Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/905

 VII. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 861 The colloquy under the head ‘ Quarrels of Women” beginning with “ Where have you been, gossip? Is none of the business of the evening in your mind?” presents to us a disagreeable scene, which, assuming that some pundit wrote it for Dr. Carey, though he himself appends an English trans- lation, should not, forthe sake of decency, have found a place in a missionary’s book. We find slang of a most revolting type used freely in that dialogue, and we wonder how Dr. Carey could have published it in his own name. This goes to show that even a European missionary of such spotless reputation as Dr. Carey’s was, could not escape from that corrupt taste of the age which marks the writing of I¢vara Gupta and Gauri Cankar Bhatta- charyya. We quote below two more extracts from Dr. Carey’s Bengali writings, which will illustrate his great command over the language. I take both of them from his Itihasamala or Garland of Stories. I. *“ Once upon atime a thief was running away with the articles stolen from a house, and was pass- ihe onion ing by the fields adjoining the village. A plough- man, who happened to see him, said, ‘ Would you mind returning those things to the rightful owner ? If you do not, | shall have you punished in the court of the king.’ The thief replied, ‘Mind your ৯ এক চোর -কোন- গৃহস্থের, কতকগুলি দ্রব্য চুরি করিয়া গ্রামোপান্তে ধাইতেছিল; সেই সময়ে এক কৃষক তাহাকে দেখির। কহিল, ' তুই যে লোকের দ্রব্াৰি. লইয়৷ যাইতেছিস্‌ তাহাকে ফিরিয়। দে, নতুবা! রাজ নিকটে দণ্ড হইবে ।? চোর উত্তর