use are the Katagana, used for scientific works; and the Hiragana, or running hand, used in light literature, and in common intercourse. II.-VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE. The rigid exclusion of foreigners from Japan during the last three centuries, and the suspicious and vigilant spirit of the government, have rendered the translation of the Scriptures into Japanese a matter of almost insuperable difficulty. Dr. Medhurst, agent of the London Missionary Society in China, applied to the study of the Japanese language, and made copies of the dictionaries and other works that were accessible to him, in the hope of qualifying himself for this arduous undertaking; but the honour of translating the first portion of Scripture into the language of this extensive empire was reserved for the late Dr. Gutzlaff. About the year 1835, three shipwrecked Japanese mariners arrived at Macao on their voyage homewards, and during the few months that they remained in that city, Dr. Gutzlaff availed himself of their aid in translating the Gospel of St. John into their language. This translation was printed at Singapore about the year 1839, but it does not appear that opportunities have as yet been afforded for its circulation. Upon the occasion of Dr. Gutzlaff's visit to England, however, in 1849, proposals for printing the Scriptures in the Japanese tongue (as well as in other languages of Eastern Asia) were submitted by him to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and a small grant was made towards printing a certain portion of the New Testament in Japanese, as a pioneer translation. Since that time the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. John have been printed, according to Dr. Gutzlaff's translation. The whole MS. of the New Testament, as translated by him and his associates into Japanese, is at present in this country. The style of Dr. Gutzlaff's version, however, being found inferior and little likely to prove acceptable to the better educated in Japan, a new translation was undertaken by Dr. Bettelheim, missionary to Loo-Choo; and the MS. of the Four Gospels was sent by him to England. It is in Chinese and Japanese, the Japanese being written in the Katagana character. An edition of the Gospel of St. Luke, from Dr. Bettelheim's version, has been printed at Hong-Kong, under the care of the Bishop of Victoria, and at the expense of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This edition is regarded as tentative only, and is issued with the view of subjecting it to inquiries as to its accuracy, and its adaptation in style and idiom to the Japanese mind, before proceeding further in the important labour of which it forms a commencement. The recent negociation of a treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Japan (1858), in virtue of which the ships of the former power have permission to visit certain ports of this hitherto secluded empire, may be confidently looked forward to as a means of aid to missionary enterprise. LOOCHOOAN. FOR SPECIMEN OF THIS VERSION, SEE PLATE 9, PAGE 356. THE Loochoo, or Lewchew Islands, are thirty-six in number, and lie about 400 miles eastward of China, nearly midway between Japan and Formosa. The principal island, called Great Loochoo, from which the entire group derives its name, is fifty miles long, and from twelve to fifteen broad, but most of the other islands are of very inferior dimensions. The inhabitants are of the same race as the Japanese, and speak a dialect of that language. They are now subject to China: their religion is that of Fo or Buddha, and their government is a despotic monarchy. A mission, called the "Loochoo Naval Mission," having for its object the conversion of the Loochooans to Christianity, was commenced about the year 1843. Dr. Bettelheim, a medical mis sionary, was sent, in 1846, by this Society to Loochoo, whence he has since returned to America. He has translated the Four Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, into Loochooan; and from the similarity of this dialect to Japanese, it is hoped that his translations may be found useful in Japan itself. In addition to contributions from other sources, a grant of fifty pounds was made by the British and Foreign Bible Society towards defraying the expenses of printing Dr. Bettelheim's version of the Gospel of St. Luke and of the Acts. As the Japanese characters are used in writing Loochooan, and as the casting of type for these characters in England is far more expensive than cutting the blocks in China, it was resolved to have the work printed at Hong Kong. This work, the expenses of which have been mainly defrayed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, has since been accomplished, under the superintendence of the Bishop of Victoria (Hong Kong). The Loochooan version of St. Luke, St. John, Acts, and Romans, was thus completed in 1855. We possess as yet, however, no information concerning its reception among the interesting population for whose use it is designed. ALEUTIAN, OR ALIOUT-LISE YEFF. THE Aleutian Islands form a long circular chain, above 1300 miles in length, traversing the North Pacific from Cape Alaska, in America, to the peninsula of Kamtschatka, in Asia, so as almost to unite the two continents. These islands are extremely numerous. They were partially discovered by Behring in 1741; the largest, which still bears his name, is upwards of sixty miles in length, but many of the others are mere rocks. They are much frequented by the Russian Fur Company, and are included in the government of Irkutsk. Most of the inhabitants are idolaters, though many of them have been baptized and instructed in the rites of the Greek church. They subsist chiefly on the produce of fishing and the chase; and, to judge from their habits and physical conformation, appear an intermediate race between the Mongolians and the North American Indians. Their language is very similar to that of the Esquimaux, especially of the Namolles, an