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respectfully even a śloka of it, or whosoever shall hear it read, even they two shall immediately be freed from their curse. And Yakshas,and Vetálas, and Kushmándas, and witches, and Rákshasas, and other creatures of the kind shall have no power where this shall be recited." When the Vetála had said this, he left that human corpse, and went by his supernatural deluding power to the habitation be desired.
Then Śiva, being pleased, appeared, accompanied by all the gods, to that king, visibly manifest, and said to him, as he bowed before him; " Bravo ! my son, for that thou hast to-day slain this hypocritical ascetic, who was so ardently in love with the imperial sovereignty over the Vidyádharas ! I originally created thee out of a portion of myself, as Vikramáditya, in order that thou mightest destroy the Asura?, that had become incarnate in the form of Mlechchhas. And now thou hast again been created by me as a heroic king of the name of Trivikramasena, in order that thou mightest overcome an audacious evildoer. So thou shalt bring tinder thy sway the earth with the islands and the realms below, and shalt soon become supreme ruler over the Vidyádharas. And after thou hast long enjoyed heavenly pleasures, thou shalt become melancholy, and shalt of thy own will abandon them, and shalt at last without fail be united with me. Now receive from me this sword named Invincible, by means of which thou shalt duly obtain all this." When the god Śiva had said this to the king, he gave him that splendid sword, and disappeared after he had been worshipped by him with devout speeches and flowers. Then king Trivikramasena, seeing that the whole business was finished, and as the night had come to an end, entered his own city Pratishțhána. There he was honoured by his rejoicing subjects, who in course of time came to hear of his exploits during the night, and he spent the whole of that day in bathing, giving gifts, in worshipping Śiva, in dancing, singing, music, and other enjoyments of the kind. And in a few days that king, by the power of the sword of Śiva, came to enjoy the earth, that was cleared of all enemies, together with the islands and the lower regions; and then by the appointment of Śiva he obtained the high imperial sovereignty over the Vidyádharas, and after enjoying it long, at last became united with the blessed one, so attaining all his ends.
(Here ends the Vetálapanchavinśati.)
When*[1] that minister Vikramakeśarin, meeting in the way the successful †[2] prince Mrigánkadatta, after he had been long separated from him by a curse, had told him all this, he went on to say to him, " So, prince, after that old Bráhman had told me in that village this story, called the Twenty-
