By Sir Richard F. Burton

By Sir Richard F. Burton

Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance

Edited by his Wife Isabel Burton

“Les fables, loin de grandir les hommes, la Nature et Dieu, rapetssent tout.” Lamartine (Milton) “One who had eyes saw it; the blind will not understand it. A poet, who is a boy, he has perceived it; he who understands it will be his sire’s sire.”—Rig-Veda (I.164.16).

CONTENTS

PREFACE

PREFACE TO THE FIRST (1870) EDITION.

INTRODUCTION

VIKRAM AND THE VAMPIRE

THE VAMPIRE’S FIRST STORY — In which a man deceives a woman.

THE VAMPIRE’S SECOND STORY — Of the Relative Villany of Men and Women.

THE VAMPIRE’S THIRD STORY — Of a High-minded Family.

THE VAMPIRE’S FOURTH STORY — Of A Woman Who Told The Truth.

THE VAMPIRE’S FIFTH STORY — Of the Thief Who Laughed and Wept.

THE VAMPIRE’S SIXTH STORY — In Which Three Men Dispute about a Woman.

THE VAMPIRE’S SEVENTH STORY — Showing the Exceeding Folly of Many Wise Fools.

THE VAMPIRE’S EIGHTH STORY — Of the Use and Misuse of Magic Pills.

THE VAMPIRE’S NINTH STORY — Showing That a Man’s Wife Belongs Not to His Body but to His Head.

THE VAMPIRE’S TENTH STORY [168] — Of the Marvellous Delicacy of Three Queens.

THE VAMPIRE’S ELEVENTH STORY — Which Puzzles Raja Vikram.

FOOTNOTES