serpent-ladies dancing on the river-bank round the great wishing-ruby. The Nágas, hearing the Brahman reciting the charm, thought it was a Garula, and dived into the earth in a fright, leaving the ruby, which the Brahman at once seized with delight.
Shortly after, he met Nesáda, the hunter, and his son Somadatta, and Nesáda, recognising the ruby which had been offered to him, was seized with a desire to get it from the snake charmer.
He proposes to get it by artifice, but Somadatta will have nothing to say to the matter, rebukes his father for his wickedness in trying to take what he had already refused when it was offered to him, and forsakes his father to become a hermit. Nesáda then goes up to the snake charmer, and asks him what he will take for his ruby; the snake charmer refuses, at first, to part with it, saying:—
"Ne'er will I my ruby barter
For earth's treasures, or for silver;
'Tis a stone of wondrous power,
Such a ruby none can purchase."[1]
On being again pressed by Nesáda to name a price for the ruby, he agrees to give it to the man who can point out to him the King of Serpents. Nesáda, after some further conversation, takes the Brahman to the place where Bhuridatta lies coiled round the ant-hill,[2] and pointing him out, says:
"Seize, then, the Serpent king,
Give me that jewel:
Like fireflies sparkling
Of that one 's the red head:
Like well-carded cotton,
His body behold there;
He sleeps on the ant-hill
Fast seize him, O Brahman."
Bhuridatta opens his eyes, and seeing the two Brahmans,
