# The Katha Sarit Sagara/Chapter 64

​" The fact is, prince, a fool, who spends his labour on a chimera, makes himself ridiculous."
Story of the foolish boy that went to the village for nothing.:— There was a certain foolish son of a Bráhman, and his father said to him one evening, " My son, you must go to the village early to-morrow." Having heard this, he set out in the morning, without asking his father what ho was to do, and went to the village without any object, and came back in the evening fatigued. He said to his father, " I have been to the village." " Yes, but you have not done any good by it," answered his father.
" So a fool, who acts without an object, becomes the laughing-stock of people generally; he suffers fatigue, but does not do any good." When the son of the king of Vatsa had heard from Gomukha, his chief minister, this series of tales, rich in instruction, and had declared that he was longing to obtain Śaktiyaśas, and had perceived that the night was far spent, he closed his eyes in sleep, and reposed surrounded by his ministers.
CHAPTER LXIV.
Then, the next evening, as Naraváhanadatta was again in his private apartment, longing for union with his beloved, at his request Gomukha told the following series of tales to amuse him.
Story of the Bráhman and the mungoose.*:— There was in a certain village a Bráhman, named Devaśarman; and ​he had a wife of equally high birth, named Yajnadattá. And she became pregnant, and in time gave birth to a son, and the Bráhman, though poor, thought he had obtained a treasure in him. And when she had given birth to the child, the Bráhman's wife went to the river to bathe, but Devaśarman remained in the house, taking care of his infant son. In the meanwhile a maid came from the womens' apartments of the palace to summon that Bráhman, who lived on presents received for performing inauguratory ceremonies. Then he, eager for a fee, went off to the palace, leaving a mungoose, which he had brought up from its birth, to guard his child. After he had gone, a snake suddenly came near the child, and the mungoose, seeing it, killed it out of love for his master. Then the mungoose saw Devaśarman returning at a distance, and delighted, ran out to meet him, all stained with the blood of the snake. And Devaśarman, when he saw its appearance, felt certain that it had killed his young child, and, in his agitation killed it with a stone. But when he went into the house, and saw the snake killed by the mungoose, and his boy alive, he repented of what he had done. And when his wife returned and heard what had happened, she reproached him, saying, " Why did you inconsiderately kill the mungoose, which had done you a good turn."
" Therefore a wise man, prince, should never do anything rashly. For a person who acts rashly is destroyed in both worlds. And one who does anything contrary to the prescribed method, obtains a result which is the opposite of that desired."
Story of the fool that was his own doctor.:— For instance, there was a man suffering from flatulence. And once on a time the doctor gave him a medicine, to be used as a clyster, and said to him, " Go to your house, and bruise this, and wait till I come." The physician, after giving this order, delayed a little, and in the meanwhile the fool, having reduced the drug to powder, mixed it with water and drank it. That made him very ill, and when the doctor came, he had to give him an emetic, and with difficulty brought him round, when he was at the point of death. And he scolded his patient, saying to him, " A clyster is not meant to be drunk, but must be administered in the proper way. Why did you not wait for me?"
"So an action, useful in itself, if done contrary to rule, has bad effects. Therefore a wise man should do nothing contrary to rule. And the man, who acts without consideration, does what is wrong, and immediately incurs reproach."
Story of the fool who mistook hermits for monkeys.:— For instance, there was in a certain place a foolish man. He was once going to a foreign country, accompanied by his son, and when the ​caravan encamped in the forest, the boy entered the wood to amuse himself. There he was scratched by monkeys, and with difficulty escaped with life, and when his father asked him what had happened, the silly boy, not knowing what monkeys were, said; " I was scratched in this wood by some hairy creatures that live on fruits." When the father heard it, he drew his sword in a rage, and went to that wood. And seeing some ascetics with long matted hair, picking fruits there, he ran towards them, saying to himself, " These hairy rascals injured my son." But a certain traveller there prevented him from killing them, by saying; " I saw some monkeys scratch your son; do not kill the hermits." So by good luck he was saved from committing a crime, and returned to the caravan.
