Chapter 18

is still more striking.

[551] This idea, which is met with so frequently in this work, is found in China also. See Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 177, where Miss Li, who is a devil, hears the cock crow and vanishes.

[552] Cp. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 256 and 394. See also No. CXXIX in Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. II, p. 265, the title of which is "Making of Animals." Cp. with the string the gold rings in the Volsunga Saga, Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, p. 30. In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 850, and ff. there is an account of Mestra's transformations. Neptune gave her the power of transforming herself whenever she was sold by her father. See also the story of Achelous and Hercules in book IX of the Metamorphoses; Prym and Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 229, where we have the incident of the selling; Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 125; Coelho Contos Portuguezes, p. 32.

[553] Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya conjectures ásoshyamáne. This I adopt unhesitatingly.

[554] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 35. This story very closely resembles that of Sidi Noman in the Arabian Nights, and the Golden Ass of Apuleius.

[555] Compare Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, pp. 156, 157, also Campbell's Tales from the Western Highlands, Vol. II, p. 422, and Sagas from the Far East, p. 4. This part of the story comes under Mr. Baring-Gould's Magical Conflict root. (See his Story Radicals in the appendix to Henderson's Folklore of the Northern Counties.) Cp. also Miss Keary's Heroes of Asgard, p. 223, where Loki and Idúna in the forms of a falcon and a sparrow are pursued by the giant Thiassi in the shape of an eagle.

[556] The word samvara, which I have translated "congregation," probably means "sorcery;" see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.

[557] I adopt kritam the reading of a MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College. I should put a comma after álápam, as that word is used in the masculine.

[558] I. e. lord of horses.

[559] I. e. lord of elephants.

[560] I. e. Man-lion.

[561] Kárpatika; for the use of this word see chapters 24, 63 and 81 of this work.

[562] I follow sákútam the reading of the MS in the Sanskrit College. So the wounds of Sir Urro of Hungary were healed, as soon as they were handled by the valiant Sir Launcelot (La Mort d'Arthure, Vol. III, p. 270).

[563] Here the word Sramana is used, which generally means--"Buddhist ascetic."

[564] I. e. deceitful-minded.

[565] Cp. the story of Phalabhúti in the 20th Taranga. I may here mention that Liebrecht points out a striking parallel to the story of Fulgentius, (with which I have compared that of Phalabhúti,) in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes: (Zur Volkskunde, p. 38).

[566] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 46, where the giant treacherously lets fall his gauntlet, and asks his adversary to pick it up. His adversary, the hero of the story, tells him to pick it up himself, and when the giant bends down for the purpose, cuts off his head with one blow of his sword.

[567] Here there is an elaborate pun--kara means hand and also proboscis--dána giving and the ichor that exudes from the temples of a mast elephant. "Surrounded with clustering bees" may also mean, "surrounded with handmaids whose consolations worried her."

[568] The word vibudha also means gods--and the gods feed on the moon.

[569] Compare the lichi in the XVth of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, and the páyasa in the XVIth Sarga of the Rámáyana. See also Sicilianische Märchen, page 269, and Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, pp. 104, 117 and 120. The beginning of this tale belongs to Mr. Baring-Gould's Gold-child root. Another parallel is to be found in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 168. See also Sagas from the Far East, p. 268; Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, p. 105. See Volsunga Saga in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, pp. 8 and 9.

[570] Kshetra here means "a holy field" or sacred spot.

[571] This part of the story reminds one of the Clerk's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

[572] See Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 80 where numerous parallels are adduced. Cp. also Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 199.

[573] Compare the story of "The Golden Lion" in Laura von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 76, where the lady places a white cloth round her waist. See Dr. Köhler's note on the passage. Compare also the hint which Messeria gives to her lover in the Mermaid, Thorpe's Yule Tide Stories, p. 198, and the behaviour of Singorra on page 214. See also "The Hasty Word," Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 368, and The "Water King and Vasilissa the Wise", p. 128; Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, pp. 256 and 258, and Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 408 and Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 39. The washing of the hero by a chetí is quite Homeric, (Odyssey XIX, 386.) In a Welsh story (Professor Rhys, Welsh Tales, p. 8) a young man discovers his lady-love by the way in which her sandals are tied. There are only two to choose from, and he seems to have depended solely upon his own observation.

