href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@48911@[email protected]#chap01fn18" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">18] is altogether fortunate. For it so happens that I have by me, just ready for him, a new just-opened flower-intoxicant in the form of a young woman, whose exasperating eyebrows alone, unless I am much mistaken, will shoot, in spite of his glorious brag, a poisoned shaft into his heart, and sticking there, will sting it, with such intolerable pain, as will hardly be assuaged by a very storm of secret kisses, rained on the flame of his desire, or dropped on his fainting soul, one by one, with snow-flake touch, of pity and compassion, from her dainty and reluctant lips.

[1] The word here used for indelible affection means also deep blue.

[2] i.e., the Himálaya mountain. This was, in a sense true: and yet, she prevaricated.

[3] This epithet refers to his story-telling abundance. Shiwa is credited with the invention of all the stories in literature.

[4] Pronounce to rhyme with "stunned." (As these names will constantly recur, I have, for the benefit of the English reader, cut them down, retaining only their core. At length, they are names of the moon and sun, meaning respectively the Friend of the Lotuses, and the Fierce fire of the Sun.)

[5] Notwithstanding the system of very early marriage, cases of this kind are common in the old stories: as is necessary: for in fairy tales, unmarried heroines and heroes are sine quibus non.

[6] This refers to a story in the Panchatantra, well known in Europe as the fable of the fox who had lost his tail.

[7] i.e., of virginity.

[8] i.e., the God of Love.

[9] v. the Kumára Sambhawa, for a full account of Párwati's wooing.

[10] Dusk and Dawn.

[11] The special duty of a king, according to the old Hindoo sages, is to hunger and thirst after earth, like Ovid's Eresichthon.

[12] The monsoon which travels N.E.

[13] One of the heroes in the Mahabhárata.

[14] The preceptor of the gods; as we should say, a Solon.

[15] i.e., Maheshwara.

[16] i.e., Spring. Káma and Madhu—Love and Spring—are sworn friends in Hindoo mythology: an obvious poetical allegory, like the ver and Venus of the old Romans.

[17] i.e., women.

[18] An astrological term, which in modern Marathi, well known to the god, means a marriage.

A Diplomatic Interview

I

And Maheshwara said: So then, on a day appointed, in the light half of the month of Chaitra,[1] King Chand and his retinue arrived at the capital of King Mitra, just as his ancestor the sun was rising over the hills on which it stood. And at the gates, Yogeshwara was waiting, barefooted, with an escort, to do him honour, and food and drink of every description, to refresh him. And he introduced himself by name and family, and said: O King, thy coming here is altogether fortunate. For see, the Lord of Day rises auspiciously on one side, as if to greet and welcome his descendant and rival on the other. And now my old eyes are as it were dazzled, by two rising suns. And Chand said: I marvel, that my very great grandfather has not long ago died, of sheer fatigue, being obliged to climb up here every day to reach thee, as I have now. For thy capital is one that deserves to be inhabited by birds, rather than by men, and now the world lies, as it seems, beneath us in the clouds.

And when they were sufficiently refreshed, Yogeshwara handed over King Chand's attendants to his own, and said: Maháráj, as for thee, I will myself be thy guide, for I have matters to say to thee in private, which, but for his age, our King would have been here to say to thee himself. And as he led the King away, Chand said to him: O Yogeshwara, though to-day I see thee for the very first time, fame has told me of thee much; and they say, that thou art a very mine of craft, with a soul as full of snares as is a hunter's net of holes. And now I am afraid of thee and of thy net.

And Yogeshwara laughed, and he said: King, those who transact the business of states, even for a very little while, make enemies: how much more one who like me has borne the burden of this kingdom on his shoulders all his life! And it is these enemies of mine,