Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/169

 HABITS AND MANNER OF SPEECH 135 offering their religious worship and paying homage, they wash and bathe themselves. The letters of their alphabet were made by the god Brahma, and their forms have been handed down from the beginning until now. They are forty-seven in num- ber and are combined so as to form words according to the object, and different forms are used according to the circumstances of the case. These letters, more- over, after the manner of the streams of a river or the branches of a tree, have spread far and wide from their source and have become somewhat modi- fied according to the place and the people. The spoken language has gen- erally not varied from the Original SOUrce, but the AN AGED MUSICIAN WITH A GOURD - LYRE. speech of Middle India is particularly accurate and precise. The manner of speaking there is harmonious and like the language of the gods. The pronunciation of the words is clear and distinct, and fit to be a model for all men. The people of the frontiers and of foreign countries, through repeating mistakes of their teachers until these have become standard and by yielding to vulgar habits, have lost the pure style of speaking. With respect to the records and documents, each