by a competent judge, to be "merely notes on the Sidath' Sangarawa;" and I am rather disposed to consider it as such. But remarks having been made by certain parties, with a view to detract from our labours, to the effect that Mr. Tolfrey's translation precluded the necessity of this undertaking, I am under the necessity of noticing that work more extensively than I should otherwise have done. The inac curacies to be met with in Mr. Tolfrey's translation are so numerous, that scarcely a single paragraph is free from palpable errors and omissions; faults these which doubtless arose from the many disadvantages under which he laboured, one of which was the imperfect knowledge of the English which his teachers possessed;-a deficiency greatly felt at the time he carried on his labours. The following paragraphs plainly indicate that he had not studied the Singhalese, and moreover that he was indebted to the distorting medium of interpretation as a substitute for that ample stock of information which is so necessary for all purposes of translation.

“This Grammar” says he "is called in, a help to understanding, to which is added a book of notes, &c. We cannot divine how Mr. Tolfrey could have rendered "help to understanding: "—, which means a digest or compilation, cannot mean either "help" or "understanding; " nor can , compounded of established, and

knowledge or conclusion, be tortured to mean either the one or the other of the words given by him.

How a person acquainted with the Singhalese, and competent to translate the Sidath' Sangarawa, could pronounce that the style of the Sidath' Sangarawa is "more approximate to the Sanscrit " (perhaps Mr. Tolfrey meant) than "the spoken language"- surprises us, and the dictum is one to which we cannot subscribe-vide supra.

Example 1. ගතුගනද දනෝපගකොට මෑන සඳුන් මන් ; පිරිරුඹ නරිඳු මලඳාපරන්නට බීයමරු කුලෝ:

"The wicked although learned in sciences, will, like serpents wearing a jewel in their necks, be the very terror of others by entwining themselves round the Sandal-tree-like king." (see p. 8.)

Mr. Tolfrey has rendered the above as follows:-" The knowledge of bad men is also like the precious stone in the roof of the Cobra capella; when such men surround a king they terrify his people like the same snake twisted round the Sandal tree."

Example 2. රතතදිදී ඉහිල් වසනතුරෙන්ර සම්දම්: කියව කරගල පැහැබර දිඟුනුවලා :

"Speak thou by fixing thy deep coloured long eyes, by moving thy neck, and by protruding thy red hand through thy loose robes, which are secured by a girdle." (see p. 15.) The above is one of the numerous passages that are altogether omitted in Mr. Tolfrey's translation.

Example3. දනන් මහළුපාලයොදා

කෙබරව්සර පා. "Let great and small men be placed in suitable positions like the adze and the razor." (see p. 28.)

Rendered by Mr. Tolfrey thus:-"Let great sinners be punished like the condemned."

Example 4. සරණ තඹර වරලස සෙවෙලවලකර අරියන රදුව පෙර කලවමන් කුස නිරිඳු

නොසමෙලේ.

King Kusa forgot the indignities which had been previously offered to him by the Princess, who supplicated at his Lotus-like feet, veiling them with her mossy flowing hair." (see p. 29.)

The translation of Mr. Tolfrey has the following:-“The Princess prepared (to bathe) with feet like the Lotus, and hair dishevelled as the (floating) grass, formerly affronted king Kusa, who complimenting forgave her; (literally) who did not keep it in his heart."

Example 5. ජරඩවින්න විය මුවෙන් සිපාරැහැ උරා නිරොද තුනුකෙහට මරහට නොදෙනතෙක් තුන් දොරින් සුසිරිපිරුව

"It will be well to be virtuous (by three doors) in all the three ways, until the demon of decrepitude, having chewed by means of (her) diseased mouth, and sipped the humours, shall not give unto death the cud of (thy) body.” (see p. 34.)

In Mr. Tolfrey's:-" The shrivelled hag (age) having with the mouth disease sucked the juice up the exhausted body, it were well, before it is delivered to the God of death, to fill it through the three doors of life with virtue.”

Example 6. පහනතඹරන්හි බමනඃමර මුළුතමඹපිරියෙස් සරණහිමිර බලල්වලා.

