amongst the Singhalese. 



223 



i: ^eo-arta^ (wahanse) is added as an affix to the term for God, and 

 to all the names of God ; as also in some relative expressions, as to 

 Father in the Lord's prayer, tf&frS Sc30^3r5£s»<ef5svdl Apege 

 jnycinan wahanse. 



" But under the word § (JDeiviamcahause.) Clough 



points out the difference in its use. Innumerable instances, he says, 

 occur of the honorific being used in the vocative, in which case it may 

 be addressed not only to one of these beings (the gods of Swarga,) but 

 also to a king or any person of rank; but when used in the nominative, it 

 marks at once the difference between a heathen god and the Supreme 

 being." 



Mr. Clougli it would seem is incorrect in supposing that 

 ®^©cS^j0c5D^i©^ in the nominative alone, conveys the 

 difference between the Supreme being and a heathen god. 

 For, the difference is not the less marked in the oblique cases 

 (except the vocative) owing to the definite form of the ex- 

 pression ; from which circumstance alone are christians ena- 

 bled to limit its application to the one Jehovah of their faith. 

 This distinction, though trifling, nevertheless furnishes the 

 strongest possible argument in favor of " the continual recur- 

 rence of the honorifics in Singhalese translations of the Holy 

 Scriptures," which, however, says Mr. Stark " soon offends 

 Europeans, and in some cases, as Jehovah wahanse, the affix 

 almost shocks, coming upon the ear like some discordance in 

 an otherwise heavenly melody." If the repetition of honorifics 

 be, as doubtless it is, offensive to the European ear accus- 

 tomed to the simplicity of that language, ' whose soul is bre- 

 vity;' the absence of their recurrence is not the less offensive 

 to the Singhalese, whose notions of the beauty of a language 

 are diametrically opposed to those expressed by the bard 

 of Avon. 



It is remarkable that the Singhalese like the English 



word f God,' is descriptive — the former signifying 4 splendour' 

 or i beauty' or ' purity ' of the object to which it is applied, as 

 fscsS^OxcS)?*, " The divine majesty of the Sun," or as in the 



