Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/367

 = . .] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 331 _ which she had created as an illusion to bewilder - the father and the son on the waters of the sea ;— . the thick array of lotuses blooming on all sides and - the mysteriously beautiful woman in the act of swal- lowing an elephant. Next came the pathetic interview between ype gun- father and son. ASSET imprisoned in a ee ee horrible dungeon. The prison house extended its inmate. two miles in length and was almost without any breadth, and solow that a child could not stand upright in it. The floor was covered with worms. Here in chains for twelve years with the coarsest of grain for food, the princely merchant Dhanapati had lain like an earth-worm. For these twelve years he had not shaved. So his beard fell down to his knees. His nails looked like the claws of a wild beast and his eyes were almost blind with cataract. The foot with which -he had kicked the ghat of Chandi was heavy with elephantiasis. By order of Crimanta the merchant was brought The father before him. Khullana had described his father to and the him before he left Ujani. The merchant, she said, had seven moles on the breast, and a black mark on the left side of his nose. He was tall, his eyes were large, and the grace of his person was like that of a god. Though so aged and afflicted with unsightly diseases, Grimanta was yet able to see instinctively that it was his father who stood before him in chains. He felt a_ satisfaction which brought tears of joy to his eyes. He had the chains removed at once. The matted locks were combed and cleansed. The barber was employed to shave the beard and cut the hair, and anoint the body with pertumed oil. Crimanta now asked Dhanapati