90 REV. FR. J. HOFFMANN, S.J. 



although the main denotation of the second word differ so entirely from that of the 

 first that in ordinary conversation it may never be used as synonymous with it. 



The following examples may serve as illustrations : — 



Sen, used as a verb, means to walk, to go, to go away, and denotes the ordinary mea- 

 sured step. 

 Hojor denotes a faster step ; the kind of trot so common among Indian carriers. 



Here, therefore, are two words which denote two different degrees of intensity of 

 generically the same action. Now, if the word sen occurs in one line of a song, the word 

 hojor or its poetic form nojor occurs frequently as its variant in the next line. The 

 poet does not intend it to denote a faster step than that signified by the word sen. 

 Singers and listeners accept it as a perfect synonym to sen. The fact or circumstance 

 that it appears as variant to sen in a song determines its de facto meaning in the line 

 of a stanza. 



Birid means to stand up, to get up. Mundas carry on all their conversation in a 

 sitting posture. When anyone wants to talk to another, whether on business or for 

 a simple chat, he will not begin talking before both he and his interlocutor have com- 

 fortably squatted down. When the talk is over he will get up. That is the sign that 

 he has nothing more to say and is now going his way. In such circumstances , therefore, 

 birid denotes indirectly the beginning of the act of going away. This very slight com- 

 mon element in the denotation of the two words is sufficient to allow, in poetry, the 

 use of birid as a perfect synonym of sen. Hence when birid occurs as variant to sen, 

 it no longer means to stand up, to get up, but, like sen, it means to go, to go away, to get 

 on, to walk. 



Soan denotes any odour whether agreeable or otherwise, and if used as a verb 

 it is equivalent to the English to smell. Sinrin in ordinary conversation always 

 denotes a disagreeable odour of stale or decaying food in general and of fish in particular. 

 The unwary foreigner, sufficiently acquainted with Mundari just to translate a song 

 literally, might naturally feel shocked at finding this predicate connected with the 

 names of some of the sweetest scented flowers that are met with in Chota Nagpur. 

 However, if a preceding line speaks of a sweet-smelling flower, then the fact that in a 

 subsequent line sinrin occurs as variant to soan, suffices for the Munda to call up 

 the mental picture of the sensation caused by a sweetly scented flower : he unhesitatingly 

 accepts sinrin as under the circumstances meaning fragrant. 



The following may suffice as an illustration of this. Munda maidens are exceeding. 

 ly fond of ornamenting their hair with flowers. These are generally arranged in a 

 row, like a crest over the heavy knots into which the hair is gathered near the left ear. 

 Youths are equally fond of flower ornaments, but they stick either single flowers or 

 tiny bouquets over one and sometimes over both ears. This act of sticking anything 

 over the ear is called dandid' . Hence this word is, in songs, very often used as denoting 

 a flower or a small bouquet, just as the English buttonhole is used to denote the flower 

 or flowers fastened to a button hole. Such a bouquet might, therefore, be translated 

 by the word ear stick, though this may sound even more injurious to the pretty flowers 



