page. These spirits and gods, for
whose dwelling-place stocks and stones and other objects had been
supplied, were not supposed always to inhabit these abodes; but they
did so at pleasure. Compare Elijah's address to the priests of Baal,
"Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing,
or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth" (1 Kings xviii.
27), with Caterina's seven-veiled fate, and the prostrate fate-stone
in our story whose spirit-owner was evidently absent on some
expedition. These fates may be compared with the patron or guardian
spirits of whom Mr. Tylor speaks at pp. 199-203 of the same volume. He
says (p. 202), "The Egyptian astrologer warned Antonius to keep far
from the young Octavius, 'for thy demon,' said he, 'is in fear of
his.'" If one man's demon or genius were at enmity with that of
another man, it would probably be friendly to that of a third man, and
would therefore be acquainted with its secrets and with its motives of
behaviour to the man it guarded. Hence the advice given by her
mistress to Caterina to inquire of her own fate from her mistress's
fate, and the questions to be put to their fates when found given to
the men in the Indian and Servian stories. These questions remind one
of those entrusted to the youths in European tales as they journey to
the dragon or devil to whom they are sent for destruction. Like the
fates in the Indian and Servian stories, these dragons and devils live
at the end of a long and difficult journey. Caterina has to climb a
mountain to visit her mistress's fate.

2. Gubernatis (_Zoological Mythology_, vol. I. p. 22), speaking of the
three _Ribhavas_, says, "During the twelve days (the twelve hours of
the night or the twelve months in the year) in which they are the
guests of Agohyas," &c. So possibly the twelve years in this and other
stories in this collection may be the twelve hours of the night. In an
unpublished story told by Dunkni, "Prince Husainsa's journey," the
prince journeys for twelve years. When he returns home he finds his
parents as he had left them--fast asleep in bed. To them the twelve
years had only been as one night.

XIII.--THE UPRIGHT KING.

1. The Boar is an avatar of Vish[n.]u.

2. A [d.]om (the d is lingual) is a Hindu of a very low caste.

3. Possibly this king is the same as the king Harichand in the last
story but one in the collection, p. 224, and he may also be the
Haricchandra of the following lette