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And when he arrived and threw himself at the feet of Vikramáditya, that king said to him, " Go and put a stop to the sighs of your wife who sent you the letter." When the king despatched him with these words, Krishnaśakti, full of wonder, went with his friends to his own land. There he drove out his kinsmen, and delighted his wife, who had been long pining for him; and having gained more even than he had ever wished for, enjoyed the most glorious royal fortune.
So wonderful were the deeds of king Vikramáditya.
Now one day he saw a Bráhman with every hair on his head and body standing on end; and he said to him, ' What has reduced you, Bráhman, to this state? " Then the Bráhman told him his story in the following words:
Story of Devasvámin the permanently horripilant Bráhman.:— There lived in Páțaliputra a Bráhman of the name of Agnisvámin, a great maintainer of the sacrificial fire; and I am his son, Devasvámin by name. And I married the daughter of a Bráhman who lived in a distant land, and because she was a child, I left her in her father's house. One day I mounted a mare, and went with one servant to my father-in-law's house to fetch her. There my father-in-law welcomed me; and I set out from his house with my wife, who was mounted on the mare, and had one maid with her.
And when we had got half way, my wife got off the mare, and went to the bank of the river, pretending that she wanted to drink water. And as she remained a long time without coming back, I sent the servant, who was with me, to the bank of the river to look for her. And as he also remained a long time without coming back, I went there myself, leaving the maid to take care of the mare. And when I went and looked, I found that my wife's mouth was stained with blood, and that she had devoured my servant, and left nothing of him but the bones.*[1] In my terror I left her, and went back to find the mare, and lo ! her maid had in the same way eaten that. Then I fled from the place, and the fright I got on that occasion still remains in me, so that even now I cannot prevent the hair on my head and body from standing on end.†[2]
" So you, king, are my only hope." When the Bráhman said this, Vikramáditya by his sovereign fiat relieved him of all fear. Then the king said, " Out on it ! One cannot repose any confidence in women, for
- ↑ * See Vol. I, p. 212, and Lieutenant Temple's article Lamia in the Antiquary for August, 1882. Terrible man-eating Sirens are described in the Valáhassajátaka to which Dr. Morris called attention in a letter in the Academy. Cp. Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 142.
- ↑ † No. 3003 and the Sanskrit College MS. give antahathena for sambhramayya. No. 1882 has tva-tahsthena; an insect has devoured the intermediate letter.
