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-Project Gutenberg's The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2), by Robert Southey
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2)
-       Volume the First
-
-Author: Robert Southey
-
-Release Date: August 30, 2017 [EBook #55458]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 1 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Thomas
-
-
-
-
-
-  The
-  Curse of Kehama:
-  by
-  Robert Southey.
-
-
-  Καταραι, ως και τα αλεκτρυονονεοττα, οικον αει, οψε κεν επανηξαν
-  εγκαθισομεναι.
-                     Αποφθ. Ανεκ. του Γυλιελ. του Μητ.
-
-  CURSES ARE LIKE YOUNG CHICKEN, THEY ALWAYS COME HOME TO ROOST.
-
-
-  THE THIRD EDITION.
-
-  _VOLUME THE FIRST._
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND
-  BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
-  1812.
-
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES.
-
-This book was originally digitized by Google and is intended for
-personal, non-commercial use only.
-
-Original page numbers are given in curly brackets. Footnotes have been
-relocated to the end of the book. Passages originally rendered in
-small-caps have been changed to all-caps in the text version of this
-work.
-
-Alterations: [pp. 168, 191] Correct misspellings of Edward Moor's
-last name; [p. 194] change "battel" to "battle"; and [p. 237] change
-"Son and Moon" to "Sun and Moon".
-
-
-
-  TO
-  THE AUTHOR OF GEBIR,
-  WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR,
-  THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED,
-  BY
-  ROBERT SOUTHEY.
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-IN the religion of the Hindoos, which of all false religions is the
-most monstrous in its fables, and the most fatal in its effects, there
-is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices, are
-supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in no degree
-depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who performs
-them. They are drafts upon Heaven, for which the Gods cannot refuse
-payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this
-manner obtained power which has made them formidable to the Supreme
-Deities themselves, and rendered an _Avatar_, or Incarnation of
-Veeshnoo the Preserver, necessary. This belief is the foundation of
-the following Poem. The story is original; but, in all its parts,
-consistent with the superstition upon which it is built; and however
-startling the fictions may appear, they might almost be called
-credible when compared with the genuine tales of Hindoo mythology.
-
-No figures can be imagined more anti-picturesque, and less poetical,
-than the mythological personages of the Bramins. This deformity was
-easily kept out of sight:--their hundred hands are but a clumsy
-personification of power; their numerous heads only a gross image of
-divinity, "whose countenance," as the Bhagvat-Geeta expresses it, "is
-turned on every side." To the other obvious objection, that the religion
-of Hindostan is not generally known enough to supply fit machinery for
-an English poem, I can only answer, that, if every allusion to it
-throughout the work is not sufficiently self-explained to render the
-passage intelligible, there is a want of skill in the poet. Even those
-readers who should be wholly unacquainted with the writings of our
-learned Orientalists, will find all the preliminary knowledge that can
-be needful, in the brief explanation of mythological names prefixed to
-the Poem.
-
-
-
-  CONTENTS
-  TO
-  VOLUME FIRST.
-
-  1. The Funeral
-  2. The Curse
-  3. The Recovery
-  4. The Departure
-  5. The Separation
-  6. Casyapa
-  7. The Swerga
-  8. The Sacrifice
-  9. The Home Scene
-  10. Mount Meru
-  11. The Enchantress
-  12. The Sacrifice Completed
-
-  Notes
-  Footnotes
-
-
-
-  Στησατε μοι Πρωτηα πολυτροπον, οφρα φανειη
-  Ποικιλον ειδος εχων, οτι ποικιλον υμνον αρασσω.
-                               Νον. Διον.
-
-  For I will for no man's pleasure
-  Change a syllable or measure;
-  Pedants shall not tie my strains
-  To our antique poets' veins;
-  Being born as free as these,
-  I will sing as I shall please.
-                   George Wither.
-
-
-
-MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES.
-
-BRAMA, the Creator.
-
-VEESHNOO, the Preserver.
-
-SEEVA, the Destroyer.
-
-These form the Trimourtee, or Trinity, as it has been called, of the
-Bramins. The allegory is obvious, but it has been made for the
-Trimourtee, not the Trimourtee for the allegory; and these Deities are
-regarded by the people as three distinct and personal Gods. The two
-latter have at this day their hostile sects of worshippers; that of
-Seeva is the most numerous; and in this Poem, Seeva is represented as
-Supreme among the Gods. This is the same God whose name is variously
-written Seeb, Sieven and Siva, Chiven by the French, Xiven by the
-Portugueze, and whom European writers sometimes denominate Eswara,
-Iswaren, Mahadeo, Mahadeva, Rutren,--according to which of his
-thousand and eight names prevailed in the country where they obtained
-their Information.
-
-INDRA, God of the Elements.
-
-The SWERGA, his Paradise,--one of the Hindoo heavens.
-
-YAMEN, Lord of Hell, and Judge of the Dead.
-
-PADALON, Hell,--under the Earth, and, like the Earth, of an octagon
-shape; its eight gates are guarded by as many Gods.
-
-MARRIATALY, the Goddess who is chiefly worshipped by the lower casts.
-
-POLLEAR, or Ganesa,--the Protector of Travellers. His statues are
-placed in the highways, and sometimes in a small lonely sanctuary, in
-the streets and in the fields.
-
-CASYAPA, the Father of the Immortals.
-
-DEVETAS, The Inferior Deities.
-
-SURAS, Good Spirits.
-
-ASURAS, Evil Spirits, or Devils.
-
-GLENDOVEERS, the most beautiful of the Good Spirits, the Grindouvers
-of Sonnerat.
-
-
-
-THE CURSE OF KEHAMA.
-
- {1}
-
- I.
- THE FUNERAL.
-
- 1.
- Midnight, and yet no eye
- Through all the Imperial City clos'd in sleep!
- Behold her streets a-blaze
- With light that seems to kindle the red sky,
- Her myriads swarming through the crowded ways!
- Master and slave, old age and infancy,
- All, all abroad to gaze;
- House-top and balcony
- Clustered with women, who throw back their veils,
- With unimpeded and insatiate sight
- To view the funeral pomp which passes by,
- {2}
- As if the mournful rite
- Were but to them a scene of joyance and delight.
-
- 2.
- Vainly, ye blessed twinklers of the night,
- Your feeble beams ye shed,
- Quench'd in the unnatural light which might out-stare
- Even the broad eye of day;
- And thou from thy celestial way
- Pourest, O Moon, an ineffectual ray!
- For lo! ten thousand torches flame and flare
- Upon the midnight air,
- Blotting the lights of heaven
- With one portentous glare.
- Behold the fragrant smoke in many a fold,
- Ascending floats along the fiery sky,
- And hangeth visible on high,
- A dark and waving canopy.
-
- 3.
- Hark! 'tis the funeral trumpet's breath!
- 'Tis the dirge of death!
- At once ten thousand drums begin,
- With one long thunder-peal the ear assailing;
- {3}
- Ten thousand voices then join in,
- And with one deep and general din
- Pour their wild wailing.
- The song of praise is drown'd
- Amid that deafening sound;
- You hear no more the trumpet's tone,
- You hear no more the mourner's moan,
- Though the trumpet's breath, and the dirge of death,
- Mingle and swell the funeral yell.
- But rising over all in one acclaim
- Is heard the echoed and re-echoed name,
- From all that countless rout:
- Arvalan! Arvalan!
- Arvalan! Arvalan!
- Ten times ten thousand voices in one shout
- Call Arvalan! The overpowering sound
- From house to house repeated rings about,
- From tower to tower rolls round.
-
- 4.
- The death-procession moves along;
- Their bald heads shining to the torches' ray,
- The Bramins lead the way,
- Chaunting the funeral song.
- {4}
- And now at once they shout
- Arvalan! Arvalan!
- With quick rebound of sound,
- All in accordant cry,
- Arvalan! Arvalan!
- The universal multitude reply.
- In vain ye thunder on his ear the name!
- Would ye awake the dead?
- Borne upright in his palankeen,
- There Arvalan is seen!
- A glow is on his face, . . . a lively red;
- 'Tis but the crimson canopy
- Which o'er his cheek the reddening shade hath shed.
- He moves, . . . he nods his head; . . .
- But the motion comes from the bearers' tread,
- As the body, borne aloft in state,
- Sways with the impulse of its own dead weight.
-
- 5.
- Close following his dead son, Kehama came,
- Nor joining in the ritual song,
- Nor calling the dear name;
- With head deprest and funeral vest,
- And arms enfolded on his breast,
- {5}
- Silent and lost in thought he moves along.
- King of the world, his slaves unenvying now
- Behold their wretched Lord; rejoiced they see
- The mighty Rajah's misery;
- For nature in his pride hath dealt the blow,
- And taught the master of mankind to know
- Even he himself is man, and not exempt from woe.
-
- 6.
- O sight of grief! the wives of Arvalan,
- Young Azla, young Nealliny, are seen!
- Their widow-robes of white,
- With gold and jewels bright,
- Each like an Eastern queen.
- Woe! woe! around their palankeen,
- As on a bridal day,
- With symphony, and dance, and song,
- Their kindred and their friends come on, . . .
- The dance of sacrifice! the funeral song!
- And next the victim slaves in long array,
- Richly bedight to grace the fatal day,
- Move onward to their death;
- The clarions' stirring breath
- Lifts their thin robes in every flowing fold,
- {6}
- And swells the woven gold,
- That on the agitated air
- Trembles, and glitters to the torches' glare.
-
- 7.
- A man and maid of aspect wan and wild,
- Then, side by side, by bowmen guarded, came.
- O wretched father! O unhappy child!
- Them were all eyes of all the throng exploring; . . .
- Is this the daring man
- Who raised his fatal hand at Arvalan?
- Is this the wretch condemned to feel
- Kehama's dreadful wrath?
- Them were all hearts of all the throng deploring,
- For not in that innumerable throng
- Was one who lov'd the dead; for who could know
- What aggravated wrong
- Provok'd the desperate blow!
- Far, far behind, beyond all reach of sight,
- In ordered files the torches flow along,
- One ever-lengthening line of gliding light:
- Far . . . far behind,
- Rolls on the undistinguishable clamour,
- Of horn, and trump, and tambour;
- {7}
- Incessant at the roar
- Of streams which down the wintry mountain pour,
- And louder than the dread commotion
- Of stormy billows on a rocky shore,
- When the winds rage over the wares,
- And Ocean to the Tempest raves.
-
- 8.
- And now toward the bank they go,
- Where, winding on their way below,
- Deep and strong the waters flow.
- Here doth the funeral pile appear
- With myrrh and ambergris bestrew'd,
- And built of precious sandal wood.
- They cease their music and their outcry here;
- Gently they rest the bier:
- They wet the face of Arvalan,
- No sign of life the sprinkled drops excite.
- They feel his breast, . . . no motion there;
- They feel his lips, . . . no breath;
- For not with feeble, nor with erring hand,
- The stern avenger dealt the blow of death.
- Then with a doubling peal and deeper blast,
- The tambours and the trumpets sound on high,
- {8}
- And with a last and loudest cry
- They call on Arvalan.
-
- 9.
- Woe! woe! for Azla takes her seat
- Upon the funeral pile!
- Calmly she took her seat,
- Calmly the whole terrific pomp survey'd;
- As on her lap the while
- The lifeless head of Arvalan was laid.
- Woe! woe! Nealliny,
- The young Nealliny!
- They strip her ornaments away,
- Bracelet and anklet, ring, and chain, and zone;
- Around her neck they leave
- The marriage knot alone, . . .
- That marriage band, which when
- Yon waning moon was young,
- Around her virgin neck
- With bridal joy was hung.
- Then with white flowers, the coronal of death,
- Her jetty locks they crown.
- O sight of misery!
- Yon cannot hear her cries, . . . all other sound
- {9}
- In that wild dissonance is drown'd; . . .
- But in her face you see
- The supplication and the agony, . . .
- See in her swelling throat the desperate strength
- That with vain effort struggles yet for life;
- Her arms contracted now in fruitless strife,
- Now wildly at full length
- Towards the crowd in vain for pity spread, . . .
- They force her on, they bind her to the dead.
-
- 10.
- Then all around retire;
- Circling the pile, the ministring Bramins stand,
- Each lifting in his hand a torch on fire.
- Alone the Father of the dead advanced
- And lit the funeral pyre.
-
- 11.
- At once on every side
- The circling torches drop;
- At once on every side
- The fragrant oil is pour'd;
- At once on every side
- The rapid flames rush up.
- {10}
- Then hand in hand the victim band
- Roll in the dance around the funeral pyre;
- Their garments' flying folds
- Float inward to the fire.
- In drunken whirl they wheel around;
- One drops, . . . another plunges in;
- And still with overwhelming din
- The tambours and the trumpets sound;
- And clap of hand, and shouts, and cries,
- From all the multitude arise:
- While round and round, in giddy wheel,
- Intoxicate they roll and reel,
- Till one by one whirl'd in they fall,
- And the devouring flames have swallowed all.
-
- 12.
- Then all was still; the drums and clarions ceas'd;
- The multitude were hush'd in silent awe;
- Only the roaring of the flames was heard.
-
-
-
- II.
- THE CURSE.
-
- {11}
-
- 1.
- Alone towards the Table of the dead,
- Kehama mov'd; there on the altar-stone
- Honey and rice he spread,
- There with collected voice and painful tone
- He call'd upon his son.
- Lo! Arvalan appears.
- Only Kehama's powerful eye beheld
- The thin etherial spirit hovering nigh;
- Only the Rajah's ear
- Receiv'd his feeble breath.
- And is this all? the mournful spirit said,
- This all that thou canst give me after death?
- {12}
- This unavailing pomp,
- These empty pageantries that mock the dead!
-
- 2.
- In bitterness the Rajah heard,
- And groan'd, and smote his breast, and o'er his face
- Cowl'd the white mourning vest.
-
- ARVALAN.
- Art thou not powerful, . . . even like a God?
- And must I, through my years of wandering,
- Shivering and naked to the elements,
- In wretchedness await
- The hour of Yamen's wrath?
- I thought thou wouldst embody me anew.
- Undying as I am, . . .
- Yea, re-create me! . . . Father, is this all!
- This all! and thou Almighty!
-
- 3.
- But in that wrongful and upbraiding tone,
- Kehama found relief,
- For rising anger half supprest his grief.
- Reproach not me! he cried;
- {13}
- Had I not spell-secur'd thee from disease,
- Fire, sword, . . . all common accidents of man, . . .
- And thou! . . . fool, fool, . . . to perish by a stake!
- And by a peasant's arm! . . .
- Even now, when from reluctant Heaven
- Forcing new gifts and mightier attributes,
- So soon I should have quell'd the Death-God's power.
-
- 4.
- Waste not thy wrath on me, quoth Arvalan,
- It was my hour of folly! Fate prevail'd,
- Nor boots it to reproach me that I fell.
- I am in misery, Father! Other souls
- Predoom'd to Indra's Heaven, enjoy the dawn
- Of bliss: . . . to them the tempered elements
- Minister joy, genial delight the sun
- Sheds on their happy being, and the stars
- Effuse on them benignant influencies;
- And thus o'er earth and air they roam at will,
- And when the number of their days is full,
- Go fearlessly before the awful throne.
- But I, . . . all naked feeling and raw life, . . .
- What worse than this hath Yamen's hell in store?
- If ever thou didst love me, mercy, Father!
- {14}
- Save me, for thou canst save: . . . the Elements
- Know and obey thy voice.
-
- KEHAMA.
- The Elements
- Shall torture thee no more; even while I speak
- Already dost then feel their power is gone.
- Fear not! I cannot call again the past,
- Fate hath made that its own; but Fate shall yield
- To me the future; and thy doom be fix'd
- By mine, not Yamen's will. Meantime, all power
- Whereof thy feeble spirit can be made
- Participant, I give. Is there aught else
- To mitigate thy lot?
-
- ARVALAN.
- Only the sight of vengeance. Give me that!
- Vengeance, full, worthy vengeance! . . . not the stroke
- Of sodden punishment, . . . no agony
- That spends itself and leaves the wretch at rest,
- But lasting long revenge.
-
- KEHAMA.
- What, boy? is that cup sweet? then take thy fill!
-
- {15}
-
- 5.
- So as he spake, a glow of dreadful pride
- Inflam'd his cheek: with quick and angry stride
- He mov'd toward the pile,
- And rais'd his hand to hush the crowd, and cried
- Bring forth the murderer! At the Rajah's voice,
- Calmly, and like a man whom fear had stunn'd,
- Ladurlad came, obedient to the call.
- But Kailyal started at the sound,
- And gave a womanly shriek, and back she drew,
- And eagerly she roll'd her eyes around,
- As if to seek for aid, albeit she knew
- No aid could there be found.
-
- 6.
- It chanced that near her, on the river-brink,
- The sculptur'd form of Marriataly stood;
- It was an idol roughly hewn of wood,
- Artless, and poor, and rude.
- The Goddess of the poor was she;
- None else regarded her with piety.
- But when that holy image Kailyal view'd,
- To that she sprung, to that she clung,
- On her own goddess with close-clasping arms,
- {16}
- For life the maiden hung.
- They seiz'd the maid; with unrelenting grasp
- They bruis'd her tender limbs;
- She, nothing yielding, to this only hope
- Clings with the strength of frenzy and despair.
- She screams not now, she breathes not now,
- She sends not up one vow,
- She forms not in her soul one secret prayer,
- All thought, all feeling, and all powers' of life
- In the one effort centering. Wrathful they
- With tug and strain would force the maid away. . . .
- Didst thou, O Marriataly, see their strife?
- In pity didst thou see the suffering maid?
- Or was thine anger kindled, that rude hands
- Assail'd thy holy image? . . . for behold
- The holy image shakes!
- Irreverently bold, they deem the maid
- Relax'd her stubborn hold,
- And now with force redoubled drag their prey;
- And now the rooted idol to their sway
- Bends, . . . yields, . . . and now it falls. But then they scream,
- For lo! they feel the crumbling bank give way,
- And all are plunged into the stream.
-
- {17}
-
- 7.
- She hath escap'd my will, Kehama cried,
- She hath escap'd, . . . but thou art here,
- I have thee still,
- The worser criminal!
- And on Ladurlad, while he spake, severe
- He fix'd his dreadful frown.
- The strong reflection of the pile
- Lit his dark lineaments,
- Lit the protruded brow, the gathered front,
- The steady eye of wrath.
-
- 8.
- But while the fearful silence yet endur'd,
- Ladurlad rous'd his soul;
- Ere yet the voice of destiny
- Which trembled on the Rajah's lips was loos'd,
- Eager he interpos'd,
- As if despair had waken'd him to hope;
- Mercy! oh mercy! only in defence . . .
- Only instinctively, . . .
- Only to save my child, I smote the Prince.
- King of the world, be merciful!
- Crush me, . . . but torture not!
-
- {18}
-
- 9.
- The Man-Almighty deign'd him no reply,
- Still he stood silent; in no human mood
- Of mercy, in no hesitating thought
- Of right and justice. At the length he rais'd
- His brow yet unrelax'd, . . . his lips unclos'd,
- And utter'd from the heart,
- With the whole feeling of his soul enforced,
- The gather'd vengeance came.
-
- 10.
- I charm thy life
- From the weapons of strife,
- From stone and from wood,
- From fire and from flood,
- From the serpent's tooth,
- And the beasts of blood:
- From Sickness I charm thee,
- And Time shall not harm thee;
- But Earth, which is mine,
- Its fruits shall deny thee;
- And Water shall hear me,
- And know thee and fly thee;
- And the Winds shall not touch thee
- {19}
- When they pass by thee,
- And the Dews shall not wet thee,
- When they fall nigh thee:
- And thou shalt seek Death
- To release thee, in vain;
- Thou shalt live in thy pain,
- While Kehama shall reign,
- With a fire in thy heart,
- And a fire in thy brain;
- And sleep shall obey me,
- And visit thee never,
- And the Curse shall be on thee
- For ever and ever.
-
- 11.
- There where the Curse had stricken him,
- There stood the miserable man,
- There stood Ladurlad, with loose-hanging arms,
- And eyes of idiot wandering.
- Was it a dream? alas,
- He heard the river flow,
- He heard the crumbling of the pile,
- He heard the wind which shower'd
- The thin white ashes round.
- {20}
- There motionless he stood,
- As if he hop'd it were a dream,
- And fear'd to move, lest he should prove
- The actual misery;
- And still at times he met Kehama's eye,
- Kehama's eye that fasten'd on him still.
-
-
-
- III.
- THE RECOVERY.
-
- {21}
-
- 1.
- The Rajah turn'd toward the pile again,
- Loud rose the song of death from all the crowd;
- Their din the instruments begin,
- And once again join in
- With overwhelming sound.
- Ladurlad starts, . . . he looks around.
- What hast thou here in view,
- O wretched man, in this disastrous scene?
- The soldier train, the Bramins who renew
- Their ministry around the funeral pyre,
- The empty palankeens,
- The dimly-fading fire.
- {22}
- Where too is she whom most his heart held dear,
- His best-beloved Kailyal, where is she,
- The solace and the joy of many a year
- Of widowhood! is she then gone,
- And is he left all-utterly alone,
- To bear his blasting curse, and none
- To succour or deplore him?
- He staggers from the dreadful spot; the throng
- Give way in fear before him;
- Like one who carries pestilence about,
- Shuddering they shun him, where he moves along.
- And now he wanders on
- Beyond the noisy rout;
- He cannot fly and leave his curse behind,
- Yet doth he seem to find
- A comfort in the change of circumstance.
- Adown the shore he strays,
- Unknowing where his wretched feet may rest,
- But farthest from the fatal place is best.
-
- 2.
- By this in the orient sky appears the gleam
- Of day. Lo! what is yonder in the stream,
- Down the slow river floating slow,
- In distance indistinct and dimly seen?
- {23}
- The childless one with idle eye
- Followed its motion thoughtlessly;
- Idly he gaz'd, unknowing why,
- And half unconscious that he watch'd its way.
- Belike it is a tree
- Which some rude tempest, in its sudden sway,
- Tore from the rock, or from the hollow shore
- The undermining stream hath swept away.
-
- 3.
- But when anon outswelling by its side,
- A woman's robe he spied,
- Oh then Ladurlad started,
- As one, who in his grave
- Had heard an angel's call.
- Yea, Marriataly, then hast deign'd to save!
- Yea, Goddess! it is she,
- To thy dear image clinging senselessly,
- And thus in happy hour
- Upborne amid the wave
- By that preserving power.
-
- 4.
- Headlong in hope and in joy
- Ladurlad dash'd in the water.
- {24}
- The water knew Kehama's spell,
- The water shrunk before him.
- Blind to the miracle,
- He rushes to his daughter,
- And treads the river-depths in transport wild,
- And clasps and saves his child.
-
- 5.
- Upon the farther side a level shore
- Of sand was spread: thither Ladurlad bore
- His daughter, holding still with senseless hand
- The saving Goddess; there upon the sand
- He laid the livid maid,
- Rais'd up against his knees her drooping head;
- Bent to her lips, . . . her lips as pale as death, . . .
- If he might feel her breath,
- His own the while in hope and dread suspended;
- Chaf'd her cold breast, and ever and anon
- Let his hand rest upon her heart extended.
-
- 6.
- Soon did his touch perceive, or fancy there,
- The first faint motion of returning life.
- He chafes her feet, and lays them bare
- In the sun; and now again upon her breast
- {25}
- Lays his hot hand; and now her lips he prest,
- For now the stronger throb of life he knew:
- And her lips tremble too!
- The breath comes palpably,
- Her quivering lids unclose
- Feebly and feebly fell,
- Relapsing as it seem'd to dead repose.
-
- 7.
- So in her father's arms thus languidly,
- While over her with earnest gaze he hung,
- Silent and motionless she lay,
- And painfully and slowly writh'd at fits,
- At fits to short convulsive starts was stung.
- Till when the struggle and strong agony
- Had left her, quietly she lay repos'd:
- Her eyes now resting on Ladurlad's face,
- Relapsing now, and now again unclos'd.
- The look she fix'd upon his face, implies
- Nor thought nor feeling; senselessly she lies,
- Compos'd like one who sleeps with open eyes.
-
- 8.
- Long he leant over her,
- {26}
- In silence and in fear.
- Kailyal! . . . at length he cried in such a tone,
- As a poor mother ventures who draws near,
- With silent footstep, to her child's sick bed.
- My Father! cried the maid, and rais'd her head,
- Awakening then to life and thought, . . . thou here?
- For when his voice she heard,
- The dreadful past recurr'd,
- Which dimly, like a dream of pain,
- Till now with troubled sense confus'd her brain.
-
- 9.
- And hath he spar'd us then? she cried,
- Half rising as she spake,
- For hope and joy the sudden strength supplied;
- In mercy hath he curb'd his cruel will,
- That still thou livest? But as thus she said,
- Impatient of that look of hope, her sire
- Shook hastily his head;
- Oh! he hath laid a Curse upon my life,
- A clinging curse, quoth he;
- Hath sent a fire into my heart and brain,
- A burning fire, for ever there to be!
- The winds of Heaven must never breathe on me;
- {27}
- The rains and dews must never fall on me;
- Water must mock my thirst and shrink from me;
- The common earth must yield no fruit to me;
- Sleep, blessed Sleep! must never light on me;
- And Death, who comes to all, must fly from me;
- And never, never set Ladurlad free.
-
- 10.
- This is a dream! exclaim'd the incredulous maid,
- Yet in her voice the while a fear exprest,
- Which in her larger eye was manifest.
- This is a dream! she rose and laid her hand
- Upon her father's brow, to try the charm;
- He could not bear the pressure there; . . . he shrunk, . . .
- He warded off her arm,
- As though it were an enemy's blow, he smote
- His daughter's arm aside.
- Her eye glanced down, his mantle she espied
- And caught it up; . . . Oh misery! Kailyal cried,
- He bore me from the river-depths, and yet
- His garment is not wet!
-
-
-
- IV.
- THE DEPARTURE.
-
- {28}
-
- 1.
- Reclin'd beneath a Cocoa's feathery shade
- Ladurlad lies,
- And Kailyal on his lap her head hath laid,
- To hide her streaming eyes.
- The boatman, sailing on his easy way,
- With envious eye beheld them where they lay;
- For every herb and flower
- Was fresh and fragrant with the early dew;
- Sweet sung the birds in that delicious hour,
- And the cool gale of morning as it blew,
- Not yet subdued by day's increasing power,
- Ruffling the surface of the silvery stream,
- {29}
- Swept o'er the moisten'd sand, and rais'd no shower.
- Telling their tale of love,
- The boatman thought they lay
- At that lone hour, and who so blest as they!
-
- 2.
- But now the sun in heaven is high,
- The little songsters of the sky
- Sit silent in the sultry hour,
- They pant and palpitate with heat;
- Their bills are open languidly
- To catch the passing air;
- They hear it not, they feel it not,
- It murmurs not, it moves not.
- The boatman, as he looks to land,
- Admires what men so mad to linger there,
- For yonder Cocoa's shade behind them falls,
- A single spot upon the burning sand.
-
- 3.
- There all the morning was Ladurlad laid,
- Silent and motionless, like one at ease;
- There motionless upon her father's knees,
- Reclin'd the silent maid.
- {30}
- The man was still, pondering with steady mind,
- As if it were another's Curse,
- His own portentous lot;
- Scanning it o'er and o'er in busy thought,
- As though it were a last night's tale of woe,
- Before the cottage door,
- By some old beldame sung,
- While young and old assembled round,
- Listened, as if by witchery bound,
- In fearful pleasure to her wonderous tongue.
-
- 4.
- Musing so long he lay, that all things seem
- Unreal to his sense, even like a dream,
- A monstrous dream of things which could not be.
- That beating, burning brow, . . . why it was now
- The height of noon, and he was lying there
- In the broad sun, all bare!
- What if he felt no wind? the air was still,
- That was the general will
- Of nature, not his own peculiar doom;
- Yon rows of rice erect and silent stand,
- The shadow of the Cocoa's lightest plume
- Is steady on the sand.
-
- {31}
-
- 5.
- Is it indeed a dream? he rose to try,
- Impatient to the water-side he went,
- And down he bent,
- And in the stream he plung'd his hasty arm
- To break the visionary charm.
- With fearful eye and fearful heart,
- His daughter watch'd the event;
- She saw the start and shudder,
- She heard the in-drawn groan,
- For the Water knew Kehama's charm,
- The water shrunk before his arm.
- His dry hand mov'd about unmoisten'd there;
- As easily might that dry hand avail
- To stop the passing gale,
- Or grasp the impassive air.
- He is Almighty then!
- Exclaim'd the wretched man in his despair;
- Air knows him, Water knows him; Sleep
- His dreadful word will keep;
- Even in the grave there is no rest for me,
- Cut off from that last hope, . . . the wretches' joy;
- And Veeshnoo hath no power to save,
- Nor Seeva to destroy.
-
- {32}
-
- 6.
- Oh! wrong not them! quoth Kailyal,
- Wrong not the Heavenly Powers!
- Our hope is all in them: They are not blind!
- And lighter wrongs than ours,
- And lighter crimes than his,
- Have drawn the Incarnate down among mankind;
- Already have the Immortals heard our cries,
- And in the mercy of their righteousness
- Beheld us in the hour of our distress!
- She spake with streaming eyes,
- Where pious love and ardent feeling beam;
- And turning to the Image, threw
- Her grateful arms around it, . . . It was thou
- Who saved'st me from the stream!
- My Marriataly, it was thou!
- I had not else been here
- To share my Father's Curse,
- To suffer now, . . . and yet to thank thee thus!
-
- 7.
- Here then, the maiden cried, dear Father, here
- Raise our own Goddess, our divine Preserver!
- The mighty of the earth despise her rites,
- {33}
- She loves the poor who serve her.
- Set up her image here,
- With heart and voice the guardian Goddess bless,
- For jealously would she resent
- Neglect and thanklessness. . . .
- Set up her image here,
- And bless her for her aid with tongue and soul sincere.
-
- 8.
- So saying, on her knees the maid
- Began the pious toil.
- Soon their joint labour scoops the easy soil;
- They raise the image up with reverent hand,
- And round its rooted base they heap the sand.
- O Thou whom we adore,
- O Marriataly, thee do I implore,
- The virgin cried; my Goddess, pardon thou
- The unwilling wrong, that I no more,
- With dance and song,
- Can do thy daily service, as of yore!
- The flowers which last I wreath'd around thy brow,
- Are withering there; and never now
- Shall I at eve adore thee,
- And swimming round with arms outspread,
- {34}
- Poise the full pitcher on my head,
- In dextrous dance before thee;
- White underneath the reedy shed, at rest,
- My father sate the evening rites to view,
- And blest thy name, and blest
- His daughter too.
-
- 9.
- Then heaving from her heart a heavy sigh,
- O Goddess! from that happy home, cried she,
- The Almighty Man hath forced us!
- And homeward with the thought unconsciously
- She turn'd her dizzy eye. . . . But there on high,
- With many a dome, and pinnacle, and spire,
- The summits of, the Golden Palaces
- Blaz'd in the dark blue sky, aloft, like fire.
- Father, away! she cried, away!
- Why linger we so nigh?
