PAGE 7
Loving Laili
by
NOTES.
FAIRY TALE TRANSLATED BY MAIVE STOKES.
WITH NOTES BY MARY STOKES
LOVING LAILI.
1. Majnún is a celebrated lover, whose love for Lailí or Lailá is the subject of many Eastern poems. In this story he does not play a brilliant part.
2. Lailí’s knife is like the sun-hero’s weapon (the sun’s ray), which lengthens at its owner’s pleasure (Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. II. p. 147).
3. She cuts her little finger. See “the Bél Princess,” p. 141, and paragraph 2 of the note to “Shekh Faríd.” “The little finger, though the smallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows everything.” A Piedmontese mother says, “My little finger tells me everything” (Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. I. p. 166). We have a somewhat similar saying in England. In a Russian story quoted by the same author in the same work (vol. II. p. 151), an old woman while baking a cake, cuts off her little finger and throws it into the fire. From the little finger in the fire is born a strong dwarf who afterwards does many wonderful things. In the tale of the five fingers (“Die Maehr von den fuenf Fingern,” Haltrich’s Siebenbuergische Maerchen, p. 325), where each finger decides what it will do, the little one says, “I will help with wise counsel.” In consequence of this assistance, to this day, “when any one has a wise idea (Einfall), he says ‘that his little finger told him that'” (p. 327). In Finnish mythology we again find the little finger. “The Para, also originated in the Swedish Bjaeren or Bare, a magical three-legged being, manufactured in various ways, and which, says Castrén, attained life and motion when its possessor, cutting the little finger of his left hand, let three drops of blood fall on it, at the same time pronouncing the proper spell.” (“The Mythology of Finnland,” Fraser’s Magazine for May 1857, p. 532.)
In Rink’s Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 441, there is an account of Kanak’s visit to the man of the moon, where he meets a woman who, he is warned, will take out his entrails if she can only make him laugh. He follows the moon-man’s advice, which is to rub his leg with the nail of his little finger when he can no longer keep from smiling, and so saves himself from the old hag. Rishya Śriñga (to return to the land of our fairy tales) threw a drop of water from the nail of his little finger on a Rakshas who, in the form of a tiger, was rushing to devour him. The demon instantly quitted the tiger’s body, and asked the Rishi what he should do. He followed the holy man’s instructions and obtained môksha (salvation)–see Indian Antiquary for May 1873, p. 142, “The Legend of Rishya Śriñga,” told by V. N. Narasimmiyengar of Bangalor.
GLOSSARY.
Bél, a fruit; Ægle marmelos.
Bulbul, a kind of nightingale.
Chaprásí, a messenger wearing a badge ( chaprás ).
Cooly (Tamil kúli ), a labourer in the fields; also a porter.
Dál, a kind of pulse; Phaseolus aureus, according to Wilson; Paspalum frumentaceum, according to Forbes.
Dom (the d is lingual), a low-caste Hindú.
Fakír, a Muhammadan religious mendicant.
Ghee ( ghí ), butter boiled and then set to cool.
Kází, a Muhammadan Judge.
Kotwál, the chief police officer in a town.
Líchí, a fruit; Scytalia litchi, Roxb.
Mahárájá (properly Maháráj), literally great king.
Mahárání, literally great queen.
Mainá, a kind of starling.
Maund ( man ), a measure of weight, about 87 lb.
Mohur ( muhar ), a gold coin worth 16 rupees.
Nautch ( nátya ), a union of song, dance, and instrumental music.
Pálkí, a palanquin.
Pice ( paisa ), a small copper coin.
Pilau, a dish made of either chicken or mutton, and rice.
Rájá, a king.
Rakshas, a kind of demon that eats men and beasts.
Rání, a queen.
Rohú, a kind of big fish.
Rupee ( rúpíya ), a silver coin, now worth about twenty pence.
Ryot ( ràíyat ), a cultivator.
Sarai, a walled enclosure containing small houses for the use of travellers.
Sárí, a long piece of stuff which Hindú women wind round the body as a petticoat, passing one end over the head.
Sepoy ( sipáhí ), a soldier.
Wazír, prime minister.
Yogí, a Hindú religious mendicant.