Vikram and the Vampire | Page 3

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Captain Sir Richard F. Burton's Vikram and The Vampire 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
THE VAMPIRE'S FIRST STORY. In which a Man deceives a Woman
THE VAMPIRE'S SECOND STORY. Of the Relative Villany of Men
and Woman
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. Showng 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. Of the Marvellous Delicacy of
Three Queens
THE VAMPIRE'S ELEVENTH STORY. Which puzzles Raja Vikram
Conclusion
PREFACE
The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the history of a
huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited and animated dead
bodies. It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legend composed in
Sanskrit, and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and
which inspired the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, Boccacio's
"Decamerone," the "Pentamerone," and all that class of facetious
fictitious literature.
The story turns chiefly on a great king named Vikram, the King Arthur
of the East, who in pursuance of his promise to a Jogi or Magician,
brings to him the Baital (Vampire), who is hanging on a tree. The
difficulties King Vikram and his son have in bringing the Vampire into
the presence of the Jogi are truly laughable; and on this thread is strung

a series of Hindu fairy stories, which contain much interesting
information on Indian customs and manners. It also alludes to that state,
which induces Hindu devotees to allow themselves to be buried alive,
and to appear dead for weeks or months, and then to return to life again;
a curious state of mesmeric catalepsy, into which they work themselves
by concentrating the mind and abstaining from food - a specimen of
which I have given a practical illustration in the Life of Sir Richard
Burton.
The following translation is rendered peculiarly; valuable and
interesting by Sir Richard Burton's intimate knowledge of the language.
To all who understand the ways of the East, it is as witty, and as full of
what is popularly called "chaff" as it is possible to be. There is not a
dull page in it, and it will especially please those who delight in the