ong train of similes, in which the images
of the lotus flower and the moon so perpetually occur, is too
characteristic to be omitted or compressed. I have here and there used
the license of a paraphrase.]

[Footnote 113: p. 54. l. 5. _Like the pallid night, when Rahu_. This is a
favourite simile of the Indian poets.

That snatched my love from the uplifted sword,
Like the pale moon from Rahu's ravenous jaws.

WILSON'S Malati and Madhava, p. 62.

-------------and now thou fall'st, a prey
To death, like the full moon to Rahu's jaws
Consigned.

Ibid. p. 115.

In Indian mythology, eclipses are caused by the dragon Rahu attempting
to swallow up the moon. The origin of their hostility is given in a
passage quoted by Mr. Wilkins from the Mahabharata, in his notes to
the Bhagavat-Gita:--"And so it fell out that when the Soors were
quenching their thirst for immortality, Rahu, an Asoor, assumed the
form of a Soor, and begun to drink also; and the water had but reached
his throat, when the sun and moon, in friendship to the Soors,
discovered the deceit, and instantly Narayan cut off his head as he
was drinking, with his splendid weapon, chakra. And the gigantic head
of the Asoor, emblem of a monstrous summit, being thus separated from
his body by the chakra's edge, bounded into the heavens with a
dreadful cry, whilst the ponderous trunk fell, cleaving the ground
asunder, and shaking the whole earth unto its foundations, with all
its islands, rocks, and forest. And from this time the head of Rahu
resolved on eternal enmity, and continueth even unto this day at times
to seize upon the sun and moon." p. 149.]

[Footnote 114: p. 54. l. 15. _To the unadorned a husband._ "Married women must
be honoured and adorned by their fathers and brethren, by their
husbands, and by the brethren of their husbands, if they seek abundant
prosperity." MENU, iii, 55.]

[Footnote 115: p. 54. l. 22.--_the moon's bride_. Rohinia. The moon, as
in the northern mythologies, is a male deity. See WILFORD, in Asiatic
Researches, iii, 384. Rohinia is explained by Mr. Wilson, the fourth
lunar asterism, figured by a wheeled carriage, and containing five
stars, probably [Greek: a b g d e], Tauri. In mythology the asterism is
personified as one of the daughters of Daksha, and wives of the
moon.--Sanscrit Dict. in voce. Comp. Vikrama and Urvasi, p. 57.]

[Footnote 116: p. 57. _Dasarna_. Dasarna is mentioned in the Cloud