[FN#513] A species of demon.

[FN#514] This is one of the innumerable parallels to the story of Jonah in the “whale’s” belly which occur m Asiatic fictions.  See, for some instances, Tawney’s translation of the “Katha Sarit Sagara,” ch. xxxv. and [xxiv.; “Indian Antiquary,” Sept. 1885, Legend of Ahla; Miss Stokes’ “Indian Fairy Tales,” pp. 75, 76, and Steel and Temple’s “Wide-Awake Stories from the Panjab and Kashmir,” p. 411.  In Lucian’s “Vera Historia,” a monster fish swallows a ship and her crew, who live a long time in the extensive regions comprised in its internal economy.  See also Herrtage’s “Gesta Romanorum” (Early English Text Society), p. 297.

[FN#515] In the Arabian version the people resolve to leave the choice of a new king to the royal elephant because they could not agree among themselves (vol. i., p. 224), but in Indian fictions such an incident frequently occurs as a regular custom.  In the “Sivandhi Sthala Purana,” a legendary account of the famous temple at Trichinopoli, as supposed to be told by Gautama to Matanga and other sages, it is related that a certain king having mortally offended a holy devotee, his capital and all its inhabitants were, in consequence of a curse pronounced by the enraged saint, buried beneath a shower of dust. ’’Only the queen escaped, and in her flight she was delivered of a male-child.  After some time. the chiefs of the Chola kingdom, proceeding to elect a king, determined, by the advice of the saint to crown whomsoever the late monarch’s elephant should pitch upon.  Being turned loose for this purpose, the elephant discovered and brought to Trisira-mali the child of his former master, who accordingly became the Chola king.” (Wilson’s Desc.  Catal. of Mackenzie MSS., i. 17.) In a Manipuri story of two brothers, Turi and Basanta—­“Indian Antiquary,” vol. iii.—­the elder is chosen king in like manner by an elephant who meets him in the forest, and takes him on his back to the palace, where he is immediately placed on the throne See also “Wide-Awake Stories Tom the Panjab and Kashmir,” by Mrs. Steel and Captain Temple, p. 141; and Rev. Lal Behari Day’s “Folk-Tales of Bengal,” p. 100 for similar instances.  The hawk taking part, in this story, with the elephant in the selection of a king does not occur m any other tale known to me.

[FN#516] So that their caste might not be injured.  A dhobi, or washerman, is of much lower caste than a Brahman or a Khshatriya.

[FN#517] A responsible position in a raja’s palace.

[FN#518] “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”  Raja Amba must have been fully twelve years in the stomach of the alligator.

[FN#519] This device of the mother to obtain speech of the king is much more natural than that adopted in the Kashmiri version.

[FN#520] The story of Abu Sabir (see vol. i. p. 58 ff.) may also be regarded as an analogue.  He is unjustly deprived of all his possessions, and, with his wife and two young boys, driven forth of his village.  The children are borne off by thieves, and their mother forcibly carried away by a horseman.  Abu Sabir, after many sufferings, is raised from a dungeon to a throne.  He regains his two children and his wife, who had steadfastly refused to cohabit with her captor.