88 
G. A. Grierson —Bang dll version of the Lord's Prayer . [May, 
This settles the question, and we are all much indebted to 
M. Sylvain Levi, for his very interesting communication. 
Dr. G. A. Grierson, Honorary Philological Secretary, read the fol¬ 
lowing note on an early supposed Bangali version of the Lord’s Prayer. 
At the meeting of the Society held in April 1893, I had the honour 
of reading a paper on the Early Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe . l 
It was fortunate enough to attract the attention of other scholars, some 
of whom have made valuable additions to our knowledge of the subject. 
Amongst these latter may be mentioned a paper read last January be¬ 
fore the Reale Accademia dei Lincei of Rome, by Signor Emilio Teza, 
entitled, Dei primi Studi sidle Lingue indostaniche alle note di G. A, 
Grierson. Signor Teza has brought the following interesting facts to 
light. 
In my paper I drew attention to a work of Fritz published in 1748, 
entitled the Orientalisch-und-occidentaliscli Sprachmeister, which contain¬ 
ed amongst other things two hundred translations of the Lord’s Prayer 
in different languages. Regarding the Bangali version given in that 
work, I said 2 :— 
The Bangali translation, which is taken from Wilkins’ sample given in Cham- 
berlayne’s Sylloge, is almost worth reprinting as a curiosity for the number of 
seemingly impossible mistakes it contains. In fact it is quite illegible and unintelligi¬ 
ble to every native of Bengal to whom I have shown it. It has evidently been made 
by some person who got a copy of the alphabet, and a general description of the lan¬ 
guage, and then ‘ greatly dared.’ Even his knowledge of the alphabet is incomplete. 
Signor Teza is the fortunate possessor of a copy of Chamberlayne’s 
Sylloge , from which Fritz copied his Bangali version, and Wilkins’ con¬ 
fession in the Latin Preface to that work clears up the mystery. He 
says that as he had not been able to obtain a copy of the Lord’s Prayer 
in Bangali, he had taken a Malay version, and written it in Bangali 
characters. The transliteration given by Wilkins of this curiosity is as 
follows :— 
Bappa kita, jang adda de surga, 
Namma-mou jadi bersakti, 
Radjat-mou mendarang, 
Kandhatiraou menjadi de bumi sepertj de surga, 
Roti kita derri sa hari-hari membrikan kita sa liari inila, 
Makka ber-ampunla padakita doosa kita, seperti kita ber-am- 
pun-akan siapa bersala kapada kita, 
D’jang-an hentar kita kapada tjobahan, 
Tempi lepasken kita dari jang d’jakat: 
I See Journal, Part I. for 1893, p. 41. 
2 L. c., p. 48. 
