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1. [ Metamorphoseon, seu de Asino Aureo, libri Xl. The well known and beautiful episode is in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth books.]

2. [ This ceremony will be explained in a future page.]

3. [ A common exclamation of sorrow, surprise, fear, and other emotions. It is especially used by women.]

4. [ Quoted from view of the Hindoos, by William Ward, of Serampore (vol. i. p. 25).]

5. [ In Sanskrit, Vetala-pancha-Vinshati. “Baital” is the modern form of “Vetala”.]

6. [ In Arabic, Badpai el Hakim.]

7. [ Dictionnaire philosophique sub v. “Apocryphes.”]

8. [ I do not mean that rhymes were not known before the days of Al-Islam, but that the Arabs popularized assonance and consonance in Southern Europe.]

9. [ “Vikrama” means “valour” or “prowess.”]

10. [ Mr. Ward of Serampore is unable to quote the names of more than nine out of the eighteen, namely: Sanskrit, Prakrit, Naga, Paisacha, Gandharba, Rakshasa, Ardhamagadi, Apa, and Guhyaka—most of them being the languages of different orders of fabulous beings. He tells us, however, that an account of these dialects may be found in the work called Pingala.]

11. [ Translated by Sir Wm. Jones, 1789; and by Professor Williams, 1856.]

12. [ Translated by Professor H. H. Wilson.]

13. [ The time was propitious to savans. Whilst Vikramaditya lived, Magha, another king, caused to be written a poem called after his name For each verse he is said to have paid to learned men a gold piece, which amounted to a total of 5,280l.—a large sum in those days, which preceded those of Paradise Lost. About the same period Karnata, a third king, was famed for patronizing the learned men who rose to honour at Vikram’s court. Dhavaka, a poet of nearly the same period, received from King Shriharsha the magnificent present of 10,000l. for a poem called the Ratna-Mala.]

14. [ Lieut. Wilford supports the theory that there were eight Vikramadityas, the last of whom established the era. For further particulars, the curious reader will consult Lassen’s Anthologia, and Professor H. H. Wilson’s Essay on Vikram (New), As. Red.. ix. 117.]

15. [ History tells us another tale. The god Indra and the King of Dhara gave the kingdom to Bhartari-hari, another son of Gandhar-ba-Sena, by a handmaiden. For some time, the brothers lived together; but presently they quarrelled. Vikram being dismissed from court, wandered from place to place in abject poverty, and at one time hired himself as a servant to a merchant living in Guzerat. At length, Bhartari-hari, disgusted with the world on account of the infidelity of his wife, to whom he was ardently attached, became a religious devotee, and left the kingdom to its fate. In the course of his travels, Vikram came to Ujjayani, and finding it without a head, assumed the sovereignty. He reigned with great splendour, conquering by his arms Utkala, Vanga, Kuch-bahar, Guzerat, Somnat, Delhi, and other places; until, in his turn, he was conquered, and slain by Shalivahan.]

16. [ The words are found, says Mr. Ward, in the Hindu History compiled by Mrityungaya.]

17. [ These duties of kings are thus laid down in the Rajtarangini. It is evident, as Professor H. H. Wilson says, that the royal status was by no means a sinecure. But the rules are evidently the closet work of some pedantic, dogmatic Brahman, teaching kingcraft to kings. He directs his instructions, not to subordinate judges, but to the Raja as the chief magistrate, and through him to all appointed for the administration of his justice.]

18. [ Lunus, not Luna.]

19. [ That is to say, “upon an empty stomach.”]

20. [ There are three sandhyas amongst the Hindus—morning, mid-day, and sunset; and all three are times for prayer.]

21 [ The Hindu Cupid.]

22. [ Patali, the regions beneath the earth.]

23. [ The Hindu Triad.]

24. [ Or Avanti, also called Padmavati. It is the first meridian of the Hindus, who found their longitude by observation of lunar eclipses, calculated for it and Lanka, or Ceylon. The clepsydra was used for taking time.]

25. [ In the original only the husband “practiced austere devotion.” For the benefit of those amongst whom the “pious wife” is an institution, I have extended the privilege.]

26. [ A Moslem would say, “This is our fate.” A Hindu refers at once to metempsychosis, as naturally as a modern Swedenborgian to spiritism.]

27. [ In Europe, money buys this world, and delivers you from the pains of purgatory; amongst the Hindus, it furthermore opens the gate of heaven.]

28. [ This part of the introduction will remind the reader of the two royal brothers and their false wives in the introduction to the Arabian Nights. The fate of Bhartari Raja, however, is historical.]

