These things and the Sanskrit MSS. are said to have belonged to some
Chinese priests, named Hwui-sz’ (Yeshi) and Nien-shan (Nenzen), and to
four others successively, who lived in a monastery on the mountain called
Nan-yo (Nangak), in the province of Hăng (Kô) in China. These palm-leaf
MSS. may, therefore, be supposed to date from at least the sixth century
A. D., and be, in fact, _the oldest Sanskrit MSS. now in existence_.(161)
May we not hope that His Excellency Mori Arinori, who expressed so warm an
interest in this matter when he was present at the meeting of the Royal
Asiatic Society, will now lend us his powerful aid, and request the
Minister of the Department of the Imperial Household to allow these MSS.
to be carefully copied or photographed?