MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

I.-1. Arabya Upanyás. Pratham Khanda. Nilmani Basák Karttrik Anubádita. Calcutta. D'Rozario and Co. 1850. (The Arabian Nights translated from the English into Bengali.)

2. Arabya Upanyás. Encyclopædia Press. (The Arabian Nights.)

Ir is rather a singular fact in the history of Bengali Literature, that two distinct translations of the Arabian Nights from English into Bengali have issued from the Press within a month of each other. The first has issued from a Press managed by heathens, the translator of which has chosen a simple style of writing; the second, from a Press, conducted altogether by Native Christians, and written in such a high Sanskritized style, that we question whether five students of the Hindu College could read it without the aid of a Dictionary. While we concede that the inevitable tendency of the Bengali language is to model itself more and more after its great Sanskrit original, and that, as in the case of the Tatwabodhini Patriká, where you have to express abstract and philosophical ideas, you must resort to the grand storehouse of the Sanskrit ; still we think that, in the case of books designed for popular reading, such as Robinson Crusoe, the Arabian Nights, the very simplest style should be chosen, as the object is to interest the masses. A Bengali style can be simple, and yet pure, as may be seen in that exquisite gem of elegant composition, Raja Krishna Chandra Raya Charitra, published at D'Rozario's for eight annas. The false taste, with which the educated Hindus some years ago disregarded the cultivation of their own mother-tongue, is passing away: and it is therefore important that they should not select, as their models for style, those authors, whose aim seems to be to exhibit their own attainments and learning, rather than to diffuse knowledge and information in a language level to the capacity of the commonalty.

The East has been the land, where the excellent practice of inculcating truth through the pleasing guise of fiction first took its rise. The Redeemer of the world did not disdain to resort to this medium, when he selected parables as his mode of conveying instruction. The fables of Pilpay are of Indian growth; and the Hindu mind, while it is exceedingly attached to metaphysical and abstract truth, is yet at the same time passionately fond of fictitious narrative. We are glad therefore to see advantage taken of this characteristic of the Hindus by the publication of such works as the Arabian Nights in Bengali. Fourteen years ago, a translation was made of Rasselas by Raja Kali Krishna, a reprint of which at a low price would perhaps, prove useful. In Banerjya's Encyclopedia, the Rajdút and Saralatár Puruskar have

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been published; and a new translation of the Betál Panchavingsati in very excellent Bengali has been recently issued under the patronage of Fort William College.

The late Dr. Adam Clark, one of the first Biblical commentators of the age, states in his Autobiography, that whatever, he has done in illustrating scripture criticism, has owed its foundation to the taste he first acquired for Oriental research, by the perusal of the Arabian Nights in his youthful days. It is true, caution is required in placing works of fiction in the hands of the young, as we see in the mischief done in the present day by the swarms of demoralizing novels, which are furnished by the London and Parisian Press. But we regard the Arabian Nights in a different point of view. Like the Vikrama Charitra, they illustrate national manners and customs; while many a lesson may be learned from the various curious and new scenes, into which they introduce the reader.

The price of this work is one rupee, which is rather too high. We would recommend our native friends, when publishing Bengali books, to take an old motto as theirs also;—" small profits and quick returns."

II.-The London Pharmacopeia, translated into Bengali by Modusudun Guptu, Superintendant and Lecturer of the Military Class of the Medical College, Calcutta. Bishop's College Press. 1849.

WE hail this book as an instalment of better things: as preparing the machinery for a secondary class in the Bengali language in connection with the Medical College. Thirty years ago, Felix Carey published a work on Anatomy in Bengali, designed as a text-book for students; and subsequently Dr. Breton laboured indefatigably in issuing, under the authority of Government, a series of lithographed pamphlets in the Vernacular languages on the common diseases of the country. There is now lying before us a treatise of his in Bengali on the cholera morbus.

