Chapter 26

.

[244] By the laws of Hindu rhetoric a smile is regarded as white.

[245] We have an instance of this a little further on.

[246] I read dúrabhrashtá. The reading of the Sanskrit College MS. is dúram bhrashtá.

[247] See Vol. I. pp. 327 and 577, also Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, p. 36, and Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer, Book I, 30, with the notes.

[248] The moon suffers from consumption in consequence of the curse of Daksha, who was angry at his exclusive preference for Rohiní.

[249] Here there is a pun: upachitam means also "concentrated."

[250] Cp. a story in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes, in which a corpse, tenanted by a demon, is prevented from doing further mischief by a sword-stroke, which cleaves its head to the chin. (Liebrecht's Zur Volkskunde, p. 34 and ff.) Liebrecht traces the belief in vampires through many countries and quotes a passage from François Lenormant's work, La Magie chez les Chaldéens, which shews that the belief in vampires existed in Chaldæa and Babylonia.--See Vol. I, p. 574.

[251] Cp. the Vampire stories in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, especially that of the soldier and the Vampire, p. 314. It seems to me that these stories of Vetálas disprove the assertion of Herz quoted by Ralston, (p. 318) that among races which burn their dead, little is known of regular corpse-spectres, and of Ralston, that vampirism has made those lands peculiarly its own which have been tenanted or greatly influenced by Slavonians. Vetálas seem to be as troublesome in China as in Russia, see Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. II, p. 195. In Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 139, there is an interesting story of a Vampire, who begins by swallowing fowls, goats and sheep, and threatens to swallow men, but his career is promptly arrested by a man born on a Saturday. A great number of Vampire stories will be found in the notes to Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer, Book VIII, 10. See also his poem of Roprecht the Robber,

## Part III. For the lamps fed with human oil see Addendum to Fasciculus

IV, and Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 312, Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 360, and Kuhn's Westfälische Märchen, p. 146.

[252] A series of elaborate puns.

[253] The significance of those names will appear further on.

[254] The word may mean "man of romantic anecdote."

[255] Cp. Vol. I, pp. 355 and 577.

[256] The Sanskrit College MS. reads na for tu.

[257] I read jánási with the Sanskrit College MS. instead of jánámi which Dr. Brockhaus gives in his text.

[258] For European methods of attaining invisibility see Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 315; Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, pp. 29 and 31; Kuhn, Westfälische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 276, Vol. II, p. 177. The virtues of the Tarnkappe are well-known. In Europe great results are expected from reciting certain sacred formulæ backwards. A somewhat similar belief appears to exist among the Buddhists. Milton's "backward muttering of dissevering charms" is perhaps hardly a case in point.

[259] An elaborate pun! varna = caste and also colour: kalá = digit of the moon and accomplishment, or fine art: doshákara = mine of crimes and also the moon. Dowson, in his Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, tells us that Láta is a country comprising Kandesh and part of Guzerat about the Mhye river. It is now called Lár and is the Larikê of Ptolemy.

[260] I read prápnomyaham the reading of the Sanskrit College MS.

[261] i. e. Dice-mendicant.

[262] I conjecture oghaprasántyaiva.

[263] Cp. No. LXVI in the English Gesta, page 298 of Herrtage's edition, and the end of No. XII of Miss Stokes's Fairy Tales. See also Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, pp. 83 and 84.

[264] Cp. Odyssey, Book IV, 441-442.

[265] I read dámabhih for dhámabhih.

[266] Benfey (Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 214, note,) traces this superstition through all countries.

[267] This passage is a concatenation of puns.

[268] The whole passage is an elaborate pun. The lady is compared to a bow, the string of which vibrates in the notches, and the middle of which is held in the hand.

[269] I read, with the MS. in the Sanskrit College, drutam anuddhritya for drutam anugatya.

[270] As a life-buoy to prevent him from drowning.

[271] There must be a reference to the five flowery arrows of the god of Love.

