Then, seeing Varsha plunged in meditation within the house, we approached his wife, who shewed us all proper hospitality; her body was emaciated and begrimed, her dress tattered and dirty; she looked like the incarnation of poverty, attracted thither by admiration for the Bráhman’s virtues. Bending humbly before her, we then told her our circumstances, and the report of her husband’s imbecility, which we heard in the city. She exclaimed—“My children, I am not ashamed to tell you the truth; listen! I will relate the whole story,” and then she, chaste lady, proceeded to tell us the tale which follows:

Having heard this from the wife of Varsha, and having immediately given her a hundred gold pieces to relieve her poverty, we went out of that city; then we wandered through the earth, and could not find anywhere a person who could remember what he had only heard once: at last we arrived tired out at your house to-day, and have found here this boy, your son, who can recollect anything after once hearing it: therefore give him us and let us go forth to acquire the commodity knowledge.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · More literally, the goddess that dwells in the Vindhya hills. Her shrine is near Mirzápúr.Note 2 · Dr. Brockhaus makes parusha a proper name.Note 3 · Ficus Indica.Note 4 · Pumán = Purusha, the spirit.Note 5 · Prakṛiti, the original source or rather passive power of creating the material world.Note 6 · Prajápati.Note 7 · The spirit was of course Brahmá whose head Śiva cut off.Note 8 · It appears from an article in Mélusine by A Bart, entitled An Ancient Manual of Sorcery, and consisting mainly of passages translated from B Note 9 · A grammatical treatise on the rules regulating the euphonic combination of letters and their pronunciation peculiar to one of the different Note 10 · i. e., died.Note 11 · Here we have a pun which it is impossible to render in English. Anátha means without natural protectors and also poor.Note 12 · Taking chháyá in the sense of śobhá. It might mean “affording no shelter to the inmates.”Note 13 · Dr. Brockhaus translates the line—Von diesem wurde ich meinem Manne vermählt, um seinem Hauswesen vorzustehen.Note 14 · Like the Roman fascinum. guhya = phallus.Note 15 · I read tat for táh according to a conjecture of Professor E. B. Cowell’s. He informs me on the authority of Dr. Rost that the only variants Note 16 · Literally bodiless—she heard the voice, but saw no man.Note 17 · Vara = excellent ruch = to please.Note 18 · I. e. Palibothra.Note 19 · Wilson remarks (Essays on Sanskrit Literature, Vol. I, p. 165). “The contemporary existence of Nanda with Vararuchi and Vyáḍi is a circumsta Note 20 · In the city of Kauśámbí there lived a Bráhman called Somadatta, who also had the title of Agniśikha, and his wife was called Vasudattá. She Note 21 · Mother, in the city of Vetasa there were two Bráhman brothers, Deva-Swámin and Karambaka, who loved one another very dearly; this Indradatta Note 22 · There lived in this city an excellent Bráhman, named Śankara Svámin, and he had two sons, my husband Varsha, and Upavarsha; my husband was s Note 23 · Having heard this speech of Vyáḍi, my mother said with respect, “All this tallies completely; I repose confidence in your tale: for long ago