_Barley meal instead of wheaten cakes_--_Jau kî roti_,
barley bread, is the poor man's food, as opposed to _gihûn kî
rotî_, wheaten bread, the rich man's food. Barley bread is apt to
produce flatulence.
_With empty stomachs, etc._--The saying is well known and runs
thus--
_Kahîn mat jâo khâlî pet.
Hove mâgh yâ hove jeth._
Go nowhere on an empty stomach,
Be it winter or be it summer.
Very necessary and salutary advice in a feverish country like India.
_If any man eats me, etc._--Apparent allusion to the saying
rendered in the following verse--
_Jo nar totâ mârkar khâve per ke heth, Kuchh sansâ man na
dhare, woh hogâ râjâ jeth. Jo mainâ ko mâr khâ, man men rakhe
dhîr; Kuchh chintâ man na kare, woh sadâ rahegâ wazîr._
Who kills a parrot and eats him under a tree,
Should have no doubt in his mind, he will be a great king.
Who kills and eats a starling, let him be patient:
Let him not be troubled in his mind, he will be minister for life.
_Snake-demon_--The word was _isdâr_, which represents the
Persian _izhdahâ_, _izhdâr_, or _izhdar_, a large
serpent, python.
_Sacred elephant_.--The reference here is to the legend of the
_safed hâthî_ or _dhaulâ gaj_, the white elephant. He is the
elephant-headed God Ganesa, and as such is, or rather was formerly,
kept by Râjâs as a pet, and fed to surfeit every Tuesday (_Mangalwâr_)
with sweet cakes (_chûrîs_). After which he was taught to go down
on his knees to the Râjâ and swing his trunk to and fro, and this was
taken as sign that he acknowledged his royalty. He was never ridden
except occasionally by the Râjâ himself. Two sayings, common to the
present day, illustrate these ideas--'_Woh to Mahârâjâ hai, dhaule gaj
par sowâr_: he is indeed king, for he rides the white elephant.'
And '_Mahârâjâ dhaulâ gajpati kidohâî_: (I claim the) protection
of the great king, the lord of the white elephant.' The idea appears to
be a very old one, for Ælian (_Hist. Anim._ vol. iii. p. 46),
quoting Megasthenes, mentions the white elephant. See M'Crindle,
_India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian_, pp. 118, 119;
_Indian Antiquary_, vol. vi. p. 333 and footnote.
_Brass drinking bowl_.--The _lotâ_, universal throughout India.
_Ogre_.--In the original _râkhas_ = the Sanskrit _râkhasa_,
translated ogre advisedly for the following reasons:--The _râkhasa_
(_râkhas_, an injury) is universal in Hindu mythology as a
superhuman malignant fiend inimical to man, on whom he preys, and that
is his character, too, throughout Indian folk-tales. He is elaborately
described in many an orthodox legend, but very little reading between
the lines in these shows him to have been an alien enemy on the borders
of Aryan tribes. The really human character of the _râkhasa_ is
abundantly evident from the stories about him and his doings. He
occupies almost exactly the position in Indian tales that the ogre does
in European story, and for the same reason, as he represents the memory
of the savage tribes along the old Aryan borders. The ogre, no doubt, is
the Uighur Tâtar magnified by fear into a malignant demon. For the
_râkhasa_ see the _Dictionaries_ of Dowson, Garrett, and Monier
Williams, _in verbo_; Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, vol. ii. p.
420, _etc_.: and for the ogre see _Panjâb Notes and Queries_,
vol. i., in verbo.
_Goat_.--The ogre's eating a goat is curious: _cf_. the
Sanskrit name _ajagara_, goat-eater, for the python (nowadays
_ajgar_), which corresponds to the _izhdahâ_ or serpent-demon
on p. 131.