- For not to him hath Nature given
- The thousand eyes of Deity,
- Always and every where with open sight,
- To persecute our flight!
- Away . . . away! she said,
- And took her father's hand, and like a child
- He followed where she led.
-
-
-
- V.
- THE SEPARATION.
-
- {35}
-
- 1.
- Evening comes on: arising from the stream,
- Homeward the tall flamingo wings his flight;
- And where he sails athwart the setting beam,
- His scarlet plumage glows with deeper light.
- The watchman, at the wish'd approach of night,
- Gladly forsakes the field, where he all day,
- To scare the winged plunderers from their prey,
- With shout and sling, on yonder clay-built height,
- Hath borne the sultry ray.
- Hark! at the Golden Palaces,
- The Bramin strikes the hour.
- For leagues and leagues around, the brazen sound
- {36}
- Rolls through the stillness of departing day,
- Like thunder far away.
-
- 2.
- Behold them wandering on their hopeless way,
- Unknowing where they stray,
- Yet sure where'er they stop to find no rest.
- The evening gale is blowing,
- It plays among the trees;
- Like plumes upon a warrior's crest,
- They see yon cocoas tossing to the breeze.
- Ladurlad views them with impatient mind,
- Impatiently he hears
- The gale of evening blowing,
- The sound of waters flowing,
- As if all sights and sounds combin'd
- To mock his irremediable woe:
- For not for him the blessed waters flow,
- For not for him the gales of evening blow,
- A fire is in his heart and brain,
- And Nature hath no healing for his pain.
-
- 3.
- The Moon is up, still pale
- {37}
- Amid the lingering light.
- A cloud ascending in the eastern sky,
- Sails slowly o'er the vale,
- And darkens round and closes-in the night.
- No hospitable house is nigh,
- No traveller's home the wanderers to invite.
- Forlorn, and with long watching overworn,
- The wretched father and the wretched child
- Lie down amid the wild.
-
- 4.
- Before them full in sight,
- A white flag flapping to the winds of night,
- Marks where the tyger seiz'd his human prey.
- Far, far away with natural dread,
- Shunning the perilous spot,
- At other times abhorrent had they fled;
- But now they heed it not.
- Nothing they care; the boding death-flag now
- In vain for them may gleam and flutter there.
- Despair and agony in him,
- Prevent all other thought;
- And Kailyal hath no heart or sense for aught,
- Save her dear father's strange and miserable lot.
-
- {38}
-
- 5.
- There in the woodland shade,
- Upon the lap of that unhappy maid,
- His head Ladurlad laid,
- And never word he spake;
- Nor heav'd he one complaining sigh,
- Nor groan'd he with his misery,
- But silently for her dear sake
- Endur'd the raging pain.
- And now the moon was hid on high,
- No stars were glimmering in the sky;
- She could not see her father's eye,
- How red with burning agony.
- Perhaps he may be cooler now;
- She hoped, and long'd to touch his brow
- With gentle hand, yet did not dare
- To lay the painful pressure there.
- Now forward from the tree she bent,
- And anxiously her head she leant,
- And listened to his breath.
- Ladurlad's breath was short and quick,
- Yet regular it came,
- And like the slumber of the sick,
- In pantings still the same.
- {39}
- Oh if he sleeps! . . . her lips unclose,
- Intently listening to the sound,
- That equal sound so like repose.
- Still quietly the sufferer lies,
- Bearing his torment now with resolute will;
- He neither moves, nor groans, nor sighs.
- Doth satiate cruelty bestow
- This little respite to his woe,
- She thought, or are there Gods who look below!
-
- 6.
- Perchance, thought Kailyal, willingly deceiv'd,
- Our Marriataly hath his pain reliev'd,
- And she hath bade the blessed sleep assuage
- His agony, despite the Rajah's rage.
- That was a hope which fill'd her gushing eyes,
- And made her heart in silent yearnings rise,
- To bless the Power divine in thankfulness.
- And yielding to that joyful thought her mind,
- Backward the maid her aching head reclin'd
- Against the tree, and to her father's breath
- In fear she hearken'd still with earnest ear.
- But soon forgetful fits the effort broke:
- In starts of recollection then she woke;
- {40}
- Till now benignant Nature overcame
- The Virgin's weary and exhausted frame,
- Nor able more her painful watch to keep,
- She clos'd her heavy lids, and sunk to sleep.
-
- 7.
- Vain was her hope! he did not rest from pain,
- The Curse was burning in his brain.
- Alas! the innocent maiden thought he slept,
- But Sleep the Rajah's dread commandment kept,
- Sleep knew Kehama's Curse.
- The dews of night fell round them now,
- They never bath'd Ladurlad's brow,
- They knew Kehama's Curse.
- The night-wind is abroad,
- Aloft it moves among the stirring trees.
- He only heard the breeze, . . .
- No healing aid to him it brought,
- It play'd around his head and touch'd him not,
- It knew Kehama's Curse.
-
- 8.
- Listening, Ladurlad lay in his despair,
- If Kailyal slept, for wherefore should she share
- {41}
- Her father's wretchedness which none could cure?
- Better alone to suffer; he must bear
- The burthen of his Curse, but why endure
- The unavailing presence of her grief?
- She too, apart from him, might find relief;
- For dead the Rajah deem'd her, and as thus
- Already she his dread revenge had fled,
- So might she still escape and live secure.
-
- 9.
- Gently he lifts his head,
- And Kailyal does not feel;
- Gently he rises up, . . . she slumbers still;
- Gently he steals away with silent tread.
- Anon she started, for she felt him gone;
- She call'd, and through the stillness of the night,
- His step was heard in flight.
- Mistrustful for a moment of the sound,
- She listens! till the step is heard no more;
- But then she knows that he indeed is gone,
- And with a thrilling shriek she rushes on.
- The darkness and the wood impede her speed;
- She lifts her voice again,
- Ladurlad! . . . and again, alike in vain,
- {42}
- And with a louder cry
- Straining its tone to hoarseness; . . . far away,
- Selfish in misery,
- He heard the call and faster did he fly.
-
- 10.
- She leans against that tree whose jutting bough
- Smote her so rudely. Her poor heart
- How audibly it panted,
- With sudden stop and start:
- Her breath how short and painfully it came!
- Hark! all is still around her, . . .
- And the night so utterly dark,
- She opened her eyes and she closed them,
- And the blackness and blank were the same.
-
- 11.
- 'Twas like a dream of horror, and she stood
- Half doubting whether all indeed were true.
- A Tyger's howl loud echoing through the wood,
- Rous'd her; the dreadful sound she knew,
- And turn'd instinctively to what she feared.
- Far off the Tyger's hungry howl was heard;
- A nearer horror met the maiden's view,
- {43}
- For right before her a dim form appear'd,
- A human form in that black night,
- Distinctly shaped by its own lurid light,
- Such light as the sickly moon is seen to shed,
- Through spell-rais'd fogs, a bloody baleful red.
-
- 12.
- That Spectre fix'd his eyes upon her full;
- The light which shone in their accursed orbs
- Was like a light from Hell,
- And it grew deeper, kindling with the view.
- She could not turn her sight
- From that infernal gaze, which like a spell
- Bound her, and held her rooted to the ground.
- It palsied every power;
- Her limbs avail'd her not in that dread hour.
- There was no moving thence,
- Thought, memory, sense were gone:
- She heard not now the Tyger's nearer cry,
- She thought not on her father now,
- Her cold heart's-blood ran back,
- Her hand lay senseless on the bough it clasp'd,
- Her feet were motionless;
- Her fascinated eyes
- {44}
- Like the stone eye-balls of a statue fix'd,
- Yet conscious of the sight that blasted them.
-
- 13.
- The wind is abroad,
- It opens the clouds;
- Scattered before the gale,
- They skurry through the sky,
- And the darkness retiring rolls over the vale.
- The stars in their beauty come forth on high,
- And through the dark-blue night
- The moon rides on triumphant, broad and bright.
- Distinct and darkening in her light
- Appears that Spectre foul.
- The moon beam gives his face and form to sight,
- The shape of man,
- The living form and face of Arvalan!
- His hands are spread to clasp her.
-
- 14.
- But at that sight of dread the maid awoke;
- As if a lightning-stroke
- Had burst the spell of fear,
- Away she broke all franticly and fled.
- {45}
- There stood a temple near beside the way,
- An open fane of Pollear, gentle God,
- To whom the travellers for protection pray.
- With elephantine head and eye severe,
- Here stood his image, such as when he seiz'd
- And tore the rebel giant from the ground,
- With mighty trunk wreath'd round
- His impotent bulk, and on his tusks, on high
- Impal'd upheld him between earth and sky.
-
- 15.
- Thither the affrighted maiden sped her flight,
- And she hath reach'd the place of sanctuary;
- And now within the temple in despite,
- Yea, even before the altar, in his sight,
- Hath Arvalan with fleshly arm of might
- Seiz'd her. That instant the insulted God
- Caught him aloft, and from his sinuous grasp,
- As if from some tort catapult let loose,
- Over the forest hurl'd him all abroad.
-
- 16.
- Overcome with dread,
- She tarried not to see what heavenly power
- {46}
- Had saved her in that hour.
- Breathless and faint she fled.
- And now her foot struck on the knotted root
- Of a broad manchineil, and there the maid
- Fell senselessly beneath the deadly shade.
-
-
-
- VI.
- CASYAPA.
-
- {47}
-
- 1.
- Shall this then be thy fate, O lovely Maid,
- Thus, Kailyal, must thy sorrows then be ended!
- Her face upon the ground,
- Her arms at length extended,
- There like a corpse behold her laid,
- Beneath the deadly shade.
- What if the hungry Tyger, prowling by,
- Should snuff his banquet nigh?
- Alas, Death needs not now his ministry;
- The baleful boughs hang o'er her,
- The poison-dews descend.
- What power will now restore her,
- {48}
- What God will be her friend?
-
- 2.
- Bright and so beautiful was that fair night,
- It might have calm'd the gay amid their mirth,
- And given the wretched a delight in tears.
- One of the Glendoveers,
- The loveliest race of all of heavenly birth,
- Hovering with gentle motion o'er the earth,
- Amid the moonlight air,
- In sportive flight was floating round and round,
- Unknowing where his joyous way was tending.
- He saw the maid where motionless she lay,
- And stoopt his flight descending,
- And rais'd her from the ground.
- Her heavy eye-lids are half clos'd,
- Her cheeks are pale and livid like the dead,
- Down hang her loose arms lifelessly,
- Down hangs her languid head.
-
- 3.
- With timely pity touch'd for one so fair,
- The gentle Glendoveer
- Prest her thus pale and senseless to his breast,
- {49}
- And springs aloft in air with sinewy wings,
- And bears the Maiden there,
- Where Himakoot, the holy Mount, on high
- From mid-earth rising in mid-Heaven,
- Shines in its glory like the throne of Even.
- Soaring with strenuous flight above,
- He bears her to the blessed Grove,
- Where in his ancient and august abodes,
- There dwells old Casyapa, the Sire of Gods.
-
- 4.
- The Father of the Immortals sate,
- Where underneath the Tree of Life
- The fountains of the Sacred River sprung:
- The Father of the Immortals smil'd
- Benignant on his son.
- Knowest thou, he said, my child,
- Ereenia, knowest thou whom thou bringest here,
- A mortal to the holy atmosphere?
-
- EREENIA.
- I found her in the Groves of Earth,
- Beneath a poison-tree,
- {50}
- Thus lifeless as thou seest her.
- In pity have I brought her to these bowers,
- Not erring, Father! by that smile . . .
- By that benignant eye!
-
- CASYAPA.
- What if the maid be sinful? If her ways
- Were ways of darkness, and her death predoom'd
- To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon
- Hath turn'd her face away,
- Unwilling to behold
- The unhappy end of guilt?
-
- EREENIA.
- Then what a lie, my Sire, were written here,
- In these fair characters! And she had died,
- Sure proof of purer life and happier doom,
- Now in the moonlight, in the eye of Heaven,
- If I had left so fair a flower to fade.
- But thou, . . . all knowing as thou art,
- Why askest thou of me?
- O Father, oldest, holiest, wisest, best,
- To whom all things are plain,
- {51}
- Why askest thou of me?
-
- CASYAPA.
- Knowest thou Kehama?
-
- EREENIA.
- The Almighty Man!
- Who knows not him and his tremendous power?
- The Tyrant of the Earth,
- The Enemy of Heaven!
-
- CASYAPA.
- Fearest thou the Rajah?
-
- EREENIA.
- He is terrible!
-
- CASYAPA.
- Yea, he is terrible! such power hath he,
- That hope hath entered Hell.
- The Asuras and the spirits of the damn'd
- Acclaim their Hero; Yamen, with the might
- Of Godhead, scarce can quell
- {52}
- The rebel race accurst;
- Half from their beds of torture they uprise,
- And half uproot their chains.
- Is there not fear in Heaven?
- The souls that are in bliss suspend their joy;
- The danger hath disturb'd
- The calm of Deity,
- And Brama fears, and Veeshnoo turns his face
- In doubt toward Seeva's throne.
-
- EREENIA.
- I have seen Indra tremble at his prayers,
- And at his dreadful penances turn pale.
- They claim and wrest from Seeva power so vast,
- That even Seeva's self,
- The Highest, cannot grant and be secure.
-
- CASYAPA.
- And darest thou, Ereenia, brave
- The Almighty Tyrant's power?
-
- EREENIA.
- I brave him, Father! I?
-
- {53}
-
- CASYAPA.
- Darest thou brave his vengeance? . . . for if not,
- Take her again to earth,
- Cast her before the tyger in his path,
- Or where the death-dew-dropping tree
- May work Kehama's will.
-
- EREENIA.
- Never!
-
- CASYAPA.
- Then meet his wrath! for he, even he,
- Hath set upon this worm his wanton foot.
-
- EREENIA.
- I knew her not, how wretched and how fair,
- When here I wafted her: . . . poor Child of Earth,
- Shall I forsake thee, seeing thee so fair,
- So wretched? O my Father, let the maid
- Dwell in the Sacred Grove.
-
- CASYAPA.
- That must not be,
- For Force and Evil then would enter here;
- {54}
- Ganges, the holy stream which cleanseth sin,
- Would flow from hence polluted in its springs,
- And they who gasp upon its banks in death,
- Feel no salvation. Piety and peace
- And Wisdom, these are mine; but not the power
- Which could protect her from the Almighty Man;
- Nor when the spirit of dead Arvalan
- Should persecute her here to glut his rage,
- To heap upon her yet more agony,
- And ripen more damnation for himself.
-
- EREENIA.
- Dead Arvalan?
-
- CASYAPA.
- All power to him, whereof
- The disembodied spirit in its state
- Of weakness could be made participant,
- Kehama hath assign'd, until his days
- Of wandering shall be numbered.
-
- EREENIA.
- Look! she drinks
- The gale of healing from the blessed Groves.
- {55}
- She stirs, and lo! her hand
- Hath touch'd the Holy River in its source,
- Who would have shrunk if aught impure were nigh.
-
- CASYAPA.
- The Maiden, of a truth, is pure from sin.
-
- 5.
- The waters of the holy Spring
- About the hand of Kailyal play;
- They rise, they sparkle, and they sing,
- Leaping where languidly she lay,
- As if with that rejoicing stir
- The holy Spring would welcome her.
- The Tree of Life which o'er her spread,
- Benignant bow'd its sacred head,
- And dropt its dews of healing;
- And her heart-blood at every breath,
- Recovering from the strife of death,
- Drew in new strength and feeling.
- Behold her beautiful in her repose,
- A life-bloom reddening now her dark-brown cheek;
- And lo! her eyes unclose,
- Dark as the depth of Ganges' spring profound
- {56}
- When night hangs over it,
- Bright as the moon's refulgent beam,
- That quivers on its clear up-sparkling stream.
-
- 6.
- Soon she let fall her lids,
- As one who, from a blissful dream
- Waking to thoughts of pain,
- Fain would return to sleep, and dream again.
- Distrustful of the sight,
- She moves not, fearing to disturb
- The deep and full delight.
- In wonder fix'd, opening again her eye
- She gazes silently,
- Thinking her mortal pilgrimage was past,
- That she had reach'd her heavenly home of rest,
- And these were Gods before her,
- Or spirits of the blest.
-
- 7.
- Lo! at Ereenia's voice,
- A Ship of Heaven comes sailing down the skies.
- Where wouldst thou bear her? cries
- The ancient Sire of Gods.
- {57}
- Straight to the Swerga, to my Bower of Bliss,
- The Glendoveer replies,
- To Indra's own abodes.
- Foe of her foe, were it alone for this
- Indra should guard her from his vengeance there;
- But if the God forbear,
- Unwilling yet the perilous strife to try,
- Or shrinking from the dreadful Rajah's might, . . .
- Weak as I am, O Father, even I
- Stand forth in Seeva's sight.
-
- 8.
- Trust thou in Him whatever betide,
- And stand forth fearlessly!
- The Sire of Gods replied:
- All that He wills is right, and doubt not thou,
- Howe'er our feeble scope of sight
- May fail us now,
- His righteous will in all things must be done.
- My blessing be upon thee, O my son!
-
-
-
- VII.
- THE SWERGA.
-
- {58}
-
- 1.
- Then in the Ship of Heaven, Ereenia laid
- The waking, wondering Maid;
- The Ship of Heaven, instinct with thought, display'd
- Its living sail, and glides along the sky.
- On either side in wavy tide,
- The clouds of morn along its path divide;
- The Winds who swept in wild career on high,
- Before its presence check their charmed force;
- The Winds that loitering lagg'd along their course,
- Around the living Bark enamour'd play,
- Swell underneath the sail, and sing before its way.
-
- {59}
-
- 2.
- That Bark, in shape, was like the furrowed shell
- Wherein the Sea-Nymphs to their parent-king,
- On festal day, their duteous offerings bring.
- Its hue? . . . Go watch the last green light
- Ere Evening yields the western sky to Night;
- Or fix upon the Sun thy strenuous sight
- Till thou hast reach'd its orb of chrysolite.
- The sail from end to end display'd
- Bent, like a rainbow, o'er the maid.
- An Angel's head, with visual eye,
- Through trackless space, directs its chosen way;
- Nor aid of wing, nor foot, nor fin,
- Requires to voyage o'er the obedient sky.
- Smooth as the swan when not a breeze at even
- Disturbs the surface of the silver stream,
- Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven.
-
- 3.
- Recumbent there the Maiden glides along
- On her aerial way,
- How swift she feels not, though the swiftest wind
- Had flagg'd in flight behind.
- Motionless as a sleeping babe she lay,
- {60}
- And all serene in mind,
- Feeling no fear; for that etherial air
- With such new life and joyance fill'd her heart,
- Fear could not enter there;
- For sure she deem'd her mortal part was o'er,
- And she was sailing to the heavenly shore;
- And that Angelic form, who mov'd beside,
- Was some good Spirit sent to be her guide.
-
- 4.
- Daughter of Earth! therein thou deem'st aright.
- And never yet did form more beautiful,
- In dreams of night descending from on high,
- Bless the religious Virgin's gifted sight;
- Nor, like a vision of delight,
- Rise on the raptur'd Poet's inward eye.
- Of human form divine was he,
- The immortal Youth of Heaven who floated by;
- Even such as that divinest form shall be
- In those blest stages of our onward race,
- When no infirmity,
- Low thought, nor base desire, nor wasting care,
- Deface the semblance of our heavenly sire.
- The wings of Eagle or of Cherubim
- {61}
- Had seem'd unworthy him:
- Angelic power and dignity and grace
- Were in his glorious pennons; from the neck
- Down to the ankle reach'd their swelling web,
- Richer than robes of Tyrian die, that deck
- Imperial majesty:
- Their colour like the winter's moonless sky
- When all the stars of midnight's canopy
- Shine forth; or like the azure deep at noon,
- Reflecting back to heaven a brighter blue.
- Such was their tint when clos'd, but when outspread,
- The permeating light
- Shed through their substance thin a varying hue;
- Now bright as when the Rose,
- Beauteous as fragrant, gives to scent and sight
- A like delight; now like the juice that flows
- From Douro's generous vine,
- Or ruby when with deepest red it glows;
- Or as the morning clouds refulgent shine
- When, at forthcoming of the Lord of Day,
- The Orient, like a shrine,
- Kindles as it receives the rising ray,
- And heralding his way,
- Proclaims the presence of the power divine.
-
- {62}
-
- 5.
- Thus glorious were the wings
- Of that celestial Spirit, as he went
- Disporting through his native element.
- Nor these alone
- The gorgeous beauties that they gave to view:
- Through the broad membrane branch'd a pliant bone;
- Spreading like fibres from their parent stem,
- Its veins like interwoven silver shone,
- Or as the chaster hue
- Of pearls that grace some Sultan's diadem.
- Now with slow stroke and strong, behold him smite
- The buoyant air, and now in gentler flight,
- On motionless wing expanded, shoot along.
-
- 6.
- Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven.
- Far far beneath them lies
- The gross and heavy atmosphere of earth;
- And with the Swerga gales,
- The Maid of mortal birth
- At every breath a new delight inhales.
- And now toward its port the Ship of Heaven,
- Swift as a falling meteor, shapes its flight,
- {63}
- Yet gently as the dews of night that gem,
- And do not bend the hare-bell's slenderest stem.
- Daughter of Earth, Ereenia cried, alight,
- This is thy place of rest, the Swerga this,
- Lo, here my Bower of Bliss!
-
- 7.
- He furl'd his azure wings, which round him fold
- Graceful as robes of Grecian chief of old.
- The happy Kailyal knew not where to gaze:
- Her eyes around in joyful wonder roam,
- Now turn'd upon the lovely Glendoveer,
- Now on his heavenly home.
-
- EREENIA.
- Here, Maiden, rest in peace,
- And I will guard thee, feeble as I am.
- The Almighty Rajah shall not harm thee here,
- While Indra keeps his throne.
-
- KAILYAL.
- Alas, thou fearest him!
- Immortal as thou art, thou fearest him!
- I thought that death had sav'd me from his power;
- {64}
- Not even the dead are safe.
-
- EREENIA.
- Long years of life and happiness,
- O Child of Earth, be thine!
- From death I sav'd thee, and from all thy foes
- Will save thee, while the Swerga is secure.
-
- KAILYAL.
- Not me alone, O gentle Deveta!
- I have a father suffering upon earth,
- A persecuted, wretched, poor, good man,
- For whose strange misery
- There is no human help,
- And none but I dare comfort him
- Beneath Kehama's curse.
- O gentle Deveta, protect him too!
-
- EREENIA.
- Come, plead thyself to Indra! words like thine
- May win their purpose, rouse his slumbering heart,
- And make him yet put forth his arm to wield
- The thunder, while the thunder is his own.
-
- {65}
-
- 8.
- Then to the garden of the Deity
- Ereenia led the maid.
- In the mid garden tower'd a giant Tree;
- Rock-rooted on a mountain-top, it grew,
- Rear'd its unrivall'd head on high,
- And stretch'd a thousand branches o'er the sky,
- Drinking with all its leaves celestial dew.
- Lo! where from thence as from a living well
- A thousand torrents flow!
- For still in one perpetual shower,
- Like diamond drops, etherial waters fell
- From every leaf of all its ample bower.
- Rolling adown the steep
- From that aerial height,
- Through the deep shade of aromatic trees,
- Half-seen, the cataracts shoot their gleams of light,
- And pour upon the breeze
- Their thousand voices; far away the roar,
- In modulations of delightful sound,
- Half-heard and ever varying, floats around.
- Below, an ample Lake expanded lies,
- Blue as the o'er-arching skies;
- Forth issuing from that lovely Lake,
- {66}
- A thousand rivers water Paradise.
- Full to the brink, yet never overflowing,
- They cool the amorous gales, which, ever blowing,
- O'er their melodious surface love to stray;
- Then winging back their way,
- Their vapours to the parent Tree repay;
- And ending thus where they began,
- And feeding thus the source from whence they came,
- The eternal rivers of the Swerga ran,
- For ever renovate, yet still the same.
-
- 9.
- On that etherial Lake whose waters lie
- Blue and transpicuous, like another sky,
- The Elements had rear'd their King's abode.
- A strong controuling power their strife suspended,
- And there their hostile essences they blended,
- To form a Palace worthy of the God.
- Built on the Lake the waters were its floor;
- And here its walls were water arch'd with fire,
- And here were fire with water vaulted o'er;
- And spires and pinnacles of fire
- Round watery cupolas aspire,
- And domes of rainbow rest on fiery towers;
- {67}
- And roofs of flame are turreted around
- With cloud, and shafts of cloud with flame are bound.
- Here, too, the Elements for ever veer,
- Ranging around with endless interchanging;
- Pursued in love, and so in love pursuing,
- In endless revolutions here they roll;
- For ever their mysterious work renewing,
- The parts all shifting, still unchanged the whole.
- Even we on earth, at intervals, descry
- Gleams of the glory, streaks of flowing light,
- Openings of heaven, and streams that flash at night
- In fitful splendour, through the northern sky.
-
- 10.
- Impatient of delay, Ereenia caught
- The Maid aloft, and spread his wings abroad,
- And bore her to the presence of the God.
- There Indra sate upon his throne reclin'd,
- Where Devetas adore him;
- The lute of Nared, warbling on the wind,
- All tones of magic harmony combin'd
- To sooth his troubled mind,
- While the dark-eyed Apsaras danced before him.
- In vain the God-musician played,
- {68}
- In vain the dark-eyed Nymphs of Heaven essay'd
- To charm him with their beauties in the dance;
- And when he saw the mortal Maid appear,
- Led by the heroic Glendoveer,
- A deeper trouble fill'd his countenance.
- What hast thou done, Ereenia, said the God,
- Bringing a mortal here?
- And while he spake his eye was on the Maid.
- The look he gave was solemn, not severe;
- No hope to Kailyal it convey'd,
- And yet it struck no fear;
- There was a sad displeasure in his air,
- But pity, too, was there.
-
- EREENIA.
- Hear me, O Indra! On the lower earth
- I found this child of man, by what mishap
- I know not, lying in the lap of death.
- Aloft I bore her to our Father's grove;
- Not having other thought, than when the gales
- Of bliss had heal'd her, upon earth again
- To leave its lovely daughter. Other thoughts
- Arose, when Casyapa declar'd her fate;
- For she is one who groans beneath the power
- {69}
- Of the dread Rajah, terrible alike
- To men and Gods. His son, dead Arvalan,
- Arm'd with a portion, Indra, of thy power
- Already wrested from thee, persecutes
- The Maid, the helpless one, the innocent.
- What then behov'd me but to waft her here
- To my own Bower of Bliss? what other choice?
- The spirit of foul Arvalan, not yet
- Hath power to enter here; here thou art yet
- Supreme, and yet the Swerga is thine own.
-
- INDRA.
- No child of man, Ereenia, in the Bowers
- Of Bliss may sojourn, till he hath put off
- His mortal part; for on mortality
- Time and Infirmity and Death attend,
- Close followers they, and in their mournful train
- Sorrow and Pain and Mutability:
- Did they find entrance here, we should behold
- Our joys, like earthly summers, pass away.
- Those joys perchance may pass; a stronger hand
- May wrest my sceptre, and unparadise
- The Swerga; . . . but, Ereenia, if we fall,
- Let it be Fate's own arm that casts us down,
- {70}
- We will not rashly hasten and provoke
- The blow, nor bring ourselves the ruin on.
-
- EREENIA.
- Fear courts the blow. Fear brings the ruin on.
- Needs must the chariot-wheels of Destiny
- Crush him who throws himself before their track,
- Patient and prostrate.
-
- INDRA.
- All may yet be well.
- Who knows but Veeshnoo will descend, and save,
- Once more incarnate?
-
- EREENIA.
- Look not there for help,
- Nor build on unsubstantial hope thy trust!
- Our Father Casyapa hath said he turns
- His doubtful eyes to Seeva, even as thou
- Dost look to him for aid. But thine own strength
- Should for thine own salvation be put forth;
- Then might the higher powers approving see
- And bless the brave resolve . . . Oh, that my arm
- Could wield yon lightnings which play idly there,
- {71}
- In inoffensive radiance, round thy head!
- The Swerga should not need a champion now,
- Nor Earth implore deliverance still in vain!
-
- INDRA.
- Thinkest thou I want the will? rash Son of Heaven,
- What if my arm be feeble as thine own
- Against the dread Kehama? He went on
- Conquering in irresistible career,
- Till his triumphant car had measur'd o'er
- The insufficient earth, and all the kings
- Of men received his yoke; then had he won
- His will, to ride upon their necks elate,
- And crown his conquests with the sacrifice
- That should, to men and gods, proclaim him Lord
- And Sovereign Master of the vassal World,
- Sole Rajah, the Omnipotent below.
- The steam of that portentous sacrifice
- Arose to Heaven. Then was the hour to strike.
- Then in the consummation of his pride,
- His height of glory, then the thunder-bolt
- Should have gone forth, and hurl'd him from his throne
- Down to the fiery floor of Padalon,
- To everlasting burnings, agony
- {72}
- Eternal, and remorse which knows no end.
- That hour went by: grown impious in success,
- By prayer and penances he wrested now
- Such power from Fate, that soon, if Seeva turn not
- His eyes on earth, and no Avatar save,
- Soon will he seize the Swerga for his own,
- Roll on through Padalon his chariot wheels,
- Tear up the adamantine bolts which lock
- The accurst Asuras to its burning floor,
- And force the drink of Immortality
- From Yamen's charge . . . Vain were it now to strive;
- My thunder cannot pierce the sphere of power
- Wherewith, as with a girdle, he is bound.
-
- KAILYAL.
- Take me to earth, O gentle Deveta!
- Take me again to earth! This is no place
- Of hope for me! . . . my Father still must bear
- His curse . . . he shall not bear it all alone;
- Take me to earth, that I may follow him! . . .
- I do not fear the Almighty Man! the Gods
- Are feeble here; but there are higher powers
- Who will not turn their eyes from wrongs like ours;
- Take me to earth, O gentle Deveta! . . .
-
- {73}
-
- 11.
- Saying thus she knelt, and to his knees she clung,
- And bow'd her head, in tears and silence praying.
- Rising anon, around his neck she flung
- Her arms, and there with folded hands she hung,
- And fixing on the guardian Glendoveer
- Her eyes, more eloquent than Angel's tongue,
- Again she cried, There is no comfort here!
- I must be with my Father in his pain . . .
- Take me to earth, O Deveta, again!
-
- 12.
- Indra with admiration heard the maid.
- O Child of Earth, he cried,
- Already in thy spirit thus divine,
- Whatever weal or woe betide,
- Be that high sense of duty still thy guide,
- And all good Powers will aid a soul like thine.
- Then turning to Ereenia, thus he said,
- Take her where Ganges hath its second birth,
- Below our sphere, and yet above the earth:
- There may Ladurlad rest beyond the power
- Of the dread Rajah, till the fated hour.
-
-
-
- VIII.
- THE SACRIFICE.
-
- {74}
-
- 1.
- Dost thou tremble, O Indra, O God of the Sky,
- Why slumber those thunders of thine?
- Dost thou tremble on high, . . .
- Wilt thou tamely the Swerga resign, . . .
- Art thou smitten, O Indra, with dread?
