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CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
JULY, 1875.]
so full, so exact, and so copiously illustrated by references to the ancient literature and history of the country, that the Government ordered them to be printed, and "Ellis's Replies to Seventeen Questions relative to Mirási Right" (pp. 65, with two appendices of pp. 85 and 31, folio, Madras, 1818) continues to this day to be the standard authority on the subject.
Another fragment is a selection of stanzas from the first book of the Kural, an ethical poem greatly esteemed by the Tamils. A free metrical version is given of each couplet, followed by a critical analysis of the text, and the subject-matter is then illustrated by numerous quotations from the best native writers, interspersed with valuable notes and disquisitions on the mythology, philosophical systems, and sectarial tenets of the people. Mr. Ellis had proceeded as far as eighteen chapters of. the first book when he left Madras, and of these only thirteen were printed, filling 304 quarto pages, I without title or date.
He probably also left other minor compositions ; such as his essays on the Tamil, Telugu, Malayâlim (and perhaps also Canarese?) tongues, for the use of the students in the College of Fort St. George of the third of which a few separate printed copies exist, and the second is embodied in the Introduction to A. D. Campbell's Telugu Grammar, but the first I have never seen. Among some refuse papers at the College, I one day discovered a translation by him of the Jewish copperplates at Cochin, and inserted it in vol. xiii. pt. 2 of the Madras Literary Journal.
Imperfect as these Reliquiæ are, they suffice to show what might have been expected from so ripe a scholar, had he lived to carry out his long. cherished design. -Athenæum.
WALTER ELLIOT.
TAMIL PROVERBS.*
The word of the destitute does not reach the assembly. That is, an assembly of learned men, or men in power. The words of the poor, whether they relate to oppression, or to other injuries, or to opinion, are not likely to find admission where alone they can avail.
Light breaks on the head of the destitute. Blame or suspicion will fall on the head of the unprotected and friendless. The poor are at work by break of day.
The destitute brings forth a female child, and that on Friday, under the star Pinadam. Used of one suffering from an accumulation of evils. The condition of the parent, the sex of the child, the
Tamil Proverbs with their English Translation. Containing upwards of six thousand Proverbs. By the Rev. P. PERCIVAL, Chaplain, Madras Military Female Orphan
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day of its birth, and its ruling star are alike inauspicious.
The beauty of the mind appears in the face. As grain becomes cheaper, enjoyment increases. He who knows not the price of grain knows not
sorrow.
A terrible ascetic, an atrocious cheat.
The friendship of a brother-in-law lasts while one's sister lives.
Will a dog understand the Vedas, although born in a Brahman village?
Do not beat down the market price. Do not contravene the established opinions and practices of the people with whom you are associated.
One who frequently changes his party will receive two slaps here and three cuffs there.
Stunted grain-friendship at sight. Both valueless.
A fifth-born female cannot be obtained, though earnestly sought. A fifth-born female is regarded as the special favourite of fortune, an eighth as the very opposite.
Demons strike the timid.
Are five young birds a curry? Is a young girl a wife?
A woman of fifty must bend the knee before a boy of five. Referring to the deference paid to the male sex by the Hindoos.
Even tender creepers when united are strong. One hand smites, the other embraces. Discipline regulated by love; used sometimes of Divine chastisements.
When a neighbour's roof is in flames one's own is in danger.
The leech is not satisfied, nor is fire. Inordinate desire is never satisfied.
Although one may live six months with an elder brother, one cannot abide with his wife even half an hour. The first condition is proverbially difficult, how much more so the second.
The forms of worship prescribed for Siva are sixtyfour; whereas the seasons for feeding religious men. dicants are seventy-four.
The value of a father is known after his decease, that of salt when exhausted.
Why ask of the military officer if there is any compulsory service? Why gratuitously seek avoidable evil?
In the world some are high, and many are low. On earth those who have no salt have no body. He who lives as he ought in this world will be ranked with the gods.
In all the world none really good has been seen.
Asylum: Author of The Land of the Veda, &c. Second Edition. Madras: Dinavartamani Press, Little Bourne, Mylapore, 1874.
