One of the verses I have referred to in note 12. “The Song of the Gambler,” runs:—
“The gambler hurries to the gaming table,”
“To-day I’ll win, he thinks in his excitement,”
“The dice inflame his greed, his hopes mount higher,”
“He leaves his winnings all with his opponent.”
The reference seems to be to the last of the divisions of the Mahabharata: the divisions are called Parba.
Literally—“He is sharp enough in the buri, but blind in the kahan,”— a buri is equal to 20 cowries: a kahan to 1,600 cowries.
It is a popular tradition that Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, wrote his famous epic before Ram was born: thus the expression practically means: “It was a foregone conclusion.”
There is a popular tradition about a small bird, called in Bengal the Chátak, which sings in the hot weather months: the tradition is that it drinks only rain-water, and that its song is a cry to Heaven for rain: this is only one of the many traditions pointing to the eagerness with which in India the annual rains are expected. The bird is a small black-plumaged bird, and its cry exactly resembles “Phatik Jal,” which the people interpret as “Sphatik Jal,”: “Water clear as crystal.” It is supposed to drink with its beak raised in the air; a synonym for an anxious man is— “He is like a Chátak.”