- Or seest thou not, seest thou not, Monarch divine,
- How many a day to Seeva's shrine
- Kehama his victim hath led?
- Nine and ninety days are fled,
- Nine and ninety steeds have bled;
- One more, the rite will be complete,
- One victim more; and this the dreadful day!
- {75}
- Then will the impious Rajah seize thy seat,
- And wrest the thunder-sceptre from thy sway.
- Along the mead the hallowed steed
- Yet bends at liberty his way;
- At noon his consummating blood will flow.
- O day of woe! above, below,
- That blood confirms the Almighty Tyrant's reign!
- Thou tremblest, O Indra, O God of the Sky,
- Thy thunder is vain!
- Thou tremblest on high for thy power!
- But where is Veeshnoo at this hour?
- But where is Seeva's eye?
- Is the Destroyer blind?
- Is the Preserver careless for mankind?
-
- 2.
- Along the mead the hallowed Steed
- Still wanders wheresoever he will,
- O'er hill, or dale, or plain;
- No human hand hath trick'd that mane
- From which he shakes the morning dew;
- His mouth has never felt the rein,
- His lips have never froth'd the chain;
- For pure of blemish and of stain,
- {76}
- His neck unbroke to mortal yoke,
- Like Nature free the Steed must be,
- Fit offering for the Immortals he.
- A year and day the Steed must stray
- Wherever chance may guide his way,
- Before he fall at Seeva's shrine;
- The year and day have past away,
- Nor touch of man hath marr'd the rite divine.
- And now at noon the Steed must bleed;
- The perfect rite to-day must force the meed
- Which Fate reluctant shudders to bestow;
- Then must the Swerga-God
- Yield to the Tyrant of the World below;
- Then must the Devetas obey
- The Rajah's rod, and groan beneath his hateful sway.
-
- 3.
- The Sun rides high; the hour is nigh;
- The multitude who long,
- Lest aught should mar the rite,
- In circle wide on every side,
- Have kept the Steed in sight,
- Contract their circle now, and drive him on.
- Drawn in long files before the Temple-court,
- {77}
- The Rajah's archers flank an ample space;
- Here, moving onward still, they drive him near,
- Then, opening, give him way to enter here.
-
- 4.
- Behold him, how he starts and flings his head!
- On either side in glittering order spread,
- The archers ranged in narrowing lines appear;
- The multitude behind close up the rear
- With moon-like bend, and silently await
- The awful end,
- The rite that shall from Indra wrest his power.
- In front, with far-stretch'd walls, and many a tower
- Turret and dome and pinnacle elate,
- The huge Pagoda seems to load the land:
- And there before the gate
- The Bramin band expectant stand,
- The axe is ready for Kehama's hand.
-
- 5.
- Hark! at the Golden Palaces
- The Bramin strikes the time!
- One, two, three, four, a thrice-told chime,
- And then again, one, two.
- {78}
- The bowl that in its vessel floats, anew
- Must fill and sink again,
- Then will the final stroke be due.
- The Sun rides high, the noon is nigh,
- And silently, as if spell-bound,
- The multitude expect the sound.
-
- 6.
- Lo! how the Steed, with sudden start,
- Turns his quick head to every part;
- Long files of men on every side appear.
- The sight might well his heart affright,
- And yet the silence that is here
- Inspires a stranger fear;
- For not a murmur, not a sound
- Of breath or motion rises round,
- No stir is heard in all that mighty crowd;
- He neighs, and from the temple-wall
- The voice re-echoes loud,
- Loud and distinct, as from a hill
- Across a lonely vale, when all is still.
-
- 7.
- Within the temple, on his golden throne
- {79}
- Reclin'd, Kehama lies,
- Watching with steady eyes
- The perfum'd light that, burning bright,
- Metes out the passing hours.
- On either hand his eunuchs stand,
- Freshening with fans of peacock-plumes the air,
- Which, redolent of all rich gums and flowers,
- Seems, overcharged with sweets, to stagnate there.
- Lo! the time-taper's flame ascending slow
- Creeps up its coil toward the fated line;
- Kehama rises and goes forth,
- And from the altar, ready where it lies,
- He takes the axe of sacrifice.
-
- 8.
- That, instant from the crowd, with sudden shout,
- A man sprang out
- To lay upon the Steed his hand profane.
- A thousand archers, with unerring eye,
- At once let fly,
- And with their hurtling arrows fill the sky.
- In vain they fall upon him fast as rain;
- He bears a charmed life, which may defy
- All weapons, . . . and the darts that whizz around,
- {80}
- As from an adamantine panoply
- Repell'd, fall idly to the ground.
- Kehama clasp'd his hands in agony,
- And saw him grasp the hallowed courser's mane,
- Spring up with sudden bound,
- And with a frantic cry,
- And madman's gesture, gallop round and round.
-
- 9.
- They seize, they drag him to the Rajah's feet.
- What doom will now be his, . . what vengeance meet
- Will he, who knows no mercy, now require?
- The obsequious guards around, with blood-hound eye,
- Look for the word, in slow-consuming fire,
- By piece-meal death, to make the wretch expire,
- Or hoist his living carcase, hook'd on high,
- To feed the fowls and insects of the sky;
- Or if aught worse inventive cruelty
- To that remorseless heart of royalty
- Might prompt, accursed instruments they stand
- To work the wicked will with wicked hand.
- Far other thoughts were in the multitude;
- Pity, and human feelings, held them still;
- And stifled sighs and groans supprest were there,
- {81}
- And many a secret curse and inward prayer
- Call'd on the insulted Gods to save mankind.
- Expecting some new crime in fear they stood,
- Some horror which would make the natural blood
- Start, with cold shudderings thrill the sinking heart,
- Whiten the lip, and make the abhorrent eye
- Roll back and close, prest in for agony.
-
- 10.
- How then fared he for whom the mighty crowd
- Suffered in spirit thus, . . . how then fared he?
- A ghastly smile was on his lip, his eye
- Glared with a ghastly hope, as he drew nigh,
- And cried aloud, Yes, Rajah! it is I!
- And wilt thou kill me now?
- The countenance of the Almighty Man
- Fell when he knew Ladurlad, and his brow
- Was clouded with despite, as one ashamed.
- That wretch again! indignant he exclaim'd,
- And smote his forehead, and stood silently
- Awhile in wrath: then, with ferocious smile,
- And eyes which seem'd to darken his dark cheek,
- Let him go free! he cried; he hath his Curse,
- And Vengeance upon him can wreak no worse . . .
- {82}
- But ye who did not seize him . . . tremble ye!
-
- 11.
- He bade the archers pile their weapons there:
- No manly courage fill'd the slavish band,
- No sweetening vengeance rous'd a brave despair.
- He call'd his horsemen then, and gave command
- To hem the offenders in, and hew them down.
- Ten thousand scymitars at once uprear'd,
- Flash up, like waters sparkling to the sun;
- A second time the fatal brands appear'd
- Lifted aloft, . . . they glitter'd then no more,
- Their light was gone, their splendour quenched in gore.
- At noon the massacre begun,
- And night clos'd in before the work of death was done.
-
-
-
- IX.
- THE HOME-SCENE.
-
- {83}
-
- 1.
- The steam of slaughter from that place of blood
- Spread o'er the tainted sky.
- Vultures, for whom the Rajah's tyranny
- So oft had furnish'd food, from far and nigh
- Sped to the lure: aloft with joyful cry,
- Wheeling around, they hover'd over head;
- Or, on the temple perch'd, with greedy eye,
- Impatient watch'd the dead.
- Far off the tygers, in the inmost wood,
- Heard the death-shriek, and snuff'd the scent of blood.
- They rose, and through the covert went their way,
- Couch'd at the forest edge, and waited for their prey.
-
- {84}
-
- 2.
- He who had sought for death went wandering on,
- The hope which had inspir'd his heart was gone,
- Yet a wild joyance still inflam'd his face,
- A smile of vengeance, a triumphant glow.
- Where goes he? . . . Whither should Ladurlad go!
- Unwittingly the wretch's footsteps trace
- Their wonted path toward his dwelling-place;
- And wandering on, unknowing where,
- He starts at finding he is there.
-
- 3.
- Behold his lowly home,
- By yonder broad-bough'd plane o'ershaded:
- There Marriataly's image stands,
- And there the garland twin'd by Kailyal's hands
- Around its brow hath faded.
- The Peacocks, at their master's sight,
- Quick from the leafy thatch alight,
- And hurry round, and search the ground,
- And veer their glancing necks from side to side,
- Expecting from his hand
- Their daily dole, which erst the maid supplied,
- Now all too long denied.
-
- {85}
-
- 4.
- But as he gaz'd around,
- How strange did all accustom'd sights appear!
- How differently did each familiar sound
- Assail his altered ear!
- Here stood the marriage bower,
- Rear'd in that happy hour
- When he, with festal joy and youthful pride,
- Had brought Yedillian home, his beauteous bride.
- Leaves not its own, and many a borrowed flower,
- Had then bedeck'd it, withering ere the night;
- But he who look'd, from that auspicious day,
- For years of long delight,
- And would not see the marriage-bower decay,
- There planted and nurst up, with daily care,
- The sweetest herbs that scent the ambient air,
- And train'd them round to live and flourish there.
- Nor when dread Yamen's will
- Had call'd Yedillian from his arms away,
- Ceas'd he to tend the marriage-bower, but still,
- Sorrowing, had drest it like a pious rite
- Due to the monument of past delight.
-
- 5.
- He took his wonted seat before the door, . . .
- {86}
- Even as of yore,
- When he was wont to view, with placid eyes,
- His daughter at her evening sacrifice.
- Here were the flowers which she so carefully
- Did love to rear for Marriataly's brow;
- Neglected now,
- Their heavy heads were drooping, over-blown:
- All else appeared the same as heretofore,
- All . . . save himself alone;
- How happy then, . . . and now a wretch for evermore!
-
- 6.
- The market-flag which hoisted high,
- From far and nigh,
- Above yon cocoa grove is seen,
- Hangs motionless amid the sultry sky.
- Loud sounds the village-drum: a happy crowd
- Is there; Ladurlad hears their distant voices,
- But with their joy no more his heart rejoices;
- And how their old companion now may fare,
- Little they know, and less they care.
- The torment he is doom'd to hear
- Was but to them the wonder of a day,
- A burthen of sad thoughts soon put away.
-
- {87}
-
- 7.
- They knew not that the wretched man was near,
- And yet it seem'd, to his distempered ear,
- As if they wrong'd him with their merriment.
- Resentfully he turn'd away his eyes,
- Yet turn'd them but to find
- Sights that enraged his mind
- With envious grief more wild and overpowering.
- The tank which fed his fields was there, and there
- The large-leav'd lotus on the waters flowering.
- There, from the intolerable heat,
- The buffaloes retreat;
- Only their nostrils rais'd to meet the air,
- Amid the sheltering element they rest.
- Impatient of the sight, he clos'd his eyes,
- And bow'd his burning head, and in despair
- Calling on Indra, . . . Thunder-God! he said,
- Thou owest to me alone this day thy throne,
- Be grateful, and in mercy strike me dead!
-
- 8.
- Despair had rous'd him to that hopeless prayer,
- Yet thinking on the heavenly Powers, his mind
- Drew comfort; and he rose and gather'd flowers,
- {88}
- And twin'd a crown for Marriataly's brow;
- And taking then her withered garland down,
- Replaced it with the blooming coronal.
- Not for myself, the unhappy Father cried,
- Not for myself, O mighty one! I pray,
- Accursed as I am beyond thy aid!
- But, oh! be gracious still to that dear Maid
- Who crown'd thee with these garlands day by day,
- And danced before thee aye at even-tide
- In beauty and in pride.
- O Marriataly, wheresoe'er she stray
- Forlorn and wretched, still be thou her guide!
-
- 9.
- A loud and fiendish laugh replied,
- Scoffing his prayer. Aloft, as from the air,
- The sound of insult came: he look'd, and there
- The visage of dead Arvalan came forth,
- Only his face amid the clear blue sky,
- With long-drawn lips of insolent mockery,
- And eyes whose lurid glare
- Was like a sulphur fire,
- Mingling with darkness ere its flames expire.
-
- {89}
-
- 10.
- Ladurlad knew him well: enraged to see
- The cause of all his misery,
- He stoop'd and lifted from the ground
- A stake, whose fatal point was black with blood;
- The same wherewith his hand had dealt the wound,
- When Arvalan, in hour with evil fraught,
- For violation seiz'd the shrieking Maid.
- Thus arm'd, in act again to strike he stood,
- And twice with inefficient wrath essay'd
- To smite the impassive shade.
- The lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renew'd,
- And Arvalan put forth a hand and caught
- The sun-beam, and condensing there its light,
- Upon Ladurlad turn'd the burning stream.
- Vain cruelty! the stake
- Fell in white ashes from his hold, but he
- Endur'd no added pain; his agony
- Was full, and at the height;
- The burning stream of radiance nothing harm'd him:
- A fire was in his heart and brain,
- And from all other flame
- Kehama's Curse had charm'd him.
-
- {90}
-
- 11.
- Anon the Spirit wav'd a second hand;
- Down rush'd the obedient whirlwind from the sky;
- Scoop'd up the sand like smoke, and from on high
- Shed the hot shower upon Ladurlad's head.
- Where'er he turns, the accursed Hand is there;
- East, West, and North and South, on every side
- The Hand accursed waves in air to guide
- The dizzying storm; ears, nostrils, eyes and mouth,
- It fills and choaks, and, clogging every pore,
- Taught him new torments might be yet in store.
- Where shall he turn to fly? behold his house
- In flames; uprooted lies the marriage-bower,
- The Goddess buried by the sandy shower.
- Blindly, with staggering step, he reels about,
- And still the accursed Hand pursued,
- And still the lips of scorn their mockery laugh renew'd.
-
- 12.
- What, Arvalan! hast thou so soon forgot
- The grasp of Pollear? Wilt thou still defy
- The righteous Powers of Heaven? or know'st thou not
- That there are yet superior Powers on high,
- {91}
- Son of the Wicked? . . . Lo, in rapid flight,
- Ereenia hastens from the etherial height;
- Bright is the sword celestial in his hand,
- Like lightning in its path athwart the sky.
- He comes and drives, with angel-arm, the blow.
- Oft have the Asuras, in the wars of Heaven,
- Felt that keen sword by arm angelic driven,
- And fled before it from the fields of light.
- Thrice through the vulnerable shade
- The Glendoveer impels the griding blade.
- The wicked Shade flies howling from his foe.
- So let that spirit foul
- Fly, and for impotence of anger, howl,
- Writhing with pain, and o'er his wounds deplore;
- Worse punishment hath Arvalan deserv'd,
- And righteous Fate hath heavier doom in store.
-
- 13.
- Not now the Glendoveer pursued his flight.
- He bade the Ship of Heaven alight,
- And gently there he laid
- The astonished Father by the happy Maid,
- The Maid now shedding tears of deep delight.
- {92}
- Beholding all things with incredulous eyes,
- Still dizzy with the sand-storm, there he lay,
- While sailing up the skies, the living Bark,
- Through air and sunshine, held its heavenly way.
-
-
-
- X.
- MOUNT MERU.
-
- {93}
-
- 1.
- Swift through the sky the vessel of the Suras
- Sails up the fields of ether like an Angel.
- Rich is the freight, O Vessel, that thou bearest!
- Beauty and Virtue,
- Fatherly cares and filial veneration,
- Hearts which are prov'd and strengthen'd by affliction,
- Manly resentment, fortitude and action,
- Womanly goodness;
- All with which Nature halloweth her daughters,
- Tenderness, truth and purity and meekness,
- Piety, patience, faith and resignation,
- {94}
- Love and devotement.
- Ship of the Gods! how richly art thou laden!
- Proud of the charge, thou voyagest rejoicing.
- Clouds float around to honour thee, and Evening
- Lingers in heaven.
-
- 2.
- A Stream descends on Meru mountain;
- None hath seen its secret fountain;
- It had its birth, so sages say,
- Upon the memorable day
- When Parvati presumed to lay,
- In wanton play,
- Her hands, too venturous Goddess in her mirth,
- On Seeva's eyes, the light and life of Earth.
- Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still;
- The Elements ceas'd their influences; the Hours
- Stopt on the eternal round; Motion and Breath,
- Time, Change, and Life and Death,
- In sudden trance opprest, forgot their powers.
- A moment, and the dread eclipse was ended;
- But, at the thought of Nature thus suspended,
- The sweat on Seeva's forehead stood,
- And Ganges thence upon the World descended,
- {95}
- The Holy River, the Redeeming Flood.
-
- 3.
- None hath seen its secret fountain;
- But on the top of Meru mountain,
- Which rises o'er the hills of earth,
- In light and clouds it hath its mortal birth.
- Earth seems that pinnacle to rear
- Sublime above this worldly sphere,
- Its cradle, and its altar, and its throne;
- And there the new-born River lies
- Outspread beneath its native skies,
- As if it there would love to dwell
- Alone and unapproachable.
- Soon flowing forward, and resign'd
- To the will of the Creating Mind,
- It springs at once, with sudden leap,
- Down from the immeasurable steep.
- From rock to rock, with shivering force rebounding,
- The mighty cataract rushes; Heaven around,
- Like-thunder, with the incessant roar resounding,
- And Meru's summit shaking with the sound.
- Wide spreads the snowy foam, the sparkling spray
- Dances aloft; and ever there, at morning,
- {96}
- The earliest, sun-beams haste to wing their way,
- With rain-bow wreaths the holy flood adorning;
- And duly the adoring Moon at night
- Sheds her white glory there,
- And in the watery air
- Suspends her halo-crowns of silver light.
-
- 4.
- A mountain-valley in its blessed breast
- Receives the stream, which there delights to lie,
- Untroubled and at rest,
- Beneath the untainted sky.
- There in a lovely lake it seems to sleep,
- And thence, through many a channel dark and deep,
- Their secret way the holy Waters wind,
- Till, rising underneath the root
- Of the Tree of Life on Himakoot,
- Majestic forth they flow to purify mankind.
-
- 5.
- Toward this Lake, above the nether sphere,
- The living Bark, with angel eye,
- Directs its course along the obedient sky.
- Kehama hath not yet dominion here;
- {97}
- And till the dreaded hour,
- When Indra by the Rajah shall be driven
- Dethron'd from Heaven,
- Here may Ladurlad rest beyond his power.
- The living Bark alights; the Glendoveer
- Then lays Ladurlad by the blessed Lake; . . .
- O happy Sire, and yet more happy Daughter!
- The etherial gales his agony aslake,
- His daughter's tears are on his cheek,
- His hand is in the water;
- The innocent man, the man opprest,
- Oh joy! . . . hath found a place of rest
- Beyond Kehama's sway,
- His curse extends not here; his pains have past away.
-
- 6.
- O happy Sire, and happy Daughter!
- Ye on the banks of that celestial water
- Your resting place and sanctuary have found.
- What! hath not then their mortal taint defil'd
- The sacred solitary ground?
- Vain thought! . . the Holy Valley smil'd
- Receiving such a sire and child;
- Ganges, who seem'd asleep to lie,
- {98}
- Beheld them with benignant eye,
- And ripped round melodiously,
- And roll'd her little waves, to meet
- And welcome their beloved feet.
- The gales of Swerga thither fled,
- And heavenly odours there were shed
- About, below, and overhead;
- And Earth, rejoicing in their tread,
- Hath built them up a blooming Bower,
- Where every amaranthine flower
- Its deathless blossom interweaves
- With bright and undecaying leaves.
-
- 7.
- Three happy beings are there here,
- The Sire, the Maid, the Glendoveer.
- A fourth approaches, . . . who is this
- That enters in the Bower of Bliss?
- No form so fair might painter find
- Among the daughters of mankind;
- For death her beauties hath refin'd,
- And unto her a form hath given,
- Fram'd of the elements of Heaven;
- Pure dwelling-place for perfect mind.
- {99}
- She stood and gaz'd on sire and child;
- Her tongue not yet had power to speak,
- The tears were streaming down her cheek;
- And when those tears her sight beguil'd,
- And still her faultering accents fail'd,
- The Spirit, mute and motionless,
- Spread out her arms for the caress,
- Made still and silent with excess
- Of love and painful happiness.
-
- 8.
- The Maid that lovely form survey'd;
- Wistful she gaz'd, and knew her not;
- But Nature to her heart convey'd
- A sudden thrill, a startling thought,
- A feeling many a year forgot,
- Now like a dream anew recurring,
- As if again in every vein
- Her mother's milk was stirring.
- With straining neck and earnest eye
- She stretch'd her hands imploringly,
- As if she fain would have her nigh,
- Yet fear'd to meet the wish'd embrace,
- At once with love and awe opprest,
- {100}
- Not so, Ladurlad; he could trace,
- Though brighten'd with angelic grace,
- His own Yedillian's earthly face;
- He ran and held her to his breast!
- Oh joy above all joys of Heaven,
- By Death alone to others given,
- This moment hath to him restor'd
- The early-lost, the long-deplor'd.
-
- 9.
- They sin who tell us love can die.
- With life all other passions fly,
- All others are but vanity.
- In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell,
- Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell;
- Earthly these passions of the Earth,
- They perish where they have their birth;
- But Love is indestructible.
- Its holy flame for ever burneth,
- From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;
- Too oft on Earth a troubled guest,
- At times deceiv'd, at times opprest,
- It here is tried and purified,
- Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest:
- {101}
- It soweth here with toil and care,
- But the harvest-time of Love is there.
- Oh! when a Mother meets on high
- The Babe she lost in infancy,
- Hath she not then, for pains and fears,
- The day of woe, the watchful night,
- For all her sorrow, all her tears,
- An over-payment of delight!
-
- 10.
- A blessed family is this
- Assembled in the Bower of Bliss!
- Strange woe, Ladurlad, hath been thine,
- And pangs beyond all human measure,
- And thy reward is now divine,
- A foretaste of eternal pleasure.
- He knew indeed there was a day
- When all these joys would pass away,
- And he must quit this blest abode;
- And, taking up again the spell,
- Groan underneath the baleful load,
- And wander o'er the world again
- Most wretched of the sons of men:
- Yet was this brief repose, as when
- {102}
- A traveller in the Arabian sands,
- Half-fainting on his sultry road,
- Hath reach'd the water-place at last;
- And resting there beside the Well,
- Thinks of the perils he has past,
- And gazes o'er the unbounded plain,
- The plain which must be travers'd still,
- And drinks, . . . yet cannot drink his fill;
- Then girds his patient loins again.
- So to Ladurlad now was given
- New strength, and confidence in Heaven,
- And hope, and faith invincible.
- For often would Ereenia tell
- Of what in elder days befell,
- When other Tyrants, in their might,
- Usurp'd dominion o'er the earth;
- And Veeshnoo took a human birth,
- Deliverer of the Sons of men;
- And slew the huge Ermaccasen,
- And piece-meal rent, with lion force,
- Errenen's accursed corse,
- And humbled Baly in his pride;
- And when the Giant Ravanen
- Had borne triumphant, from his side,
- {103}
- Sita, the earth-born God's beloved bride,
- Then, from his island-kingdom, laugh'd to scorn
- The insulted husband, and his power defied;
- How to revenge the wrong in wrath he hied,
- Bridging the sea before his dreadful way,
- And met the hundred-headed foe,
- And dealt him the unerring blow;
- By Brama's hand the righteous lance was given,
- And by that arm immortal driven,
- It laid the mighty Tyrant low;
- And Earth and Ocean, and high Heaven,
- Rejoiced to see his overthrow.
- Oh! doubt not thou, Yedillian cried,
- Such fate Kehama will betide;
- For there are Gods who look below. . . .
- Seeva, the Avenger, is not blind,
- Nor Veeshnoo careless for mankind.
-
- 11.
- Thus was Ladurlad's soul imbued
- With hope and holy fortitude;
- And Child and Sire, with pious mind
- Alike resolv'd, alike resign'd,
- Look'd onward to the evil day:
- {104}
- Faith was their comfort, Faith their stay;
- They trusted woe would pass away,
- And Tyranny would sink subdued,
- And Evil yield to Good.
-
- 12.
- Lovely wert thou, O Flower of Earth!
- Above all flowers of mortal birth;
- But foster'd in this blissful bower
- From day to day, and hour to hour,
- Lovelier grew the lovely flower.
- O blessed, blessed company!
- When men and heavenly spirits greet,
- And they whom Death had severed meet,
- And hold again communion sweet; . . .
- O blessed, blessed company!
- The Sun, careering round the sky,
- Beheld them with rejoicing eye,
- And bade his willing Charioteer
- Relax their speed as they drew near;
- Arounin check'd the rainbow reins,
- The seven green coursers shook their manes,
- And brighter rays around them threw;
- The Car of glory in their view
- {105}
- More radiant, more resplendent grew;
- And Surya, through his veil of light,
- Beheld the Bower, and blest the sight.
- The Lord of Night, as he sail'd by,
- Stay'd his pearly boat on high;
- And, while around the blissful Bower
- He bade the softest moonlight flow,
- Lingered to see that earthly flower,
- Forgetful of his dragon foe,
- Who, mindful of their ancient feud,
- With open jaws of rage pursued.
- There all good Spirits of the air,
- Suras and Devetas repair,
- Aloft they love to hover there
- And view the flower of mortal birth,
- Here, for her innocence and worth,
- Transplanted from the fields of earth; . . .
- And him who, on the dreadful day
- When Heaven was fill'd with consternation,
- And Indra trembled with dismay,
- And, for the sounds of joy and mirth,
- Woe was heard and lamentation,
- Defied the Rajah in his pride,
- Though all in Heaven and Earth beside
- Stood mute in dolorous expectation;
- {106}
- And, rushing forward in that hour,
- Saved the Swerga from his power.
- Grateful for this they hover nigh,
- And bless the blessed company.
-
- 13.
- One God alone, with wanton eye,
- Beheld them in their bower;
- O ye, he cried, who have defied
- The Rajah, will ye mock my power?
- 'Twas Camdeo riding on his lory,
- 'Twas the immortal youth of Love;
- If men below and Gods above,
- Subject alike, quoth he, have felt these darts,
- Shall ye alone, of all in story,
- Boast impenetrable hearts?
- Hover here, my gentle lory,
- Gently hover, while I see
- To whom hath Fate decreed the glory,
- To the Glendoveer or me.
-
- 14.
- Then, in the dewy evening sky,
- The bird of gorgeous plumery
- Pois'd his wings and hover'd nigh.
- {107}
- It chanced at that delightful hour
- Kailyal sate before the Bower,
- On the green bank with amaranth sweet,
- Where Ganges warbled at her feet.
- Ereenia there, before the Maid,
- His sails of ocean-blue displayed;
- And sportive in her sight,
- Mov'd slowly o'er the lake with gliding flight;
- Anon, with sudden stroke and strong,
- In rapid course careering, swept along;
- Now shooting downward from his heavenly height,
- Plunged in the deep below,
- Then rising, soar'd again,
- And shook the sparkling waters off like rain,
- And hovering o'er the silver surface hung.
- At him young Camdeo bent the bow;
- With living bees the bow was strung,
- The fatal bow of sugar-cane,
- And flowers which would inflame the heart
- With their petals barb'd the dart.
-
- 15.
- The shaft, unerringly addrest,
- Unerring flew, and smote Ereenia's breast.
- Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer,
- {108}
- Go aim at idler hearts,
- Thy skill is baffled here!
- A deeper love I bear that Maid divine,
- Sprung from a higher will,
- A holier power than thine!
- A second shaft, while thus Ereenia cried,
- Had Camdeo aim'd at Kailyal's side,
- But, lo! the Bees which strung his bow
- Broke off, and took their flight.
- To that sweet Flower of earth they wing their way,
- Around her raven tresses play,
- And buzz about her with delight,
- As if, with that melodious sound,
- They strove to pay their willing duty
- To mortal purity and beauty.
- Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer,
- No power hast thou for mischief here!
- Chuse thou some idler breast,
- For these are proof, by nobler thoughts possest.
- Go, to thy plains of Matra go,
- And string again thy broken bow!
-
- 16.
- Rightly Ereenia spake; and ill had thoughts
- Of earthly love beseem'd the sanctuary
- {109}
- Where Kailyal had been wafted, that the Soul
- Of her dead mother there might strengthen her,
- Feeding her with the milk of heavenly lore;
- And influxes of Heaven imbue her heart
- With hope and faith, and holy fortitude,
- Against the evil day. Here rest a while
- In peace, O Father! mark'd for misery
- Above all sons of men; O Daughter! doom'd
- For sufferings and for trials above all
- Of women; . . . yet both favour'd, both belov'd
- By all good Powers, here rest a while in peace.
-
-
-
- XI.
- THE ENCHANTRESS.
-
- {110}
-
- 1.
- When from the sword, by arm angelic driven,
- Foul Arvalan fled howling, wild in pain,
- His thin essential spirit, rent and riven
- With wounds, united soon and heal'd again;
- Backward the accursed turn'd his eye in flight,
- Remindful of revengeful thoughts even then,
- And saw where, gliding through the evening light,
- The Ship of Heaven sail'd upward through the sky,
- Then, like a meteor, vanish'd from his sight.
- Where should he follow? vainly might he try
- To trace through trackless air its rapid course;
- {111}
- Nor dar'd he that; angelic arm defy,
- Still sore and writhing from its dreaded force.
-
- 2.
- Should he the lust of vengeance lay aside?
- Too long had Arvalan in ill been train'd;
- Nurst up in power and tyranny and pride,
- His soul the ignominious thought disdain'd.
- Or to his mighty father should he go,
- Complaining of defeature twice sustain'd,
- And ask new powers to meet the immortal foe? . . .
- Repulse he fear'd not, but he fear'd rebuke,
- And sham'd to tell him of his overthrow.
- There dwelt a dread Enchantress in a nook
- Obscure; old help-mate she to him had been,
- Lending her aid in many a secret sin;
- And there, for counsel, now his way he took.
-
- 3.
- She was a woman whose unlovely youth,
- Even like a cankered rose, which none will cull,
- Had withered on the stalk; her heart was full
- Of passions which had found no natural scope,
- Feelings which there had grown but ripened not;
- {112}
- Desires unsatisfied, abortive hope,
- Repinings which provoked vindictive thought,
- These restless elements for ever wrought,
- Fermenting in her with perpetual stir,
- And thus her spirit to all evil mov'd;
- She hated men because they lov'd not her,
- And hated women because they were lov'd.
- And thus, in wrath and hatred and despair,
- She tempted Hell to tempt her; and resign'd
- Her body to the Demons of the Air,
- Wicked and wanton fiends who, where they will,
- Wander abroad, still seeking to do ill,
- And take whatever vacant form they find,
- Carcase of man or beast, that life hath left;
- Foul instrument for them of fouler mind.
- To these the Witch her wretched body gave,
- So they would wreak her vengeance on mankind,
- She thus at once their mistress and their slave;
- And they, to do such service nothing loth,
- Obeyed her bidding, slaves and masters both.
-
- 4.
- So from this cursed intercourse she caught
- Contagious power of mischief, and was taught
- {113}
- Such secrets as are damnable to guess.
- Is there a child whose little lovely ways
- Might win all hearts, . . . on whom his parents gaze
- Till they shed tears of joy and tenderness?
- Oh! hide him from that Witch's withering sight!
