This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
92
THE NÁGÁNANDA.

ignorance, now, awakened by you, have from this day ceased from destroying living beings. Now let the race of Nágas wander happily in the mighty ocean—at times stretching from shore to shore like bridges—at times taken for whirlpools, through the coiling of their bodies—and at times resembling continents, from the multitude of their hoods, large as alluvial islands. Again, let the damsels of the Nágas in yon grove of sandal trees celebrate joyfully this glory of thine, thinking lightly of the fatigue, though their bodies faint with the exertion, and though their cheeks, browned by the touch of the rays of the early sun, seem as if bedaubed with red lead, while their hair let fall to their feet resembles the darkness of clouds.


Jímútaváhana.

Well said, O magnanimous one! We are delighted. By all means keep firm to your purpose. (Addressing Śankhachúda.) O Śankhachúda, do you now go home.

[Śankhachúda, sighing, stands with downcast looks.


Jímútaváhana (sighing as he looks at his mother).

For assuredly thy mother will be sitting full of grief for thy pain, as she looks up, expecting to see thee drop, mangled by Garuda's beak.


Queen (with tears).

Blessed indeed is that mother, who will behold the face of her son, with his body uninjured, though he was actually in the very jaws of Garuda.