Note to Chapter VII.
“Rákshasas, Yakshas, and Piśáchas have no power in the day, being dazed with the brightness of the sun therefore they delight in the night.”
Farmer commenting on Hamlet, Act I, Sc. I, 150, quotes the following lines of Prudentius Ad Gallicinium. Ferunt vagantes dæmonas, Lætos tenebris noctium, Gallo canente exterritos, Sparsim timere et cedere. Hoc esse signum præscii Norunt repromissæ spei, Qua nos soporis liberi Speramus adventum Dei. Douce quotes from another hymn said to have been composed by Saint Ambrose and formerly used in the Salisbury service. Præco dici jam sonat, Noctis profundæ pervigil; Nocturna lux viantibus, A nocte noctem segregans. Hoc excitatus Lucifer Solvit polum caligine; Hoc omnis errorum cohors Viam nocendi deserit. Gallo canente spes redit &c.
See also Grössler’s Sagen der Grafschaft Mansfeld, pp. 58 and 59; the Pentamerone of Basile, translated by Liebrecht, Vol. I, p. 251; Dasent’s Norse Tales, p. 347, “The Troll turned round, and, of course, as soon as he saw the sun, he burst;” Grimm’s Irische Märchen, p. x; Kuhn’s Westfälische Märchen, p. 63; Schöppner’s Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, pp. 123, and 228; and Bernhard Schmidt’s Griechische Märchen, p. 138. He quotes the following interesting passage from the Philopseudes of Lucian, Συνῆν ἄχρι δὴ ἀλεκτρυόνων ἠκούσαμεν ᾳδόντων τότε δὴ ἥ τε Σελήνη ἀνέπτατο εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἡ Ἑκάτη ἔδυ κατὰ τῆς γῆς, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα φάσματα ἠφανίσθη, &c.
[1] Skanda is another name of Kártikeya.
[2] This grammar is extensively in use in the eastern parts of Bengal. The rules are attributed to Śarvavarman, by the inspiration of Kártikeya, as narrated in the text. The vṛitti or gloss is the work of Durgá Singh and that again is commented on by Trilochana Dása and Kavirája. Vararuchi is the supposed author of an illustration of the Conjugations and Srípati Varmá of a Supplement. Other Commentaries are attributed to Gopí Nátha, Kula Chandra and Viśveśvara. (Note in Wilson’s Essays, Vol. I. p. 183.)
[3] Ṛishis.
[4] Sanskára means tendency produced by some past influence, often works in a former birth. This belief seems to be very general in Wales, see Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 113. See also Kuhn’s Herabkunft des Feuers, p. 93, De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 285.
[5] For the idea cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 1. (towards the end) and numerous other passages in the same author.
[6] Brockhaus renders it Fromme, Helden und Weise.
[7] Vaiśvánara is an epithet of Agni or Fire.
[8] Śiva.
[9] Cp. the 1st story in the Vetála Panchavinśati, [Chapter 75] of this work. See also Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 241, where Prince Ivan by the help of his tutor Katoma propounds to the Princess Anna the fair, a riddle which enables him to win her as his wife.
[10] The god of justice.
[11] Benfey considers this story as Buddhistic in its origin. In the “Memoires Sur les Contrées Occidentales traduits du Sanscrit par Hiouen Thsang et du Chinois par Stanislas Julien” we are expressly told that Gautama Buddha gave his flesh to the hawk as Śivi in a former state of existence. It is told of many other persons, see Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 388, cp. also Campbell’s West Highland Tales, p. 239, Vol. I, Tale XVI. M. Lévêque (Les Mythes et Légendes de L’Inde p. 327) connects this story with that of Philemon and Baucis. He lays particular stress upon the following lines of Ovid:
Unicus anser erat, minimæ custodia villæ
Quem Dîs hospitibus domini mactare parabant:
Ille celer penna tardos ætate fatigat,
Eluditque diu, tandemquo est visus ad ipsos
Confugisse deos. Superi vetuere necari.
See also Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, pp. 187, 297 and 414.
[12] I. e., Śiva.