Page:Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets.djvu/124

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answer came, all the poets under the patronage of the Krishna Deva refused to go except Ramalinga, who forthwith proceeded to the Court of Ana Vema Reddi: when there, he completed every task set him, and in turn wrote a part of a stanza, and desired the poets of the Court of Ana Vema Reddi, to complete it. Ramlinga then took his departure and in the course of six months returned, but the pundit and poets had not been able to finish the stanzas, he therefore, wrote the concluding verses which so pleased Ana Vema Reddi, that that king embraced him and gave him one of the excellent Candahar horses before-mentioned, and dismissed him with many presents. When Ramalinga returned to the Court of Krishna Deva, he was received with great marks of attention, and enjoyed the king's favor in a very high degree; but being of a very humorous and eccentric turn, he once more forfeited the good opinion of his royal master by playing on him the following trick:—He told Krishna Deva, that he had procured for him a very beautiful damsel, and asked him when he would