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النشر الإلكتروني

THE MAID-SERVANT SPAKE.

697. "Wait awhile, O pilgrim, thou who sittest and beggest shamelessly. Long will it be before thou obtainest alms, even though thou criest for them." 698. The maid-servant went weeping to the damsel. "He is a pilgrim from the south, and calleth himself Brahmáchárí. 699. He taketh not alms from the hands of a maid-servant, but saith, ‘Let the ladies give me alms.'" 700. When the two damsels heard this they took alms and arose. Behold, without a key the door opened of itself. 701. Aduná and Paduná went out with the alms. "Take alms, take alms, O reverend pilgrim. We are the daughters-in-law of a householder, and would return within the house."

THE KING SPAKE.

702. "I am a pilgrim from the east. My name is Brahmáchárí. I cannot take alms from the hand of a woman. 703. If the umbrella* that shadeth thy head can give me alms, then can this pilgrim's son accept them." 704. The ladies pointed out the ring upon his finger. "We see a woman's ring upon thy hand. 705. Thou art the umbrella of my head. Thou art a pilgrim, and I am a pilgrim, pupils of one guru.”

THE KING SPAKE.

706. "One evening I stopped at a house, and they gave to a man thakari kálái dál and áuś rice. 707. He ate it greedily, and was attacked with cholera and died. 708. First one man took something+ off his body, and then another; and as my share they gave me these two rings."

THE QUEEN SPAKE.

709.

“Where is my maid-servant? First will she eat pán.‡ Then shall she cut the rope which ties the elephant. 710. If this be my

husband, he will recognize him. If he be a pilgrim from the south, he will trample him to death." 711. She cut the elephant's rope, and the elephant came from a distance. 712. While yet afar off he made obeisance to the king. And when he approached, he lifted him on to his shoulder with his trunk. 713. The elephant awaited awhile and stood steady, that the damsels might approach. 714. The king descended from the back of the elephant, and the damsels took him by the hand and led him within the house. Amid laughter and jokes, they began to speak familiarly with him.

* I. e., thy husband.

+ So explained to me. It means literally, "First one gave a blow, and then another gave the last blow."

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THE QUEEN SPAKE.

715. "How hath the Guru taught thee magic arts? Let us see how thou wilt approach thy mother." 716. He changed himself into a golden bee, and flew to his mother's palace. 717. He appeared in Mayaná's house, and, uttering a loud cry, made her spinning-wheel fly up into the air. 718. But Mayaná also was skilled in charms, and with a jump she seized the spinning-wheel by its head.

MAYANA' SPAKE.

719. “Come, come my son, the darling of an unhappy one." 720. The king divided his hair and fell at the feet of his mother. 721. He sent for Mathu the barber. He began to clear off his vow,* and the Bráhmans came, and collected materials for sacrifice. 722. The king began to perform the celebration of the office of sankirttana and gave away the contents of seven barns in charity. 723.† He himself crossed the Vaitaraņi on the tail of a cow, and his ancestors crossed (the river of life) into paradise. 724. Mayaná bathed herself with five lotas of water, and laughing returned quickly into the house. 725. After cooking a dish of rice and fifty different curries, she cleaned three (brass plates) with tamarind juice. 726. Mayaná summoned the Háḍi with a loud voice, and he immediately came and stood before her. 277. The first plate she gave to the Háḍi. The second she took herself, and the third she gave to the king. 728. After washing their hands and mouth, what did they do? They uttered the holy name of Krishna, and, beginning their meal, ate one, two, and five mouthfuls each. 729. After eating and drinking, their hearts were glad, and they washed their mouths with water from a golden vessel. 730. Then the Háḍi, who came from paradise, placed his feet on the head of the king, and returned to his own place. 731. They cleaned the king's throne; and Hanumán took the staff and umbrella of royalty, and marched about; and the throne-elephant approached dressed in his trappings. 732. The king clothed himself magnificently, and the elephant mounted him on his shoulders by his trunk. 733. He took the king to the throne, accompanied by the music of drums and trumpets; and bowed himself down before it, and with his trunk placed him upon the seat. 734. Then the king immediately fixed the land revenue at one and a half scores of káorís, (as it had been in old days) and ever since reigned happily within his kingdom.

* By cutting his nails and hair which he had allowed to grow.

+ This is most essentially a "Satya yuger kalhá." What does it mean? Lit. At a bound.

1

APPENDIX.

The following are the lines referred to in the note to verse 264. I give them as an example of the very peculiar nature of the dialect. It is difficult, and requires a very literal translation, which I give.

The word for “ fresh butter” appears in two forms, - ननि and 'नवनि ; and it is worth noting how the latter has remained almost unchanged from the time of the Aitareya Bráhmaṇa.*

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O the pipe of Syám (Krishna). My mind whirls, my eyes continually run with tears. The mother said "O Yádu, how art thou sleeping on the deep bed of flowers in the north ?" Hearing the mother's voice, Yádu sat up ; he could not open his eyes, and began to rub them. Yádu goes to bathe ; Yasódá remains in the house, and divides out this rice-milk and fresh butter.

