[[13]] Very few of the stories are really riddles, but they all give the Princess an opportunity of displaying her ready judgment and acumen. It will also be seen, that owing to the device with which the story concludes, there are really only nineteen days, instead of twenty-one.
[[14]] Pronounce Russakósh. The name refers to the part he will play in the story: it means both 'a ball of mercury,' and 'a treasury of taste, wit, literary sentiments or flavours,' a sort of walking encyclopædia. The King's companion is a salient figure in Hindoo drama: he is a sort of Sancho Panza, minus the vulgarity and the humour.
[[15]] This colloquialism is an exact facsimile of the Sanskrit expression.
[[16]] A play upon his own name.
[[17]] Ganésha, the god of obstacles and success. See Day 1.
[[18]] An old name for Bhíls and other wild tribes.
[[19]] 'A tree with orange-coloured fragrant blossoms.'
[[20]] The Hindoo Vulcan, sometimes, as here, used for the Creator, dhatri = Plato's [Greek: demiourgos]. Sanskrit literature is the key to Plato; much of his philosophy is only the moonlike reflection of Hindoo mythology.
[[21]] Hindoo poets see a resemblance between rows of bees and eye-glances.
[[22]] The Indian cuckoo. The crane is a by-word for inward villainy and sanctimonious exterior. The chakrawáka, or Brahmany drake, is fabled to pass the night sorrowing for the absence of his mate and she for him.