bees, the hero is a prince who
starts in search of the wonderful tree mentioned in paragraph 8 of the
note to Phulmati Rani (p. 244). In his wanderings he finds himself in
the Rakshas country. There he meets with the woman who when cut up
turns into the tree he seeks. When he first sees her she lies dead on
a bed with a golden wand on one side of her, and a silver wand on the
other. He accidentally touches her with the golden wand and she
wakes. She tells him the Rakshases, every morning when they go out in
search of food, make her dead by touching her with the silver wand,
and wake her with the golden wand when they return at night. Mr.
Damant has another story in the _Indian Antiquary_ (July 5, 1872, vol.
I. p. 219), from Dinajpur, in which there is a prince Dalim who dies
and is laid in a tomb above ground, not buried. Daily the Apsarases,
the dancing-girls in the court of Indra, wake him from death by
touching his face with a golden wand, and make him dead again by
touching him with a silver wand. These wands they always leave lying
beside him. His wife comes one day to mourn over him and accidentally
discovers the secret of bringing him to life. He is, finally, restored
to her by the Apsarases.

5. According to Gubernatis, "three and seven are sacred numbers in
Aryan faith" (_Zoological Mythology_, vol. I. p. 6).

6. Hiralalbasa addresses the Rakshas as "uncle." The two brothers
Kanran and Guja (in a Santali fairy tale bearing their name printed by
the Rev. F. T. Cole in the _Indian Antiquary_, September 1875, vol.
IV. p. 257), address a tiger by the same propitiatory title. The tiger
in return addresses them as nephews, and gives them the fire they
want.

"Uncle" and "aunt" are used in a propitiatory sense over a great part
of the world. Hunt at p. 6 of his introduction to the _Romances and
Drolls of the West of England_ says, "Uncle is a term of respect,
which was very commonly applied to aged men by their juniors in
Cornwall. Aunt ... was used in the same manner when addressing aged
women." "Mon oncle" and "ma tante" are sometimes used in the same way
in France. Fiske in his _Myths and Mythmakers_, pp. 166, 167, tells
how the Zulu solar hero Uthlakanyana outwits a cannibal: in this story
the hero addresses the cannibal as "uncle," and the cannibal in return
calls him "child of my sister." Fiske, quoting from Dr. Callaway, at
p. 166, says, "It is perfectly clear that the cannibals of the Zulu
legends are not