- Oh! hide him from the eye of Lorrinite!
- Her look hath crippling in it, and her curse
- All plagues which on mortality can light;
- Death is his doom if she behold, . . . or worse, . . .
- Diseases loathsome and incurable,
- And inward sufferings that no tongue can tell.
- Woe was to him, on whom that eye of hate
- Was bent; for, certain as the stroke of Fate,
- It did its mortal work; nor human arts
- Could save the unhappy wretch, her chosen prey;
- For gazing, she consum'd his vital parts,
- Eating his very core of life away.
- The wine which from yon wounded palm on high
- Fills yonder gourd, as slowly it distills,
- Grows sour at once if Lorrinite pass by.
- The deadliest worm, from which all creatures fly,
- Fled from the deadlier venom of her eye;
- The babe unborn, within its mother's womb,
- Started and trembled when the Witch came nigh,
- {114}
- And in the silent chambers of the tomb
- Death shuddered her unholy tread to hear,
- And, from the dry and mouldering bones, did fear
- Force a cold sweat, when Lorrinite was near.
-
- 5.
- Power made her haughty: by ambition fir'd,
- Ere long to mightier mischiefs she aspir'd.
- The Calis, who o'er Cities rule unseen,
- Each in her own domain a Demon Queen,
- And there ador'd with blood and human life,
- They knew her, and in their accurst employ
- She stirr'd up neighbouring states to mortal strife.
- Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad
- Upon the King of the Ravens, to destroy
- The offending sons of men, when his four hands
- Were weary with their toil, would let her do
- His work of vengeance upon guilty lands;
- And Lorrinite, at his commandment, knew
- When the ripe earthquake should be loos'd, and where
- To point its course. And in the baneful air
- The pregnant seeds of death he bade her strew,
- All deadly plagues and pestilence to brew.
- The Locusts were her army, and their bands,
- {115}
- Where'er she turn'd her skinny finger, flew;
- The floods in ruin roll'd at her commands;
- And when, in time of drought, the husbandman
- Beheld the gathered rain about to fall,
- Her breath would drive it to the desert sands.
- While in the marshes parch'd and gaping soil,
- The rice-roots by the searching Sun were dried;
- And in lean groupes, assembled at the side
- Of the empty tank, the cattle dropt and died;
- And Famine, at her bidding, wasted wide
- The wretched land; till, in the public way,
- Promiscuous where the dead and dying lay,
- Dogs fed on human bones in the open light of day.
-
- 6.
- Her secret cell the accursed Arvalan,
- In quest of vengeance, sought, and thus began.
- Mighty mother! mother wise!
- Revenge me on my enemies.
-
- LORRINITE.
- Com'st thou, son, for aid to me?
- Tell me who have injur'd thee,
- Where they are, and who they be;
- {116}
- Of the Earth, or of the Sea,
- Or of the aerial company?
- Earth, nor Sea, nor Air is free
- From the powers who wait on me,
- And my tremendous witchery.
-
- ARVALAN.
- She for whom so ill I sped,
- Whom my Father deemeth dead,
- Lives, for Marriataly's aid
- From the water sav'd the maid.
- In hatred I desire her still,
- And in revenge would have my will.
- A Deveta with, wings of blue,
- And sword whose edge even now I rue,
- In a Ship of Heaven on high,
- Pilots her along the sky.
- Where they voyage thou canst tell,
- Mistress of the mighty spell.
-
- 7.
- At this the Witch, through shrivell'd lips and thin,
- Sent forth a sound half-whistle and half-hiss.
- Two winged Hands came in,
- {117}
- Armless and bodyless,
- Bearing a globe of liquid crystal, set
- In frame as diamond bright, yet black as jet.
- A thousand eyes were quench'd in endless night,
- To form that magic globe; for Lorrinite
- Had, from their sockets, drawn the liquid sight,
- And kneaded it, with re-creating skill,
- Into this organ of her mighty will.
- Look in yonder orb, she cried,
- Tell me what is there descried.
-
- ARVALAN.
- A mountain top, in clouds of light
- Envelop'd, rises on my sight;
- Thence a cataract rushes down,
- Hung with many a rainbow crown;
- Light and clouds conceal its head,
- Below, a silver Lake is spread;
- Upon its shores a Bower I see,
- Fit home for blessed company.
- See they come forward, . . . one, two, three, . . .
- The last a Maiden, . . . it is she!
- The foremost shakes his wings of blue,
- 'Tis he whose sword even yet I rue;
- {118}
- And in that other one I know
- The visage of my deadliest foe.
- Mother, let thy magic might
- Arm me for the mortal fight;
- Helm and shield and mail afford,
- Proof against his dreaded sword.
- Then will I invade their seat,
- Then shall vengeance be compleat.
-
- LORRINITE.
- Spirits, who obey my will,
- Hear him, and his wish fulfill.
-
- 8.
- So spake the mighty one, nor farther spell
- Needed. Anon a sound, like smother'd thunder,
- Was heard, slow rolling under;
- The solid pavement of the cell
- Quak'd, heav'd, and cleft asunder,
- And, at the feet of Arvalan display'd,
- Helmet and mail and shield and scymitar were laid.
-
- 9.
- The Asuras, often put to flight,
- {119}
- And scattered in the fields of light,
- By their foes' celestial might,
- Forged this enchanted armour for the fight.
- 'Mid fires intense did they anneal,
- In mountain furnaces, the quivering steel,
- Till trembling through each deepening hue,
- It settled in a midnight blue;
- Last they cast it, to aslake,
- In the penal icy lake.
- Then, they consign'd it to the Giant brood;
- And, while they forged the impenetrable arms,
- The Evil Powers, to oversee them, stood,
- And there imbued
- The work of Giant strength with magic charms.
- Foul Arvalan, with joy, survey'd
- The crescent sabre's cloudy blade,
- With deeper joy the impervious mail,
- The shield and helmet of avail.
- Soon did he himself array,
- And bade her speed him on his way.
-
- 10.
- Then she led him to the den,
- Where her chariot, night and day,
- {120}
- Stood harness'd, ready for the way.
- Two Dragons, yok'd in adamant, convey
- The magic car; from either collar sprung
- An adamantine rib, which met in air,
- O'er-arch'd, and crost, and bent diverging there,
- And firmly in its arc upbore,
- Upon their brazen necks, thereat of power.
- Arvalan mounts the car, and in his hand
- Receives the magic reins from Lorrinite;
- The dragons, long obedient to command,
- Their ample sails expand;
- Like steeds well-broken to fair lady's hand,
- They feel the reins of might,
- And up the northern sky begin their flight.
-
- 11.
- Son of the Wicked, doth thy soul delight
- To think its hour of vengeance now is nigh?
- Lo! where the far-off light
- Of Indra's palace flashes on his sight,
- And Meru's heavenly summit shines on high,
- With clouds of glory bright,
- Amid the dark-blue sky.
- Already, in his hope, doth he espy
- {121}
- Himself secure in mail of tenfold charms,
- Ereenia writhing from the magic blade,
- The Father sent to bear his Curse, . . . the Maid
- Resisting vainly in his impious arms.
-
- 12.
- Ah, Sinner! whose anticipating soul
- Incurs the guilt even when the crime is spar'd!
- Joyous toward Meru's summit on he far'd,
- While the twin Dragons, rising as he guides,
- With steady flight, steer northward for the pole.
- Anon, with irresistible controul,
- Force mightier far than his arrests their course;
- It wrought as though a Power unseen had caught
- Their adamantine yokes to drag them on.
- Straight on they bend their way, and now, in vain,
- Upward doth Arvalan direct the rein!
- The rein of magic might avails no more;
- Bootless its strength against that unseen Power
- Which, in their mid career,
- Hath seiz'd the Chariot and the Charioteer.
- With hands resisting, and down-pressing feet
- Upon their hold insisting,
- He struggles to maintain his difficult seat.
- {122}
- Seeking in vain with that strange Power to vie,
- Their doubled speed the affrighted Dragons try.
- Forced in a stream from whence was no retreat,
- Strong as they are, behold, them whirled along,
- Headlong, with useless pennons, through the sky.
-
- 13.
- What power was that, which, with resistless might
- Foil'd the dread magic thus of Lorrinite?
- 'Twas all-commanding Nature . . They were here
- Within the sphere of the adamantine rocks
- Which gird Mount Meru round, as far below
- That heavenly height where Ganges hath its birth
- Involv'd in clouds and light,
- So far above its roots of ice and snow.
- On . . on they roll, . . rapt headlong they roll on; . .
- The lost canoe, less rapidly than this,
- Down the precipitous stream is whirl'd along
- To the brink of Niagara's dread abyss.
- On . . on . . they roll, and now, with shivering shock,
- Are dash'd against the rock that girds the Pole.
- Down from his shatter'd mail the unhappy Soul
- Is dropt, . . ten thousand thousand fathoms down, . . .
- Till in an ice-rift, 'mid the eternal snow,
- {123}
- Foul Arvalan is stopt. There let him howl,
- Groan there, . . and there, with unavailing moan,
- For aid on his Almighty Father call.
- All human sounds are lost
- Amid those deserts of perpetual frost,
- Old Winter's drear domain,
- Beyond the limits of the living World,
- Beyond Kehama's reign.
- Of utterance and of motion soon bereft,
- Frozen to the ice-rock, there behold him lie,
- Only the painful sense of Being left,
- A Spirit who must feel, and cannot die,
- Bleaching and bare beneath the polar sky.
-
-
-
- XII.
- THE SACRIFICE COMPLEATED.
-
- {124}
-
- 1.
- O ye who, by the Lake
- On Meru Mount, partake
- The joys which Heaven hath destin'd for the blest,
- Swift, swift, the moments fly,
- The silent hours go by,
- And ye must leave your dear abode of rest.
- O wretched Man, prepare
- Again thy Curse to bear!
- Prepare, O wretched Maid, for farther woe!
- The fatal hour draws near,
- When Indra's heavenly sphere
- Must own the Tyrant of the World below.
- {125}
- To-day the hundredth Steed,
- At Seeva's shrine, must bleed,
- The dreadful sacrifice is full to-day;
- Nor man nor God hath power,
- At this momentous hour,
- Again to save the Swerga from his sway.
- Fresh woes, O Maid divine,
- Fresh trials must be thine;
- And what must thou, Ladurlad, yet endure!
- But let your hearts be strong,
- And bear ye bravely on,
- For Providence is good, and virtue is secure.
-
- 2.
- They, little deeming that the fatal day
- Was come, beheld where, through the morning sky,
- A Ship of Heaven drew nigh.
- Onward they watch it steer its steady flight;
- Till, wondering, they espy
- Old Casyapa, the Sire of Gods, alight.
- But, when Ereenia saw the Sire appear,
- At that unwonted and unwelcome sight
- His heart receiv'd a sudden shock of fear:
- Thy presence doth its doleful tidings tell,
- {126}
- O Father! cried the startled Glendoveer,
- The dreadful hour is near! I know it well!
- Not for less import would the Sire of Gods
- Forsake his ancient and august abodes.
-
- 3.
- Even so: serene the immortal Sire replies;
- Soon like an earthquake will ye feel the blow
- Which consummates the mighty sacrifice:
- And this World, and its Heaven, and all therein
- Are then Kehama's. To the second ring
- Of these seven Spheres, the Swerga-King,
- Even now, prepares for flight, . .
- Beyond the circle of the conquer'd world,
- Beyond the Rajah's might.
- Ocean, that clips this inmost of the Spheres,
- And girds it round with everlasting roar,
- Set like a gem appears
- Within that beading shore.
- Thither fly all the Sons of heavenly race:
- I, too, forsake mine ancient dwelling-place.
- And now, O Child and Father, ye must go,
- Take up the burthen of your woe,
- And wander once again below.
- {127}
- With patient heart hold onward to the end, . . .
- Be true unto yourselves, and bear in mind
- That every God is still the good Man's friend;
- And they, who suffer bravely, save mankind.
-
- 4.
- Oh tell me, cried Ereenia, for from thee
- Nought can be hidden, when the end will be!
-
- 5.
- Seek not to know, old Casyapa replied,
- What pleaseth Heaven to hide.
- Dark is the abyss of time,
- But light enough to guide your steps is given;
- Whatever weal or woe betide,
- Turn never front the way of truth aside,
- And leave the event, in holy hope, to Heaven.
- The moment is at hand, no more delay,
- Ascend the etherial bark, and go your way;
- And Ye, of heavenly nature, follow me.
-
- 6.
- The will of Heaven be done, Ladurlad cried,
- Nor more the man replied;
- {128}
- But placed his daughter in the etherial Bark,
- Then took his seat beside.
- There was no word at parting, no adieu.
- Down from that empyreal height they flew:
- One groan Ladurlad breath'd, yet uttered not,
- When, to his heart and brain
- The fiery Curse again like lightning shot.
- And now on earth, the Sire and Child alight,
- Up soar'd the Ship of Heaven, and sail'd away from sight.
-
- 7.
- O ye immortal Bowers,
- Where hitherto the Hours
- Have led their dance of happiness for aye,
- With what a sense of woe
- Do ye expect the blow,
- And see your heavenly dwellers driven away!
- Lo! where the aunnay-birds of graceful mien,
- Whose milk-white forms were seen,
- Lovely as Nymphs, your ancient trees between,
- And by your silent springs,
- With melancholy cry,
- Now spread unwilling wings;
- Their stately necks reluctant they protend,
- {129}
- And through the sullen sky,
- To other worlds, their mournful progress bend.
- The affrighted gales to-day
- O'er their beloved streams no longer play,
- The streams of Paradise have ceas'd to flow;
- The Fountain-Tree withholds its diamond shower,
- In this portentous hour, . .
- This dolorous hour, . . this universal woe.
- Where is the Palace, whose far-flashing beams,
- With streaks and streams of ever-varying light,
- Brighten'd the polar night
- Around the frozen North's extremest shore?
- Gone like a morning rainbow, . . like a dream. . .
- A star that shoots and falls, and then is seen no more.
-
- 8.
- Now! now! . . . Before the Golden Palaces,
- The Bramin strikes the inevitable hour.
- The fatal blow is given,
- That over Earth and Heaven
- Confirms the Almighty Rajah in his power.
- All evil Spirits then,
- That roam the World about,
- Or wander through the sky,
- {130}
- Set up a joyful shout.
- The Asuras and the Giants join the cry,
- The damn'd in Padalon acclaim
- Their hop'd Deliverer's name;
- Heaven trembles with the thunder-drowning sound;
- Back starts affrighted Ocean from the shore,
- And the adamantine vaults, and brazen floor
- Of Hell, are shaken with the roar.
- Up rose the Rajah through the conquer'd sky,
- To seize the Swerga for his proud abode;
- Myriads of evil Genii round him fly,
- As royally, on wings of winds, he rode,
- And scal'd high Heaven, triumphant like a God.
-
-
-
-NOTES.
-
-{133}
-
-  _Calmly she took her seat_.--I. p. 8.
-
-SHE, says Bernier, whom I saw burn herself, when I parted from
-_Surat_ to travel into _Persia_, in the presence of Monsieur _Chardin_
-of _Paris_, and of many _English_ and _Dutch_, was of a middle age,
-and not unhandsome. To represent unto you the undaunted cheerfulness
-that appeared in her countenance, the resolution with which she
-marched, washed herself, spoke to the people; the confidence with
-which she looked upon us, viewed her little cabin, made up of very dry
-millet-straw and small wood, went into this cabin, and sat down upon
-the pile, and took her husband's head into her lap, and a torch into
-her own hand, and kindled the cabin, whilst I know not how many
-_Brahmans_ were busy in kindling the fire round about: To represent to
-you, I say, all this as it ought, is {134} not possible for me; I can
-at present scarce believe it myself, though it be but a few days since
-I saw it.
-
-
-  _They strip her ornaments away._--I. p. 8.
-
-She went out again to the river, and taking up some water in her
-hands, muttered some prayers, and offered it to the sun. All her
-ornaments were then taken from her; and her armlets were broken, and
-chaplets of white flowers were put upon her neck and hands. Her hair
-was tucked up with five combs; and her forehead was marked with clay
-in the same manner as that of her husband--STAVORINUS.
-
-
-  _Around her neck they leave_
-  _The marriage-knot alone._--I. p. 8.
-
-When the time for consummating the marriage is come, they light the
-fire Homam with the wood of Ravasiton. The Bramin blesses the former,
-which being done, the bridegroom takes three handfuls of rice, and
-throws it on the bride's head, who does the same to him. Afterwards
-the bride's father clothes her in a dress according to his condition,
-and washes the bridegroom's feet; the bride's mother observing to pour
-out the water. This being done, the father puts his daughter's hand in
-his own, puts water into it, some pieces of money, {135} and, giving
-it to the bridegroom, says, at the same time, I have no longer any
-thing to do with you, and I give you up to the power of another. The
-_Tali_, which is a ribbon with a golden head hanging at it, is held
-ready; and, being shewn to the company, some prayers and blessings are
-pronounced; after which the bridegroom takes it, and hangs it about
-the bride's neck. This knot is what particularly secures his
-possession of her; for, before he had had the _Tali_ on, all the rest
-of the ceremonies might have been made to no purpose; for it has
-sometimes happened, that, when the bridegroom was going to fix it on,
-the bride's father has discovered his not being satisfied with the
-bridegroom's gift, when another, offering more, has carried off the
-bride with her father's consent. But when once the _Tali_ is put on,
-the marriage is indissoluble; and, whenever the husband dies, the
-_Tali_ is burnt along with him, to shew that the marriage bands are
-broke. Besides these particular ceremonies, the people have notice of
-the wedding by a _Pandal_, which is raised before the bride's door
-some days before. The whole concludes with an entertainment which the
-bride's father gives to the common friends; and during this festivity,
-which continues five days, alms are given to the poor, and the fire
-Homam is kept in. The seventh day, the new-married couple set out for
-the {136} bridegroom's house, whither they frequently go by
-torch-light. The bride and bridegroom are carried in a sedan, pass
-through the chief streets of the city, and are accompanied by their
-friends, who are either on horseback or mounted on elephants.--A.
-ROGER.
-
-
-  _They force her on, they bind her to the dead_.--I. p. 9.
-
-'Tis true, says Bernier, that I have seen some of them, which, at the
-sight of the pile and the fire, appeared to have some apprehension,
-and that, perhaps, would have gone back. Those demons, the Bramins,
-that are there with their great sticks, astonish them, and hearten
-them up, or even thrust them in; as I have seen it done to a young
-woman that retreated five or six paces from the pile, and to another,
-that was much disturbed when, she saw the fire take hold of her
-clothes, these executioners thrusting her in with their long poles.
-
-At Lahor, I saw a very handsome and a very young woman burnt; I
-believe she was not above twelve years of age. This poor unhappy
-creature appeased rather dead than alive when she came near the pile;
-she shook and wept bitterly. Meanwhile, three or four of these
-executioners, the Bramins, together with an old hag that held her
-under the arm, thrust her on, and made her sit down upon the wood;
-and, lest she should run away, {137} they tied her legs and hands; and
-so they burnt her alive. I had enough to do to contain myself for
-indignation.--BERNIER.
-
-Pietro Della Valle conversed with a widow, who was about to burn
-herself by her own choice. She told him, that, generally speaking,
-women were not forced to burn themselves; but sometimes, among people
-of rank, when a young woman, who was handsome, was left a widow, and
-in danger of marrying again, (which is never practised among them,
-because of the confusion and disgrace which are inseparable from such
-a thing,) or of falling into other irregularities, then, indeed, the
-relations of the husband, if they are at all tenacious of the honour
-of the family, compel her to burn herself, whether she likes it or no,
-merely to prevent the inconveniences which might take place.
-
-Dellon also, whom I consider as one of the best travellers in the
-East, expressly asserts, that widows are burnt there "_de gré, ou de
-force. L'on n'en voit que trop qui aprés avoir desiré et demandé la
-mort avec un courage intrepide, et aprés avoir obtenu et acheté la
-permission de se brûler, ont tremblé à là veuë du bucher, se sont
-repenties, mais trop tard, de leur imprudence, et ont fait d'inutiles
-efforts pour se retracter. Mais lorsque cela arrive, bien loin que les
-Bramenes soient touchés_ {138} _d'aucune pieté, ils lient cruellement
-ces malheureuses, et les brûlent par force, sans avoir aucun egard à
-leurs plaintes, ni à leurs cris._"--Tom. i. p. 138.
-
-It would be easy to multiply authorities upon this point. Let it
-suffice to mention one important historical fact: When the great
-Alboquerque had established himself it Goa, he forbade these accursed
-sacrifices, the women extolled him for it as their benefactor and
-deliverer, (_Commentarios de Alb._ ii. 20,) and no European in India
-was ever so popular, or so revered by the natives. Yet, if we are to
-believe the anti-missionares, none but fools, fanatics, and pretenders
-to humanity, would wish to deprive the Hindoo women of the right of
-burning themselves! "It may be useful (says Colonel Mark Wilks,) to
-examine the reasonableness of interfering with the most exceptionable
-of all their institutions. It has been thought an abomination not to
-be tolerated, that a widow should immolate herself on the funeral pile
-of her deceased husband. But what judgement should we form of the
-Hindoo, who (if any of our institutions admitted the parallel) should
-_forcibly_ pretend to stand between a Christian and the hope of
-eternal salvation? And shall we not hold him to be a driveller in
-politics and morals, a fanatic in religion, and a pretender in
-humanity, who would forcibly wrest this hope from the Hindoo {139}
-widow?"--_Historical Sketches of the South of India_, vol. i. p. 499.
-
-Such opinions, and such language, may safely be left to the
-indignation and pity which they cannot fail to excite. I shall only
-express my astonishment, that any thing so monstrous, and so miserably
-futile, should have proceeded from a man of learning, great good
-sense, and general good feelings, as Colonel Wilks evidently appears
-to be.
-
-
-  _One drops, another plunges in._--I. p. 10.
-
-When Bernier was passing from Amad-Avad to Agra, there came news to
-him in a borough, where the caravan rested under the shade, (staying
-for the cool of the evening to march on their journey,) that a woman
-was then upon the point of burning herself with the body of her
-husband. I presently rose, says he, and ran to the place where it was
-to be done, which was a great pit, with a pile of wood raised in it,
-whereon I saw laid a dead corpse, and a woman, which, at a distance,
-seemed to me pretty fair, sitting near it on the same pile, besides
-four or five Bramins, putting the fire to it from all sides; five
-women of a middle age, and well enough dressed, holding one another by
-the hand, and dancing about the pit, and a great crowd of people, men
-and women, looking {140} on. The pile of wood was presently all on
-fire, because store of oil and butter had been thrown upon it: and I
-saw, at the same time, through the flames, that the fire took hold of
-the clothes of the woman, that were imbued with well-scented oils,
-mingled with powder of sandal and saffron. All this I saw, but
-observed not that the woman was at all disturbed; yea, it was said,
-that she had been heard to pronounce, with great force, these two
-words, _five_, _two_, to signify, according to the opinion of those
-that hold the soul's transmigration, that this was the _fifth_ time
-she had burnt herself with the same husband, and that there remained
-but two more for perfection; as if she had at that time this
-remembrance, or some prophetical spirit. But here ended not this
-infernal tragedy: I thought it was only by way of ceremony that these
-five women sung and danced about the pit; but I was altogether
-surprised when I saw, that the flame having taken hold of the clothes
-of one of them, she cast herself, with her head foremost, into the
-pit; and that after her, another, being overcome by the flame and the
-smoke, did the like; and my astonishment redoubled afterwards, when I
-saw that the remaining three took one another again by the hand,
-continued their dance without any apparent fear; and that at length
-they precipitated themselves, one after another, into the fire, as
-their {141} companions had done. I learnt that these had been five
-slaves, who, having seen their mistress extremely afflicted at the
-sickness of her husband, and heard her promise him, that she would not
-survive him, but burn herself with him, were so touched with
-compassion and tenderness towards this their mistress, that they
-engaged themselves in a promise to follow her in her resolution, and
-to burn themselves with her.--BERNIER.
-
-This excellent traveller relates an extraordinary circumstance which
-occurred at one of these sacrifices. A woman was engaged in some
-love-intrigues with a young Mahommedan, her neighbour, who was a
-tailor, and could play finely upon the tabor. This woman, in the hopes
-she had of marrying this young man, poisoned her husband, and
-presently came away to tell the tailor, that it was time to be gone
-together, as they had projected, or else she should be obliged to burn
-herself. The young man, fearing lest he might be entangled in a
-mischievous business, flatly refused her. The woman, not at all
-surprised at it, went to her relations, and advertised them of the
-sudden death of her husband, and openly protested that she would not
-survive him, but burn herself with him. Her kindred, well satisfied
-with so generous a resolution, and the great honour she did to the
-whole family, presently had a pit made and filled with wood, exposing
-{142} the corpse upon it, and kindling the fire. All being prepared,
-the woman goes to embrace and bid farewell to all her kindred that
-were there about the pit, among whom was also the tailor, who had been
-invited to play upon the tabor that day, with many others of that sort
-of men, according to the custom of the country. This fury of a woman
-being also come to this young man, made sign as if she would bid him
-farewell with the rest; but, instead of gently embracing him, she
-taketh him with all her force about his collar, pulls him to the pit,
-and tumbleth him, together with herself, into the ditch, where they
-both were soon dispatched.--BERNIER.
-
-The Hindoos sometimes erect a chapel on the spot where one of these
-sacrifices has been performed, both on account of the soul of the
-deceased, and as a trophy of her virtue. I remember to have seen one
-of these places, where the spot on which the funeral pile had been
-erected was inclosed and covered with bamboos, formed into a kind of
-bower planted with flowering creepers. The inside was set round with
-flowers, and at one end, there was an image.--CRAWFURD.
-
-Some of the Yogees, who smear themselves with ashes, use none but what
-they collect from funeral piles,--human ashes! PIETRO DELLA VALLE.
-
-From a late investigation, it appears, that the number {143} of women
-who sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every
-year, is, on an average, upwards of two hundred. The Pundits have
-already been called on to produce the sanction of their Shasters for
-this custom. The passages exhibited are vague and general in their
-meaning, and differently interpreted by the same casts. Some sacred
-verses commend the practice, but none command it; and the Pundits
-refer once more to _custom_. They have, however, intimated, that if
-government will pass a regulation, amercing by fine every Brahmin who
-attends a burning, or every Zemindar who permits him to attend it, the
-practice cannot possibly long continue; for that the ceremony,
-unsanctified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity and
-consequence in the eyes of the people.
-
-The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the abolition of this
-opprobrium of a Christian administration, the female sacrifice; which
-has subsisted, to our certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander
-the Great.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN.
-
-This practice, however, was manifestly unknown when the Institutes of
-Menu were written. Instructions are there given for the conduct of a
-widow: "Let her," it is said, "emaciate her body, by living
-voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when
-her {144} lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man.
-Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh
-duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the
-incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women
-as were devoted to one only husband. Many thousands of Brahmins,
-having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no
-issue in their families, have ascended nevertheless to heaven; and,
-like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though
-she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote
-herself to pious austerity: but a widow, who, from a wish to bear
-children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings
-disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of
-her lord."--_Inst. of Menu_, ch. 5, 157-161.
-
-Second marriages were permitted to men.--_Ibid_. 167, 8-9.
-
-
-  _Lo! Arvalan appears._--II. p. 11.
-
-Many believe that some souls are sent back to the spot where their
-bodies were burnt, or where their ashes are preserved, to wait there
-until the new bodies they are destined to occupy be ready for their
-reception. This appears to correspond with an opinion of Plato, which,
-{145} with many other tenets of that philosopher, was adopted by the
-early Christians; and an ordinance of the Romish church is still
-extant, prohibiting having lights or making merriment in church-yards
-at night, lest they should disturb the souls that might come
-thither.--CRAWFURD.
-
-According to the Danish missionaries, the souls of those who are
-untimely slain wander about as diabolical spectres, doing evil to
-mankind, and possessing those whom they persecute.--NIECAMP. i. 10.
-§ 14.
-
-The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall believe, that when God
-sends a messenger to summon a person to his presence, if the messenger
-should mistake his object, and carry off another, he is desired by the
-Deity to take him away; but as the earthly mansion of his soul must be
-decayed, it is destined to remain mid-way between heaven and earth,
-and never can return to the presence of God. Whoever commits homicide
-without a divine order, and whoever is killed by a snake, as a
-punishment for some concealed crime, will be doomed to the same state
-of wandering; and whoever hangs himself will wander eternally with a
-rope about his neck.--_Asiat. Researches_.
-
-Pope Benedict XII. drew up a list of 117 heretical opinions held by
-the Armenian Christians, which he sent to the king of
-Armenia,--instead of any other assistance, {146} when that prince
-applied to him for aid against the Mahomedans. This paper was first
-published by Bernino, and exhibits a curious mixture of mythologies.
-One of their opinions was, that the souls of the adult wander about in
-the air till the day of judgment; neither hell, nor the heavenly, nor
-the terrestrial paradise, being open to them till that day shall have
-past.
-
-Davenant, in one of his plays, speculates upon such a state of
-wandering as the lot of the soul after death:--
-
-  I must to darkness go, hover in clouds,
-  Or in remote untroubled air, silent
-  As thoughts, or what is uncreated yet;
-  Or I must rest in some cold shade, and shall
-  Perhaps ne'er see that everlasting spring
-  Of which philosophy so long has dreamt,
-  And seems rather to wish than understand.
-                    _Love and Honour._
-
-I know no other author who has so often expressed to those who could
-understand him, his doubts respecting a future state, and how
-burthensome he felt them.
-
-
-  _But I, all naked feeling and raw life_.--II. p. 13.
-
-By the vital souls of those men who have committed {147} sins in the
-body, another body, composed of _nerves_, with five sensations, in
-order to be susceptible of torment, shall certainly be assumed after
-death; and being intimately united with those minute nervous
-particles, according to their distribution, they shall feel in that
-new body the pangs inflicted in each case by the sentence of
-Yama.--_Inst. of Menu_.
-
-Henry More, the Platonist, has two applicable stanzas in his Song of
-the Soul:--
-
-   Like to a light fast lock'd in lanthorn dark,
-   Whereby by night our wary steps we guide
-   In slabby streets, and dirty channels mark,
-   Some weaker rays through the black top do glide,
-   And flusher streams, perhaps, from horny side;
-   But when we've past the peril of the way,
-   Arrived at home, and laid that case aside,--
-   The naked light how clearly doth it ray,
-  And spread its joyful beams as bright as summer's day.
-
-   Even so the soul, in this contracted state,
-   Confined to these strait instruments of sense,
-   More dull and narrowly doth operate;
-   At this hole hears,--the sight must ray from thence,--
-   Here tastes, there smells;--but when she's gone from hence,
-   {148}
-   Like naked lamp she is one shining sphere,
-   And round about has perfect cognoscence,
-   Whatever in her horizon doth appear.
-  She is one orb of sense, all eye, all airy ear.
-
-Amid the uncouth allegory, and more uncouth language, of this strange
-series of poems, a few passages are to be found of exceeding beauty.
-Milton, who was the author's friend, had evidently read them.
-
-
-  _Undying as I am!_--II. p. 12.