" So a wise man should never act without reflection. What is ever likely to go wrong with a man who reflects? But the thoughtless are always ruined and made the objects of public ridicule."
Story of the fool who found a purse.:— For instance, a certain poor man, going on a journey, found a bag of gold, that had been dropped by the head of a caravan. The fool, the moment he found it, instead of going away, stood still where he was, and began to count the gold. In the meanwhile the merchant, who was on horseback, discovered his loss, and galloping back, he saw the bag of gold in the poor man's possession, and took it away from him. So he lost his wealth as soon as he got it, and went on his way sorrowful, with his face fixed on the ground.
" Fools lose wealth as soon as they get it."
Story of the fool who looked for the moon.:— A certain foolish man, who wished to see the new moon, was told by a man who saw it, to look in the direction of his finger. He averted his eyes from the sky, and stood staring at his friend's finger, and so did not see the new moon, but saw the people laughing at him.
" Wisdom accomplishes the impossible, hear a story in proof of it."
Story of the woman who escaped from the monkey and the cowherd.:— A certain woman set out alone to go to another village. And on the way a monkey suddenly came and tried to lay hold of her, but she avoided it by going to a tree and dodging round it. The foolish monkey threw its arms round the tree, and she laid hold of its arms with her hands, and pressed them against the tree.
The monkey, which was held tight, became furious, but at that moment the woman saw a cowherd coming that way, and said to him; " Sir, hold this ape by the arms a moment, until I can arrange my dress and hair, which are disordered." He said, " I will do so, if you promise to grant me your love," and she consented. And he held the monkey. Then she drew his dagger and killed the monkey, and said to the cowherd, " Come to a ​lonely spot," and so took him a long distance. At last they fell in with some travellers, so she left him and went with them to the village that she wished to reach, having avoided outrage by her wisdom.
" So you see that wisdom is in this world the principal support of men; the man who is poor in wealth lives, but the man who is poor in intellect does not live. Now hear, prince, this romantic wonderful tale."
Story of the two thieves, Ghata and Karpara.*:— There were in a certain city two thieves, named Ghata and Karpara. One night Karpara left Ghata outside the palace, and breaking through the wall, entered the bedchamber of the princess. And the princess, who could not sleep, saw him there in a corner, and suddenly falling in love with him, called him to her. And she gave him wealth, and said to him; " I will give you much more if you come again." Then Karpara went out, and told Ghata what had happened, and gave him the wealth, and having thus got hold of the king's property, sent him home. But he himself again entered the women's apartments of the palace; who, that is attracted by love and covetousness, thinks of death? There he remained with the princess, and bewildered with love and wine, he fell asleep, and did not observe that the night was at an end. And in the morning the guards of the women's apartments entered, and made him prisoner, and informed the king, and he in his anger ordered him to be put to death. While he was being led to the place of execution, his friend Ghata came to look for him, as he had not returned in the course of the night. Then Karpara saw Ghata, and made a sign to him that he was to carry off and take care of the princess. And he answered by a sign that he would do so. Then Karpara was led away by the executioners, and being at their mercy, was quickly hanged up upon a tree, and so executed.
Then Ghata went home, sorrowing for his friend, and as soon as night arrived, he dug a mine and entered the apartment of the princess. Seeing her in fetters there alone, he went up to her and said; " I am the friend of Karpara, who was to-day put to death on account of you. And out of love ​for him I am come here to carry you off, so come along, before your father does you an injury." Thereupon she consented joyfully, and be removed her bonds. Then he went out with her, who at once committed herself to his care, by the underground passage he had made, and returned to his own house.
