469
Then Agnidatta said in astonishment to Gunaśsrman, " You are all knowing, but these moles of hers portend good fortune to us. For wives generally have many rivals when the husband is fortunate, a poor*[1] man would find it difficult to support one, much more to support many." When Gunaśarman heard this, he answered him— " It is as you say; how could ill fortune befall a shape with such auspicious marks?" When he had .said this, Agnidatta took occasion to ask him concerning the meaning of moles and other marks; and he told him what moles and other marks portended on every single limb, both in men and women. †[2]
Then Sundarí, the moment she beheld Gunaśarman, longed eagerly to drink him in with her eyes, as the female partridge longs to drink the moon. Then Agnidatta said in private to Gunaśarman, " Illustrious one, I give you this my daughter Sundarí. Do not go to a foreign land, remain at ease in my house." When Gunaśarman heard this speech of his, he said to him— " True, I should be happy enough to do so, but as I have been on a false charge scorched with the fire of the king's contempt, it does not please me. A lovely woman, the rising of the moon, and the fifth note of a lute, these delight the happy but afflict the miserable. And a wife, who falls in love of her own accord with a man, is sure to be chaste, but if she is given away by her father against her will, she will be like Aśokavatí. Moreover, the city of Ujjayiní is near to this place, so the king may perhaps hear of my whereabouts and oppress me. So I will wander round to holy places, and will wash off the stains of sin contracted ever since my birth, and will abandon this body, then I shall be at rest." When he said this, Agnidatta answered him, smiling, " If even you show so much infatuation, what are we to expect from others? What annoyance can you, a man of pure character, derive from the contempt of a fool?
- ↑ * Daridryo is probably a misprint for daridro.
- ↑ † Cp. Thiselton Dyer's English Folk-lore, p. 280. He remarks: " A belief was formerly current throughout the country in the significance of moles on the human body. When one of these appeared on the upper side of the right temple above the eye, to a woman it signified good and happy fortune by marriage. This superstition was especially believed in in Nottinghamshire, as we learn from the following lines, which, says Mr. Briscoe, (author of ' Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictiona') were often repeated by a poor girl at Bunny:—
- ' I have a mole above my right eye,
- And shall be a lady before I die.
- As things may happen, as things may fall
- Who knows but that I may be Lady of Bunny Hall?'
