Delightful! though impure with brass
In many a green ill-scented mass;
Though husbands, but se'n cubits high,
Must in a thousand summers die ;

Though, in the lives of dwendled men,
"Ten parts were sin; religion ten;

6

6

Though cows would rearly fill the pail,
But made th' expected creambowl fail;
Though lazy Pendits ill could read
(No care of ours) their Yejar Veid:
Though Rajas look'd a litte proud,
And Ranies rather spoke too loud;
Though Gods, display'd to mortal view
In mortal forms, were only two;

(Yet Crishna, (k) sweetest youth, was one,
'Crishna, whose cheeks outblaz'd the sun)
Delightful ne'ertheless! because

Not bound by vile unnatural laws,

Which curse this age from Caley (1) nam'd
By some base woman-hater fram'd.

'Prepost'rous! that one biped vain

Should drag ten house-wives in his train,
And stuff them in a gaudy cage,

Slaves to weak lust or potent rage!

'Not such the Dwapar Yug! Oh then

'ONE BUXOM DAME MIGHT WED FIVE MEN.'

True history in solemn terms,

This philosophic lore confirms;

For India once, as now cold Tibet, (m)

A group unusual might exhibit,

Of sev'ral husbands, free from strife,

Link'd fairly to a single wife!

Thus Botanists, with eyes acute

To see prolific dust minute,

Taught by their learned northern Brahmen (7)

To class by pistil and by stamen,

Produce from nature's rich dominion

Flow'rs polyandrian monogynian,

Where embryon blossoms, fruits, and leaves

Twenty prepare, and one receives.

But, lest my word should nought avail,

Ye fair, to no unholy tale

Attend (0). Five thousand years (p) ago,
As annals in Benares show,

(4) The Apollo of India.

When

(4) The Earthen Age, or that of Cali or Impunity: this verse alludes to Cali the Hecate of the Indians.

() See the accounts published in the Philosophical Transactions from the papers of Mr. Bogle.

(z) Linnæus.

(The story is told by the Jesuit Bouchet, in his letter to Huet, bishop of Avranches.

(†) A round number is chosen; but the Cali Yug, a little before which Crishna disappeared

When Pandu chiefs with Curus fought, (q) `
And each the throne imperial sought,
Five brothers of the regal line
Blaz'd high with qualities divine.
The first a prince without his peer,
Just, pious, lib'ral Yudhishteir; (r)
Then Erjun, to the base a rod,
An hero favour'd by a God; (s)
Bheima, like mountain-leopard strong,
Unrival'd in th' embattled throng,
Behold Nacul, fir'd by noble shame
To emulate fraternal fame;

And Schdeo, flush'd with manly grace,
Bright virtue drawning in his face :
To these a dame devoid of care,
Blythe Dropady, the debonnair,
Renown'd for beauty, and for wit,
In wedlock's pleasing chain was knit. (t)
It fortun'd, at an idle hour,
This five-mal'd single-femal'd flow'r
One balmy morn of fruitful May
Through vales and meadows took its way.
A low-thatch'd mansion met their eye
In trees umbrageous bosom'd high;
Near it (no sight, young maids, for you)
A temple rose to Mahadew, (u)
A thorny hedge and reedy gate
Enclos'd the garden's homely state;
Plain in its neatness: thither wend
The princess and their lovely friend.
Light-pinion'd gales, to charm the sense,
Their odorif'rous breath dispense;
From Béla (x) pearl'd, or pointed, bloom,
And Malty rich, they steal perfume :
There honey-scented Singarhar,
And Juhy, like a rising star,

Strong

disappeared from this world, began four thousand eight hundred and eighty-four ago; that is, according to our chronologists, seven hundred and forty-seven before the flood; and by the calculation of M. Bailley, but four hundred and fifty-four after the foundation of the Indian Empire.

(2) This war, which Crishna fermented in favour of the Pandu Prince, Padhishtir, supplied Vyasa with the subject of his noble epick poem Mahahharat.

() This word is commonly pronounced with a strong accent on the last letter, but the preceding vowel is short in Sanscrit. The prince is called in the Sevensala Dherme Raj, or Chief Magistrate.

(s) The Geita, containing instructions to Erjun, was composed by Crishna, who peculiarly distinguished him.

(f). Yudhishtir and Dropady, called Drobada, by M. Sonnerat, are deified in the Sevensala; and their feast, of which that writer exhibits an engraving, is named the Possession of Fire, because she passed every year from one of her five husbands to another, after a solemn purification by that element. In the Bhasha language, her name is written Drapty.

() The Indian Jupiter.

(x) The varieties of Bela, and the three flowers next mentioned, are beautiful species of jasmin.

Strong Chempa, darted by Camdew,
And Mulsery of paler hue,

Cayora, (y) which the Renies wear
In tangles of their silken hair,

Round (x) Babul-flowers, and Gulachein
Dyed like the shell of beauty's queen,

Sweet Mindy (a), press'd for crimson stains,
And sacred Tulsy, (b) pride of plains,
With Séwty, small unblushing rose,
Their odours mix, their tints disclose,
And, as a gemm'd triara, bright,
Paint the fresh branches with delight.
One tree above all others tower'd
With shrubs and saplings close imbower'd ;
For every blooming child of spring
Paid homage to the verdant king:
Aloft a solitary fruit,

Full sixty cubits from the root,
Kiss'd by the breeze, luxuriant hung,
Soft chrysolite, with em'ralds strung.
Try we, (said Erjun, indiscreet)
If yon proud fruit be sharp or sweet;
'My shaft its parent stalk shall wound:
Receive it, ere it reach the ground.'
Swift as his word, an arrow flew :
The dropping prize, besprent with dew,
The brothers, in contention gay,
Catch, and on gather'd herbage lay.

