Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c11.123

v2.c11.123

¹ In the account of the Rām. (i, 48.19 ff.), it is true, Ahalyā very well recognizes the ruler of the gods with all his disguise, and gladly welcomes the change for the more voluptuous entertainment it will bring ; and in the account in the Kathāsarits. (tar. 17, çl. 137 ff.) she even encourages her lover ; a change of shape is thus not really needed. Cp. Zachariae, *Zeitschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 16, p. 131 ; Toldo, ibid., Bd. 15, p. 367 ff. That supernatural beings take on the outward appearance of the husband, and so lie with the wife, is indeed a wide-spread belief (see Ploss-Bartels, i, 392) ; and earthly men have often reached their object in the same way, by magic or otherwise. King Arthur, indeed, is the fruit of such a trick (Malory, *Morte d’Arthur*, i, 2).