Chapter VI

, and the Adventures of Hatim Tai, translated by Duncan Forbes, p. 18.

[205] In the original it is intended to compare the locks to the spots in the moon.

[206] Reading yad hi.

[207] The moon was the progenitor of the Pándava race.

[208] One of the five trees of Paradise.

[209] Káma the Hindu Cupid.

[210] There is a certain resemblance in the story of Sunda and Upasunda to that of Otus and Ephialtes; see Preller's Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I p. 81. Cp. also Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 35.

[211] The architect or artist of the gods.

[212] This is literally true. The king was addicted to the vyasana or vice of hunting.

[213] I read hastagraháyogyám for the áhastagraháyogyám of Dr. Brockhaus.

[214] The flower closes when the sun sets.

[215] To keep up his character as a Bráhman boy.

[216] I read dáhaishiná.

[217] This applies also to the god of love who bewilders the mind.

[218] Kara means hand, and also tribute.

[219] I read iva for eva.

[220] Reading taddvárasthitamahattaram as one word.

[221] For parallels to the story of Urvasí, see Kuhn's Herabkunft des Feuer's, p. 88.

[222] This, with the water weapon, and that of whirlwind, is mentioned in the Rámáyana and the Uttara Ráma Charita.

[223] Or Devarshi, belonging to the highest class of Rishis or patriarchal saints.

[224] This dance is mentioned in the 1st Act of the Málavikágnimitra.

[225] Literally broke. The vyádhi or disease must have been of the nature of an abscess.

[226] Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.)

[227] Liebrecht in an essay on some modern Greek songs (Zur Volkskunde, p. 211) gives numerous stories of children who spoke shortly after birth. It appears to have been generally considered an evil omen. Cp. the Romance of Merlin. (Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 146.) See Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (New Edition, 1869) p. 170. In a startling announcement of the birth of Antichrist which appeared in 1623, purporting to come from the brothers of the Order of St. John, the following passage occurs,--"The child is dusky, has pleasant mouth and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a cat, ears large, stature by no means exceeding that of other children; the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked and talked perfectly well."

[228] More literally; blockaded his house with policemen, and his throat with tears.

[229] So in the XXIst of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales the fakir changes the king's son into a fly. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 127.

[230] Ficus Indica. Such a tree is said to have sheltered an army. Its branches take root and form a natural cloister. Cp. Milton's Paradise Lost, Book IX, lines 1000 and ff.

[231] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybrass, p. 121, note,) connects the description of wonderful maidens sitting inside hollow trees or perched on the boughs, with tree-worship. See also Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 41.

[232] For the illuminating power of female beauty, see Note 3 to the 1st Tale in Miss Stokes's Collection, where parallels are cited from the folk-lore of Europe and Asia.

[233] Kámadhenu means a cow granting all desires; such a cow is said to have belonged to the sage Vasishta.

[234] Conciliation, bribery, sowing dissension, and war.

[235] The Prákrit word majjáo means "a cat" and also "my lover."

[236] Cp. Schiller's "Der Graf von Habsburg," lines 9-12.

[237] The word pati here means king and husband.

[238] A smile is always white according to the Hindu poetic canons.

[239] The countenance of the fair ones were like moons.

[240] There should be a mark of elision before nimishekshanáh.

[241] The eyes of Hindu ladies are said to reach to their ears. I read tadákhyátum for tadákhyátim with a MS. in the Sanskrit college, kindly lent me by the Librarian with the consent of the Principal.

[242] Love and affection, the wives of Kámadeva the Hindu Cupid.

[243] So the mouse in the Panchatantra possesses power by means of a treasure (Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320. Vol. II, p. 178.) The story is found also in the 61st Chapter of this work. Cp. also Sagas from the Far East, pp. 257 and 263. The same idea is found in the 39th Játaka, p. 322 of Rhys Davids' translation, and in the 257th Játaka, Vol. II, p. 297 of Fausböll's edition.

[244] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 263.

