Page:Panchatantra.djvu/471

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462
THE PANCHATANTRA


leave this spot at once, lest perchance the same calamity befall me, too. There is some point in this:

To judge by the expression,
Friend monkey, on your face,
You have been caught by Twilight—
He lives who wins the race.

"How was that?" asked the wheel-bearer. And the other told the story of


THE CREDULOUS FIEND

In a certain city lived a king whose name was Fine-Army. He had a daughter named Pearl, blessed with the thirty-two marks of perfect beauty.

Now a certain fiend, who wished to carry her off, came every evening and abused her, but he could not carry her off because she protected herself by drawing a magic circle. However, at the hour when he embraced her, she experienced trembling, fever, and the like, the feelings that arise in the presence of a fiend.

While matters were in this state, the fiend once took his stand in a corner and revealed himself to the princess, who thereupon said to a girl friend: "Look, my dear! This is the fiend who comes every evening at twilight's hour and torments me. Is there any means of keeping the ruffian at a distance?"

When he heard this, the fiend thought: "Aha! I am not the only one. There is someone else—and his name is Twilight—who comes every day to carry her