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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1895.
Like the re-birth in the Need Fire and in the Flint-spark, like the Mexican and Peruvian renewal of the youth of the Sun at the close of his span of fifty-two years, the Dalai Lama, for the good of man, sacrifices his yearning for absorption, and, by certain signs, shews in the body of what babe he has been pleased to endure the penalty of re-birth. So the Guardian spirit of the dying king passes either into the king's son, or, through some sacramental channel, enters the body of the chosen successor. The king is dead; long live the king: the Guardian is dead; the Guardian lives.
(To be continued.)
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA. BY PANDIT S. M. NATESA SASTRI, B.A., M.F.L.S.
No. 40.- bhya the Learned Fool (a Noodle Story). In the town of Mânâmadurai, in the Pandiyan country, there lived a young Brâhman. named Ebhya, who was a fool. He was married to & girl in Madura. Ebhya was a learned man, as he thought, in his own way, and like Sakara, in Südraka's play, conld always quote Sanskrit verses and rules, as authority for all his actions. He wished to see his wife. He therefore started for Madura. On his way, he saw the dead body of an ass lying neglected in the way.
“What," thought he, "this was a living being. It had no friends in this world. There is no one now to bury it or cremate it, and it is, therefore, lying thus neglected in the dead stage of its existence. If I do now the meritorious action of cremating this dead ass I obtain the boon of having performed asvamédha (horse-sacrifice). For does not the sage say :
Andthaprētasariskáram aávamédhaphalaih bhavét. The cremating of an ownerless dead body is equal to the performance of a horse
sacrifice. Why should I not thus in an easy way obtain that? What have I to do here? It is not much. Fuel is easily obtained in the jungle. I have only to carry the dead ass to a good distance in the jungle, away from the common path."
Thus thinking, Ebhya lifted up the dead animal and essayed to carry it into the jungle He struggled hard. It was a very heavy weight. But then, how could merit be obtained without exertion and trouble ? Alas, the weight was more than his strength could bear, and he did not know what to do. The merit, however, must be obtained, for he had found out the easiest way of attaining it. A horse-sacrifice is a very costly thing which only monarchs may attempt; whereas without any such cost, and by merely collecting the fuel necessary in the wood, and by cremating a dead ass he could now attain that merit.
The wisdom of Ebhya was never at fault, and he at once found means for getting out of his new difficulty. The utterance of the sages that the head is the important member of the animalbody rushed into his mind :
Sarvasya gátrasya sirah pradhanam.
The head is the chief of all parts of the body. He praised his memory and his ready wit, and at once with a small knife he severed the head of the dead ass from its trank. And having now secured the head he proceeded on his way to reach a spot in the jungle where the cremation could take place without nuisance to travellers. But for this he had a long way to go and the severed head became a repulsive thing
