Kama Sutra (Annotated). Richard Francis Burton

Чтение книги онлайн.

      13 Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs.

      14 Picture making, trimming and decorating.

      15 Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths.

      16 Binding of turbans and chaplets, and making crests and top-knots of flowers.

      17 Scenic representations. Stage playing.

      18 Art of making ear ornaments.

      19 Art of preparing perfumes and odours.

      20 Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress.

      21 Magic or sorcery.

      22 Quickness of hand or manual skill.

      23 Culinary art, i.e., cooking and cookery.

      24 Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with proper flavour and colour.

      25 Tailor's work and sewing.

      26 Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, &c., out of yarn or thread.

      27 Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical questions.

      28 A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished, another person had to commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning with the same letter with which the last speaker's verse ended, whoever failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit or stake of some kind.

      29 The art of mimicry or imitation.

      30 Reading, including chanting and intoning.

      31 Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by women and children, and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced.

      32 Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff, and bow and arrow.

      33 Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring.

      34 Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter.

      35 Architecture, or the art of building.

      36 Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems.

      37 Chemistry and mineralogy.

      38 Colouring jewels, gems and beads.

      39 Knowledge of mines and quarries.

      40 Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of nourishing them, and determining their ages.

      41 Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting.

      42 Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak.

      43 Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it.

      44 The art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way.

      45 The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds. Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on.

      46 Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects.

      47 Art of making flower carriages.

      48 Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and binding armlets.

      49 Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a verse written irregularly by separating the vowels from the consonants, or leaving them out altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or symbols. There are many other such exercises.

      50 Composing poems.

      51 Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies.

      52 Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons.

      53 Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good.

      54 Various ways of gambling.

      55 Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of muntras or incantations.

      56 Skill in youthful sports.

      57 Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respects and compliments to others.

      58 Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, &c.

      59 Knowledge of gymnastics.

      60 Art of knowing the character of a man from his features.

      61 Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses.

      62 Arithmetical recreations.

      63 Making artificial flowers.

      64 Making figures and images in clay.

      A public woman, endowed with a good disposition, beauty and other winning qualities, and also versed in the above arts, obtains the name of a Ganika, or public woman of high quality, and receives a seat of honour in an assemblage of men. She is, moreover, always respected by the king, and praised by learned men, and her favour being sought for by all, she becomes an object of universal regard. The daughter of a king too, as well as the daughter of a minister, being learned in the above arts, can make their husbands favourable to them, even though these may have thousands of other wives besides themselves. And in the same manner, if a wife becomes separated from her husband, and falls into distress, she can support herself easily, even in a foreign country, by means of her knowledge of these arts. Even the bare knowledge of them gives attractiveness to a woman, though the practice of them may be only possible or otherwise according to the circumstances of each case. A man who is versed in these arts, who is loquacious and acquainted with the arts of gallantry, gains very soon the hearts of women, even though he is only acquainted with them for a short time.

CHAPTER IV.

      THE LIFE OF A CITIZEN.*

       (* This term would appear to apply generally to an inhabitant of Hindoostan. It is not meant only for a dweller in a city, like the Latin Urbanus as opposed to Rusticus.)

      Having thus acquired learning, a man, with the wealth that he may have gained by gift, conquest, purchase, deposit** (** Gift is peculiar to a Brahman, conquest to a Kshatrya, while purchase, deposit, and other means of acquiring wealth belongs to the Vaishya.), or inheritance from his ancestors, should become a householder, and pass the life of a citizen. He should take a house in a city, or large village, or in the vicinity of good men, or in a place which is the resort of many persons. This abode should be situated near some water, and divided СКАЧАТЬ