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mine has got up and without any cause actually cut off my nose." When
her relations heard that, they came, and seeing that her nose was cut off, they beat Agniśarman with sticks and other weapons. And the next day they reported the matter to the king, and by his orders they made him over to the executioners, to be put to death, as having injured his innocent wife.
But when he was being taken to the place of execution, the goddess presiding over that omen, who had seen the proceedings of his wife during the night, said to herself, " This man has reaped the fruit of the evil omens, but as he said, ' Hail ! Hail ! ' I must save him from execution." Having thus reflected, the goddess exclaimed unseen from the air, " Executioners, this young Bráhman is innocent; you must not put him to death: go and see the nose between the teeth of the impaled thief." When she had said this, she related the proceedings of his wife during the night. Then the executioners, believing the story, represented it to the king by the mouth of the warder, and the king, seeing the nose between the teeth of the thief, remitted the capital sentence passed on Agniśarman, and sent him home; and punished that wicked wife, and imposed a penalty on her relations*[1] also.
" Such, king, is the character of women." When that minister had said this. King Vikramáditya approved his saying, exclaiming, " So it is." Then the cunning Múladeva, who was near the king, said, " King, are there no good women, though some are bad? Are there no mango-creepers, as well as poisonous creepers? In proof that there are good women, hear what happened to me."
Story of Múladeva.†[2]:— I went once to Páțaliputra with Śaśin, thinking that it was the home of polished wits, and longing to make trial of their cleverness. In a tank outside that city I saw a woman washing clothes, and I put this question to her, " Where do travellers stay here?" The old woman
- ↑ * The word badhúnś is evidently a misprint for bandhúnś: as appears from the MSS.
- ↑ † This story is known in Europe, and may perhaps be the original source of Shakespeare's " All's Well that Ends Well." At any rate there is a slight resemblance in the leading idea of the two stories. It bears a close resemblance to the story of Sorfarina, No. 36 in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, and to that of Sapia in the Pentamerone of Basile. In the Sicilian and in the Neapolitan tale a prince is angry with a young lady who, when teaching him, gave him a box on the ear, and marries her in order to avenge himself by ill-treating her; but finding that he has, without suspecting it, had three children by her, he is obliged to seek a reconciliation. Dr. Köhler in his note on the Sicilian tale gives no other parallel than Basile's tale, which is the 6th of the Vth day, VoL II, p. 204 of Liebrocht's translation.
