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he would pass the night there. Then he dismounted from his horse, and
gave it grass and water, and rested on the sandy bank of the lake, and drank water, and cooled himself in tho breeze; and then he lay down with that hermit's daughter, under that tree, on a bed of flowers. And at that time the moon arose, and removing the mantle of darkness, seized and kissed the glowing face of the East. And all the quarters of the heaven were free from darkness, and gleamed, embraced and illuminated by the rays of the moon, so that there was no room for pride.*[1] And so the beams of the moon entered the insterstices in the bovver of creepers, and lit up the space round the foot of the tree like jewel-lamps.
And the next morning the king left his bed, and after the morning prayer, he made ready to set out with his wife to rejoin his army. And then the moon, that had in the night robbed the cheeks of the lotuses of their beauty, lost its brightness, and slunk, as if in fear, to the hollows of the western mountain; for the sun, fiery-red with anger, as if desirous to slay it, lifted his curved sword in his outstretched fingers.†[2] At that moment there suddenly came there a Bráhman demon, black as soot, with hair yellow as the lightning, looking like a thunder -cloud. He had made himself a wreath of entrails; he wore a sacrificial cord of hair; he was gnawing the flesh of a man's head, and. drinking blood out of a skull. The monster, terrible with projecting tusks, uttered a horrible loud laugh, and vomiting fire with rage, menaced the king in tho following words, " Villain ! know that I am a Bráhman demon, Jválámukha by name, and this aśvattha-tree my dwelling is not trespassed upon even by gods, but thou hast presumed to occupy and enjoy it with thy wife. So receive from me, returned from my nightly wanderings, the fruit of thy presumption. I, even I, wicked one, will tear out and devour the heart of thee, whose mind love has overpowered, aye, and I will drink thy blood."
When the king heard this dreadful threat, and saw that his wife was terrified, knowing that the monster was invulnerable, he humbly said to him in his terror, " Pardon the sin which I have ignorantly committed against you, for I am a guest come to this your hermitage, imploring your protection. And I will give you what you desire, by bringing a human victim, whose flesh will glut your appetite; so be appeased, and dismiss your anger." "When the Bráhman demon heard this speech of the king's, he was pacified, and said to himself, " So be it ! That will do." Then he said to the king, " I will overlook the insult you have offered me on the following conditions. You must find a Bráhman boy, who, though seven years old and intelligent, is of so noble a character that he is ready to offer
