PREFACE. THE title of this volume indicates its purpose, and every endeavour has been used to make it of practical service to Travellers, Traders, missionaries, and Soldiers, as well as to Students. A carefully prepared phonetic pronunciation is given throughout, the whole system of study being based on the way a child naturally learns to speak its native tongue. Thanks are due to Colonel F. FORJETT late of the Indian Army, President and Examiner in Hindtistiini of the Military Staff College, India, for the valuable suggestions he has given during the compilation of this treatise. The work has been divided into two volumes, the first- Hindfistiini Self-Taught -containing the matter most necessary for every-day requirements by those who find themselves in the midst of a strange people without any knowledge of their speech, whilst in the second- Hindiistiini Grammar Self-Taught --a simplified scheme of study is developed to give the learner a more thorough grasp of the language. In the present work the Persi-Arabic characters have not been given throughout, as comparatively few of the natives are able to read or to write, but the improved system of Rowza it letters and spelling used by Mr. John Shakespear in his Hindiistiini Dictionaries has been adopted, which provides at a glance a simple and ready may of learning to talk. It must be borne in mind that Hindfistiini, when well spoken, is a language of vowels and double consonants, anci should be vocalized like Italian the great faults of Europeans, clipping their words, and leaving out the non-initial , must be scrupulously avoided. It must, however, be carefully noted that the phonetic columns are not in any sense a tansliteration of the Persi-Arabic characters, but represent a consistent effort to express by English spelling and method the correct sound of the Hindfistgni words and sentences as spoken by educated natives, and this is worked out in accordance with the scheme adopted at the last Congress of Orientalists.......