“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;...

To my uncle, Robert Bagshaw, of Dovercourt, these tales, that will remind him of a land which he knows so well, are affectionately inscribed....

“The genius of Eastern nations,” says an established and respectable authority, “was, from the earliest times, much turned towards invention and the love of fiction. The Indians, the Persians, and the...

The sage Bhavabhuti⁠—Eastern teller of these tales⁠—after making his initiatory and propitiatory congé to Ganesha, Lord of Incepts, informs the reader that this book is a string of fine pearls to be h...

In Benares once reigned a mighty prince, by name Pratapamukut, to whose eighth son Vajramukut happened the strangest adventure. One morning, the young man, accompanied by the son of his father’s pradh...

In the great city of Bhogavati dwelt, once upon a time, a young prince, concerning whom I may say that he strikingly resembled this amiable son of your majesty. Raja Vikram was silent, nor did he ackn...

In the venerable city of Bardwan, O warrior king! (quoth the Vampire) during the reign of the mighty Rupsen, nourished one Rajeshwar, a Rajput warrior of distinguished fame. By his valour and conduct ...

“Listen, great king!” again began the Baital. An unimportant Baniya87 (trader), Hiranyadatt, had a daughter, whose name was Madansena Sundari, the beautiful army of Cupid. Her face was like the moon; ...

Your majesty (quoth the demon, with unusual politeness), there is a country called Malaya, on the western coast of the land of Bharat⁠—you see that I am particular in specifying the place⁠—and in it w...

On the lovely banks of Jumna’s stream there was a city known as Dharmasthal⁠—the Place of Duty; and therein dwelt a certain Brahman called Keshav. He was a very pious man, in the constant habit of per...

The Baital resumed. Of all the learned Brahmans in the learnedest university of Gaur (Bengal) none was so celebrated as Vishnu Swami. He could write verse as well as prose in dead languages, not very ...

The lady Chandraprabha, daughter of the Raja Subichar, was a particularly beautiful girl, and marriageable withal. One day as Vasanta, the Spring, began to assert its reign over the world, animate and...

Far and wide through the lovely land overrun by the Arya from the Western Highlands spread the fame of Unmadini, the beautiful daughter of Haridas the Brahman. In the numberless odes, sonnets, and acr...

The Baital said, O king, in the Gaur country, Vardhman by name, there is a city, and one called Gunshekhar was the Raja of that land. His minister was one Abhaichand, a Jain, by whose teachings the ki...

There is a queer time coming, O Raja Vikram!⁠—a queer time coming (said the Vampire), a queer time coming. Elderly people like you talk abundantly about the good old days that were, and about the dege...

At Raja Vikram’s silence the Baital was greatly surprised, and he praised the royal courage and resolution to the skies. Still he did not give up the contest at once. “Allow me, great king,” pursued t...

Metamorphoseon, seu de Asino Aureo, libri XI. The well known and beautiful episode is in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth books. ↩ This ceremony will be explained in a future page. ↩ A common excl...