[245] I read darsayat.

[246] Sati is a misprint for mati, Böhtlingk and Roth sv.

[247] i. e. the Ganges.

[248] In Sanskrit pratápa the word translated "valour," also means heat, and chakra may refer to the wheels of the chariot and the orb of the sun, so that there is a pun all through.

[249] More literally, a torrent of pride and kicking.

[250] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybrass, p. 392) remarks--"One principal mark to know heroes by is their possessing intelligent horses, and conversing with them. The touching conversation of Achilles with his Xanthos and Balios finds a complete parallel in the beautiful Karling legend of Bayard. (This is most pathetically told in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. II, Die Heimonskinder, see especially page 54). Grimm proceeds to cite many other instances from European literature. See also Note 3 to the XXth story in Miss Stokes's collection. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 336 and ff. See the remarks in Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 237.

[251] The keeper of a burning or burial-ground would be impure.

[252] Probably the people sprinkled one another with red powder as at the Holi festival.

[253] So in Grimm's Märchen von einem der auszog das Fürchten zu lernen the youth is recommended to sit under the gallows where seven men have been executed. Cp. also the story of "The Shroud" in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 307.

The belief that the dead rose from the tomb in the form of Vampires appears to have existed in Chaldæa and Babylon. Lenormant observes in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, (English Translation, p. 37) "In a fragment of the Mythological epopée which is traced upon a tablet in the British Museum, and relates the descent of Ishtar into Hades, we are told that the goddess, when she arrived at the doors of the infernal regions, called to the porter whose duty it was to open them, saying,

"Porter, open thy door; Open thy door that I may enter. If thou dost not open the door, and if I cannot enter, I will attack the door, I will break down its bars, I will attack the enclosure, I will leap over its fences by force; I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living; I will give to the dead power over the living."

The same belief appears also to have existed in Egypt. The same author observes (p. 92). "These formulæ also kept the body from becoming, during its separation from the soul, the prey of some wicked spirit which would enter, re-animate, and cause it to rise again in the form of a vampire. For, according to the Egyptian belief, the possessing spirits, and the spectres which frightened or tormented the living were but the souls of the condemned returning to the earth, before undergoing the annihilation of the 'second death.'"

[254] Cp. Ralston's account of the Vampire as represented in the Skazkas. "It is as a vitalized corpse that the visitor from the other world comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human appetites, constantly endowed with more than human strength and malignity."--Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 306.

[255] Cp. the way in which the witch treats the corpse of her son in the VIth book of the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, ch. 14, and Lucan's Pharsalia, Book VI, 754-757.

[256] I. e., the corpse tenanted by the Vetála or demon.

[257] Cp. Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 399.

[258] Lakshmí or Srí the goddess of Prosperity appeared after the churning of the ocean with a lotus in her hand. According to another story she is said to have appeared at the creation floating on the expanded leaves of a lotus-flower. The hand of a lady is often compared to a lotus.

[259] I. e., rising; the eastern mountain behind which the sun is supposed to rise.

[260] I. e., semi-divine beings supposed to be of great purity and holiness.

[261] General Cunningham identifies Paundravardhana with the modern Pubna.

[262] There is a curious parallel to this story in Táránátha's History of Buddhism, translated into German by Schiefner, p. 203. Here a Rákshasí assumes the form of a former king's wife, and kills all the subjects, one after another, as fast as they are elected to the royal dignity.

[263] Compare the Apocryphal book of Tobit. See also the 30th page of Lenormant's Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, English translation.

[264] Ralston in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 270, compares this incident with one in a Polish story, and in the Russian story of the Witch Girl. In both the arm of the destroyer is cut off.

[265] I read iva; the arm was the long bar, and the whole passage is an instance of the rhetorical figure called utprekshá.

[266] Cp. the freeing of Argo by Hercules cutting off Pallair's arm in the Togail Troi, ed. Stokes, p. 67.

[267] There is probably a pun here. Rámártham may mean "for the sake of a fair one."

