OF THE BIBLE INFERRED FROM ITS VERSIONS. 101 



to get simpler versions of the scriptures for India, and for North 

 Africa. The aUusion that had been made to the need for a 

 missionary to carry a little " Zoo " about with him, in order to obtain 

 vernacular names for animals mentioned in the Bible, recalled to him 

 how some Indian natives had been taken to the zoological gardens 

 in Calcutta and saw a cameleopard for the first time, and promptly 

 named it the Long-Neck. People when they see an object will soon 

 find a name for it. 



John Eliot was not the first missionary to learn a North American- 

 Indian language ; the Spanish and French Jesuit, Franciscan, and 

 Dominican missionaries Avere very industrious in this work ; but so far 

 as he could discover their translations of scriptures did not go beyond 

 the Paternoster, the Ave ^laria, and occasionally the Ten Command- 

 ments or the Beatitudes. This was a good beginning but they ought to 

 have gone on to a Gospel — indeed to the whole New Testament. 

 The point to be emphasized was, that in spite of all the difhculties 

 attending translation, the Bible was the most translatable of books, 

 and even imperfect translations of it were full of power to reach the 

 heart and conscience. 



Col. JMaCKIXLay and the Chairman expressed their gratitude to 

 the author for a most valuable paper, in which the Meeting cordially 

 joined. 



The Eev. J. Gosset-Tanxer asked permission to add a single 

 remark, namely, that in present-day Arabic they had a number of 

 the very words which Closes himself was accustomed to use ; for 

 instance, the words for " right," " left," " foot," and so on, were those 

 that appeared in the Pentateuch. And Arabic was now spoken by 

 a hundred millions of men. 



The Eev. E. Seeley thought that it would l)e most helpful to 

 translators if they had a Bible picture book of animals, objects and 

 incidents, for which names and words so often seem to be lacking. 

 The people to whom the pictures were shown would often supply 

 names and words that might greatly help the translators. 



The Chairman : That is a very good old plan. We find it in 

 the second chapter of Genesis : " God brought the animals to Adam 

 to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every 

 living creature, that was the name thereof." 



The Lecturer briefly returned thanks, and the Meeting adjourned 

 at 6 p.m. 



