[75] On the completion of a vow a festival takes place. Some trees such as the Peepul and Banyan trees, are invested with sacred threads like the Brahman's, and on the occasion of this ceremony a festival is given. In the same way when gardens are made, and tanks or temples built, then also festivals are observed.
[76] The souls of men who die with their desires unfulfilled are said to go to the world of the Manes, and not direct to the Supreme Spirit.
[77] It is a custom of the courtesans of Oriental countries to give their daughters temporarily in marriage when they come of age, and after they have received an education in the Kama Sutra and other arts. Full details are given of this at page 76 of "Early Ideas, a group of Hindoo stories, collected and collated by Anaryan. W. H. Allen and Co., London, 1881."
[78] From the earliest times Oriental authors have occupied themselves about aphrodisiacs. The following note on the subject is taken from page 29 of a translation of the Hindoo Art of Love, otherwise the Anunga Runga, alluded to in the preface of this work, Part I., pages [3] and [5]:—"Most Eastern treatises divide aphrodisiacs into two different kinds: 1., the mechanical or natural, such as scarification, flagellation, etc.; and 2., the medicinal or artificial. To the former belong the application of insects, as is practised by some savage races; and all orientalists will remember the tale of the old Brahman, whose young wife insisted upon his being again stung by a wasp."
Works issued by the Council of the Kama Shastra Society.
DETAILED PROSPECTUSES CAN BE HAD.
II.
ANANGA-RANGA,
(Stage of the Bodiless One)
OR THE
HINDOO ART OF LOVE,
(Ars Amoris Indica,)
Translated from the Sanskrit and Annotated by
A. F. F. AND B. F. R.
[Ready.