[574] A khárí = about 3 bushels.

[575] Compare the way in which Psyche separated the seeds in the Golden Ass of Apuleius, Lib. VI. cap X, and the tasks in Grimm's Märchen, Nos. 62, 186, and 193. A similar incident is found in a Danish Tale, Swend's Exploits, p. 353 of Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Before the king will allow Swend to marry the princess, he gives him a task exactly resembling the one in our text. He is told to separate seven barrels of wheat and seven barrels of rye, which are lying in one heap. The ants do it for him, because he had on a former occasion crumbled his bread for them. See also the story of the beautiful Cardia, Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 188. The hero has first to eat a cellar full of beans; this he accomplishes by means of the king of the ravens, his brother-in-law. He next disposes of a multitude of corpses by means of another brother-in-law, the king of the wild beasts; he then stuffs a large number of mattresses with feathers by the help of a third brother-in-law, the king of the birds. See also Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, Tale XXII, and the note at the end of this chapter. So in No. 83 of the Sicilianische Märchen the ants help Carnfedda because he once crumbled his bread for them.

[576] i. e. Siva.

[577] A forest in Kurukshetra sacred to Indra and burnt by Agni the god of fire with the help of Arjuna and Krishna.

[578] Hektor, atar sy moi essi patêr kai potnia mêtêr êde kasignêtos, sy de moi thaleros parakoitês.

[579] I. e., like an arrow in speed.

[580] For this part of the story see Sicilianische Märchen, No 14, with Dr. Köhler's note.

[581] In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 855, the dominus asks Mestra, who has been transformed into a fisherman, if she has seen herself pass that way.

[582] Compare the story of "die kluge Else," the 34th in Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen, where the heroine has a doubt about her own identity and goes home to ask her husband, and No. 59 in the same collection. Cp. also Campbell's Tales from the West Highlands, Vol. II, p. 375, where one man is persuaded that he is dead, another that he is not himself, another that he is dressed when he is naked. See also the numerous parallels given in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 54., Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, p. 128) mentions a story in which a woman persuades her husband, that he is dead. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 508. In Prym and Socin's Syrische Märchen, No. LXII, page 250, the flea believes himself to be dead, and tells every one so.

[583] Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, p. 167, where Ake makes his wife Wolfriana intoxicated with the object of discovering her secret.

[584] Reading avadishyáma. I find that this is the reading of a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[585] I. e. a great or distinguished minister. "Bull" is more literal than "ox," but does not suit the English idiom so well. Gomukha means Ox-face.

[586] Guna means virtue and also a thread.

[587] This incident is found in the story of Yavakríta in the 135th chapter of the Mahábhárata.

[588] I read rúpam for rúpyam.

[589] I. e. Indra.

[590] Literally "having no auspicious marks."

[591] I. e. Fond of enjoyment.

[592] I. e. "New moon."

[593] In the Mahávastu Avadána (in Dr. R. L. Mitra's Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. 123) a girl named Amitá is cured of leprosy by being shut up in an underground chamber.

[594] I suppose this must mean "prepared of the flesh of wild goats." A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads ramyáni "pleasant."

[595] Plushta is a mistake for pushta, see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.

[596] I. e. free from old age.

[597] This reminds one of Story XII in the Gesta Romanorum.

[598] I. e. long-lived.

[599] See the IVth chapter of Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, page 221, Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 125.

[600] Water, rice, dúrva grass, &c. offered to guests.

[601] Fabulous animals with eight feet.

[602] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 74.

[603] I. e. Camphor-produced. In the Arabian Nights the Camphor islands are mentioned. See Lane's Translation, Vol. I, page 544.

[604] I find that a MS. in the Sanskrit College reads avatitírshum. This is obviously the right reading.

[605] The city of Kuvera the god of wealth.

[606] The mother, i. e., Durgá.

