Articles

KRUPA, Viktor: The Island of Immortals, Japan and Jonathan Swift, p. 113
DIETRICH, Michael H.: „Kleine augen“ auf großer Fahrt. Zur Sternnavigation in Rongorongo, p. 118
GÁLIK, Marián: Jaroslav Prušek: A Myth and Reality as Seen by his Pupil, p.151
PAWLIKOVÁ-VILHANOVÁ,Viera: The African Personality or the Dilemma of the Other and the Self in the Philosophy of Edward W. Blyden, 1832-1912, p.162

Review Articles

GÁLIK, Marián: Visions and Desires in the 13th ICLA ’91 Tokyo Congress and its Preceedings, p.176
BENICKÁ, Jana: „The Time of the Autumn Flood Came“: A Comment on Essays Dedicated to Marián Gálik, p.197
DROZDÍK, Ladislav: Modern Written Arabic in Hans Wehr’s Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart (1st-5th Editions), p.211

Book Reviews

SO, J.F.-BUNKER, E.C.: Trades and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier. By Martin Slobodník, p.219
HARRELL, S. (ed.): Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers. By Martin Slobodník, p.220
HOLES.Clive: Modern Arabic. Structures, Functions and Varieties. By Ladislav Drozdík, p.221
HOLT, P.M.: Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260-1290), Treaties of Baybars and Qalawun with Christian Rulers. By Gabriel Pirický, p. 224

ABSTRACTS

THE ISLAND OF IMMORTALS, JAPAN AND JONATHAN SWIFT

Viktor KRUPA
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

In his paper V. Krupa speculates on the likely sources of the motif of the island of immortals in Part III of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and finds them in the writings of the Portuguese missionary João Rodrigues.

"KLEINE AUGEN" AUF GROßER FAHRT
Zur Sternnavigation in Rongorongo

Michael H. DIETRICH
Stitzenburgstraße 17, D-70182 Stuttgart, Germany

"Little Eyes" on a Big Trip
Star Navigation as Rongorongo Inscriptions

An attempt is made here to prove that rongorongo does not reproduce coherent texts, creation chants, rituals, etc., as has been conjectured so far. All signs are symbols of stars and planets, quaters, winds, the moon, the guiding stars, etc.
The new endeavour to analyse the rongorongo signs is based on the accessible astronomical knowledge of Micronesia and Polynesia. The body of rongorongo signs consists of tropical descriptions of single stars, planets, zodiacal signs and other constellations. What has been registered are particular nights and, on the smaller tablets, general data on astronomical itineraries. The all in all about 12,000 rongorongo signs convey exclusively instructions for sidereal navigation within the Pacific.
This article deals with the signs which are supposed to represent the Pleiades (matariki) in rongorongo. More than half of all signs can only be understood through the astronomical knowledge of the New Zealand Maori. The present approach, then, provides the possibility to explain nearly all existing rongorongo signs, which hitherto was held to be an illusion. This is the first part of the study to be continued in Volume 9, 1999.

JAROSLAV PRUŠEK: A MYTH AND REALITY AS SEEN BY HIS PUPIL

Marián GÁLIK
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

This is a preliminary contribution to the study of the Prague School of Sinology, dedicated to its founder Professor Jaroslav Prušek (1906-1980), one of the greatest world Sinologists of his time, who left a deep imprint on Sinological and Oriental Studies in former Czechoslovakia and contributed much to the spirit of mutual communication and understanding between East and West in scholarly research and translation work.

THE AFRICAN PERSONALITY OR THE DILEMMA OF THE OTHER AND THE SELF IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDWARD W. BLYDEN, 1832-1912

Viera PAWLIKOVÁ-VILHANOVÁ
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The second stage of Europe's contact with Africa beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing throughout the nineteenth into the twentieth century started the long and difficult problem of the identity of Africa and of the Africans which is vital even today. During this period of Afro-European contact Africans were repeatedly confronted with the questions of change and choice as they tried to come to terms with the new world of an expanding Western civilization which was in process of moulding the world in its image. One man in nineteenth-century Africa who tried to see the problem in its entirety was Edward W. Blyden (1832-1912), a West-Indian of pure African descent who during his active career in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Lagos summed up his political and cultural theories, based on a rich fund of living experience and profound study, in his concept of African personality.