These books are valuable, but they require a teacher to explain various parts and we suppose it is the design of the authorities of the Medical College, in issuing this Bengali Pharmacopæia, to form a Vernacular Department there. The distinguished and most unexpected success of the secondary class in the College, which is taught altogether through the medium of the Urdu language, fully warrants Government in establishing one on a similar plan to be taught in Bengali. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the advantages that would result from diffusing a knowledge of European medical treatment throughout the extent of this country. Dr. Wise's Commentary on Hindu medicine shews how little the village-doctors know of ordinary diseases; and yet the lives of twenty-five millions of people, who speak

the Bengali language only, are at their mercy. The students, taught in the Medical College through the English medium are too few to act on the masses; the state of the country calls for a class of men who, after receiving instruction for a year or two through their own language in the Medical College, would settle down near the different Thannah Stations, and be content with the receipt of an income of twenty or thirty rupees a month. A ryot with his wife and two children seldom earns more than five rupees a month, out of which he has to defray every expence.

The entire expenses, connected with the instruction of this class in the Medical College, need not exceed the sum now allowed as the salary of the Principal of one of the Government Colleges. We make this suggestion, hoping that the benefits conferred by the College on the upper class of natives may be extended to the middle and lower classes, who, in every country, suffer the most from the want of proper medical aid. We have ourselves witnessed many harrowing cases of natives killed outright, solely through the barbarous treatment of the Kobiraj, or village-doctor, who knows far less about curing diseases than an English farrier does; and yet this Eastern type of Dr. Sangrado requires a fee of one rupee in many cases from poor fellows, who earn only four rupees a month! There are already, in Bengali, treatises on Chemistry and Anatomy: and this Pharmacopæia is the precursor of works which will, we hope, be shortly added to the list. Dr. Bachelor of Orissa, is preparing a Medical Guide Book in Bengali :these are materials for commencing. Several years ago, the sub-. ject was brought by some of the Professors of the Medical Collegebefore the authorities: but hitherto nothing has been done. The statement, on the title page of this Bengali Pharmacopæia, "printed by order of Government,' ," is, we trust, an indication, that as textbooks in the Bengali language are being provided by the Government, so teachers to explain and comment on these books may be speedily appointed.

This Pharmacopæia contains 244 pages octavo, and is well got up. It will be sold at the cost price, for about one rupee four annas, as the design of Government is to give it an extensive circulation. The translation is well executed: but we have a few remarks to make on a subject, which is of great philological importance at the present moment. While the translator has, we think, acted very properly in borrowing certain names of drugs, &c., from the Latin or English, where there were no terms in use for them in the native languages; still we think, in various cases, he might have formed many words through the copia verborum, which the Sanskrit supplies him. Fourfifths of the languages of India derive all their technical, as well as theological, terms from the Sanskrit; and even in the Tamul and Canarese, which are languages not of Sanskrit origin, all the philosophical terms are from the Sanskrit. Thus technical, as well as religious, terms may become common throughout India to 150 millions of people; taken from the Sanskrit, they are more euphonious and

better understood, than those borrowed from a European tongue. Michaelis has shewn the immense advantage that popular education in Germany has derived from the scientific nomenclature being formed by compounding German words-as the name thus expresses the nature of the thing, even to the mind of a peasant; whereas, by borrowing words from a foreign language, the terms are significant in themselves only to the learned. What the English have done, ought to be no rule to Oriental translators; for the English language, as Carlyle's writings shew, is badly adapted for employing compound terms; whereas the Bengali and Hindi languages, like the German, admit of compounds to any extent. We fully admit that when an idea is altogether new, it is sometimes better to transfer the word, in such cases as oxygen, hydrogen; but this we believe is carried much farther than is necessary, and sometimes by natives through a love of sesquipedalia verba, or an affectation of appearing wiser than their neighbours by the use of foreign terms: thus for instance while some would use rail-road, which is unintelligible to a villager-others wisely employ the term Loha rasta, the iron road, which conveys a meaning intelligible to every man and boy; so with steamer, as contrasted with baspya jáháj, (the vapour ship). We trust that this book is a token that efficient measures will be ere long taken in the Medical College to diffuse a knowledge of medicine among the populous villages in Bengal by a class of practitioners, men of simple habits and content with small fees.

