[FN#46] Especially alluding to prayer. On this point, Southey justly remarks (Preface to Curse of Kehama): "In the religion of the Hindoos there is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in one degree depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who performs them. They are drafts upon heaven for which the gods cannot refuse payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this manner obtained power which has made them formidable to the supreme deities themselves."Moreover, the Hindu gods hear the prayers of those who desire the evil of others. Hence when a rich man becomes poor, his friends say, "See how sharp are men's teeth!" and, "He is ruined because others could not bear to see his happiness!"[FN#47] A pond. natural or artificial; in the latter case often covering an extent of ten to twelve acres.
[FN#48] The Hindustani "gilahri," or little grey squirrel, whose twittering cry is often mistaken for a bird's.
[FN#49] The autumn or rather the rainy season personified - a hackneyed Hindu prosopopoeia.
[FN#50] Light conversation upon the subject of women is a persona offence to serious-minded Hindus.
[FN#51] Cupid in his two forms, Eros and Anteros.
[FN#52] This is true to life in the East, women make the first advances, and men do the begueules.
[FN#53] Raja-hans, a large grey goose, the Hindu equivalent for our swan.
[FN#54] Properly Karnatak; karna in Sanskrit means an ear.
[FN#55] Danta in Sanskrit is a tooth.
[FN#56] Padma means a foot.
[FN#57] A common Hindu phrase equivalent to our " I manage to get on."[FN#58] Meaning marriage maternity, and so forth.
[FN#59] Yama is Pluto; 'mother of Yama' is generally applied to an old scold.
[FN#60] Snake-land: the infernal region.
[FN#61] A form of abuse given to Durga, who was the mother of Ganesha (Janus); the latter had an elephant's head.
[FN#62] Unexpected pleasure, according to the Hindus, gives a bristly elevation to the down of the body.
[FN#63] The Hindus banish " flasks,'' et hoc genus omne, from these scenes, and perhaps they are right.
[FN#64] The Pankha, or large common fan, is a leaf of the Corypha umbraculifera, with the petiole cut to the length of about five feet, pared round the edges and painted to look pretty. It is waved by the servant standing behind a chair.
[FN#65] The fabulous mass of precious stones forming the sacred mountain of Hindu mythology.
[FN#66] "I love my love with an 'S,' because he is stupid and not pyschological."[FN#67] Hindu mythology has also its Cerberus, Trisisa, the "three headed " hound that attends dreadful Yama (Pluto)[FN#68] Parceque c'est la saison des amours.
[FN#69] The police magistrate, the Catual of Camoens.
[FN#70] The seat of a Hindu ascetic.
[FN#71] The Hindu scriptures.
[FN#72] The Goddess of Prosperity.
[FN#73] In the original the lover is not blamed; this would be the Hindu view of the matter; we might be tempted to think of the old injunction not to seethe a kid in the mother's milk.
[FN#74] In the original a "maina "-the Gracula religiosa.
[FN#75] As we should say, buried them.
[FN#76] A large kind of black bee, common in India.
[FN#77] The beautiful wife of the demigod Rama Chandra.
[FN#78] The Hindu Ars Amoris.
[FN#79] The old philosophers, believing in a " Sat " (xx xx), postulated an Asat (xx xx xx) and made the latter the root of the former.
[FN#80] In Western India, a place celebrated for suicides.
[FN#81] Kama Deva. "Out on thee, foul fiend, talk'st thou of nothing but ladies?"[FN#82] The pipal or Ficus religiosa, a favourite roosting-place for fiends.
[FN#83] India.
[FN#84] The ancient name of a priest by profession, meaning "praepositus " or praeses. He was the friend and counsellor of a chief, the minister of a king, and his companion in peace and war.
(M. Muller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485).
[FN#85] Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. Raj-Lakshmi would mean the King's Fortune, which we should call tutelary genius.
Lakshichara is our " luckless," forming, as Mr. Ward says, an extraordinary coincidence of sound and meaning in languages so different. But the derivations are very distinct.
[FN#86] The Monkey God.
[FN#87] Generally written "Banyan."
[FN#88] The daughter of Raja Janaka, married to Ramachandra.
The latter placed his wife under the charge of his brother Lakshmana, and went into the forest to worship, when the demon Ravana disguised himself as a beggar, and carried off the prize.
[FN#89] This great king was tricked by the god Vishnu out of the sway of heaven and earth, but from his exceeding piety he was appointed to reign in Patala, or Hades.
[FN#90] The procession is fair game, and is often attacked in the dark with sticks and stones, causing serious disputes. At the supper the guests confer the obligation by their presence, and are exceedingly exacting.
[FN#91] Rati is the wife of Kama, the God of Desire; and we explain the word by "Spring personified."[FN#92] The Indian Cuckoo (Cucuius Indicus). It is supposed to lay its eggs in the nest of the crow.
[FN#93] This is the well-known Ghi or Ghee, the one sauce of India which is as badly off in that matter as England.
[FN#94] The European reader will observe that it is her purity which carries the heroine through all these perils. Moreover, that her :virtue is its own reward, as it loses to her the world.
[FN#95] Literally, "one of all tastes"--a wild or gay man, we should say.
[FN#96] These shoes are generally made of rags and bits of leather; they have often toes behind the foot, with other similar contrivances, yet they scarcely ever deceive an experienced man.
[FN#97] The high-toper is a swell-thief, the other is a low dog.
[FN#98] Engaged in shoplifting.
[FN#99] The moon.
[FN#100] The judge.
[FN#101] To be lagged is to be taken; scragging is hanging.
[FN#102] The tongue.
