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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
NOVEMBER, 1997.
spirit-land the belief remains that, unlike other animals, man has a two-fold nature - body and mind.
The earliness of the belief, that there is one or many spirits in man, suggests that this experience is the base of all belief in spirit. Before you have the idea of a disembodied spirit you must have the idea of an embodied spirit. But the early man's idea of himself is probably a spirit haunt. He knows the spirits in life pushing him to pleasure, to sin, to passion, haunting him with strange ideas. He sees them in life, the image in the eye, the warmth, the breath, the pulse in the breast, wrist and heel. He sees proofs of them at death when the eye grows glassy, the warmth cools, the pulse flutters and ceases. The conclusion seems to be : the idea of an embodied spirit starts earlier and will last longer than the idea of a disembodied spirit. In the development of spirit ideas the relation between the spirit in a man and the spirit in an animal has undergone one important change. The spirit in man is now supposed to be distinct from the spirit in animals. Among Hindus an old-fashioned groom keeps talking to his horse, apparently never doubting that the horse understands. So the Bakhtyari or South Persian highlander talks to a lion as he would talk to a human foe: "O cat of Ali, I am the servant of Ali, pass by my house by the head of Ali." 22
(To be continued.)
MISCELLANEA. SOME NOTES ON THE FOLKLORE OF THE the king himself sat in one of the pans, when TELUGUS.
the scales were rendered equal. Whereupon the By G. R. SUBRAMIAH PANTULU.
hawk and the dove thoaght very highly of the
king, assumed their own forms, stood before the (Continued from p. 252.)
king, praised him, conferred certain boons on him XL.
and went to their respective worlds. By far the best of monarchs that wielded sway Moral :- Good men will even forego their lives over the Nishada country was King Bibi, who in order to protect those who trust in them. was the type of virtue, a well-wisher of his sub
XLI. jects. He would even forego his life to protect the refugee. Once upon a time the Gandarvas Narada, the greatest of Rishis, was once upon began praising his talents and virtuous qualities a time, while on a visit to Nandikêsvara, requestat the Court of their king Devendra, who heard ed by him to narrate any important news he had them, and, coming to a resolve to pirt them to of the lókas ( worlds ), whereupon he informed test, assumed the form of a hawk and called upon him of the stories told by the two and thirty his friend Agni to take the form of a dove. The images on the throne of Vikramarka. hawk, then, pursuing the dove, reached the earth. In Vedanarayanapura Agrábára there lived The dove came to King Sibi and said: "O King! a Brâhman, Vishņusarmn by name, who had four there comes a hawk to put an end to me, and sons, Yajñanarayana, Vêdaniriyaņa, Viranaramake me its prey. Shield me." So saying, he yana, and Chandrasarma. The first three were took refuge. Not long after, the hawk approach- thoroughly conversant with Vedio literature and ed the king and said :-"It is unfair of you to all the blistras, and displayed their learning at the protect my prey, for that will lead to my certain courts of various kings, receiving very valuable death. Refrain, therefore, from protecting the presents ; while the fourth, as he was not in. dove." To which the king replied that he would structed in any of the sciences, acted as their give the dove's weight of flesh from his body, servant. Matters went on thus for some time, instead of the dove itself. The hawk consented till the fourth son became disgusted with to the proposal. The king thereupon brought his lot and resolving to visit foreign parts for scales, put the dove on one pan and his flesh the purpose of becoming educated, left his on the other, and seeing that even a great quantity home at dead of night without telling any. of his flesh did not equally balance the dove's, I one. The next evening he reached the bank of
Layard's Early Adventures, P. 445. * [It may be taken a certain that this is a translation from a local Mahatmya or some such M8.- ED.)
