The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 336 and ff. See the remarks in
Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, 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 Märchen von einem der auszog das Fürchten zu
lernen the youth is recommended to sit under the gallows where
seven men have been executed. Cp. also the story of "The Shroud"
in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 307.
The belief that the dead rose from the tomb in the form of Vampires
appears to have existed in Chaldæa and Babylon. Lenormant observes
in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, (English Translation, p. 37) "In
a fragment of the Mythological epopée which is traced upon a tablet
in the British Museum, and relates the descent of Ishtar into Hades,
we are told that the goddess, when she arrived at the doors of the
infernal regions, called to the porter whose duty it was to open
them, saying,
"Porter, open thy door;
Open thy door that I may enter.
If thou dost not open the door, and if I cannot enter,
I will attack the door, I will break down its bars,
I will attack the enclosure, I will leap over its fences by force;
I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living;
I will give to the dead power over the living."
The same belief appears also to have existed in Egypt. The same author
observes (p. 92). "These formulæ also kept the body from becoming,
during its separation from the soul, the prey of some wicked spirit
which would enter, re-animate, and cause it to rise again in the form
of a vampire. For, according to the Egyptian belief, the possessing
spirits, and the spectres which frightened or tormented the living
were but the souls of the condemned returning to the earth, before
undergoing the annihilation of the 'second death.'"
[254] Cp. Ralston's account of the Vampire as represented in
the Skazkas. "It is as a vitalized corpse that the visitor from
the other world comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human
appetites, constantly endowed with more than human strength and
malignity."--Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 306.
[255] Cp. the way in which the witch treats the corpse of her son
in the VIth book of the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, ch. 14, and Lucan's
Pharsalia, Book VI, 754-757.
[256] I. e., the corpse tenanted by the Vetála or demon.
[257] Cp. Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 399.
[258] Lakshmí or Srí the goddess of Prosperity appeared after the
churning of the ocean with a lotus in her hand. According to another
story she is said to have appeared at the creation floating on the
expanded leaves of a lotus-flower. The hand of a lady is often compared
to a lotus.
[259] I. e., rising; the eastern mountain behind which the sun is
supposed to rise.
[260] I. e., semi-divine beings supposed to be of great purity and
holiness.
[261] General Cunningham identifies Paundravardhana with the modern
Pubna.
[262] There is a curious parallel to this story in Táránátha's History
of Buddhism, translated into German by Schiefner, p. 203. Here a
Rákshasí assumes the form of a former king's wife, and kills all
the subjects, one after another, as fast as they are elected to the
royal dignity.
[263] Compare the Apocryphal book of Tobit. See also the 30th page
of Lenormant's Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, English translation.
[264] Ralston in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 270, compares this incident
with one in a Polish story, and in the Russian story of the Witch
Girl. In both the arm of the destroyer is cut off.
[265] I read iva; the arm was the long bar, and the whole passage is
an instance of the rhetorical figure called utprekshá.
[266] Cp. the freeing of Argo by Hercules cutting off Pallair's arm
in the Togail Troi, ed. Stokes, p. 67.
[267] There is probably a pun here. Rámártham may mean "for the sake
of a fair one."
[268] I read na tad for tatra with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[269] Here there is a pun on Ananga, a name of the Hindu Cupid.
[270] Here there is a pun. The word guna also means rope.
[271] For stories of transportation through the air, see Wirt Sikes,
British Goblins, p. 157 and ff.
[272] Cp. the way in which Torello informs his wife of his presence
in Boccacio's Decameron Xth day Nov. IX. The novels of the Xth day
must be derived from Indian, and probably Buddhistic sources. There
is a Buddhistic vein in all of them. A striking parallel to the 5th
Novel of the Xth day will be found further on in this work.
Cp. also, for the incident of the ring, Thorpe's Yuletide Stories,
p. 167. See also the story of Heinrich der Löwe, Simrock's Deutsche
Volksbücher, Vol. I, pp. 21 and 22. Cp. also Waldau's Böhmische
Märchen, pp. 365 and 432, Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes,
p. 76; and Prym und Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 72. See also Ralston's
Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. xlix and 1.
[273] An oblation to gods, or venerable men of, rice, dúrva grass,
flowers, &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped
vessel.
[274] Sneha means oil, and also affection.
[275] Sattva when applied to the ocean probably means "monsters." So
the whole compound would mean "in which was conspicuous the fury of
gambling monsters." The pun defies translation.
[276] I read aushadeh. The Rákshasa is compared to the mountain,
Vidúshaka to the moon, his wives to the gleaming herbs.
[277] Thorpe in his Yule-tide Stories remarks that the story of
Vidúshaka somewhat resembles in its ground-plot the tale of the
Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth. With the
latter he also compares the story of Saktivega in the 5th book of the
Kathá Sarit Ságara. (See the table of contents of Thorpe's Yule-tide
Stories, p. xi.) Cp. also Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 1,
and for the cutting off of the giant's arm, p. 50.
[278] Perhaps we should read svádvaushadha = sweet medicine.
[279] I. q., Bheels.
[280] I read árúdhah.
[281] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sambhavah for the sampadah
of Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[282] Lustratio exercitus; waving lights formed part of the ceremony.
[283] It also means "drawing cords."
