32 BLOOMFIELD— ON THE ART OF 



The parrot next propounded the following riddle : " It does not 

 inhere (lag) in naga and nariiiga ; on the other hand it does inhere 

 in nimba and tumba." When one says, 'inhere' (laga) it does not 

 inhere; when one says, 'do not, do not inhere' (ma ma, sc. laga) 

 it inheres mightily ."« What then is the answer? " When the queen 

 had thus been questioned by the parrot, she reflected a moment and 

 said: "Ah, I know; it is the rounding of the lips (in the pronuncia- 

 tion of labials)." 



J. Riddle of the Painter's Brush. — " By it*^^ serpents are rendered 

 poisonless, gods are bereft of might, lions are rendered motionless ; 

 yet children carry it in their hand — what is it?" asked the queen. 

 The parrot at once knew and answered: "Hear, your Majesty, I 

 know it : — A painter's brush." 



4. Riddle of the Fly and the Spider. — "A hero that slays ele- 

 phants, "° mounts lions, plagues soldiers, him, your Majesty, I have 

 beheld bound in the house of a weaver."^^ When she had heard 

 this riddle, propounded by the parrot, she guessed and laughingly 

 exclaimed : " I have it, this hero is plainly the fly ! " 



5. A gudhacattirthaka, or Trick of Supplying the Fourth Verse 

 of a Stanza.'''^. — " A host of serpents to look like lotus-roots ; black 



*' It is quite impossible to reproduce the ingenious trickery of this state- 

 ment: na laged naga-naringe has two distinct values: the first as above; the 

 second meaning is " the sound na inheres in naga and nariiiga." When taken 

 in that sense the second pada becomes yet more tricky: "again it inheres in 

 nimba and tumba," which is precisely the reverse of the truth, because na does 

 not inhere in these two words. That is part of the catch : the labials mb is 

 what inheres in the two words. 



*^ The rounding of the lips in pronouncing m in the word ma. 



"o The text reads yatha. which must be corrected to yaya. 



''0 Alluding perhaps to the familiar fable in which a fly helps slay an ele- 

 phant, Benfey, Pancatantra I. 241 ; II. 95. 



"1 Text', kolikagrhe = kaulikagrha. Cf . kolikagardabha in Divyavadana, 

 12. The weaver here is, of course, the spider. 



'- The text prints this and the next' charade as follows: 



mrnalabham ahivj'uham afijanarii ksTrasannibham | 

 nabhah karpurasamkagam rajnya gCdhacaturthake ||2I9|| 

 iti prste gukah praha karoti yacasa mahan | 

 do.so 'pi gunataiii yati visam apy amrtayate | ] 220 1 1 

 ["mitrani gatravo 'pi syuh " iti qukena gudhacaturthake pr^te rajnl 

 caturthapadarii praha — anukule vidhau nrnam "] 



