31 
1883.] Hugh Fraser— Folklore from Eastern Gorakpur. 
contracted from is oblique of ‘a cloth’.— {Of. Song II 
4). is long form of which is feminine. 
I would now draw attention to the ample evidence these songs afford 
of the existence of an oblique form in Bihari nouns, different from the 
direct form. 
At present too little is known to form any complete set of general 
rules, but I may recapitulate what I have stated more fully in other 
places. 
1. The verbal noun, usually called the root, has in Bhojpuri and 
Magadhi an oblique form in tf (or Maithili y or ^). Thus (^f*3), 
* the act of seeing’, oblique form ( = Hindi in desiderative 
compounds); yjrc (^rfy), £ an edge’, obi. ^tt. 
2. A certain number of nouns, pronouns and adjectives ending in 
T, ^, yf, and *r, have an oblique form in ’yjT. Examples are, 
‘ second’, obi. spfayT. 
‘ great’, „ T. 
‘ the act of seeing’, „ 
‘own’, „ 'SR^T. 
This includes all the pronominal genitives, such as obi. : 
&e. A complete catalogue of the nouns of this class is not now available, 
but it is a very large one, and every week’s study gives me new examples. 
Probably it will be found that every tadbhava noun ending as above 
described can have this oblique form, but it would require a more intimate 
knowledge of Bihari than is at present possessed by any European to 
entitle any one to speak authoritatively on this point. 
Another set of grammatical forms of which there are many examples 
in the foregoing songs, is the instrumental in y, and the locative in y : 
attention has frequently been drawn to them in my notes. 
It is not to be expected that these songs, sung as they are by the 
most ignorant classes should satisfy strictly all metrical laws; but the 
metre is generally clearly discernible, and when obscured the reason may 
often be found in the tendency to repetition, and to the use of long and 
redundant forms. 
These songs were sent to the Asiatic Society written in the Roman 
character, and it has fallen to my lot to transliterate them back again 
into Deva Nagari. I have altered as little as possible ; the only changes 
which I have ventured to make I have noted, except where the original 
transcript was undoubtedly and clearly wrong. I have been assisted in 
my task by several pandits whose native language is Bhojpuri, and who 
were also acquainted with the songs themselves. 
