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me all the usual civilities, made me sit down on a couch, and treated me with the attentions of a cunning hetœra. Then I passed the night with that wife of mine, who was the most beautiful woman of the world, and I became so attached to her, that I could not leave the house in which she was staying.
She too was devoted to me, and never left my side, until, after some days, the blackness of the tips of her breasts shewed that she was pregnant. Then the clever woman forged a letter, and shewed it to me, saying, " The king my sovereign has sent me a letter: read it." Then I opened the letter and read as follows, " The august sovereign of the fortunate Kámarúpa, Mánasinha, sends thence this order to Sumangalá, ' Why do you remain so long absent ? Return quickly, dismissing your desire of seeing foreign countries. ' "
When I had read this letter, she said to me with affected grief, " I must depart ; do not be angry with me; I am subject to the will of others." Having made this false excuse, she returned to her own city Páțaliputra: but I did not follow her, though deeply in love with her, as I supposed that she was not her own mistress.
And when she was in Páțaliputra, she gave birth in due time to a son. And that boy grew up and learned all the accomplishments. And when he was twelve years old, that boy in a childish freak happened to strike with a creeper a fisherman's son of the same age. When the fisherman's son was beaten, he flew in a passion and said, " You beat me, though nobody knows who your father is; for your mother roamed about in foreign lands, and you were born to her by some husband or other."*[1]
When this was said to the boy, he was put to shame; so he went and said to his mother, "Mother, who and where is my father? Tell me ! ' Then his mother, the daughter of the Bráhman, reflected a moment, and said to him, " Your father's name is Múladeva: he deserted me, and went to Ujjayiní." After she had said this, she told him her whole story from the beginning. Then the boy said to her, " Mother, then I will go and bring my father back a captive; I will make your promise good."
Having said this to his mother, and having been told by her how to recognise me, the boy set out thence, and reached this city of Ujjayiní. And he came and saw me playing dice in the gambling-hall, making certain of my identity from the description his mother had given him, and he conquered in play all who were there. And he astonished every one there by shewing such remarkable cunning, though he was a mere child. Then he gave away to the needy all the money he had won at play. And at night he artfully came and stole my bedstend from under me, letting me gently down on a heap of cotton, while I was asleep. So when I woke up,
- ↑ * Cp. Ralston's Tibetan Tales, p. 89.
