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was there, he heard at night-time the following proclamation by beat of drum : 'A rich merchant will give a thousand dináras to whoever will guard until dawn this man who died a violent death. When Mitránanda heard this, he asked a man : Why is this corpse to be guarded ? The man answered : ' This corpse is very difficult to protect from the Lamia.'* When Mitránanda heard this, as he was desirous of money, he touched the drum, and took five hundred dináras by way of advance, and then guarded the corpse through the night. When the morning came, the relations of the dead man refused to give him the other five hundred dináras, and took the corpse away from him by force. Mitránanda said: 'I will inform the king of this unjust proceeding.' Then he bought a respectable dress for a hundred dináras, and went to the house of Vasantatilaká, a principal hetera. Then he gave four hundred dináras to the mother of Vasantatilaká; then he was bathed and feasted in the most splendid manner by the old hetera, but as he was intent on his friend's interests, he remained indifferent for three watches of the night, thinking of nothing else. Then the old hetera said to Mitrananda : 'Why do you thus cheat my daughter of your society? Is she neither affectionate nor good-looking, that you will not speak to her ? Mitránanda answered her : “Mother, I will do all your bidding, but I ask you one thing: have you the entrée of the apartments of the princess, or not?' She answered : “This daughter of mine is always entering the apartments of the princess ; Ratnamanjarí is a great friend of my daughter's.' Then Mitrananda said : The next time you enter Ratnamanjari's
* I translate Mári by Lamia. We find further on that the Mari assumes the form of a beautiful woman. The story may be compared with The Soldier's Midnight Watch' and The Headless Princess' in Ralston's' Russian Folk-Tales,' pp. 271-283. In an article in the Globe newspaper of September 18, 1894, on Funeral Superstitions,' I find the following sentence: Readers of the “Golden Ass” will remember the weird and dismal superstitions with which the ancient world surrounded the corpse of the departed, and how heavy a bribe was needed to induce the student Telephron to watch beside a dead body previous to its interment. This passage will be found in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius,' lib. ii., c. 35 and ff.
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