The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 90

[204] Cp. Sicilianische Marchen, Vol. I, p. 220. Liebrecht, in note 485 to page 413 of his translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction, compares this story with one in The Thousand and One Days of a princess of Kashmir, who was so beautiful that every one who saw her went mad, or pined away. He also mentions an Arabian tradition with respect to the Thracian sorceress Rhodope. "The Arabs believe that one of the pyramids is haunted by a guardian spirit in the shape of a beautiful woman, the mere sight of whom drives men mad." He refers also to Thomas Moore, the Epicurean, Note 6 to Chapter VI, and the Adventures of Hatim Tai, translated by Duncan Forbes, p. 18.

[205] In the original it is intended to compare the locks to the spots in the moon.

[206] Reading yad hi.

[207] The moon was the progenitor of the Pandava race.

[208] One of the five trees of Paradise.

[209] Kama the Hindu Cupid.

[210] There is a certain resemblance in the story of Sunda and Upasunda to that of Otus and Ephialtes; see Preller's Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I p. 81. Cp. also Grohmann's Sagen aus Bohmen, p. 35.

[211] The architect or artist of the G.o.ds.

[212] This is literally true. The king was addicted to the vyasana or vice of hunting.

[213] I read hastagrahayogyam for the ahastagrahayogyam of Dr. Brockhaus.

[214] The flower closes when the sun sets.

[215] To keep up his character as a Brahman boy.

[216] I read dahais.h.i.+na.

[217] This applies also to the G.o.d of love who bewilders the mind.

[218] Kara means hand, and also tribute.

[219] I read iva for eva.

[220] Reading taddvarasthitamahattaram as one word.

[221] For parallels to the story of Urvasi, see Kuhn's Herabkunft des Feuer's, p. 88.

[222] This, with the water weapon, and that of whirlwind, is mentioned in the Ramayana and the Uttara Rama Charita.

[223] Or Devars.h.i.+, belonging to the highest cla.s.s of Ris.h.i.+s or patriarchal saints.

[224] This dance is mentioned in the 1st Act of the Malavikagnimitra.

[225] Literally broke. The vyadhi or disease must have been of the nature of an abscess.

[226] Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.)

[227] Liebrecht in an essay on some modern Greek songs (Zur Volkskunde, p. 211) gives numerous stories of children who spoke shortly after birth. It appears to have been generally considered an evil omen. Cp. the Romance of Merlin. (Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 146.) See Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (New Edition, 1869) p. 170. In a startling announcement of the birth of Antichrist which appeared in 1623, purporting to come from the brothers of the Order of St. John, the following pa.s.sage occurs,--"The child is dusky, has pleasant mouth and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a cat, ears large, stature by no means exceeding that of other children; the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked and talked perfectly well."

[228] More literally; blockaded his house with policemen, and his throat with tears.

[229] So in the XXIst of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales the fakir changes the king's son into a fly. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 127.

[230] Ficus Indica. Such a tree is said to have sheltered an army. Its branches take root and form a natural cloister. Cp. Milton's Paradise Lost, Book IX, lines 1000 and ff.

[231] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybra.s.s, p. 121, note,) connects the description of wonderful maidens sitting inside hollow trees or perched on the boughs, with tree-wors.h.i.+p. See also Grohmann's Sagen aus Bohmen, p. 41.

[232] For the illuminating power of female beauty, see Note 3 to the 1st Tale in Miss Stokes's Collection, where parallels are cited from the folk-lore of Europe and Asia.

[233] Kamadhenu means a cow granting all desires; such a cow is said to have belonged to the sage Vasishta.

[234] Conciliation, bribery, sowing dissension, and war.

[235] The Prakrit word majjao means "a cat" and also "my lover."

[236] Cp. Schiller's "Der Graf von Habsburg," lines 9-12.

[237] The word pati here means king and husband.

[238] A smile is always white according to the Hindu poetic canons.

[239] The countenance of the fair ones were like moons.

[240] There should be a mark of elision before nimishekshanah.

[241] The eyes of Hindu ladies are said to reach to their ears. I read tadakhyatum for tadakhyatim with a MS. in the Sanskrit college, kindly lent me by the Librarian with the consent of the Princ.i.p.al.

[242] Love and affection, the wives of Kamadeva the Hindu Cupid.

[243] So the mouse in the Panchatantra possesses power by means of a treasure (Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320. Vol. II, p. 178.) The story is found also in the 61st Chapter of this work. Cp. also Sagas from the Far East, pp. 257 and 263. The same idea is found in the 39th Jataka, p. 322 of Rhys Davids' translation, and in the 257th Jataka, Vol. II, p. 297 of Fausboll's edition.

[244] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 263.

[245] I read darsayat.

[246] Sati is a misprint for mati, Bohtlingk and Roth sv.

[247] i. e. the Ganges.

[248] In Sanskrit pratapa the word translated "valour," also means heat, and chakra may refer to the wheels of the chariot and the orb of the sun, so that there is a pun all through.

[249] More literally, a torrent of pride and kicking.

[250] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybra.s.s, p. 392) remarks--"One princ.i.p.al mark to know heroes by is their possessing intelligent horses, and conversing with them. The touching conversation of Achilles with his Xanthos and Balios finds a complete parallel in the beautiful Karling legend of Bayard. (This is most pathetically told in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. II, Die Heimonskinder, see especially page 54). Grimm proceeds to cite many other instances from European literature. See also Note 3 to the XXth story in Miss Stokes's collection. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 336 and ff. See the remarks in Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, p. 237.

[251] The keeper of a burning or burial-ground would be impure.

[252] Probably the people sprinkled one another with red powder as at the Holi festival.

[253] So in Grimm's Marchen von einem der auszog das Furchten zu lernen the youth is recommended to sit under the gallows where seven men have been executed. Cp. also the story of "The Shroud"