< Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu
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together by the bond of mutual love. Then Guhasena's father died, and he himself was urged by his relations to go to the country of Katáha[1] for the purpose of trafficking; but his wife Devasmitá was too jealous to approve of that expedition, fearing exceedingly that he would be attracted by some other lady. Then, as his wife did not approve of it, and his relations kept inciting him to it, Guhasena, whose mind was firmly set on doing his duty, was bewildered. Then he went and performed a vow in the temple of the god, observing a rigid fast, trusting that the god would shew him some way out of his difficulty. And his wife Devasmitá also performed a vow with him; then Śiva was pleased to appear to that couple in a dream; and giving them two red lotuses the god said to them,—"take each of you one of these lotuses in your hand. And if either of you shall be unfaithful during your separation, the lotus in the hand of the other shall fade, but not otherwise[2]." After hearing this, the two woke up, and each

  1. ↑ Cathay?
  2. ↑ Compare the rose garland in the story of the Wright's Chaste Wife; edited for the early English Text Society by Frederick J. Furnivall, especially lines 58 and ff.

    "Wete thou wele withowtyn fable
    "Alle the whyle thy wife is stable
    "The chaplett wolle holde hewe;
    "And yf thy wyfe use putry
    "Or tolle eny man to lye her by
    Then wolle yt change hewe,
    And by the garland thou may see,
    Fekylle or fals yf that sche be,
    Or elles yf she be true.

    See also note in Wilson's Essays on Sanskrit Literature, Vol. I, p. 218. He tells us that in Perce Forest the lily of the Kathá Sarit Ságara is represented by a rose. In Amadis de Gaul it is a garland which blooms on the head of her that is faithful, and fades on the brow of the inconstant. In Les Contes à rire, it is also a flower. In Ariosto, the test applied to both male and female is a cup, the wine of which is spilled by the unfaithful lover. This fiction also occurs in the romances of Tristan, Perceval and La Morte d'Arthur, and is well known by La Fontaine's version, La Coupe Enchantée. In la Lai du Corn, it is a drinking-horn. Spenser has derived his girdle of Florimel from these sources or more immediately from the Fabliau, Le Manteau mal taillé or Le Court Mantel, an English version of which is published in Percy's Reliques, the Boy and the Mantel (Vol. III.) In the Gesta Romanorum (c. 69) the test is the whimsical one of a shirt, which will neither require washing nor mending as long as the wearer is constant. (Not the wearer only but the wearer and his wife). Davenant has substituted an emerald for a flower.

    The bridal stone,
    And much renowned, because it chastness loves,
    And will, when worn by the neglected wife,
    Shew when her absent lord disloyal proves
    By faintness and a pale decay of life.

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