The Kadambari of Bana. Translated by C. M. Ridding. (Royal
Asiatic Society.)—This is a Sanskrit romance, dating from some- where in the seventh century of our era. It is constructed after the common Oriental fashion of tale within tale, constructed, too, with no small amount of skill. A Western reader finds it diffuse, not to say tedious. Here, for instance, is the description of a "maiden vowed to the service of Siva." "She turned the region with its mountains and woods to ivory by the brightness of her beauty. For its lustre shows far, spreading through space, white as the tide of the bulky ocean or like a store of penance gathered in long years and flowing out The exceeding
whiteness of her form concealed her limbs as though she had entered a crystal shrine, or had plunged into a sea of milk, or were hidden in spotless silk, or were caught on the surface of a
mirror, or were veiled in autumn clouds She was like sacrifice impersonate or Bali," &c.,—and then follow twenty - two comparisons, one of them being "a host of heavenly elephants, falling into confusion on reaching the heavenly Ganges." But this does not exhaust the author's imagination. He goes on : "She seemed from her whiteness to have taken a share from all the bramsas or to have been fashioned from a shell, or drawn from a pearl," &c.,—and we have ten more comparisons. A reader requires all the leisure of the unchanging East to enjoy this.
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