On looking about him, the king perceived that the sprite was not
present; so he went straight away back, and, reaching that place,
climbed up the tree, bound the corpse, and placing him on his shoulders,
set off. Then the sprite said, “O king! the second story is as
follows:--”
“On the bank of the Yamunã (Jamnã) is a city named Dharmmasthal, the
king of which is named Gunãdhip. Moreover, a Brahman named Kesava lives
there, who is in the habit of performing his devotions and religious
duties on the banks of the Jamnã; and his daughter’s name was
Madhumãvati. She was very beautiful. When she became marriageable,
her mother, father, and brother, were all three intent on getting her
married. It happened that while her father had gone one day, with one of
his supporters, * to a marriage ceremony somewhere, and her brother to
his teacher’s in the village, for instruction, in their absence a
Brahman’s son came to the house. Her mother, seeing the youth’s beauty.
and excellent qualities, said, ‘I will give my daughter in marriage to
thee.’ And there the Brahman had agreed to give his daughter to a young
Brahman; while his son had given his word to a Brahman at the place
where he had gone to study, that he would give him his sister.”
* Jafman, from the Sanskrit Yajamãna is a person who
institutes a sacrifice, and pays for it. In a village where
there is a hereditary priest, the priest’s fees are paid by
the villagers (who constitute his jajmãn), and that whether
they choose to employ his services, or those of any other
priest. I object, therefore, to the meaning of “employer” as
being inexact, and to that of “customer” as being both
inexact and inelegant.
“After some days those two (i.e., the father and son) arrived with the
two youths, and here (at home) the third youth was stopping from the
first (awaiting them). One’s name was Tribikram, the other’s Bãman; the
third’s Madhusüdan; they were all on a par in point of good looks, moral
excellence, learning, and age. On seeing them, the Brahman began to
reflect thus, ‘One girl, and three suitors-elect! To whom shall I give
her, to whom not? And we have all three given our words to the three of
them: this is a strange piece of business that has happened! What shall
I do?’”
“He was sitting reflecting thus when in the meantime a snake bit the
girl, (and) she died. On hearing the news, her father, brother, and
the three youths, all five ran off in a body, and, after much toil
and trouble, brought all the snake-charmers, conjurers, and as many
practisers of magic arts for the purpose of expelling poison, as there
were (in the place). They all looked at the girl, and said she could
not be restored to life. The first said, ‘A man bitten by a snake on the
fifth, sixth, eighth, nine, or fourteenth day of the lunar month does
not survive.’ A second said, ‘One who has been bitten on a Saturday or
Tuesday, too, does not live.’ A third said, ‘Poison which has ascended
(into the system) when the moon is in the fourth, tenth, ninth,
sixteenth, nineteenth, and third asterisms of its path, does not
descend.’ * A fourth said, ‘One bitten in any of the following members,
viz., an organ of sense, the lips, the cheek, the neck, the abdomen, or
the navel, cannot escape.’”
* Any one who has seen the conjurers at work will know that
the operator always pretends to work the poison ont of the
system downwards, from the head towards the feet; hence the
expressions “ascending” and “descend” in connection with the
action of the poison.
“A fifth said, ‘In this instance even Brahma could not restore to life;
of what account are we then? Do you now perform her funeral rites; we
are off.’ Having said this, the conjurers went away; and the Brahman
took the corpse away, burnt it in the place for such rites, and went
off.”
“Now, after he had gone, those three youths acted in this wise:--One of
them picked up and fastened together her charred bones, and becoming a
religious mendicant, went forth to wander from forest to forest.
“The second, having tied her ashes up in a bundle, built a hut, and began
living on that very spot. The third became a devotee, furnished himself
with a wallet and neck-band, and set out to wander from land to land.
One day he went to a Brahman’s house in some country for food. The
resident * Brahman, on seeing him, began to say. ‘Very well; eat food
here to-day.’ On hearing this he sat down there. When the food was
ready, he had his hands and feet washed, and took and seated him in the
square place where the food was cooked, and himself sat down near him;
and his wife came to serve out the food. Some was served, some remained,
when her youngest son cried, and seized the border of his mother’s
mantle. She was trying to make him let it go, but he would not; and as
much as she tried to soothe him, he but cried the more, and became more
obstinate. On this the Brahman’s wife, becoming angry, took up the
child and threw him into the burning fire-place; the child was burnt to
ashes.”
* The word grihasti means properly a Brahman who is settled
in a house and performs the duties of the father of a
family.
“When the Brahman (the guest) witnessed this occurrence, he rose up
without eating anything. Then the master of the house said, ‘Why do you
not eat?’ He replied, ‘How can one partake of food in his house where
a diabolical deed has been perpetrated.’ On hearing this the householder
arose, and going to another part of his house, brought a book on the
science of restoring to life, took a charm from it, muttered some
prayers, and brought his son back to life. Then that Brahman, seeing
this wonder, began to ponder in his mind, ‘If this book were to fall
into my hands I, too, could restore my beloved to life.’ Having made up
his mind on this point, he ate the food, and tarried there. To be brief,
when night came on, after some time all partook of supper, and went and
lay down in their respective places, and were chatting together on one
subject or another. The Brahman, too, went and lay down apart, but kept
lying awake. When he thought that the night was far advanced, and all
had gone to sleep, he arose quietly, softly entered his (host’s) room,
took that book, and decamped; and in the course of several days he
arrived at the place where he (the father) had burnt the Brahman’s
daughter. He found the other two Brahmans there also, sitting and
conversing together. Those two also, recognising him, approached and met
him, and inquired, saying, ‘Brother! you have wandered from land to
land, it is true; but, tell us, have you learned any science as well?’
“He said, ‘I have learned the science of restoring the dead to life.’ As
soon as they heard this, they said, ‘If you have learned this, restore
our beloved to life.’ He replied, ‘Make a heap of the ashes and bones,
and I will restore it to life.’ They gathered together the ashes and
bones. Then he took a charm out of the book, and muttered prayers; the
girl rose up alive. Thereupon Cupid so blinded the three of them that
they began wrangling among themselves.”
Having related so much of the tale, the sprite said, “O king! tell me
this; to whom did that woman (by right) belong? (or, whose wife was
she?).” King Vikram replied, “To him who built the hut and stayed
there.” The sprite said, “If he had not preserved the bones, how could
she have been restored to life? And if the other had not returned
instructed in the science, how could he have restored her to life?” The
king made answer thus:--“He who had preserved her bones, occupied the
place of her son; and he who gave her life, became, as it were, her
father; hence, she became the wife of him who built a hut and remained
there with the ashes.” On hearing this answer, the sprite went again
and suspended himself on that tree. The king, too, arrived close at his
heels, and, having bound him, and placed him on his shoulder, started
off with him again.