. 
1921.] Three Tibetan Repartee Songs. 295 
Lama Padmacandra with whom I discussed some points before 
writing down this introduction. He objects strongly to the 
publication of the text in faulty orthography, which from the 
oint of view of a Tibetan grammarian is valid. J] point out 
to him, however, that we Europeans have to take texts as we 
find them and then must try to make the most of them. None 
of us are well grounded in indigenous grammar and we cannot 
apply canons of spelling ; we have still to elaborate them. He 
gives as an example the word aaa in II, 6. I discussed 
the word in my Minor Tibetan Texts, I, (Bibl. Indica), pp. 
31-32. Padmacandra says that neal does not exist and 
should be nay”. This qay, hon. mMARAGS,, he says, 
means laughter, laugh, Ca He connects it with AIA, 
for which see Jaeschke, and he seems to imply that our aNAS 
AY stands in reality fot AIS AY ‘with the implied ele- 
ment of malice, taunt or ridicule as the chief value. Hesays that 
al SISENG ay is a hon. form for Als song. In this sense aii 
aiGay means AAI EAS" to worst forth in speech. But 
This is only an example to show how much uncertainty there is 
in dealing with Tibetan on the strength of what the ah eee 
dictionaries give us. I may add that Padmacandra oi s 
rather disdainfully of the so-called “* peke”’, the fi sea 
prakrit. In nine cases out of ten, he holds, ‘‘ peke”’ simply 
means that the man who writes it does not properly sree 
grammar. In my long intercourse with him I have learned to 