"Swarms of bees which at day-light hover over the Lotuses are like the offspring of darkness proceeding in quest of their parent of darkness." (see p. 40.)

Thus in Mr. Tolfrey's translation :—“ At night (literally mother night) swarms of honey-fleas swarm in the Lotuses (amidst) darkness like wandering blind kittens.”

Example 7. බ ා වැල දල යුතු විදුහර ලඹ කෙස් මහමේර කුසුගමුවතපිය නම්වතුරු දපවන

66

"O eloped (separated) wife! when thou encounterest the spirit (Raksha) of a threatening cloud- having, the tongue of lightning-flowing (drooping) hair of rain—and the long teeth of a continuous flock of cranes-repeat (or mutter) the charm of (thy) husband's name." (see p. 41.)

Thus by Mr. Tolfrey:-"O woman, when you encounter the great cloud (portending rain) which resembles Rhaksa (the devil), the time of paddy birds (which are white, and fly in rainy weather in line) being his teeth, the lightning his tongue, and the rain his hanging locks, repeat as an incantation the name of a husband."

Selections of this nature might be multiplied without number; but it will perhaps suffice to refer the reader to an entire Chapter of the translation in question (see Appendix C.) as shewing the difficulties attendant upon translating into a foreign idiom.

Such then is the character of a translation, if it may be so called, which is wanting in exactness and precision; which exhibits a vast deal of extraneous matter; and is, moreover, deficient in many of the important passages given in the text.

This therefore can offer no real ground of objection to one who labours in attempting to present the public with a more correct version; and the more so, since Mr. Tolfrey's translation, which was never printed, but circulated in MS., is not accessible to all.

I must not, however, omit to state, that the very circumstance of Mr. Tolfrey's translation being incorrect, was an inducement to me to weigh well the meaning of each sentence and expression before I rejected his. And had it not been for so effectual a check, I fear I might have been driven to greater errors and inaccuracies, than are doubtless still to be met with in the following pages.

Even with the assistance of the translation referred to, of the paraphrase or the commentary to which reference has been made, and the knowledge which I may fairly lay claim to as a native Singhalese, added to the valuable instruction of three of the best Singhalese scholars of the present day—I have in the course of translation, had to encounter difficulties, of which an Englishman can scarcely form an adequate idea.

The text itself, given in the Appendix, has to a certain extent been redeemed by me at considerable labour and expense, and with the aid of two of the ablest pandits of the day, from the unintelligible and incorrect state to which it was found reduced by ignorant copyists.

The eagerness with which the natives have purchased the greatest part of an impression of 400 copies of the Sidath' Sangarawa, which I lately published, and the approbation of that edition expressed by some of the ablest of the Singhalese scholars of the Southern Province, more especially by those attached to the Meeripenne Temple, induce me to believe that the text, which has now gone

through a second edition, is at least purged from serious blunders. A translation, effected under such advantages, may therefore, prove to be comparatively correct; but I by no means flatter myself that my language is altogether free from errors.

My readers are doubtless aware of the difficulties attending the translation of a work from one tongue into another, and especially from an Eastern to a Western language. To be literal in the translation here presented, was next to impossible to be altogether free, was materially to depart from the original. I have frequently met with passages expressed with such terseness and brevity, that a literal translation would render the subject perfectly ridiculous, if not unintelligible. On the one hand, I have found that a tediously long expression was capable of being rendered into English in few words; whilst on the other, a very simple Singhalese expression required the aid of considerable circumlocution in order to render it comprehensible to the English reader. I have therefore endeavoured to steer a middle course, by rendering the original as nearly as I could into its equivalent English; sometimes amplifying or explaining the text within parentheses, and at others conveying the sense thereof in a few words. But in either case, I have experienced much difficulty in avoiding the Singhalese idiom: and I confess I have been often compelled to retain it from sheer necessity, whilst frequently I have been led into it unconsciously; thus adding one more instance to the truth of Dr. Johnson's remark, that" no book was ever turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its native idiom."* If, however, I have at all made myself intelligible in conveying the Singhalese into English, I trust I have attained the desired objcct.

A few words on the work itself, as given in the Appendix, and I shall have done.

Preface to the Dictionary.