NOTES. IX 



(Oct. 1845). In a very old Anglo-Saxon poem on the names of the Runes, 

 which was first published by Hickes, there is the following pleasing descrip- 

 tion of the birch tree : " Beorc is beautiful in its branches : its leafy top 

 rustles sweetly, moved to and fro by the air." The greeting of the light of 

 day is simple and noble : " The messenger of the Lord, dear to man, the 

 glorious light of God, bringing gladness and confidence to rich and poor, 

 beneficent to -all!" See also Wilhelm Grimm, iiber deutsche Runen, 1821, 

 S. 94, 225, and 234. 



( 56 ) p. 36. Jacob Grimm, in Reinhart Fnchs, 1834, S. ccxciv. (Compare 

 also Christian Lassen, in his indischer Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. 1843, 

 S. 296.) 



( 67 ) p. 37. On " the non-genuineness of the Ossianic songs, and of Mac- 

 pherson's Ossian in particular," see a memoir by the ingenious translatress of 

 the Volkspoesie of Servia (die Unachtheit der Lieder Ossian's und des Mac- 

 pherson 'schen Ossian's insbesondere, von Talyj, 1840). The first publication 

 of Ossian by Macpherson was in 1760. The Fingalian songs are, indeed, 

 heard in the Scottish Highlands, as well as in Ireland, but they have been 

 carried to Scotland from Ireland, according to O'Reilly and Drummond. 



t 58 ) p. 37. Lassen, ind. Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. S. 412415. 



( 59 ) p. 38. Respecting the Indian forest-hermits, Vanapfestise (Sylvicolse) 

 and Sramani (a name which has been altered into Sarmani and Garmani), see 

 Lassen, " de nommibus quibus veteribus appellantur Indorum philosophi," 

 in the Rhein. Museum fur Philologie, 1833, S. 178 180. Wilhelm Grimm 

 thinks he recognises something of Indian colouring in the description of the 

 magic forest in the " Song of Alexander," composed more than 1200 years 

 ago by a priest, named Lambrecht, in immediate imitation of a French origi- 

 nal. The hero comes to a wood, where maidens, adorned with supernatural 

 charms, spring from large flowers, and he remains with them so long that 

 both flowers and maidens fade away. (Compare Gervinus, Bd. i. S. 282, and 

 Massmann's Denkmaler, Bd. i. S. 16.) These are the same as the maidens of 

 Edrisi's oriental magic Island of Vacvac, called, in the Latin version of 

 Masudi, Chothbeddin puellas vasvakienses. (Humboldt, Examen crit. de la 

 Geographic, T. i. p. 53.) 



(*) p. 39. Kalidasa lived at the court of Vikramaditya, about 56 years 

 before our era. It is highly probable that the age of the two great heroic 

 poems, Ramayana and Mahabharata, is much earlier than that of the appear- 

 ance of Buddha, or much earlier than the middle of the sixth century before 

 our era. (Burnouf, Bhagavata-Purana, T. i. p. cxi. and cxviii. ; Lassen, 



