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6o4 Revieivs of Books or difficulty of ascending the rock and reaching the upper part of the sculptures which are some 500 feet above the plain. I did not think much at the time of the risk to life and limb, but it must be remembered that Messrs. Coste and Flandin having been deputed to the spot with express instructions to copy the inscription returned re infecta declaring the sculptures to be absolutely inaccessible; and I may further add that although there is still something to be copied and much to be verified I have never heard but of one traveller accomplishing the ascent since the period of my last visit." The work of this traveller seems to have amounted to nil, and so after the lapse of more than half a century there remains for Professor Jackson the glory of being the first to give the world a verification of Rawlinson's great work. Three facts stand out clearly from his examination of the inscription: (i) the general accuracy of Rawlinson's work; (2) that there is still informa- tion to be gleaned, but to the fullest extent only by one abreast with the work in the subject (the author left the rock convinced that Foy's emendation of Bh. 4. 64 : arstain is the actual reading, while it is clear from his account that the most careful observer who was ignorant of this emendation would read with Rawlinson abastam) ; (3) that this work should be done immediately on account of the disintegration of the rock. It must be a cause of deep regret that time did not permit Professor Jackson to verify the reading of the whole of the Old Persian text, especially as it might reasonably be hoped that the gleanings would prove richest in its least accessible parts. Xext in importance are the descriptions of present beliefs and prac- tices : the detailed account of the Zoroastrian communities at Yezd (pp. 353-400) and Teheran (pp. 425-427, cf. also 119, 217, 273, 336-338, 403-404, 406, 413, 438, 440) ; the account of the Yezidis or devil- worshippers of Tifiis (pp. 10 et seqq.) ; and such legends as the version of the apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy (p. 102) and of Alexander at Hamadan (p. 164). For the archaeologist there is the discussion of the identifications of various sites, especially important being the dis- cussion with regard to Ecbatana ; the accounts of diggings in the ash- heaps near Urumiah ; the description of the temple of Anahita at Kangavar and of the fire-temple near Isfahan. Besides there are the descriptions of the various monuments, which are sometimes fuller than previous accounts {e. g., p. 210) ; sometimes correct previous ideas (p. 282, n. 2) ; and are always valuable on account of their clearness. Finally there are numerous indications (pp. 163, 173, 242, 250, 407, 433) of places where excavations might be made with profit. Two services of a broader nature to the cause of scholarship must at least be indicated: (i) the value to students of the early monuments of having their attention drawn to the modern conditions of the land; (2) the securing for Iranian studies a broader basis of that popular interest without which no branch of science can long thrive. The services rendered in this line to comparative philology by Max Mueller