a (1841-1843), before he undertook to
publish his edition of the religious books of the Zoroastrians.
(Copenhagen, 1852.) During all this time, while French and German
scholars, such as Burnouf, Bopp, and Spiegel, were hard at work in
deciphering the curious remains of the Magian religion, hardly
anything was contributed by English students living in the very heart
of Parsiism at Bombay and Poona.

We are all the more pleased, therefore, that a young German scholar,
Dr. Haug--who through the judicious recommendation of Mr. Howard,
Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency, was appointed
to a Professorship of Sanskrit in the Poona College--should have
grasped the opportunity, and devoted himself to a thorough study of
the sacred literature of the Parsis. He went to India well prepared
for his task, and he has not disappointed the hopes which those who
knew him entertained of him on his departure from Germany. Unless he
had been master of his subject before he went to Poona, the assistance
of the Dustoors would have been of little avail to him. But knowing
all that could be known in Europe of the Zend language and literature,
he knew what questions to ask, he could check every answer, and he
could learn with his eyes what it is almost impossible to learn from
books--namely, the religious ceremonial and the ritual observances
which form so considerable an element in the Vendidad and Vispered.
The result of his studies is now before us in a volume of 'Essays on
the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees,' published
at Bombay, 1862. It is a volume of only three hundred and sixty-eight
pages, and sells in England for one guinea. Nevertheless, to the
student of Zend it is one of the cheapest books ever published. It
contains four Essays: 1. History of the Researches into the Sacred
Writings and Religion of the Parsees from the earliest times down to
the present; 2. Outline of a Grammar of the Zend Language; 3. The
Zend-Avesta, or the Scripture of the Parsees; 4. Origin and
Development of the Zoroastrian Religion. The most important portion is
the Outline of the Zend Grammar; for, though a mere outline, it is the
first systematic grammatical analysis of that curious language. In
other languages, we generally begin by learning the grammar, and then
make our way gradually through the literature. In Zend, the
grammatical terminations had first to be discovered by a careful
anatomy of the literature.