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OCTOBER, 1882.)
MISCELLANEA.
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There is also in the Panjab a Panjabf version of this verse generally current, and it is said that Man Singh's mother induced her son to cross the river by sending it him, when he wrote to her of his difficulties and intentions of giving up the expedition to Peshawar
Sabhi bhúm Gopal ki,
Bich atak nahin koe. Jin atak kar manio,
Atak rahegd 80e. All the earth is God's :
There is no stoppage in it. Who acknowledges a stoppage
Will be stopped. As far as one can make out this verse should be attributed to Akbar's expedition towards Pesh- war. At any rate it is as old as his time, and may be much older. However, it is also now commonly attributed to Ranjit Singh, who is said in his expedition to Peshawar in A.D. 1823 to have induced his troops to ford the dangerous river at Atak by going into it with his horse and standing in the middle and repeating the above verse. The people say that this was a miracle, i.e., that the river was unfordable until Ranjit Singh went into it and repeated the verse, after which it became fordable and has remained so ever since !
R. C. TEMPLE.
10. JHAMPÂNICHHAFFÂNI.-In the Mashi (Murree) Hills the jhampdnis or bearers of ladies' dolls or jhampdns call themselves usually chhandnis. The change from jhampání to chhaffani is philologically interesting. I take the process to be this: jhampdni=chhampani=chhapani-chhaffdnc. The change from the soft to the hard cognate con sonant requires no remark, and the dropping of the nasal when the first of a nexus, is not uncommon in Panjabi, though the opposite process is the usual one: e. g. dkh and hdkh = dňkh, the eye ; pakht = pankhi, a hand-fan; nagd = nangd, naked, eto: and on the other hand therth - theth, purity of language: baint - bait, a couplet, and so on. Of the change of p (P ph) to f we have in the neighbourhood the Paphundi or Paffandt Mountain; phir, again, is usually fir, and so on. In an alliterative Panjabt poem (Paran Bhagat) I find Fe, pher (fer) kiht, ghusse hoe Paran.
11. KHIMDR-KHIDMATGÅR.-One day the word khimdar was used to me by a low-caste illiterate man in AmbAlA for the familiar khidmat gar, corrupted usually by the English into kitma. gdr, and thence into kit or khit. Khimd&r may however, be a relic of old days when the khemeddr (from thema a tent) was an important personage in the camp of a native noble, as he had charge of it.
12. CORRUPTIONS OF ENGLISH WORDS.-In the Kangra District in the earlier days of our occupation, generally, and even now in outlying villages, occasionally, the words " Commissioner" and "Deputy Commissioner" undergo an extraordinary corruption. "Commissioner" becomes Bakisnar through Kamisnar-Kabisnar, showing a change of m to b and transposition of the consonante. Conf. the ordinary word 'Nakhlau' for Lakhnau (Lucknow). "Deputy Commissioner" becomes Lipt Bakisnar: Lipt for the ordinary Dipti - Deputy, showing change of d to l. Lastly, in the same District the English word madam, through ma'm, becomes, not mém as usual, but nêm and némd, a lady, and from this word nem is formed in the regular way a diminutive ntmnún, an English child. The change of initial 1 to n is not unknown to Panjabi, as nend=lend, to take, etc. but I know of no other instance of the initial m becoming 1. Compare with this word winnie the, word dofutid, now in common use for a "two-foot rule," and thence for any measure or ruler through the English word foot (fut).
13. RALI KÅ MEL.-In the Kangra District, the Rall is a small earthen painted image of Siva or Parvati. I should be glad of a derivation for it. The Rali ka meld or Rait fair is a long busi. ness, and oocupies most of Chet (March-April) up to the Sankrant of Baisakh (April), Its cele.
NOTES AND QUERIES
(Continued from p. 271.) 9. Karim. Some little time ago Mrs. Steel wrote to me from Kashmir that "Khrim is the name of a water-wraith, which lives in moun. tain tarns and lakes, and drags down its victime, chiefly sheep, ponies and cows grazing on the banks, by means of long ropes or arms, which it flings out like a lasso. It is difficult to exorcise, and resists the incantations of pirs and saints." I have never been able to satisfactorily trace this word Khrim. In classical times Khasrima was the name of a Daitya (or Dânava), who was the son of Viprachitti and Sinhika. There is the usual muddle of genealogies to be found in this case. Sinhika was the daughter of Kasyapa, but Viprachitti, her husband, was the son of Kaśyapa by Danu! However, Viprachitti was chief of the Dänavas and a mighty demon and opponent of the gods. Sinhika is also the name of a Rakshast who used "to seize the shadow of the object she wished to devour and 80 drag the prey into her jaws." This legend is something like that of the Khrim. See M. Williams, Sansk. Dict., 8. v. Khassima, Vi. prachitti, Sinhika; Dowson, Dict. Hin. Myth. 1. v. Sinhika. Khara in Sansk. means any daitya or demon.