PREFACE. 



tion of the botanical, and zoological names that occur in 

 the Bible are unnecessarily transferred ! " Not being a 

 zoologist, botanist, or mineralogist," wrote a distinguish- 

 ed translator, " I have not unfrequently, in disposing of 

 technical terms whose meaning I could not satisfactorily 

 settle, gone the whole animal, plant, or mineral, as the 

 case might be, and transferred it." 



In this way many words are transferred for which there 

 are good vernacular names, and a native has in his Bible 

 a barbarous word that conveys no idea, while it may be 

 the original designates a flower, that is wafting its frag- 

 rance within the lattice where he sits reading. This is 

 no fancy sketch. The camphire of the English Bible, 

 the exquisitely fragrant Lawsonia biennis, or henna, is ren- 

 dered in one Indian version by camphor, and in another the 

 name is transferred, while the shrub itself is growing by 

 the doors of myriads of native houses in both Indias, and 

 for which there are established vernacular names in every 

 Indian language to which I can refer. 



Such transfers always cast a deep shadow over the sig- 

 nification of the passage in which they occur, and some- 

 times wrap it in impenetrable darkness. For instance ; 

 Christ says to the Scribes and Pharisees : "Ye pay tithe of 

 mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weigh- 

 tier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith." 

 Here the antithesis can only be seen by a knowledge of 

 the trifling character of mint, anise, and cummin ; yet 

 in two Indian versions every one of these names is trans- 

 ferred, which renders the clause, without a paraphrase, 

 as unintelligible as the English Bible would be with as 

 many Choctaw words in their place. Still, nothing could 

 be more unnecessary, for the readers of the versions^ are 

 nearly as familiar with mint, anise, and cummin, as the 

 people of Europe, and have as well established names 

 for them in their language. 



In two versions, made several thousand miles apart, the 

 translators, transferred the original word for wood-aloes, 

 although the people for whom they wrote were well ac- 

 quainted with it, and there were good terms in the lan- 

 guages in which they were translating by which to render 



