Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in FairylandBunce, John Thackray
History
Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland
Bunce, John Thackray
Fairy tales -- History and criticism
didn't mean to do anything of the kind. Well, the noise, and the
pinching, and all the confusion, so frightened the six Rakshas that they
thought they had had enough of helping their friend, and so they ran
away; and the seventh Rakshas, thinking that because they ran there must
be great danger, shook off the Blind Man and ran away too. And then the
Deaf Man came down from the tree and embraced the Blind Man, and said,
"I could not have done better myself." Then the Deaf Man divided the
treasure; one great heap for himself, and one little heap for the Blind
Man. But the Blind Man felt his heap and then felt the other, and then,
being angry at the cheat, he gave the Deaf Man a box on the ear, so
tremendous that it made the Deaf Man hear. And the Deaf Man, also being
angry, gave the other such a blow in the face that it made the Blind Man
see. So they became good friends directly, and divided the treasure into
equal shares, and went home laughing at the stupid Rakshas.
From the legends of India we now go on to Persia and Arabia, to learn
something about the Divs and the Peris, and the Jinns. When the ancient
Persians separated from the Aryan race from which they sprang, they
altered their religion as well as changed their country. They came to
believe in two principal gods, Ormuzd, the spirit of goodness, who sits
enthroned in the Realms of Light, with great numbers of angels around
him; and Ahriman, the spirit of evil, who reigns in the Realms of
Darkness and Fire, and round whose throne are the great six arch-Divs,
and vast numbers of inferior Divs, or evil beings; and these two powers
are always at war with each other, and are always trying to obtain the
government of the world. From Ormuzd and Ahriman there came in time,
according to popular fancy, the two races of the Divs and the Peris,
creatures who were like mankind in some things, but who had great powers
of magic; which made them visible and invisible at pleasure, enabled
them to change their shapes when they pleased, and to move about on
the earth or in the air. They dwelt in the land of Jinnestan, in the
mountains of Kaf. These mountains were supposed to go round the earth
like a ring; they were thousands of miles in height, and they were made
of the precious stone called chrysolite, which is of a green colour, and
this colour, so the Persian poets say, is reflected in the green which
we sometimes see in the sky at sunset. In this land of Jinnestan
there are many cities. The Peris have for their abode the kingdom
of Shad-u-Kan, that is, of Pleasure and Delight, with its capital
Juber-a-bad, or the Jewel City; and the Divs have for their dwelling
Ahermambad, or Ahriman's city, in which there are enchanted castles and
palaces, guarded by terrible monsters and powerful magicians. The Peris
are very beautiful beings, usually represented as women with wings, and
charming robes of all colours. The Divs are painted as demons of the
most frightful kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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