Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 41

JANUARY, 1878.]
BOOK NOTICES.
31
French version of so interesting & volume, to bassies by order of the king. Now while he was which he has added valuable notes, and an intro. away from home I lived with other men at my duction containing a short but interesting account pleasure, and so did not cheat the elements of of the Shirleys, and a bibliography of European which I was composed, and my senses of their works on the reign of Abbas. The volume forms lawful enjoyment. For considerate treatment of one of the excellent series of 18mo volnmes of M. the elements and senses is held to be the highest Lerour's Bibliothèque Orientale Elzevirienne, and duty. Therefore I have been born again in this is illustrated by a curious coloured map of Eastern world with a recollection of my former existence. Europe at the commencement of the seventeenthBut she in her former life, through ignorance, century, and a facsimile of Sadeler's portrait of confined all her attention to the preservation of Hussain A'li Beg, the Persian sent with Sir her character. Therefore she has been degraded Anthony Shirley to the courts of Russia and Ger- and born again as one of the canine race; howmany.
ever, she too remembers her former birth. The
wise Devasmitä said to herself, This is a novel GESTA ROMANORUM, or Entertaining Moral Stories, trans,
lated from the Latin, with preliminary Observations and conception of Duty. copious Notes, by the Rev. CHARLES SWAN, late of · The execrable device' employed in the Gesta Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and revised and corrected by WYNARD HOOPER, B.A., Clare College, Cambridge.
Romanorum is of a very similar character, and (London: George Bell and Sons, 1877.)
employed for similar purposes. The 'beldam'un. The only fault which we can find with this dertakes to corrupt the wife of a knight. Accord cheap and carefully annotated translation of the ingly she makes a little dog, which she possessed, Gesta is that, as might be expected in the case of fast for two days, and on the third day gives it a book published in England, no illustrations bread and mustard. The same results follow as whatever are drawn from Sanskrit literature. in the Hindu tale, and the beldam expounds them The literatures of other Oriental countries are by in a similar manner. She asserts that her no means neglected. But it is quite clear that for daughter was turned into this dog to punish her the learned and judicious corrector of Mr. Swan's cruelty to her lover. The only difference in the translation Benfey and Wilson and Weber have tales is that in the Hindu talo the temptation written in vain.
fails, whereas in the European form of the story We proceed to mention some passages in which it is completely successful. illustrations from Sanskțit writers might pro- Another incident in the tale of Devasmitâ may fitably have been introduced.
be paralleled from the Gesta Romanorum. When The first and most striking parallel that occurs Devnsmitê is obliged to separate from her husband, to us is one between the 28th tale in Swan's Gesta the god Siva gives each of them a red lotus, saying, and the story of Devasmita in the 13th taranga of “Take each of you one of these lotuses in your the Katha Sarit Sagara. This was long ago pointed hand, and if either of you shall be unfaithful out by Wilson (Oollected Works, vol. III. pp. 220ff.). during your separation the lotus in the hand of "A Buddhist priestess has been asked by four the other shall fade, but not otherwise." young merchants to corr::pt the wife of a friend A somewhat similar incident is found in the named Devasmita. The priestess pays her a visit, Gesta Romanorum, tale 69. A carpenter's motherand gains her confidence. On the day following in-law bestows on him a shirt that possesses this she pays her a second visit, and gives a bitch singular property, that as long as he and his wife which was tied up at her door a piece of meat full "are faithful to each other it will neither be of pepper-dust, which made tears trickle copiously rent, worn, nor stained." Many parallels are menfrom the animal's eyes. She then enters Deva- tioned in Wilson's note (vol. III. pp. 217 and 218). smitÂ's room and begins to weep. On Devasmita's One that he has not mentioned will be found in asking her the reason of her sorrow she replies, The Wright's Chaste Wife, edited for the Early *My friend, look at this bitch weeping outside here. English Text Society by Frederick J. Furnirall.
This creature recognized me to day as having lines 588. This nearly resembles the story in the been its companion in a former birth, and began to Gesta, but a rose-garland does duty for the shirt. weep, which made tears of pity flow from my eyes.' Tale XI. in the Gesta Romanorun is an account When Devasmith heard that, and saw the bitch of a superstition familiar to every student of outside apparently weeping, she thought for a Sanskrit literature. It runs as follows —“Alexmoment, 'What can be the meaning of this won- ander was a prince of great power, and a disciple derful sight P' Then the ascetic said to her, My of Aristotle, who instructed him in every branch daughter, in a former birth I and that bitch were of learning. The queen of the North, baving the two wives of a Brahman. And our husband heard of his proficiency, nourished her daughter frequently went about to other countries on em. from the cradle upon a certain sort of deadly