III.-Wanderings in the Islands of Interview (Andaman), Little and Great Coco. By J. H. Quigley. Maulmain. 1850.

THE man of genius and observation will make a better book out of a morning's walk, than the common-place traveller after the tour of Europe. Half an hour's run into an unexplored country may furnish more of novelty and interest, than a six months' march along a beaten and crowded road. A pamphlet of forty pages may contain more of truth, usefulness, and entertainment, than a work in three volumes folio. This thin brochure by Mr. Quigley, describing his wanderings in these small savage islands of the Bay, might then be a book without which, as the literary puffs have it, no library can be complete. We say it might be this; but we are sorry we must not say that it is this. It contains, indeed, no small amount of information touching a group of islands, whose position and circumstances lend then a peculiar interest, especially for the Anglo-Indian public-islands lying almost at our doors, inviting the attentions of enterprize and capital, yet fortified against us by mortal disease, and garrisoned by treacherous savages and reputed cannibals. But this information is too general in character, and is too sparingly

interspersed among the reflections and exhortations, which form the bulk of the work There is a look of dry formality about it, too, that gives one the idea of its having been, in some cases, cut out of other books, and stuck in to serve the purpose of original observations. We do not say that Mr. Quigley has been guilty of plagiarism, or piracy; but certainly some parts of his pamphlet-the geological and zoological descriptions for instance-impress us with the notion. of their having been borrowed. Indeed we fancy we can distinguish at least two distinct styles of composition; but we do not mean to say that they are not both Mr. Quigley's.

One of these styles may be described as "fine"-or 66 superfine" if you will. It is such very poetical prose, that the reader finds it impossible to attach any material, matter-of-fact, idea to the words employed. Take a specimen :

The surface of the island heaves up into irregular ranges of hill scenery. Like a young Hercules playing with serpents, they catch up little molehills of sand, and go leaping and brawling till they form themselves into a ravine. Then gathering size and strength through every curve of their way, they turn eastward. As if on purpose to dodge the eye of the traveller, they bend in a triangular shape, and come down in a froth southward, like a stripling, who signalises his majority by a terrible outbreak from parental restraint. Then with a graceful sweep, that seems the result of society upon the young forester's impetuosity, they turn their full length into a picturesque valley, and bending slightly westward, they gently, and imperceptibly, form on a level with the rest of the land. Awhile they loiter, and then catching to their strong embrace a forming hill, they, with new dignity, that soon swells into majesty, take their course southward to lose themselves among the rocks lining that side of the island, and running into the sea.

Is not the description of Chaos by Mr. John Milton quite as intelligible, as Mr. J. H. Quigley's sketch of Interview Island in the Andaman group

?

The Andaman Islands, as Mr. Quigley says in his preface, "have never been explored, and consequently never properly described." The late Dr. Helfer has given the fullest account of them yet published; and Mr. Quigley, appreciating the labours of his precursor, has contributed further information collected during his circumscribed "wanderings" near the shores of one of the group. Here is a general description of the Andaman range, as viewed from the sea, and through the medium of memory and imagination:

Leaving Cliff Island, we sailed onwards with a pleasant breeze, which brought the whole Andaman range before us. Such a scene of enchantment, "too bright and fair almost for remembrance," burst upon our view. GREAT, MIDDLE and LITTLE ANDAMANS comprise a great extent of country;-they extend from the 10th to the 14th degree north latitude, and from 93° 30' to 94° 31' east longitude; and, according to the late Dr. Helfer, they teem with the precious metals, are covered with dense forests, expanded lakes, broad rivers, and mighty mountains, and all in a state of primeval simplicity, undefaced by the axe of civilized man, and tenanted by roving hordes of savages and numerous wild animals. Whichever side you turn, you have every where a profusion of interest in the natural scenery; it is a wilderness, that retains somewhat of that fresh beauty, which fancy attributes to the world before the Flood. How