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200
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1887.
:
• There is a wondrous snake,--the tongue- dwelling in its hole-the month of a bad man. It bites one man behind his ear, and thereby takes away the life of another.' froascal : TTT e: यदव नकुलहषी स कुलोपी पुनः पिधुनः॥ • The wise say not untruly that a wicked man is far worse than a poisonous serpent. For while the latter is the enemy only of the ichneumon, a calumniator is the enemy of everyone.' Here
V is threefold pun. It means either hating the ichneumon,' or 'not hating his own race,' or 'not hating the members of the family of the man he has bitten.'
#4: : : : : : 1 सर्प एकाकिनं हन्ति खलः सर्वविनाशकृत् ।। खलः सर्षपमाचाणि पररन्ध्राणि पश्यति ।
आस्मनो विल्यमाचाणि पश्यन्नपि म पश्यति ॥ पुर्जनः परिहर्तब्बो विधयालंकृतोऽपि सः।
मणिना भूषितः सर्पः किमसीन भयंकरः॥ • The snake is cruel, and the bad man is cruel, but the bad man is more cruel than the snake. The snake kills only the one man (whom he bites), but the bad man is all-destroying. He spies out holes the size of a grain of mustard in others,
but even when he is looking at some as big as bel. fruit in himself, he does not see them. The evil man should be shunned, even when he is adorned with knowledge. A enake is not less deadly because he bears a precious jewel on his head.
सन्तस्कृणोत्तारणमुत्तमानात् सुवर्णकोटघर्पणमामनन्ति । प्राणव्ययेनापि कृतोपकाराः
खलाः परं वैरमिवोद्वहन्ति । The good are as grateful for the lifting away of a straw from the head, as if it were the gift of
present of ten million pieces of gold. But the wicked when befriended even at the expense of the aider's life, are as ungrateful for the obliga. tion as if it were an act of the greatest enmity.'
T
VERSES IN MIXED BIHARI AND SANSKRIT
REGARDING INTUITION. The following curious doggrel was told me by a MithilA Pandit. It does not profess to be Sanskřit, but is partially in that language :
मेषी विकाराभ्याम् ।
ज्ञाबते हृदयं नृणाम् ।। This is said to mean, The hearts of men are known from the motions of their eyes and eyebrows.'
G. A. GRIERSON.
BOOK NOTICE. A BANSKRIT GRAMMAR for Beginnern, by F. MAX of the short summaries and notes added by the MÖLLER. Now and Abridged edition by A. A. Mac- editor are most valuable, reflecting doubtless his donell. Longman & Co., London, 1886. Pp. XVI., 192. practical experience as a teacher. See, for example.
The number of elementary Sanskrit Gram- his notes on vocative forms at pp. 30 and 52. mars in English is already considerable, but the In his transliteration the use of thickened type present volume will prove, we think, no unwelcome to call attention to phonetic peculiarities is most addition to their number. The previous editions commendable and judicious. In another point he of Prof. Max Müller's Grammar were, indeed, deviates from the transcription of the old editions styled "for beginners;" but they were used to far less advantage, ris, in the case of the by those students chiefly who had advanced palatals which he transcribes 'k,'g,' etc., “because some distance under the guidance of some less they are derived from the gutturals," a singularly elaborate manual. Mr. Maodonell justly claims to feeble reason, surely, from a learner's point of have gained something in simplicity by the com- view. Possibly & more cogent reason was a pression of certain of the rules of sardhi, which desire to assimilate this work to Professor Max in the earlier editions were given with such length Müller's “ Missionary Alphabet;" if so, we could of bye-law and illustration, as must have rather have wished to find here also the macron for long ularmed the class for whom they were intended. vowels, if only to avoid odd-looking forms like 'A' It is, however, most surprising that the new editor and 'A' For consonant-bases at pp. 36 ff., where should have sacrificed so much to brevity, as to transferences of aspirates occur, the learner would have given not even a summary or selection from have been helped by an actual reference back to the valuable chapter on the intermediate 'i.' Though the rules for the transference, to supplement the tbo rules for this may "take almost yours to assistance given by the thickened type in the master thoroughly," we cannot at all agree that form bhutsu' (beside "kakupsu'). The outlines of they are of minor practical importance," indeed syntax with which the text of the work concludes without some knowledge of them one does not quite form another welcome feature of this edition. see how, for instance, the student can avail himself Their perusal may be now supplemented by Dr. to much advantage of the rules for the first aorist, J S. Speijer's new and excellent work on this which the editor has taken pains to simplify. Many department of Sanskrit grammar.