[268] I read na tad for tatra with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[269] Here there is a pun on Ananga, a name of the Hindu Cupid.

[270] Here there is a pun. The word guna also means rope.

[271] For stories of transportation through the air, see Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 157 and ff.

[272] Cp. the way in which Torello informs his wife of his presence in Boccacio's Decameron Xth day Nov. IX. The novels of the Xth day must be derived from Indian, and probably Buddhistic sources. There is a Buddhistic vein in all of them. A striking parallel to the 5th Novel of the Xth day will be found further on in this work.

Cp. also, for the incident of the ring, Thorpe's Yuletide Stories, p. 167. See also the story of Heinrich der Löwe, Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, pp. 21 and 22. Cp. also Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, pp. 365 and 432, Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 76; and Prym und Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 72. See also Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. xlix and 1.

[273] An oblation to gods, or venerable men of, rice, dúrva grass, flowers, &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped vessel.

[274] Sneha means oil, and also affection.

[275] Sattva when applied to the ocean probably means "monsters." So the whole compound would mean "in which was conspicuous the fury of gambling monsters." The pun defies translation.

[276] I read aushadeh. The Rákshasa is compared to the mountain, Vidúshaka to the moon, his wives to the gleaming herbs.

[277] Thorpe in his Yule-tide Stories remarks that the story of Vidúshaka somewhat resembles in its ground-plot the tale of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth. With the latter he also compares the story of Saktivega in the 5th book of the Kathá Sarit Ságara. (See the table of contents of Thorpe's Yule-tide Stories, p. xi.) Cp. also Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 1, and for the cutting off of the giant's arm, p. 50.

[278] Perhaps we should read svádvaushadha = sweet medicine.

[279] I. q., Bheels.

[280] I read árúdhah.

[281] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sambhavah for the sampadah of Dr. Brockhaus's text.

[282] Lustratio exercitus; waving lights formed part of the ceremony.

[283] It also means "drawing cords."

[284] He is sometimes represented as bearing the entire world on one of his heads.

[285] One of these poison-damsels is represented as having been employed against Chandragupta in the Mudrá Rákshasa. Compare the XIth tale in the Gesta Romanorum, where an Indian queen sends one to Alexander the Great. Aristotle frustrates the stratagem.

[286] Jayastambha. Wilson remarks that the erection of these columns is often alluded to by Hindu writers, and explains the character of the solitary columns which are sometimes met with, as the Lát at Delhi, the pillars at Allahábád, Buddal, &c.

[287] Kalinga is usually described as extending from Orissa to Drávida or below Madras, the coast of the Northern Circars. It appears, however, to be sometimes the Delta of the Ganges. It was known to the ancients as Regio Calingarum, and is familiar to the natives of the Eastern Archipelago by the name of Kling. Wilson.

[288] The clouds are nihsára void of substance, as being no longer heavy with rain. The thunder ceases in the autumn.

[289] Chola was the sovereignty of the western part of the Peninsula on the Carnatic, extending southwards to Tanjore where it was bounded by the Pándyan kingdom. It appears to have been the Regio Soretanum of Ptolemy and the Chola mandala or district furnishes the modern appellation of the Coromandel Coast.--Wilson, Essays, p. 241 note.

[290] Murala is another name for Kerala, now Malabar (Hall.) Wilson identifies it with the Curula of Ptolemy.

[291] Or perhaps more literally "creeper-like sword." Probably the expression means "flexible, well-tempered sword," as Professor Nílmani Mukhopádhyáya has suggested to me.

[292] It had been employed for this purpose by the gods and Asuras. Láta = the Larice of Ptolemy. (Wilson.)

[293] Turks, the Indo-scythæ of the ancients. (Wilson.)

[294] Persians.

[295] A Daitya or demon. His head swallows the sun and moon.

[296] Perhaps the Huns.

[297] The western portion of Assam. (Wilson.)

[298] For the worship of trees and tree-spirits, see Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, p. 75 and ff., and Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 196 and ff.