That instant scarlet lightnings flash,
And Jemna's waves her borders lash;
Crishna from Swerga's (c) height descends,
Observant of his mortal friends:
Not such, as in his earliest years,
Among his wanton cowherd peers,
In Gocul or Brindaben's (d) glades,
He sported with the dairy-maids;
Or, having pip'd and danc'd enough,

Clos'd the brisk night with blindman's buff; (e)
(List, antiquaries, and record

This pastime of the Gopia's Lord) (ƒ)

But radiant with etherial fire:

Nared alone could bards inspire

(y) The Indian Spikenard.

*H

(z) The Mimosa, or true Acacia, that produces the Arabian gum.

(a) Called Alhhinna by the Arabs.

(b) Of the kind called Ocymum.

(The Heaven of Indra, or the empyreum.

(d) In the district of Mathura, not far from Agra.

(e) This is told in the Bhagawat.

In

(ƒ) Gopy Nat'h, a title of Crishna, corresponding with Nymphagetes, an epithet

of Neptune.

In lofty slokes (g) his mien to trace,
And unimaginable grace.

With human voice, in human form,

He mildly spake, and hush'd the storm:

⚫ O martals, ever prone to ill!

'Too rashly Erjun prov'd his skill.
Yon fruit a pious Muny (h) owns,
• Assistant of our heav'nly thrones.
The golden pulp, each month renew'd,
Supplies him with ambrosial food.
Should he the daring archer curse,
'Not Mentra (i) deep, nor magick verse,
Your gorgeous palaces could save

From flames, your embers from the wave.' (k)

The princes, whom th' immod'rate blaze
Forbids their sightless eyes to raise,

With doubled hands his aid implore,

And vow submission to his lore.
'One remedy, and simply one,

'Or take,' said he, or be undone :
'Let each his crimes or faults' confess;
The greatest name, omit the less;
Your actions, words, e'en thoughts reveal;
'No part must Draupady conceal:
So shall the fruit, as each applies

• The faithful charm, ten cubits rise;
Till, if the dame be frank and true,

It join the branch, where late it grew.'
He smiled, and shed a transient gleam;
Then vanish'd, like a morning-dream.

Now, long entranc'd, each waking brother
Star'd with amazement on another,
Their consort's cheek forgot its glow,
And pearly tears began to flow;
When Yudishteir, high-gifted man,
His plain confession thus began.

• Inconstant fortune's wreathed smiles,
Duryódhen's rage, Duryódhen's wiles,
Fires rais'd for this devoted head,

'E'en poison for my brethren spread,
My wand'rings through wild scenes of woe,

And persecuted life, you know.

Rude wassailers defil'd my halls,

And roit shook my palace-walls,

(g) Tetrasticks, without rhyme.

(b) An inspired writer: twenty are so called.

(i) Incantation.

< My

This will receive illustration from a passage in the Ramayen: Even he who cannot be slain by the ponderous arms of indra, nor by those of Caly, nor by the terrible Checra, (or Discuss) of Vishnu, shall be destroyed, if a Brahmen execrate him, as if he were consumed by fire.'

My treasures wasted. This and more • With resignation calm I bore;

But, when the late-descending god • Gave all I wish'd with soothing nod, When, by his counsel and his aid, Our banners danc'd, our clarions bray'd, < (Be this my greatest crime confess'd) Revenge sat ruler in my breast:

• I panted for the tug of arms,

For skirmish hot, for fierce alarms; • Then had my shaft Duryodhen rent, < This heart had glow'd with sweet content.' He ceas'd: the living gold upsprung, And from the bank ten cubits hung. Embolden'd by this fair success, Next Erjun hasten'd to confess : When I with Aswatthama fought, My noose the fell assassin caught; 'My spear transfix'd him to the ground: His giant limbs firm cordage bound: • His holy thread extorted awe 'Spar'd by religion and by law;

<

But, when his murd'rous hands I view'd
In blameless kindred gore imbued,

Fury my boiling bosom sway'd,

And Rage unsheath'd my willing blade:
Then, had not Crishna's arm divine,
With gentle touch suspended mine,
This hand a Brahmen had destroy'd,
And vultures with his blood been cloy'd.'
The fruit, forgiving Erjun's dart,

Ten cubits rose with eager start.

Flush'd with some tints of honest shame,

Bheima to his confession came :

"Twas at a feast for battles won

• From Dhriterashtra's guileful son,

High on the board in vases pil'd

All vegetable nature smil'd

• Proud Anaras (1) his beauties told,

His verdant crown and studs of gold,

To Dallim (m), whose soft rubies laugh'd

Bursting with juice, that gods have quaff'd :
Ripe Kella (n) here in heaps were seen,
Kellas, the golden and the

green,

With Ambas (0) priz'd on distant coasts,
Whose birth the fertile Ganga boasts :
(Some gleam like silver, some outshine
Wrought ingots from Besoara's mine)

115

• Corindas

(1) Ananas.

(m) Pomegranates.

(n) Plantains.

(•) Mangos.