[272] When applied to the moon, it means "glorious in its rising."

[273] Böhtlingk and Roth give upasankhya as überzählig (?).

[274] I adopt pramattá the reading of the Sanskrit College MS.

[275] The gods and Asuras used it as a churning-stick at the churning of the ocean for the recovery of the Amrita, and other precious things lost during the deluge.

[276] The Mongolian form of these stories is to be found in Sagas from the Far East. This work appears to be based upon a translation made by Jülg from the Calmuck language. Oesterley, in his German version of these tales, tells us that Jülg's translation appeared in Leipzig in the year 1866 under the title of "The tales of the Siddhikür." Oesterley mentions a Sanskrit redaction of the tales, attributed to Sivadása, and one contained in the Kathárnava. He also mentions a Tamul version translated into English by Babington under the title of Vetála Cadai; two Telugu versions, a Mahratta version, the well-known Hindi version, a Bengali version based upon the Hindi, and a Canarese version.

[277] Here there is probably a pun. The word translated "jackal" also means the god Siva. Bhairava is a form of Siva.

[278] See note on page 293.

[279] This story is the 27th in Miss Stokes's collection.

[280] I read satáláni, which I find in the Sanskrit College MS., instead of sajáláni. The mistake may have arisen from the blending of two readings satálani and jatáláni.

[281] In this there is a pun; the word translated "lotus" may also refer to Lakshmí the wife of Vishnu.

[282] Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya thinks that the word dantaghátaka must mean "dentist:" the Petersburg lexicographers take it to mean, "a worker in ivory." His name Sangrámavardhana has a warlike sound. Pandit Mahesa Chandra Nyáyaratna thinks that dantagháta is a proper name. If so, sangrámavardhana must mean prime minister.

[283] Cp. the way in which Pushpadanta's preceptor guesses the riddle in page 44 of Vol. I of this work; so Prince Ivan is assisted by his tutor Katoma in the story of "The Blind Man and the Cripple," Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 240. Compare also the story of Azeez and Azeezeh in Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, particularly page 484. The rapid manner, in which the hero and heroine fall in love in these stories, is quite in the style of Greek romances. See Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 148.

[284] The Chakora is fabled to subsist upon moonbeams.

[285] See the numerous parallels in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 232; and Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, p. 185, note, where he refers to the story of the Machandel boom (Kinder und Hausmärchen, No. 47), the myth of Zeus and Tantalus, and other stories. In the 47th tale of the Pentamerone of Basile, one of the five sons raises the princess to life and then demands her in marriage. In fact Basile's tale seems to be compounded of this and the 5th of the Vetála's stories. In Prym and Socin's Syrische Märchen, No. XVIII, the bones of a man who had been killed ten years ago, are collected, and the water of life is poured over them with the same result as in our text. There is a "Pergamentblatt" with a life-restoring charm written on it, in Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 353.

[286] Nishkântam is perhaps a misprint for nishkrântam the reading of the Sanskrit College MS.

[287] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 303.

[288] Cp. the story told by the "faucon peregryn" in Chaucer's Squire's Tale.

[289] The following story is the Xth in Sagas from the Far East.

[290] The god of love, with Buddhists the Devil. Benfey considers that the Vetála Panchavinsati was originally Buddhistic.

[291] A pun difficult to render in English.

[292] The Sanskrit College MS. reads vibuddhesvatha, i. e., being awake.

[293] I conjecture prahárí for the pahárí of Brockhaus' edition. In dhárá there is a pun as it also means the "edge of a sword."

[294] I read with the Sanskrit College MS. gupta-bhuvane kálatamasi.

[295] Cp. the way in which the Banshi laments in Grimm's Irische Märchen, pp. 121 and 122.

[296] I read kritapratishthá which I find in the Sanskrit College MS.

[297] Sattvavara means distinguished for courage.

[298] i. e., Moonlight.

