No. 5. — 1850.] THE ELU LANGUAGE. 267 



Occidental? §<^e)3$ ®&3©i^ is a common but idiomatic Sinhalese 

 expression, and means " without abusing by (word of) mouth." 

 Why then not render "opened his mouth" literally as in the old 

 version, §q)cs qid ? Or, why not shorten the expression by still 

 keeping to the original words and the idiom §)S)®c333 (Sanskrit) 

 or §c^e)^ (Sinhalese) ? Buddha is said to have " opened his lotus 

 mouth" (§s)8g© ®03&)c3d), and to have " inquired" from the 

 priests " in what conversation they had been engaged." 



g-qje) C*9£® SaM©^ § ^8 — Guttile. 



6,823(3 i s not tne Sinhalese for the first "and" in the second verse ; 

 nor was there any necessity arising out of any supposed difference of 

 idiom to omit in the Sinhalese the pronoun " them" after " taught." 

 sD§£^ qp8^3<£ (^staaftfca is, strictly speaking, ungrammatical. 

 According to the " Sidat Sangarawa" it should be §)§gg, the nomi- 

 native case. ^gg^fO, though not wrong, is better 

 expressed B^SeS £25? ^i«fffl>c«rfQ. 



Being poor in heart ( or spirit); 

 qss$o.3$ ©E)(33CS3. — Miripenne. 



But lest it should be supposed that I have carefully selected the 

 above passage, I shall turn to the very commencement of the new 

 version, where at least for divers reasons one expects greater 

 accuracy than in the "parenthetical clauses of St. Paul": — 



Kotte Version. 



In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. — I. Gen. i. 

 ®q&&&$ §8^ esOetfcDi©®©^ exDd?c3£? ©eo^e^e* ©igSaco. 



In the first place, the above passage is inelegant in construction. 

 In the Sinhalese, as in several languages of Europe, the governing 

 words generally follow the governed, and the former precede the 

 verb. This is a rule which is not to be acquired by consulting 

 grammars, but from a competent knowledge of a language, by 

 reading and observation. Take, for instance, an example from 

 "Sidat Sangarawa," " a book of thehighest possible authority," and 

 which I shall have to cite hereafter to test the grammatical 



