Note 1 — Chapter I

The Pall Mall Gazette, of January, 1867, contained a paragraph announcing the success which had attended the labours of M. Lejean, who had been sent by the French government "on a journey of scientific exploration to India and the Persian Gulf." M. Lejean, in a letter from Abushehr (Bendershehr), reports to the French Minister of Public Instruction, discoveries "of so extraordinary a nature," that the writer in the Gazette "scarcely likes to repeat them without further confirmation." Amongst other matters, he says:—"They extend from the oldest times to the Alexandrine period, and from the Arians to Buddhism. He speaks of having discovered ante-Sanscrit idioms (langues paléo-ariennes) 'still spoken between Kashmir and Afghanistan by the mountain tribes,' and he undertakes to prove 'that these languages have a more direct connection with the European languages than Sanscrit.'" Should this prove correct, a careful analysis of this speech or tongue may throw much light, either confirmative or otherwise, on many of the more recondite questions discussed in this work.