Note 89 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.

Little reference has yet been made to the Parî or fairies, or the Jinn or genii, because they are, in their present state at least, of exotic origin, though their original basis was possibly laid on Indian soil. Thus we have the Apsaras, who in name at least, “moving in the water,” is akin to Aphrodite. They appear only faintly in the Veda as the nymphs of Indra’s heaven, and the chief of them is Urvasî, to whom reference has been already made. Two of them, Rambhâ and Menakâ, are shown as luring austere sages from their devotions, as in the Irish legend of Glendalough. They are the wives or mistresses of the Gandharvas, the singers and musicians who attend the banquets of the gods. Indra in the Rig Veda is the giver of women, and he provides one of his aged friends with a young wife.89 Rambhâ, one of the fairies of his court, appears constantly in the tales of Somadeva, and descends in human form to the arms of her earthly lovers, as Titania with Bottom in the “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Their successor in the modern tales is Shâhpasand, “The beloved of the king,” who takes the shape of a pigeon and kisses the beautiful hero. In one of the stories which appears in many forms, the youth with the help of a Faqîr finds his way to the dance of Râja Indra, takes the place of his drummer, and wins the fairy, whom he identifies in spite of the many schemes which the jovial god invents to deceive him. These ladies are all of surpassing beauty, skilled in music and the dance, with white skins, and always dressed in red.