The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 86

Professor E. B. Cowell has referred me to an article by Dr. Liebrecht in the Zeitschrift der Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft.

He connects the custom with that of the Jewish women mentioned in Jeremiah VII. 18, "The women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven," and he quotes a curious custom practised on Palm Sunday in the town of Saintes. Dulaure states that in his time the festival was called there La fete des Pinnes; the women and children carried in the procession a phallus made of bread, which they called a pinne, at the end of their palm branches; those pinnes were subsequently blessed by the priest, and carefully preserved by the women during the year. This article has been republished by the learned author in his "Zur Volkskunde" (Heilbronn, 1879) p. 436 and f f. under the t.i.tle of "der aufgegessene Gott." It contains many interesting parallels to the custom described in the text.

[33] Literally bodiless--she heard the voice, but saw no man.

[34] Vara = excellent ruch = to please.

[35] I. e. Palibothra.

[36] Wilson remarks (Essays on Sanskrit Literature, Vol. I, p. 165). "The contemporary existence of Nanda with Vararuchi and Vyadi is a circ.u.mstance of considerable interest in the literary history of the Hindus, as the two latter are writers of note on philological topics. Vararuchi is also called in this work Katyayana, who is one of the earliest commentators on Panini. Nanda is the predecessor or one of the predecessors of Chandragupta or Sandrakottos; and consequently the chief inst.i.tutes of Sanskrit grammar are thus dated from the fourth century before the Christian era. We need not suppose that Somadeva took the pains to be exact here; but it is satisfactory to be made acquainted with the general impressions of a writer who has not been bia.s.sed in any of his views by Pauranik legends and preposterous chronology."

[37] I. e., of learning and material prosperity.

[38] Literally the gate of the Ganges: it is now well known under the name of Haridvar (Hurdwar).

[39] Dr. Brockhaus renders the pa.s.sage "wo Siva die Jahnavi im goldenen Falle von den Gipfeln des Berges Usinara herabsandte."

[40] Skanda is Kartikeya and his mother is of course Durga or Parvati the consort of Siva.

[41] This may be compared with Grimm's No. 60, "Die zwei Bruder." Each of the brothers finds every day a gold piece under his pillow. In one of Waldau's Bohmische Marchen, Vogelkopf und Vogelherz (p. 90) a boy named Fortunat eats the heart of the Glucksvogel and under his pillow every day are found three ducats. See also Der Vogel Goldschweif, in Gaal's Marchen der Magyaren, p. 195.

[42] In this case the austerities which he had performed in a former birth to propitiate Siva.

[43] This story is, according to Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra, found in a MS. called the Bodhisattva Avadana. (Account of the Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. 53).

[44] I. e., bali, a portion of the daily meal offered to creatures of every description, especially the household spirits. Practically the bali generally falls to some crow, hence that bird is called balibhuj.

[45] A similar incident is found in Grimm's Fairy Tales translated by Mrs. Paull, p. 370. The hero of the tale called the Crystal Ball finds two giants fighting for a little hat. On his expressing his wonder, "Ah", they replied, "you call it old, you do not know its value. It is what is called a wis.h.i.+ng-hat, and whoever puts it on can wish himself where he will, and immediately he is there." "Give me the hat,"

replied the young man, "I will go on a little way and when I call you must both run a race to overtake me, and whoever reaches me first, to him the hat shall belong." The giants agreed and the youth taking the hat put it on and went away; but he was thinking so much of the princess that he forgot the giants and the hat, and continued to go further and further without calling them. Presently he sighed deeply and said, "Ah, if I were only at the Castle of the golden sun."

Wilson (Collected Works, Vol. III, p. 169, note,) observes that "the story is told almost in the same words in the Bahar Danish, a purse being subst.i.tuted for the rod; Jahandar obtains possession of it, as well as the cup, and slippers in a similar manner. Weber [Eastern Romances, Introduction, p. 39] has noticed the a.n.a.logy which the slippers bear to the cap of Fortunatus. The inexhaustible purse, although not mentioned here, is of Hindu origin also, and a fraudulent representative of it makes a great figure in one of the stories of the Dasa k.u.mara Charita" [ch. 2, see also L. Deslongchamps Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, Paris, 1838, p. 35 f. and Gra.s.se, Sagen des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1842, p. 19 f.] The additions between brackets are due to Dr. Reinholdt Rost the editor of Wilson's Essays.

The Mongolian form of the story may be found in Sagas from the Far East, p. 24. A similar incident is also found in the Swedish story in Thorpe's Scandinavian Tales, ent.i.tled "the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth." A youth acquires boots by means of which he can go a hundred miles at every step, and a cloak, that renders him invisible, in a very similar way.

