A Heifer of the Sun: The Wax of a New Moon: Pátalí

PÁTALÍ.

THEN he tossed all night on his bed of leaves, and rose before the sun, and went out and stood on the steps of the pool, watching the images of the last stars paling in the mirror of its water before the advent of the day. And he looked and to! out of the trees again the chétí came towards him with twinkling feet, holding a trumpet-flower c in her hand. And she resembled the sky before the dawn, touched with the first streak of red. So she came up to the King, and stood near him, and said: O King, my mistress sends her lord, by these unworthy

d was very strong. And at that moment the Sky, with all

e still bosom floated the little lamp, with a flame that never wavered: and in the silent mirror of her waters appeared another sky and other stars, in mimicry of those above. Then said the kindly God: Sky, seest thou yonder sky with all its stars below? And the Sky answered: Aye: but that sky with its stars is but an illusion. And Maheshwara laughed. And he said: Thou foolish Sky, know, that thou art thyself, with all thy stars, no less an illusion than is that other sky below. The sole reality of all is yonder little lamp, that floats midway, poised between the infinity above and that below. For it embodies the good quality f of a faithful wife.

g dwells upon her tongue. But what of that? Is she not a woman? One of those who carry poison in their teeth under the honey in their lips. And he threw the flower, with his lips shut, into the pool, and went back to the temple with a sad heart, to mourn through the day and await the coming of the night.

---

Footnotes

17:c Pátalí. Its colour is pale red.

19:d The reader unacquainted with Hindoo literature may possibly see in this a Christian idea; but it is not so: or rather it is far more Indian than Christian: and the original bhakti is stronger and far more intense in its meaning than our faith.

20:e Because Gangá is a woman.

20:f Goodness, or sattwa (the noun, of which satí, a word familiar to all English readers in connection with widow burning, is the adjective) is one of the three great Qualities: Passion and Darkness being the other two. Sattwa alone is real: that which is (sat). But the play on wife and goodness cannot be rendered in English.

21:g The goddess of eloquence.