158
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 24, 1900.
the theory that this fine Oriental porcelain
was decorated at Lowestoft) a critical ex-
amination of the large collection of the
porcelain under discussion which exists at
the British Museum bequeathed, I think, by
the late Sir A. W. Franks would convince
the sceptic. The Chinese are wondrously
clever in their imitations, but the hand of the
decorator seems insensibly to wander in an
Oriental direction, even when he is intending
to make a " Chinese copy " of an English
design. There are some half-dozen or more
Eieces of genuine Lowestoft porcelain in the ritish Museum, but all of soft paste and totally unlike " Lowestoft " commonly so called. J. ELIOT HODGKIN.
GOVERXOR-GENERAL OF MADRAS (9 th S. v. 107). No Sir John Pater is to be found amongst the Governors of Madras. Nor can I trace the existence of a knight of that name.
W. D. PINK.
"FRAIL" (9 th S. iv. 436, 507 ; v. 51). Here in East Anglia, this is the name of the re- ceptacle, a sort of flat basket, general^ made of rushes, in which carpenters, blacksmiths, and others carry their tools. A glass -frail, however, used by glaziers, is a case made of wood. F. H.
Marlesford.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
A Digit of the Moon : a Hindoo Love. Story. Trans-
lated by F. W. Bain. (Parker & Co.) WE are not sure whether we are to take in the full sense the statements of Mr. Bain concerning the manner in which the work of which ' A Digit of the Moon' is a portion came into his possession. According to the story which he very modestly tells, he had rendered a slight service to a Maratha Brahman. This service the Brahman was not slow to acknowledge, his zeal and friendship being the more deeply stirred by the discovery that his benefactor was a student of Sanskrit and was able to read his beloved 'Kalidas' in the original. When Poonah was stricken with the plague, the Brahman followed to the grave his wife, children, and others of his kin. Before dying he sent for his British friend, and handed to him as a precious treasure what might have passed for "a packet of ladies' long six-button gloves, pressed together between two strips of wood about the size of a cheroot box, and tied around with string." The belongings of a plague-stricken native were sure to be burnt by the authorities, and the MS., for such it proved to be, was worthy of being preserved even by a Briton. Thirty-six hours later the Brahman died, and his treasure was duly retained by Mr. Bain. It proved to be a work, the full title of which is 'Sansara-sagara-manthanam,' which, being interpreted, means ' The Churning of the Ocean of Time/ The significance of the title will not escape the attention of scholars. The disc of
the moon, which in Sanskrit is male, is divided into
sixteen parts, called " streaks " or " digits," and a
beautiful woman with the Hindoo poets is "a digit
of the moon." This portion of the entire work,
one-sixteenth, accordingly, has been translated and
published in the volume before us. It is the his-
- ory of the subjugation by Prince Sfiryakanta of
Anangaraga, a y>rincess of ravishing beauty, who will only accept as her husband the man who can propose bo her, in the course of twenty-one days over which the wooing is spread, a riddle which she cannot solve. How familiar an idea this is folk-lorists will know. With the assistance of his friend Rasa- kosha (pronounced Russakosh) the Prince wins the lovely Princess. About a score adventures are narrated in a fashion recalling that of the ' Arabian Nights,' the whole constituting one of the most Fascinating Hindoo love-.stories we have read. Supposing the thing to be genuine and we do so suppose, though the environment has something of the air of fiction Mr. Bain must lose no time in publishing the whole of a work we are disposed to regard as priceless. How rich the Sanskrit language is in poetry scholars are well aware. The present work appeals, however, to the folk-lorist almost as readily as to the lover of literature. The riddle or story of the second day, showing the manner in which nineteen cows are divided in certain pro- portions between three brothers without leaving a remainder, is familiar. Most of the other stories are novel to us, and all are of abundant interest. Wo claim no special knowledge of Sanskrit legend, and we have not the space to make clear to our readers what seem to us the special features of this. We advise, however, every lover of Sanskrit literature to read this delightful product of Oriental imagina- tion, and we would call upon Mr. Bain to give us with the least possible delay the entire work.
An Antiquarian Survey of East Gower, Glamorgan- shire. By W. LI. Morgan, Lieut. -Col. late R.E. (C. J. Clark.)
COL. MORGAN is practically the first historian of the district of East Gower. His book is rather a collection of materials from which a history may subsequently be compiled than a sustained and systematic record. Against this method of treat- ment we have nothing to urge, the book being announced as an antiquarian survey and not as a history. The task of criticism or rather, perhaps, of description would, however, have been easier had the historical particulars supplied been more extensive. For these the reader will turn to the ' History of West Gower.' On the domains of his predecessor Col. Morgan is careful not to trespass. To the traveller Gower is known as one of the most picturesque and primitive districts of South Wales; to the antiquary and the student generally as the seat of numerous Druidic remains, and for the caves with which its bold and rocky coastline is indented. Of these caves Bacon Hole and Minchen Cave have been most remunera- tive to the explorer, immense deposits of animal remains having been found, together with some few signs of human occupation during the neolithic period. These latter are, however, sadly dis- appointing in number, and in the majority of caves no trace of human handiwork is to be observed. Finds of bronze implements are few, though the Bronze Age is well represented by circles, earns, &c. Cams are especially numerous, "the tops of all the hills east of the Tawe being covered with them."
