268 Timehri. 



language which claims our attention. This language with its dialects is 

 spoken by 101. CM 0,000 people — a number which it is hardly possible to 

 realize. It is derived from Sanskrit and is written in Nagari * In 

 this country. 75 per cent, of the East Indians at least speak Hindi or a 

 dialect of it. Hindi therefore should be studied by those who would 

 converse with them. 



Hindustani is the court language of India just as French was the 

 court language of England during the Norman and other periods of its 

 history. Hindustani may be written either in Persian or Xagari 

 characters. After all it is merely Hindi mixed with Persian and Arabic. 

 It is spoken by the Mohammedan East Indians. 



Thirty-six millions speak the next language, Bengali. In this 

 country there are a few hundreds of these people and Christianity has 

 made itself felt among them, probably through the efforts of the Rev. 

 Mr. Bhose. 



Panjabi, which is the language of some 12,000,000, is also tepre- 

 sented in our polyglot country. We have also met a few who speak 

 Oriya, a language spoken by 5.000,000 in Orissa. 



At Plantation Hope there were certain coolies whose features are 

 very like the < Ihinese. These come from that interesting country Nepal. 

 far away amid the loftiest peaks of the snow-capped Himalayas. 

 They speak a language called Nepalese. Only two millions speak this 

 language. Christianity in that country, as far as we know, has not made 

 any converts yet, but there are some few Christians amongst them here. 

 Portions of the scriptures are translated into that language, copies of 

 which are in the hands of our people. 



We have also conversed with a few who speak Pashtu or Afghan, 

 from the well-known Afghanistan, a language very much like the Persian. 



All the above mentioned languages are included in what is called the 

 great Aryan Family. The Turanian group is fairly represented in 

 this Colony. First we may mention Tamil, which in India is spoken 

 b} T 15,000,000. Here, we should think it is spoken by 5 per cent, of 

 our East Indians. The labourers employed in Georgetown by tin- Town 

 Council are chiefly Tamil-speaking people. Christianity has been 

 accepted by a great many of these people and the English Church in 

 India as well as here lias been fairly succ ssful amongst them We will 

 end our list by mentioning the language which has been called the 

 Italian of India, Telugu. Sixteen millions of people speak this lan- 

 guage and some few are to be met in this colony. With the exception 

 of the Mohammedans, and a few Nepalese who are Buddhists, all these 

 millions of people acknowledge the Yedas and voluntarily yield them- 

 selves to the law of caste. Languages, however difficult, were not a 



* The word Nagari, sometimes called Deva Nagari, signifies the language fit to be 

 spoken by the gods, or the language spoken iu citie^ 