-
-The Soul is not a thing of which a man may say, it hath been, it is
-about to be, or is to be hereafter; for it is a thing without birth;
-it is ancient, constant, and eternal, and is not to be destroyed in
-this its mortal frame. How can the man who believeth that this thing
-is incorruptible, eternal, inexhaustible, and without birth, think
-that he can either kill or cause it to be killed! As a man throweth
-away old garments and putteth on new, even so the Soul, having quitted
-its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new. The weapon
-divideth it not, the fire burneth it not, the water corrupteth it not,
-the wind drieth it not away;--for it is indivisible, inconsumable,
-incorruptible, and is not to be dried away;--it is eternal, universal,
-permanent, immoveable; it is {149} invisible, inconceivable, and
-unalterable.--BHAGVAT GEETA.
-
-
-  _Mariataly_.--II. p. 15.
-
-Mariatale, as Sonnerat spells the name, was wife of the penitent
-Chamadaguini, and mother of Parassourama, who was, in part, an
-incarnation of Veeshno. This goddess, says Sonnerat, commanded the
-elements, but could not preserve that empire longer than her heart was
-pure. One day, while she was collecting water out of a tank, and,
-according to her custom, was making a bowl of earth to carry it to the
-house, she saw on the surface of the water, some figures of Grindovers
-(Glendoveers) which were flying over her head. Struck with their
-beauty, her heart admitted an impure thought, and the earth of the
-bowl dissolved. From that time she was obliged to make use of an
-ordinary vessel. This discovered to Chamadaguini that his wife had
-deviated from purity; and, in the excess of his rage, he ordered his
-son to drag her to the place where criminals were executed, and to
-behead her. The order was executed; but Parassourama was so much
-afflicted for the loss of his mother, that Chamadaguini told him to
-take up the body, and fasten the head upon it, and repeat a prayer
-(which he taught him for that purpose) in her ear, and then his mother
-{150} would come to life again. The son ran eagerly to perform what he
-was ordered, but, by a very singular blunder, he joined the head of
-his mother to the body of a Parichi, who had been executed for her
-crimes; a monstrous union, which gave to this woman the virtues of a
-goddess, and the vices of a criminal. The goddess, becoming impure by
-such a mixture, was driven from her house, and committed all kinds of
-cruelties. The Deverkels, perceiving the destruction she made,
-appeased her by giving her power to cure the small-pox, and promising
-that she should be implored for that disorder. Mariatale is the great
-goddess of the Parias;--to honour her, they have a custom of dancing
-with several pots of water on their heads, placed one above the other:
-These pots are adorned with the leaves of the Margosies, a tree
-consecrated to her.
-
-
-  _It was my hour of folly._--II. p. 13.
-
-Among the qualities required for the proper execution of public
-business, mention is made, "That a man must be able to keep in
-subjection his lust, his anger, his avarice, his _folly_, and his
-pride." The folly there specified is not to be understood in the usual
-sense of the word in an European idiom, as a negative quality, or the
-mere want of sense, but as a kind of obstinately stupid {151}
-lethargy, or perverse absence of mind, in which the will is not
-altogether passive: It seems to be a weakness peculiar to Asia, for we
-cannot find a term by which to express the precise idea in the
-European languages. It operates somewhat like the violent impulse of
-fear, under which men will utter falsehoods totally incompatible with
-each other, and utterly contrary to their own opinion, knowledge, and
-conviction; and, it may be added also, their inclination and
-intention.
-
-A very remarkable instance of this temporary frenzy happened lately in
-the supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, where a man (not an
-idiot) swore, upon a trial, that he was no kind of relation to his
-brother, who was then in Court, and who had constantly supported him
-from his infancy; and that he lived in a house by himself, for which
-he paid the rent from his own pocket, when it was proved that he was
-not worth a rupee, and when the person in whose house he had always
-resided stood at the bar close to him.
-
-Another conjecture, and that exceedingly acute and ingenious, has been
-started upon this _folly_, that it may mean the deception which a man
-permits to be imposed on his judgment by his passions, as acts of
-rapacity and avarice are often committed by men who ascribe them to
-prudence and a just assertion of their own right; malice {152} and
-rancour pass for justice, and brutality for spirit. This opinion, when
-thoroughly examined, will very nearly tally with the former; for all
-the passions, as well as fear, have an equal efficacy to disturb and
-distort the mind: But to account for the _folly_ here spoken of as
-being the offspring of the passions, instead of drawing a parallel
-between it and the impulses of those passions, we must suppose the
-impulses to act with infinitely more violence upon an Asiatic mind
-than we can ever have seen exemplified in Europe. It is, however,
-something like the madness so inimitably delineated in the Hero of
-Cervantes, sensible enough upon some occasions, and at the same time
-completely wild, and unconscious of itself upon others; and that, too,
-originally produced by an effort of the will, though, in the end,
-overpowering and superseding its functions.--HALHED.
-
-
-  _The little songsters of the sky_
-  _Sit silent in the sultry hour._--IV. p. 29.
-
-The tufted lark, fixed to this fruitful land, says Sonnini, speaking
-of Egypt, never forsakes it; it seems, however, that the excessive
-heat annoys him. You may see these birds, as well as sparrows, in the
-middle of the day, with their bills half open, and the muscles of
-their breasts agitated, breathing with difficulty, and as if they
-panted {153} for respiration. The instinct which induces them to
-prefer those means of subsistence which are easily obtained, and in
-abundance, although attended with some suffering, resembles the mind
-of man, whom a thirst for riches engages to brave calamities and
-dangers without number.
-
-
-  _The Watchman._--V. 35.
-
-The watchmen are provided with no offensive weapons excepting a sling;
-on the contrary, they continue the whole day standing in one single
-position, upon a pillar of clay raised about ten feet, where they
-remain bellowing continually, that they may terrify, without hurting,
-the birds who feed upon the crop. Every considerable field contains
-several such centinels, stationed at different corners, who repeat the
-call from one to another so incessantly, that the invaders have hardly
-any opportunity of making good a livelihood in the field.
-
-These watchmen are forced, during the rains, to erect, instead of a
-clay pillar, a scaffolding of wood as high as the crop, over which
-they suspend a roof of straw, to shelter their naked bodies from the
-rain.--TENNANT.
-
-
-  _The Golden Palaces_.--V. 35.
-
-Every thing belonging to the sovereign of Ava has the {154} addition
-of [Transcriber: the last letter of the word "sho-" is unreadable],
-or golden, annexed to it; even his majesty's person is never mentioned
-but in conjunction with this precious metal. When a subject means to
-affirm that the king has heard any thing, he says, "it has reached the
-golden ears;" he who obtained admission to the royal presence has been
-at the "golden feet." The perfume of otto of roses, a nobleman observed
-one day, "was an odour grateful to the golden nose."--SYMES.
-
-
-  _A cloud ascending in the eastern sky_
-  _Sails slowly o'er the vale,_
-  _And darkens round, and closes in the night._--V. p. 37.
-
-At this season of the year, it is not uncommon, towards the evening,
-to see a small black cloud rising in the eastern part of the horizon,
-and afterwards spreading itself to the north-west. This phenomenon is
-always attended with a violent storm of wind, and flashes of the
-strongest and most vivid lightning and heavy thunder, which is
-followed by rain. These storms sometimes last for half an hour or
-more; and, when they disperse, they leave the air greatly freshened,
-and the sky of a deep, clear, and transparent blue. When they occur
-near the full moon, the whole atmosphere is illuminated by a soft but
-brilliant silver light, attended with gentle airs.--HODGES.
-
-{155}
-
-  _A white flag, flapping to the winds of night,_
-  _Marks where the tyger seized his human prey._--V. p. 37.
-
-It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo
-staff, of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tyger has
-destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers, also, each to throw
-a stone, or brick, near the spot, so that, in the course of a little
-time, a pile equal to a good waggon-load is collected. This custom, as
-well as the fixing a rag on any particular thorn-bush, near the fatal
-spot, is in use likewise on various accounts. Many brambles may be
-seen in a day's journey, completely covered with this motley
-assemblage of remnants. The sight of the flags and piles of stones
-imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether devoid of
-apprehension: They may be said to be of service in pointing out the
-places most frequented by tygers.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 22.
-
-
-  _Pollear._--V. p. 45.
-
-The first and greatest of the sons of Sevee is Pollear: he presides
-over marriages: The Indians build no house without having first
-carried a Pollear on the ground, which they sprinkle with oil, and
-throw flowers on it {156} every day. If they do not invoke it before
-they undertake any enterprise, they believe that God will make them
-forget what they wanted to undertake, and that their labour will be in
-vain. He is represented with an elephant's head, and mounted on a rat;
-but in the pagodas they place him on a pedestal, with his legs almost
-crossed. A rat is always put before the door of his chapel. This rat
-was a giant, called Gudja-mouga-chourin, on whom the gods had bestowed
-immortality, as well as great powers, which he abused, and did much
-harm to mankind. Pollear, entreated by the sages and penitents to
-deliver them, pulled out one of his tusks, and threw it against
-Gudja-mouga-chourin; the tooth entered the giant's stomach, and
-overthrew him, who immediately changed himself into a rat as large as
-a mountain, and came to attack Pollear, who sprung on his back,
-telling him, that hereafter he should ever be his carrier.
-
-The Indians, in their adoration of this god, cross their arms, shut
-the fist, and in this manner give themselves several blows on the
-temples; then, but always with the arms crossed, they take hold of
-their ears, and make three inclinations, bending the knee; after
-which, with their hands joined, they address their prayers to him, and
-strike their forehead. They have a great veneration for this deity,
-whose image they place in all temples, streets, {157} highways, and,
-in the country, at the foot of some tree, that all the world may have
-an opportunity of invoking him before they undertake any concern, and
-that travellers may make their adorations and offerings to him before
-they pursue their journey.--SONNERAT.
-
-
-  _The Glendoveers_.--VI. p. 48.
-
-This word is altered from the _Grindouvers_ of Sonnerat, who describes
-these celestial children of Casyapa as famous for their beauty; they
-have wings, he adds, and fly in the air with their wives. I do not
-know whether they are the _Gandharvas_ of the English orientalists.
-The wings with which they are attired in the poem are borrowed from
-the neglected story of Peter Wilkins, a work of great genius. Whoever
-the author was, his winged people are the most beautiful creatures of
-imagination that ever were devised. I copy his minute description of
-the _graundee_, as he calls it:--Stothard has made some delightful
-drawings of it in the Novelist's Magazine.
-
-"She first threw up two long branches, or ribs, of the whale-bone, as
-I called it before, (and indeed for several of its properties, as
-toughness, elasticity, and pliableness, nothing I have ever seen can
-so justly be compared to it,) which were jointed behind to the
-upper-bone of the spine, and which, when not extended, lie bent over
-the shoulders {158} on each side of the neck forwards, from whence, by
-nearer and nearer approaches, they just meet at the lower rim of the
-belly in a sort of point; but, when extended, they stand their whole
-length above the shoulders, not perpendicularly, but spreading
-outwards, with a web of the softest and most pliable and spungy
-membrane that can be imagined in the interstices between them,
-reaching from their root or joint on the back up above the hinder part
-of the head, and near half way their own length; but, when closed, the
-membrane falls down in the middle upon the neck, like an handkerchief.
-There are also two other ribs, rising, as it were, from the same root,
-which, when open, run horizontally, but not so long as the others.
-These are filled up in the interstice between them and the upper ones
-with the same membrane; and on the lower side of this is also a deep
-flap of the membrane, so that the arms can be either above or below it
-in flight, and are always above it when closed. This last rib, when
-shut, flaps under the upper one, and also falls down with it before to
-the waist; but it is not joined to the ribs below. Along the whole
-spine-bone runs a strong, flat, broad, grisly cartilage, to which are
-joined several other of these ribs, all which open horizontally, and
-are filled in the interstices with the above membrane, and are jointed
-to the ribs of the person just where {159} the plane of the back
-begins to turn towards the breast and belly; and, when shut, wrap the
-body round to the joints on the contrary side, folding neatly one side
-over the other.
-
-"At the lower spine are two more ribs extended horizontally when open,
-jointed again to the hips, and long enough to meet the joint on the
-contrary side cross the belly: and from the hip-joint, which is on the
-outermost edge of the hip-bone, runs a pliable cartilage quite down
-the outside of the thigh and leg to the ancle; from which there branch
-out divers other ribs, horizontally also when open, but, when closed,
-they encompass the whole thigh and leg, rolling inwards cross the back
-of the leg and thigh, till they reach and just cover the cartilage.
-The interstices of these are filled up with the same membrane. From
-the two ribs which join to the lower spine-bone, there hangs down a
-sort of short apron, very full of plaits, from hip-joint to hip-joint,
-and reaches below the buttocks, half way or more to the hams. This has
-also several small limber ribs in it. Just upon the lower spine-joint,
-and above the apron, as I call it, there are two other long branches,
-which, when close, extend upon the back from the point they join at
-below to the shoulders, where each rib has a clasper, which, reaching
-over the shoulders, just under the fold of the uppermost branch {160}
-or ribs, hold up the two ribs flat to the back, like a V, the
-interstices of which are filled up with the aforesaid membrane. This
-last piece, in flight, falls down almost to the ancles, where the two
-claspers, lapping under each leg within-side, hold it very fast; and
-then, also, the short apron is drawn up, by the strength of the ribs
-in it, between the thighs forward, and covers as far as the rim of the
-belly. The whole arms are covered also from the shoulders to the wrist
-with the same delicate membrane, fastened to ribs of proportionable
-dimensions, and jointed to a cartilage on the outside in the same
-manner as on the legs. It is very surprising to feel the difference of
-these ribs when open and when closed; for closed, they are as pliable
-as the finest whale-bone, or more so; but, when extended, are as
-strong and stiff as a bone. They are tapering from the roots, and are
-broader or narrower, as best suits the places they occupy, and the
-stress they are put to, up to their points, which are almost as small
-as a hair. The membrane between them is the most elastic thing I ever
-met with, occupying no more space, when the ribs are closed, than just
-from rib to rib, as flat and smooth as possible; but, when extended in
-some postures, will dilate itself surprisingly,
-
-"It is the most amazing thing in the world to observe the large
-expansion of this graundee when open, and, {161} when closed, (as it
-all is in a moment, upon the party's descent,) to see it fit so close
-and compact to the body as no tailor can come up to it; and then the
-several ribs lie so justly disposed in the several parts, that instead
-of being, as one would imagine, a disadvantage to the shape, they make
-the body and limbs look extremely elegant; and by the different
-adjustment of their lines on the body and limbs, the whole, to my
-fancy, somewhat resembles the dress of the old Roman warriors in their
-buskins; and, to appearance, seems much more noble than any fictitious
-garb I ever saw, or can frame a notion of to myself."
-
-
-  _Mount Himakoot._--VI. p. 49.
-
-_Dushmanta_. Say, Matali, what mountain is that which, like an evening
-cloud, pours exhilarating streams, and forms a golden zone between the
-western and eastern seas?
-
-_Matali_. That, O king! is the mountain of Gandharvas, named
-Hémacúta: The universe contains not a more excellent place for the
-successful devotion of the pious. There Casyapa, father of the
-immortals, ruler of men, son of Marichi, who sprang from the
-self-existent, resides with his consort Aditi, blessed in holy
-retirement.--We now enter the sanctuary of him who rules {162} the
-world, and the groves which are watered by streams from celestial
-sources.
-
-_Dushmanta_. I see with equal amazement both the pious and their awful
-retreat. It becomes, indeed, pure spirits to feed on balmy air in a
-forest blooming with trees of life; to bathe in rills dyed yellow with
-the golden dust of the lotus, and to fortify their virtue in the
-mysterious bath; to meditate in caves, the pebbles of which are
-unblemished gems; and to restrain their passions, even though nymphs
-of exquisite beauty frolick around them. In this grove alone is
-attained the summit of true piety, to which other hermits in vain
-aspire.--SACONTALA.
-
-
-  _Her death predoom'd_
-  _To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon_
-  _Hath turn'd her face away,_
-  _Unwilling to behold_
-  _The unhappy end of guilt!_--VI. p. 50.
-
-I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should a devout man
-die, he will never return; and of that time in which, dying, he shall
-return again to earth.
-
-Those holy men who are acquainted with Brahm, departing this life in
-the fiery light of day, in the bright season of the moon, within the
-six months of the sun's northern {163} course, go unto him: but those
-who depart in the gloomy night of the Moon's dark season, and whilst
-the Sun is yet within the southern part of his journey, ascend for a
-while into the regions of the Moon, and again return to mortal birth.
-These two, Light and Darkness, are esteemed the World's eternal ways:
-he who walketh in the former path returneth not; whilst he who walketh
-in the latter, cometh back again upon the earth.--KREESHNA, _in the
-Bhagvat Geeta_.
-
-
-  _Indra_.--VI. p. 52.
-
-The Indian God of the visible Heavens is called _Indra_, or the King;
-and _Divespetir_, Lord of the Sky. He has the character of the Roman
-_Genius_, or chief of the Good Spirits. His consort is named _Sachi_;
-his celestial city _Amaravati_; his palace _Vaijayanta_; his garden
-_Nandana_; his chief elephant _Airevat_; his charioteer _Matali_; and
-his weapon _Vajra_, or the thunder-bolt. He is the regent of winds and
-showers, and, though the East is peculiarly under his care, yet his
-Olympus is Meru, or the North Pole, allegorically represented as a
-mountain of gold and gems. He is the Prince of the beneficent
-Genii.--Sir W. JONES.
-
-A distinct idea of Indra, the King of Immortals, may be collected from
-a passage in the ninth section of the Geta.
-
-{164}
-
-"These having, through virtue, reached the mansion of the king of
-_Suras_, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the Gods; they, who
-have enjoyed this lofty region of SWERGA, _but_ whose virtue is
-exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals."
-
-He is the God of thunder and the five elements, with inferior Genii
-under his command; and is conceived to govern the eastern quarter of
-the world, but to preside, like the _Genius_ or _Agathodæmon_ of the
-ancients, over the celestial bands, which are stationed on the summit
-of MERU, or the North Pole, where he solaces the Gods with nectar
-and heavenly music.
-
-The _Cinnaras_ are the male dancers in SWERGA, or the Heaven of
-Indra, and the Apsaras are his dancing girls, answering to the fairies
-of the Persians, and to the damsels called in the Koran _hhúru
-lûyùn_, or, _with antelope's eyes_.--Sir W. JONES.
-
-
-  _I have seen Indra tremble at his prayer,_
-  _And at his dreadful penances turn pale._--VI. p. 52.
-
-Of such penances Mr. Halhed has produced a curious specimen:
-
-"In the wood, Midhoo, which is on the confines of the kingdoms of
-Brege, Tarakee selected a pleasant and beautiful spot, adorned with
-verdure and blossoms, and {165} there exerted himself in penance and
-mortification, externally, with the sincerest piety, but, in reality,
-the most malignant intention, and with the determined purpose of
-oppressing the Devetas; penances such as credulity itself was
-astonished to hear; and they are here recounted:--
-
-1. For a hundred years, he held up his arms and one foot towards
-heaven, and fixed his eyes upon the sun the whole time.
-
-2. For a hundred years, he remained standing on tip-toe.
-
-3. For a hundred years more, he nourished himself with nothing but
-water.
-
-4. For a hundred years more, he lived upon nothing but air.
-
-5. For a hundred years more, he stood and made his adorations in the
-river.
-
-6. For a hundred years more, he made those adorations buried up to his
-neck in the earth.
-
-7. For a hundred years more, enveloped with fire.
-
-8. For a hundred years more, he stood upon his head with his feet
-towards heaven.
-
-9. For a hundred years more, he stood upon the palm of one hand
-resting on the ground.
-
-{166}
-
-10. For a hundred years more, he hung by his hand from the branch of a
-tree.
-
-11. For a hundred years more, he hung from a tree with his head
-downwards.
-
-When he at length came to a respite from these severe mortifications,
-a radiant glory encircled the devotee, and a flame of fire, arising
-from his head, began to consume the whole world."--_From the Seeva
-Pooraun_, MAURICE's _History of Hindostan_.
-
-You see a pious Yogi, motionless as a pollard, holding his thick bushy
-hair, and fixing his eyes on the solar orb. Mark--his body is half
-covered with a white ant's edifice made of raised clay; the skin of a
-snake supplies the place of his sacerdotal thread, and part of it
-girds his loins; a number of knotty plants encircle and wound his
-neck, and surrounding birds' nests almost conceal his shoulders.
-
-_Dushmanta_. I bow to a man of his austere devotion.--SACONTALA.
-
-
-  _That even Seeva's self,_
-  _The Highest, cannot grant, and be secure._--VI. p. 52.
-
-It will be seen from the following fable, that Seeva had once been
-reduced to a very humiliating employment by one of Kehama's
-predecessors:
-
-{167}
-
-_Ravana_, by his power and infernal arts, had subjugated all the gods
-and demigods, and forced them to perform menial offices about his
-person and household. _Indra_ made garlands of flowers to adorn him
-withal; _Agni_ was his cook; _Surya_ supplied light by day, and
-_Chandra_ by night; _Varuna_ purveyed water for the palace; _Kuvera_
-furnished cash. The whole _nava-graha_ (the _nine planetary_ spheres)
-sometimes arranged themselves into a ladder, by which, they serving as
-steps, the tyrant ascended his throne: _Brahma_ (for the great gods
-were there also; and I give this anecdote as I find it in my
-memoranda, without any improved arrangement)--_Brahma_ was a herald,
-proclaiming the giant's titles, the day of the week, month, &c. daily
-in the palace,--a sort of speaking almanack: _Mahadeva_, (i. e.
-Seeva,) in his Avatara of _Kandeh-roo_, performed the office of
-barber, and trimmed the giants' beards: _Vishnu_ had the honourable
-occupation of instructing and drilling the dancing and singing girls,
-and selecting the fairest for the royal bed: _Ganesa_ had the care of
-the cows, goats, and herds; _Vayu_ swept the house; _Yama_ washed the
-linen;--and in this manner were all the gods employed in the menial
-offices of _Ravana_, who rebuked and flogged them in default of
-industry and attention. Nor were the female divinities exempted; for
-_Bhavani_, in her name and form of _Satni_, {168} was head Aya, or
-nurse, to Ravana's children; _Lakshmi_ and _Saraswati_ were also among
-them, but it does not appear in what capacity.--MOOR's _Hindu
-Pantheon_, p. 333.
-
-Seeva was once in danger even of annihilation: "In passing from the
-town of Silgut to Deonhully, says Colonel Wilks, I became accidentally
-informed of a sect, peculiar, as I since understand, to the
-north-eastern parts of Mysoor, the women of which universally undergo
-the amputation of the first joints of the third and fourth fingers of
-their right hands. On my arrival at Deonhully, after ascertaining that
-the request would not give offence, I desired to see some of these
-women; and, the same afternoon, seven of them attended at my tent. The
-sect is a sub-division of the _Murresoo Wokul_,[1] and belongs to
-the fourth great class of the Hindoos, viz. the Souder. Every woman of
-the sect, previously to piercing the ears of her eldest daughter,
-preparatory to her being betrothed in marriage, must necessarily
-undergo this mutilation, which is performed by the blacksmith of the
-village, for a regulated fee, by a surgical process sufficiently rude.
-The finger to be amputated is placed on a block; the blacksmith places
-a chisel over the articulation of the {169} joint, and chops it off at
-a single blow. If the girl to be betrothed is motherless, and the
-mother of the boy have not before been subject to the operation, it is
-incumbent on her to perform the sacrifice. After satisfying myself
-with regard to the facts of the case, I enquired into the origin of so
-strange a practice, and one of the women related, with great fluency,
-the following traditionary tale, which has since been repeated to me,
-with no material deviation, by several others of the sect:
-
-A Rachas (or giant) named _Vrica_, and in after times _Busm-aasoor_,
-or the giant of the ashes, had, by a course of austere devotion to
-_Mahadeo_ (Seeva) obtained from him the promise of whatever boon he
-should ask. The Rachas accordingly demanded, that every person on
-whose head he should place his right hand, might instantly be reduced
-to ashes; and Mahadeo conferred the boon, without suspicion of the
-purpose for which it was designed.
-
-The Rachas no sooner found himself possessed of this formidable power,
-than he attempted to use it for the destruction of his benefactor.
-Mahadeo fled, the Rachas pursued, and followed the fugitive so closely
-as to chace him into a duck grove; where Mahadeo, changing his form
-and bulk, concealed himself in the centre of a fruit, then called
-_tunda pundoo_, but since named _linga_ {170} _tunda_, from the
-resemblance which its kernel thenceforward assumed to the _ling_, the
-appropriate emblem of Mahadeo.
-
-The Rachas having lost sight of Mahadeo, enquired of a husbandman, who
-was working in the adjoining field, whether he had seen the fugitive,
-and what direction he had taken. The husbandman, who had attentively
-observed the whole transaction, fearful of the future resentment of
-Mahadeo, and equally alarmed for the present vengeance of the giant,
-answered aloud, that he had seen no fugitive, but pointed, at the same
-time, with the little finger of his right hand, to the place of
-Mahadeo's concealment.
-
-In this extremity,[2] Vishnou descended, in the form of a
-beautiful damsel, to the rescue of Mahadeo. The Rachas became
-instantly enamoured;--the damsel was a _pure_ Brahmin, and might not
-be approached by the _unclean_ Rachas. By degrees she appeared to
-relent; and, as a previous condition to farther advances, enjoined the
-performance of his ablutions in a neighbouring pool. After these were
-finished, she prescribed, as a farther purification, the performance
-of the _Sundia_,--a ceremony in which the right hand is successively
-applied to the breast, to the crown of the head, and to other parts of
-the body. {171} The Rachas, thinking only of love, and forgetful of
-the powers of his right hand, performed the _Sundia_, and was himself
-reduced to ashes.
-
-Mahadeo now issued from the _linga tunda_, and, after the proper
-acknowledgments for his deliverance, proceeded to discuss the guilt of
-the treacherous husbandman, and determined on the loss of the finger
-with which he had offended, as the proper punishment of his crime.
-
-The wife of the husbandman, who had just arrived at the field with
-food for her husband, hearing this dreadful sentence, threw herself at
-the feet of Mahadeo. She represented the certain ruin of her family,
-if her husband should be disabled for some months from performing the
-labours of the farm, and besought the Deity to accept two of her
-fingers, instead of one from her husband. Mahadeo, pleased with so
-sincere a proof of conjugal affection, accepted the exchange, and
-ordained, that her female posterity, in all future generations, should
-sacrifice two fingers at his temple, as a memorial of the transaction,
-and of their exclusive devotion to the God of the Ling.
-
-The practice is, accordingly, confined to the supposed, posterity of
-this single woman, and is not common to the whole sect of
-Murresoo-Wokul. I ascertained the actual number of families who
-observed this practice in three {172} successive districts through
-which I afterwards passed, and I conjecture that, within the limits of
-Misoor, they may amount to about two thousand houses.
-
-The Hill of _Sectee_, in the talook of Colar, where the giant was
-destroyed, is (according to this tradition) formed of the ashes of
-Busmaa-soor: It is held in particular veneration by this sect, as the
-chief seat of their appropriate sacrifice; and the fact of its
-containing little or no moisture, is held to be a miraculous proof
-that the ashes of the giant continue to absorb the most violent and
-continued rain. This is a remarkable example of easy credulity. I have
-examined the mountain, which is of a sloping form, and composed of
-coarse granite.--_Hist. Sketches of the South of India_, vol. i. p.
-442, note.
-
-
-  _The Ship of Heaven._--VI. p. 56.
-
-I have converted the _Vimana_, or self-moving Car of the Gods, into a
-Ship. Capt. Wilford has given the history of its invention,--and, what
-is more curious, has attempted to settle the geography of the story:
-
-"A most pious and venerable sage, named RISHI'CE'SA, being very far
-advanced in years, had resolved to visit, before he died, all the
-famed places of pilgrimage; and, having performed his resolution, he
-bathed at last in the sacred water of the _Ca'li_, where he observed
-some {173} fishes engaged in amorous play, and restating on their
-numerous progeny, which would sport like then in the stream, he
-lamented the improbability of leaving any children: but, since he
-might possibly be a father, even at his great age, he went immediately
-to the king of that country, HIRANYAVERNA, who had fifty daughters,
-and demanded one of them in marriage. So strange a demand gave the
-prince great uneasiness: yet he was unwilling to incur the displeasure
-of a saint, whose imprecations he dreaded; he, therefore, invoked
-_Heri_, or _Vishnu_; to inspire him with a wise answer, and told the
-hoar philosopher, that he should marry any one of his daughters, who,
-of her own accord, should fix on him as her bridegroom. The sage,
-rather disconcerted, left the palace; but, calling to mind the two
-sons of ASWINI, he hastened to their terrestrial abode, and
-requested that they would bestow on him both youth and beauty: they
-immediately conducted him to _Abhimatada_, which we suppose to be
-_Abydus_, in Upper _Egypt_; and, when he had bathed in the pool of
-_Rupayauvana_, he was restored to the flower of his age with the
-graces and charms of CA'MA'DE'VA. On his return to the palace, he
-entered the secret apartments, called _antahpura_, where the fifty
-princesses were assembled: and they were all so transported with the
-vision of more than human beauty, {174} that they fell into an
-ecstacy, whence the place was afterwards named _Mohast-han_, or
-_Mohana_, and is, possibly, the same with _Mohannan_. They no sooner
-had recovered from their trance, than each of them exclaimed, that she
-would be his bride; and their altercation having brought
-HIRANYAVERNA into their apartment, he terminated the contest by
-giving them all in marriage to RISHICE'SA, who became the father of
-a hundred sons; and, when he succeeded to the throne, built the city
-of _Suc-haverddhana_, framed _vimânas_, or celestial, self-moving
-cars, in which he visited the gods, and made gardens, abounding in
-delights, which rivalled the bowers of INDRA; but, having granted
-the desire, which he formed at _Matoyasangama_, or the place where the
-fish were assembled, he resigned the kingdom to his eldest son
-HIRANYAVRIDDHA, and returned, in his former shape, to the banks of
-the Ca'li, where he closed his days in devotion.--WILFORD. _Asiatic
-Researches_.
-
-_Dushmanta_. In what path of the winds are we now journeying?
-
-_Matali_. This is the way which leads along the triple river, heaven's
-brightest ornament, and causes yon luminaries to roll in a circle with
-diffused beams: it is the course of a gentle breeze which supports the
-floating {175} forms of the gods; and this path was the second step of
-Vishnu when he confounded the proud Bali.
-
-* * *
-
-_Dushmanta_. The car itself instructs me that we are moving over
-clouds pregnant with showers; for the circumference of its wheels
-disperses pellucid water.
-
-* * *
-
-_Dushmanta_. These chariot wheels yield no sound; no dust arises from
-them, and the descent of the car gave me no shock.
-
-_Matali_. Such is the difference, O King! between thy car and that of
-Indra.--SACONTALA.
-
-_And ending thus where they began_, &c.--VII. p. 66.
