[2] _The home of Shrí_, i.e. a blue lotus, which is so called because the goddess Shrí appeared floating in one at the creation. [3] _shánta_: one who has quelled the passions and attained peace. Of such, Shiwa is the chief. But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark. [4] Hence the name of the city, above. [5] Beauty and salt, in the original, are denoted by the same word. [6] That is, 'a woman with sweet seductive eyes.' [7] A pretty term employed by ladies in addressing their lords: 'son of an _arya_, a gentleman.' It has no English equivalent. [8] The old Hindoos had a special admiration and a special term (_hansagaminí_) for a woman who walked like a swan. [9] There is here an untranslateable play on the word kamalahása, which means both _the opening of a lotus bud_, and an _irresistible smile_. [10] _wyatikara_, a word expressive of the _varying_ lustre or _wavering_ coruscation of jewels. [11] cf. Callimachus: dós moi partheníen aión ion, appa, phylássein. [12] This touch arises from the beautiful word for a daughter, átmajá, i.e. _she that is born from yourself_. [13] A case, perhaps, not absolutely unknown in the west: though beauty, like a fortress, must always like to be flattered by a siege. But in the land of the Hindoos, marriage is like being born or dying, a matter of course, a thing necessary, inevitable, essential, _quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus_. [14] There is, in the original here, a _nuance_ not susceptible of direct translation. According to the Hindoos, lotuses are divided into those of the Day and Night, whose lovers are the Sun and Moon. The Lotus in question is a Sun-lotus '_between the Twilights_,' i.e., buried in night, and deprived of the presence of the Sun. An allusion to the title of the story is thus introduced. But all this cannot be expressed in English, as it can in Sanskrit, by a single word. II. By Beat of Drum