Note 293 — Chapter II · SĪLAVAGGA.

The verse is very obscure, and the long commentary does not make it clearer. “To keep in any posture that he likes” is literally “having three postures—master of three postures.” “Most swift” is in the original “eight-hoofed.” If “eight-hoofed” means “with two hoofs on each foot,” as the commentator thinks, where would be the peculiarity so creditable to the obedient learner? The last line in the test is so corrupt that the commentator can only suggest three contradictory and improbable explanations. If one could venture to read chavaŋ kalāhati bhoti, one might render, “My nephew, lady, can counterfeit a corpse.” Mr. Trenckner has been good enough to send me the following suggested translation, “The deer, the threefold cunning (?) fertile in expedients, the cloven-footed, who goes to drink at midnight (!?) (don’t fear for him), lying on one ear, panting on the ground, my nephew, by the six tricks he knows will dodge (the hunter).”