The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 97

[534] An allusion to the Arddhanarisa form of Siva.

[535] Kala = digit of the moon and also accomplishment.

[536] The vidya of the Vidyaharas. I read pratikshyate.

[537] Here Professor Brockhaus supposes a hiatus.

[538] Cp. this with the "jewel-lamps" on pp. 189 and 305, and the luminous carbuncle in Gesta Romanorum, CVII. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, Book II, chapter 5, says, "Whether a carbuncle doth flame in the dark, or s.h.i.+ne like a coal in the night, though generally agreed on by common believers, is very much questioned by many." See also Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. I, p. 301; Vol. III, p. 12; Vol. VI, p. 289. Lucian in his De Dea Syria ch. 32, speaks of a precious stone of the name of lychnis which was bright enough to light up a whole temple at night. We read in the history of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book II, ch. 42, that Alexander found in the belly of a fish a precious stone which he had set in gold and used at night as a lamp. See also Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 42. See Gaal, Marchen der Magyaren, p. 155; Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, III, 14.

[539] i. e. supreme lord of jewels.

[540] i. e. as Indra mounts Airavata.

[541] The modern Tamluk. The district probably comprised the small but fertile tract of country lying to the westward of the Hughli river, from Bardwan and Kalna on the north, to the banks of the Kosai river on the south. (Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, p. 504.)

[542] In the 115th tale of the Gesta Romanorum we read that two chaste virgins were able to lull to sleep and kill an elephant, that no one else could approach.

[543] Both were produced at the churning of the ocean.

[544] A famous linga of Siva in Ujjayini.

[545] Perhaps the Pushkalavati described by General Cunningham in his Ancient Geography of India, p. 49.

[546] There is a studied ambiguity in all these words, the usual play on affection and oil being kept up. A marginal correction in a Sanskrit College MS. lent to me, gives hridayam. The text has ranjitam sthathavan. The latter is a vox nihili. Brockhaus's text may be explained--My hand full of my heart was steeped in affection for you.

[547] For "funeral human sacrifice for the service of the dead,"

see Tylor's Primitive Culture, pp. 413-422. Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, pp. 165 and 166.

[548] i. e. Producer of horns.

[549] Cp. the 31st tale in Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, (p. 209) where the black figs produce horns. There is also in the same story a pipe that compels all that hear its sound to dance. See Dr. Reinhold Kohler's notes on the tale: also Grimm's No. 110 and his notes in his third volume. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 65. See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 283: Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, No. 20, and Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 484. The incident in Sicilianische Marchen closely resembles one in the story of Fortunatus as told in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. III, p. 175. There is a pipe that compels all the hearers to dance in Hug of Bordeaux, Vol. X, p. 263, and a very similar fairy harp in Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 97; and a magic fiddle in Das Goldene Schachspiel, a story in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbaumen, p. 160. A fiddler in Bartsch's Sagen aus Meklenburg, (Vol. I, p. 130) makes a girl spin round like a top. From that day she was lame. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, pp. 182 and 288, and Baring Gould, IInd Series, p. 152. Kuhn, in his Westfalische Marchen, Vol. I, p. 183, mentions a belief that horns grew on the head of one who looked at the Wild Huntsman. It is just possible that this notion may be derived from the story of Actaeon. A statue found in the ruins of the villa of Antoninus Pius near Lavinium represents him with his human form and with the horns just sprouting. (Engravings from Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, Plate XLV.) Cp. also the story of Cipus in Ovid's Metamorphoses XV, 552-621. For the magic pipe see Grimm's Irische Marchen, Einleitung, p. lx.x.xiii; Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 264. Remarks on the pipe and horns will be found in Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. liv-lvi.

[550] Cp. Grimm's Marchen, No. 193. The parallel between Grimm's story and that of Vidushaka in 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 c.o.c.k 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 t.i.tle 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 Marchen, p. 229, where we have the incident of the selling; Waldau, Bohmische Marchen, p. 125; Coelho Contos Portuguezes, p. 32.

[553] Pandit Syama Charan Mukhopadhyaya conjectures asoshyamane. 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 a.s.s 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 Iduna in the forms of a falcon and a sparrow are pursued by the giant Thia.s.si in the shape of an eagle.

[556] The word samvara, which I have translated "congregation,"

probably means "sorcery;" see Bohtlingk 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 alapam, 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] Karpatika; for the use of this word see chapters 24, 63 and 81 of this work.

[562] I follow sakutam 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 Phalabhuti 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 Phalabhuti,) in the Nugae Curialium of Gualterus Mapes: (Zur Volkskunde, p. 38).

[566] Cp. Sicilianische Marchen, 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--dana giving and the ichor that exudes from the temples of a mast elephant. "Surrounded with cl.u.s.tering bees" may also mean, "surrounded with handmaids whose consolations worried her."

[568] The word vibudha also means G.o.ds--and the G.o.ds feed on the moon.

[569] Compare the lichi in the XVth of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, and the payasa in the XVIth Sarga of the Ramayana. See also Sicilianische Marchen, page 269, and Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, 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 Olivenbaumen, 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 Marchen, Vol. I, p. 199.

[573] Compare the story of "The Golden Lion" in Laura von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, Vol. II, p. 76, where the lady places a white cloth round her waist. See Dr. Kohler's note on the pa.s.sage. 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 Marchen, pp. 256 and 258, and Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 408 and Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 39. The was.h.i.+ng of the hero by a cheti 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 khari = about 3 bushels.

[575] Compare the way in which Psyche separated the seeds in the Golden a.s.s of Apuleius, Lib. VI. cap X, and the tasks in Grimm's Marchen, 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 Marchen, 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 mult.i.tude 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 Marchen 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 G.o.d of fire with the help of Arjuna and Krishna.

[578] Hektor, atar sy moi essi pater kai potnia meter ede kasignetos, sy de moi thaleros parakoites.

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

[580] For this part of the story see Sicilianische Marchen, No 14, with Dr. Kohler'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 pa.s.s that way.

[582] Compare the story of "die kluge Else," the 34th in Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmarchen, where the heroine has a doubt about her own ident.i.ty 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, Marchen, und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 508. In Prym and Socin's Syrische Marchen, No. LXII, page 250, the flea believes himself to be dead, and tells every one so.