Whom that God wold sende wele.”
[277] In this tale Iram is used as the name of an island of the “upper world,” not that of a garden in fairyland—see p. [304].
[278] Jazíra-i Firdaus, that is, the Island of Paradise—see p. [244], where the crafty courtesan Dilbar is represented as dwelling in a city called Firdaus; and p. [304], note 3, where it is the name of an island in fairyland.
[279] See also Dasent’s Popular Tales from the Norse: “Boots and the Troll.”
[280] An adaptation, or imitation, of the Sanskrit series of stories entitled Vetálapanchavinsati, Twenty-five (Tales) of a Vetála, or Vampyre; called in Hindí, Baital Pachísí, and in Tamil, Vedála Kadai.
[281] Radloff’s Proben der Volksliteratur der Türkischen Stamme des Süd-Siberiens; St. Petersburg: 1870; iii, 389.—The story is also found in the Hebrew Talmud: Two slaves are overheard by their master conversing about a camel that had preceded them on the road. It was blind of an eye, and laden with two skin bottles, one of which contained wine, the other oil. (Hershon’s Talmudic Miscellany.)—See also M. Zotenberg’s Chronique de Tabari, t. ii, 357-361.
[282] In a curious catch-penny imitation of the Seven Wise Masters, compiled by one Thomas Howard, about the end of the 17th century, or early in the 18th, entitled the Seven Wise Mistresses (of which I possess a well-thumbed copy printed in black letter), the story is told of a lady, and a lion who became attached to her in gratitude for her having pulled a thorn out of his foot—Androcles in petticoats! The lion kills a bear that would have slain the lady’s father, and the steward coming up and finding the old gentleman lying prone on the earth, apparently dead, but, as it turns out, only in a swoon from sheer fright, forthwith kills the lion.
[283] Mahábhárata, Book iii (‘Vana Parva’), section lxi.—Dean Milman has rendered the ever fresh story of Nala and Damayanti into the most elegant English verse.
[284] Possibly Shakuni used loaded dice when it came to his turn to throw. “Some of the virtues may be modern,” says Lord Lytton (I quote from memory), “but it is certain that all the vices are ancient: cogged dice were found at Pompeii!”
[285] The Mahábhárata of Krishna-Dwapayana Vyasa. Translated into English Prose by Protáp Chandra Roy. Now in course of serial issue at Calcutta. Sabha Parva, fasic. xi, pp. 155-172; Vana Parva, fasic. xiv, pp. 174-177; 230.