[299] Vijnána appears to have this meaning here. In the Pentamerone of Basile (Liebrecht's translation, Vol. I, p. 266) a princess refuses to marry, unless a bridegroom can be found for her with a head and teeth of gold.

[300] The wife of Siva, called also Párvatí and Durgá.

[301] The word sukláyám, which is found in the Sanskrit College MS., is omitted by Professor Brockhaus.

[302] So in the Hero and Leander of Musæus the two lovers meet in the temple of Venus at Sestos, and in the Æthiopica of Heliodorus Theagenes meets Chariclea at a festival at Delphi. Petrarch met Laura for the first time in the chapel of St. Clara at Avignon, and Boccacio fell in love with Maria, the daughter of Robert of Naples, in the Church of the bare-footed friars in Naples. (Dunlop's History of Fiction, translated by Liebrecht, p. 9.) Rohde remarks that in Greek romances the hero and heroine usually meet in this way. Indeed it was scarcely possible for two young people belonging to the upper classes of Greek society to meet in any other way, (Der Griechische Roman, p. 146 and note). See also pp. 385 and 486.

[303] For tayá in sl. 10. b, the Sanskrit College MS. reads tathá.

[304] Prasnayah in Professor Brockhaus's text should be prasvayah.

[305] An allusion to the Ardhanárísa, (i. e. half male half female,) representation of Siva.

[306] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology, p. 185, note, seems to refer to a similar story. He says, "The fastening of heads, that have been chopped off, to their trunks in Waltharius 1157 seems to imply a belief in their reanimation;" see also Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 111. So St. Beino fastened on the head of Winifred after it had been cut off by Caradoc; (Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 348). A head is cut off and fastened on again in the Glücksvogel, Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 108. In Coelho's Portuguese Stories, No. XXVI, O Colhereiro, the 3rd daughter fastens on, in the Bluebeard chamber, with blood, found in a vase marked with their names, the heads of her decapitated sisters.

[307] Cp. Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, pp. 98, 99; Do Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, pp. 303 and 304.

[308] The word translated "ragged garment" is karpata. The word translated "dependent" is kárpatika. Cp. the story in the 53rd Chapter.

[309] Hridayáni should of course be hridyáni, as in the Sanskrit College MS.

[310] Cp. the palace of Morgan la Fay in the Orlando Innamorato, canto 36, (Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 168, Liebrecht's translation, p. 76); also the continuation of the romance of Huon de Bourdeaux, (Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 262, Liebrecht's translation, p. 128); and the romance of Ogier le Danois, (Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 286, Liebrecht's translation, p. 141); cp. also the 6th Fable in the IInd book of the Hitopadesa, (Johnson's translation, p. 57). Stories in which human beings marry dwellers in the water are common enough in Europe, see Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 116, and ff, Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, p. 192, and La Motto Fouqué's story of Undine. The present story resembles in many points "Der rothe Hund" in Gaal's Märchen der Magyaren. There is a similar castle in the sea in Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, p. 125. Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 53, where king Wilkinus marries a Meerweib, and the following extract from a letter of Mr. David Fitzgerald's in the Academy.

