The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 114

[528] I follow Dr. Kern in deleting the inverted commas, and the comma after drishtva.

[529] Bernhard Schmidt in a note on page 12 of his Griechische Marchen informs us that he considers the connexion between the Vidyadharas and the Phaeacians of Homer to be clearly proved. Here we have two points wherein the Gandharvas resemble them; (1) the love of music, (2) the right of ordinary citizens to aspire to the hand of the princess.

[530] I read satalam sa cha gayanti vinayam Saurina svayam Dattam svagitakam kashtam gandharve paramam gata. In this all the three India Office MSS. substantially agree. No. 1882 writes gayanti with both short and long i and gandharva, No. 2166 has kashtham with short a, and all three have a short a in Gandharve. It is curious to see how nearly this agrees with Dr. Kern's conjecture. I find that the MS. lent me by the Princ.i.p.al of the Sanskrit College agrees with the reading I propose, except that it gives gandharva.

[531] In the Swayamvara the election used to be made by throwing a garland on the neck of the favoured suitor.

[532] MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 read mukhamandane i. e., face-ornament.

[533] Perhaps the word also conveys the meaning, "intoxicated." MSS. Nos. 1882 and 3166, give samadatamranetra, the other by mistake atama. This would mean the "play of the eyes a little red with intoxication and of the eyebrow." The word I have translated "palate" means the tongue considered as the organ of taste. The MS. kindly lent me by the Princ.i.p.al of the Sanskrit College reads samadattamranetra-bhruvibhramah.

[534] The three India Office MSS., which Dr. Rost has kindly lent me, read tadanyanga. So does the Sanskrit College MSS.

[535] I have altered the division of the words, as there appears to be a misprint in Brockhaus's text.

[536] The three India Office MSS. give Srantamjalatrisha. In No. 1882 the line begins with atra, in the other two with tatra: I have given what I believe to be the sense taking trisha as the instrumental. Sranta appears to be sometimes used for Santa. The Sanskrit College MS. reads tatra santam jalatrisha tasya pitambhaso vane. This exactly fits in with my rendering.

[537] I delete the stop at the end of the 100th sloka. All the India Office MSS. read kritasvasa, and so does the Sanskrit College MS., but kritasa sa makes sense.

[538] A single braid of hair worn by a woman as a mark of mourning for an absent husband. Monier Williams s. v. ekaveni.

[539] MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 read na cha for mayi; "and did not practise cruelties;" No. 3003 has mayi. The Sanskrit College MS. has mama krauryannyavartata (sic).

[540] I read tatrasya tatpradhanagre dosham sirasi pataya. The three India Office MSS. give tatrasya; No. 1882 has prasadagre and dharaya; No. 3003 pradhanagre and dharaya; No. 2166 pradhanagre and pataya. The Sanskrit College MS. agrees with Brockhaus's text.

[541] Dr. Kern would read na cha for vata. Righteous kings and judges see no difference between a feeble and powerful person, between a stranger and a kinsman. But the three India Office MSS. read vata. So does the MS. which the Princ.i.p.al of the Sanskrit College, Pandit Mahesa Chandra Nyayaratna, has kindly lent me.

[542] The Petersburg lexicographers are of opinion that risad should be tasad or tasad. Two of the India Office MSS. seem to read tasad.

[543] See Vol. I, pp. 136 and 142.

[544] Here two of the India Office MSS. read mamsopadamsam, the third mamsopadesam.

[545] Dr. Kern reads tena for yena. His conjecture is confirmed by the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS.

[546] I have adopted Dr. Kern's conjecture of saha for sahi and separated with him abhyudayayate into two words, abhyudayaya te. I find that his conjecture as to saha is confirmed by the three India Office MSS.

[547] Probably devanirmitah should be one word.

[548] See Vol. I, p. 405.

[549] In Sanskrit Siddhakshetra.

[550] Perhaps we may compare Vergil Georgics, I, 487, and Horace, Od. I, 34, 5; and Vergil Aeneid VII, 141, with the pa.s.sages there quoted by Forbiger. But MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 read udbhuta.

[551] It is clear that the G.o.ddess did not herself appear, so trinetra is not a proper name, unless we translate the pa.s.sage "armed with the trident of Gauri."

[552] Compare Webster's play, The d.u.c.h.ess of Malfy, where the d.u.c.h.ess says

What witchcraft doth he practise, that he hath left A dead man's hand here?