[299] I here read durdasáh for the durdarsáh of Dr. Brockhaus' text. It must be a misprint. A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads durdasáh.

[300] The Guhyakas are demi-gods, attendants upon Kuvera and guardians of his wealth.

[301] Literally--having the cardinal points as her only garment.

[302] For the circle cp. Henry VI. Part II, Act I, Sc. IV, line 25 and Henry V. Act V, Sc. 2, line 420. "If you would conjure, you must make a circle." See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 272. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 292, 302, 303. See also Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, pp. 200, and 201; Henderson's Northern Folk-lore, p. 19, Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, pp. 128, 213. Professor Jebb, in his notes on Theophrastus' Superstitious man, observes "The object of all those ceremonies, in which the offerings were carried round the person or place to be purified, was to trace a charmed circle within which the powers of evil should not come." Cp. also Grössler's Sagen aus der Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 217, Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III, p. 56; Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 226.

[303] i. e. by the fire of Siva's eye.

[304] Perhaps we ought to read sadehasya. I find this rending in a MS. lent to me by the librarian of the Sanskrit College with the kind permission of the Principal.

[305] i. e. Siva.

[306] In this wild legend, resembling one in the first book of the Rámáyana, I have omitted some details for reasons which will be obvious to those who read it in the original.

[307] i. e. the six Pleiades.

[308] Mr. Tylor (in his Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 176) speaking of Slavonian superstitions, says, "A man whose eyebrows meet as if his soul were taking flight to enter some other body, may be marked by this sign either as a were-wolf or a vampire." In Icelandic Sagas a man with meeting eyebrows is said to be a werewolf. The same idea holds in Denmark, also in Germany, whilst in Greece it is a sign that a man is a Brukolak or Vampire. (Note by Baring-Gould in Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties). The same idea is found in Bohemia, see Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 210. Cp. Grimm's Irische Märchen, p. cviii.

[309] I read ásta for ásu.

[310] rajas in Sanskrit means dust and also passion.

[311] i. e. immunity from future births.

[312] i. e. desire, wrath, covetousness, bewilderment, pride and envy.

[313] Cp. the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, Book VII, ch. 15, where the witch is armed with a sword during her incantations; and Homer's Odyssey, XI, 48. See also for the magic virtues of steel Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 312, 313.

[314] See Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 289, where a young man overhears a spell with similar results. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 115.

[315] I read tan tad.

[316] Called more usually by English people Allahabad.

[317] This incident reminds one of Schiller's ballad--Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer. (Benfey Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320.)

The story of Fridolin in Schiller's ballad is identical with the story of Fulgentius which is found in the English Gesta Romanorum, see Bohn's Gesta Romanorum, Introduction, page 1. Douce says that the story is found in Scott's Tales from the Arabic and Persian, p. 53 and in the Contes devots or Miracles of the Virgin. (Le Grand, Fabliaux, v. 74.) Mr. Collier states upon the authority of M. Boettiger that Schiller founded his ballad upon an Alsatian tradition which he heard at Mannheim. Cp. also the 80th of the Sicilianische Märchen which ends with these words, "Wer gutes thut, wird gutes erhalten." There is a certain resemblance in this story to that of Equitan in Murie's lays. See Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances, pp. 46 and 47. It also resembles the story of Lalitánga extracted from the Kathá Kosha by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea in his Sáhitya Parichaya, Part II, and the conclusion of the story of Damannaka from the same source found in his Part I. The story of Fridolin is also found in Schöppner's Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 204.

[318] Literally creeper-like.

[319] There is a double meaning here; kshetra means fit recipients as well as field. The king no doubt distributed corn.

[320] i. e. the god Ganesa, who has an elephant's head.

[321] Seven principal mountains are supposed to exist in each Varsha or division of a continent.

[322] There is a reference here to the mada or ichor which exudes from an elephant's temples when in rut.

[323] rága also means passion.

[324] The quarters are often conceived of as women.

