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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
For ease the harass'd Foujdar prays When crowded Courts and sultry days Exhale the noxious fume, While poring o'er the case he hears The lengthened lie, and doubts and fears The culprit's final doom.
For ease, for ease, he constant sighs, Invokes the moon and starry skies
Tafford their friendly light, That no dacoit his peace invade, Nor burglar ply his boring trade Secured by gloomy night.
But all his care and toils can ne'er Fulfil his hopes, his wishes dear; For ever and anon
The daring crime, th' affray, the theft, The wail of those of all bereft,
Keep pouring ceaseless on. Yet, all the numerous ills among That foil his plans, his purpose strong Remains unshaken still;
The consciousness of faith and zeal,
And labour for the public weal, A solace sweet instil.
Then why uneasy should he be, Or hope e'er perfect peace to see Unmixed with vice or crime ? For evil passions shall prevail, And with their train Man's race assail, Till Heaven's eternal time.
PAHLAVI.
Mr. E. W. West, of the I.C.S., the well-known Pahlavi scholar, is about to return to Europe with fresh materials for the study of Pahlavi literature, of which he gives the following account in a letter to Prof. Max Müller:-"I have obtained complete copies of the Dinkard, Nirangistán, Vajarkard-i Dini, and many shorter works hardly known by name in Europe, and hope to finish the Dadistán-i Dini.... I have also collated Spiegel's Pahlavi text of the Josna and Vendidád with some very old MSS., and am sorry to say I find the printed text lamentably defective. The Dinkard is the longest Pahlavi work in existence, and originally contained nine books, of which the first two are missing; a MS. of the remaining seven books was brought from Persia about ninety years ago, and this MS. traces its own descent from an old MS. copied by a writer about 877 years ago; all existing copies in India are derived from this MS. brought from Persia, but before they were made about one-sixth of the folios of the original MS. had been abstracted by various individuals, and still remain in other hands. I have been able to collate all these scattered folios excepting five, which are still missing; but excepting myself I
[OCTOBER, 1876. believe Dastur Peshotan is the only person who has a copy of the whole. The eighth and ninth' books contain a long account of the Nasks, or twenty-one books of the Zoroastrian literature, which seems likely to be of considerable interest. Inquiries have been made in Persia for some other copy of this work, but hitherto without success. The Ntrangistán is probably the third largest work in Pahlavi (if it be longer than the Pahlavi Vendidad); it consists of minute directions with regard to ceremonies very difficult to understand fully, and seems to contain many quotations from the Avesta not found elsewhere, and likely to be important additions to the Zend Dictionary.... The Dádistán-i Dint is the second longest Pahlavi work, and contains a great variety of religious information, more interesting and less technical than that in the Nirangistán. It consists of three parts, of which the first and last are said to have been additions to the middle part, which latter is all that has reached Europe, and is about one-half of the whole work. The Vajarkard-i Dint is a somewhat similar but shorter work. The copy I have had given me was printed in Bombay in 1848. Several minor works I have copied from a MS 554 years old, said to be unique.... Another volume of this MS. is said to be at Teheran, in a library which was purchased in Bombay some twenty years ago. With regard to Avesta texts, I have not learned that any MSS. exist which can be traced to other sources than those used by Westergaard, so it is doubtful if his edition can be improved upon materially. But the Pahlavi text of Spiegel's edition is simply untrustworthy,owing, probably, to his following the Paris MS. of the Vendiddd in preference to its prototypes at London and Copenhagen."-Academy.
THE UNWILLING GUEST. By Behá ed-din Zoheir. Ye are all alike and base; God diminish such a brood! Why, good Lord! in all the race
There is not a man that's good. Back your suitors bootless go;
Nay, what should they hope to find? Goodness ? gracious goodness! no. Kindness ?-nothing of the kind. Would I had been spared the shock
When your faces met my eye! Or that there had been a block
On the road I travelled by.
Oh! to leave your town, at last!When may I such bliss expect ?On a pony sleek and fast,
Or a camel limber-necked.
Prof. E. H. Palmer's Transl.