And next morning the king heard that his own daughter had been carried off by some one, who had dug a secret mine, and that king thought to himself, " Undoubtedly that wicked man whom I punished has some audacious friend, who has carried off my daughter in this way." So he set his servants to watch the body of Karpara, and he said to them. " You must arrest any one who may come here lamenting, to burn the corpse and perform the other rites, and so I shall recover that wicked girl who has disgraced her family." When those guards had received this order from the king, they said, " We will do so," and remained continually watching the corpse of Karpara.
Then Ghata made enquiries, and found out what was going on, and said to the princess; " My dear, my comrade Karpara was a very dear friend to me, and by means of him I gained you and all these valuable jewels; so until I have paid to him the debt of friendship, I cannot rest in peace. So I will go and see his corpse, and by a device of mine manage to lament over it, and I will in due course burn the body, and scatter the bones in a holy place. And do not be afraid, I am not reckless like Karpara." After he had said this to her, he immediately assumed the appearance of a Páśupata ascetic, and taking boiled rice and milk in a pot, he went near the corpse of Karpara, as if he were a person passing that way casually, and when he got near it, he slipped, and let fall from his hand and broke that pot of milk and rice, and began lamenting, " O Karpara full of sweetness,"* and so on. And the guards thought that he was grieving for his pot full of food, that he had got by begging. And immediately he went home and told that to the princess. And the next day he made a servant, dressed as a bride, go in front of him, and he had another behind him, carrying a vessel full of sweetmeats, in which the juice of the Dhattúra had been infused. And he himself assumed the appearance of a drunken villager, and so in the evening he came reeling along past those guards, who were watching the body of Karpara. They said to him, " Who are you, friend, and who is this lady, and where are you going?" Then the cunning fellow answered them with stuttering accents, " I am a villager; this is my wife; I am going ​to the house of my father-in-law; and I am taking for him this complimentary present of sweetmeats. But you have now become my friends by speaking to me, so I will take only half of the sweetmeats there; take the other half for yourselves." Saying this, he gave a sweetmeat to each of the guards. And they received them, laughing, and all of them partook of them. Accordingly Ghata, having stupefied the guards with Dhattúra, at night brought fuel* and burnt the body of Karpara.
The next morning, after he had departed, the king hearing of it, removed those guards who had been stupefied, and placed others there, and said; " You must guard these bones, and you must arrest whoever attempts to take them away, and you must not accept food from any outsider." When the guards were thus instructed by the king, they remained on the lookout day and night, and Ghata heard of it. Then he, being acquainted with the operation of a bewildering charm granted him by Durga, made a wandering mendicant his friend, in order to make them repose confidence in him. And he went there with that wandering mendicant, who was muttering spells, and bewildered those guards, and recovered the bones of Karpara. And after throwing them into the Ganges, he came and related what he had done, and lived happily with the princess, accompanied by the mendicant. But the king, hearing that the bones had been carried off, and the men guarding them stupefied, thought that the whole exploit, beginning with the carrying off of his daughter, was the doing of a magician. And he had the following proclamation made in his city; " If that magician, who carried off my daughter, and performed the other exploits connected with that feat, will reveal himself, I will give him half my kingdom." When Ghata heard this, he wished to reveal himself, but the princess dissuaded him, saying, " Do not do so, you cannot repose any confidence in this king, who treacherously puts people to death." † Then, for fear that, if he remained there, the truth might come out, he set out for another country with the princess and the mendicant.
And on the way the princess said secretly to the mendicant, " The other one of these thieves seduced me, and this one made me fall from my high rank. The other thief is dead, as for this, Ghata, I do not love him, you are my darling." When she had said this, she united herself to the mendicant, and killed Ghata in the dead of night. Then, as she was journeying along with that mendicant, the wicked woman fell in with a merchant on the way, whose name was Dhanadeva. So she said, " Who is this skull​bearer? You are my darling," and she left that mendicant, while he was asleep, and went off with that merchant. And in the morning the mendicant woke up, and reflected, " There is no love in women, and no courtesy free from fickleness, for, after lulling me into security, the wicked woman has gone off, and robbed me too. However, I ought perhaps to consider myself lucky, that I have not been killed like Ghata." After these reflections, the mendicant returned to his own country.