[325] In the XVIIIth tale of the Gesta Romanorum Julian is led into trouble by pursuing a deer. The animal turns round and says to him, "Thou who pursuest me so fiercely shalt be the destruction of thy parents." See also Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 38. "A popular ballad referring to the story of Digenis gives him a life of 300 years, and represents his death as due to his killing a hind that had on its shoulder the image of the Virgin Mary, a legend the foundation of which is possibly a recollection of the old mythological story of the hind of Artemis killed by Agamemnon." [Sophoclis Electra, 568.] In the Romance of Doolin of Mayence Guyon kills a hermit by mistake for a deer. (Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 138) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, pp. 84-86.

[326] I. g. Umá and Párvatí. Káma = the god of love.

[327] Cp. Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, p. 96; also an incident in Gül and Sanaubar, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 144).

[328] Here there is a pun, suvritta meaning also well-rounded.

[329] i. e. burnt herself with his body.

[330] Purogaih means "done in a previous life," and also "going before."

[331] Cp. Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 364; Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, pp. 285 and 294.

[332] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College patisnehád for pratisnehád. The two wives of the god of Love came out of lovo to their husband, who was conceived in Vásavadattá.

[333] Vidyádhara--means literally "magical-knowledge-holder."

[334] The ceremony of coronation.

[335] Ambiká, i. q., Párvatí the wife of Siva.

[336] Liebrecht, speaking of the novel of Guerino Meschino, compares this tree with the sun and moon-trees mentioned in the work of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book III. c. 17. They inform Alexander that the years of his life are accomplished, and that he will die in Babylon. See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 111.

[337] A period of 432 million years of mortals.

[338] More literally the cardinal and intermediate points.

[339] Reading manomrigi, the deer of the mind.

[340] Member of a savage tribe.

[341] I. e. of the pearls in the heads of the elephants.

[342] I. e. the sun.

[343] Throbbing of the right eye in men portends union with the beloved.

[344] No doubt by offering the flowers which she had gathered.

[345] Like the two physicians in Gesta Romanorum, LXXVI.

[346] A peculiarly sacred kind of Darbha grass.

[347] M. Lévêque considers that the above story, as told in the Mahábhárata, forms the basis of the Birds of Aristophanes. He identifies Garuda with the hoopoe. (Les Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde et de la Perse, p. 14).

[348] Rájila is a striped snake, said to be the same as the dundubha a non-venomous species.

[349] The remarks which Ralston makes (Russian Folk-tales, page 65) with regard to the snake as represented in Russian stories, are applicable to the Nága of Hindu superstition; "Sometimes he retains throughout the story an exclusively reptilian character, sometimes he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent and partly man." The snakes described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, (pp. 402-409,) resemble in some points the snakes which we hear so much of in the present work. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 277 and ff.

[350] The word nága, which means snake, may also mean, as Dr. Brockhaus explains it, a mountaineer from naga a mountain.

[351] I conjecture kramád for krandat. If we retain krandat we must suppose that the king of the Vidyádharas wept because his scheme of self-sacrifice was frustrated.

[352] I read adhah for adah.

[353] In the Sicilian stories of the Signora von Gonzenbach an ointment does duty for the amrita, cp. for one instance out of many, page 145 of that work. Ralston remarks that in European stories the raven is connected with the Water of Life. See his exhaustive account of this cycle of stories on pages 231 and 232 of his Russian Folk-tales. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 245, and the story which begins on page 227. In the 33rd of the Syrian stories collected by Prym and Socin we have a king of snakes and water of life.

[354] The home of the serpent race below the earth.

[355] Here equivalent to Pátála.

[356] Here there is a pun: ákula may also mean "by descent."

[357] Kulíná may mean falling on the earth, referring to the shade of the tree. Márgasthá means "in the right path" when applied to the wife.

[358] I. e. Madam Contentious. Her husband's name means "of lion-like might."

[359] I read (after Böhtlingk and Roth) Ityakápara. See