Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/335

 Nature-language which these dramas contain. Perhaps, however, the following translation of Maitreya's observations in the fourth act of Mrichchhakatí, or the "Toy-cart," may convey some impression of this Nature-language, while two passages from the fifth act of the same play will illustrate the descriptions of Nature with which Indian plays abound. The translations, it must be added, are the work of that profound and elegant scholar, the late Professor Horace Hayman Wilson, to whom all Sanskrit students are so deeply indebted, and whose words have already been frequently quoted.

"A very pretty entrance," says Maitreya; "the threshold is neatly coloured, well swept and watered; the floor is beautified with strings of sweet flowers; the top of the gate is lofty, and gives one the pleasure of looking up to the clouds, while the jasmine festoon hangs tremblingly down, as if it were now tossing on the trunk of Indra's elephant. Over the doorway is a lofty arch of ivory; above it again wave flags dyed with safflower, their fringes curling in the wind like fingers that beckon me 'come hither.' … Bless me! why, here is a line of palaces, as white as the moon, as the conch, as the stall of the water-lily. Oh, ho! this is a very gay scene: here the drums, beaten by tapering fingers, emit like clouds a murmuring tone; there the cymbals, beating time, flash as they descend like the unlucky stars that fall from heaven. The flute here breathes the soft hum of the bee; some damsels are singing like so many bees intoxicated with flowery nectar; others are practising the graceful dance, and others are employed in reading plays and poems. … The arched gateway is of gold, and many-coloured gems on a ground of sapphire, and looks like the bow of Indra in an azure sky. … A very lovely scene! The numerous trees are bowed down by delicious fruit,