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JULY, 1887.]
exhibiting the light in which they are looked upon in that province. Here are three :
आहारे बककाकशूकरसमा छागोपमा मैथुने
देशे सिंहसमा रणे मृगसमा देशान्तरे जम्बुकाः । They feed like cranes or crows or pigs, *1 At home they are lions, in the battle-field deer, and in a foreign country (e.g. Bihår) jackals.' शूद्राचाररताः शिरस्यनुदिनं वस्त्रैर्विहीनाः खला
BOOK NOTICES.
बाङ्गाला यदि मानवाः शिव शिव प्रेतास्तदा कीदृशाः । 'Delighting in low-caste orgies, with their heads continually uncovered, vile.-If Bangalis are men, O Siva! Siva! what are ghosts ?'
The Bihar verdict on Bangali women is even stronger than the foregoing, and is grossly unfair: था हेथेत्यस्य सदैव भाषिणी मुखं समाच्छाद्य भगप्रदर्शिनी । पति विहायोपपतिप्रगामिणी विराजते वङ्गनरेन्द्रकामिनी ॥
BOOK CATALOGUE OF BENGALI PRINTED BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; by J. F. Blumhardt. Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum. London; 1886. Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, A. Asher and Co., and Trübner and Co. 4to., pp. ix. 150.
Mr. Rieu, in his Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, has given an admirable model of what a catalogue ought to be; and it is a great pity that the compiler of the catalogue now under notice has not followed the plan so started. Mr. Blumhardt has simply entered the books under the names of the authors, arranged in alphabetical order. This may be convenient enough for a librarian, who wants to see at a glance whether any works of a particular author are to be found on the shelves of his library. But a catalogue of this kind does not repay the expenses and trouble of printing, and should remain in manuscript in the hands of the librarians. With so prolific a literature as is the Bengali literature of the present day, such a catalogue must soon fall ont of date, if the acquisitions of the British Museum keep pace, as certainly they seem to do, with the rapid rate of Bengali production. What the student wants, in a scientific catalogue, is a classification that enables him to see at once what is the literature in existence, at least in the library that he has recourse to, on a given subject, and, if a library is rich, a catalogue of that kind becomes a real and valuable handbook of literature. This
227
i This half line is obscene.
In allusion to the SAkta worship prevalent in Bengal. This is the interpretation given of z. This
Saying hetha hethd when she means 'hither." Modestly covering her face, and yet grossly indecent; deserting her husband, and hasting to a lover, so shines in her glory the fair one of the noble Bangalt. The e in the word is, it should be observed, short.
THE BIHAR OPINION OF ANGA.
Anga, or Western Bangal, has as bad a reputation as Bangal proper, as witness the following anonymous verse:
अङ्गानि मोटयति वारि करोत्यपेय शुष्कान्यपि व्यथयति व्रणमण्डलानि । यद्देशजः पवन एवं करोति बाधां तद्देशजाः किमु नराः सुखदा भवन्ति ।।
A country where the wind causes the limbs to swell, makes the water unwholesome, reopens healed wounds, and only does harm,-how can the people of that country be pleasant ?
G. A. GRIERSON.
NOTICES.
is the case with the catalogue of the Persian manuscripts. But, with the present Catalogue of Bengali Books it is not so. We must confess however, that a catalogue of Mr. Rieu's style is no easy task, and requires an amount of originality and discrimination which is not required in a mere catalogue of names.
With the plan the compiler chose to follow, the only difficulty he had to encounter was with reference to the transliteration of Bengali words, or Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic words Bengali. cized, and to the treatment of the names of authors. He has successfully solved the first of these difficulties; and has reproduced the Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic words in their original form and spelling, not in their Bengali pronunciation. But, of the three names which generally constitute the full appellation of a native of India,-the personal name, the father's name, and the castetitle, original village-name, or other analogous designation, he has given the precedence to the first, though the tendency is now amongst Englishspeaking Bengalis, as it is in fact all over India, especially amongst the Marathas, also to a great extent amongst the Pârsis, to make hereditary and distinctive the third appellation, and, to all intents and purposes, to convert it into a regular surname of the European style. So, also, the natives of India are gradually introducing more and more, the custom of referring to each other,
meaning is not however in Monier Williams' Sanskr.
Dict.