-
-It has been supposed that the perpetual lamps, which were at one time
-believed to have been found in certain sepulchres, were kept burning
-by a similar process. For the lamp, it was argued, being hermetically
-closed, so that no smoke could escape, the smoke was condensed into
-its original liquid form; and thus the liquor which fed the flame
-passing into smoke, and the smoke again into the liquor, the flame was
-continually kept up. There still remained a difficulty about the wick;
-some supposed that this was made of threads of gold inconceivably
-fine: others, with less expense of fancy, said a wick of {176}
-asbestos would answer the purpose.--FEYJOO. _Theatro Critico_, _T_.
-4. _Disc_. 3. § v. 13.
-
-
-  _The Raining Tree._--VII. p. 65.
-
-The island of _Fierro_ is one of the most considerable of the
-Canaries, and I conceive that name to be given it upon this account,
-that its soil not affording so much as a drop of fresh water, seems to
-be of _iron_; and, indeed, there is in this island neither river, nor
-rivulet, nor well, nor spring, save that only, towards the sea-side,
-there are some wells; but they lie at such a distance from the city,
-that the inhabitants can make no use thereof. But the great Preserver
-and Sustainer of all, remedies this inconvenience by a way so
-extraordinary, that a man will be forced to sit down and acknowledge
-that he gives in this an undeniable demonstration of his goodness and
-infinite providence,
-
-For, in the midst of the island, there is a tree, which is the only
-one of its kind, inasmuch as it hath no resemblance to those mentioned
-by us in this relation, nor to any other known to us in Europe. The
-leaves of it are long and narrow, and continue in a constant verdure,
-winter and summer; and its branches are covered with a cloud, which is
-never dispelled, but resolved into a moisture, which causes to fall
-from its leaves a very clear water, {177} and that in such abundance,
-that the cisterns, which are placed at the foot of the tree to receive
-it, are never empty, but contain enough to supply both men and
-beasts.--MANDELSLO.
-
-Feyjoo denies the existence of any such tree, upon the authority of P.
-Tallandier, a French Jesuit, (quoted in Men. de Trevoux. 2715, art.
-97.) who visited the island. "_Assi no dudo_," he adds, "_que este
-Fenix de las plantas es ten fingedo como el de las aves._"--Theat.
-Crit. _Tom. ii. Disc_. 2. § 65. What authority is due to the
-testimony of this French Jesuit I do not know, never having seen his
-book; but it appears, from the undoubted evidence of Glas, that its
-existence is believed in the Canaries, and positively affirmed by the
-inhabitants of Fierro itself.
-
-"There are," says this excellent author, "only three fountains of
-water in the whole island, one of them is called Acof,[3] which,
-in the language of the ancient inhabitants, signifies river; a name,
-however, which does not seem to have been given it on account of its
-yielding much water, for in that respect it hardly deserves the same
-of a fountain. More to the northward is another called Hapio; and in
-the middle of the island is a spring, {178} yielding a stream about
-the thickness of a man's finger. This last was discovered in the year
-1565, and is called the Fountain of Anton Hernandez. On account of the
-scarcity of water, the sheep, goats, and swine here do not drink in
-the summer, but are taught to dig up the roots of fern, and chew them,
-to quench their thirst. The great cattle are watered at those
-fountains, and at a place where water distils from the leaves of a
-tree. Many writers have made mention of this famous tree; some in such
-a manner as to make it appear miraculous; others again deny the
-existence of any such tree, among whom is Father Feyjoo, a modern
-Spanish author, in his _Theatro Critico_. But he, and those who agree
-with him in this matter, are as much mistaken as they who would make
-it appear miraculous. This is the only island of all the Canaries
-which I have not been in; but I have sailed with natives of Hierro,
-who, when questioned about the existence of this tree, answered in the
-affirmative.
-
-The author of the History of the Discovery and Conquest has given us a
-particular account of it, which I shall relate here at large. "The
-district in which this tree stands is called Tigulahe; near to which,
-and in the cliff, or steep rocky ascent that surrounds the whole
-island, is a narrow gutter or gulley, which commences at the sea, and
-continues to the summit of the cliff, where it joins or {179}
-coincides with a valley, which is terminated by the steep front of a
-rock. On the top of this rock grows a tree, called, in the language of
-the ancient inhabitants, Garse, _i.e._ Sacred or Holy Tree, which,
-for many years, has been preserved sound, entire, and fresh. Its
-leaves constantly distil such a quantity of water as is sufficient to
-furnish drink to every living creature in Hierro; nature having
-provided this remedy for the drought of the island. It is situated
-about a league and a half from the sea. Nobody knows of what species
-it is, only that it is called Til. It is distinct from other, trees,
-and stands by itself; the circumference of the trunk is about twelve
-spans, the diameter four, and in height, from the ground to the top of
-the highest branch, forty spans: The circumference of all the branches
-together, is one hundred and twenty feet. The branches are thick and
-extended; the lowest commence about the height of an ell from the
-ground. Its fruit resembles the acorn, and tastes something like the
-kernel of a pine-nut, but is softer and more aromatic. The leaves of
-this tree resemble those of the laurel, but are larger, wider, and
-more curved; they come forth in a perpetual succession, so that the
-tree always remains green. Near to it grows a thorn, which fastens on
-many of its branches, and interweaves with them; and, at a small
-distance from the Garse, are some beech-trees, {180} bresos, and
-thorns. On the north side of the trunk are two large tanks, or
-cisterns, of rough stone, or rather one patera divided, each half
-being twenty feet square, and sixteen spans in depth. One of these
-contains water for the drinking of the inhabitants, and the other that
-which they use for their cattle, washing, and such like purposes.
-Every morning, near this part of the island, a cloud or mist arises
-from the sea, which the south and easterly winds force against the
-fore-mentioned steep cliff; so that the cloud, having no vent but by
-the gutter, gradually ascends it, and from thence advances slowly to
-the extremity of the valley, where it is stopped and checked by the
-front of the rock which terminates the valley, and then rests upon the
-thick leaves and wide-spreading branches of the tree; from whence it
-distils in drops during the remainder of the day, until it is at
-length exhausted, in the same manner that we see water drip from the
-leaves of trees after a heavy shower of rain. This distillation is not
-peculiar to the Garse, or Til, for the bresos which grow near it
-likewise drop water; but their leaves being but few and narrow, the
-quantity is so trifling, that, though the natives save some of it, yet
-they make little or no account of any but what distils from the Til;
-which, together with the water of some fountains, and what is saved in
-the winter season, is sufficient to {181} serve them and their flocks.
-This tree yields most water in those years when the Levant, or
-easterly winds, have prevailed for a continuance; for by these winds
-only, the clouds or mists are drawn hither from the sea. A person
-lives on the spot near which this tree grows, who is appointed by the
-Council to take care of it and its water, and is allowed a house to
-live in, with a certain salary. He every day distributes to each
-family of the district, seven pots or vessels full of water, besides
-what he gives to the principal people of the island."
-
-"Whether the tree which yields water at this present time be the same
-as that mentioned in the above description, I cannot pretend to
-determine, but it is probable there has been a succession of them; for
-Pliny, describing the Fortunate Islands, says, "In the mountains of
-Ombrion, are trees resembling the plant Ferula, from which water may
-be procured by pressure: What comes from the black kind is bitter,
-but that which the white yields is sweet and palatable."--GLAS's
-_History of the Canary Islands_.
-
-Cordeyro (_Historia Insulana_, lib. ii. c. 5.) says, that this tree
-resembles what in other places is called the _Til_, (_Tilia_,) the
-Linden Tree; and he proceeds, from these three letters, to make it an
-emblem of the Trinity. The water, he says, was called the _Agua
-Santa_, and the tree {182} itself the _Santa Arvore_,--appellations
-not ill bestowed. According to his account the water was delivered out
-in stated portions.
-
-There is an account of a similar tree in Cockburne's Travels; but this
-I believe to be a work of fiction. Bernal Diaz, however, mentions one
-as growing at Naco, in Honduras, "_Que en mitad de la siesta, por
-recio sol que hiziesse, parecia que la sombra del arbol refrescava el
-corazon, caia del uno como rozio muy delgado que confortava las
-cabezas._"--206.
-
-There may be some exaggeration in the accounts of the Fierro Tree, but
-that the story has some foundation I have no doubt. The islanders of
-St. Thomas say, that they have a sort of trees whose leaves
-continually are distilling water. (_Barbot. in Churckle_, 405.) It is
-certain that a dew falls in hot weather from the lime,--a fact of
-which any person may easily convince himself. The same property has
-been observed in other English trees, as appears by the following
-extract from the Monthly Magazine:
-
-"In the beginning of August, after a sun-shine day, the air became
-suddenly misty about six o'clock; I walked, however, by the road side
-from seven to eight, and observed, in many places, that a shower of
-big drops of water was falling under the large trees, although no rain
-{183} fell elsewhere. The road and path continued dusty, and the
-field-gates showed no signs of being wetted by the mist. I have often
-noticed the like fact, but have not met with a satisfactory
-explanation of this power in trees to condense mist."
-
-I am not the only poet who has availed himself of the Fierro Tree. It
-is thus introduced in the Columbus of Carrara,--a singular work,
-containing, amid many extravagancies, some passages of rare merit:
-
-  Ecce autem inspector miri dum devius ignis
-  Fertur, in occursum miræ magis incidit undæ.
-  Æquoris in medio diffusi largiter arbor
-  Stabat, opaca, ingens, ævoque intacta priori,
-  Grata qiues Nymphis, et grata colentibus umbram
-  Alitibus sedes, quarum vox blanda, nec ullâ
-  Musicus arte canor sylvam resonare docebat.
-  Auditor primum rari modulaminis, utque
-  Cominus admovit gressum, spectator et hæsit;
-  Namque videbat, uti de cortice, deque supernis
-  Crinibus, argentum guttatim mitteret humens
-  Truncus, et ignaro plueret Jove; moxque serenus
-  In concham caderet subjecti marmoris imber,
-  Donec ibi in fontem collectis undique rivis
-  {184}
-  Cresceret, atque ipso jam non ingratus ab ortu
-  Redderet humorem matri, quæ commodat umbram.
-
-  Dum stupet et quærit, cur internodia possit
-  Unda; per et fibras, virides et serpere rugas,
-  Et ferri sursum, genio ducente deorsum;
-  Adstitit en Nympha; dubitat decernere, Nais,
-  Anne Dryas, custos num fontis, an arboris esset;
-  Verius ut credam, Genius sub imagine Nymphæ
-  Ille loci fuerat. Quam præstantissimus Heros
-  Protinus ut vidit, Parce, o pulcherrima, dixit,
-  Si miser, et vestras ejectus nuper ad oras
-  Naufragus, idem audax videor fortasse rogando.
-  Dic age, quas labi video de stipite, lymphæ
-  Montibus anne cadant, per operta foramina ductæ,
-  Mox trabis irriguæ saliant in frondea sursum
-  Brachia, ramalesque tubos; genitalis an alvus
-  Umbrosæ genitricis alat; ceu sæpe videmus
-  Balsama de truncis, stillare electra racemis.
-  Pandere ne grave sit cupienti noscere causam
-  Vilia quæ vobis usus miracula fecit.
-
-  Hæc ubi dicta, silet. Tum Virgo ita reddidit, Hospes
-  Quisquis es, (eximium certe præsentia prodit)
-  {185}
-  Deciperis, si forte putas, quas aspicis undas
-  Esse satas terrâ; procul omni a sede remota
-  Mira arbos, uni debet sua munera Cœlo.
-  Quâ ratione tamen capiat, quia noscere gestis
-  Edicam; sed dicendis ne tædia repant,
-  Hic locus, hæc eadem, de quâ cantabitur, arbor
-  Dat tempestivam blandis afflatibus umbram:
-  Hic una sedeamus; et ambo fontis ad undam
-  Consedere; dehinc intermittente parumper
-  Concentu volucrum, placido sic incipit ore.
-
-  Nomine Canariæ, de quâ tenet Insula nomen,
-  Virgo fuit, non ore minus, quam prædita raræ
-  Laude pudicitiæ, mirum quæ pectore votum
-  Clausit, ut esse eadem genitrix et virgo cupiret.
-  At quia in Urbe satam fuerat sortita parentem
-  Ortum rure Patrem, diversis moribus hausit
-  Hinc sylvæ austeros, teneros hinc Urbis amores.
-  Sæpe ubi visendi studio convenerat Urbes,
-  Et dare blanditias natis et sumere matres
-  Viderat ante fores, ut mater amavit amari.
-  Sæpe ubi rure fuit de nymphis una Dianæ,
-  Viderat atque Deam thalami consorte carentem,
-  Esse Deæ similis, nec amari ut mater amavit.
-  Sed quid aget? cernit fieri non posse quod optat;
-  {186}
-  Non optare tamen, crudelius urit amantem.
-  Noctis erat medium: quo nos sumus, hoc erat illa
-  Forte loco, Cœloque videns splendescere Lunam,
-  O Dea, cui triplicis concessa potentia regni,
-  Parce precor, dixit, si quæ nunc profero, non sum
-  Ausa prius; quod non posses audire Diana,
-  Cum sis Luna potes; tenebræ minuere pudorem.
-  Est mihi Virginitas, fateor, re charior omni,
-  Attamen, hâc salvâ, fœcundæ si quoque Matris
-  Nomina miscerem, duplici de nomine quantum
-  Ambitiosa forem; certe non parva voluptas
-  Me caperet, coram si quis me luderet infans
-  Si mecum gestu, mecum loqueretur ocellis,
-  Cumque potest, quacumque potest, me voce vocaret,
-  Cujus et in vultu multum de matre viderem.
-  Ni sinit hoc humana tamen nature licere,
-  Fiat quâ ratione potest; mutare figuram
-  Nil refert, voti compos si denique fiam.
-  Annuit oranti facilis Dea; Virgine digna
-  Et quia vota tulit, Virgo probat. Eligit ergo
-  De grege Plantarum ligni quæ cœlibis esset.
-  Visa fuit Platanus: placet hæc; si vertat in istam
-  Canariæ corpus, sibi tempus in omne futuram
-  Tam caram esse videt, quam sit sua laurea Phœbo.
-  Nec mora, poscenti munus, ne signa deessent
-  {187}
-  Certa dati, movit falcatæ cornua frontis.
-  Virginis extemplo cœpere rigere crura
-  Tenvia vestiri duro præcordia libro,
-  Ipsaque miratur, cervix quod eburnea, quantum
-  It Cœlo, tantum tendant in Tartara plantæ;
-  Et jam formosâ de Virgine stabat et Arbos
-  Non formosa minus; qui toto in corpore pridem
-  Par ebori fuerat, candor quoque cortice mansit.
-  Sed deerat conjux uxoris moribus æque
-  Integer et cœlebs, et Virginitatis amator,
-  Quo fœcunda foret; verum tellure petendus
-  Hon hic, ab axe fuit. Quare incorruptus et idem
-  Purior e cunctis stellatæ noctis alumnis
-  Poscitur Hersophorus, sic Graii nomine dicunt,
-  Rorem Itali. Quocumque die (quis credere posset?)
-  Tamquam ex condicto cum Sol altissimus extat,
-  Sydereus conjux nebulæ velatus amictu
-  Labitur huc, niveisque maritam amplectitur alis:
-  Quodque fidem superat, parvo post tempora fœtum
-  Concipit, et parvo post tempore parturit arbor,
-  Molle puerperium vis noscere? consule fontem,
-  Qui nos propter adest, in quo mixtura duorum
-  Agnosci possit, splendet materque paterque.
-  Læta fovet genitrix, compos jam facta cupiti;
-  Illius optarat vultu se noscere, noscit;
-  {188}
-  Cernere ludentem se circum, ludere cernit;
-  Illum audire rudi matrem quoque voce vocantem,
-  Et matrem sese dici dum murmurat, audit.
-  Nec modo Virgintas fæcunda est arboris, ipsæ
-  Sunt quoque fœcundæ frondes, quas excutit arbor.
-  Nam simul ac supra latices cecidere tepentes,
-  Insuper accessit Phœbei flamma caloris,
-  Concipiunt, pariuntque: oriturque tenerrimius ales
-  Nomine Canarius, qui pene exclusus in auras,
-  Tenvis adhuc, cœlique rudis, crudusque labori
-  Jam super extantes affectat scandere ramos,
-  Et frondes, quarum una fuit. Nidum inde sub illis
-  Collocat adversum Soli, cui pandere pennas
-  Et siccare queat; latet hic, nullâque magistrâ
-  Arte canit, matrisque replet concentibus aures.
-  Adde quod affectus reddit genitricis eosdem,
-  Utque puellari genitrix in pectore clausit,
-  Hinc sylvæ austeros, teneros hinc Urbis amores,
-  Sic amat hic sylvas, ut non fastidiat Urbes.
-  Tecta colit, patiturque hominem, nec divitis aulæ
-  Grande supercilium metuit sylvestris alumnus.
-  Imo loco admonitus, vix aulicus incipit esse,
-  Jam fit adulator, positum proferre paratus
-  In statione melos, domini quod vellicet aurem.
-                             CARRARA. _Columbus_.
-
-{189}
-
-The Walking-Leaf would have been better than the Canary Bird.
-
-
-  _Nared_.--VII. p. 67.
-
-A very distinguished son of Brahma, named Nared, bears a strong
-resemblance to Hermes or Mercury; he was a wise legislator, great in
-arts and in arms, an eloquent messenger of the Gods either to one
-another, or to favoured mortals, and a musician of exquisite skill.
-His invention of the _Vina_, or Indian lute, is thus described in the
-poem entitled _Magha_: "Nared sat watching from time to time his large
-_Vina_, which, by the impulse of the breeze, yielded notes that
-pierced successively the regions of his ear, and proceeded by musical
-intervals."--_Asiatic Researches_, Sir W. JONES.
-
-The _Vina_ is an Æolian harp. The people of Amboyna have a different
-kind of Æolian instrument, which is thus described in the first
-account of D'Entrecasteaux's Voyage: "Being on the sea-shore, I heard
-some wind-instruments, the harmony of which, though sometimes very
-correct, was intermixed with discordant notes that were by no means
-unpleasing. These sounds, which were very musical, and formed fine
-cadences, seemed to come from such a distance, that I for some time
-imagined the natives were having a concert beyond the road-stead, near
-a myriameter {190} from the spot where I stood. My ear was greatly
-deceived respecting the distance, for I was not an hundred meters from
-the instrument. It was a bamboo at least twenty meters in height,
-which had been fixed in a vertical situation by the sea-side. I
-remarked between each knot a slit about three centimeters long by a
-centimeter and a half wide; these slits formed so many holes, which,
-when the wind introduced itself into them, gave agreeable and
-diversified sounds. As the knots of this long bamboo were very
-numerous, care had been takes to make holes in different directions,
-in order that, on whatever side the wind blew, it might always meet
-with some of them. I cannot convey a better idea of the sound of this
-instrument, than by comparing them to those of the
-Harmonica."--LABILLARDIERE. _Voyage in Search of La Perouse_.
-
-Nareda, the mythological offspring of _Saraswati_, patroness of music,
-is famed for his talents in that science. So great were they, that he
-became presumptuous; and, emulating the divine strains of _Krishna_,
-he was punished by having his _Vina_ placed in the paws of a bear,
-whence it emitted sounds far sweeter than the minstrelsy of the
-mortified musician. I have a picture of this joke, in which _Krishna_
-is forcing his reluctant friend to attend to his rough-visaged rival,
-who is ridiculously touching the {191} chords of poor _Nareda's Vina_,
-accompanied by a brother bruin on the cymbals. Krishna passed several
-practical jokes on his humble and affectionate friend: He
-metamorphosed him once into a woman, at another time into a
-bear.--MOOR's _Hindu Pantheon_, p. 204.
-
-
-  ----_The Sacrifice_
-  _That should, to men and gods, proclaim him Lord_
-  _And Sovereign Master of the vassal World._--VII. p. 71.
-
-The Raisoo Yug, or Feast of Rajahs, could only be performed by a
-monarch who had conquered all the other sovereigns of the
-world.--HALHED. _Note to the Life of Creeshna_.
-
-
-  _Sole Rajah, the Omnipotent below._--VII. p. 71.
-
-No person has given so complete a sample of the absurdity of oriental
-titles as the Dutch traveller Struys, in his enumeration of "the proud
-and blasphemous titles of the King of Siam,--they will hardly bear
-sense," says the translator, in what he elsewhere calls, by a happy
-blunder, "the idiotism of our tongue."
-
-The Alliance, written with letters of fine gold, being full of godlike
-glory. The most Excellent, containing all wise sciences. The most
-Happy, which is not in the world among men. The Best and most Certain
-that is {192} in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. The greatest Sweet, and
-friendly Royal Word; whose powerful-sounding properties and glorious
-fame range through the world, as if the dead were raised by a godlike
-power, and wonderfully purged from ghostly and corporal corruption. At
-this both spiritual and secular men admire with a special joy, whereas
-no dignity may be herewith compared. Proceeding from a friendly,
-illustrious, inconquerable, most mighty, and most high Lord; and a
-royal Crown of Gold, adorned with nine sorts of precious stones. The
-greatest, clearest, and most godlike Lord of unblameable Souls. The
-most Holy, seeing every where, and protecting Sovereign of the city
-JUDIA, whose many streets and open gates are thronged by troops of
-men, which is the chief metropolis of the whole world, the royal
-throne of the earth, that is adorned with nine sorts of stones, and
-most pleasant valleys. He who guides the reins of the world, and has a
-house more than the Gods of fine gold and of precious stones; they the
-godlike Lords of thrones and of fine gold; the White, Red, and
-Round-tayl'd Elephants,--which excellent creatures are the chiefest of
-the nine sorts of Gods. To none hath the divine Lord given, in whose
-hand is the victorious sword; who is like the fiery-armed God of
-Battails, to the most illustrious.
-
-The second is as blasphemous as the first, though hardly swells so far
-out of sense.
-
-{193}
-
-The highest PADUCCO SYRY SULTAN, NELMONAM WELGACA, NELMOCHADIN
-MAGIVIITHA, JOUKEN DER EAUTEN ALLAULA FYLAN, King of the whole world;
-who makes the water rise and flow. A King that is like a God, and
-shines like the Sun at noon-day. A King that gives a glance like the
-moon when it is at full. Elected of God to be worthy as the North
-Star, being of the race and offspring of the great Alexander; with a
-great understanding, as a round orb, that tumbles hither and thither,
-able to guess at the depth of the great sea. A King that hath amended
-all the funerals of the departed Saints, and is as righteous as God,
-and of such power that all the world may come and shelter under his
-wings. A King that doth right in all things, as the Kings of old have
-done. A King more liberal than all Kings. A King that hath many mines
-of gold that God hath lent him; who hath built temples half gold and
-half brass; sitting upon a throne of pure gold, and of all sorts of
-precious stones. A King of the white Elephant, which Elephant is the
-King of all Elephants, before whom many thousands of other Elephants
-must bow and fall upon their knees. He whose eyes shine like the
-morning-star. A King that hath Elephants with four teeth, red, purple,
-and pied. Elephants, _ay_, and a BYYTENAQUES Elephant; for which
-God has given him many and divers sorts of apparel {194} wrought with
-most fine gold, ennobled with many precious stones: and, besides
-these, so many Elephants used in battle, having harnesses of iron,
-their teeth tipt with steel, and their harnesses laid over with
-shining brass. A King that has many hundred horses, whose trappings
-are wrought with fine gold, and adorned with precious stones of every
-sort that are found in the universal world where the Sun shines, and
-these shod with fine gold: besides so many hundred horses that are
-used in war of every kind. A King who has all Emperours, Kings,
-Princes, and Sovereigns in the whole world, from the rising to the
-going down of the sun, under subjection;--and such as can obtain his
-favour are by him promoted to great honour; but, on the contrary, such
-as revolt, he burns with fire. A King who can show the power of God,
-and whatever God has made.
-
-And so, by this time, I hope you have heard enough of a King of
-Elephants and Horses, though not a word of his Asses.--STRUYS.
-
-
-  _The Sacrifice._--VIII. p. 74.
-
-The _Aswamedha_, or sacrifice of a horse. Considerable difficulties
-usually attended that ceremony; for the consecrated horse was to be
-set at liberty for a certain time, and followed at a distance by the
-owner, or his champion, {195} who was usually one of his near kinsmen;
-and, if any person should attempt to stop it in its rambles, a battle
-must inevitably ensue; besides, as the performer of a hundred
-_Aswamedhas_ became equal to the God of the firmament, _Indra_ was
-perpetually on the watch, and generally carried off the sacred animal
-by force or by fraud.--WILFORD. _Asiat. Res_.
-
-Mr. Halhed gives a very curious account of this remarkable sacrifice:
-
-"The Ashum-meed-Jugg does not merely consist in the performance of
-that ceremony which is open to the inspection of the world, namely, in
-bringing a horse and sacrificing him; but Ashum-meed is to be taken in
-a mystic signification, as implying that the sacrificer must look upon
-himself to be typified in that horse, such as he shall be described,
-because the religious duty of the Ashum-meed-Jugg comprehends all
-those other religious duties, to the performance of which all the wise
-and holy direct all their actions, and by which all the sincere
-professors of every different faith aim at perfection: The mystic
-signification thereof is as follows:
-
-"The head of that unblemished horse is the symbol of the morning; his
-eyes are the sun; his breath the wind; his wide-opening mouth is the
-Bishwaner, or that innate warmth which invigorates all the world: His
-body typifies {196} one entire year; his back paradise; his belly the
-plains; his hoof this earth; his sides the four quarters of the
-heavens; the bones thereof the intermediate spaces between the four
-quarters; the rest of his limbs represent all distinct matter; the
-places where those limbs meet, or his joints, imply the months and
-halves of the months, which are called _peche_ (or fortnights): His
-feet signify night and day; and night and day are of four kinds, 1.
-the night and day of Birhma, 2. the night and day of angels, 3. the
-night and day of the world of the spirits of deceased ancestors, 4.
-the night and day of mortals; these four kinds are typified in his
-four feet. The rest of his bones are the constellations of the fixed
-stars, which are the twenty-eight stages of the moon's course, called
-the Lunar year; his flesh is the clouds; his food the sand; his
-tendons the rivers; his spleen and his liver the mountains; the hair
-of his body the vegetables, and his long hair the trees: the fore part
-of his body typifies the first half of the day, and the hinder part
-the latter half; his yawning is the flash of the lightning, and his
-turning himself is the thunder of the cloud: His urine represents the
-rain, and his mental reflection is his only speech. The golden
-vessels, which are prepared before the horse is let loose, are the
-light of the day, and the place where those vessels are kept is a type
-of the Ocean {197} of the East; the silver vessels, which are prepared
-after the horse is let loose, are the light of the night; and the
-place where those vessels are kept is a type of the Ocean of the West:
-these two sorts of vessels are always before and after the horse. The
-Arabian horse, which, on account of its swiftness, is called Hy, is
-the performer of the journies of angels; the Tajee, which is of the
-race of Persian horses, is the performer of the journies of the
-Kundherps (or good spirits); the Wazba, which is of the race of the
-deformed Tazee horses, is the performer of the journies of the Jins,
-(or demons;) and the Ashoo, which is of the race of Turkish horses, is
-the performer of the journies of mankind. This one horse, which
-performs these several services, on account of his four different
-sorts of riders, obtains the four different appellations. The place
-where this horse remains is the great ocean, which signifies, the
-great spirit of Perm-Atma, or the Universal Soul, which proceeds also
-from that Perm-Atma, and is comprehended in the same Perm-Atma. The
-intent of this sacrifice is, that a man should consider himself to be
-in the place of that horse, and look upon all these articles as
-typified in himself; and, conceiving the Atma (or divine soul) to be
-an ocean, should let all thought of self be absorbed in that
-Atma."--HALHED, _from Darul Shekuh_.
-
-{198}
-
-Compare this specimen of eastern sublimity with the description of the
-horse in Job! Compare it also with the account of the Bengal horses,
-in the very amusing work of Captain Williamson,--"which said horses,"
-he says, "have generally Reman noses, and sharp narrow foreheads, much
-white in their eyes, ill-shaped ears, square heads, thin necks, narrow
-chests, shallow girths, lank bellies, cat hams, goose rumps, and
-switch tails."--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 206.
-
-
-  _The Bowl that in its vessel floats._--VIII. p. 78.
-
-The day and night are here divided into four quarters, each of six
-hours, and these again into fifteen parts, of twenty-four minutes
-each. For a chronometer they use a kind of dish of thin brass, at the
-bottom of which there is a little hole; this is put into a vessel with
-water, and it runs full in a certain time. They begin their first
-quarter at six in the morning. They strike the quarters and
-subdivisions of time with a wooden hammer, upon a flat piece of iron
-or steel, of about ten inches in diameter, which is called a
-_garnial_, and gives a pretty smart sound, which can be heard at some
-distance. The quarters are first struck, and then as many times as the
-brass dish has run full in that quarter. None but the chief men of a
-district are allowed to have a _garnial_, and still they may {199} not
-strike the first division of the first quarter, which is a privilege
-reserved to the nabob alone. Those who attend at these clocks must be
-of the Bramin cast.--STAVORINUS.
-
-
-  _Lo, the time-taper's flame, ascending slow_
-  _Creeps up its coil._--VIII. p. 79.
-
-They make a sort of paste of the dust of a certain sort of wood, (the
-learned and rich men of sandal, eagle-wood, and others that are
-odoriferous), and of this paste they make sticks of several sorts,
-drawing them through a hole, that they may be of an equal thickness.
-They commonly make them one, two, or three yards long, about the
-thickness of a goose-quill, to burn in the pagods before their idols,
-or to use like a match to convey fire from one thing to another. These
-sticks or ropes they coil, beginning at the centre, and so form a
-spiral conical figure, like a fisherman's wheel, so that the last
-circle shall be one, two, or three spans diameter, and will last one,
-two, or three days, or more, according as it is in thickness. There
-are of them in the temples that last ten, twenty, and thirty days.
-This thing is hung up by the centre, and is lighted at the lower end,
-whence the fire gently and insensibly runs round all the coil, on
-which there are generally five marks, to distinguish the five parts of
-the {200} night. This method of measuring time is so exact and true,
-that they scarce ever find any considerable mistake in it. The
-learned, travellers, and all others, who will rise at a certain hour
-to follow their business, hang a little weight at the mark that shews
-the hour they have a mind to rise at, which, when the fire comes
-thither, drops into a brass bason set under it; and so the noise of it
-falling awakes them, as our alarum-clocks do.--GEMELLI CARERI.
-
-
-  _At noon the massacre begun,_
-  _And night clos'd in before the work of death was done._
-  --VIII. p. 82.
-
-Of such massacres the ancient and modern history of the East supply
-but too many examples. One may suffice:
-
-After the surrender of the Ilbars Khan, Nadir prohibited his soldiers
-from molesting the inhabitants; but their rapacity was more powerful
-than their habits of obedience, or even their dread of his
-displeasure, and they accordingly began to plunder. The instant Nadir
-heard of their disobedience, he ordered the offenders to be brought
-before him, and the officers were beheaded in his presence, and the
-private soldiers dismissed with the loss of their ears and noses. The
-executioners toiled till {201} sun-set, when he commanded the headless
-trunks with their arms to be carried to the main-guard, and there to
-be exposed for two days, as an example to others. I was present the
-whole time, and saw the wonderful hand of God, which employs such
-instruments for the execution of his divine vengeance; although not
-one of the executioners was satisfied with Nadir Shah, yet nobody
-dared to disobey his commands:--a father beheaded his son, and a
-brother a brother, and yet presumed not to complain.--ABDUL KURREEM.
