hand. He has just been killed by a dacoit." Shiva said in reply, "Well, let us have the head, and turn your eyes away from us." After a good deal of hesitation, lest she should be deprived of her lover's head, her last consolation, she did as desired. A moment elapsed, and when told to look back, what was her surprise to find her dear one standing by her in the full panoply of a warrior, and a chariot flying overhead in the air. The lovers, overjoyed at their re-union, spent the day and the greater part of the night there, and starting some hours before dawn, reached a beautiful garden in another kingdom. Feeling very drowsy, the kotál's son proposed that they should get down from their horses and rest awhile. His proposal was accepted, and overpowered by sleep, he succumbed to it, the princess sitting by, with his head on her lap.
As the morning sun was rising in full splendour, a woman approached them. It was she who supplied the palace with flowers, and she came into the garden to gather them. Now this woman was a witch, and she had the power by a single glance to turn a human being into a beast. She cast her spell, a wreath of flowers, on the two figures before her, and immediately the kotál's son was changed into a long-bearded goat. Over Pushpamala, however, her spell happily had no power, the princess being a Sati. But who can picture the girl's surprise? The whole world was vanishing before her eyes and the ground slipping from under her feet. For a space she stood dumbfounded. Seeing her beloved following the witch, she left him, and with the bridles of the horses in her hands walked towards the palace. The people round about admired her in her soldier's garb, for she was still so equipped. The sentinels at the gate, prepossessed in her favour, recommended her to the king, who offered her the post of a guard, to keep watch at the eight gates of the palace, the remuneration being three gold mohurs a day.
Now it chanced there was a Shankhini[1] of enormous size in the country, which committed great havoc among men and
- ↑ A snake.
