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Śesha, yellow with the rays of jewels. Once on a time Kuvera beheld it, and conceived a desire for that lotus, and after lie had bathed in the Mánasa lake, he began to worship Vishnu in order to obtain it. And at that time the Yakshas, his followers, were playing in the water, in the shapes of Brahmany ducks and geese, and other aquatic creatures. And it happened that the elder brother of your enemy Kálajihva, a Yaksha named Vidyujjíva, was playing with his beloved in the form of a Brahmany drake, and while flapping his wings, he struck and upset the argha vessel held in the extremity of Kuvera's hand. Then the god of wealth was enraged, and by a curse made Vidyujjíva and his wife Brahmany ducks *[1] on this very Mánasa lake. And Kálajihva, now that his elder brother is so transformed and is unhappy at nighht on account of the absence of his beloved, assumes out of affection her form every night to console him, and remains there in the day in his own natural form, accompanied by your father Gandhamálin, whom he has made a slave. So send there, my daughter, the brave and enterprising Vinítamati, of the town of Ahichchliatrá, the son of the warder, and take this sword †[2] and this horse, for with these that hero will conquer that Yaksha, and will set your father at liberty. And whatever man becomes the possessor of this excellent sword, will conquer all his enemies and become a king on the earth.' After saying this, the goddess gave me the sword and horse, and disappeared. So I have come here to-day in due course to excite you to the enterprise, and seeing you going out at night with the favour of the goddess, I brought you here by an artifice, having caused you to hear a sound of weeping. So accomplish for me that desire of mine, noble sir!" When Vinítamati was thus entreated by her, he immediately consented.
Then the snake-maiden went at once and brought that swift white horse, that looked like the concentrated rays of the moon, rushing forth into the extreme points of the earth to slay the darkness, and that splendid sword, equal in brightness to the starlight sky, appearing like a glance of the goddess of Fortune in search of a hero, and gave them both to Vinítamati. And he set out with the sword, after mounting that horse with the maiden, and thanks to its speed he reached that very lake Manasa. The lotus-clumps of the lake were shaken by the wind, and it seemed by the plaintive cries of its Brahmany ducks to forbid his approach
- ↑ * The male and female of this bird are represented by Hindu poets as separated at night.
- ↑ † The sword may be compared with that of Chandamahásena in the eleventh chapter, and with Morglay, Excalibar, Durandal, Gram Balmung, Chrysaor &c. (See Sir G. Cox's Mythology of tho Aryan nations, Vol. I, p. 308.) The same author has some remarks upon Pegasus and other magic horses in his IInd VoL p. 287 and ff. See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 256 and ff.
