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the fire of grief at separation from him, and I was swallowed by this fish; and now Destiny has brought me here."
While she was saying this, a Bráhman named Yajnasvámin rushed out of the crowd, and embraced her and said this to her, " Come, come with me, niece; you are the daughter of my sister; for I am Yajnasvámin, your mother's own brother" When Sumanas heard that, she uncovered her face and looked at him, and recognising her uncle, she embraced his feet weeping. But after a moment she ceased weeping, and said to him, " Do you give me fuel, for, as I am separated from my husband, I have no other refuge but the fire."
Her uncle did all he could to dissuade her, but she would not abandon her intention ; and then Kandarpa, having thus seen her real feelings tested, came up to her. When the wise Sumanas saw him near her, she recognised him, and fell weeping at his feet. And when the discreet woman was questioned by the people, and by that uncle of hers, she answered, " He is my husband." Then all were delighted, and Yajnasvámin took her husband Kandarpa to his house, together with Keśața. There they told their adventures, and Yajnaśvamin and his family lovingly waited on them with many hospitable attentions.
After some days had passed, Keśața said to Kandarpa, " You have gained all you want by recovering your longed-for wife; so now go with her to Ratnapura your own city ; but, as I have not attained the object of my desire, I will not return to my own country: I, my friend, will make a pilgrimage to all the holy bathing-places and so destroy my body." When Yajnaśvamin, in Bhímapura, heard this, he said to Keśața, " Why do you utter this despondent speech? As long as people are alive, there is nothing they cannot get: in proof of this hear the story of Kusumáyudha, which I am about to tell you."
Story of Kusumáyudha and Kamalalochaná.:— There was in a town named Chandrapura a Bráhman named Devaśvamin: he had a very beautiful daughter named Kamalalochaná. And he had a young Bráhman pupil named Kusumáyudha; and that pupil and his daughter loved one another well.
One day her father made up his mind to give her to another suitor, and at once that maiden sent by her confidante the following message to Kusumáyudha, " Though 1 have long ago fixed my heart on you for a husband, my father has promised to give me to another, so devise a scheme for carrying me off hence." So Kusumáyudha made an arrangement to carry her off, and he placed outside her house at night a servant with a mule for that purpose. So she quietly went out and mounted the mule, but that servant did not take her to his master; he took her somewhere else, to make her his own.
