Note.
This story is found on page 498 and ff of Vol. I. It bears a close resemblance to Tale 5, and many of the parallels there quoted are applicable to it. In the 47th tale of the Pentamerone of Basile, the sons boast of their accomplishments in a very similar manner.
[1] Literally “grove of ancestors,” i. e., cemetery.
[2] Here we have one of the puns in which our author delights.
[3] More literally, “for my own two garments.” A Hindu wears two pieces of cloth.
[4] See note on Vol. I. p. 499, Liebrecht’s translation of the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. II, p. 215, Herrtage’s edition of the English Gesta Romanorum, p. 55, the Greek fable of Teiresias, Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 1. Cp. also Hagen’s Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, p. 24. We are told that Melampus buried the parents of a brood of snakes, and they rewarded him by licking his ears so that he understood the language of birds. (Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. II, p. 474.)
[5] This idea is common enough in this work, and I have already traced it in other lands. I wish now to refer to Rohde, der Griechische Roman, p. 126, note. It will be found specially illustrative of a passage in Vol. II, p. 144 of this work. Cp. also the Volsunga-Saga, in Hagen’s Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, p. 33, and Murray’s Ancient Mythology, p. 43. So Hanumán, in the Rámáyaṇa, brings medicinal herbs from the Himálaya.
Chapter LXXXIV.
(Vetála 10.)
Then Trivikramasena went and took the Vetála from the aśoka-tree, and put him on his shoulder once more, and set out; and as he was going along, the Vetála said from the top of his shoulder, “You are weary, king, so listen to this tale that is capable of dispelling weariness.”