92 HEV. FR. J. HOFFMANN, S.J. 



If the poet desire to call up a mental image of the pleasure caused in general by 

 the sight of bright flowers, he will mention in the first line a tree or shrub with a gaudy 

 flower, and, as a corresponding variant, he will, in the next line, give the name of another 

 tree or shrub with an equally pleasing flower, though the second flower differ ever so 

 much in shape and colour from the first. 



Similarly, to evoke the mental image of the pleasure caused by sweet scents he 

 will, in the first line, name some scented flower, and, in the next line, name another 

 flower having an agreeable though specifically distinct smell. He thereby intimates 

 that he really makes abstraction of the particular objects he names and uses them 

 only as steps to reach a broader and higher view or level. 



This is carried to great lengths, especially in the extensive use of similes and 

 allegories, which a language of this type must have recourse to in the treatment of 

 wholly abstract subjects, such as mental states and affections, lying so much beyond 

 the reach of their simple concrete verbal means. The following song in two stanzas 

 may serve as an illustration of this. 



A maiden, after having hesitated for a time, intimates her resolution to marry her 

 admirer because she is satisfied that his love is true. She represents herself as a tree 

 and then pictures her admirer's love allegorically by two characteristic creepers which 

 entwine many a tree from stem to crown in the Chota Nagpur forests. The kunduru 

 is a hardwooded creeper starting without support under a tree at some distance from 

 the trunk until it reaches the first branches, when it rapidly spreads through the 

 crown. As its trunk and branches are studded with sharp little thorns, it forms a 

 certain protection to the tree, whilst its abundant tiny little leaves add grace to the 

 foliage. 



The palandu is a softer creeper which grows in spirals around the trunk of a tree 

 and beautifies its crown with its large dark-green leaves. The spirals around the trunk 

 and the larger branches gradually increase in diameter until they attain a strength 

 sufficient to uphold the tree even when its roots are destroyed or the lower end of the 

 trunk is too decayed to allow of the tree standing by itself alone. 



The winding winding kunduru is holding me enclosed with his windings, the 

 winding kunduru is holding me enclosed. 



The creeping creeping palandu is holding me enclosed with his spirals, the creeping 

 palandu is holding me enclosed. 



Since then the mind is at ease come along, kunduru ; thou and I will go together 

 (through life), thou and I will go together, kunduru. 



Since then the heart finds its rest come along, palandu ; thou and I will walk to- 

 gether, thou and I will walk together, palandu. 



The creeper is not inappropriately chosen as a symbol of the chief, i.e., the unify- 

 ing tendency, of true love. But the use of two different kinds of creepers is intended to 

 develop and complete its description. The first line exhibits in the thorns of the 

 kunduru that element of jealousy, which is inseparable from love among the so-called 

 semi-savages, as well as among the most refined of men. The second line portrays in 