I find that in the notes in Grimm's 3rd Volume, page 168, (edition of 1856) the pa.s.sage in Somadeva is referred to, and other parallels given. The author of these notes compares a Swedish story in Cavallius, p. 182, and Prohle, Kindermarchen, No. 22. He also quotes from the Sidi Kur, the story to which I have referred in Sagas from the Far East, and compares a Norwegian story in Ashbjornsen, pp. 53, 171, a Hungarian story in Mailath and Gaal, N. 7, and an Arabian tale in the continuation of the 1001 Nights. See also Sicilianische Marchen by Laura Gonzenbach, Part I, Story 31. Here we have a table-cloth, a purse, and a pipe. When the table-cloth is spread out one has only to say--Dear little table-cloth, give macaroni or roast-meat or whatever may be required, and it is immediately present. The purse will supply as much money as one asks it for, and the pipe is something like that of the pied piper of Hamelin,--every one who hears it must dance. Dr. Kohler in his notes, at the end of Laura Gonzenbach's collection, compares (besides the story of Fortunatus, and Grimm III. 202,) Zingerle, Kinder- und Hausmarchen, II. 73 and 193. Curze, Popular Traditions from Waldock, p. 34. Gesta Romanorum, Chap. 120. Campbell's Highland Tales, No. 10, and many others. The shoes in our present story may also be compared with the bed in the IXth Novel of the Xth day of the Decameron.

See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 230 and Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 152.

See also the story of "Die Kaiserin Trebisonda" in a collection of South Italian tales by Woldemar Kaden, ent.i.tled "Unter den Olivenbaumen" and published in 1880. The hero of this story plays the same trick as Putraka, and gains thereby an inexhaustible purse, a pair of boots which enable the wearer to run like the wind, and a mantle of invisibility. See also "Beutel, Mantelchen und Wunderhorn"

in the same collection, and No. XXII in Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales. The story is found in the Avadanas translated by Stanislas Julien: (Leveque, Mythes et Legendes de L'Inde et de la Perse, p. 570, Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 117.) M. Leveque thinks that La Fontaine was indebted to it for his Fable of L' Huitre et les Plaideurs. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, pp. 126-127, and 162.

We find a magic ring, brooch and cloth in No. XLIV of the English Gesta. See also Syrische Sagen und Marchen, von Eugen Prym und Albert Socin, p. 79, where there is a flying carpet. There is a magic table-cloth in the Bohemian Story of Busmanda, (Waldau, p. 44) and a magic pot on p. 436 of the same collection; and a food-providing mesa in the Portuguese story of A Cacheirinha (Coelho, Contos Portuguezes, p. 58). In the Pentamerone No. 42 there is a magic chest. Kuhn has some remarks on the "Tischchen deck dich" of German tales in his Westfalische Marchen, Vol. I, p. 369.

For a similar artifice to Putraka's, see the story ent.i.tled Fischer-Marchen in Gaal, Marchen der Magyaren, p. 168, Waldau, Bohmische Marchen, pp. 260 and 564, and Dasent's Norse Tales, pp. 213 and 214.

[46] Compare the way in which Zauberer Vergilius carries off the daughter of the Sultan of Babylon, and founds the town of Naples, which he makes over to her and her children: (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. VI, pp. 354, 355.) Dunlop is of opinion that the mediaeval traditions about Vergil are largely derived from Oriental sources.

[47] I. e., infantry, cavalry, elephants, and archers.

[48] Literally she was splendid with a full bosom, ... glorious with coral lips. For uttama in the 1st half of sloka 6 I read upama.

[49] Considered to be indicative of exalted fortune.--Monier Williams.

[50] The bimba being an Indian fruit, this expression may he paralleled by "currant lip" in the Two n.o.ble Kinsmen I. I. 216 or "cherry lip"

Rich. III. I. I. 94.

[51] G.o.ddess of eloquence and learning.

[52] See Dr. Burnett's "Aindra grammar" for the bearing of this pa.s.sage on the history of Sanskrit literature.

[53] And will not observe you.

[54] Instead of the walls of a seraglio.

[55] This story occurs in Scott's Additional Arabian Nights as the Lady of Cairo and her four Gallants, [and in his Tales and Anecdotes, Shrewsbury, 1800, p. 136, as the story of the Merchant's wife and her suitors]. It is also one of the Persian tales of Arouya [day 146 ff.]. It is a story of ancient celebrity in Europe as Constant du Hamel or la Dame qui attrapa un Pretre, un Prevot et un Forestier [Le Grand d'Aussy, Fabliaux et Contes. Paris, 1829, Vol. IV, pp. 246-56]. It is curious that the Fabliau alone agrees with the Hindu original in putting the lovers out of the way and disrobing them by the plea of the bath. (Note in Wilson's Essays on Sanskrit Literature, edited by Dr. Rost, Vol. I, p. 173.) See also a story contributed by the late Mr. Damant to the Indian Antiquary, Vol. IX, pp. 2 and 3, and the XXVIIIth story in Indian Fairy Tales collected and translated by Miss Stokes, with the note at the end of the volume. General Cunningham is of opinion that the denouement of this story is represented in one of the Bharhut Sculptures; see his Stupa of Bharhut, p. 53. A faint echo of this story is found in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, No. 55, pp. 359-362. Cp. also No. 72(b) in the Novellae Morlini. (Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 497.)

