Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/167

 he saw five wild looking men with long hair, who aroused his wonder. Then the five men came and respectfully addressed him as follows:

" We were born in the city of Káśi as Bráhmans who lived by keeping cows. And during a famine we came from that country, where the grass was scorched by drought, with our cows, to this wood which abounds in grass. And here we found an elixir in the form of the water of a tank, continually flavoured with the three kinds of fruits* that drop from the trees growing on its bank. And five hundred years have passed over our heads in this uninhabited wood, while we have been drinking this water and the milk of cows. It is thus, prince, that we have become such as you see, and now destiny has sent you to us as guests, so come to our hermitage." When thus invited by them, Mrigánkadatta went with them to their hermitage, taking his companions with him, and spent the day there living on milk. And he set out from it in the morning, and in course of time he reached the country of the Kirátas, seeing other wonderful sights on the w.iy. And he sent on Śrutadhi to inform his friend Śaktirakshita, the king t)f the Kiratas, of his arrival. When the sovereign of the Kirátas heard of it, he went to meet Mrigánkadatta with great courtesy, and conducted him with his ministers into his city Mrigánkadatta told him the cause of his arrival, and remained there for some days, being entertained by him. And the prince arranged that Śaktirakshita should be ready to assist him in his undertaking when the proper time came, and then he set out, on an auspicious day, for Ujjayiní, with his eleven companions, having been captivated by Śaśánkavati.

And as he went along, he reached an uninhabited forest and saw standing under a tree an ascetic, with ashes on his body, a deer-skin, and matted hair. So he went up to him, with his followers, and said to him; " Reverend sir, why do you live alone in this forest in which there is no hermitage?" Then the hermit answered him, "I am a pupil of the great sage named Śuddhakírti and I know innumerable spells. Once on a time I got hold of a certain Kshatriya boy with auspicious marks, and I exerted all my diligence to cause him to be possessed, while alive, by a spirit, and, when the boy was possessed, I questioned him, and he told me of many places for potent drugs and liquors, and then said this; ' There is in this Vindhya forest in the northern quarter a solitary aśoka-tree, and under it there is a great palace of a snake-king. † In the middle of the