-
-
-  _Behold his lovely home,_
-  _By yonder broad-bough'd Plane o'ershaded._--IX. p. 84.
-
-The plane-tree, that species termed the _Platanus Orientalis_, is
-commonly cultivated in Kashmire, where it is said to arrive at a
-greater perfection than in other countries. This tree, which in most
-parts of Asia is called the _Chinur_, grows to the size of an oak, and
-has a taper straight trunk, with a silver-coloured bark; and its leaf,
-not unlike an expanded hand, is of a pale green. When in full foliage,
-it has a grand and beautiful appearance; and, in the hot weather, it
-affords a refreshing shade.--FORSTER.
-
-
-  _The Marriage-Bower._--IX. p. 85.
-
-The Pandal is a kind of arbour or bower raised before {202} the doors
-of young married women. They set up two or three poles, seven or eight
-foot in length, round which the leaves of the Pisan-tree, the symbol
-of joy, are entwined. These poles support others that are laid
-crossways, which are covered with leaves in order to form a shade. The
-Siriperes are allowed to set up no more than three pillars, and the
-infringing of this custom would be sufficient to cause an
-insurrection.--A. ROGER, _in Picart_.
-
-
-  _There, from the intolerable heat,_
-  _The buffaloes retreat._--IX. p. 87.
-
-About noon, in hot weather, the buffalo throws herself into the water
-or mud of a tank, if there be one accessible at a convenient distance;
-and, leaving nothing above water but her nose, continues there for
-five or six hours, or until the heat abates.--BUCHANAN.
-
-In the hot season, when water becomes very scarce, the buffaloes avail
-themselves of any puddle they may find among the covers, wherein they
-roll and rub themselves, so as in a short time to change what was at
-first a shallow flat, into a deep pit, sufficient to conceal their own
-bulk. The humidity of the soil, even when the water may have been
-evaporated, is particularly gratifying to these animals, which cannot
-bear heat, and which, if {203} not indulged in a free access to the
-water, never thrive.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 259.
-
-The buffalo not only delights in the water, but will not thrive unless
-it have a swamp to wallow in. There rolling themselves, they speedily
-work deep hollows, wherein they lay immersed. No place seems to
-delight the buffalo more than the deep verdure on the confines of
-jiels and marshes, especially if surrounded by tall grass, so as to
-afford concealment and shade, while the body is covered by the water.
-In such situations they seem to enjoy a perfect ecstacy, having in
-general nothing above the surface but their eyes and nostrils, the
-horns being kept low down, and consequently entirely hidden from
-view.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 49.
-
-Captain Beaver describes these animals as to be found during the heat
-of the day in the creeks and on the shores of the island of Bulama,
-almost totally immerged in water, little more than their heads
-appearing above it.
-
-
-  _The market-flag._--IX. p. 86.
-
-Many villages have markets on particular days, when not only fruits,
-grain, and the common necessaries of life are sold, but occasionally
-manufactures of various descriptions. These markets are well known to
-all the neighbouring country, being on appointed days of the {204}
-week, or of the lunar month; but, to remind those who may be
-travelling of their vicinity to the means of supply, a _naugaurah_, or
-large kettle-drum, is beat during the forenoon, and a small flag,
-usually of white linen, with some symbolic figure in colours, or with
-a coloured border, is hoisted on a very long bamboo, kept upright by
-means of ropes fastened to pins driven into the ground. The flags of
-Hindoo villages are generally square and plain; those of the
-Mussulmans towns are ordinarily triangular, and bear the type of
-their, religion, viz. a double-bladed scymitar.--_Oriental Sports_,
-vol. i. p. 100.
-
-
-  _Mount Meru._--X. p. 93.
-
-According to the orthodox Hindus, the globe is divided into two
-hemispheres, both called _Meru_; but the superior hemisphere is
-distinguished by the name of _Sumeru_, which implies beauty and
-excellence, in opposition to the lower hemisphere, or _Cumeru_, which
-signifies the reverse: By _Meru_, without any adjunct, they generally
-mean the higher or northern hemisphere, which they describe with a
-profusion of poetic imagery as the seat of delights: while they
-represent _Cumeru_ as the dreary habitation of demons, in some parts
-intensely cold, and in others so hot that the waters are continually
-boiling. In strict propriety, Meru denotes the pole and the polar
-{205} regions; but it is the celestial north pole round which they
-place the gardens and metropolis of _Indra_, while _Yama_ holds his
-court in the opposite polar circle, or the Station of _Asuras_, who
-warred with the _Suras_, or gods of the firmament.--WILFORD.
-_Asiatic Researches_.
-
-In the _Vayu Puráná_, we are told, that the water, or _Ogha_ of the
-ocean, coming down from heaven like a stream of _Amrita_ upon _Meru_,
-encircles it through seven channels, for the space of 84,000
-_Yojanas_, and then divides into four streams, which, falling from the
-immense height of Meru, rest themselves in four lakes, from which they
-spring over the mountains through the air, just brushing the summits.
-This wild account was not unknown in the west; for this passage is
-translated almost verbally, by Pliny and Q. Curtius, in speaking of
-the Ganges. _Cum magno fragore ipsius statim fontis Ganges erumpit_,
-et magnorum montium juga recto alveo stringit, _et ubi primum mollis
-planities contingat, in quodam lacu hospitatur_. The words in Italics
-are from Pliny (vi. c. 18.) the others from Curtius (viii. c.
-9.)--Capt. WILFORD. _As. Res_. vol. viii. p. 322. Calcutta edition.
-
-The Swarganga, or Mandacini, rises from under the feet of Veeshno, at
-the polar star, and, passing through the circle of the moon, it falls
-upon the summit of Meru; where it divides into four streams, flowing
-toward {206} the four cardinal points. These four branches pass
-through four rocks, carved into the shape of four heads of different
-animals. The Ganges running towards the south passes through a cow's
-head: To the west is a horse's head, from which flows the Chaashu or
-Oxus; towards the east is the head of an elephant, from which flows
-the river Sita; and to the north is a lion's head, from which flows
-the Bhadrasama.--WILFORD. _As. Res_. vol. viii. 317. Calc. edition.
-
-The mountains through which the Ganges flows at Hurdwar, present the
-spectator with the view of a grand natural amphitheatre; their
-appearance is rugged and destitute of verdure; they run in ridges and
-bluff points, in a direction east and west: At the back of the largest
-range, rise, towering to the clouds, the lofty mountains of
-Himmalayah, whose tops are covered with perpetual snow, which, on
-clear days, present a most sublime prospect. Their large jagged
-masses, broken into a variety of irregular shapes, added to their
-stupendous height, impress the mind with an idea of antiquity and
-grandeur coeval with the creation; and the eternal frost with which
-they are encrusted appears to preclude the possibility of mortals ever
-attaining their summit.
-
-In viewing this grand spectacle of nature, the traveller may easily
-yield his assent to, and pardon the superstitious {207} veneration of
-the Hindoo votary, who, in the fervour of his imagination, assigns the
-summit of these icy regions as the abode of the great Mahadeo, or
-First Cause, where, seated on his throne of ice, he is supposed to
-receive the homage of the surrounding universe.--FRANKLIN's _Life of
-George Thomas_, p. 41.
-
-At Gangóttara, three small streams fall down from impassable snowy
-precipices, and unite into a small bason below, which is considered by
-the Hindus as the source of the Ganges, over which, at that place, a
-man can step. This is one of the five _Tirthas_, or stations, more
-eminently sacred than the rest upon this sacred river. Narayana
-Shastri, who gave this account, had visited it.--BUCHANAN.
-
-The mountain, called Cailasa Cungri is exceedingly lofty. On its
-summit there is a Bhowjputr tree, from the root of which sprouts or
-gushes a small stream, which the people say is the source of the
-Ganges, and that it comes from Vaicont'ha, or Heaven, as is also
-related in the Puránas; although this source appears to the sight to
-flow from the spot where grows this Bhowjputr tree, which is at an
-ascent of some miles; and yet above this there is a still loftier
-summit, where no one goes: But I have heard that, on that uppermost
-pinnacle, there is a fountain or cavity, to which a Jogui somehow
-penetrated, {208} who, having immersed his little finger in it, it
-became petrified.--PURANA POORI. _Asiatic Researches_.
-
-Respecting the true source of the Ganges much uncertainty still
-prevails. In vain one of the most powerful sovereigns of Indostan, the
-emperor Acbar, at the close of the sixteenth century, sent a number of
-men, an army of discoverers, provided with every necessary, and the
-most potent recommendations, to explore the course of the mighty river
-which adorned and fertilised the vast extent of his dominions. They
-were not able to penetrate beyond the famous _Mouth of the Cow_. This
-is an immense aperture, in a ridge of the mountains of Thibet, to
-which the natives of India have given this appellation, from the
-fancied or real resemblance of the rocks which form the stupendous
-chasm, to the mouth of an animal esteemed sacred throughout Indostan
-from the remotest antiquity. From this opening the Ganges,
-precipitating itself into a large and deep bason at the foot of the
-mountains, forms a cataract, which is called Gangotri. The
-impracticability of scaling these precipitous rocks, and advancing
-beyond this formidable pass, has prevented the tracing whence this
-rushing mass of water takes its primary rise.--WILCOCKE, _Note to
-Stavorinus_.
-
-{209}
-
-
-  _The birth of Ganges._--X. p. 94.
-
-I am indebted to Sir William Jones's Hymn to Ganga for this fable:
-
-  "Above the stretch of mortal ken,
-  On bless'd _Cailasa's_ top, where every stem
-  Glow'd with a vegetable gem,
-  Mahe'sa stood, the dread and joy of men;
-  While Párvati, to gain a boon,
-  Fix'd on his locks a beamy moon,
-  And hid his frontal eye, in jocund play,
-  With reluctant sweet delay.
-  All nature straight was lock'd in dim eclipse,
-  Till _Brahmans_ pure, with hallow'd lips,
-  And warbled prayers, restored the day;
-  When Ganga from his brow, by heavenly fingers press'd,
-  Sprang radiant, and, descending, graced the caverns of the west."
-
-The descent of the Ganges is related in the Ramayuna, one of the most
-celebrated of the sacred books of the Bramins. This work the excellent
-and learned Baptist missionaries at Serampore are at this time
-employed in printing and translating; one volume has arrived in {210}
-Europe, and from it I am tempted here to insert an extract of
-considerable length. The reader will be less disposed to condemn the
-fictions of Kehama as extravagant, when he compares them with this
-genuine specimen of Hindoo fable. He will perceive, too, that no undue
-importance has been attributed to the Horse of the Sacrifice in the
-Poem.
-
-"The son of Kooshika having, in mellifluous accents, related these
-things to Rama, again addressed the descendant of Kakootitha.
-Formerly, O hero! there was a king of Hyoodhya, named Sagura, the
-Sovereign of Men, virtuous, desirous of children, but childless; O
-Rama! the daughter of Vidurbhakeshinee, virtuous, attached to truth,
-was his chief consort, and the daughter of Urishtunemi, Soomuti,
-unequalled in beauty, his second spouse. With these two consorts, the
-great king, going to Himuvat, engaged in sacred austerities on the
-mountain in whose sacred stream Bhrigoo constantly bathed. A hundred
-years being completed, the sage Bhrigoo, clothed with truth, rendered
-propitious by his austerities, granted him this blessing: O sinless
-One! thou shalt obtain a most numerous progeny; thy fame, O chief of
-men! will be unparalleled in the universe. From one of thy consorts, O
-sire! shall spring the founder of thy race, and, from the other, sixty
-thousand sons.
-
-{211}
-
-"The queens, pleased, approached the chief of men who was thus
-speaking, and, with hands respectfully joined, asked, O Brahman!
-whose shall be the one son, and who shall produce the multitude? We, O
-Brahman! desire to hear. May thy words be verified. Hearing their
-request, the most virtuous Bhrigoo replied in these admirable words:
-Freely say which of these favours ye desire, whether the one, founder
-of the family, or the multitude of valiant, renowned, energetic sons.
-O Rama! son of Rughoo, Keshinee hearing the words of the sage, in the
-presence of the king accepted the one son, the founder of the family;
-and Soomuti, sister of Soopurna, accepted the sixty thousand sons,
-active and renowned. The king, O son of Rughoo! having respectfully
-circumambulated the sage, bowing the head, returned with his spouses
-to his own city.
-
-"After some time had elapsed, his eldest spouse Keshinee bore to
-Sugura a son, named Usumunja; and Soomuti, O chief of men! brought
-forth a gourd, from which, on its being opened, came forth sixty
-thousand sons. These, carefully brought up by their nurses, in jars
-filled with clarified butter, in process of time attained the state of
-youth;[4] and, after a long period, the {212} sixty thousand sons
-of Sugura, possessed of youth and beauty, became men. The eldest son,
-the offspring of Sugura, O son of Rughoo! chief of men, seizing
-children, would throw them into the waters of the Suruyoo, and sport
-himself with their drowning pangs. This evil person, the distresser of
-good men, devoted to the injury of the citizens, was by his father
-expelled from the city. The son of Usumunja, the heroic Ungshooman, in
-conversation courteous and affectionate, was esteemed by all.
-
-"After a long time, O chief of men! Sugura formed the steady resolve,
-"I will perform a sacrifice." Versed in the Veda, the king, attended
-by his instructors, having determined the things relating to the
-sacrificial work, began to prepare the sacrifice.
-
-"Hearing the words of Vishwa-mitra, the son of Rughoo, highly
-gratified in the midst of the story, addressed the sage, bright as the
-ardent flame, Peace be to Thee: I desire, O Brahman! to hear this
-story at large, how my predecessors performed the sacrifice. Hearing
-his words, Vishwa-mitra, smiling, pleasantly replied to Rama: {213}
-"Attend, then, O Rama! to the story of Sugura, repeated at full
-length. Where the great mountain Himuvat, the happy father-in-law of
-Shunkura, and the mountain Bindhyo, overlooking the country around,
-proudly vie with each other, there was the sacrifice of the great
-Sugura performed. That land, sacred and renowned, is the habitation of
-Rakshuses. At the command of Sugura, the hero Ungshooman, O Rama!
-eminent in archery, a mighty charioteer, was the attendant (of the
-horse.[5]) While the king was performing the sacrifice, a serpent,
-assuming the form of Ununta, rose from the earth, and seized the
-sacrificial horse. The sacrificial victim being stolen, all the
-priests, O son of Rughoo! going to the king, said, Thy consecrated
-horse has been stolen by some one in the form of a serpent. Kill the
-thief, and bring back the sacred horse. This interruption in the
-sacrifice portends evil to us all. Take those steps, O king! which may
-lead to the completion of the sacrifice. Having heard the advice of
-his instructors, the king, calling his sixty thousand sons into the
-assembly, said, I perceive that the Rakshuses have not been to this
-great sacrifice. A sacrifice of the Nagas is now performing by the
-sages, and some god, in the form of a serpent, {214} has stolen the
-devoted horse. Whoever he be, who, at the time of the Deeksha, has
-been the cause of this afflictive circumstance, this unhappy event,
-whether he be gone to Patala, or whether he remain in the waters, kill
-him, O sons! and bring back my victim. May success attend you, O my
-sons! At my command traverse the sea-girt earth, digging with mighty
-labour, till you obtain a sight of the horse; each one piercing the
-earth to the depth of a yojunga, go you in search of him who stole the
-sacred horse. Being consecrated by the Deeksha, I, with my grandson
-and my teachers, will remain with the sacrifice unfinished, till I
-again behold my devoted horse.
-
-"Thus instructed by their father Sugura, they, in obedience to him,
-went with cheerful mind, O Rama! to the bottom of the earth. The
-strong ones, having gone over the earth without obtaining a sight of
-the horse, each of these mighty men pierced the earth, to the depth of
-a yojuna, with their mighty arm, the stroke of which resembled the
-thunder-bolt. Pierced by Kooddalas,[6] by Purighas,[7] by
-Shoolas,[8] by Mooshulas,[9] {215} and Shuktis,[10] the
-earth cried out as in darkness. Then arose, O Raghuva! a dreadful cry
-of the serpents, the Usooras, the Rakshuses, and other creatures, as
-of beings suffering death. These angry youths, O son of Rughoo! dug
-the earth even to Patala, to the extent of sixty thousand yojunas.
-Thus, O prince! the sons of the sovereign of men traversed
-Jumboodweepa, inclosed with mountains, digging wherever they came. The
-gods now, with the Gundburwas and the great serpents, struck with
-astonishment, went all of them to Bruhma, and, bowing even to the foot
-of the great spirit, they, full of terror, with dejected countenance,
-addressed him thus: "O Deva! O divine One! the whole earth, covered
-with mountains and woods, with rivers and continents, the sons of
-Sugura are now digging up. By these digging, O Bruhma! the mightiest
-beings are killed. This is the stealer of our consecrated victims; by
-this (fellow) our horse was taken away:" Thus saying, these sons of
-Sugura destroy all creatures. O most powerful! having heard this, it
-becomes thee to interpose, before these horse-seekers destroy all thy
-creatures endued with life."
-
-Thus far the thirty-second Section, describing the digging of earth.
-
-{216}
-
-  SECTION THIRTY-THREE.
-
-"Hearing the words of the gods, the divine Bruhma replied to these
-affrighted ones, stupified with the Yuma-like power of these youths:
-The wise Vasoo-deva, the great Madhuva, who claims the earth for his
-spouse, that divine one, residing in the form of Kupila, supports the
-earth. By the fire of his wrath he will destroy the sons of the king.
-This piercing of the earth must, I suppose, be perceived by him, and
-he will (effect) the destruction of the long-sighted sons of Sugura.
-The thirty-three gods,[11] enemy-subduing, having heard the words
-of Bruhma, returned home full of joy. The sons of Sugura, highly
-renowned, thus digging the earth, a sound was produced resembling that
-of conflicting elements. Having encompassed and penetrated the whole
-earth, the sons of Sugura, returning to their father, said, The whole
-earth has been traversed by us; and all the powerful gods, the
-Danuvas, the Ruckshuses, the Pishachas, the serpents, and hydras, are
-killed[12]; but we have not seen {217} thy horse, nor the thief.
-What shall we do? Success be to thee: be pleased to determine what
-more is proper. The virtuous king, having heard the words of his sons,
-O son of Rughoo! angrily replied, Again commence digging. Having
-penetrated the earth, and found the stealer of the horse, having
-accomplished your intention, return again. Attentive to the words of
-their father, the great Sugura, the sixty thousand descended to
-Patala, and there renewed their digging. There, O chief of men! they
-saw the elephant of that quarter of the globe, in size resembling a
-mountain, with distorted eyes, supporting with his head this earth,
-with its mountains and forests, covered with various countries, and
-adorned with numerous cities. When, for the sake of rest, O
-Kakootstha! the great elephant, through distress, refreshes himself by
-moving his head, an earthquake is produced.
-
-"Having respectfully circumambulated this mighty elephant, guardian of
-the quarter, they, O Rama! praising him, penetrated into Patala. After
-they had thus penetrated the east quarter, they opened their way to
-the south. Here they saw that great elephant Muha-pudma, equal to a
-huge mountain, sustaining the earth with his head. Beholding him, they
-were filled with surprise; and, after the usual circumambulation, the
-sixty thousand sons of the great Sugura perforated the west quarter.
-{218} In this these mighty ones saw the elephant Soumunusa, of equal
-size. Having respectfully saluted him, and enquired respecting his
-health, these valiant ones digging, arrived at the north. In this
-quarter, O chief of Rughoo! they saw the snow-white elephant Bhudra,
-supporting this earth with his beautiful body. Circumambulating him,
-they again penetrated the earth, and proceeded north-east to that
-renowned quarter; all the sons of Sugura, through anger, pierced the
-earth again. There all those magnanimous ones, terrible in swiftness,
-and of mighty prowess, saw Kupila, Vasodeva the eternal,[13] and
-near him the horse feeding. Filled, O son of Rughoo! with unparalleled
-joy, they all knowing him to be the stealer of the horse, with eyes
-starting with rage, seizing their spades and their _langulas_, and
-even trees and stones, ran towards him full of wrath, calling out,
-Stop, stop! thou art the stealer of our sacrificial horse: Thou stupid
-one, know that we who have found thee are the sons of Rughoo. Kupila,
-filled with excessive anger, uttered from his nostrils a loud sound,
-and instantly, O Kakootstha! by Kupila of immeasurable power, were all
-the sons of Sugura turned to a heap of ashes."
-
-{219}
-
-Thus far the thirty-third Section, describing the interview with
-Kupila.
-
-
-  SECTION THIRTY-FOUR.
-
-"O son of Rughoo! Sugura, perceiving that his sons had been absent a
-long time, thus addressed his grandson, illustrious by his own might:
-Thou art a hero, possessed of science, in prowess equal to thy
-predecessors. Search out the fate of thy paternal relatives, and the
-person by whom the horse was stolen, that we may avenge ourselves on
-these subterraneous beings, powerful and great. Take thy scymitar and
-bow, O beloved one! and finding out thy deceased paternal relatives,
-destroy my adversary. The proposed end being thus accomplished,
-return. Bring me happily through this sacrifice.
-
-"Thus particularly addrest by the great Sugura, Ungshooman, swift and
-powerful, taking his bow and scymitar, departed. Urged by the king,
-the chief of men traversed the subterraneous road dug by his great
-ancestors. There the mighty one saw the elephant of the quarter,
-adored by the gods, the Danuvas and Rukshuses, the Pishachas, the
-birds and the serpents. Having circumambulated him, and asked
-concerning his welfare, Ungshooman {220} enquired for his paternal
-relatives, and the stealer of the sacred victim. The mighty elephant
-of the quarter hearing, replied, O son of Usumunja! thou wilt
-accomplish thine intention, and speedily return with the horse. Having
-heard this, he, with due respect, enquired, in regular succession, of
-all the elephants of the quarters. Honoured by all these guardians of
-the eight sides of the earth, acquainted with speech, and eminent in
-eloquence, he was told, Thou wilt return with the horse. Upon this
-encouraging declaration, he swiftly went to the place where lay his
-paternal relatives, the sons of Sugura, reduced to a heap of ashes.
-(At this sight) the son of Usumunja, overwhelmed with sorrow on
-account of their death, cried out with excess of grief. In this state
-of grief, the chief of men beheld, grazing near, the sacrificial
-horse. The illustrious one, desirous of performing the funeral
-obsequies of these sons of the king, looked around for a receptacle of
-water, but in vain. Extending his eager view, he saw, O Rama! the
-sovereign of birds, the uncle of his paternal relatives, Soopurna, in
-size resembling a mountain. Vinuteya, of mighty prowess, addressed him
-thus: Grieve not, O chief of men! this slaughter is approved by the
-universe. These great ones were reduced to ashes by Kupila of
-unmeasurable might. It is not proper for thee, O wise one! to pour
-common water upon {221} these ashes. Gunga, O chief of men! is the
-eldest daughter of Himuvut. With her sacred stream, O valiant one!
-perform the funeral ceremonies for thine ancestors. If the purifier of
-the world flow on them, reduced to a heap of ashes, these ashes, being
-wetted by Gunga, the illuminator of the world, the sixty thousand sons
-of thy grandfather will be received into heaven. May success attend
-thee! Bring Gunga to the earth from the residence of the gods. If thou
-art able, O chief of men! possessor of the ample share, let the
-descent of Gunga be accomplished by thee. Take the horse, and go
-forth. It is thine, O hero! for to complete the great paternal
-sacrifice.
-
-"Having heard these words of Soopurna, Ungshooman, the heroic,
-speedily seizing the horse, returned. Then, O son of Rughoo! being
-come to the king, who was still performing the initiatory ceremonies,
-he related to him the whole affair, and the advice of Soopurna.
-
-"After hearing the terror-inspiring relation of Ungshooman, the king
-finished the sacrifice, in exact conformity to the tenor and spirit of
-the ordinance: Having finished his sacrifice, the sovereign of the
-earth returned to his palace. The king, however, was unable to devise
-any way for the descent of Gunga from heaven: after a long time,
-unable to fix upon any method, he departed to heaven, having reigned
-thirty thousand years.
-
-{222}
-
-"Sugura having, O Rama! paid the debt of nature, the people chose
-Ungshooman, the pious, for their sovereign. Ungshooman, O son of
-Rughoo! was a very great monarch. His son was called Dwileepa. Having
-placed him on the throne, he, O Raguva! retiring to the pleasant top
-of Mount Himuvut, performed the most severe austerities. This
-excellent sovereign of men, illustrious as the immortals, was
-exceedingly desirous of the descent of Gunga; but not obtaining his
-wish, the renowned monarch, rich in sacred austerities, departed to
-heaven, after having abode in the forest sacred to austerities,
-thirty-two thousand years. Dwileepa, the highly energetic, being made
-acquainted with the slaughter of his paternal great-uncles, was
-overwhelmed with grief; but was still unable to fix upon a way of
-deliverance. How shall I accomplish the descent of Gunga? How shall I
-perform the funeral ablutions of these relatives? How shall I deliver
-them? In such cogitations was his mind constantly engaged. While these
-ideas filled the mind of the king, thoroughly acquainted with sacred
-duties, there was born to him a most virtuous son, called
-Bhugee-rutha. The illustrious king Dwileepa performed many sacrifices,
-and governed the kingdom for thirty thousand years; but, O chief of
-men! no way of obtaining the deliverance of his ancestors appearing,
-he, by a disease, discharged the debt {223} of nature. Having
-installed his own son Bhugee-rutha in the kingdom, the lord of men
-departed to the paradise of Indra, through the merits of his own
-virtuous deeds.
-
-"The pious, the royal sage, Bhugee-rutha, O son of Rughoo! was
-childless. Desirous of offspring, yet childless, the great monarch
-entrusted the kingdom to the care of his counsellors; and, having his
-heart set on obtaining the descent of Gunga, engaged in a long course
-of sacred austerities upon the mountain Gokurna. With hands erected,
-he, O son of Rughoo! surrounded in the hot season with five
-fires,[14] according to the prescribed ordinance; in the cold
-season lying in water; and in the rainy season exposed to the
-descending clouds, feeding on fallen leaves, with his mind restrained,
-and his sensual feelings subdued, this valiant and great king
-continued a thousand years in the practice of the most severe
-austerities. The magnanimous monarch of mighty arm having finished
-this period, the divine Bruhma, the lord of creatures, the supreme
-governor, was highly pleased; and with the gods, going near to the
-great Bhugee-rutha, employed in sacred austerities, said to him, I am
-propitious. O performer of sacred vows! ask a blessing. The mighty,
-{224} the illustrious Bhugee-rutha, with hands respectfully joined,
-replied to the sire of all, O divine one! if thou art pleased with me,
-if the fruit of my austerities may be granted, let all the sons of
-Sugura obtain water for their funeral rites. The ashes of the great
-ones being wetted by the water of Gunga, let all my ancestors ascend
-to the eternal heaven.[15] Let a child, O divine one! be granted to
-us, that our family become not extinct. O God! let this great blessing
-be granted to the family of Ikshwakoo. The venerable sire of all
-replied to the king thus requesting in the sweetest and most pleasing
-accents: Bhugee-rutha, thou mighty charioteer, be this great wish of
-thine heart accomplished. Let prosperity attend thee, thou increaser
-of the family of Ikshwakoo! Engage Hura, O king! to receive (in her
-descent) Gunga, the eldest daughter of the mountain Himuvut. The
-earth, O king! cannot sustain the descent of Gunga, nor beside
-Shoolee[16] do I behold any one, O king! able to receive her. The
-creator having thus replied to the king, and spoken to Gunga, returned
-to heaven with Macroots and all the gods."
-
-Thus far the thirty-fourth Section, describing the gift of the
-blessing to Bhugee-rutha.
-
-{225}
-
-  SECTION THIRTY-FIVE.
-
-"Pruja-puti being gone, Bhugee-rutha, O Rama! with uplifted arm,
-without support, without a helper, immoveable as a dry tree, and
-feeding on air, remained day and night on the tip of his great toe
-upon the afflicted earth. A full year having now elapsed, the husband
-of Ooma, and the lord of animals, who is reverenced by all worlds,
-said to the king, I am propitious to thee, O chief of men! I will
-accomplish thy utmost desire. To him the sovereign replied, O Hura,
-receive Gunga! Bhurga,[17] thus addressed, replied, I will perform
-thy desire; I will receive her on my head, the daughter of the
-mountain. Muheshwura then, mounting on the summit of Himuvut,
-addressed Gunga, the river flowing in the ether, saying, Descend, O
-Gunga! The eldest daughter of Himuvut, adored by the universe, having
-heard the words of the lord of Ooma, was filled with anger, and
-assuming, O Rama! a form of amazing size, with insupportable celerity,
-fell from the air upon the auspicious head of Shiva. The goddess
-Gunga, irresistible, thought within herself, I will bear down Shunkura
-with my stream, and enter Patala. The {226} divine Hura, the
-three-eyed god, was aware of her proud resolution, and, being angry,
-determined to prevent her design. The purifier, fallen upon the sacred
-head of Roodra, was detained, O Rama! in the recesses of the orb of
-his Juta, resembling Himuvut, and was unable, by the greatest efforts,
-to descend to the earth. From the borders of the orb of his Juta, the
-goddess could not obtain regress, but wandered there for many series
-of years. Thus situated, Bhugee-rutha beheld her wandering there, and
-again engaged in severe austerities.
-
-"With these austerities, O son of Rughoo! Hura being greatly pleased,
-discharged Gunga towards the lake Vindoo. In her flowing forth seven
-streams were produced. Three of these streams[18] beautiful, filled
-with water conveying happiness, Hladinee,[19] Pavunee,[20] and
-Nulinee,[21] directed their course eastward: while
-Soochukohoo,[22] Seeta,[23] and Sindhoo,[24] three pellucid
-mighty rivers, flowed to the west. The seventh of these streams
-followed king Bhugee-rutha. The royal sage, the illustrious {227}
-Bhugee-rutha, seated on a resplendent car, led the way, while Gunga
-followed. Pouring down from the sky upon the head of Shunkura, and
-afterwards upon the earth, her streams rolled along with a shrill
-sound. The earth was willingly chosen by the fallen fishes, the
-turtles, the porpoises, and the birds. The royal sages, the
-Gundhurvas, the Yukshas, and the Siddhas, beheld her falling from the
-ether to the earth; yea, the gods, immeasurable in power, filled with
-surprise, came thither with chariots resembling a city, horses, and
-elephants, and litters, desirous of seeing the wonderful and
-unparalleled descent of Gunga into the world. Irradiated by the
-descending gods, and the splendour of their ornaments, the cloudless
-atmosphere shone with the splendour of an hundred suns, while by the
-uneasy porpoises, the serpents, and the fishes, the air was coruscated
-as with lightning. Through the white foam of the waters, spreading in
-a thousand directions, and the flights of water-fowl, the atmosphere
-appeared filled with autumnal clouds. The water, pure from defilement,
-falling from the head of Shunkura, and thence to the earth, ran in
-some places with a rapid stream, in others in a tortuous current; here
-widely spreading, there descending into caverns, and again spouting
-upward; in some places it moved slowly, stream uniting with stream;
-while repelled {228} in others, it rose upwards, and again fell to the
-earth. Knowing its purity, the sages, the Gundhurvas, and the
-inhabitants of the earth, touched the water fallen from the body of
-Bhuva.[25] Those who, through a curse, had fallen from heaven to
-earth, having performed ablution in this stream, became free from sin:
-cleansed from sin by this water, and restored to happiness, they
-entered the sky, and returned again to heaven. By this illustrious
-stream was the world rejoiced, and by performing ablution in Gunga,
-became free from impurity.