[607] See Ralston's remarks on this story in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 71. In Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 44, Hilda reunites, as fast as she is cut in two, but at last Dietrich, by the advice of Hildebrand, steps between the two pieces, and interferes with the vis medicatrix. Baring Gould seems to identify this story of Indívarasena with that of St. George. In his essay on that hero-saint, (p. 305, New Edition,) he observes, "In the Kathá Sarit Ságara a hero fights a demon monster, and releases a beautiful woman from his thraldom. The story, as told by Soma Deva, has already progressed, and assumed a form similar to that of Perseus and Andromeda.

[608] The word literally means chariot of the mind. There is a pun here.

[609] This resembles the German story of the two brothers as given in Cox's Aryan Mythology, Vol. I, p. 162. See also Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Köhler's note. He there refers us to his own remarks on the 4th of Campbell's West Highland Tales in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 118, and to Grimm, Nos. 60 and 85, Hahn No. 22, Widter-Wolf, No. 8, Vernaleken, No. 35, &c. In Grimm's No. 60, we have a magic sword, and the temporary death of one of the brothers is indicated by the dimming of one side of a knife. This story resembles Grimm's more closely, than that of Asokadatta and Vijayadatta in ch. 25. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 474. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 328, Vol. II, p. 317. The story of Amys and Amylion, in Ellis's Metrical Romances, resembles closely the tale, as given by Grimm and Gonzenbach. So too do the 7th and 9th stories of the 1st day in the Pentamerone of Basile, and the 52nd in Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 120. Perhaps the oldest mythological pair of brothers are the Asvins, who have their counterpart in the Dioscuri and in Heracles and Iphiclus.

[610] I. e., brightness of the sun. Chandravatí means moonlike.

[611] I. e. Siva the beloved of Párvatí.

[612] I read sarastírát for sarittírát.

[613] Here there is a pun, as the words may also be construed "woven of excellent threads."

[614] Maya was the architect of the Daityas. According to some Maya = Ptolemaios.

[615] I. e. holding life.

[616] Cp. the Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) of Apuleius, Lib. V, cap. III. Visoquestatim semirotundo suggestu propter instrumentum coenatorum, rata refectui suo commodum, libens accumbit. Et illico vini nectarei eduliumque variorum fercula copiosa, nullo serviento, sed tantum spiritu quodam impulsa, subministrantur. See also the romance of Parthenopex of Blois in Dunlop's History of Fiction, (Liebrecht's translation, p. 175). See Liebrecht's translation of the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 55.

[617] I. e., holding or possessing a kingdom.

[618] I. e., greed of wealth.

[619] Cp. Die Sieben Weisen Meister c. 18, (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 185).

[620] See note on page 305.

[621] Cp. Herodotus III. 119; Antigone, vv. 909-912. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. II, p. 131, and the Ucchanga Játaka, No. 67 in Dr. Fausböll's edition.

[622] A mere pun.

[623] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College--bhayade há múrta iva sáhase.

[624] "Wish" is literally "chariot of the mind," so here there is a pun.

[625] Both Srí and the Amrita came out of the sea when it was churned. Sudasárha kúlena seems to be corrupt.

[626] i. e., Ganesa.

[627] i. e., Diamond-peak.

[628] For ubhayavedyeka the Petersburg lexicographers read ubhayavedyardha. I have followed this reading.

[629] Identified by General Cunningham with the Sangala of Alexander. (Ancient Geography of India, p. 179 & ff.)

[630] i. e., Siva.

[631] I read bodhitah.

[632] Kánchí means girdle, guna excellence and thread. The last clause might be translated--made of threads.

[633] I read Súryaprabha for Súryachandra.

[634] Vidyunmálá means "garland of lightning."

[635] Alluding to Indra's slaying the demon Vritra, who was regarded as a Bráhman, and to his conduct with Ahalyá.

[636] I. q. Siva.

[637] i. e., Siva.

[638] One of the seven under-worlds.

[639] I. q. Acesines and Hydraotes.

[640] I. e., a day of Brahmá consisting of 1000 yugas.

[641] Cp. the halo or aureole round the heads of Christian saints, the circle of rays and nimbus round the head of Greek divinities, and the beam that came out of Charles the Great's mouth and illumined his head. (Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybrass, p. 323.) Cp. Livy I, 39; and Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Burnouf) p. 4.

[642] Kála means Time, Fate, Death.

