Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.150

v1.c6.150

¹ When all his sons are snatched away from the holy man Vasistha, he becomes a kind of Old Indian Ahasuerus: he resolves to die, and throws himself from the cliff, but falls as though onto a heap of cotton. He goes into the blazing fire, and to him the flame is cool. He hangs a stone on his neck and leaps into the sea, but the waves cast him ashore (i, 176.41 ff., cp. 177, espec. 177.16; 178.2). As an instructive counterpart an American Indian Ahasuerus may be given here : A son is beaten by his father, and goes into the forest. After he has wandered a long time he comes to a place where a lot of wood has piled itself up. He wants to die, and leaps from the pile into the water, but comes up to the surface again safe and sound. Then he comes to a steep cliff. He climbs up and throws himself down, but is still quite unharmed (Boas, Ztschr. f. Ethnol., “ Abhandl. d. anthrop. Gesellsch.,” Bd. 24, p. 406).