29. [ In the original, “Div”—a supernatural being god, or demon. This part of the plot is variously told. According to some, Raja Vikram was surprised, when entering the city to see a grand procession at the house of a potter and a boy being carried off on an elephant to the violent grief of his parents The King inquired the reason of their sorrow, and was told that the wicked Div that guarded the city was in the habit of eating a citizen per diem. Whereupon the valorous Raja caused the boy to dismount; took his place; entered the palace; and, when presented as food for the demon, displayed his pugilistic powers in a way to excite the monsters admiration.]

30. [ In India, there is still a monastic order the pleasant duty of whose members is to enjoy themselves as much as possible. It has been much the same in Europe. “Representez-vous le convent de l’Escurial ou du Mont Cassin, ou les cenobites ont toutes sortes de commodities, necessaires, utiles, delectables, superflues, surabondantes, puisqu’ils ont les cent cinquante mille, les quatre cent mille, les cinq cent mille ecus de rente; et jugez si monsieur l’abbe a de quoi laisser dormir la meridienne a ceux qui voudront.”—Saint Augustin, de l’Ouvrage des Moines, by Le Camus, Bishop of Belley, quoted by Voltaire, Dict. Phil., sub v. “Apocalypse.”]

31. [ This form of matrimony was recognized by the ancient Hindus, and is frequent in books. It is a kind of Scotch wedding—ultra-Caledonian—taking place by mutual consent, without any form or ceremony. The Gandharbas are heavenly minstrels of Indra’s court, who are supposed to be witnesses.]

32. [ The Hindu Saturnalia.]

33. [ The powders are of wheaten flour, mixed with wild ginger-root, sappan-wood, and other ingredients. Sometimes the stuff is thrown in syringes.]

34. [ The Persian proverb is—“Bala e tavilah bar sat i maimun”: “The woes of the stable be on the monkey’s head!” In some Moslem countries a hog acts prophylactic. Hence probably Mungo Park’s troublesome pig at Ludamar.]

35. [ So the moribund father of the “babes in the wood” lectures his wicked brother, their guardian: “To God and you I recommend My children deare this day: But little while, be sure, we have Within this world to stay.” But, to appeal to the moral sense of a goldsmith!]

36. [ Maha (great) raja (king): common address even to those who are not royal.]

37. [ The name means. “Quietistic Disposition.”]

38. [ August. In the solar-lunar year of the Hindu the months are divided into fortnights—light and dark.]

39. [ A flower, whose name frequently occurs in Sanskrit poetry.]

40. [ The stars being men’s souls raised to the sky for a time pro portioned to their virtuous deeds on earth.]

41. [ A measure of length, each two miles.]

42. [ The warm region below.]

43. [ Hindus admire only glossy black hair; the “bonny brown hair” loved by our ballads is assigned by them to low-caste men, witches, and fiends.]

44. [ A large kind of bat; a popular and silly Anglo-Indian name. It almost justified the irate Scotchman in calling “prodigious leears” those who told him in India that foxes flew and tress were tapped for toddy.]

45. [ The Hindus, like the European classics and other ancient peoples, reckon four ages:—The Satya Yug, or Golden Age, numbered 1,728,000 years: the second, or Treta Yug, comprised 1,296,000; the Dwapar Yug had 864,000 and the present, the Kali Yug, has shrunk to 832,000 years.]

46. [ Especially alluding to prayer. On this point, Southey justly remarks (Preface to Curse of Kehama): “In the religion of the Hindoos there is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in one 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.” Moreover, the Hindu gods hear the prayers of those who desire the evil of others. Hence when a rich man becomes poor, his friends say, “See how sharp are men’s teeth!” and, “He is ruined because others could not bear to see his happiness!”]

47. [ A pond, natural or artificial; in the latter case often covering an extent of ten to twelve acres.]

48. [ The Hindustani “gilahri,” or little grey squirrel, whose twittering cry is often mistaken for a bird’s.]

49. [ The autumn or rather the rainy season personified—a hackneyed Hindu prosopopoeia.]

50. [ Light conversation upon the subject of women is a persona offence to serious-minded Hindus.]

51. [ Cupid in his two forms, Eros and Anteros.]

52. [ This is true to life in the East, women make the first advances, and men do the begueules.]

53. [ Raja-hans, a large grey goose, the Hindu equivalent for our swan.]

54. [ Properly Karnatak; karna in Sanskrit means an ear.]

55. [ Danta in Sanskrit is a tooth.]

56. [ Padma means a foot.]

57. [ A common Hindu phrase equivalent to our “I manage to get on.”]

58. [ Meaning marriage maternity, and so forth.]

59. [ Yama is Pluto; ‘mother of Yama’ is generally applied to an old scold.]

