RAWLINSON, SIR HENRY CRESWICKE, K.C.B., an officer of the Bombay army, born 1810, who served there from 1826 to 1833, when he was appointed, with several other officers of his own standing, to the army of the king of Persia, in which he served until 1839. He was appointed Political Agent at Kandahar in 1840, and held that position through the first Afghan war,— a proof of his wise and just rule. In 1843 he was Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, where he subsequently became Consul - General and Ambassador to Persia. For his contributions to antiquarian and scientific research he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, Honorary D.C.L. of Oxford, Chevalier of the Order of Merit in Prussia, Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Honorary Member of the Academy of Munich, Member of the Geographical and Asiatic Societies of Germany, of numerous other literary and scientific associations, Knight of the First Class of the Persian Order of the Lion and Sun for his services in that country. His services in Afghanistan were recognised by the bestowal of the Knighthood of the Durani Empire, and he was made a Military Companion of the Bath for his services in. Kandahar. He assisted Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson in a new transla tion of Herodotus, by his brother, the Rev. George Rawlinson, and is author of the Coln parative Geography of Afghanistan. He wrote a series of papers on Assyrian Antiquities and the cuneiform character from 1850 to 1852 ; on the arrow-headed character found in the ruins of Perse polis, and on bricks and stones in the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh ; and the celebrated inscrip tion near Hamadan on the Behistun was deciphered by him, and another by Professor Grotefend. His
deciphering of the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia in 1858 placed him in the first rank of scientific discoverers, and the eminent success of his rule at Kandahar won for him the gratitude of the people and honours from his sovereign. Between 1851 and 1861 his writings appeased on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia ; 1846, on those at Behistun ; 1857, on Tiglath Pileser I., king of Assyria ; on the History of Assyria and Babylonia. In 1851 and 1861 he edited new editions of Herodotus ; and in 1875 he gave his views on the relations of England and Russia ; Journey from Tabreez to Ghilan ; Journey from Zohab to Kirmanshah ; On the Ancient Geography of Maharara ; On the Persian Expedition to Khuzistan.—Ferrier's Afghans, p. 371 ; Geo. Trans. 1842, xii. 2, p. 112 ; Royal Geo. Journal; Jour. Ro. As. Society of London ; British Museum Records.
RAY, a genus of cartilaginous fishes in which, although the skeleton is not osseous, the develop ment of organs is so advanced that they would appear to be the highest of the class. Raja Narinari, B1., tho Aetobates narinari, Malt, a fish of the Indian seas. It has a produced snout, pointed and winged-like pectoral fins, and an exceedingly long tail, armed with a strong, ser rated spine, which is always broken off by the fishermen immediately on capture, tinder the im pression that wounds inflicted by it are poisonous. Like most deep sea fishes, the ray has a wide geographical range, and occurs not only in all the Indian Ocean, but also in the tropical tracts of the Atlantic.-7'ennent's Ceylon, p. 328.