The Baital-Pachisi "Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire", composed in Sanskrit early in the Christian era by the sage Bhavabhuti, is one of the masterpieces of Indian literature and one of the best examples of humorous supernatural fiction. In it King Vikram, the King Arthur of India, because of an oath made to a magician, has to carry the Baital (a vampire that inhabits and animates dead bodies) a distance of four miles. They make a pact: the vampire will use all his skill to arouse the king’s curiosity with stories of love, magic and villainy, but if Vikram speaks, the Baital will fly back to his tree-home. The crafty vampire outwits Vikram many times before the king accomplishes his mission. This translation and adaptation by the great Orientalist and storyteller Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1980) includes the frame of the work (introduction and conclusion) and eleven of the best stories. The stories are perhaps best described as fairy tales-myth and tale combined, insinuating a lesson in morals or in humanity by amusing narrative or romantic adventure. They include tales of amorous scheming, of the relative villainy of men and women, of unflinching loyalty and devotion, of a woman who told the truth, of the use and misuse of magic pills, and a bizarre story of the future. Burton’s classic version of this extraordinary work is marked by his vigorous and highly personal style and his matter-of-fact humour, which creates afresh all the wit and suggestiveness of the original. The stories will especially please those who delight in the weird, the grotesque and the supernatural.
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