FLORAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE EAST. 213 
stinging bees, has shot an arrow, tipped with an amra 
blossom, at his heart. 
“ Quick from his bee-strung bow an arrow flew, 
Its point an amra, fresh with morning dew.”* 
Neither a blind god nor a fat baby is this Cupid of 
the Oriental fiction. His mother, Maya, is imaginative 
power, since, according to some Hindoo philosophers, 
whatever exists, exists only in a system of perception, 
wholly dependant on the imagination; and hence all things 
are but illusions of the mind. “ Except the first cause 
(Brahme), whatever may appear or may not appear in 
the mind, know that it is the mind's Maya, or delusion, 
as light and darkness." + The warm impulse of the 
brain being the parent of love, Cama himself, though 
sailing on the wings of the gay lory (or parrot), attended 
by his dancing nymphs, is a spiritual essence only; for 
Siva, writhing under the smart of his arrow, flung at 
him a flame of fire, and consumed his body, so subli¬ 
mating that which is only beautiful when of the spirit. 
Neither do flowers fail this son of Mizraim, when he 
subdues the raging flame into a genial and cheering 
warmth, and makes it burn as an oblation upon the altar 
of a home. His hand is bound to that of his bride by a 
wisp of the sacred cusa grass, by a priest whose vest¬ 
ments are wrought of the sara or jungle plant, J arranged 
in triple cords according to the precepts of the holy 
Sastras.§ If in his lifetime he perform good works, and 
* “ Metamorphosis of Sona,” p. 6. f Bhagavata purana. 
t Saccharum spartaneum of Linnaeus. 
§ “Menu,” ii ch. ii., v. 42, 43. 
