Page:Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit.djvu/47

 are in all the towns of Europe, who keep the materials in stock for making medicines. A doctor just said to his patient, “you must take the juice of this or that plant”; and the suffering person had to go into the fields or woods to find the plant or else to send a servant to do so.

When the king heard that the doctor had ordered Matri-Datta to take the juice of the nagaballa plant, he cried “No more doctors need come to see me!” and after sending away the one who had told him what he wanted to know, he gave orders that Matri- Datta should be sent for at once.

CHAPTER VIII and suffering though he was, Matri-Datta did not dare disobey the king: so he came at once. As soon as he appeared, Prasnajit asked him how he was, and said he was sorry to have to make him leave his home when he was ill, but the matter on which he wished to see him was of very great importance. Then he suddenly added: “When your doctor ordered you to take the juice of the nagaballa plant whom did you send to find it?”

To this Matri-Datta replied trembling with fear: “My servant, O king, sought it in the forest; and having found it, brought it to me.”

“Go back and send that servant to me