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shoulder, he began to dance.*[1] And as he was dancing, the inexhaustible pitcher slipped from his shoulder, as his feet tripped with over-abundance of intoxication, and falling on the ground, was broken in pieces. And immediately it was mended again, and reverted to its original possessors, but Śubhadatta was reduced to his former condition, and filled with despondency.
" So you see that those unfortunate persons, whose intellects are destroyed with the vice of drinking, and other vices, and with infatuation, cannot keep wealth, even when they have obtained it." When the king of Vatsa had heard this amusing story of the inexhaustible pitcher, he rose up, and bathed, and set about the other duties of the day. And Naraváhanadatta also bathed, and took food with his father, and at the end of the day went with his friends to his own house. There he went to bed at night, but could not sleep, and Marubhúti said to him in the hearing of the ministers: " I know, it is love of a slave-girl that prevents your summoning your wives, and you have not summoned the slave-girl, so you cannot sleep. But why in spite of your better knowledge do you still fall in love with hetœrœ? For they have no goodness of character; in proof that they have not, hear the following tale:"
Story of the merchant's son, the hetœra and the wonderful ape Ála.:— There is in this Country a great and the opulent city named Chitrakúta. In it there lived a merchant named Ratnavarman, a prince among the wealthy. He had one son born to him by propitiating Śiva, and he gave that son the name of Íśvaravarman. After he had studied the sciences, his father the rich merchant, who had no other son but him, seeing that he was on the verge of manhood, said to himself : " Providence has created in this world that fair and frail type of woman, the hetœra,to steal the wealth and life of rich young men blinded with the intoxication of youth. So I will entrust my son to some kuțținí, in order that he may learn the tricks of the hetœraand not be deceived by them." Having thus reflected, he went with his son Íśvaravarman to the house of a certain kuțținí, whose name was Yamajihvá. There he saw that kuțținí, with massive jaw, and long teeth, and snub nose, instructing her daughter in the following words " Every one is valued on account of wealth, a hetœra especially ; and hetœrœ who fall in love do not obtain wealth, therefore a hetœra should abandon passion. For rosy red, love's proper hue, is the harbinger of eclipse to the hetœra as to
- ↑ * In Bartach's Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 41, a man possesses himself of an inexhaustible beer-can. But as soon as he told how he got it, the beer disappeared. Another (page 84) spoils the charm by looking into the vessel, at the bottom of which he sees a loathsome toad. This ho had been expressly forbidden to do.
