Tales of the Sun Part 23

[81] i.e., lover of his wife.

[82] i.e., a shudder at sin.

[83] Wors.h.i.+p of the household G.o.ds or devotion.

[84] The eleventh lunar day of every fortnight, on which a fast is observed by orthodox Hindus.

[85] Bhusura, bhudeva; a generic name for a Brahmin.

 

[86] Oil of sesamun; til and gingely oil are the ordinary names for this common product of India.

[87] Dvadasi is the twelfth lunar day, on which early in the morning, before even the fifth ghatika is over, every orthodox Hindu is obliged by his religious codes to break the previous day's fast.

[88] Lit. a "chombu-full;" the chombu is a small vessel.

[89] A sacred hymn.

[90] A panam is generally worth two anas.

[91] See also the second tale in this series.

[92] Learned woman.

[93] There would of course be no real marriage between a dancing girl and a Brahmin. Hence the insult.

[94] In stories of a master falling in love with the girl he has been teaching, he is usually himself made a soothsayer. In that capacity he asks the guardian (father or mother) to put the girl in a light box and to float her down a river. The girl in the box is taken by a young man, sometimes a prince, and becomes his wife. A tiger or a lion is then put into the box, and when the teacher, a great way down the river, takes the box and wishes to run away with the girl inside, he is torn to pieces, as a fit reward for his evil intentions, by the beast. But here the story takes a different turn.

[95] From this point up to the end we shall find the story to be similar to "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in the Arabian Nights, though the plot is different.

[96] Ganga snana Tunga pana. The Ganges for bath and Tunga (Tungabhadra) for drink.

[97] A Kanarese tale related by a risaldar.

[98] Headman of the village.

[99] Daks.h.i.+nas (fees given in donation to Brahmins) are ordinarily given to priests.

[100] A yellow grain, peculiar to India.

[101] It is not generally known that the "Birnam Wood" incident in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" occurs in the same Arabian historical work.