Cp. the 67th Story in Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, and the 29th in the Pentamerone of Basile. There is a somewhat similar story in the English Gesta (Herrtage, No. XXV) in which three knights are killed.

A very similar story is quoted in Melusine, p. 178, from Thorburn's Bannu or our Afghan Frontier.

[56] Dr. Brockhaus translates "alle drei mit unsern Schulern."

[57] This forms the leading event of the story of Fadlallah in the Persian tales. The dervish there avows his having acquired the faculty of animating a dead body from an aged Brahman in the Indies. (Wilson.)

[58] Compare the story in the Panchatantra, Benfey's Translation, p. 124, of the king who lost his body but eventually recovered it. Benfey in Vol. I, page 128, refers to some European parallels. Liebrecht in his Zur Volkskunde, p. 206, mentions a story found in Apollonius (Historia Mirabilium) which forms a striking parallel to this. According to Apollonius, the soul of Hermotimos of Klazomenae left his body frequently, resided in different places, and uttered all kinds of predictions, returning to his body which remained in his house. At last some spiteful persons burnt his body in the absence of his soul. There is a slight resemblance to this story in Sagas from the Far East, p. 222. By this it may be connected with a cycle of European tales about princes with ferine skin &c. Apparently a treatise has been written on this story by Herr Varnhagen. It is mentioned in the Sat.u.r.day Review of 22nd July, 1882 as, "Ein Indisches Marchen auf seiner Wanderung durch die Asiatischen und Europaischen Litteraturen."

[59] Or Yogananda. So called as being Nanda by yoga or magic.

[60] I read asvasya.

[61] Compare this with the story of Ugolino in Dante's Inferno.

[62] Dr. Liebrecht in Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 341 compares with this story one in the old French romance of Merlin. There Merlin laughs because the wife of the emperor Julius Caesar had twelve young men disguised as ladies-in-waiting. Benfey, in a note on Dr. Liebrecht's article, compares with the story of Merlin one by the Countess D'Aulnoy, No. 36 of the Pentamerone of Basile, Straparola IV. I, and a story in the Suka Saptati. This he quotes from the translation of Demetrios Galanos. In this some cooked fish laugh so that the whole town hears them. The reason is the same as in the story of Merlin and in our text.

[63] Cp. the following pa.s.sage in a Danish story called Svend's exploits, in Thorpe's Yuletide Stories, page 341. Just as he was going to sleep, twelve crows came flying and perched in the elder trees over Svend's head. They began to converse together, and the one told the other what had happened to him that day. When they were about to fly away, one crow said, "I am so hungry; where shall I get something to eat?" "We shall have food enough to-morrow when father has killed Svend," answered the crow's brother. "Dost thou think then that such a miserable fellow dares fight with our father?" said another. "Yes, it is probable enough that he will, but it will not profit him much as our father cannot be overcome but with the Man of the Mount's sword, and that hangs in the mound, within seven locked doors, before each of which are two fierce dogs that never sleep." Svend thus learned that he should only be sacrificing his strength and life in attempting a combat with the dragon, before he had made himself master of the Man of the Mount's sword. So Sigfrid hears two birds talking above his head in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 345. In the story of Lalitanga extracted by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea from a collection of Jaina tales called the Katha Kosha, and printed in his Sahitya Parichaya, Part II, we have a similar incident.

[64] Compare the "mole cinque-spotted" in Cymbeline.

[65] Compare Measure for Measure.

[66] Cp. the story of OEdipus and the Mahabharata, Vanaparvan, C. 312. where Yudhishthira is questioned by a Yaksha. Benfey compares Mahabharata XIII (IV, 206) 5883-5918 where a Brahman seized by a Rakshasa escaped in the same way. The reader will find similar questioning demons described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 54-56, and 109.

[67] Reading chuddhis for the chudis of Dr. Brockhaus' text.

[68] Samanta seems to mean a feudatory or dependent prince.

[69] Benfey considers that this story was originally Buddhistic. A very similar story is quoted by him from the Karmasataka. (Panchatantra I, p. 209) cp. also c. 65 of this work.

[70] Probably his foot bled, and so he contracted defilement.