1854.] On the Peculiarities of the Gatha Dialect. 605 



different attention from the Gatha versifier ; he uses or rejects the 

 usual case-affixes according to the exigencies of his metre with as 

 much veneration for the rules of Panini as the West Indian Negro 

 has for those of Lindley Murray ; indeed, the best illustration that 

 can be given of the relation which exists between the Sanskrita, the 

 Gatha and the Pali, would be extracts from the literature of the 

 Negroes. The following paragraph from a Negro version of the 

 New Testament by some Moravian Missionaries* bears exactly the 

 same relation to the English of the Times newspaper as the Pali 

 does to the Sanskrita of the Puranas, and the affinity of its trans- 

 lation to the same standard, may be very appropriately likened to 

 that of the Gatha to the brahmanic language of the gods. 



" Drie deh na bakka, dem holi wan bruiloft na Cana na Galilee, 

 en mamma va Jesus been ce dapeh. 2, Ma dem ben kali Jesus 

 nanga him disciple toe va kom na da bruiloft. 3, En tah evieni 

 kaba, mamma va Jesus takki na him, dem no habi wieni morro. 

 4, Jesus takki na him nu mamma noe worko me habi nanga joe. 

 Tern va mi noben kom jette." 



Translation. — " Three days after back, them hold one marriage in 

 Cana of Galilee, and mamma of Jesus been there. 2. But them 

 been call Jesus with him disciples to come to that marriage. 3. And 

 when wine end, mamma of Jesus talk to him : Them no have wine 

 more. 4. Jesus talk to him me mamma how work me have with 

 you, time of me no come yet." 



The Gatha exists only in a versified form, and is to be met with 

 in that class of Buddhist writings called the Mahavaipulya or the 

 "highly developed" sutras. It occurs generally at the end and 

 often in the middle, but never at the commencement, of a chap- 

 ter, and contains a poetical abstract of the subject described in 

 the prose portion of the works. The latter is written in pure 

 Sanskrita, and comprises a highly amplified version of the subject 

 matter, and often adverts to circumstances unnoticed in the former. 

 In its extreme verbosity, the prose bears a strong resemblance to the 

 Tantras, a class of works which was introduced into India between 

 the 4th and the 7th centuries of the Christian era, and appears to 

 be the production of men who undertook to write voluminous works 

 with insufficient materials. 



* Apud Quarterly Review, No 76. 



