Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 579

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Wanton Use of Native Words.

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to describe her next visit to the court of a Mohammedan chief without qalling it a durbur-must fill it with courtiers and attendants, instead of chelaks and chobdars-pay her respects to his wives, instead of his bebees-find their eyelids tinged with antimony, instead of soormay, and be entertained with dancing girls, instead of natches. Surely the names of the people and places she encounters might be quf- ficient to gratify her taste for dissonant and barbarous sounds, with- out inflicting upon us the native appellations of ordinary things. Does she not meet with Syud Azim-oo-deen, Jemsetjee Jeejeebhoy, and Janjerjee Nasserwanjee; and does she not travel to Parabuthee, Mahabuleshwar, and Pertabghur, and might she not be content? Nabobs and rajahs, and even maha-rajahs, we shall always be glad to hear about from so amusing and graphic a writer; but we must take the liberty of informing her, that many of the articles she deals in are unquestionably contraband, and that the next time she pre- sents herself with her luggage to be overhauled-and we hope it will not be long before she makes the experiment-neither chattrahs, nor bhuprahs, nor howdahs, nor bunders, nor bobajees, will be permitted to pass muster at the critical custom-house.”

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In popular works, instead of giving the names of weights and mea- sures, &c., in native terms, their equivalents ought in most if not in all cases to be introduced. For the names of officers, corresponding titles may generally be obtained. But for persons and places native names must be used, with few exceptions. Thus we must write Yunnan and not the Cloudy, South,' Szechuen and not 'the Four Streams. However, Yellow river, North river, and some other names, are, we think, preferable to the native terms Hwang ho, Pih ho, &c. If writers desire to have their books and essays read extensively, they must divest them of all unnecessary encumbrances. The Friend of India reasons well on this point, and we gladly quote from his excellent paper the following pertinent remarks made in support of the Co- lonial Gazette, in behalf of Plain English.

"However it may serve to give an oriental character to their com- positions, and possibly to impress the English reader with a feeling of respect for their learning, its natural and inevitable tendency is to abridge the number of their readers, and to disgust those who muster courage to go through their productions. Indian subjects are still comparatively unwelcome in England, and, until of late, were all but proscribed in what was esteemed good society. It is a happy cir- cumstance that this feeling of aversion has been in some measure removed, and that a more lively interest is now taken in everything