And he stood on the edge of the city wall, with his naked sword in his
hand. And he looked on this side and on that, and saw the turrets of the
city jutting out along the wall, like the huge black heads of elephants
of war advancing in a line. And behind him lay the city, covered over
with a pall of black that was edged and touched with silver points and
fringes; and before him the desert stretched away, smeared as it were
with ashes, under the light of the moon. And brave as he was, his heart
beat, just a very little, in expectation of what was coming. And he said
to himself: My father-in-law's dismissal was not very reassuring. But
where then is the danger, and from what quarter is it coming, and what
form will it take? For here is nothing whatever to fight with, except
the shadows cast by the moon. Or is this all merely a trick of the King
to test me, before which all my predecessors have ignominiously failed?
Yet no. For were it so, my wife would indeed be an actress[1] capable of
reducing Tumburu to the state of ashes.
[1] An actress and a dancer are in Sanskrit denoted by the
same word.
So as he stood, waiting, and smiling at his own thoughts, it happened
that that daughter of Kírttisena, whose jealousy of the King's daughter
had caused all the trouble in the King's city, came according to her
custom flying towards the city wall. For every night she came to see
whether there was a new suitor. And whenever she discovered one, she had
recourse to a Rákshasa that was bound to her by obligations, who came as
soon as thought of, and swallowed that unhappy suitor whole[2]. And now
for some time, no new suitor had appeared. So as she came flying in the
likeness of a bat, she looked towards the city wall, expecting to find
it empty. And she saw, instead, Aja, standing, leaning on his sword, and
smiling, on the very edge of the wall. And at the very first glance at
him, she was struck with stupor, and she fell that very moment so
violently in love with him[3] that she could hardly flap her wings, by
reason of the fierce agitation of her heart. So she alighted on the
wall, a little distance off, and remained watching him, hardly able to
breathe for emotion, in her own form[4], but surrounding herself with a
veil of invisibility to escape his observation. And after a while, she
drew a long breath, and murmured to herself: Ha! this is a suitor
indeed, very different from all the others; and rather than a mere
mortal man, he resembles the son of Dewakí[5], with Rádhá caressing him
in the form of the moonlight that seems to cling affectionately to his
glorious limbs. Ha! he looks like the tutelary deity of the city come to
defy me, bringing the god of love to his aid in the form of his own
marvellous and incomparable beauty. Aye! and I feel that I am defeated
already, before the battle has so much as begun. And then, all at once,
a spasm of rage shot through her heart, and she turned pale. And she
exclaimed: Ah! but I am anticipated by this accursed King's daughter,
who will rob me of him, nay, has already done it, by her undeniable
hateful beauty, and her priority of claim, Alas! alas! O why did I not
see him first, before her abominable loveliness had made an impression
on his heart? For he is very young, and it must be, open to the spell of
beauty, and artless, and sincere. Ha! And suddenly, she started up, as
if an idea had rushed into her mind. And she stood for a moment,
thinking. And then she exclaimed, with a gesture of resolution: Yes, I
also am beautiful. Now, then, I will efface her image from his heart,
and replace it by my own. Now I will assault him, by all the power of my
charms[6], and we will see whether he will be proof against the glamour
of a beauty such as mine, multiplied and magnified by magic sorcery and
fierce determination. Aye! I will move heaven and earth to steal his
heart from the King's daughter, and turn Pátála[7] upside down, to make
him mine instead of hers. But if I fail? And again she turned deadly
pale. And after a while, a bitter smile curled over her lips. And she
said: If, if I fail; no, but I will not fail. But if I fail, then, I
will take another way.
[2] This method of disposing of objectionable suitors is
unfortunately not available in Europe. A great swallowing
capacity is a feature of the species Rákshasa. The "coming
as soon as thought of" (_dhyátágata_) is the Indian
equivalent of "rubbing the lamp" in the Arabian Nights.
[3] _Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?_ Every
Oriental would side with Shakspeare in this matter: love,
in the East, is not love, unless it comes like a flash of
lightning.
[4] This might be either that of a woman or a snake, for
the Nágas, to whom she belonged, waver between the two. The
Nága, it may be well to remind the reader, is a being
possessed of magic powers, especially that of _glamour_ or
_blearing the eye_, which appealed so powerfully to Spenser
and Sir Walter Scott.
[5] Krishna, whose colour, it is to be noted, is blue.
[6] In every sense of the word: _mohajálamáyá_ is stronger
than any English equivalent.
[7] The Underworld, the home of the snakes.