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4
KOPAL-KUNDALA.
"Then why did you come?" asked the old man.
The young man replied—
"I told you before that I wished very much to see the ocean, and it is simply on that account that I have come." Then, in a lower tone, he muttered, "Ah! what have I seen! I shall never forget it even in subsequent states of existence!"[1]
The old man took no heed of the poetry, but was intently listening to the conversation of the sailors. One of them was saying to another, "O brother, so big a business has ended badly; I cannot understand what outer ocean we have fallen into, or what country we have come to."
The speaker's voice evinced considerable fear, and the old man gathered that some danger had arisen to cause anxiety.
"What's the matter, boatman?" he asked
- ↑ This passage refers to the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. A devoted wife often says to her husband, "What virtuous acts (punya) I must have done in a former birth to get a husband like you!" or, "In a future life may I have a husband like you!"
