The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
Manteau mal taillé or Le Court Mantel, an English version of which is
published in Percy's Reliques, the Boy and the Mantel (Vol. III.) In
the Gesta Romanorum (c. 69) the test is the whimsical one of a shirt,
which will neither require washing nor mending as long as the wearer is
constant. (Not the wearer only but the wearer and his wife). Davenant
has substituted an emerald for a flower.
The bridal stone,
And much renowned, because it chasteness loves,
And will, when worn by the neglected wife,
Shew when her absent lord disloyal proves
By faintness and a pale decay of life.
I may remark that there is a certain resemblance in this story to
that of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, which is founded on the 9th Story of
the 2nd day in the Decamerone, and to the 7th Story in Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen.
See also "The king of Spain and his queen" in Thorpe's Yule-tide
Stories, pp. 452-455. Thorpe remarks that the tale agrees in substance
with the ballad of the "Graf Von Rom" in Uhland, II, 784; and with
the Flemish story of "Ritter Alexander aus Metz und Seine Frau
Florentina." In the 21st of Bandello's novels the test is a mirror
(Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 287). See also pp. 85 and 86 of Liebrecht's
Dunlop, with the notes at the end of the volume.
[181] A man of low caste now called Dom. They officiate as
executioners.
[182] Compare the way in which the widow's son, the shifty lad,
treats Black Rogue in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands
(Tale XVII d. Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 303.)
[183] Datura is still employed, I believe, to stupefy people whom it
is thought desirable to rob.
[184] I read iva for the eva of Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[185] A precisely similar story occurs in the Bahár Dánish. The turn
of the chief incident, although not the same, is similar to that of
Nov VII, Part 4 of Bandello's Novelle, or the Accorto Avvedimento
di una Fantesca à liberare la padrona e l' innamorato di quella de
la morte. (Wilson's Essays, Vol. I, p. 224.) Cp. also the Mongolian
version of the story in Sagas from the Far East, p. 320. The story
of Saktimatí is the 19th in the Suka Saptati. I have been presented
by Professor Nílmani Mukhopádhyáya with a copy of a MS. of this work
made by Babu Umesa Chandra Gupta.
[186] Cp. the story of the Chest in Campbell's Stories from the Western
Highlands. It is the first story in the 2nd volume and contains one
or two incidents which remind us of this story.
[187] I read mahâkulodgatáh.
[188] Alluding to Indra's having cut the wings of the mountains.
[189] The peafowl are delighted at the approach of the rainy season,
when "their sorrow" comes to an end.
[190] It is often the duty of these minstrels to wake the king with
their songs.
[191] Weapons well known in Hindu mythology. See the 6th act of the
Uttara Ráma Charita.
[192] Sútrapátam akarot she tested, so to speak. Cp. Taranga 21,
sl. 93. The fact is, the smoke made her eyes as red as if she had
been drinking.
[193] Or "like Kuvera." There is a pun here.
[194] Young Deformed.
[195] Cp. the distribution of presents on the occasion of King Etzel's
marriage in the Nibelungen Lied.
[196] It must be remembered that a king among the Hindus was
inaugurated with water, not oil.
[197] The word "adders" must here do duty for all venomous kinds
of serpents.
[198] A similar story is found in the IVth book of the Panchatantra,
Fable 5, where Benfey compares the story of Yayáti and his son
Puru. Benfey Panchatantra I. 436. Bernhard Schmidt in his Griechische
Märchen, page 37, mentions a very similar story, which he connects
with that of Admetos and Alkestis. In a popular ballad of Trebisond,
a young man named Jannis, the only son of his parents, is about to be
married, when Charon comes to fetch him. He supplicates St. George,
who obtains for him the concession, that his life may be spared, in
case his father will give him half the period of life still remaining
to him. His father refuses, and in the same way his mother. At last
his betrothed gives him half her allotted period of life, and the
marriage takes place. The story of Ruru is found in the Ádiparva of
the Mahábhárata, see Lévêque, Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde, pp. 278,
and 374.
[199] I read dhátá for dhátrá.
[200] i. e. Hastinápura.
[201] Here Wilson observes: The circumstances here related are not
without analogies in fact. It is not marvellous therefore that we
may trace them in fiction. The point of the story is the same as
that of the "Deux Anglais à Paris," a Fabliau, and of "Une femme
à l'extremité qui se mit en si grosse colère voyant son mari qui
baisait sa servante qu'elle recouvra la santé" of Margaret of Navarre,
(Heptameron. Nouvelle 71). Cp. Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern
Counties, p. 131.
Webster, Duchess of Malfi, Act IV, Sc. 2, tells a similar story,
"A great physician, when the Pope was sick
Of a deep melancholy, presented him
With several sorts of madmen, which wild object,
Being full of change and sport, freed him to laugh,
And so the imposthume broke."
[202] Cp. Sagas from the far East, Tale XI, pp. 123, 124. Here
the crime contemplated is murder, and the ape is represented by a
tiger. This story bears a certain resemblance to the termination of
Alles aus einer Erbse, Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 22. See
also page 220 of the same collection. In the Pentamerone of Basile,
Tale 22, a princess is set afloat in a box, and found by a king,
whose wife she eventually becomes. There is a similar incident in
Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 220.
[203] Literally a handful of water, such as is offered to the Manes, is
offered to Fortune. It is all over with his chance of attaining glory.
[204] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, 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 Kashmír, 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 Pándava race.
[208] One of the five trees of Paradise.
[209] Káma 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 Böhmen, p. 35.
[211] The architect or artist of the gods.
[212] This is literally true. The king was addicted to the vyasana
or vice of hunting.
[213] I read hastagraháyogyám for the áhastagraháyogyám of
Dr. Brockhaus.
[214] The flower closes when the sun sets.
[215] To keep up his character as a Bráhman boy.
[216] I read dáhaishiná.
[217] This applies also to the god of love who bewilders the mind.
[218] Kara means hand, and also tribute.
[219] I read iva for eva.
[220] Reading taddvárasthitamahattaram as one word.
[221] For parallels to the story of Urvasí, see Kuhn's Herabkunft
des Feuer's, p. 88.
[222] This, with the water weapon, and that of whirlwind, is mentioned
in the Rámáyana and the Uttara Ráma Charita.
[223] Or Devarshi, belonging to the highest class of Rishis or
patriarchal saints.
[224] This dance is mentioned in the 1st Act of the Málavikágnimitra.
[225] Literally broke. The vyádhi 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 passage 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 Stallybrass,
p. 121, note,) connects the description of wonderful maidens sitting
inside hollow trees or perched on the boughs, with tree-worship. See
also Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, 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] Kámadhenu 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 Prákrit word majjáo 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 nimishekshanáh.
[241] The eyes of Hindu ladies are said to reach to their ears. I
read tadákhyátum for tadákhyátim with a MS. in the Sanskrit college,
kindly lent me by the Librarian with the consent of the Principal.
[242] Love and affection, the wives of Kámadeva 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
Játaka, p. 322 of Rhys Davids' translation, and in the 257th Játaka,
Vol. II, p. 297 of Fausböll's edition.
[244] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 263.
[245] I read darsayat.
[246] Sati is a misprint for mati, Böhtlingk and Roth sv.
[247] i. e. the Ganges.
[248] In Sanskrit pratápa 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 Stallybrass,
p. 392) remarks--"One principal 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 Volksbücher, 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,