, although in print, are not generally procurable in this country, have been pleased to select in the present instance a translation made by me many years ago, and published anonymously in one of the periodical publications of the Calcutta press. At the time of its publication, the subject was entirely new. It has lost something of the gloss of novelty by the more comprehensive journals which have since appeared; but it still contains information regarding parts of Turkestan and Central Asia, which is not derivable from any better source, as the countries have not been visited in modern times by European travellers. In what has also ceased to be novel, the observations of the traveller are not without interest, as they relate to a political state of the countries traversed, which had undergone a change for the worse even when Izzet Ullah's steps were; followed by Moorcroft and Trebeck, and which has become still further deteriorated by the anarchy that has so long distracted Afghanistan. The journal of Izzet Ullah is in most places little more than a mere itinerary, and it is so far more serviceable to geography than to history; but he occasionally extends his notes so as to furnish materials for the latter.

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