TALES OF HINDU DEVILRY.
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
During the three hours of return hardly a word passed between the pair.
Frontispiece.
VIKRAM AND THE VAMPIRE
OR
TALES OF HINDU DEVILRY.
ADAPTED BY
RICHARD F. BURTON, F.R.G.S. &c.
‘Les fables, loin de grandir les hommes, la Nature et Dieu, rapetissent tout.’
Lamartine (Milton).
‘One who had eyes saw it; the blind will not understand it.
A poet, who is a boy, he has perceived it; he who understands it will be his sire’s sire.’—Rig-Veda (I. 164, 16).
WITH THIRTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
ERNEST GRISET.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1870.
TO MY UNCLE,
ROBERT BAGSHAW, OF DOVERCOURT,
THESE TALES,
THAT WILL REMIND HIM OF A LAND WHICH
HE KNOWS SO WELL,
ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
‘Thegenius of Eastern nations,’ says an establishedand respectable authority, ‘was, from the earliesttimes, much turned towards invention and the loveof fiction. The Indians, the Persians, and theArabians, were all famous for their fables. Amongstthe ancient Greeks we hear of the Ionian andMilesian tales, but they have now perished, and, fromevery account that we hear of them, appear to havebeen loose and indelicate.’ Similarly, the classicaldictionaries define ‘Milesiæ fabulæ’ to be ‘licentiousthemes,’ ‘stories of an amatory or mirthful nature,’or ‘ludicrous and indecent plays.’ M. Deriége seemsindeed to confound them with the ‘Mœurs duTemps’ illustrated with artistic gouaches, when hesays, ‘une de ces fables milésiennes, rehaussées depeintures, que la corruption romaine recherchaitalors avec une folle ardeur.’
My friend, Mr. Richard Charnock, F.A.S.L., more[Pg viii]correctly defines Milesian fables to have been originally‘certain tales or novels, composed by Aristidesof Miletus;’ gay in matter and graceful in manner.‘They