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OCTOBER, 1876.]
THE DRAVIDIAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES.
297
versá, because Garuda will come forth in search examples, for defining the proper width of a of food, and meeting the Serpent on the same house. errand mischief is likely to befall the person
Concerning Days. journeying between them; and so of the other
"Sunday is a good day for transacting busiYonis. It is dangerous for a person living in a
ness, Monday for sowing grain, Tuesday for Yoni to travel in the direction of its opponent.
fighting, Wednesday for commencing studies, Accordingly the author advises his readers to
Thursday for getting married, Friday for getconsult an almanac before setting out on a
ting shaved, and Saturday for performing penjourney.
ance." The width of the house appears to be a matter of very considerable importance in the sil.
Tank-digging.
"If one digs a tank in the point of Agni, pan's art. Our author in 26 slokas sings of the width of houses. He gives forty-four exam
besides losing his wife by death, he himself ples, and of these seventeen are fraught with
will meet with an accident, and his wealth will mischief to the householder: we give a few as
vanish. If one digs it in Yama's point, it will
be a useless tank, besides which the man who examples :"If the width of the house is six feet, the
dug it will become a beggar. If, however, one blessing of Lakshmi and all happiness will be
digs a tank in Isani's point (north-east), he will
obtain wealth." here. "If the width of the house is ten feet, sheep
Concerning Wells. and oxen will increase, imperishable wealth and “If one digs a well in the north-east or west flourishing fields will be the possession of the points of the house, auspicious events will ensue. householder. If the width of the house is twenty If one. digs a well in the north-west, the death feet, the wife will flourish, sons will increase, of sons will follow. If one digs a well in the and wealth of all kinds will ensue to the house- south-west, sickness will be the result. If one holder. If the width of the house is nineteen digs a well in the south, death will follow. If feet, the servants will die, business will fail, one digs a well in the south-east, he will be terrible mischief will befall the housekeeper, childless. And if one digs a well in the centre and his wife will be kept by another man. of his house, his wealth will perish.
"If the width of the house is twenty-eight 1 "If one digs a well in Varuna's point (west), feet, sickness and the death of sons, the loss of the blessing of the Sapreme One, and all hapwealth, and untold poverty will ensue. There- piness, will be the result. fore a man should flee from such a house."
"If one digs a well centre to south-east, south, These are sufficient to serve as examples, but south-west, and north-west, his relations and it is observable that there is no distinct role in his sons will die of sickness, he shall lose all his the book, beyond what may be found in these wealth, and will afterwards live by begging."
NOTES ON THE SOUTH INDIAN OR DRAVIDIAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. By the Rev. G. U. POPE, D.D., M.R.A.S., Member of the Leipzig Oriental Society, and Fellow of the
Madras University.
(Continued from p. 158.) No. II.-On the "Harmonic Sequence of law that the vowels of the various endings shall Vowels."
be of the class of that in the root, or in its last On the subject of this paper Mr. Whitney, syllable-thus marking the appurtenance and in his work entitled The Life and Growth dependency of the endings in their relation to of Language, p. 234, says: "In the pho- the root in a manner which, though undoubtedly netic structure of the Scythian languages the at first euphonic only (like the German umlaut), most striking trait is the so-called 'harmonic has lent itself usefully to the purposes of formal sequence of vowels. There are, namely, two distinction. Every suffix, then, has two forms, a classes of vowels, light and heavy, or palatal (e, light and a heavy: we have al-mak, but sev-mek; i, ü, ) and other (a, o, u); and it is the general ev-ler, but agha-lar, and so on."
