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SEPTEMBER, 1879.]
BOOK NOTICES.
267
krit text was also printed at Calcutta in 1829; in "Gam.-The fellow is taken. 1817 Stenzler published a better one with various "Máth.-(seizing the shampooer) Ah! jail-bird readings, philological notes, and extracts from a | you are taken ! pay the ten suvarnas! native commentary; and a third edition of the "San.-Lord, I will pay them. text with commentary appeared at Caloutta in "Math.-Pay them now. 1870. Langlois, before he knew much of Sanskrit, "Sar.-I will pay, but don't be in such a hurry. rendered Wilson's version into French, and MM. "Math.Come, come ! it must be done at once. Mery and Gérard de Nerval arranged an imitation "Sam.-Oh! my head swims (He swoons; they of it in five acts which was brought on the stage strike him with their feet and fists). at the Odeon under the title of the Chariot "Mathura, tracing a circle round him, Well! you d'enfant on 13th May 1850, and had a favourable are now fast in the gaming ring (jadiaramandalile reception for twenty consecutive nights.
baddho si)." Hippolyte Fauche, in 1861, published a new
This mandalf was a puzzle to M. Regnaud, as it version from the Sansksit, but it was anything
had been to Wilson, but we observe in the Repue but a satisfactory rendering, not even represent
Critique of 28 Juin, that he has remarked an exing the original so accurately as Wilson's versified planation given in Lud. di Varthema's Itinerary translation. In the Rivista Europea for April (1503-1508) as quoted in the new work of M. de 1872, Michele Kerbaker published an Italian ver- Gubernatis on the Mythology of Plants. The sion in blank verse of the first act; and in the custom on the Malabar coast, when summary paysame year 0. Kellner published his Einleitende ment was demanded of a debtor, was to draw a Bemerkungen zu dem indischen Drama 'Mricchaka- circle round him with a green branch, and impretika.' M. Paul Regnaud undertakes, in the pre- cate on him the name of a particular divinity sent version, more especially addressed to French
whose curse was to fall upon him if he left the readers, to render the drama more completely and circle before satisfying the claim of his creditor. more in keeping with the requirements of science Marco Polo (1293) witnessed an instance of this in than that of Wilson, and on the other hand, more
which the king was so arrested (Yule's Marco faithfully to the original and with more regard to
Polo, vol. II. p. 327). The Arabo-Persian Zakariah style than that of Fauche.
Kazwini ascribes the custom to Ceylon (GildeFrom the Bodleian library M. Regnaud was
meister, p. 197). El-Edrisi, Varthema (Travels, able to obtain a MS. commentary, which was
Hakluyt Soo. p. 147) and Hamilton (vol. I. p. 318, found valuable in interproting the Prakrit and
and Pinkerton, Voyages, vol. VIII. p. 377) all explaining difficult passages and obscure words,
describe it; 'Abd er-Razzak (India is the XVth and the author has used it judiciously throughout
Century, p. 14) and Père Bouchet (Lettres Edif. and cites it very largely in his notes, which must
t. XIV. p. 370) also refer to the strictness of the render his edition most valuable to any one study.
arrest. The custom, however, seems to have dising the original. The commentator, however,
appeared now. does not always explain allusions that puzzle
The literary excellence and accuracy of M. Paul scholars: thus, in the second act, when the San
Regnaud's translation of the Myichchhakatikitvihaka or shampooer, having lost 10 suvarnas,
itself one of the most perfect pictures of Hindu runs away and hides in a temple, Mathura and
social manners in the whole circle of Sanskrit the gambler follow him and sit down in the temple
literature-will commend it to the general reader, to play out their game. The Sasiudhaka sees
as well as the student of Indian history, while the them from the shrine, where he is personifying
scholis will add to its importance in the eyes of the idol, and remarks to himself
scholars, and its commodious form renders it "The man who listens to the sound of the dice
easily portable. without money in his pocket is as excited as the king deprived of his throne is at the sound of the TEXTS FROM THE BUDDHIST CANON, commonly known
DHAMMAPADA, with accompanying Narratives. Transdrum. No, I am decided to play no more, for one lated from the Chinese by SAMUEL BEAL, B.A., Prohad as well throw himself from the top of Meru as fessor of Chinese, University College, London. (Lon
don : Trübner. & Co. 1878.) take up the dice... and yet the sound they make is
Dhammapada is a work of much importance in as bewitching as the song of the Kokila. "The Gambler.-The throw is mine, the throw is
the study of Buddhism, containing a series of
moral precepts selected from the ancient canonimine!
cal books of the sect, and presenting a more "Mathura.--No, no; it is mine!
favourable idea of the morality of Buddhism than "Sam.-(leaving his position and coming hastily perhaps any other work yet analysed. It has forward)--Mine,-it is!
accordingly attracted the attention of European