-
-"The royal sage, Bhugee-rutha, full of energy, went before, seated on
-his resplendent car, while Gunga followed after. The gods, O Rama!
-with the sages, the Dityas, the Danuvas, the Rakshuses, the chief
-Gundhurvas, and Yukshas, with the Kinnuras, the chief serpents, and
-all the Upsuras, together with aquatic animals, following the chariot
-of Bhugee-rutha, attended Gunga. Whither king Bhugee-rutha went,
-thither went the renowned Gunga, the chief of streams, the destroyer
-of all sin.
-
-"After this, Gunga, in her course, inundated this sacrificial ground
-of the great Juhnoo of astonishing deeds, {229} who was then offering
-sacrifice. Juhnoo, O Raghuva! perceiving her pride enraged, drank up
-the whole of the water of Gunga:--a most astonishing deed! At this the
-gods, the Gundhurvas, and the sages, exceedingly surprised, adored the
-great Juhnoo, the most excellent of men, and named Gunga the daughter
-of this great sage.
-
-"The illustrious chief of men, pleased, discharged Gunga from his
-ears. Having liberated her, he, recognizing the great Bhugee-rutha,
-the chief of kings, then present, duly, honoured him, and returned to
-the place of sacrifice. From this deed Gunga, the daughter of Jahnoo,
-obtained the name Jahnuvee.
-
-"Gunga now went forward again, following the chariot of Bhugee-rutha.
-Having reached the sea, the chief of streams proceeded to Patala, to
-accomplish the work of Bhugee-rutha. The wise and royal sage, having
-with great labour conducted Gunga thither, there beheld his ancestors
-reduced to ashes. Then, O chief of Rughoo's race, that heap of ashes,
-bathed by the excellent waters of Gunga, and purified from sin, the
-sons of the king obtained heaven. Having arrived at the sea, the king,
-followed by Gunga, entered the subterraneous regions, where lay the
-sacred ashes. After these, O Rama! had been laved by the water of
-Gunga, Bruhma, the lord of all, thus addressed the king: O chief of
-men! thy predecessors, {230} the sixty thousand sons of the great
-Sugura, are all delivered by thee: and the great and perennial
-receptacle of water, called by Sugura's name, shall henceforth be
-universally known by the appellation of Sagura.[26] As long, O
-king! as the waters of the sea continue in the earth, so long shall
-the sons of Sugura remain in heaven, in all the splendour of gods.
-
-"This Gunga, O king! shall be thy eldest daughter, known throughout
-the three worlds (by the name) Bhagee-ruthee; and because she passed
-through the earth, the chief of rivers shall be called Gunga[27]
-throughout the universe. (She shall also be) called Triputhaga, on
-account of her proceeding forward in three different directions,
-watering the three worlds. Thus is she named by the gods and sages.
-She is called Gunga, O sovereign of the Vashyas! on account of her
-flowing through Gang;[28] and her third name, O thou observer of
-vows! is Bhagee-ruthee. O, accomplished one! through affection to
-thee, and regard to me, these names will remain: as long as Gunga, the
-great river, shall remain in the world, so long shall thy deathless
-fame live throughout {231} the universe. O lord of men! O king!
-perform here the funeral rites of all thine ancestors. Relinquish thy
-vows,[29] O king! this devout wish of theirs was not obtained by
-thine ancestors highly renowned, chief among the pious; not by
-Ungshooman, unparalleled in the universe, so earnestly desiring the
-descent of Gunga, O beloved one! was this object of desire obtained.
-Nor, O possessor of prosperity! O sinless one! could she be (obtained)
-by thine illustrious father Dwileepa, the Rajurshi eminently
-accomplished, whose energy was equal to that of a Muhurshi, and who,
-established in all the virtues of the Kshutras, in secret austerities
-equalled myself. This great design has been fully accomplished by
-thee, O chief of men! Thy fame, the blessing so much desired, will
-spread throughout the world. O subduer of enemies! this descent of
-Gunga has been effected by thee. This Gunga is the great abode of
-virtue: by this deed thou art become possessed of the divinity itself.
-In this stream constantly bathe thyself, O chief of men! Purified, O
-most excellent of mortals! be a partaker of the fruit of holiness;
-perform the funeral ceremonies of all thy ancestors. May blessings
-attend thee, O chief of men! I return to heaven.
-
-{232}
-
-"The renowned one, the sovereign of the gods, the sire of the
-universe, having thus spoken, returned to heaven.
-
-"King Bhugee-rutha, the royal sage, having performed the funeral
-ceremonies of the descendants of Sugura, in proper order of
-succession, according to the ordinance; the renowned one having also,
-O chief of men! performed the customary ceremonies, and purified
-himself, returned to his own city, where he governed the kingdom.
-Having (again,) O Raghura! possessed of abundant wealth, obtained
-their king, his people rejoiced; their sorrow was completely removed;
-they increased in wealth and prosperity, and were freed from disease.
-
-"Thus, O Rama! has the story of Gunga been related at large by me. May
-prosperity attend thee: May every good be thine. The evening is fast
-receding. He who causes this relation, securing wealth, fame,
-longevity, posterity, and heaven, to be heard among the Brahmans, the
-Kshutriyas, or the other tribes of men, his ancestors rejoice, and to
-him are the gods propitious: and he who hears this admirable story of
-the descent of Gunga, ensuring long life, shall obtain, O Kakootstha!
-all the wishes of his heart. All his sins shall be destroyed, and his
-life and fame be abundantly prolonged."
-
-{233}
-
-End of the thirty-fifth Section, describing the descent of Gunga.
-
-
-  _Parvati._--X. p. 94.
-
-All the Devetas, and other inhabitants of the celestial regions, being
-collected, at the summons of Bhagavat, to arrange the ceremonials of
-the marriage of Seeva and Parvati, first came Brahma, mounted on his
-goose, with the Reyshees at his stirrup; next Veeshnu, riding on
-Garoor his eagle, with the chank, the chakra, the club, and the pedive
-in his hands; Eendra also, and Yama, and Cuvera, and Varuna, and the
-rivers Ganga and Jumna, and the Seven Seas. The Gandarvas also, and
-Apsaras, and Vasookee, and other serpents, in obedience to the
-commands of Seeva, all dressed in superb chains and habits of
-ceremony, were to be seen in order amidst the crowded and glittering
-cavalcade.
-
-And now, Seeva, after the arrival of all the Devetas, and the
-completion of the preparations for the procession, set out, in the
-utmost pomp and splendour, from the mountain Kilas. His third eye
-flamed like the sun, and the crescent on his forehead assumed the form
-of a radiated diadem; his snakes were exchanged for chains and
-necklaces of pearls and rubies, his ashes for sandal and perfume, and
-his elephant's skin for a silken robe, {234} so that none of the
-Devetas in brilliance came near his figure. The bridal attendants now
-spread wide abroad the carpet of congratulation, and arranged in order
-the banquet of bliss. Nature herself assumed the appearance of
-renovated youth, and the sorrowing universe recalled its
-long-forgotten happiness. The Gandarvas and Apsaras began their
-melodious songs, and the Genes and Keeners displayed the magic of
-their various musical instruments. The earth and its inhabitants
-exulted with tongues of glorification and triumph; fresh moisture
-invigorated the withered victims of time; a thousand happy and
-animating conceptions inspired the hearts of the intelligent, and
-enlightened the wisdom of the thoughtful: The kingdom of external
-forms obtained gladness, the world of intellect acquired brightness.
-The dwellers upon earth stocked the casket of their ideas with the
-jewels of delight, and reverend pilgrims exchanged their beads for
-pearls. The joy of those on earth ascended up to Heaven, and the Tree
-of the bliss of those in Heaven extended its auspicious branches
-downwards to the earth. The eyes of the Devetas flamed like torches on
-beholding these scenes of rapture, and the hearts of the just kindled
-like touchwood on hearing these ravishing symphonies. Thus Seeva set
-off like a garden in full blow, and Paradise was eclipsed by his
-motion.--MAURICE, _from the Seeva-Pooraun_.
-
-{235}
-
-  _Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still._--X. p. 94.
-
-After these lines were written, I was amused at finding a parallel
-passage in a sermon:
-
-_Quando o Sol parou às vozes de Josuè, aconteceram no mundo todas
-aquellas consequencias, que parando o movimento celeste, consideram os
-Filosofos. As plantas por todo aquelle tempo nam creceram; as
-calidades dos elementos, e dos mixtos, nam se alteraram; a geraçam e
-corrupçam com que se conserva o mundo, cessou; as artes e os
-exercicios de hum e outro Emisferio estiveram suspensos; os Antipodas
-nam trabalhavam, porque lhes faltava a luz, os de cima cançados de
-tam comprido dia deixavam o trabalho; estes pasmados de verem o Sol
-que se nam movia; aquelles tambem pasmados de esperarem pelo Sol, que
-nam chegava; cuidavam que se acabàra para elles a luz; imaginavam que
-se acabava o mundo: tudo era lagrimas, tudo assombros, tudo horrores,
-tudo confusoens_.--VIEYRA, Sermoens, _tom. ix. p._ 505.
-
-
-  _Surya._--X. p. 105.
-
-_Surya_, the Sun. The poets and painters describe his car as drawn by
-seven green horses, preceded by _Arun_, or the Dawn, who acts as his
-charioteer, and followed by thousands of genii, worshipping him, and
-modulating his {236} praises. Surya is believed to have descended
-frequently from his car in a human shape, and to have left a race on
-earth, who are equally renowned in the Indian stories with the
-Heliadai of Greece. It is very singular that his two sons, called
-_Aswinau_, or _Aswinicumarau_, in the Dual, should be considered as
-twin brothers, and painted like Castor and Pollux; but they have each
-the character of Æsculapius among the gods, and are believed to have
-been born of a nymph, who, in the form of a mare, was impregnated with
-sun-beams.--Sir W. JONES.
-
-That sun, O daughter of Ganga! than which nothing is higher, to which
-nothing is equal, enlightens the summit of the sky--with the sky
-enlightens the earth--with the earth enlightens the lower
-worlds;--enlightens the higher worlds, enlightens other worlds;--it
-enlightens the breast,--enlightens all besides the breast.--Sir W.
-JONES, _from the Veda_.
-
-
-  _Forgetful of his Dragon foe._--X. p. 105.
-
-_Ra'hu_ was the son of _Cas'yapa_ and _Dity_, according to some
-authorities; but others represent _Sinhica'_ (perhaps the sphinx) as
-his natural mother. He had four arms; his lower parts ended in a tail
-like that of a dragon; and his aspect was grim and gloomy, like the
-_darkness_ of the chaos, whence he had also the name of _Tamas_. He
-was {237} the adviser of all mischief among the _Daityas_, who had a
-regard for him: but among the _De'vatas_ it was his chief delight to
-sow dissension; and when the gods had produced the _amrit_, by
-churning the ocean, he disguised himself like one of them, and
-received a portion of it; but the Sun and Moon having discovered his
-fraud, _Vishnu_ severed his head and two of his arms from the rest of
-his monstrous body. That part of the nectareous fluid which he had
-time to swallow secured his immortality: his trunk and dragon-like
-tail fell on the mountain of _Malaya_, where _Mini_, a _Brahman_,
-carefully preserved them by the name of _Ce'tu_; and, as if a complete
-body had been formed from them, like a dismembered _polype_, he is
-even said to have adopted _Ce'tu_ as his own child. The head, with two
-arms, fell on the sands of _Barbara_, where _Pi't'he'na's_ was then
-walking with _Sinhica'_, by some called his wife: They carried the
-_Daitya_ to their palace, and adopted him as their son; whence he
-acquired the name of _Paite'he'nasi_. This extravagant fable is, no
-doubt, astronomical; _Ra'hu_ and _Ce'tu_ being clearly the _nodes_, or
-what astrologers call the _head_ and _tail_ of the dragon. It is
-added, that they appeased _Vishnu_, and obtained re-admission to the
-firmament, but were no longer visible from the earth, their
-enlightened sides being turned from it; that _Ra'hu_ strives, during
-eclipses, to wreak vengeance on the Sun {238} and Moon, who detected
-him; and that _Ce'tu_ often appears as a comet, a whirlwind, a fiery
-meteor, a water-spout, or a column of sand.--WILFORD. _Asiatic
-Researches_.
-
-
-  _Suras._--X. p. 105.
-
-The word _Sura_ in Sanscrit signifies both wine and true wealth;
-hence, in the first _C'hand_ of the _Ramayan_ of VALMIC, it is
-expressly said that the _Devetas_, having received the _Sura_,
-acquired the title of _Suras_, and the _Daityas_ that of _Asura_, from
-not having received it. The _Veda_ is represented as that wine and
-true wealth.--PATERSON. _Asiat. Researches_.
-
-
-  _Camdeo._--X. p. 106.
-
-  Eternal CAMA! or doth SMARA bright,
-  Or proud ANANGA, give thee more delight?
-                     _Sir W. Jones_.
-
-He was the son of MAYA, or the general _attracting_ power, and
-married to RETTY, or _Affection_, and his bosom friend is BESSENT,
-or _Spring_. He is represented a a beautiful youth, sometimes
-conversing with his mother and consort in the midst of his gardens and
-temples; sometimes riding by moonlight on a parrot or lory, a attended
-by dancing girls or nymphs, the foremost {239} whom bears his colours,
-which are a _fish_ on a red ground. His favourite place of resort is a
-large tract of country round _Agra_, and principally the plains of
-_Matra_, where KRISHEN also, and the nine GOPIA, who are clearly
-the _Apollo_ and _Muses_ of the Greeks, usually spend the night with
-music and dance. His bow of sugar-cane or flowers, with a string of
-bees, and his _five_ arrows, each pointed with an Indian blossom of a
-heating quality, are allegories equally new and beautiful.
-
-It is possible that the words _Dipuc_ and _Cupid_, which have the same
-signification, may have the same origin; since we know that the old
-Hetrurians, from whom great part of the Roman language and religion
-was derived, and whose system had a near affinity with that of the
-Persians and Indians, used to write their lines alternately forwards
-and backwards, as furrows are made by the ploughs.--Sir W. JONES.
-
-Mahadeva and Parvati were playing with dice at the ancient game of
-Chaturanga, when they disputed, and parted in wrath; the goddess
-retiring to the forest of Gauri, and the god repairing to Cushadwip.
-They severally performed rigid acts of devotion to the Supreme Being;
-but the fires which they kindled blazed so vehemently as to threaten a
-general conflagration. The Devas, in great alarm, hastened to Brahma,
-who led them {240} to Mahadeva, and supplicated him to recall his
-consort; but the wrathful deity only answered, That she most come by
-her own free choice. They accordingly dispatched Gunga, the river
-goddess, who prevailed on Parvati to return to him, on condition that
-his love for her should be restored. The celestial mediators then
-employed Cama-Deva, who wounded Mahadeva with one of his flowery
-arrows; but the angry divinity reduced him to ashes with a flame from
-his eye. Parvati soon after presented herself before him in the form
-of a Cirati, or daughter of a mountaineer, and seeing him enamoured of
-her, resumed her own shape. In the place where they were reconciled, a
-grove sprang up, which was named Camavana; and the relenting god, in
-the character of Cameswara, consoled the afflicted Reti, the widow of
-Cama, by assuring her that she should rejoin her husband when he
-should be born again in the form of Pradyumna, son of Crishna, and
-should put Sambara to death. This favourable prediction was in due
-time accomplished, and Pradyumna having sprung to life, he was
-instantly seized by the demon Sambara, who placed him in a chest,
-which he threw into the ocean; but a large fish, which had swallowed
-the chest, was caught, in a net, and carried to the palace of a
-tyrant, where the unfortunate Reti had been compelled to do menial
-service. {241} It was her lot to open the fish, and seeing an infant
-in the chest, she nursed him in private, and educated him, till he had
-sufficient strength to destroy the malignant Sambara. He had before
-considered Reti as his mother; but the minds of them both being,
-irradiated, the prophecy of Mahadeva was remembered, and the God of
-Love was again united with the Goddess of Pleasure.--WILFORD.
-_Asiatic Researches_.
-
-
-  _Eating his very core of life away._--XI. p. 113.
-
-One of the wonders of this country is the _Jiggerkhar_, (or
-liver-eater.) One of this class can steal away the liver of another by
-looks and incantations. Other accounts say, that, by looking at a
-person, he deprives him of his senses, and then steals from him
-something resembling the seed of a pomegranate, which he hides in the
-calf of his leg. The _Jiggerkhar_ throws on the fire the grain before
-described, which thereupon spreads to the size of a dish, and he
-distributes it amongst his fellows, to be eaten; which ceremony
-concludes the life of the fascinated person. A _Jiggerkhar_ is able to
-communicate his art to another, which he does by learning him the
-incantations, and by making him eat a bit of the liver-cake. If any
-one cut open the calf of the magician's leg, extract the grain, and
-give it to the afflicted person {242} to eat, he immediately recovers.
-Those _Jiggerkhars_ are mostly women. It is said, moreover, that they
-can bring intelligence from a great distance in a short space of time;
-and if they are thrown into a river, with a stone tied to them, they
-nevertheless will not sink. In order to deprive any one of this wicked
-power, they brand his temples, and every joint in his body, cram his
-eyes with salt, suspend him for forty days in a subterraneous cavern,
-and repeat over him certain incantations. In this state he is called
-_Detche-reh_. Although, after having undergone this discipline, he is
-not able to destroy the liver of any one, yet he retains the power of
-being able to discover another _Jiggerkhar_, and is used for detecting
-these disturbers of mankind. They can also cure many diseases, by
-administering a potion, or by repeating an incantation. Many other
-marvellous stories are told of these people.--AYEEN ACBERY.
-
-An Arabian old woman, by name Meluk, was thrown in prison, on a charge
-of having bewitched, or, as they call it, eaten the heart of a young
-native of Ormuz, who had lately, from being a Christian, turned
-Mahommedan. The cause of offence was, that the young man, after
-keeping company some time with one of her daughters, had forsaken her:
-He himself, who was in a pitiable condition, and in danger of his
-life, was one of her {243} accusers. This sort of witchcraft, which
-the Indians call eating the heart, and which is what we call
-bewitching, as sorcerers do by their venomous and deadly looks, is not
-a new thing, nor unheard of elsewhere; for many persons practised it
-formerly in Sclavonia, and the country of the Triballes, as we learn
-from Ortelius, who took the account from Pliny, who, upon the report
-of Isigones, testifies, that this species of enchantment was much in
-use among these people, and many others whom he mentions, as it is at
-present here, especially among the Arabians who inhabit the western
-coast of the Persian gulph, where this art is common. The way in which
-they do it is only by the eyes and the mouth, keeping the eyes fixed
-steadily upon the person whose heart they design to eat, and
-pronouncing, between their teeth, I know not what diabolical words, by
-virtue of which, and by the operation of the devil, the person, how
-hale and strong soever, falls immediately into an unknown and
-incurable disease, which makes him appear phthysical, consumes him
-little by little, and at last destroys him. And this takes place
-faster or slower as the heart is eaten, as they say; for these
-sorcerers can either eat the whole or a part only; that is, can
-consume it entirely and at once, or bit by bit, as they please. The
-vulgar give it this name, because they believe that the devil, acting
-upon {244} the imagination of the witch when she mutters her wicked
-words, represents invisibly to her the heart and entrails of the
-patient, taken out of his body, and makes her devour them. In which
-these wretches find so delightful a task, that very often, to satisfy
-their appetite, without any impulse of resentment or enmity, they will
-destroy innocent persons, and even their nearest relatives, as there
-is a report that our prisoner killed one of her own daughters in this
-manner.
-
-This was confirmed to me by a similar story, which I heard at Ispahan,
-from the mouth of P. Sebastian de Jesus, a Portugueze Augustinian, a
-man to be believed, and of singular virtue, who was prior of their
-convent when I departed. He assured me, that, on one of the places
-dependent upon Portugal, on the confines of Arabia Felix, I know not
-whether it was at Mascate or at Ormuz, an Arab having been taken up
-for a similar crime, and convicted of it, for he confessed the fact,
-the captain, or governor of the place, who was a Portugueze, that he
-might better understand the truth of these black and devilish actions,
-of which there is no doubt in this country, made the sorcerer be
-brought before him before he was led to his punishment, and asked him,
-If he could eat the inside of a cucumber without opening it, as well
-as the heart of a man? The sorcerer said yes; and, in order to {245}
-prove it, a cucumber was brought: he looked at it, never touching it,
-steadily for some time, with his usual enchantments, and then told the
-captain he had eaten the whole inside; and accordingly, when it was
-opened, nothing was found but the rind. This is not impossible; for
-the devil, of whom they make use in these operations, having, in the
-order of nature, greater power than all inferior creatures, can, with
-God's permission, produce these effects, and others more marvellous.
-
-The same father told me, that one of these sorcerers, whether it was
-the same or not I do not know, having been taken for a similar
-offence, was asked, If he could eat the heart of the Portuguese
-captain? and he replied no; for the Franks had a certain thing upon
-the breast, which covered them like a cuirass, and was so
-impenetrable, that it was proof against all his charms. This can be
-nothing else than the virtue of baptism, the armour of the faith, and
-the privilege of the sons of the church, against which the gates of
-hell cannot prevail.
-
-To return, however, to my first subject:--This witch of Combru made
-some difficulty at first to confess her guilt; but seeing herself
-pressed with threats of death, and being led, in fact, to the public
-square, where I saw her with the sick young man, she said, that though
-she had not been the cause of his complaint, perhaps she could cure
-{246} it, if they would let her remain alone with him, in his house,
-without interruption; by which she tacitly confessed her witchcraft:
-For it is held certain in these countries, that these wicked women can
-remove the malady which they have caused, if it be not come to the
-last extremity. And of many remedies which they use to restore health
-to the sufferers, there is one very extraordinary, which is, that the
-witch casts something out of her mouth, like the grain of a
-pomegranate, which is believed to be a part of the heart that she had
-eaten. The patient picks it up immediately, as part of his own
-intestines, and greedily swallows it; and by this means, as if his
-heart was replaced in his body, he recovers by degrees his health. I
-dare not assure you of these things as certainly true, not having
-myself seen them, surpassing as they do the course of nature. If they
-are as is said, it can be only in appearance, by the illusions of the
-devil; and if the afflicted recover actually their health, it is
-because the same devil ceases to torment them. Without dwelling longer
-upon these curious speculations,--the witch having given hopes that
-she would cure the patient, the officers promised that she should
-receive no injury, and they were both sent home; but an archer was set
-over her as a guard, that she might not escape.--PIETRO DELLA VALLE.
-
-{247}
-
-  _The Calis._--XI. p. 114.
-
-The Calis and Pandaris are the protectresses of cities; each city has
-its own. They address prayers to these tutelary divinities, and build
-temples to them, offering to them blood in sacrifice, and sometimes
-human victims. These objects of worship are not immortal, and they
-take their name from the city over which they preside, or from the
-form in which they are represented. They are commonly framed of a
-gigantic stature, having several arms, and the head surrounded with
-flames; several fierce animals are also placed under their
-feet.--SONNERAT.
-
-
-  _Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad_
-  _Upon the King of the Ravens._--XI. p. 114.
-
-Mr. Moor has a curious remark upon this subject:
-
-"Sani being among the astrologers of India, as well as with their
-sapient brethren of Europe, a planet of malignant aspects, the
-ill-omened raven may be deemed a fit _Vahan_ for such a dreaded being.
-But this is not, I think, a sufficient reason for the conspicuous
-introduction of the raven into the mythological machinery of the Hindu
-system, so accurate, so connected, and so complete in all its parts;
-although the investigations that it hath hitherto undergone have not
-fully developed or reached such points {248} of perfection. Now let me
-ask the reason, why, both in England and in India, the raven it so
-rare a bird? It breeds every year, like the crow, and is much longer
-lived; and while the latter bird abounds every where, to a degree
-bordering on nuisance, a pair of ravens, for they are seldom seen
-singly or in trios, are scarcely found duplicated in any place.
-Perhaps, take England or India over, two pair of ravens will not be
-found, on an average, in the extent of five hundred or a thousand
-acres. I know not, for I write where I have no access to books, if our
-naturalists have sought the theory of this; or whether it may have
-first occurred to me, which it did while contemplating the character
-and attributes of Sani, that the raven destroys its young; and if this
-notion be well founded, and on no other can I account for the rareness
-of the annual-breeding long-lived raven, we shall at once see the
-propriety of symbolizing it with Saturn, or Kronos, or Time, devouring
-or destroying his own offspring.--MOOR's _Hindu Pantheon_, p. 311.
-
-
-  _A thousand eyes were quench'd in endless night,_
-  _To form that magic globe._--XI. p. 117.
-
-A similar invention occurs in Dr. Beaumont's Psyche, one of the most
-extraordinary poems in our language. I am far from claiming any merit
-for such inventions, which {249} no man can value more cheaply,--but
-such as it is, I am not beholden for it to this forgotten writer,
-whose strange, long, but by no means uninteresting work I had never
-read till after two editions of Kehama were printed.
-
-  A stately mirror's all-enamell'd case
-   The second was; no crystal ever yet
-  Smil'd with such pureness: never ladies' glass
-   Its owner flattered with so smooth a cheat.
-  Nor could Narcissus' fount with such delight
-  Into his fair destruction him invite.
-
-  For He in that and self-love being drown'd,
-   Agenor from him pluck'd his doting eyes:
-  And, shuffled in her fragments, having found
-   Old Jezabels, he stole the dog's due prize.
-  Goliah's staring bacins too he got,
-  Which he with Pharaoh's all together put.
-
-  But not content with these, from Phaeton,
-   From Joab, Icarus, Nebuchadnezzar,
-  From Philip and his world-devouring son,
-   From Sylla, Cataline, Tully, Pompey, Cæsar,
-  From Herod, Cleopatra, and Sejanus,
-  From Agrippina and Domitianus,
-
-{250}
-
-  And many surly stoics, theirs he pull'd;
-   Whose proudest humours having drained out,
-  He blended in a large and polish'd mould;
-   Which up he fill'd with what from Heaven he brought,
-  In extract of those looks of Lucifer,
-  In which against his God he breathed war.
-
-  Then to the North, that glassy kingdom, where
-   Establish'd frost and ice for ever reign,
-  He sped his course, and meeting Boreas there,
-   Pray'd him this liquid mixture to restrain.
-  When lo! as Boreas oped his mouth and blew
-  For his command, the slime all solid grew.
-
-  Thus was the mirror forged, and contain'd
-   The vigour of those self-admiring eyes
-  Agenor's witchcraft into it had strain'd;
-   A dangerous juncture of proud fallacies;
-  Whose fair looks so inamour'd him, that he
-  Thrice having kiss'd it, nam'd it Philanty.
-
-  Inchanted Psyche ravish'd was to see
-   The Glass herself upon herself reflect
-  With trebled majesty. The sun, when he
-   Is by Aurora's roseat fingers deckt,
-  {251}
-  Views not his repercussed self so fair
-  Upon the eastern main, as she did here.
-
-
-  _Be true unto yourselves._--XII. p. 127.
-
-The passage in which Menu exhorts a witness to speak the truth is one
-of the few sublime ones in his Institutes. "The soul itself is its own
-witness; the soul itself is its own refuge; offend not thy conscious
-soul, the supreme internal witness of men! . . The sinful have said in
-their hearts, none see us. Yes, the gods distinctly see them, and so
-does the spirit within their breasts . . The guardian deities of the
-firmament, of the earth, of the waters, of the human heart, of the
-moon, of the sun, and of fire, of punishment after death, of the
-winds, of night, of both twilights, and of justice, perfectly know the
-state of all spirits clothed with bodies. . . O friend to virtue! that
-supreme Spirit, _which thou believest one and the same with thyself_,
-resides in thy bosom perpetually, and is an all-knowing inspector of
-thy goodness or of thy wickedness. If thou beest not at variance, by
-speaking falsely, with Yama, the subduer of all, with Vaivaswata the
-punisher, with that great Divinity who dwells in thy breast,--go not
-on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to the plains of Curu, for
-thou hast no need of expiation.--_Ch. viii. p._ 84, 85, 86, 91, 92.
-
-{252}
-
-  _The Aunnay Birds._--XII. p. 128.
-
-The Aunnays act a considerable part in the history of the Nellah
-Rajah, an amusing romance, for a translation of which we are indebted
-to Mr. Kindersley. They are milk-white, and remarkable for the
-gracefulness of their walk.
-
-END OF VOLUME FIRST.
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES.
-
-[1] _Murresoo_, or _Mursoo_, in the Hala Canara, signifies _rude,
-uncivilized;--Wokul_, a _husbandman_.
-
-[2] Dignus vindice nodus.
-
-[3] In the Azanaga dialect of the Lybian tongue, Aseif signifies a river.
-
-[4] The Hindoos call a child _Bala_ till it attains the age of
-fifteen years old. From the sixteenth year to the fiftieth,
-_Youvuna_, or a state of youth, is supposed to continue.
-Each of these has several subdivisions; and in certain cases
-the period admits of variation, as appears to have been the
-case here.
-
-[5] The horse intended for the sacrifice.
-
-[6] The Indian spade, formed like a hoe, with a short handle.
-
-[7] An instrument said to be formed like an ox's yoke.
-
-[8] A dart, or spear.
-
-[9] A club, or crow.
-
-[10] A weapon, now unknown.
-
-[11] The eight Vusoos, the eleven Roodras, the twelve Adityas, and
-Ushwinee and Koomæra.
-
-[12] This seems to have been spoken by these youths in the warmth of their
-imagination.
-
-[13] The Hindoos say, that Kupila, or Vasoo-deva, is an incarnation of
-Vishnoo, whom they describe as having been thus partially incarnate
-twenty-four times.
-
-[14] One towards each of the cardinal points, and the sun over his head,
-towards which he was constantly looking.
-
-[15] The heaven from which there can be no fall.
-
-[16] Shiva, from Shoola, the spear which he held.
-
-[17] Shiva.
-
-[18] Literally, three Gungas. Wherever a part of Gunga flows it is
-dignified with her name: Thus the Hindoos say, the Gunga of Pouyaga, &c.
-
-[19] The river of joy.
-
-[20] The purifier.
-
-[21] Abounding with water.
-
-[22] Beautiful eyed.
-
-[23] White.
-
-[24] Probably the Indus.
-
-[25] Shiva, the existant.
-
-[26] Sagura is one of the most common names for the sea which the Hindoos
-have.
-
-[27] From the root _gum_, signifying motion.
-
-[28] The earth.
-
-[29] The end of thy vows is accomplished, therefore now relinquish thy
-vows of being an ascetic.
-
-END OF FOOTNOTES.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2), by 
-Robert Southey
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