The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 120

[814] Cp. Vol. II, p. 243.

[815] I separate pratijna from siddhim.

[816] It is possible that this may be the original of the 4th story in the 10th day of the Decamerone.

[817] See Vol. I, p. 212, and Lieutenant Temple's article Lamia in the Antiquary for August, 1882. Terrible man-eating Sirens are described in the Valaha.s.sajataka to which Dr. Morris called attention in a letter in the Academy. Cp. Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, p. 142.

[818] No. 3003 and the Sanskrit College MS. give antahsthena for sambhramayya. No. 1882 has tva-tahsthena; an insect has devoured the intermediate letter.

 

[819] This is substantially the same story as the second in chapter 77.

[820] See Vol. I. pp. 465 and 578.

[821] Vikrosam is a misprint for vikosam. The latter is found in MS. No. 1882 and the Sanskrit College MS. and, I think, in No. 3003; but the letter is not very well formed.

[822] The word badhuns is evidently a misprint for bandhuns: as appears from the MSS.

[823] This story is known in Europe, and may perhaps be the original source of Shakespeare's "All's Well that Ends Well." At any rate there is a slight resemblance in the leading idea of the two stories. It bears a close resemblance to the story of Sorfarina, No. 36 in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, and to that of Sapia in the Pentamerone of Basile. In the Sicilian and in the Neapolitan tale a prince is angry with a young lady who, when teaching him, gave him a box on the ear, and marries her in order to avenge himself by ill-treating her; but finding that he has, without suspecting it, had three children by her, he is obliged to seek a reconciliation. Dr. Kohler in his note on the Sicilian tale gives no other parallel than Basile's tale, which is the 6th of the Vth day, Vol. II, p. 204 of Liebrecht's translation.

[824] I think we should read ushne. I believe that Nos. 1882 and 3003 have this, judging from the way in which shn is usually formed in those MSS.

[825] Cp. Ralston's Tibetan Tales, p. 89.

[826] I read pratyayo na me which I find in the Taylor MS. and which makes sense. I take the words as part of the boy's speech. "It is untrue; I do not believe it." But vakshyasyapratyayena me would also make sense. The Sanskrit College MS. supports Brockhaus's text.

[827] In the original there is the following note, "Here ends the tale of King Vikramaditya."

[828] Having reached the end of my translation, I am ent.i.tled to presume that this epithet refers to the extraordinary length of the Katha Sarit Sagara.