[553] I read antargriham as one word.

[554] In the above wild story the hero has to endure the a.s.saults of the witches on three successive nights. So in the story of the Headless Princess (Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 271) the priest's son has to read the psalter over the dead princess three nights running. He is hardest pressed on the last night; and on each occasion at day-break the "devilry vanished." In the same way in The Soldier's Midnight Watch (ib. p. 274) the soldier has three nights of increasing severity. So in Southey's Old Woman of Berkeley, the a.s.saults continue for three nights, and on the third are successful.

[555] Kuhn in his Westfalische Sagen, Vol. II, p. 29, gives a long list of herbs that protect men from witches. The earliest instance in literature is perhaps that Moly,

"That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave."

See also Bartsch, Sagen aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, p. 37.

[556] See Vol. I, pp. 224 and 576, and p. 268 of the present volume. To the parallels quoted by Ralston may be added, Prym and Socin's Syrische Sagen, p. 116; Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, p. 94; and Coelho's Contos Portuguezes, p. 63.

[557] Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, pp. 341, 342. Here Hagen steals the clothes of some Meerweiber, who were bathing in the Danube; in this way he induces the elder of the two to prophesy the fate of himself and his companions at the court of Attila. In the Russian story of Vasilissa the Wise (Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 126,) the hero steals Vasilissa's s.h.i.+ft. She promises to do him good service if he gives it back, which he does. She turned into a spoonbill and flew away after her companions. (See Ralston's remarks on p. 120.) We find the incident of stealing the robes of bathing nymphs in Prym and Socin's Syrische Sagen und Marchen, p. 116; in Waldau's Bohmische Marchen, p. 250; Veckenstedt's Wendische Marchen, pp. 119-130; Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, Part I, p. 31, (with Kohler's notes). In the above tales the dress stolen is what our great folk-lore authority terms a "plumage-robe."

The Nereids in modern Greek stories are swan-maidens; see Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen und Sagen, p. 134. The subject of Swan Maidens is thoroughly worked out by Baring Gould in his Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, New edition, pp. 561-578. See also Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, pp. 263 and ff. He expresses his firm conviction that tales of this kind will be found in Indian collections.

[558] Or possibly, "clothed in moisture."

[559] The three India Office MSS. read samstavad.

[560] Cp. Vol. I, p. 250; and for what follows p. 230 of the same volume.

[561] Cp. p. 8 of this volume and the note there. In Sagas from the Far East there is a story of a gold-spitting prince. In Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, Quaddaruni's sister drops pearls and precious stones from her hair whenever she combs it. Dr. Kohler in his note on this tale gives many European parallels. In a Swedish story a gold ring falls from the heroine's mouth whenever she speaks, and in a Norwegian story gold coins. I may add to the parallels quoted by Dr. Kohler, No. 36 in Coelho's Contos Portuguezes, in which tale pearls drop from the heroine's mouth.

[562] All the India Office MSS. read 'dyapi for yo 'pi and two seem to read apatane. I find apatana in the Petersburg lexicon, but not apatana. I have translated the pa.s.sage loosely so as to make a good sense. The Sanskrit College MS. gives a reading which exactly suits my translation; Sachandrardhah Sivo 'dyapi Harir yas cha sakaustubhah Tattayorvedmi kuttanya gochar apatane phalam.

[563] More literally "smeared with blood and relis.h.i.+ng it." Bohtlingk and Roth seem to think rasat refers to some noise made by the swords.

[564] All the India Office MSS. read bhitam for the bhimam of Brockhaus's text.

[565] The word means "having sands of gold."

[566] The word asmabhir has been omitted in Brockhaus's text. It follows panchabhir in the three India Office MSS. and in the Sanskrit College MS.

[567] Two of the India Office MSS. have bharaniyam. In the third the pa.s.sage is omitted. But the text of Brockhaus gives a good sense.

[568] I read prashthas which I find in two of the India Office MSS. No. 1882 has prasthas.

[569] An epithet of Siva.

[570] See Vol. I, pp. 153 and 575. Cf. also the story of Aschenkatze in the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 83; the Dummedhajataka, Ed. Fausboll, Vol. I, p. 259; Preller, Romische Mythologie, p. 96; Kuhn, Westfalische Sagen, Vol. I, pp. 241, 242, 244, 245; Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 722-724, and 743 and ff; and Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction, p. lii.

[571] The Sanskrit College MS. has Ratya.