219,
ed, Henricus Stephanus, MDLXIX.) it is quoted as a leonine verse:
[Greek: Hon gar philei theos apothnaeskei neos.]
Plautus gives it thus ('Bacchides', iv. 7):
"Quem di diligunt adolescens moritur."]
[Footnote 4: The word is said to be illegible, and the conclusion of the
letter to be lost ('Memoir of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', vol. i. p.
196). Only the latter statement is correct. The word is perfectly
legible. Talapoin (Yule's 'Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words, sub voce') is
the name used by the Portuguese, and after them by the French writers,
and by English travellers of the seventeenth century (Hakluyt, ed. 1807,
vol. ii. p. 93; and Purchas, ed. 1645, vol. ii. p. 1747), to designate
the Buddhist monks of Ceylon and the Indo-Chinese countries. Pallegoix
('Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam', vol. ii. p. 23) says,
"Les Europeens les ont appeles 'talapoins', probablement du nom de
l'eventail qu'ils tiennent a la main, lequel s'appelle 'talapat', qui
signifie 'feuille de palmier'."
Possibly Byron knew the word through Voltaire ('Dial.' xxii., 'Andre des
Couches a Siam');
"'A. des C.': Combien avez-vous de soldats?
'Croutef.': Quatre-vingt mille, fort mediocrement payes.
'A. des C.': Et de talapoins?
'Cr.': Cent vingt-mille, tous faineans et tres riches," etc.]
* * * * *
178.--To R.C. Dallas.
Newstead Abbey, September 4th, 1811.
My dear Sir,--I am at present anxious, as Cawthorn seems to wish it, to
have a small edition of the 'Hints from Horace' [1] published
immediately, but the Latin (the most difficult poem in the language)
renders it necessary to be very particular not only in correcting the
proofs with Horace open, but in adapting the parallel passages of the
imitation in such places to the original as may enable the reader not to
lose sight of the allusion.
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