Esquimaux tribe residing on the shore of the north-eastern promontory of Asia. In point of number the Aleutians have been variously estimated at from a few hundreds to six thousand. The Gospel of St. Matthew has been translated for the benefit of these islanders by Priest Joan Veniaminoff, otherwise written John Benjaminoff, by whom the language was first reduced to writing, and a Grammar of it published at St. Petersburg in 1846. He had resided for fifteen years as missionary among this people: the dialect in which the translation is made is that spoken in the island of Oonalashka; but there is no great difference between the idioms of the various islands of this group, any local peculiarity being readily explained by means of marginal notes. The first chapter of St. Luke, and the first two chapters of the Acts, have been translated by the same Russian priest into the dialect spoken in the island of Atkho, or Atcha. The only Aleutian translation which has hitherto been committed to the press is that of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was printed at Moscow, in 1840, in parallel columns with the Russian version. COREA N. COREA is a peninsula of Eastern Asia, separated from Mantchou Tartary by a lofty chain of mountains. Its area, inclusive of the islands near its shores, has been estimated at 80,000 square miles: its amount of population is uncertain, but does not probably exceed 2,000,000. The government is a despotic monarchy, and the country is tributary to China, and perhaps to Japan: the religious systems of Buddha and of Confucius have each their respective adherents. The language, being destitute of inflexions indicative of gender and number, and forming its cases by means of suffixes, is analogous in its main features to the Tartarian class. It is also strikingly similar to Japanese. Many Chinese words enter into its composition, for Corea has received its civilisation and its literature from China, and the Chinese language is sedulously cultivated by all ranks as the principal learned and literary medium, and the only avenue to political distinction. Composite words are of very frequent occurrence in Corean, the first syllable consisting of the native word, and the second of the Chinese synonym pronounced in the Corean manner. This arrangement renders the language extremely verbose, but its sounds are by no means disagreeable to the ear of a foreigner, the pronunciation being clear, full, and sonorous. In writing, the Coreans use syllabic characters similar in theory to the Japanese Katagana system, but suited to the peculiar articulations of their own language. These characters are placed in vertical columns, as in Chinese and Japanese, and when written, they are so grouped together as to form in appearance figures similar in many respects to Chinese characters. In 1832, the shores of Corea were visited by Dr. Gutzlaff, who distributed portions of the Chinese Scriptures among the inhabitants, and caused a copy of the entire Chinese version to be conveyed to the monarch. A translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew into Corean has been effected by a Baptist missionary, and the Psalms have been translated by Dr. Schmidt; but these translations are still in MS., and their critical merits have not been ascertained. There is at present no possibility of introducing the light of Divine truth into Corea: foreigners are zealously excluded from the country, and Europeans are seldom permitted even to land on its shores. It may be expected, however, that the altered political relations between the Chinese government and the various nations of the civilised world, consequent upon recent events, will ere long afford an opening for the entrance of the Word of Truth into this as well as other portions of the vast and hitherto benighted empire of China. CLASS V-POLYNESIAN, OR MALAYAN. MALAYAN. SPECIMEN, FROM ST. JOHN, CHAP. I. v. 1 to 14. [CALCUTTA EDITION, 1817.] 9 3 6 2 اي اين اداله قد 5 * مك قد ملاپ اداله كلمت دان كلمت اداله سام الله دان الله اداله كلمت * ملاپ سام الله * سمو سده دجديكن اولهپ مک بارغ سوات قون يغ جاد سده تياد دجديكن ملينكن اولهپ * • دالمپ ایت اداله کهدوشن دان کهدوفن ایت اداله تريح سكل مانسي ه ترغ ایت برچهاي ددالم كلم مک کلم ایت سده تياد تريم دي ايت * اداله سورغ مانسي يغ ترسوره اوله الله نماب يحيا * * اي اين داتغله ممباو کشکسين هندق برشکسي اكن ترغ ايت سفاي سکلین اورغ فرچاي اولهب ه اي اين بوکن اداله ترغ ایت ملاينكن سفاي اي برشكسي اكن ترغ ایت * ه اداله ایت ترغ يغ بنر ایت یع منرعكن مسؤرغ مانسي سدغ داتعب کدالم دنیا * اداله اي ددالم دنیا دان دنيا سده دجديكن اولهب مك دنيا سده تياد مقتل دي . " اي دائع كقد تمقتب يغ خاص مک اورغب يغ خاص سده تياد ميمبت دي 12 تتاف برای ۲ اورغ سده ميمبت دي مك قد مريك ایت ای سده ممبري كواس منجاد انق الله اي ايت قد سكل اورغ یغ فرچاي اکن نماپ 10 یغ سده تفرانق بوکن درند داره دان بوکن درند كنهدق داغ دان بوکن دركهندق مانسي هاب درفد الله جوك * مک کلمت ايت سده جاد داغ دان فنوه دشن نعمت دان سبنرپ سده دیم دانتار کامي مک کامي سده ممندع كمليانب سوات كمليان سفرت يغ قوپ است یخ توشکل درند باقی * 10 13 * 11 سده It is difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the exact number of individuals composing the restless and enterprising race to which this language is vernacular, but they certainly include several millions. The kingdom of Menangkabou, in the central region of Sumatra, where this language, with some little dialectic variation, is still spoken, appears to have been the original country of the Malays; but, impelled by the love of adventure and of trade, they possessed themselves at a very early period of the Malayan peninsula from the fifth degree of north latitude, and then established successive colonies in the districts most favourably situated for commerce throughout the islands of the Malayan archipelago. In the Malayan peninsula, the Malays, properly so called, are held and consider themselves as quite distinct from the Orang benau, or aborigines: the latter, indeed, are very different from them both in appearance and in |