Story of Devadatta a wife.:— And the princess, travelling on with the merchant, reached his country. And when Dhanadeva arrived there, he said to himself; " Why should I rashly introduce this unchaste woman into my house? So, as it was evening, 'he went into the house of an old woman in that place, with the princess. And at night he asked that old woman, who did not recognize him, "Mother, do you know any tidings about the family of Dhanadeva?" When the old woman heard that, she said, " What tidings is there except that his wife is always ready to take a new lover. For a basket, covered with leather, is let down every night from the window here, and whoever enters it, is drawn up into the house, and is dismissed in the same way at the end of the night. And the woman is always stupefied with drink, so that she is absolutely void of discernment. And this state of hers has become well, known in the whole city. And though her husband has been long away, he has not yet returned."
When Dhanadeva heard this speech of the old woman's, he went out that moment on some pretext, and repaired to his own house, being full of inward grief and uncertainty! And seeing a basket let down by the female servants with ropes, he entered it, and they pulled up him into the house And his wife, who was stupefied with drink, embraced him most affectionately, without knowing who he was. But he was quite cast down at seeing her degradation. And thereupon she fell into a drunken sleep. And at the end of the night, the female servants let him down again quickly from the window, in the basket suspended with ropes. And the merchant reflected in his grief, " Enough of the folly of being a family man, for women in a house are a snare ! It is always this story with them, so a life in the forest is much to be preferred." Having formed this resolve, Dhanadeva abandoned the princess into the bargain, and set out for a distant forest. And on the way he met, and struck up a friendship with, a young Bráhman, named Rudrasoma, who had Lately returned from a long absence abroad. When he told him his story, the Bráhman became anxious about his own wife ; and so he arrived in the company of that merchant at his own village in the evening.
Story of the wife of the Bráhman Rudrasoma.:— And when he arrived there, he saw a cowherd, on the bank of the ​river, near his house, singing with joy, like one beside himself. So he said to him in joke, " Cowherd, is any young woman in love with you, that you sing thus in your rapture, counting the world as stubble?" When the cowherd heard that, he laughed and said, ' I have a great secret.* The head of this village, a Bráhman, named Rudrasoma, has been long away, and I visit his wife every night; her maid introduces me into the house dressed as a woman." When Rudrasoma heard this, he restrained his anger, and wishing to find out the truth, he said to the cowherd; " If such kindness is shewn to guests here, give me this dress of yours, and let me go there to-night: I feel great curiosity about it." The cowherd said, " Do so, take this black rug of mine, and this stick, and remain here until her maid comes. And she will take you for me, and will give you a female dress, and invite you to come, so go there boldly at night, and I will take repose this night." When the cowherd said this, the Bráhman Rudrasoma took from him the stick and the rug, and stood there, personating him. And the cowherd stood at a little distance, with that merchant Devadatta, and then the maid came. She walked silently up to him in the darkness, and wrapped him up in a woman's dress, and said to him, " Come along," and so took him off to his wife, thinking that he was the cowherd. When his wife saw Rudrasoma, she sprang up and embraced him, supposing that he was the cowherd, and then Rudrasoma thought to himself; " Alas ! wicked women Ml in love with a base man, if only he is near them, for this vicious wife of mine has fallen in love with a cowherd, merely because he is near at hand." Then he made some excuse with faltering voice, and went, disgusted in mind, to Dhanadeva. And after he had told his adventure in his own house, he said to that merchant; " I too will go with you to the forest; perish my family !" So Rudrasoma and the merchant Dhanadeva set out together for the forest.
