A STORY OF A BELL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 324, 16 November 1865, Page 1

A STORY OF A BELL.

(From the Colombo Observer.) ScHXLI.EE we think it was who wrote a sublime poetic description of “The Founding of the Bell." Edgar Poe’s ballad of “ The Bells” is only second iii descriptive power to his “ Raven.” Shirley Brook’s exquisite bit of fun is less known. A scientific papa describes to his little daughter in all the hard words of acoustic science, the mode in which the tintinabulations of a bell are produced, and is rewarded for his pains by a slap on the cheek and the exclamation— You bad old man I to go and tell Such glbbeiy-gosh about a bell. But from New Zealand —land of mysterious Moa as well as of tructilent Maori—we have a tale of a bell to which all others must yield. Last mad brought to Ceylon copies of a photographic representation and lithographic sections of what is described as “ the upper portion of an antique bell, from the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, the property of William Colenso, Esq., M.H.R., Napier." It is added that— This interesting relic was obtained In the interior of the North Island of .New Zealand by the exhibitor in 1837. The inscription, which has been sent to England for translation, is believed to be Javanese. It bad been in the bands of the Maoris for several generations. Its history, which Mr Colenso gives, is long and interesting. A fae-simile of the inscription is engraved on the paper; and a gentleman, formerly iu Ceylon, recognising the characters as Tamil, asked a friend in Colombo to obtain a translation. This latter gentleman brought, the paper and the translation to our office, and our riders may imagine the hilarity which ensued oyer the w°rd* —

•tax, BELL BELONGING TO, THE WOHEIDEW BOX. Moliciden Box or Bnx, is one of the most common names of the small class of native brigs which j)lv between the grain ports of Southernludia and Ceylon. A vessel of the name, plying probably in the Eastern Archipelago, may have been either taken hy pirates, or driven out of her course ( and wrecked on the shores of New Zealand. It is easy to see, therefore, how the bell may have fallen into the hands of the Maoris. Its history may be' “ long and interesting,” but certainly since thetime when Edie Ochiltree dissipated all the fine-spun theories of Mr Jonathan OJdbuek about “Akin Drum’s lang ladle ”; since the Pickwickains puzzled themselves over the inscription which turned out to be “Bill Stumps, his mark”; or, to come nearer home, since the worthy Dutchwoman, Anne Block, claimed as her grandmother’s, the ring supposed to have been dropped at Muimar by Annius Plocanus, the Eoman knight;—there has been no such prosaic resolution of a mysterious inscription.

-To tlio Editor of the Wellington Independent, Sin, —I think the article under the above heading, in your issue of Saturday last, copied from the Colombo Advertiser, calls for more serious reflection than may appear at first sight. The worthy editor of that journal, in penning a witty article, establishes the fact —that the bell with the mysterious inscription, lately exhibited in this Colony, formerly belonged to a Tamil vessel, which has visited these islands in years gone by. Any person who has previously lived in India, in coming to New Zealand cannot but notice tiie great similarity of many of the Maori words, customs, and rites, to those of the Tamils of India, and it would form a very interesting study to those who have the leisure and inclination, to connect the links thus supplied, and so gather the early history of the Maori. The Tamil population of India have ever been noted for their restless enterprise and activity ; gradually overcoming any native race with them they came into contact—instance their history in Ceylon ; can we wonder therefore that they have visited this part of the world, and they have left behind them much more than a bell? I think it would conduce much to the gratification of those who can speak Tamil, and ■re anxious to study the Maori language in its purity, if the recommendation of the late Parliamentary Committtee be carried into effect, and that a Maori Lexicon were permitted forthwith. At present the Maori language appears like a “ sealed book ” to many and only a favored few have the open sesame. How different to India, where books and instructors aro plentiful, and where a person can master a language every six months. It seems now time that these mists were cleared away, and that if the Maori language is to become an institution of the Colony, some opportunity should be afforded to those desirous of studying it, were it only for the sake of comparing the languages—Tamil and Maori together —and so glean perhaps much information, even from “ A Story of a Bell.”—I am, &c., Old Lanka. Not. 6, 16G5.