THE LAY OF SAINT LTXGO. 18& 



position it has little merit, though here and there 

 exhibiting something of beauty, and more often a 

 good deal of quiet humour. The style of the original 

 is very discursive, constantly losing sight of the 

 narrative, often apparently leading to nothing, and 

 full of repetition — defects which are probably the 

 natural result of its usage as a ballad, handed down 

 by mere word of mouth. It gives the idea of having 

 been composed by the gradual accretion round a very 

 slender thread of original story of successive episodes, 

 manufactured by the semi-Hindu Pardhans for recita- 

 tion before the almost entirely Hindu chiefs of the 

 G6nds. Yet even as such it possesses some interest, as 

 exhibiting, in a somewhat dramatic form, the recent 

 Hinduisation of many of the Gond tribes ; and I have, 

 accordingly, endeavoured to throw it into a shape that 

 will not greatly fatigue my readers. I have excised 

 from it most of the Hindii mythology with which it 

 was overlaid, and which was often anything but 

 orthodox ; and I have thought it best to omit nearly 

 the whole of the latter part, which consists of tiresome 

 details of marriage and other ceremonial, which do not 

 even possess the value of being an accurate account of 

 the practice of the present day. 



Thus the present version is greatly reduced in bulk, 

 and is rather a paraphrase than a translation, though in 

 many parts it will be found to adhere almost literally to 

 the original, and little will be detected which has not 

 some foundation therein. I should, perhaps, apologise 

 for the adoption of the Hiawathian metre and style, 

 and in a few cases even of the words of the American 

 poet, in a piece which may appear almost like a 

 burlesque of his Ked Indian legend. It is probable 