After finishing his bath, he goes towards the house-his mother gives him a grand throne to sit upon; being pleased, Yádu eats the milk, and the fresh butter.

After eating the milk and fresh butter, Yádu's mind becomes satisfied; and he washes his mouth with water in a grand golden pot.

* Ait. Br. I. 3. a¶dtàaııwefa ||

+ एखिन = ए क्षिर ॥ | यश्रवन = आचमन ॥

The Lokanîti translated from the Burmese Paraphrase.-By LIEUT. R. C. TEMPLE, B. S. C., Offg. Wing Officer, 1st Goorkhas.

INTRODUCTION.

There is probably no book so universally known to the Burmese as the Lokanîti, pronounced in Burmese Lawkanîdi. It is read in all schools of any standing whether they belong to the Government or to enterprising Hpongyis or Priests. It has been copied into hundreds of palm-leaf MSS with more or less accuracy according to the learning of the various scribes, and about five years ago the Roman Catholic Missionaries published it at Bassein in Burmese and Pâli, and soon afterwards the Government itself published an edition of it in Burmese and Pâli in an issue of 10,000 copies. The book is as its title signifies a collection of Proverbs or Maxims on subjects of every day life, and as it now stands, is not I think of any great antiquity. It has a semi-religious character which it bears in common. with many Buddhist works of a similar nature, and seems to belong to a series of books of Proverbs, though of very different dates to it, which are known respectively to the Burmese as the Dammanîdi, Yâzanîdi, and Lawkanîdi, i. e., Books of Proverbs concerning the Law and Religion (“the Law" having much the same signification to a Buddhist as it had to the Jews of the Bible), the King and Common Life. These titles are in Pâli respectively Dhammanîti, Râjanîti and Lokanîti.

I was never able in Burmah to find out much about the history of this book which is professedly merely a collection of passages from older religious works, although I have personally and through the kindness of several friends made many enquiries from the Burmese Sayâs or learned men. According to one account, it was written originally (date unknown) in Sanskrit (? Pâli) by the Pôngnâ (Brahman) Sànuêkgyaw (Burmese name) and paraphrased into Burmese in 1196 Burmese Era (= 1826 A. D.) by the Hpôngyi U Pôk of the Mahân Dung Myê Bông Sàn Ok Kyoung (the Great Brickbuilt Monastery in the Sacred Place) at Ava. This U Pôk's name as priest was Sêk-kàn-da-bî, to which the king of Ava added the titles of Thiri Thàddamma-daza, Mahâ Damma-yâza Guru, (= Sanskrit, Sri Saddharmadhaja, Maha Dharmaraja Guru) or the True Teacher of the Law, the Great High Priest, Master of the Law. Again one of my correspondents writes that the author was a priest "with no very extraordinary knowledge of Pâli" who either collected the maxims from old books or what is more probable collected some of them and added others of his own composition. This opinion is corroborated by the unequal merit of the original Pâli verses, and by the many grammatical and other errors observa

ble in them even upon a superficial examination. Lastly in one of the MSS. in the Bassein District there is a preface partly in Burmese and partly in Pâli, according to the usual custom, which was forwarded to me. This contains much the same information as the account above given, and is almost identical with what is given as the last or 165th sloka of the Government printed edition of the Lawkanîdi, a rendering of which will be found at the end of the following translation of the whole work. From these sources of information it is difficult to tell whether the book was compiled or only revised by the Hpôngyî Sêkkàndabî, but I think the latter is probably the correct assumption.

The Lokanîti is divided into seven khandas or chapters, each containing a series of proverbs on the subject of the chapters. These subjects are (1) the Wise, (2) the Good, (3) the Wicked and Foolish, (4) Friendship, (5) Women, (6) Kings, (7) Miscellaneous Subjects. In the first of these chapters, and in fact throughout the whole work, there is a strong religious element, but they contain at the same time many spicy bits of shrewd worldly wisdom, while the quaintness of the similes with which the proverbs abound should I think of themselves attract attention.

In reading the rendering of this book it must be borne in mind that it is a Buddhist work, and that such words and expressions as (( the truth," "the Law," "God," "angels," "the world to come" and so on, have a Buddhist and not a Christian signification. However, it bears so strong a resemblance to our own "Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel," that I thought it advisable to translate it into Biblical language, deeming that the Buddhist mode of religious thought would be more forcibly brought before English readers by that than by any other mode.

Lastly, when making the following translation in 1875, I had the assis tance of Moung Shwê Thâ, a well-known "Munshi" of Rangoon.

THE BOOK OF THE PROVERBS OF COMMON LIFE. Glory be to him that is blessed, that is holy, that is the Author of all Truth.* CHAPTER I.

1. Making my obeisance to God, † the Law, and the Assembly of the Perfect, I have written in one book, called the Book of the Proverbs of

* This is the usual heading of Buddhist books. In Pâli it runs as follows: "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammâ Sambuddhassa."

+ Or Buddha or the All Wise.

Or to the Three Precious Things. The "Three Precious Things" are (in Pâli) Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, which are translated by Childers in his Khuddaka Pâtha as Buddha, the Law, and the Church.

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