Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/359

-IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 3.23 One might almost have imagined that the lotuses blushed for shame at being eclipsed by her resplen- dent beauty. And what was -this woman doing ? Wonder of wonders! she had caught with one tender hand a huge elephant which with the other she was putting into her mouth. The stem of the lotus was shaking under its strange load, in which the beautiful and the grotesque were fantastically blended, and Dhanapati cried out in wonder: ‘‘ But how can the weak lotus bear so heavy a burden !” He landed in Ceylon and had an interview with The the king to whom he related this wonderful vision. . king dis- The king only-smiled and said it was a mad man’s ani story, and all the courtiers laughed at him. It was a marvel, added the king, that his ship itself had not been swallowed up by the lady! But when the merchant insisted on his point, and talked in all other respects like a sane man, he entered into an agreement with him, to the effect that he would forego half his kingdom and bestow it on Dhana- The 28 . contract. pati if he could show him the same phenome- non. Should it prove, however, that all was a mere fantasy, as the king thought, his ships and all his property would be confiscated and he would be thrown into a dungeon for life for putting a monarch to such trouble. They both embarked on a ship and reached the Dhanapati thrown ordinary spectacle. But a wide space of blue waters into prison, spot where Dhanapati had witnessed the extra- confronted them, huge blue waves, rolling in from the blue sea,—blue waves, moving to the blue horizon, and nothing more—no lady, no lotus, no elephant met their eyes. The merchant looked