482
went up to the horse, and he flung me from him with a kick; and imme-
djately I found myself in this temple of Śiva.*[1]
Since that time I have remained here, and I have gradually acquired supernatural powers. Accordingly, though I am a mortal, I possess knowledge of the three times. In the same way do all men in this world find successes beset with difficulties. So do you remain in this place; Śiva will bestow on you the success that you desire.
When that wise being had told me all this, I conceived hopes of recovering you, and I remained there some days in his hermitage. And to day, my lord, Śiva in a dream informed me of your success, and some heavenly nymph seized me up, and brought me here. This is the history of my adventures.
When Gomukha had said this, he stopped, and then Marubhúti began to tell his tale in the presence of Naraváhanadatta.
Marubhúti's account of his adventures.:— When I was flung away on that occasion by Mánasavega, some divinity took me up in her hands, and placingme in a distant forest, disappeared. Then I wandered about afflicted and anxious to obtain some means of committing suicide, when I saw a certain hermitage encircled with a river. I entered it, and beheld an ascetic with matted hair sitting on a slab of rock, and I bowed before him and went up to him. He said to me, " Who are you, and how did you reach this uninhabited land ?" Thereupon, I told him my whole story. Then he understood and said to me, " Do not slay yourself now ! You shall learn here the truth about your master, and afterwards you shall do what is fitting."
In accordance with this advice of his I remained there, eager for tidings of you, my liege: and while I was there, some heavenly nymphs came to bathe in the river. Then the hermit said to me, " Go quickly and carry off the clothes of one of those nymphs bathing there; †[2] and then
- ↑ * See Vol. I, pp. 224 and 576, and p. 268 of the present volume. To the parallels quoted by Ralston may be added, Prym and Socin's Syrische Sagen, p. 116; Bernhard Schmidt's Griechiache Märchen, p. 94; and Coelho'a Contos Portuguezes, p. 63.
- ↑ † Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, pp. 341, 342. Here Hagen steals the clothes of some Meerweiber, who were bathing in the Danube; in this way he induces the elder of the two to prophesy the fate of himself and his companions at the court of Attila. In the Russian story of Vasilissa the Wise (Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 126,) the hero steals Vasilissa's shift. She promises to do him good service if he gives it back, which he does. She turned into a spoonbill and flew away after her companions. (See Ralston's remarks on p. 120.) We find the incident of stealing the robes of bathing nymphs in Prim and Socin's Syrische Sagen und Märchen, p. 116; in Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 250; Weckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, pp. 119-130; Gonzenbach's Sicilianiache Märchen, Part I, p. 31, (with Köhler's notes). In the above tale the dress stolen is what our great folk-lore authority terms a " plumage-robe."
