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while cheat the pain of parting by amusing ourselves hero in the garden. After that you shall go to your father's abode, and I will return to mine." When he made this proposal, the fair one agreed to it. Then the king diverted himself with her for six days in the gardens, and in tanks, the lotus-eyes of which were full of tears, and that seemed to toss aloft their waves like hands, and in the cries of their swans and cranes to utter this plaintive appeal, " Do not leave us !" And on the seventh day he artfully decoyed his darling to that pavilion, where was the tank that served as a magic gate*[1] conducting to the world of men; and throwing his arms round her neck, he plunged into that tank, and rose up with her from a tank in the garden of his own city. When the gardeners saw that he had arrived with his beloved, they were delighted, and they went and told his minister Dírghadarśin. And the minister came and fell at his feet, and seeing that he had brought with him the lady of his aspirations, he and the citizens escorted him into the palace. And he thought to himself, " Dear me ! I wonder how the king has managed to obtain this celestial nymph, of whom I caught a transient glimpse in the ocean, as one sees in the heaven a lightning-flash. But the fact is, whatever lot is written for a man by the Disposer in the inscription on his forehead, infallibly befalls him, however improbable."
Such were the reflections of the prime minister; while the rest of his subjects were full of joy at the return of the king, and of astonishment at his having won the celestial nymph. But Mrigánkavatí, seeing that the king had returned to his own kingdom, longed, as the seven days were completed, to return to the home of the Vidyádharas. But the science of flying up into the air did not appear to her, though she called it to mind. Then she felt as one robbed of a treasure, and was in the deepest despondency. And the king said to her, " Why do you suddenly appear despondent, tell me, my darling ?" Then the Vidyádharí answered him, " Because I remained so long, after I had been released from my curse, out of love for you, my science has abandoned me, and I have lost the power of returning to my heavenly home." When king Yasahketu heard this, he said, " Ha ! I have now won this Vidyádharí," and so his rejoicing was complete.
When the minister Dírghadarśin saw this, he went home, and at night, when he was in bed, he suddenly died of a broken heart. And Yasahketu, after he had mourned for him, remained long bearing the burden of empire himself, with Mrigánkavatí for his consort.
When the Vetála, seated on the shoulder of king Trivikramasena, had told him this story on the way, he went on to say to him, " So tell me,
- ↑ * I follow the reading of a MS. in the Sanskrit College yantradváravápiká.