"The Siren's tale--like many other episodes of the Iliad and the Odyssey--reappears in various forms, one of the most curious of which is perhaps to be found in Ireland. I borrow it from O'Curry; and I omit the depreciatory criticism with which it is now the fashion to season extracts from that scholar's useful works. Ruad, son of Rigdonn, a king's son, crossing over to North-land with three ships and thirty men in each found his vessel held fast in mid-sea. [Compare the tale of Vidúshaka in Vol. I.] At last he leaped over the side to see what was holding it, and sinking down through the waters, alighted in a meadow where were nine beautiful women. These gave him nine boatloads of gold as the price of his embraces, and by their power held the three vessels immoveable on the water above for nine days. Promising to visit them on his return, the young Irish prince got away from the Sirens and their beds of red bronze, and continued his course to Lochlann, where he stayed with his follow-pupil, son to the king of that country, for seven years. Coming back, the vessels put about to avoid the submerged isle, and had nearly gained the Irish shore, when they heard behind them the song of lamentation of the nine sea-women, who were in vain pursuit of them in a boat of bronze. One of these murdered before Ruad's eyes the child she had borne him, and flung it head foremost after him. O'Curry left a version of this tale from the Book of Ballymote. I have borrowed a detail or two given in the Tochmarc Emere (fol. 21b)--e. g., the important Homeric feature of the watery meadow (machaire). The story given by Gervase of Tilbury (ed. Liebrecht, pp. 30, 31), of the porpoise-men in the Mediterranean and the young sailor; the Shetland seal-legend in Grimm's edition of Croker's tales (Irische Elfen-Märchen, Leipzig, 1826, pp. xlvii et seqq.); and the story found in Vincentius Bellovacensis and elsewhere, of the mermaid giantess and her purple cloak, may be named as belonging or related to the same cycle. These legends are represented in living Irish traditions and the purple cloak just referred to appears, much disguised, in the story of Liban in the book of the Dun." Coraes in his notes on the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, p. 225, has the following quotation from the life of Apollonius of Tyana written by Philostratus, IV, 25, referring to Menippus who married a female of the Rákshasí type and was saved from his fate by Apollonius.

"Hê chrêstê nymphê mia tôn Empousôn estin has Lamias te kai Mormolykias hoi polloi hêgountai ......... sarkôn de, kai malista anthrôpeiôn, erôsi, kai palleuousi (is. sphallousi) tois aphrodisiois, hous an ethelôsi daisasthai."

[311] Cp. the 26th Taranga of this work, and the parallels referred to there. See also the Losakajátaka, the 41st in Fausböll's edition. Oesterley refers us to Benfey's Panchatantra, 151 and following pages. See Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 410.

[312] More literally "through my merits in a former state of existence."

[313] Cp. Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book III, canto 6. stanza 42.

There is continual spring, and harvest there Continual, both meeting at one tyme.

Cp. also Odyssey VII 117, Milton, P. L., IV. 148.

[314] Niyogajanitas is a misprint for niyogijanatas, as is evident from the Sanskrit College MS.]

[315] Literally "grove of ancestors," i. e., cemetery.

[316] Here we have one of the puns in which our author delights.

[317] More literally, "for my own two garments." A Hindu wears two pieces of cloth.

[318] See note on Vol. I. p. 499, Liebrecht's translation of the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. II, p. 215, Herrtage's edition of the English Gesta Romanorum, p. 55, the Greek fable of Teiresias, Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 1. Cp. also Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, p. 24. We are told that Melampus buried the parents of a brood of snakes, and they rewarded him by licking his ears so that he understood the language of birds. (Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. II, p. 474.)

[319] This idea is common enough in this work, and I have already traced it in other lands. I wish now to refer to Rohde, der Griechische Roman, p. 126, note. It will be found specially illustrative of a passage in Vol. II, p. 144 of this work. Cp. also the Volsunga-Saga, in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, p. 33, and Murray's Ancient Mythology, p. 43. So Hanumán, in the Rámáyana, brings medicinal herbs from the Himálaya.

[320] The word vajra also means thunderbolt.

[321] Or "to protect the realm of Anga;" a shameless pun! The god of Love was consumed by the fire of Siva's eye.

[322] i. e. wise.

[323] One of our author's puns.

[324] The word that means "mountain" also means "king."

[325] The Sanskrit College MS. reads yantra for Brockhaus's yatra. The wishing-tree was moved by some magical or mechanical contrivance.

[326] The Sanskrit College MS. reads anáyattá, which Dr. Kern has conjectured.

[327] This part of the story may remind the reader of the story of Melusina the European snake-maiden: see Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. VI. It bears a certain resemblance to that of the Knight of Stauffenberg (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III.) Cp. also Ein Zimmern und die Meerfrauen, in Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, p. 7. Cp. also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 206. There is a slight resemblance in this story to the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

[328] For bhujagah the Sanskrit College MS. rends bhujaga, which seems to give a better sense than the reading in Brockhaus's text.