[643] I divide sa sivákhyánám and take sa to be the demonstrative pronoun.

[644] I. e. the Yoga system.

[645] This superstition appears to be prevalent in China. See Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 23, and other passages. It was no doubt carried there by the same wave of Buddhism that carried there many similar notions connected with the transmigration of souls, for instance the belief that children are born able to speak, and that this is very inauspicious. (Cp. Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 184 with the story of Dharmagupta and Chandraprabhá in the 17th chapter of this work.) The existence of this latter belief in Europe is probably to be ascribed to the influence of Buddhism.

[646] Here I read Srutasarma-sapakshatvam.

[647] Usanas here means Sukra, the spiritual guide of the Asuras.

[648] I read pasyásya rúpam. This gives a better sense. It is partly supported by a MS. in the Sanskrit College. The same MS. in the next line reads tvám tu pasyati chaiko'pi--I read tvám tu pasyatu chaisho'pi.

[649] Lit. "the shape of the moon"; put for the moon, because the author is speaking of a woman. See Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.

[650] I. e. áryaputra, used by a wife in addressing a husband.

[651] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads asau where Brockhaus reads amúr.

[652] The Petersburg lexicographers remark that sampadád is "wohl fehlerhaft." A MS. in the Sanskrit College has sádarád. But this seems improbable with sádare in the line above. Babu Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya conjectures sammadád which I have adopted.

[653] The eight Lokapálas or guardians of the world.

[654] I. e. the Vidyádharas.

[655] His charioteer.

[656] I read samárúdha-Bhútásana-vimánakáh.

[657] Reading rabhasokti for nabhasokti. Perhaps siddhimitam in sl. 78, a, should be siddhamidam.

[658] In the MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College I find sodháhidansasya and visodhavahnes.

[659] Reading aneko dhanyártho.

[660] Cp. Odyssey 4. 841 hôs hoi enarges oneiron epessyto nyktos amolgô, where some suppose amolgos to mean the four hours before daybreak.

[661] I read cha ranadíksháyám.

[662] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads tatrásyástu sivam távat; let him succeed in the battle.

[663] I. e. attendants of Siva.

[664] The word, which I have translated "human sacrifice," is purushamedha. For the prevalence of human sacrifices among all nations of antiquity see Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybrass, Vol. I, p. 44 and ff; see also Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 246, 353, 361, 365. Dr. Rajendralála Mitra. Rai Bahadúr, in an essay in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 1876, entitled "Human Sacrifices in India," traces the history of the practice in India, and incidentally among the principal nations of antiquity. The following is his own summary of his conclusions with respect to the practice in India. (1) That, looking to the history of human civilization, and the rituals of the Hindus, there is nothing to justify the belief that in ancient times the Hindus were incapable of sacrificing human beings to their gods. (2) That the Sunahsepha hymns of the Rig Veda Sanhitá most probably refer to a human sacrifice. (3) That the Aitareya Bráhmana refers to an actual, and not a typical human sacrifice. (4) That the Purushamedha originally required the actual sacrifice of men. (5) That the Satapatha Bráhmana sanctions human sacrifice in some cases, but makes the Purushamedha emblematic. (6) That the Taittiríya Bráhmana enjoins the sacrifice of a man at the Horse sacrifice. (7) That the Puránas recognise human sacrifices to Chandiká but prohibit the Purushamedha rite. (8) That the Tantras enjoin human sacrifices to Chandiká, and require that, when human victims are not available, an effigy of a human being should be sacrificed to her. Of the sacrifices to Chandiká we have enough and to spare in the Kathá Sarit Ságara. Strange to say, it appears that human sacrifices were offered in Greece on Mount Lykaion in Arcadia even in the time of Pausanias. Dim traditions with respect to the custom are still found among the inhabitants of that region, (Bernhard Schmidt, Griechische Märchen, p. 27). Cp. the institution of the pharmakoi connected with the worship of Apollo! Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I, p. 202; see also pp. 240 and 257 and Vol. II, pp. 310 and 466; Herodotus VII, 197; Plato, Min. p. 315, C; Preller, Römische Mythologie, p. 104.

[665] Cp. chapter 45 . In