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[ A Persian poet says:
"He who violates the rights of the bread and salt
Breaks, for his wretched self, head and neck.">[
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[ Miss Busk reproduces the proper names as they are transliterated in J³lg's German version of those Kalmuk and Mongolian Tales—from which a considerable portion of her book was rendered—thus: Ardschi Bordschi, Rakschasas, etc., but drollest of all is "Ramajana" (Ramayana), which is right in German but not in English.]
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[ The apocryphal gospels and the Christian hagiology are largely indebted to Buddhism, e.g., the Descent into Hell, of which there is such a graphic account in the Gospel of Nicodemus, seems to have been adapted from ancient Buddhist legends, now embodied in the opening chapters of a work entitled, "Káranda-vyúha," which contain a description of the Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara's descent into the hell Avíchi, to deliver the souls there held captive by Yama, the lord of the lower world. (See a paper by Professor E. R. Cowell, LL.D., in the "Journal of Philology," 1876, vol. vi. pp. 222-231.) This legend also exists in Telugu, under the title of "Sánanda Charitra," of which the outline is given in Taylor's "Catalogue Raisonné of Oriental MSS. in the Government Library, Madras," vol. ii. p. 643: Sánanda, the son of Purna Vitta and Bhadra Datta, heard from munis accounts of the pains of the wicked, and wishing to see for himself, went to Yama-puri. His coming had been announced by Nárada. Yama showed the stranger the different lots of mankind in a future state, in details. Sánanda was touched with compassion for the miseries that he witnessed, and by the use of the five and six lettered spells he delivered those imprisoned souls and took them with him to Kailasa. Yama went to Siva and complained, but Siva civilly dismissed the appeal.—Under the title of "The Harrowing of Hell," the apocryphal Christian legend was the theme of a Miracle Play in England during the Middle Ages, and indeed it seems to have been, in different forms, a popular favourite throughout Europe. Thus in a German tale Strong Hans goes to the Devil in hell and wants to serve him, and sees the pains in which souls are imprisoned standing beside the fire. Full of pity, he lifts up the lids and sets the souls free, on which the Devil at once drives him away. A somewhat similar notion occurs in an Icelandic tale of the Sin Sacks, in Powell and Magnússon's collection (second series, p. 48). And in T. Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland," ed. 1828, Part. ii. p. 30 ff., we read of Soul Cages at the bottom of the sea, containing the spirits of drowned sailors, which the bold hero Jack Docherty set free.]
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[ The Rabbins relate that among the Queen of Sheba's tests of Solomon's sagacity she brought before him a number of boys and girls apparelled all alike, and desired him to distinguish those of one sex from those of the other, as they stood in his presence. Solomon caused a large basin of water to be fetched in, and ordered them all to wash their hands. By this expedient he discovered the boys from the girls, since the former washed merely their hands, while the latter washed also their arms.]