60. [ Snake-land: the infernal region.]

61. [ A form of abuse given to Durga, who was the mother of Ganesha (Janus); the latter had an elephant’s head.]

62. [ Unexpected pleasure, according to the Hindus, gives a bristly elevation to the down of the body.]

63. [ The Hindus banish “flasks,” et hoc genus omne, from these scenes, and perhaps they are right.]

64. [ The Pankha, or large common fan, is a leaf of the Corypha umbraculifera, with the petiole cut to the length of about five feet, pared round the edges and painted to look pretty. It is waved by the servant standing behind a chair.]

65. [ The fabulous mass of precious stones forming the sacred mountain of Hindu mythology.]

66. [ “I love my love with an ‘S,’ because he is stupid and not pyschological.”]

67. [ Hindu mythology has also its Cerberus, Trisisa, the “three headed” hound that attends dreadful Yama (Pluto)]

68. [ Parceque c’est la saison des amours.]

69. [ The police magistrate, the Catual of Camoens.]

70. [ The seat of a Hindu ascetic.]

71. [ The Hindu scriptures.]

72. [ The Goddess of Prosperity.]

73. [ In the original the lover is not blamed; this would be the Hindu view of the matter; we might be tempted to think of the old injunction not to seethe a kid in the mother’s milk.]

74. [ In the original a “maina “-the Gracula religiosa.]

75. [ As we should say, buried them.]

76. [ A large kind of black bee, common in India.]

77. [ The beautiful wife of the demigod Rama Chandra.]

78. [ The Hindu Ars Amoris.]

79. [ The old philosophers, believing in a “Sat” (xx xx), postulated an Asat (xx xx xx) and made the latter the root of the former.]

80. [ In Western India, a place celebrated for suicides.]

81. [ Kama Deva. “Out on thee, foul fiend, talk’st thou of nothing but ladies?”]

82. [ The pipal or Ficus religiosa, a favourite roosting-place for fiends.]

83. [ India.]

84. [ The ancient name of a priest by profession, meaning “praepositus” or praeses. He was the friend and counsellor of a chief, the minister of a king, and his companion in peace and war. (M. Muller’s Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485).]

85. [ Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. Raj-Lakshmi would mean the King’s Fortune, which we should call tutelary genius. Lakshichara is our “luckless,” forming, as Mr. Ward says, an extraordinary coincidence of sound and meaning in languages so different. But the derivations are very distinct.]

86. [ The Monkey God.]

87. [ Generally written “Banyan.”]

88. [ The daughter of Raja Janaka, married to Ramachandra. The latter placed his wife under the charge of his brother Lakshmana, and went into the forest to worship, when the demon Ravana disguised himself as a beggar, and carried off the prize.]

89. [ This great king was tricked by the god Vishnu out of the sway of heaven and earth, but from his exceeding piety he was appointed to reign in Patala, or Hades.]

90. [ The procession is fair game, and is often attacked in the dark with sticks and stones, causing serious disputes. At the supper the guests confer the obligation by their presence, and are exceedingly exacting.]

91. [ Rati is the wife of Kama, the God of Desire; and we explain the word by “Spring personified.”]

92. [ The Indian Cuckoo (Cucuius Indicus). It is supposed to lay its eggs in the nest of the crow.]

93.n [ This is the well-known Ghi or Ghee, the one sauce of India which is as badly off in that matter as England.]

94. [ The European reader will observe that it is her purity which carries the heroine through all these perils. Moreover, that her virtue is its own reward, as it loses to her the world.]

95. [ Literally, “one of all tastes”—a wild or gay man, we should say.]

96. [ These shoes are generally made of rags and bits of leather; they have often toes behind the foot, with other similar contrivances, yet they scarcely ever deceive an experienced man.]

97. [ The high-toper is a swell-thief, the other is a low dog.]

98. [ Engaged in shoplifting.]

99. [ The moon.]

100. [ The judge.]

101. [ To be lagged is to be taken; scragging is hanging.]

102. [ The tongue.]

103. [ This is the god Kartikeya, a mixture of Mars and Mercury, who revealed to a certain Yugacharya the scriptures known as “Chauriya-Vidya”—Anglice, “Thieves’ Manual.” The classical robbers of the Hindu drama always perform according to its precepts. There is another work respected by thieves and called the “Chora-Panchashila,” because consisting of fifty lines.]

104. [ Supposed to be a good omen.]

105. [ Share the booty.]

106. [ Bhawani is one of the many forms of the destroying goddess, the wife of Shiva.]

(107. [ Wretches who kill with the narcotic seed of the stramonium.]

108. [ Better know as “Thugs,” which in India means simply “rascals.”]

