Copied from Bodenis 'Oratio Dominier

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དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན་བ་ཡིན་ །

Engraved for THE BIBLE OF EVERY LAND Samuel Bagster & Sons, Paternoster Row. London.

6

SPECIMEN OF THE KHASSEE VERSION IN ROMAN LETTERS,

Consisting of St. Matthew, chap. V. v. 1 to 12.

'HABA u ioh íh ia ki paitbah, u la kíu sha u lúm ; haba u la shong ruh, ki la wan ha u ki synrán jong u: 2u la ang ruh ia la ka shintur, u la híkai ruh ia ki, u da ong, 'Suk ki ba duk ha ka mynsiim; na ba jong ki long ka híma ka byneng. Suk ki ba sngousi; na ba yn pyntyngen ia ki. 5 Suk ki ba jemnút; na ba kin ioh ia ka kyndeu. Suk ki ba tyngan bad ba sliang ia ka hok; naba yn pyndap ia ki. 7 Suk ki ba isnei; na ba yn isnei ia ki. 9 Suk ki bakúid ha ca donút; na ba kin ioh íh ia U Blei. 9 Suk ki ba pyniasuk; na ba yn khot ia ki, ki kún U Blei. 10 Suk ki ba ioh pynshitom na ka bynta ka hok; na ba jong ki long ki híma ka byneng. "Suk maphi, ha ba ki leh bein ía phi, ki pynshitom ruh, ki ong ki ktín bymman baroh ruh ia phi na ka bynta jong nga, ha ba ki shu lamlhér: 12 Phin kymen, phin sngoubha eh ruh; naba kumta ki la pynshitom ia ki Prophet ki ba la mynshiwa jong phi.

ON THE KHASSEE VERSION IN ROMAN LETTERS.

THE system of substituting Roman letters for the native characters of Indian alphabets in printed editions of the Scriptures and of other books, has of late years been extensively adopted in India; and the advantages of this system, especially with reference to the Khassee (which in the former edition of the New Testament had been printed in Bengalee characters, see Specimen, Part I), cannot be better stated than in the words of an eminent Missionary, Dr. Duff, of Calcutta. In a letter addressed to Mr. Jones, the Missionary of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Society at Cherra, when the first books used in connection with the mission were about to be published, the doctor thus writes

"Thoroughly and absolutely do I approve of your determination to print your translated works in the Roman characters. It is a strange delusion of Satan that men should strive to uphold varieties of alphabetic characters anywhere, provided they could without violence be superseded by one, at once uniform and effective, seeing that such variety is a prodigious bar and impediment to the diffusion of sound knowledge, and especially Divine truth. But, in a case like yours, where the natives had really no written characters of their own at all, to dream of introducing a clumsy, awkward, expensive, and imperfect character like that of the Bengali, in preference to the clear, precise, and cheaper romanised alphabet, would seem to me to be voluntarily raising up new ramparts to guard against the invasion of Truth. No, our object ought ever to be to facilitate, and not to obstruct, the dissemination of true knowledge of every kind; and one of the ways of doing so is everywhere to encourage the introduction and the use of the Roman alphabet in place of the native alphabets, which are linked, and associated, and saturated with all that is idolatrous."

1000 copies of the Gospel of St. Matthew have been carried through the press by the Calcutta Bible Society, and the book of Acts has been prepared.'

1 Reports 1847, p.90; 1848, p. 84.

Engraved for "THE BIBLE OF EVERY LAND: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Paternoster Row. London

W Hughes, so.