Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/338

Rh “He that listens to these words (says the author of the legend), is free from malady, sorrow, and danger, and will ultimately go to heaven. But he that employs persons (says, a person believed by the Hindus to have been inspired by Brahma, their chief Deity) for the singing of these words, is to be blessed with sons and wealth.”

We shall not insult the understandings of our readers with any comments on this most loathsome legend; or with any reclamation or protest against its revolting barbarism, We shall only remind them that it is but a specimen of the atrocious and abominable stuff that constitutes so much of the scholastic provender of thousands of Bengali youth.

Having requested an intelligent and respectable native to furnish us with a set of the slokes, or metrical couplets, which he had learned memoriter when in the Patshala or vernacular school, he sent one as a specimen, accompanied with a literal translation in English, and enclosed in a note of which the following is a verbatim et literatim copy:—

"“Sir,—I beg to state that when I was translating this sloke, which I learned by heart when very young, from my GuraGuru [sic] mahashai, or teacher, without at the time understanding the meaning of it, whether it implied a dog or an ass, a kind of unpleasurable sensation arose in my mind, which made me indeed miserable. Afterwards, the whole mind rebelled, with frown and anguish, against the ideas which that sloke conveys, as if they were more than virulent venom, fit only to bring destruction on man. Therefore, I humbly beg that you will kindly excuse me for not translating the other slokes, which are more or less obscene than the one already translated; for I am afraid they will make me unhappy too; nay, they will make me worse. I wish that all the waters of forgetfulness would come to wash away from the tablet of my memory such slokes as these—they are most baneful.

I have, &c. &c. ____________________.”"

While the translated sloke is of so gross a nature that we dare not insert it here, we need scarcely add that we hastened to release our native friend from the odious task which we had unconsciously imposed upon him;—with feelings of deep and unfeigned regret at the discovery, that one portion of the vernacular scholastic instruction is, in some respects, even worse than our previous experience of its puerile and legendary absurdities, or its idolatrous and barbarous teachings, had led us to expect or conceive.

6. The System of Discipline—This is a subject which apparently did not attract Mr. Adam’s attention. But as it is one of vast importance in enabling us to arrive at a just and sober estimate of the genuine character and practical effects of the existing system of scholastic tuition, we must endeavour to supply a few brief notes, founded on our own inquiry and experience.

If the scheme of teaching be throughout one of dull, dry,