have translated it literally, in order to give an idea of the original.
The reader will remark in it the source of our own nursery tale about
the princess who was so high born and delicately bred, that she could
discover the three peas laid beneath a straw mattress and four feather
beds. The Hindus, however, believe that Sybaritism can be carried so
far; I remember my Pandit asserting the truth of the story.]
[Footnote 169: A minister. The word, as is the case with many in this collection,
is quite modern Moslem, and anachronistic.]
[Footnote 170: The cow is called the mother of the gods, and is declared by
Brahma, the first person of the triad, Vishnu and Shiva being the second
and the third, to be a proper object of worship. “If a European speak to
the Hindu about eating the flesh of cows,” says an old missionary, “they
immediately raise their hands to their ears; yet milkmen, carmen, and
farmers beat the cow as unmercifully as a carrier of coals beats his ass
in England.” The Jains or Jainas (from ji, to conquer; as subduing the
passions) are one of the atheistical sects with whom the Brahmans have
of old carried on the fiercest religious controversies, ending in many
a sanguinary fight. Their tenets are consequently exaggerated and
ridiculed, as in the text. They believe that there is no such God as the
common notions on the subject point out, and they hold that the highest
act of virtue is to abstain from injuring sentient creatures. Man does
not possess an immortal spirit: death is the same to Brahma and to a
fly. Therefore there is no heaven or hell separate from present pleasure
or pain. Hindu Epicureans!--“Epicuri de grege porci.”]
[Footnote 171: Narak is one of the multitudinous places of Hindu punishment, said
to adjoin the residence of Ajarna. The less cultivated Jains believe in
a region of torment. The illuminati, however, have a sovereign contempt
for the Creator, for a future state, and for all religious ceremonies.
As Hindus, however, they believe in future births of mankind, somewhat
influenced by present actions. The “next birth” in the mouth of a Hindu,
we are told, is the same as “to-morrow” in the mouth of a Christian. The
metempsychosis is on an extensive scale: according to some, a person
who loses human birth must pass through eight millions of successive
incarnations--fish, insects, worms, birds, and beasts--before he can
reappear as a man.]
[Footnote 172: Jogi, or Yogi, properly applies to followers of the Yoga or
Patanjala school, who by ascetic practices acquire power over the
elements. Vulgarly, it is a general term for mountebank vagrants,
worshippers of Shiva. The Janganis adore the same deity, and carry
about a Linga. The Sevras are Jain beggars, who regard their chiefs
as superior to the gods of other sects. The Sannyasis are mendicant
followers of Shiva; they never touch metals or fire, and, in religious
parlance, they take up the staff They are opposed to the Viragis,
worshippers of Vishnu, who contend as strongly against the worshippers
of gods who receive bloody offerings, as a Christian could do against
idolatry.]
[Footnote 173: The Brahman, or priest, is supposed to proceed from the mouth of
Brahma, the creating person of the Triad; the Khshatriyas (soldiers)
from his arms; the Vaishyas (enterers into business) from his thighs;
and the Shudras, “who take refuge in the Brahmans,” from his feet. Only
high caste men should assume the thread at the age of puberty.]
[Footnote 174: Soma, the moon, I have said, is masculine in India.]
[Footnote 175: Pluto.]
[Footnote 176: Nothing astonishes Hindus so much as the apparent want of
affection between the European parent and child.]
[Footnote 177: A third marriage is held improper and baneful to a Hindu woman.
Hence, before the nuptials they betroth the man to a tree, upon which
the evil expends itself, and the tree dies.]
[Footnote 178: Kama]
[Footnote 179: An oath, meaning, “From such a falsehood preserve me, Ganges!”]
[Footnote 180: The Indian Neptune.]
[Footnote 181: A highly insulting form of adjuration.]
[Footnote 182: The British Islands--according to Wilford.]
[Footnote 183: Literally the science (veda) of the bow (dhanush). This weapon,
as everything amongst the Hindus, had a divine origin: it was of three
kinds--the common bow, the pellet or stone bow, and the crossbow or
catapult.]
[Footnote 184: It is a disputed point whether the ancient Hindus did or did not
know the use of gunpowder.]
[Footnote 185: It is said to have discharged balls, each 6,400 pounds in weight.]
[Footnote 186: A kind of Mercury, a god with the head and wings of a bird, who is
the Vahan or vehicle of the second person of the Triad, Vishnu.]
[Footnote 187: The celebrated burning springs of Baku, near the Caspian, are so
called. There are many other “fire mouths.”]
[Footnote 188: The Hindu Styx.]
[Footnote 189: From Yaksha, to eat; as Rakshasas are from Raksha, to
preserve.--See Hardy’s Manual of Buddhism, p. 57.]
[Footnote 190: Shiva is always painted white, no one knows why. His wife Gauri
has also a European complexion. Hence it is generally said that the sect
popularly called “Thugs,” who were worshippers of these murderous gods,
spared Englishmen, the latter being supposed to have some rapport with
their deities.]
[Footnote 191: The Hindu shrine is mostly a small building, with two inner
compartments, the vestibule and the Garbagriha, or adytum, in which
stands the image.]
[Footnote 192: Meaning Kali of the cemetery (Smashana); another form of Durga.]
[Footnote 193: Not being able to find victims, this pleasant deity, to satisfy
her thirst for the curious juice, cut her own throat that the blood
might spout up into her mouth. She once found herself dancing on her
husband, and was so shocked that in surprise she put out her tongue to a
great length, and remained motionless. She is often represented in this
form.]
[Footnote 194: This ashtanga, the most ceremonious of the five forms of Hindu
salutation, consists of prostrating and of making the eight parts of
the body--namely, the temples, nose and chin, knees and hands--touch the
ground.]
[Footnote 195: “Sidhis,” the personified Powers of Nature. At least, so we
explain them: but people do not worship abstract powers.]
[Footnote 196: The residence of Indra, king of heaven, built by Wishwa-Karma, the
architect of the gods.]
[Footnote 197: In other words, to the present day, whenever a Hindu novelist,
romancer, or tale writer seeks a peg upon which to suspend the texture
of his story, he invariably pitches upon the glorious, pious, and
immortal memory of that Eastern King Arthur, Vikramaditya, shortly
called Vikram.]
End of Project Gutenberg’s Vikram and the Vampire, by Richard F. Burton