Note 25.1 — Chapter VIII · THE LIFE-TOKEN IN TALE AND CUSTOM.
Reading edition
In Eastern tales the Faith-token ordinarily assumes the form of a flower. In the Tutinameh, a soldier’s wife gives her husband on his departure a rose which will remain fresh while she preserves her purity.25.1 In the Kathá-sarit-Ságara, the god Siva appears in a dream to Guhasena and his wife Devasmitá when they are about to part, and gives them a red lotus apiece, saying: “Take each of you one of these lotuses in your hand. And if either of you shall be unfaithful during your separation, the lotus in the hand of the other shall fade, but not otherwise.” When they awoke, each beheld in the other’s hand a red lotus, “and it seemed as if they had got one another’s hearts.”25.2 In a modern folktale obtained in the Panjáb the kind of flower is not specified, but the incident is the same.25.3 The token appears also as a flower or a garland in several of the European romances of chivalry; and in a Hungarian märchen a king, going to war, gives to his two daughters two wreaths which will wither if they lose their maidenhood.25.4 In a modern folksong of one of the Greek islands, an apple-tree, questioned why it withers, replies: