Volume 11 — THE KING WHO KENNED THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS.—Vol. XI. p. 212.

Although we may find, as already stated, the direct source of this tale in the forty-sixth chapter of Al-Mas'údi's "Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems," which was written about A.D. 943, yet there exists a much older version—if not the original form—in a Sanskrit collection entitled, "Vetálapanchavinsatí," or Twenty- five Tales of a Vampyre. This ancient work is incorporated with the "Kathá Sarit Ságara," or Ocean of the Streams of Story, composed in Sanskrit verse by Somadeva in the 11th century, after a similar work, now apparently lost, entitled "Vrihat Kathá," or Great Story, written by Gunadhya, in the 6th century.498 In the opinion of Benfey all the Vampyre Tales are of Buddhist extraction (some are unquestionably so), and they probably date from before our era. As a separate work they exist, more or less modified, in many of the Indian vernaculars; in Hindí, under the title of "Baital Pachísí"; in Tamil, "Vedala Kadai"; and there are also versions in Telegu, Mahratta, and Canarese. The following is from Professor C. H. Tawney's complete translation of the "Kathá Sarit Ságara" (it is the 8th recital of the Vetála):