330 Trevor Bomford — Language spoken in the Western Pahjcib. [No. 4», 
Appendix I. 
Notes on the translation of the New Testament into the Multan! 
language, by the Serarnpur Missionaries. 
This translation was published by the celebrated missionaries Carey, 
Marshman and Ward, in 1819. 
They evidently intended at first to translate the whole Bible, for 
a copy issued in 1819 is called ‘ Vol. 2, Containing the New Testament.’ 
This is, however, omitted in copies issued in 1821. 
Though the title page calls it the Multan! language, the printer’s 
marks at the bottom of the pages call it ‘ Wutch ’ or ‘ Wuch ’ which 
lead one to imagine that their translator was a native of Uc in the 
state of Bahawulpur. 
After some deliberation they adopted the Banya characters (and 
in those days, probably, more persons could read these than any other 
characters), and they had special type prepared for the purpose; but 
in the get up of the book they made some mistakes, for it is bound as 
an English book with an English Title Page, and the characters are 
printed very much smaller in size than they are generally written. 
The result is that if it is shown to a Hindu, and he is asked whether 
he can read it, he promptly replies ‘ No I can’t read English.’ If he 
is asked to look more closely at it, he fails to recognise the characters, 
owing to their smnll size, as those that he is in the daily habit of 
writing. Only once or twice have I succeeded in getting a man to 
recognise the language as his own, and to read me parts of the book. 
To thi3, too it must be added that 70 years have made a great difference 
in the shape of many of the characters, and even in the words of the 
language ; for in those days Multan was not connected with the Panjab, 
but, together with Sindh, was nominally part of the Viceroyalty of 
Kandahar and was ruled by Afghans. 
As for the translation it may be pronounced on the whole good, 
especially the gospels of SS. Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of 
the Apostles. St Matthew’s gospel, on the other hand, is very poor and 
was almost certainly the work of a different man. The Epistles, too, are 
not satisfactory, as there are many words and expressions in them for 
which no equivalent could be found in Mnltani, and the translator has ac¬ 
cordingly contented himself with copying down in the Multan! characters 
the words of the translation before him. 
One would be curious to know how many copies were printed and 
