400 Appendix 



Page 

 pare with this, culled from the Harsa-Carita. The description 

 is of a portion of the bank of a beautiful river, — 



" Here are honeyed voices of peacocks, trees having stocks 

 besanded with heaps of pollen, the entrancing hum of lute- 

 like clusters of scent-intoxicated bees." 



" A fragrance of flow^ers " 243 



The bridegroom also wasr not without his charms, which, 

 however, will not be so fully appreciated by modern readers, 

 for we are informed that, " A throng of bees crowding towards 

 his fragrance arrayed his willowy form as with a dark gar- 

 ment." In another part of the romance we have this oriental 

 description of the future bride : " her blooming moon-like face 

 flooding the world with an outpouring of beauty like a stream 

 of passion, buoyed up by swarms of dusky bees attracted by 

 the fragrance of her flowery couch." 



It is worth while to know that the youth of whom she was 

 enamoured and whom she finally married presented many 

 very remarkable characteristics and among them, " His mouth, 

 breathing a fragrance of mangoes, camphor, kakkala-huits, 

 cloves, and coral trees, and resounding with a hubbub of in- 

 toxicated bee-swarms, seemed to emit a very spring together 

 with a pandana forest." 



The king of this period had a voice " flowing like a river 

 of honey." 



One cannot help wondering if this attraction of the bees 

 to a fragrant breath or body was not sometimes fraught with 

 unpleasant consequences, for the sting of a tropical bee is se- 

 vere, and in fact such a mishap was dreaded, as we learn from 

 the king's jester in the Nagananda, a Buddhist drama : — 



" Halloa ! why now do these odious bees attack me .' " 

 (smelling himself.) "Ah! I see how it is. I have been re- 

 spectfully decked with perfumes by the relations of Malay- 

 avati, as the bridegroom's friend, and a garland of Saritaria 

 flowers has been placed upon my head, and now that very 

 respect has become a cause of an annoyance." 



As a rule, however, those who fell victims to the bees were 

 pious hermits practising their devotions and standing motion- 

 less with helpless, outspread arms. One very sad case is re- 

 lated of a hermit whose sacred though powerful odors dis- 