Story of the wife of Śaśin.:— And on the way a friend of Dhanadeva's, named Śaśin, joined them. And in the course of conversation they told him their circumstances. And when Śaśin heard that, being a jealous man, and having just returned from a long absence in a foreign land, he became anxious about his wife, though he had locked her up in a cellar. And Śaśin, travelling along with them, came near his own house in the evening, and was desirous of entertaining them. But he saw there a man singing in an amorous mood, who had an evil smell, and whose hands and feet were eaten away with leprosy. And in his astonishment, he asked him ; " Who are you, sir, that you are so cheerful?" And the leper said to him, " I am the god of love." Śaśin answered, " There can be no mistake about that. The splendour of your beauty is sufficient evidence for your being the god of love." There​upon the leper continued, " Listen, I will tell you something, A rogue here, named Śaśin, being jealous of his wife, locked her up in a cellar with one servant to attend on her, and went to a foreign land. But that wife of his happened to see me here, and immediately surrendered herself to me, her heart being drawn towards me by love. And I spend every night with her, for the maid takes me on her back and carries me in. So tell me if I am not the god of love. Who, that was the favoured lover of the beautiful wife of S^a^in, could care for other women?'* "When Śaśin heard this speech of the leper's, he suppressed his grief, intolerable as a hurricane, and wishing to discover the truth, he said to the leper, " In truth you are the god of love, so I have a boon to crave of your godship, I feel great curiosity about this lady from your description of her, so I will go there this very night disguised as yourself. Be propitious to your suppliant: you will lose but little, as you can attain this object every day," When Śaśin made this request, the leper said to him; " So be it ! take this dress of mine and give me yours, and remain covering up your hands and feet with your clothes, as you see me do, until her maid comes, which will be as soon as it becomes dark. And she will mistake you for me, and put you on her back, and you must submit to go there in that fashion, for I always have to go in that way, having lost the use of my hands and feet from leprosy." Thereupon Śaśin put on the leper's dress and remained there, but the leper and Śaśin's two companions remained a little way off.
Then Śaśin's wife's maid came, and supposing that he was the leper, as he had his dress on, said, " Come along," and took him up on her back. And so she took him at night into that cellar to his wife, she was expecting her paramour the leper. Then Śaśin made out for certain that it was his wife, who was lamenting there in the darkness, by feeling her limbs, and he became an ascetic on the spot. And when she was asleep, he went out unobserved, and made his way to Dhanadeva and Rudrasoma. And he told them his experiences, and said in his grief, " Alas ! women are like torrents that flow in a ravine, they are ever tending downwards, capricious, beautiful at a distance, prone to turbidness, and so they are as difficult to guard as such rivers are to drink, and thus my wife, though kept in a cellar, has run after a leper. So for me also the forest is the best thing. Out on family life !" And so he spent the night in the company of the merchant and the Brahman, whose affliction was the same as his. And next morning they all set out together for the forest, and at evening they reached a tree by the roadside, with a tank at its foot. And after they had eaten and drunk, they ascended the tree to sleep, and while they were there, they saw a traveller come and lie down underneath the tree.
Story of the snake-god and his wife.:— And soon they saw another man arise from the tank, and he brought ​out of his mouth a couch and a lady. Then he lay down on the couch beside that wife of his, and went to sleep, and the moment she saw it, she went and embraced the traveller. And he asked her who they were, and she answered; " This is a snake-god, and I am his wife, a daughter of the snake race. Do not fear, I have had ninety-nine lovers among travellers, and you make the hundredth." But, while she was saying this, it happened that the snake-god woke up, and saw them. And he discharged fire from his mouth, and reduced them both to ashes.
When the snake-god had gone, the three friends said to one another, " If it is impossible to guard one's wife by enclosing her in one's own body, what chance is there of keeping her safe in a house? Out on them all !" So they spent the night in contentment, and next morning went on to the forest. There they became completely chastened in mind, with hearts quieted by practising the four meditations,* which were not interfered with by their friendship, and they became gentle to all creatures, and attained perfection in contemplation, which produces unequalled absolute beatification; and all three in due course destroyed the inborn darkness of their souls, and became liberated from the necessity of future births. But their wicked wives fell into a miserable state by the ripening of their own sin, and were soon ruined, losing both this and the next world.
