Part 8

[33] Pronounce _Russakósh_. The name refers to the part he will play in the story; it means both “a ball of mercury,” and “a treasure of taste, wit, literary sentiments or flavors,” a sort of walking encyclopedia. The King’s companion is a salient figure in Hindu drama: he is a sort of Sancho Panza, minus the vulgarity and the humor.

[34] “A tree with orange-colored fragrant blossoms.”

[35] The Hindu Vulcan, sometimes, as here, used for the Creator, _dhatri_ = Plato’s δεμιοῡργος. Sanskrit literature is the key to Plato; much of his philosophy is only the moonlike reflection of Hindu mythology.

[36] Hindu poets see a resemblance between rows of bees and eye-glances.

[37] The Indian cuckoo. The crane is a by-word for inward villainy and sanctimonious exterior.

[38] The _chakrawáka_, or Brahmany drake, is fabled to pass the night sorrowing for the absence of his mate and she for him.

[39] בֵּיתאֵל

[40] Terra-cotta in Berlin Museum (Roscher, _Lex._, I, col. 407).

[41] See Pausanias 2, 10, 4.

[42] Cf. Roscher, _Lex._, I. cols. 411-412, and Preller. _Gr. M._, I, p. 383.

[43] See Roscher, _Lex._, I, col. 406, and _Monuments grecs_, Pl. 1.

[44] From Dr. William Ellery Leonard’s translation.