No. 11.— 1858-9.] SINHALESE KHETORIO. 313 



' sword leaf.' This metaphor may be easily understood by an 

 Englishman by removing the order of the above words to 

 suit the idiom of the English : ' creeper ear,' or ' creeping 

 ear,' 'leaf SAVord' or 'leafy sword.' 



Orientalists give irony under the head of metaphor ; and 

 it is defined to be a speech, conveying a meaning different 

 to the plain signification of the words. As for instance, if a 

 person whom I bade carry a pot of water to the next room, 

 broke it on his way, and I then exclaimed cato ss^stf 

 zs)68. ' He has done a very clever job !' the language would 

 be irony. 



Many of the tropes in use amongst Western nations are 

 also to be found in the Sinhalese. All the several sorts of 

 synecdoche, of which Dr. Campbell treats in his " Philosophy 

 of Rhetoric," p. 431, (i.e., the genus for the species, the whole 

 for a part, and the matter for the instrument or thing made 

 of it) are of frequent occurrence in our language. Of the 

 genus for the species ; when we say cssd ©8^0 cScsa 'He went 

 to break (extract toddy from) trees ;' by ' trees ' we mean 

 palm trees, a species. When we say ®6t[q <§6i&a 'the 

 cloth was torn,' or qdiz) ®£$®qz$ 25538 'he was bitten by 

 a dog,' we express the whole for a part. When it is said, 

 d 6ss$ ©g^O, ' by giving, him the thousand pieces of 



gold,' money is meant, or masuran. 



In a language like the Sinhalese, which abounds with so 

 many delicate expressions to convey various degrees of 

 respect according to circumstances, we can scarcely fail to 

 notice, what is commonly denominated euphemism. As 

 an example of this decency in expression, Dr. Campbell has 

 given Martha's answer to our Saviour, Avhen he directed the 

 removal of the stone over Lazarus's sepulchre. "Lord, by 

 this time he smelleth, for he hath been dead four days."* 

 In the Sinhalese version, which has closely followed the 



* St. John xi. 39. 



