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[NOVEMBER, 1880.
with Krishņs. But if we examine the original father will not spare him even one day. Then passage in the Lalitavistara to which M. Foucaux again the saint intercedes for him, and God consents referred, we can hardly doubt that Krishna is there that if his mother will spare him the half of her intended as a god, and as an equal of Vaisravana, 30 remaining years, he shall live. But even his Kuvera, Indra, Chandra, Sarya, Káma, and Rudra. mother refuses to give up one span of her allotted It occurs in a Gáth& (p. 149, 1. 3.) which may be time. At last God permits Jannis to entreat the looked upon as older than the prose text; and same favour from his betrothed, and she agrees though we might possibly argue that Krishna should with the greatest readiness to her lover's request, be taken as an epithet of Rudra, it is quite clear that | remarking that the years appointed to her are in the prose text, which may serve as the oldest enough for them both. So Jannis' wedding takes commentary on the Gatha, Krishna was taken place."
a separate deity by the side of Visravana, I should prefer to connect this story with that Mara, Mahoragendra, Indra, Rudra, Chandra, and of Ruru in the Katha Sarit Sagara, which Benfey Sarya. He is called Mahotodha, capable of great compares with that of Yayati and his son Ruru. efforts, an epithet which agrees better with the The story of Raru runs as follows: "Once on hero of the Mahabharata than with that of the a time a hermit's son of the name of Ruru, wanGopijanavallabha. The name of Krishna, as a dering about at will, saw a maiden of wonderful god, should therefore no longer be treated as beauty, the daughter of a heavenly nymph named unknown to the authors of the nine Dharmas, nor Menaka by a Vidyadhara, and brought up by a should it be maintained that Sanskrit works in hermit of the name of Sth@lakesa in his hermitage. which Kệishna appears as & god, such as the That lady, whose name was Pfishadvara, so captiMaldbharata, and particularly the Bhagavadgitá, vated the mind of that Ruru when he saw her, must on that account be classed as post-Bud. that he went and begged the hermit to give her dhistic, or as later, at least, than the Third to him in marriage. Sthalakeśa betrothed the Council.
maiden to him, and when the wedding was nigh F. MAX MÜLLER.
at hand, suddenly an adder bit her. Then the
heart of Ruru was full of despair, but he heard FOLKLORE PARALLEL.
this voice in the heaven; O Brahman, raise to I find the following in Bernhardt Schmidt's
life with the gift of half thy own life, this maiden Griechische Märchen, Sagen, und Volkslieder,
whose allotted term is at an end. When Ruru p. 36:
heard that, he gave her the half of his own life, "An old legend resembling the myths of Ad.
as he had been directed; by means of that she metus and Alkestis is reproduced in a popular
revived, and Ruru married her." ballad of Trebizond. Jannis, so runs the story,
The same agency as carried the story of the only son of his parents, is just making pre- Buddha to the west, and caused it to be reproparations for his wedding, when Charon appears
duced in the romance of Barlaam and Josaphat, at the door with threatening mien to bear away
may very well have carried the story of Ruru to his soul. The young man proposes to him to have | Trebizond. a wrestling match on a brazen threshingfloor;
C. H. T. if Charon wins, he will surrender his soul, but if he remains conqueror, the wedding is to take place.
NOTE. But Charon will not agree to this proposal : he says A Hindu idol, copper, representing a woman that God has sent him to fetch souls, not to waste with four arms, has recently been unearthed near his time in games and wrestling matches. Then Orenburg. Archaeologists believe it to have been Jannis bega St. George to entreat God that his life the prize, several centuries ago, of some of the may be lengthened. God makes him this promise Mongols who invaded India, and to have been that if his father, who has still 30 years of life conveyed in course of nomad wanderings to the before him, will give half of this time to his son, spot where it was discovered in the Orenburg he shall live to celebrate his marriage. But his district.
BOOK NOTICES. THE ZEND-AVESTA, PART I, THE VENDIDAD.-Translated Darmesteter has made great progress in clearing by James Darmesteter. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1880.
&way the obscurities and inaccuracies which In this translation, which forms the fourth encumber all previous translations of these remains volume of the Sacred Books of the East, M. of the ancient Parsi code of religious laws, and
Compare also the story of Savitri and Satyavat, Mahabh. iii, $ 299 ff.--Ep.