109. [ Crucifixion, until late years, was common amongst the Buddhists of the Burmese empire. According to an eye-witness, Mr. F. Carey, the punishment was inflicted in two ways. Sometimes criminals were crucified by their hands and feet being nailed to a scaffold; others were merely tied up, and fed. In these cases the legs and feet of the patient began to swell and mortify at the expiration of three or four days; men are said to have lived in this state for a fortnight, and at last they expired from fatigue and mortification. The sufferings from cramp also must be very severe. In India generally impalement was more common than crucifixion.]

110. [ Our Suttee. There is an admirable Hindu proverb, which says, “No one knows the ways of woman; she kill her husband and becomes a Sati.”]

111. [ Fate and Destiny are rather Moslem than Hindu fancies.]

112. [ Properly speaking, the husbandman should plough with not fewer than four bullocks; but few can afford this. If he plough with a cow or a bullock, and not with a bull, the rice produced by his ground is unclean, and may not be used in any religious ceremony.]

113. [ A shout of triumph, like our “Huzza” or “Hurrah!” of late degraded into “Hooray.” “Hari bol” is of course religious, meaning “Call upon Hari!” i.e. Krishna, i.e. Vishnu.]

114. [ This form of suicide is one of those recognized in India. So in Europe we read of fanatics who, with a suicidal ingenuity, have succeeded in crucifying themselves.]

115. [ The river of Jaganath in Orissa; it shares the honours of sanctity with some twenty-nine others, and in the lower regions it represents the classical Styx.]

116. [ Cupid. His wife Rati is the spring personified. The Hindu poets always unite love and spring, and perhaps physiologically they are correct.]

117. [ An incarnation of the third person of the Hindu Triad, or Triumvirate, Shiva the God of Destruction, the Indian Bacchus. The image has five faces, and each face has three eyes. In Bengal it is found in many villages, and the women warn their children not to touch it on pain of being killed.]

118. [ A village Brahman on stated occasions receives fees from all the villagers.]

119. [ The land of Greece.]

120. [ Savans, professors. So in the old saying, “Hanta, Pandit Sansara “—Alas! the world is learned! This a little antedates the well-known schoolmaster.]

121. [ Children are commonly sent to school at the age of five. Girls are not taught to read, under the common idea that they will become widows if they do.]

122. [ Meaning the place of reading the four Shastras.]

123. [ A certain goddess who plays tricks with mankind. If a son when grown up act differently from what his parents did, people say that he has been changed in the womb.]

124. [ Shani is the planet Saturn, which has an exceedingly baleful influence in India as elsewhere.]

125. [ The Eleatic or Materialistic school of Hindu philosophy, which agrees to explode an intelligent separate First Cause.]

126. [ The writings of this school give an excellent view of the “progressive system,” which has popularly been asserted to be a modern idea. But Hindu philosophy seems to have exhausted every fancy that can spring from the brain of man.]

127. [ Tama is the natural state of matter, Raja is passion acting upon nature, and Satwa is excellence These are the three gunas or qualities of matter.]

128. [ Spiritual preceptors and learned men.]

129. [ Under certain limitations, gambling is allowed by Hindu law and the winner has power over the person and property of the loser. No “debts of honour” in Hindustan!]

130. [ Quotations from standard works on Hindu criminal law, which in some points at least is almost as absurd as our civilized codes.]

131. [ Hindus carry their money tied up in a kind of sheet which is wound round the waist and thrown over the shoulder.]

132. [ A thieves’ manual in the Sanskrit tongue; it aspires to the dignity of a “Scripture.”]

133. [ All sounds, say the Hindus, are of similar origin, and they do not die; if they did, they could not be remembered.]

134. [ Gold pieces.]

135. [ These are the qualifications specified by Hindu classical authorities as necessary to make a distinguished thief.]

136. [ Every Hindu is in a manner born to a certain line of life, virtuous or vicious, honest or dishonest and his Dharma, or religious duty, consists in conforming to the practice and the worship of his profession. The “Thug,” for instance, worships Bhawani, who enables him to murder successfully; and his remorse would arise from neglecting to murder.]

137. [ Hindu law sensibly punishes, in theory at least, for the same offence the priest more severely than the layman—a hint for him to practice what he preaches.]

138. [ The Hindu Mercury, god of rascals.]

139. [ A penal offence in India. How is it that we English have omitted to codify it? The laws of Manu also punish severely all disdainful expressions, such as “tush” or “pish,” addressed during argument to a priest.]

140. [ Stanzas, generally speaking, on serious subjects.]

141. [ Whitlows on the nails show that the sufferer, in the last life, stole gold from a Brahman.]