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Vartaman-yuga. The original plan adopted in consultation with Sir Asutosh included the insertion of a historical intro- duction, a glossary of archaic terms and short notices of the authors selected; but the death of the editor when only the second and the third volumes had been published and the first volume was in the press made the insertion of the proposed editorial matter an impossible task, As a pioneer work undertaken by a man of Mr. Goswami limited leisure, it does credit to the editor and will serve as the necessary basis for the comparative study of the history of Assamese language and literature, though & future work of the same type may benefit by the unavoidable deficiencies of Mr. Goswami's performance, it may be mentioned that Mr. Goswami's own contributions have been inserted in the third volume of the “Typical selections”, Part 2, pages 527 to 564. The original plan was to bring down the selections to the date of compilation, but it was modified with a view to include writers up to the end of the nineteenth century.

 Kama-ratna-tantra.-The publication of this book was undertaken in execution of the Assam Government scheme to translate representative Assamese classics into English, Assam, the reputed home of the Tantras, has a large assort ment of manuscript specimens of old Tantric literature, and Hemchandra could not do better than select this Kama-ratna- tantra, the prescriptions of which are still adopted by some aections of the Assamese on purposes laid down. According to the editor, the book describes how by incantations and other. methods a man as well as a woman can be subdued, attracted, made hostile, paralysed, killed, freed from evils, excited and so on. It gives the methods to be adopted for the performance of the above facts in the forms of medicines, mantra and jantras" ' The Tantra prescribes the remedies necessary, among others, for the following objects,—subduing of wives, subduing of husbands, preven-