side. She was enchanted with the sight. So great was her joy that she broke forth into a song, the purport of which was:—
"Oh, my dear, dear husband! to you I gave my hand, when you were only twelve days old, with death staring you in the face. I revived you through the blessing of the gods, fed you with tiger's milk, and brought you up, as your position required. Now I see you happy. May your happiness be everlasting. I pray for your father too, but only because he is your father. I love the girl beside you. May God give you both long life and prosperity."
When in her excitement her voice rose high, and the tiger's hair, disengaged from hers, fell to the ground, Chandra suddenly awoke, and seizing her by one end of her sari, he asked her who she was. She replied that she was a common maidservant. But he said, "No, that cannot be. Your face is imprinted on my mind. You fed and nursed me, and you put me in the way of getting a wife in Kanchi; and though the idea is as faint as a dream, I know that it was you who took me out of that horrible prison. My benefactress! I will never more let you leave me. Tell me to whom I owe my life and this happiness."
Malancha replied that his questions could not be answered, as it was dawn, and the people in the palace would overhear her. But the prince pressed her in so loud a voice as to draw his father there. The latter was amazed to see the kotál's daughter, whom he detested, with his son, and he cried out, "It is the witch! She must be driven out."
"But, father," replied the Prince, "she has been always very kind to me. Why cannot you bear the sight of her?"
The king, however, only grew more angry. "Forget her kindness. She will kill you," he cried and then turning to the kotál's daughter, he rudely drove her away. "Be off, you evil witch. You shall lose your head if in the future you ever again thrust your presence upon my son." No repetition of the order was necessary, for Malancha, greatly alarmed,
