Welsh Journals

Reviews. An Early Irish Reader. By N. Kershaw Chadwick. (Cambridge University .fress. 1927. 6s. net). The text chosen by Mr. Chadwick for his purpose in this volume is Seel Mucci Mic Datho, or the Story of Mac Datho's Pig." As the Editor points out, it is well adapted to serve as an introduction to the study (which, of course, must be "in the original") of early Irish literature. The text is taken from the Book of Leinster, but all existing MS. copies, with the exception of one modernised version, have been consulted. Detailed notes, a very full vocabulary and an index of proper names; are added. The translation is generally close and careful, and the book, designed for the use of begin- ners, especially those learning Irish without a teacher, will be found most helpful. Mr. Chadwick brings great ability to the elucidation of the diffi- culties of the text, and his suggestions are quite admirable. It would, however, seem doubtful whether the elimination of infixed pronouns by the Rawlinson B512 scribe invariably adds to the clear- ness of the text (p 3). With regard to the line Asoi dosoi, etc. in chap. 3, the order Asoi uaim, dosoi fri fraig, suggests itself, and the form teiti in the same chap. makes one think of a possible teit i menma eile, if teit cannot be regarded as the shortened conjunct form after na. The form ata-nebla (chap. 3) would seem to call for further treatment-cpo the note on line 7 (p 30), where -ePlad and -ebl occur. In the vocabulary, neblai is given, with a query, whereas the form in the text is ata-nebla i luim luaith. On p. 33 we find cf. Mod. Ir. cumma Zimlt." Is not the modern form cuma rather ? The rendering of tarr by tail or hind-quarter seems doubtful. Mr. Chadwick points out that in modern Irish tárr means belly. Torr in Welsh means the abdomen rather than the abdominal cavity. Is not the idea that the portion chosen by Cet was the abdomen, supposed to have been a particular delicacy ? Mr. Chadwick suggests that a load for nine men is a heavy weight for a pig's tail." His own sug- gestion that Cet severed the hind-quarters from the fore-quarters by means of his teeth seems still more improbable, even allowing for humorous exaggeration." It appears to me that Mr. Chadwick attaches too much importance to the Edinburgh version, which seems to include passages of late bravura, for instance- gur shuigh chuige i ionnus go meileadh rioghmhullion ar gach sroth saille ro bhui ag silleadh ar gach taobh dia bheol The poem in chap. 15 of the Edinburgh version is also a late composition. In the vocabulary, we find the form faZ-, with the explanation a heap and a query, anc. without reference. The form in the text is not fal, but falmag. It is true that Mr. Chadwick differs from Thurneysen and Meyer, with doubtful reason as it seems to me. In any case, the vocabulary should contain the textual form. Mr. Chadwick perceives the inexactitude of the rendering of tri thrdth by three hours, and himself suggests 'three meal-times, i.e., a whole day." This seems to me to be the true meaning-cpo Welsh Pryd=a meal as well as time, and prynhawn from pryd + nawn, and the latter with Ir. trdthnona. Another excellent suggestion of Mr. Chadwick's is that earlier editors have mistaken the meaning of the words-ar ro-boi droch-costud istaig do ckloendiburgun la droch-daine. There is little doubt that. as Mr. Chadwick claims. the reference is to an early custom of testing a hero bv the casting of objects at him. Cp. with an incident in the Welsh Kulhwch ac Ohven. Cloen seems to be con- nected with mod. Ir. claon, claonadh, and the term may have meant originally cross-casting. In the Notes, one or two expressions seem to have escaped revision—" the description is described and to elucidate into the passage," for instance. At the foot of page 49, Cernarch appears for Cernach, and ule in the vocabulary for idle. T.G.J. Sadhu Sundar Singh. By Mrs. Arthur Parker. Student Christian Movement. Cloth 5s, paper 3s. 6d. nett. We have read, with much interest, this reprint of an account of a very remarkable figure in the religious life of India of to-day. Mrs. Parker's account of Sundar Singh is sympathetic and appre- ciative. We would, however, have liked to see in it a more critical attitude applied-not critical of the man and his work, for both are superior to that- but critical in arrangement and selection of certain incidents. There are also a couple of errors of fact, which should be amended. The first para. p. 207 is en- tirely wrong, and Amritsar and Lahore are not capitals of any Sikh States." Further^ the fre- quent confusion of Hinduism and Sikhism is erroneous and misleading. Sundar Singh, as his very name implies, was a Sikh; and there is nothing more annoying to a true Sikh than to be called a Hindu. i'he Sikn, for example, categorically repud- iates the fundamental Hindu institution of caste. It is just because Sundar Singh was a Sikh, and especially a Sikh of the particular tract from which he came, that makes his development so remarkable; and even if we had no other record of him, that would, in itself carry conviction as to the absolute spiritual integrity of the man. The attachment of the Sikh of the Ludhiana-Patiala tract to Sikhism-a very fine and ennobling faith as it is-is so intense, so full of an exalted pride, military and militant, as to amount to a stubborn fanaticism. We use the words in no depreciatory sense, but as the best we can think of to describe the intensity of conviction, coupled with an im- moveable pride in conviction, characteristic of Sikhism. Situated as he was, to break away from that faith and adopt Christianity conveys to anyone conversant with that countryside a sense of the extraordinary moral courage of the man, based on an overwhelm- ing certainty that the path he was choosing was the only right path. It is, therefore, as a study of an exceptional type of character that this book is fascinating; and in these days, when there is a definite re-seeking after the Christian faith in many lands, Mrs. Parker's account of how, through heart-searching and tribu- lation, one man found it, and, having found it, applied it, is worth reading. The movement towards Christianity in India, at the present day, is one of the many astonishing things in that land. It is true that, in a sense, religion in India is an intimate fact in all life; but the contents of religion, the values which the word connotes, are something entirely different to what the same word means in the west. Religion in the east is very distinctly a ritual, and has far less effect upon what we reerard as moral conduct than religion has in the west. On the other hand, it has a much deeper effect on the performance of social duties and observances. Further, and this is almost a paradox, in religious matters the best type of Indian mind is, on the whole, more philosophical and more mystical than the western, and far less practical in applica- tion to personal conduct. Now. Christianity is essentially a philosophy. and. at the same time, it is mystical. That of course does not cover it, for it demands that it shall be anplied practically: and we are convinced that the best interests of India are wrapped up in the acceptance of the Christian faith, interpreted in India through its philosophical and mystical side.