Chapter 81

of this work and to that of Kandarpaketu in the Hitopadesa. See Ralston's Russian Folk-tales page 99. He refers to this story and compares it with that of the Third Royal Mendicant, Lane I, 160-173, and gives many European equivalents. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 214. Many parallels will be found in the notes to Grimm's Märchen, Nos. 3 and 46; to which Ralston refers in his exhaustive note. In Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 84, a draught from a forbidden well has the same effect.

[422] The Dánavas are a class of demons or giants. Ruru was a Dánava slain by Durgá.

[423] In Sloka 172 b. I conjecture Saktihasto for Saktidevo, as we read in sl. 181 b. that the boar was wounded with a sakti.

[424] Literally, having auspicious marks.

[425] A spirit that enters dead bodies.

[426] I read Vidyutprabhám for Vidyádharím. But perhaps it is unnecessary.

[427] The Chakora is said to subsist upon moonbeams.

[428] So making him a Vidyádhara or "magic-knowledge-holder."

[429] I. e. Ganesa who is invoked to remove obstacles.

[430] This is an elaborate pun in the original. Guna=string and virtue; vansa=race and bamboo.

[431] The Taxila of the Greek writers. The Vitastá is the Hydaspes of the Greeks, now called Jhelum.

[432] Monier Williams says that Tárá was the wife of the Buddha Amoghasiddha. Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 373) says she was a well known Buddhist saint. The passage might perhaps mean "The Buddha adorned with most brilliant stars."

It has been suggested to me that Tárávara may mean Siva, and that the passage means that the Saiva and Bauddha religions were both professed in the city of Takshasilá.

[433] I. e. Buddhist ascetics.

[434] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sukála for svakála: the meaning is much the same.

[435] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads nigrahah=blaming one's relations without cause.

[436] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 122. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 90.

[437] Moksha is the soul's final release from further transmigrations.

[438] Cp. Gesta Romanorum CXLIII (Bohn's Edition). This idea is found in the Telapattajátaka, Fausböll, Vol. I, p. 393.

[439] A kind of Pandora.

[440] Compare the argument in the Eunuchus of Terence (III. 5.36 & ff) which shocked St. Augustine so much (Confessions I. 16).

[441] Et tonantem Jovem et adulterantem.

[442] I separate balavad from bhogadáyi.

[443] This appears to be found in a slightly different form in the Harivansa. (Lévêque, Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde, p. 220).

[444] The name of certain aboriginal tribes described as hunters, fishermen, robbers &c.

[445] In the original Mahákála, an epithet of Siva in his character as the destroying deity.

[446] Generally only one mountain named Maináka is said to have fled into the sea, and retained its wings when Indra clipped those of the others. The passage is of course an elaborate pun.

[447] i. e. lion of valour.

[448] i. e. animals, horizontal goers. The pun defies translation, the word I have translated arrow is literally "the not-sideways-goer."

[449] i. e. by burning herself upon the funeral pyre.

[450] The word táraká means also a star. So here we have one of those puns in which our author delights.

[451] Also full of affection. This is a common pun.

[452] Beasts of prey, or possibly Rákshasas.

[453] Compare the translation of the life of St. Brigit by Whitley Stokes, (Three Middle Irish Homilies, p. 65.)

"Shortly after that came a certain nobleman unto Dubthach to ask for his daughter in marriage. Dubthach and his sons were willing, but Brigit refused. Said a brother of her brethren named Beccán unto her: 'Idle is the fair eye that is in thy head not to be on a pillow near a husband.' 'The son of the Virgin knoweth' said Brigit, 'it is not lively for us if it brings harm upon us.' Then Brigit put her finger under her eye and drew it out of her head till it was on her cheek; and she said: 'Lo, here is thy delightful eye, O Beccán.' Then his eye burst forthwith. When Dubthach and his brethren saw that, they promised that she should never be told to go to a husband. Then she put her palm to her eye and it was whole at once. But Beccán's eye was not whole till his death."

That the biographers of Christian saints were largely indebted to Buddhist hagiology, has been shewn by Liebrecht in his Essay on the sources of Barlaam and Josaphat, (Zur Volkskunde, p. 441.) In Mr. Stokes's book, p. 34, will also be found a reference to the practice of shewing reverence by walking round persons or things keeping the right hand towards them. This is pointed out by Mr. Stokes in his Preface as an interesting link between Ireland and India.

Mr. Whitley Stokes has sent me the following quotation in the Revue Celtique V, 130 from P. Cahier, Caracteristiques des Saints I, 105;

"A certain virgin Lucia (doubtful whether of Bologna or of Alexandria) se voyant fréquemment suivie par un jeune homme qui affectait de l'accompagner partout dès q'elle quittait sa maison, lui demanda enfin ce qui l'attachait si fort à ses pas. Celui-ci ayant répondu que c' etait la beauté de ses yeux, la jeune fille se servit de son fuseau pour faire sortir ses yeux de leur orbite, et dit à son poursuivant qu'il pouvait les prendre et la laisser dèsormais en repos. On ajoute que cette generosité effrayante changea si fort le coeur du jeune homme qu'il embrassa la profession religieuse. The story of the ascetic who conquered anger, resembles closely the Khantivádijátaka No. 313 in Fausböll's edition, Vol. III, p. 39. It is also found in the Bodhisattva Avadána, under the title Kshánti Játaka, and in the Mahávastu Avadána in a form closely resembling that of the Páli Játaka book. See Dr. Rajendra Lál Mitra's Nepalese Buddhist Literature, pp. 55, 159, and 160.

[454] They are compared to the five sacred fires.

[455] Literally the worthless straw-heap of &c.

[456] Here there is a pun on the two meanings of Srí.

[457] In the Svayamvara the maiden threw a garland over the neck of the favoured suitor.

[458] Rasa also means water.

[459] This story is compared by Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 374) with the story of the faithful servant Víravara in the Hitopadesa, which is also found in the Vetálapanchavinsati, (see