[36] For stories of transportation through the air, see Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 157 and ff.
[37] Cp. the way in which Torello informs his wife of his presence in Boccacio’s Decameron Xth day Nov. IX. The novels of the Xth day must be derived from Indian, and probably Buddhistic sources. There is a Buddhistic vein in all of them. A striking parallel to the 5th Novel of the Xth day will be found further on in this work.
Cp. also, for the incident of the ring, Thorpe’s Yuletide Stories, p. 167. See also the story of Heinrich der Löwe, Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, pp. 21 and 22. Cp. also Waldau’s Böhmische Märchen, pp. 365 and 432, Coelho’s Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 76; and Prym und Socin’s Syrische Märchen, p. 72. See also Ralston’s Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. xlix and 1.
[38] An oblation to gods, or venerable men of, rice, dúrva grass, flowers, &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped vessel.
[39] Sneha means oil, and also affection.
[40] Sattva when applied to the ocean probably means “monsters.” So the whole compound would mean “in which was conspicuous the fury of gambling monsters.” The pun defies translation.
[41] I read aushadeḥ. The Rákshasa is compared to the mountain, Vidúshaka to the moon, his wives to the gleaming herbs.
[42] Thorpe in his Yule-tide Stories remarks that the story of Vidúshaka somewhat resembles in its ground-plot the tale of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth. With the latter he also compares the story of Śaktivega in the 5th book of the Kathá Sarit Ságara. (See the table of contents of Thorpe’s Yule-tide Stories, p. xi.) Cp. also Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 1, and for the cutting off of the giant’s arm, p. 50.