II
PUSHPAMALA, THE WREATH OF FLOWERS
IN a certain country, the king and the prefect of police were both childless; and they bewailed it as a great misfortune. One day an astrologer came to the wife of each, and pointing out one of the seven tanks near the palace, told them that they would have the long-desired son and heir were they to bathe in it. The next day they went to the tank; the queen by the steps on one side, and the prefect's wife by those on the other. When they had dipped their heads in the water, the former called to the latter, and proposed that in anticipation of the fulfilment of their expectations, they should enter into a pledge. To this the prefect's wafe replied, that people like her did not understand what a pledge was, and that therefore she could not enter into one. At this the queen explained to her what a pledge meant, and said that the one she would propose was that their children, if of different sexes, should be married to each other; but if of the same sex, they should be knit by eternal frendship.
A scene of a similar nature was at that very moment being enacted elsewhere. The king and the prefect with innumerable body-guards were hunting in a forest. They had been on the look-out for game for hours, without success, and the king put the blame on the prefect of police, because he being an antkoorha,[1] his very presence was unpropitious. The prefect was a great flatterer; so instead of turning the tables on the king, as he could with perfect justice have done, he agreed to submit to any punishment that might be inflicted. The
- ↑ Childless man.
