ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

tempt." ." "Now I do not recollect," said Mr. De Körös," that I gave my opinion of Klaproth as it is given here, but oh! Wilson was very, very," and he shook his head significantly," against Klaproth; and he took this opportunity to pull him down, and favour Remusat. It is very curious;" and he laughed heartily. Not being of the initiated in the curiosities of Thibetan literature, I did not fully appreciate the jest; but others probably will, and I was greatly interested with the keen enjoyment produced in the mind of the Ascetic, by this subject.

[ocr errors]

At the same visit, he produced "Hodgson's Illustrations of the Literature and Religion of the Buddhists," and asked me if I had seen it; on being told that I had a copy, and had been familiar with its contents in progress of collection, although unversed in the subject; he said, "He sent me this copy; it is a wonderful combination of knowledge on a new subject, with the deepest philosophical speculations, and will astonish the people of Europe; there are however some mistakes in it." I think he then said, "In your paper on the Limboos, you asked if the appellation Hung,' distinctive of families of that tribe, had any reference to the original Huns,' the objects of my search in Asia. It is a curious similarity, but your 'Hungs' are a small tribe, and the people who passed from Asia, as the progenitors of the Hungarians, were a great nation." I replied, that as the original country of the Limboo "Hungs" was undoubtedly north of the Himalaya, and as he believed the same to be the case as regarded the "Huns," it was at all events possible, that the " Hungs" of this neighbourhood, might have been an off-shoot from the same nation. "Yes, yes,” he rejoined, “it is very possible, but I do not think it is the case." And then, as if preferring to luxuriate in remote speculations on his beloved subjects rather than in attempting to put an end to them by a discovery near at hand, he gave a rapid summary of the manner in which he believed his native land was possessed by the original "Huns," and his reasons for tracing them to Central or Eastern Asia. This was all done in the most enthusiastic strain, but the texture of the story was too complicated for me to take connected note of it. I gathered, however, from his conversation of this day, and of the previous ones since our acquaintance, that all his hopes of attaining the object of the long and laborious search, were centred in the discovery of the country of the " Yoogars." This land he believed to

be to the east and north of Lassa and the province of Kham, and on the western confines of China; to reach it, was the goal of his most ardent wishes, and there he fully expected to find the tribes he had hitherto sought in vain. The foundation of his hopes, to any one not deeply imbued with enthusiasm, or accustomed to put faith in philological affinities, will probably appear vague and insecure. It was as follows, in so far as I could gather from his repeated conversations. In the dialects of Europe, the Sclavonic, Celtic, Saxon, and German, I believe, the people who gave their name to the country now called Hungary, were styled Hunger or Ungur, Oongar, or Yoongar; and in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian works, there are notices of a nation in Central Asia, resembling in many respects the people who come from the East into Hungary. In these languages, they are styled Oogur, Woogur, Voogur, or Yoogur, according to the pronunciation of the Persian letter, and from the same works it might be inferred, he said, that the country of the "Yoogurs" was situated as above noted. collateral reasons which led him to this conclusion, but he much stress on them, and they have escaped my memory. occurred to me, that at the time of the conversations now detailed, Mr. De Körös had some presentiment that death was near him, for on no former occasion was he so communicative, nor did he express opinions, as if he was very anxious they should be remembered. On this day he certainly did so, and I feel it due to his memory to record them, even in this imperfect manner. To give his opinions point, it would require a knowledge of the subjects on which he discoursed, to which I cannot pretend; yet such as they are, they may, as the last words of an extraordinary man, be prized by those who honoured him for his acquirements, and admired him for his unwearied exertions in the cause of literature, languages, and history.

There were

did not lay

It has since

Although so much better on the 7th than on the previous day, I dreaded that a return of fever was impending, and I again urged him to take medicine, but in vain. On the 8th I did not see him, but on the morning of the 9th, on visiting him with Dr. Griffith, I found that fever had returned; he was confused, and slightly delirious; his countenance was sunken, anxious, and yellow, and altogether his state was bad and dangerous. After much trouble, we got him to swallow some medicine,

and had his temples rubbed with blistering fluid. On the morning of the 10th he was somewhat better, but still unable to talk connectedly or distinctly; towards evening he became comatose, and continued so until 5 A. M. of the 11th, when he expired without a groan or struggle. On the 12th at 8 A. M. his remains were interred in the burial ground of this station. I read the funeral service over him, in the presence of almost all the gentlemen at the place.

The effects consisted of 4 boxes of books and papers, the suit of blue clothes which he always wore and in which he died, a few shirts and one cooking pot. His food was confined to tea, of which he was very fond, and plain boiled rice of which he ate very little. On a mat on the floor with a box of books on the four sides, he sat, ate, slept, and studied, never undressed at night, and rarely went out during the day. He never drank wine or spirit, or used tobacco or other stimulants.****

Annexed is a detailed list of the contents of the boxes. Among his pa pers were found the bank notes for Rs. 300, to which he alluded before his death, and a memorandum regarding Government Paper for Rs. 5,000, which it is stated in transcript of a letter to the Government, dated 8th February, 1842, it was his wish to leave at his death to the Asiatic Society of Bengal for any literary purpose. Cash to the number of Rupees 224 of various coinage, and a waist belt containing 26 gold pieces, (Dutch ducats I believe,) completes the money part of his effects. From this I shall deduct the funeral expenses and wages due to his Lepcha servant, and retain the remainder, along with the books and papers, until I receive the orders of Government for disposing of them. As the deceased was not a British subject, I have not made the usual advertisement of the possession of his effects, nor have I taken charge of them in the Civil Court, but in my capacity of Political Officer in this direction.

From a letter of James Prinsep's among the papers, I gather that he was a native of the town of "Pest," or Pesth, in the province of Transylvania, and I have found transcript of a letter addressed by him to the Austrian Ambassador in London, apparently on matters connected with his native country; I presume therefore, that the proper mode of mak ing his death known to his relations, if such there be, and of disposing

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »