THE SUBSTANCE OF A DREAM.t Time is only one adequate
way to review the la test, and by no means the least delightful, of Mr. Bain's long series of Indian romances. That is, in fear and trembling, to rewrite (with perilous brevity) the dialogue which serves for his con- cluding chapter. Something on this wise :- Now Pe.rwati was learned in the lore of her native land,
• Miss Eden's Lettere. Edited by her Great-Niece, Violet Dickinson. London : Macmillan. [188. net.) t me substance of a Dream. By F W. Bain. London : Methuen. [5s, net.) and asked of her Lord : " Is there not something of the tradition of the Yavanas* in thy tale ? " And Maheswara laughed and said : " Well but thou guessed, fair Daughter of the Snow. For I borrowed this story of the fairest of mortal women from a Yavana, a true Bhatta,f who has spent many years in our broad land of Bharata, thinking that the tale might beguile you from your anger towards my poor Nandi."
And Parwati smiled and cried, not without malice in her tone : " Why, not such are the tales that are told of thy Satf, nor even of her gay sisters, the worldly daughters of the incomparable Daksha. Yet, tell me, why did this ungrateful monster Sat- runjaya strangle his too kind benefactress with the chord of his lute ? "
To which the Great God replied : " The tale is but an allegory, and I take it that Tarawa11 is an emblem of Bleirata herself, whom many Yavanas love and loyally serve, and yet only obtain her lighter favours and win not that deep heart of hers which can only love her own kith and kin. As for her strangling, does it not mind thee of how Fire took pity on Sag, thine own first incarnation ? My Bhatta is about to leave our sunny land for his own shore, dark with brooding fogs mingled with the smoke of innumerable furnaces, so that when he quits our sunshine, Eh:irate, for him at least, will be dead."
But Devi puckered her brows in token of discontent, and said : " I like not that one of royal race, and a Bhatta to boot, should, even in a dream, slay a fair woman who has given him freely all she had to give."
Whereat Maheswara laughed afresh and said: "Content thee, sweet one, to know that he shall have his reward. For this Yavana's tale will be written out lakhs and lakhs of times by a magic machine, a muclrti-yantra,t and one of these writings shall go to a certain Preleehika,§ who shall employ another Yavana from the land of Vanga to 'estimate the merit of the tale. And this Mleecha shall laugh, and say : Ha ! this fellow cometh from the land of the Marathas, since he rashly says that "Krishna" is a monosyllable, whereas every Bengali calls that sacred name "Keshto." And otherwise cloth he write like one of the West Country. Nevertheless he cloth use our barbara speech with incomparable skill and delicacy. Therefore will I write to my master the Prekehifra, and praise this bard as one who knows to write deserves to be praised. For he is a Prince among Kavie,11 and it is an honour to me to laud him. But whether he will like my laudation, I neither know nor care. For I too am severed (and since longer time than he) from the divine Tarkwali, and grow reckless, as is the wont of the aged, as to what I say or write.' "
And Devf smiled slily and said : " Give this Bhatta this blessing, since thou haat approved his tale, that he may have many barbera readers, and thereby win fame and much wealth."
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