Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/113

 to the house of my father-in-law; and I am taking for him this complimentary present of sweetmeats. But you have now become my friends by speaking to me, so I will take only half of the sweetmeats there; take the other half for yourselves." Saying this, he gave a sweetmeat to each of the guards. And they received them, laughing, and all of them partook of them. Accordingly Ghata, having stupefied the guards with Dhattúra, at night brought fuel* and burnt the body of Karpara.

The next morning, after he had departed, the king hearing of it, removed those guards who had been stupefied, and placed others there, and said; " You must guard these bones, and you must arrest whoever attempts to take them away, and you must not accept food from any outsider." When the guards were thus instructed by the king, they remained on the lookout day and night, and Ghata heard of it. Then he, being acquainted with the operation of a bewildering charm granted him by Durga, made a wandering mendicant his friend, in order to make them repose confidence in him. And he went there with that wandering mendicant, who was muttering spells, and bewildered those guards, and recovered the bones of Karpara. And after throwing them into the Ganges, he came and related what he had done, and lived happily with the princess, accompanied by the mendicant. But the king, hearing that the bones had been carried off, and the men guarding them stupefied, thought that the whole exploit, beginning with the carrying off of his daughter, was the doing of a magician. And he had the following proclamation made in his city; " If that magician, who carried off my daughter, and performed the other exploits connected with that feat, will reveal himself, I will give him half my kingdom." When Ghata heard this, he wished to reveal himself, but the princess dissuaded him, saying, " Do not do so, you cannot repose any confidence in this king, who treacherously puts people to death." † Then, for fear that, if he remained there, the truth might come out, he set out for another country with the princess and the mendicant.

And on the way the princess said secretly to the mendicant, " The other one of these thieves seduced me, and this one made me fall from my high rank. The other thief is dead, as for this, Ghata, I do not love him, you are my darling." When she had said this, she united herself to the mendicant, and killed Ghata in the dead of night. Then, as she was journeying along with that mendicant, the wicked woman fell in with a merchant on the way, whose name was Dhanadeva. So she said, " Who is this skull-