Brass drinking bowl.—The lotâ, universal throughout India.
Ogre.—In the original râkhas = the Sanskrit râkhasa, translated ogre advisedly for the following reasons:—The râkhasa (râkhas, an injury) is universal in Hindu mythology as a superhuman malignant fiend inimical to man, on whom he preys, and that is his character, too, throughout Indian folk-tales. He is elaborately described in many an orthodox legend, but very little reading between the lines in these shows him to have been an alien enemy on the borders of Aryan tribes. The really human character of the râkhasa is abundantly evident from the stories about him and his doings. He occupies almost exactly the position in Indian tales that the ogre does in European story, and for the same reason, as he represents the memory of the savage tribes along the old Aryan borders. The ogre, no doubt, is the Uighur Tâtar magnified by fear into a malignant demon. For the râkhasa see the Dictionaries of Dowson, Garrett, and Monier Williams, in verbo; Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. p. 420, etc.: and for the ogre see Panjâb Notes and Queries, vol. i., in verbo.
Goat.—The ogre's eating a goat is curious: cf. the Sanskrit name ajagara, goat-eater, for the python (nowadays ajgar), which corresponds to the izhdahâ or serpent-demon on p. 131.
THE JACKAL AND THE LIZARD.
The verses.—In the original they are—
Chândî dâ merâ chauntrâ, koî sonâ lipâî!
Kâne men merâ gûkrû, shâhzâdâ baithâ hai!
My platform is of silver, plastered with gold!
Jewels are in my ears, I sit here a prince!
The verses.—In the original they are—
Hadî dâ terâ chauntrâ, koî gobar lipaî!
Kâne men terî jûtî; koî gîdar baithâ hai!
Thy platform is of bones, plastered with cow-dung!
Shoes are in thy ears; some jackal sits there!