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AUGUST, 1882.]
MISCELLANEA.
235
rule of Zeus and she was honoured by all the immortal gods. ..... She thus became a deity of the lower world, and is described in this capacity as a mighty and formidable divinity. ...... From her being an infernal divinity she came to be regarded as a spectral being, who sent at night all kinds of demons and terrible phantoms from the lower world and also taught sorcery and witchcraft and dwelt at places where two roads crossed, on tombs and near the blood of murdered persons. She herself wandered about with the souls of the dead, and her approach was announced by the whining and howling of dogs
Therefore we may fairly assume that the medi. æval monster, the Lamia, was the classical demon traced back to the Titans and giants, or to the mother or mistress of Titans and giants. The descent, so to speak, of the European Lamia bears a most remarkable resemblance to that of the Indian Aryan Lamia. The similarity is rendered all the more striking by the fundamental closeness of the connection between Sanskrit mytho. logy on the one hand and the Greek and Latin mythology on the other.
We in India, away from public libraries, are forced practically to rely on our private ones, and hence the limited nature of the enquiry I have been able to make now. I give the above evi. dence in the hope that some one, who has the com. mand of a large library, may take up the thread and prove or disprove the connection between Lamia and Aduta.
R. C. TEMPLE. Amballa, 19th April 1882.
The following notes may perhaps help to throw some light on the Lamia :
1. Among the six forms under which living beings may be reborn, according to Tibetan belief, the third is that of the Lha-ma-yin or evil spirits' (Sans. A-suras). To them the Yakshas, the Nagas, the Rakshasas, and many other groupe of ill-natured spirits are subjected; their particu. lar adversaries are the four Mahår&jas (Tib. rGyal-chhen- bzhi); they inhabit the fourth step of Mount Meru (Burnout, Introd. 2me ed. p. 538, and Georgi, Alphab. Tibet. p. 481). Among them are those who cauşe "untimely death" (see Schlagentweit, Buddhism in Tibet, pp. 92, 109). R & hu is classed among the Lha-ma-yin.
2. The Dudpos (bDud-po) the assistants of Shin-rje, the judge of the dead, and often like. wise called Shinjes, inhabit the region Paranir. mata Vásavartin ("obedient to the will of those who are transformed by others"). They try to hinder the depopulation of the world by supporting man in evil desire, and by keeping the Bodhisattvas from attaining to Bodhi : it is they
who disturb the devoutness of assembled Buddhists and put an end to steady meditation by assuming the shape of a beautiful woman, &c. (Schlagentweit, p. 110).
3. The goddess Lha-mo (Sans. Kaladevi)--also called Ri-ma-te-was married to rShin-rje, king of the bDud-pos, who at the time had assumed the form of the king of Ceylon. The goddess had made a vow either to soften her husband's noto. riously wild and wicked manners, and make him favourably disposed towards Buddhism, or, to extirpate his race by killing the children of their marriage. It was beyond her power to turn the king from his evil ways, and she accordingly determined to kill their son, who was greatly beloved by his father, because in him he hoped to put a complete end to Buddhism in Ceylon. During a temporary absence of the king, she flayed her son alive, drank the blood out of his skull, and ate his flesh. She then set out for her northern home, using her son's skin as a saddle for the king's best horse. On his return, the king -seeing. what had happened-seized his bow, and with a terrible incantation, shot a poisoned arrow after his dreadful wife. The arrow pierced the horse's back; but the queen, neutralizing the efficacy of the imprecation, took out the deadly weapon and uttered the prayer—"May the wound of my horse become an eye large enough to overlook the twenty-four regions, and may I myself extirpate the race of these malignant kings of Ceylon!" She continued her journey towards the north, traversing in great haste India, Tibet, Mongolia and part of China, and settled in Mount Oikhan, in the district Olgon, supposed to be in Eastern Siberia. (Ib. pp. 112, 113.)
J. B.
BHATTI. In the last volume of the Notices of Sanskrit MSS. (Calcutta, 1881), vol. VI, pp. 146, 147, I am reproached by Dr. Rajendralal Mitra for not having discriminated between Bhatti, the author of the Bhattiledvya, and Bhartrihari. It seems a pity that the Doctor is inclined to make unfounded assertions. In the Index to my Catalogue of the Oxford MSS. p. 509, Bhatti is stated to be the author of the Bhattikávya, while on the next page Bhartřihari is cited as the well known poet of the Sataka, and a writer of the same name as the author of grammatical memorial verses (Karikd) and the Vakyapadiya. Every page where these distinct authors are quoted is accurately given. The Sarasvatikanthabharana mentions by name neither Bhatti nor Bhartsihari (Catalogue, p. 208), but contains verses of both. Dr. Rajendralál Mitra would oblige Sanskrit scholars by favour