[329] Oesterley (Baitál Pachísí, 201) compares the 12th chapter of the Vikramacharitam in which Vikramáditya delivers a woman, who was afflicted every night by a Rákshasa in consequence of her husband's curse.

[330] I follow the reading of a MS. in the Sanskrit College yantradváravápiká.

[331] In the original sinsapá, which Professor Monier Williams renders thus; "the tree Dalbergia Sisu; the Asoka tree." Dr. King informs me that these two trees are altogether different. The translation which I have given of the word sinsapá, throughout these tales of the Vetála, is, therefore, incorrect. The tree to which the Vetála so persistently returns, is a Dalbergia Sisu.

[332] Dveshá must be a misprint for dveshát.

[333] For arudanniva the Sanskrit College MS. reads abhavanniva.

[334] Böhtlingk and Roth s. v. say that chíra in Taranga 73, sloka 240, is perhaps a mistake for chírí, grasshopper; the same may perhaps be the case in this passage.

[335] For virúpa the Sanskrit College MS. gives virúksha.

[336] Oesterley refers to Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 362, for stories in which snakes spit venom into food. Benfey gives at length a fable found in the Latin translation of John of Capua and compares a story in the Sindibád-námah, Asiatic Journal, 1841, XXXVI, 17; Syntipas, p. 149; Scott's Tales of the Seven Vizirs, 196; The 1001 Nights (Breslau) XV, 241; Seven Wise Masters in Grässe, Gesta Romanorum II, 195; Bahár Dánush 1, second and third stories; Keller, Romans des Sept Sages, CL; Dyocletian, Einleitung, 49; Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, Essai, 119, 1.

[337] I.e., Dharmarája, possibly the officer established by Asoka in his fifth edict; (see Senart, Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi, p. 125.) The term Dharmarája is applied to Yudhishthira and Yama. It means literally king of righteousness or religion. There is a Dharm Raja in Bhútán. Böhtlingk and Roth seem to take it to mean Yama in this passage.

[338] I prefer the reading of the Sanskrit College MS. túryakulaih.

[339] See note on page 13. Rohde, (Der Griechische Roman, p. 111,) points out that there are traces of this practice in the mythology of Ancient Greece. Evadne is said to have burnt herself with the body of her husband Capaneus. So OEnone, according to one account, leapt into the pyre on which the body of Paris was burning. See also Zimmer, Alt-Indisches Leben, pp. 329-331. So Brynhild burns herself with the body of Sigurd, (Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, p. 166).

[340] Cp. Mahábhárata, Vanaparvan, Adhyáya 297, sl. 39.

[341] His name Manahsvámin would imply that he ought to be.

[342] For gaja the Sanskrit College MS. reads mada.

[343] The word siddha also means a class of demigods who travel through the sky: Sasin means moon.

[344] Cp. the shaving, by the help of which Preziosa, in the Pentamerone, turns herself into a bear. (Liebrecht's translation of the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 212.) As soon as she takes it out of her mouth she resumes her human shape.

[345] Compare Vol. I, p. 45.

[346] This part of the story bears a certain resemblance to the myth of Achilles.

[347] The 10 stages are thus given by Sivadása: (1) Love of the eyes; (2) attachment of the mind (manas); (3) the production of desire; (4) sleeplessness; (5) emaciation; (6) indifference to objects of sense; (7) loss of shame; (8) distraction; (9) fainting; (10) death. (Dr. Zachariæ's Sixteenth Tale of the Vetálapanchavinsati, in Bezzenberger's Beiträge).

[348] Here the MS. in the Sanskrit College has mantrináse múlanásád rakshyá dharmakshatir dhruvam, which means, "we should certainly try to prevent virtue from perishing by the destruction of its root in the destruction of the minister."

[349] See