" So attachment to women, the result of infatuation, produces misery to all men. But indifference to them produces in the discerning emancipation from the bonds of existence."
"When the prince, who was longing for union with Śaktiyaśas, had patiently listened to this diverting tale, told by his minister Gomukha, he again went to sleep.
Note on the Story of Ghata and Karpara.
The portion of the story of " the Shifty lad," which so nearly resembles the story of Ghata and Karpara, runs as follows : The shifty lad remarks to his master the Wright, that he might get plenty from the king's store-house which was near at hand if only he would break into it. The two eventually rob it together. " But the king's people missed the butter and cheese and the other things that had been taken out of the store-house, and they told the king how it had happened. The king took the advice of the Seanagal about the best way of catching the thieves, and the counsel that he gave them was, that they should set a hogshead of soft pitch under the hole where they were coming in. That was done, and the next day the shifty lad and his master went to break into the king's store-house." ​The consequence was that the wright was caught in the pitch. Thereupon the shifty lad cut off his head, which ho carried homo and buried in tho garden. When the king's people came into the store-house, they found a body, without a head and they could not make out whoso it was. By tho advice of tho Seanagal tho king had the trunk carried about from town to town by tho soldiers on tho points of spears. They wore directed to observe if any one cried out on seeing it. When they were going past tho house of tho wright, tho wright's wife made a tortured scream, and swift the shifty lad cut himself with an adze, and he kept saying to the wright's wife, " It is not as bad as thou thinkest." He then tells the soldier that she is afraid of blood, and therefore the soldier supposed that he was the wright and she his wife. The king had tho body hung up in an open place, and set soldiers to watch if any should attempt to take it away, or show pity or grief for it. The shifty lad drives a horse past with a keg of whisky on each side, and pretends to be hiding it from the soldiers. They pursue him, capture the whisky, got dead drunk, and the shifty lad carries off and buries tho wright's body. Tho king now lots loose a pig to dig up the
body. The soldiers follow the pig, but the wright's widow entertains them. Meanwhile the shifty lad kills tho pig and buries it. The soldiers are then ordered to live at free quarters among the people, and wherever they got pig's flesh, unless the people could explain how they came by it, to make a report to the king. But tho shifty lad kills the soldiers who visit the widow, and persuades the people to kill all the others in their sleep. The Seanagal next advises the king to give a feast to all the people. Whoever dared to dance with the king's daughter would be the culprit. The shifty lad asks her to dance, she makes a black mark on him, but he puts a similar black mark on twenty others. The king now proclaims that, if tho author of these clever tricks will reveal himself, he shall marry his daughter. All the men with marks on them contend for the honour. It is agreed that to whomsoever a child shall give an apple, the king is to give his daughter. The shifty lad goes into the room where they are all assembled, with a shaving and a drone, and the child gives him tho apple. He marries the princess, but is killed by accident. Köhler (Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 303 and ff.) compares the story of Dolopathos quoted in Loiseleur II, 123, ed. Brunet, p. 183, a story of the Florontine Ser Giovanni, (Pecorone, IX, 1,) an old Netherland story in Haupt's Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum 5, 385— 404, called " The thief of Bruges," and a Tyrolese story in Zingerle, Kinder und Hausmarchen aus Süd-Deutschland, p. 300; also a French Romance of chivalry entitled, " The knight Berinus and his son Aigres of the Magnet mountain." There is also a story in the Seven Wise Masters (Ellis, specimens of early English metrical romances new ed. by Halliwell, London, 1848, p. 423) of a father and his son breaking into the treasure-house of the emperor Octavianus. Köhler also compares the story of Trophonius and his brother or father Agamedes (Scholiast to Aristophanes, Nubes, 508; Pausanias, IX, 37, 3.) This story will also be found in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 148.}}
Addendum to Fasciculus VII.
