Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/162

 138 BENGALI LiTERATURE with the Brahmans on every subject, and of superin- tending schools for the instruction of the Hindoo youth. Their language is as familiar to me as Carey’s knowledge winy own. This close intercourse with of the people. the natives for so long a period, and in different parts of our empire, had afforded me oppor- tunities of information not inferior to those which have hitherto been presented to any other person. I may say indeed that their manners, customs, habits, and sentiments are as obvious to me as if I was myself a native.’’! The colloquies begin with a sketch of the conversations of an English gentleman, his method Scope and arrange- 221 of hiring servants, giving out orders, his desire of learning Bengali, his talks with his munsi ete. The preponderance of Persian words in these dialogues is thus explained by Carey himself: “A Khansama or a Sirkar, talking to an European (and vice versa) generally intermixes his language with words derived from Arabic or Persian and some few corrupted English and Portuguese words’. (Preface) The rest of the colloquies deal with the conversations and ideas, mostly of the middle and lower classes of the people of Bengal, living in the remote villages. The colloguies may be conveniently arranged thus under different heads of subjects :— (1) Conversation relating to everyday life of middle- class country gentlemen. (2) Talks The various topics of 57 about land, its cultivation, farming, produce, rent ete. (3) Talks about business matters ¢.g. between a debtor and his creditor ete. also quoted in Smith, op. cit. pp. 167-169; also Roebuck, op. cit. p- 60.
 * Buchanan, op. cit. Translation of the speech of Carey at p. 168;