[284] He is sometimes represented as bearing the entire world on one
of his heads.
[285] One of these poison-damsels is represented as having been
employed against Chandragupta in the Mudrá Rákshasa. Compare the
XIth tale in the Gesta Romanorum, where an Indian queen sends one to
Alexander the Great. Aristotle frustrates the stratagem.
[286] Jayastambha. Wilson remarks that the erection of these columns is
often alluded to by Hindu writers, and explains the character of the
solitary columns which are sometimes met with, as the Lát at Delhi,
the pillars at Allahábád, Buddal, &c.
[287] Kalinga is usually described as extending from Orissa to Drávida
or below Madras, the coast of the Northern Circars. It appears,
however, to be sometimes the Delta of the Ganges. It was known to
the ancients as Regio Calingarum, and is familiar to the natives of
the Eastern Archipelago by the name of Kling. Wilson.
[288] The clouds are nihsára void of substance, as being no longer
heavy with rain. The thunder ceases in the autumn.
[289] Chola was the sovereignty of the western part of the Peninsula
on the Carnatic, extending southwards to Tanjore where it was bounded
by the Pándyan kingdom. It appears to have been the Regio Soretanum
of Ptolemy and the Chola mandala or district furnishes the modern
appellation of the Coromandel Coast.--Wilson, Essays, p. 241 note.
[290] Murala is another name for Kerala, now Malabar (Hall.) Wilson
identifies it with the Curula of Ptolemy.
[291] Or perhaps more literally "creeper-like sword." Probably the
expression means "flexible, well-tempered sword," as Professor Nílmani
Mukhopádhyáya has suggested to me.
[292] It had been employed for this purpose by the gods and
Asuras. Láta = the Larice of Ptolemy. (Wilson.)
[293] Turks, the Indo-scythæ of the ancients. (Wilson.)
[294] Persians.
[295] A Daitya or demon. His head swallows the sun and moon.
[296] Perhaps the Huns.
[297] The western portion of Assam. (Wilson.)
[298] For the worship of trees and tree-spirits, see Grimm's Teutonic
Mythology, p. 75 and ff., and Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II,
p. 196 and ff.
[299] I here read durdasáh for the durdarsáh of Dr. Brockhaus' text. It
must be a misprint. A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads durdasáh.
[300] The Guhyakas are demi-gods, attendants upon Kuvera and guardians
of his wealth.
[301] Literally--having the cardinal points as her only garment.
[302] For the circle cp. Henry VI. Part II, Act I, Sc. IV, line
25 and Henry V. Act V, Sc. 2, line 420. "If you would conjure,
you must make a circle." See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 272. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 292, 302, 303. See also
Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, pp. 200, and 201; Henderson's Northern
Folk-lore, p. 19, Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus
Meklenburg, Vol. I, pp. 128, 213. Professor Jebb, in his notes on
Theophrastus' Superstitious man, observes "The object of all those
ceremonies, in which the offerings were carried round the person or
place to be purified, was to trace a charmed circle within which the
powers of evil should not come." Cp. also Grössler's Sagen aus der
Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 217, Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III,
p. 56; Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 226.
[303] i. e. by the fire of Siva's eye.
[304] Perhaps we ought to read sadehasya. I find this rending in a
MS. lent to me by the librarian of the Sanskrit College with the kind
permission of the Principal.
[305] i. e. Siva.
[306] In this wild legend, resembling one in the first book of the
Rámáyana, I have omitted some details for reasons which will be
obvious to those who read it in the original.
[307] i. e. the six Pleiades.
[308] Mr. Tylor (in his Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 176) speaking
of Slavonian superstitions, says, "A man whose eyebrows meet as if
his soul were taking flight to enter some other body, may be marked
by this sign either as a were-wolf or a vampire." In Icelandic Sagas
a man with meeting eyebrows is said to be a werewolf. The same idea
holds in Denmark, also in Germany, whilst in Greece it is a sign that
a man is a Brukolak or Vampire. (Note by Baring-Gould in Henderson's
Folk-lore of the Northern Counties). The same idea is found in Bohemia,
see Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 210. Cp. Grimm's Irische Märchen,
p. cviii.
[309] I read ásta for ásu.
[310] rajas in Sanskrit means dust and also passion.
[311] i. e. immunity from future births.
[312] i. e. desire, wrath, covetousness, bewilderment, pride and envy.
[313] Cp. the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, Book VII, ch. 15, where the
witch is armed with a sword during her incantations; and Homer's
Odyssey, XI, 48. See also for the magic virtues of steel Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, pp. 312, 313.
[314] See Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 289, where a young man
overhears a spell with similar results. See also Bartsch's Sagen,
Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 115.
[315] I read tan tad.
[316] Called more usually by English people Allahabad.
[317] This incident reminds one of Schiller's ballad--Der Gang nach
dem Eisenhammer. (Benfey Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320.)
The story of Fridolin in Schiller's ballad is identical with the
story of Fulgentius which is found in the English Gesta Romanorum,
see Bohn's Gesta Romanorum, Introduction, page 1. Douce says that the
story is found in Scott's Tales from the Arabic and Persian, p. 53 and
in the Contes devots or Miracles of the Virgin. (Le Grand, Fabliaux,