Add to note on p. 87— A similar idea is found in the Hermotimus of Lucian, chapters 80 and 81. A philosopher is indignant with his pupil on account of his fees being eleven days in arrear. The uncle of the young man, who is standing by," being a rude and uncultured person, says to the philosopher " My good man, pray let us hear no more complaints about the great injustice with which you conceive yourself to have been treated, for all it amounts to is, that we have bought words from you, and have up to the present time paid you in the same coin."
* ↑ * Benfey does not appear to have been aware that this story was to be found in Somadeva's work. It is found in his Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 326. He refers to Wolff, II, 1 ; Knatchbull, 268; Symeon Seth, 76; John of Capua, k., 4; German translation, (Ulm, 1483) R., 2; Spanish translation, XLV. a; Doni, 66; Anvár-i- Suhaili, 404; Cabinet des Fées, XVIII, 22; Baldo fab. XVI, (in Edéléstand du Méril p. 240). Hitopadeśa IV, 13, (Johnson's translation, page 116.) In Sandabar and Syntipas the animal is a dog. It appears that the word dog was also used in the Hebrew translation. John of Capua has canis for ichneumon in another passage, so perhaps he has it here. Benfey traces the story in Calumnia Novercalis C, 1 ; Historia Septem Sapientum, Bl. n.; Romans des Sept Sages, 1139; Dyocletian, Einleitung, 1212; Grässe, Gesta Romanorum II, 176; Keller, Romans, CLXXVIII; Le Grand d' Aussy, 1779, II, 303; Grimm's Märchen, 48. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 479—483.) To Englishmen the story suggests Llewellyn's faithful hound Gelert, from which the parish of Bethgelert in North Wales is named. This legend has been versified by the Hon'ble William Robert Spencer. It is found in the English Gosta, (see Bohn's Gesta Romanorum, introduction, page xliii.) The story (as found in the Seven Wise Masters) is admirably told in Simrock's Deutache Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 135. See also Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1st Series, p. 126.
* ↑ * Here, as "Wilson remarked, (Collected Works, Vol IV, p. 149) we have the story of Rhampsinitus, Herodotua, II, 121. Dr. Rost compares Keller, Dyocletianus Leben, p. 55, Keller Li Romans des Sept Sages, p. cxciii, Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction, pp. 197 and 264. Cp. also Sagas from the Far East, Tale XII; see also Dr. R. Köhler in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 303. He gives many parallels to Campbell's Gaelic Story of " the Shifty lad,"' No. XVIII, d., Vol. I, p. 331, but is apparently not aware of the striking resemblance between tho Gaelic story and that in the text. Whisky does in tho Highland story the work of Dhattúra. See also Cox's Mythology of tho Aryan Nations, I, p. III and ff. and Liebrecht zur Volkskunde, p. 34. A similar stratagem is described in Grüssler's Sagen aus der Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 219.
* ↑ * Of course Karpara is the Sanskrit for pot. In fact the two friends' names might be represented in English by Pitcher and Pott. In modern Hindu funerals boiled rice is given to the dead. So I am informed by my friend Pandit Syáma Charan Mukhopá dhyáyá, to whom I am indebted for many kind hints.
* ↑ * I read áhritendhanah. The Sanskrit College MS. seems to me to give hritendhana.
* ↑ † So Frau Claradis in " Die Heimonskinder" advises her husband not to trust her father (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher,' Vol. II, p. 131.)
* ↑ * The Sanskrit College MS. has mama for the mayá of Dr. Brockhaus.
* ↑ * Mr. Gough has kindly pointed out to me a passage in the Sarvadarśana Sangraha which explains this. The following is Mr. Gough's translation of the passage; " We must consider this teaching as regards the four points of view. These are that (1) Everything is momentary and momentary only: (2) Everything is pain and pain only: (3) Everything is individual and individual only: (4) Everything is baseless and baseless only."