by the acts of the
highest, let the king strip of all his wealth and banish. His own
business, though badly performed, is preferable to that of
another, though well performed.'--Manu, x. 96. In the later Hindu
system the sacrifice of animals is practised by the priests of
the goddess Kali only.

87. _Carp_.

That is, the Rohita, or Rohi (red) fish (_Cyprinus rohita_), a
kind of carp found in lakes and ponds in the neighbourhood of the
Ganges. It grows to the length of three feet, is very voracious,
and its flesh, though it often has a muddy taste, is edible. Its
back is olive-coloured, its belly of a golden hue, its fins and
eyes red. This fish is often caught in tanks in Lower Bengal of
the weight of twenty-five or thirty pounds.

88. _I long to begin binding the flowers round his head_.

It is evident from the Malati-Madhava, and other plays, that a
victim, about to be offered as a sacrifice, had a wreath of
flowers bound round the head.

89. _The great vernal festival_.

In celebration of the return of Spring, and said to be in honour
of Krishna, and of his son Kama-deva, the god of love. It is
identified with the Holi or Dola-yatra, the Saturnalia, or
rather, Carnival of the Hindus, when people of all conditions
take liberties with each other, especially by scattering red
powder and coloured water on the clothes of persons passing in
the street, as described in the play called Ratnavali, where the
crowd are represented as using syringes and waterpipes. Flowers,
and especially the opening blossoms of the mango, would naturally
be much employed for decoration at this festival, as an offering
to the god of love. It was formerly held on the full moon of the
month Chaitra, or about the beginning of April, but it is now
celebrated on the full moon of Phalguna, or about the beginning
of March. The other great Hindu festival, held in the autumn,
about October, is called Durga-puja, being in honour of the
goddess Durga. The Holi festival is now so disfigured by unseemly
practices and coarse jests that it is reprobated by the
respectable natives, and will probably, in the course of time,
either die out or be prohibited by legal enactment.

90. _Am not I named after the Koil?_

Compare note 66.

91. _Thy fire unerring shafts_.

Compare note 47.

92. _The amaranth_

That is, the Kuruvaka, either the crimson amaranth, or a purple
species of _Barleria_.

93. _My finger burning with the glow of love_.

Howev