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ZTbe ifragrant IRote IBooJx / 



1 1 Hindu mythology would not be the mysterious Eastern 

 thing it is did it not furnish us more tales of the lily than we 

 could recount. There was, of course, Lakshmi, the consort 

 of the great god Vishnu to commence with. Was she not 

 called the "Lily-bom" after the pretty tradition that it was ^ 

 thought becoming even in a goddess to be scooped out of 

 River Ocean on the petals of a blue water-lily : 



\ I [/ \ *' Fragrant with the scent , A ^ 



Of lotus and laden with the spray \ | /, \ 



Caught from the waters of the rippling stream.* ^ 



\ 





There in the compass of three short lines we see the imagery 

 of the East, the greatest of the East's religions, and the 

 greatest dramatist of India, all doing homage to the lily. 



And even in China, where nearly everything seems to the 

 Western mind to be as topsy-turvy as possible, where white 

 is the colour of mourning and where the asking of impertinent 

 questions is not only a privilege but rather a mark of re- 

 spect, — even in China the lily is the emblem of beauty and 

 loveliness. Among the Manchus, where the binding of the 

 feet was thought greatly to enhance a woman's beauty, these 

 poor deformed extremities have from days out of mind been 

 playfully and admiringly called "Kin Le-en," — the golden 



HUes. \pf^^ 



So look where we will in ancient lore we find the lily. 

 In paintings, in carvings, in poems, in history; from all of 

 these it is absolutely inseparable. In ancient Egypt, the 



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