1869.] Reply to Mr. Growse. 171 



read this with great interest, and congratulate the writer on his spiri- 

 ted reproduction of the general substance and style of the original. I 

 only demur to its being described as a literal translation, which it 

 really is not. However, a little looseness of rendering will make the 

 work not a whit the less acceptable to the general reader ; and any 

 asperity of verbal criticism, into which I may have been betrayed, 

 will, I trust, be attributed solely to the fact that I expected a work of 

 rather severe type from a scholar who has achieved a philological re- 

 putation. Yet I must express a hope that, if Mr. Beanies continues 

 in his idea not only of translating but also of editing the poem, he will 

 reproduce the MSS. as closely as possible, and not venture upon hasty 

 emendations, which in the majority of cases, more mature reflection 

 would convince him were quite unnecessary. Thus in the forty lines 

 which we have both translated, I see no occasion to alter more than a 

 single letter, reading in one place biddh for giddh. Mr. Beames on 

 the other hand with a better MS. before him, proposes several sweep- 

 ing alterations, which his brief notes enable me to see are based on 

 mere misconceptions of the content. F. S. G. 



Reply to Mr. Growse. 



I wish to be brief, because Mr. Growse has already occupied too much 

 space to no purpose, and because my remarks are few and simple. 



1. My text differs so widely from Mr. Growse's, that on reading 

 his, it looks to me like quite a different poem. 



2. There are only four MSS. of Chand accessible to European 

 scholars. Two of these are in my possession, the third is in the libra- 

 ry of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, the fourth in the Bodleian 

 at Oxford. Mr. Growse possesses no copy of the poem. 



3. Having no copy of Chand, but having picked up some old Hin- 

 di works which contain copious but garbled extracts from Chand 

 mixed up with extraneous matter, Mr. Growse condemns my translation 

 in no measured terms, because it differs from his own incorrect text ! 



I will first defend my own translation in those places where Mr. 

 Growse attacks it, and then give the correct version of the original from 

 the real MSS. 



