1921.] Three Tibetan Repartee Songs. 289 
ats carg ase Aap at the top of its pages. It contains 
~ 
eight double lines of twelve syllables each on each page, every 
couplet being serially numbered. The first number is 46 and 
the last 212, but there are several mistakes in the numbering by 
doubling or omission of numbers. Both, block-print and type- 
print, have an appreciable proportion of matter in common. 
My umed MS., of which the orthography is deplorable, bears 
fiat. See rs ieee Pe . ‘ mre 
the title RV APNAPAISS qj NAS AAR AGA (AGAIN 8 
It contains 144 six-syllabled lines. I owe it to the Rev. P.O. 
Bodding of Dumka, who with generous courtesy made over to 
me this little find when he heard that I was studying Tshang- 
yang’s poems. This much then concerning the matter of Sarat 
Chandra Das’ Love-songs and Repartee songs. His text con- 
sists of two portions of incomplete and badly arranged lines 
from Tshang-yang’s poems. Only careful study can enable us 
to re-arrange them in some consecutive and connected order. 
Gaps have to be filled in and many lines have to be transposed . 
Several poems may even prove incapable of completion with 
the material available. Besides, the major portion is made up 
of snatches of songs or perhaps even complete songs, but not 
as a repartee song. His last eight lines, however, constitute 
such a repartee song or ASA We have therefore to 
explain what this is. In doing so we will first discuss the 
) This is defined by my friend Lama Padmacandra as 
meaning ASAT AN SAS, to retort in turns, a verbal tit 
for tat, an alternation of rejoinders or repartees. It is a 
honorific form of the noun agreeing with the verb AAAs 
ayer The primary meaning of this term, however, is 
simply to explain. In fact the AAO AA is a kind of 
verbal tilt or joust engaged in for the sake of amusement or 
diversion and subject to definite conventions, a semi-poetic 
battle of wits, a duel with tags. It is immensely popular in 
As this form of amusement is often resorted to after copious 
libations of chang, when the spirits are rather heated, the con- 
versation is not always carried on in a minor key, both as 
to words and subjects. The amorous dialogue is much appre- 
