The Indian poetry is full of instances of this strong desire for offspring. In the Ramayana, king Dasaratha performs the Aswamedha, or offering of a horse, to obtain a son. "To this magnanimous king, acquainted in every duty, pre-eminent in virtue, and performing sacred austerities for the sake of obtaining children, there was no son to perpetuate his family. At length in the anxious mind of this noble one the thought arose, 'Why do I not perform an Ushwamedha to obtain a son.'" CAREY and MARSHMAN's translation, sect. viii. p. 74. Compare the Raghu Vansa, canto i., and all that is done by king Dilipa to obtain a son: and the poem of the death of Hidimbha, published by Bopp.] [Footnote 10: p. 3. l. 14. _--in his hospitable hall_. Hospitality to a Brahmin is of course one of the greatest virtues. "A Brahmin coming as a guest, and not received with just honour, takes to himself all the reward of the housekeeper's former virtue, even though he had been so temperate as to live on the gleanings of harvests, and so pious as to make oblations in five distinct fires." Sir W. JONES, Menu, iii. 100.] [Footnote 11: p. 3. l. 22. _--as around great Indra's queen_. Sachi. Sachi, soft as morning light, Blithe Sachi, from her lord Indrani hight.--Sir W. JONES's Hymn to Indra.] [Footnote 12: p. 4. l. 2. _Mid her handmaids, like the lightning_. There are two words of similar signification in the original; one of them implies life-giving. Lightning in India being the forerunner of the rainy season, is looked on as an object of delight as much as terror. BOPP, from the Scholiast.] [Footnote 13: p. 4. l. 2. _--shone she with her faultless form_. Sri, or Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and abundance, at once the Ceres and the Alma Venus of India. Daughter of ocean and primeval night, Who fed with moonbeams dropping silent dew, And cradled in a wild wave dancing light.--Sir W. JONES's Ode to Lacshmi.] [Footnote 14: p. 4. l. 4. _--never mid the Yaksha race_. The Yakshas are demigods attendant on Kuvera, the god of wealth, descendants of Kasyapa by his wife Khasa. They inhabit mountains, and have intercourse with the Apsarasas, or heavenly nymphs. Sometimes they appear not altogether as good beings, sometimes entirely harmless. "The souls of men enslaved to their passions will rise no higher than the Yakshas." MENU, xii. 47. The subject of the Meghaduta, or Cloud-Messenger of Kalidása, so elegantly translated by Mr. Wilson, is the regret of a Yaksha for his beloved wife. Compare Mr. Wilson's note on the Yakshas, Cloud Messenger, p. 69.] [Footnote 15: p. 4. l. 7. _Nala too, 'mong kings the tiger_. Nara Sardula, the Tiger warrior. I have retained the literal meaning, though, according to Bopp, it means _in fine compositi, Optimus, præstantissimus_. Mr. Southey's Young Tlalala, in Madoc, is the "tiger of the war."]