chapter 77

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[820] See Vol. I. pp. 465 and 578.

[821] Vikrosám is a misprint for vikosám. The latter is found in MS. No. 1882 and the Sanskrit College MS. and, I think, in No. 3003; but the letter is not very well formed.

[822] The word badhúns is evidently a misprint for bandhúns: as appears from the MSS.

[823] This story is known in Europe, and may perhaps be the original source of Shakespeare's "All's Well that Ends Well." At any rate there is a slight resemblance in the leading idea of the two stories. It bears a close resemblance to the story of Sorfarina, No. 36 in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, and to that of Sapia in the Pentamerone of Basile. In the Sicilian and in the Neapolitan tale a prince is angry with a young lady who, when teaching him, gave him a box on the ear, and marries her in order to avenge himself by ill-treating her; but finding that he has, without suspecting it, had three children by her, he is obliged to seek a reconciliation. Dr. Köhler in his note on the Sicilian tale gives no other parallel than Basile's tale, which is the 6th of the Vth day, Vol. II, p. 204 of Liebrecht's translation.

[824] I think we should read ushne. I believe that Nos. 1882 and 3003 have this, judging from the way in which shn is usually formed in those MSS.

[825] Cp. Ralston's Tibetan Tales, p. 89.

[826] I read pratyayo na me which I find in the Taylor MS. and which makes sense. I take the words as part of the boy's speech. "It is untrue; I do not believe it." But vakshyasyapratyayena me would also make sense. The Sanskrit College MS. supports Brockhaus's text.

[827] In the original there is the following note, "Here ends the tale of King Vikramáditya."

[828] Having reached the end of my translation, I am entitled to presume that this epithet refers to the extraordinary length of the Kathá Sarit Ságara.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Kathá Sarit Ságara, by Somadeva Bhatta