"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."
Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890) was one of the greatest traveler-explorers of history, whose life has recently been chronicled both in biography (Captain Sir Richard Burton) and film (Mountains of the Moon). Famous as the translator of The 1001 Arabian Nights, Burton also searched for the headwaters of the Nile, and was the discoverer of the central lakes of Africa. Orientalist, prolific author, and member of the Royal Geographic Society, he was one of the most remarkable and controversial men of his century.
Table of 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 Women
The Vampire's Third Story Of a High-minded Family
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 Of the Marvellous Delicacy the Three Queens
The Vampire's Eleventh Story Which Puzzles Raja Vikram