Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/169

 was at an end, Mrigánkadatta found himself roaming about in the wood without his ministers.

And, after two or three months had passed, the Bráhman Śrutadhi, who was looking for him, suddenly fell in with him. Mrigánkadatta received him kindly, and asked for news of his ministers, whereupon Śrutadhi fell at his feet weeping, and consoled him, and said to him, " I have not seen them, prince, but I know they will go to Ujjayiní, for that is the place we all have to go to." With these and similar speeches he urged the prince to go there, so Mrigánkadatta set out with him slowly for Ujjayiní.

And after he had journeyed a few days, he found his own minister Vimalabuddhi who suddenly came that way. W hen the minister saw him, he bowed before him with eyes filled with tears at seeing him, and the prince embraced him, and making him sit down, he asked him for tidings of the other ministers. Then "Vimalabuddhi said to that prince, who was so beloved by his servants, " I do not know, king, where each of them has gone in consequence of the curse of the snake. But hear how I know that you will find them again."

The adventures of Vimalabuddhi after he was separated from the prince.:— When the snake cursed me, I was carried far away by the curse, and wandered in the eastern part of the forest. And being fatigued, I was taken by a certain kind person to the hermitage of a certain hermit, named Brahmadandin. There my fatigue was removed by the fruits and water which the sage gave me, and, roaming away far from the hermitage, I saw a vast cave. I entered it out of curiosity, and I saw inside it a palace made of jewels, and I began to look into the palace through the lattice-windows. And lo ! there was in it a woman causing to revolve a wheel with bees, and those bees made some of them for a bull, and others for a donkey, both which creatures were standing there. And some drank the foam of milk sent forth by the bull, and others the foam of blood sent forth by the donkey, and became white and black, according to the colour of the two objects on which they settled; and then they all turned into spiders. And the spiders, which were of two different colours, made two different-coloured webs with their excrements. And one set of webs was hung on wholesome flowers, and the other on poisonous flowers. And the spiders, that were clinging to those webs as they pleased, were bitten by a great snake which came there, having two mouths, one white, and the other black. Then the woman put them in various pitchers, but they got out again, and began to occupy the same webs again respectively. Then those, that were on the webs attached to the poisonous flowers, began to cry out, owing to the violence of the poison. And thereupon the others, that were on the other webs, began to cry out also. But the noise interrupted the meditation of a certain merciful ascetic who was there, who discharged fire at the webs. Then the webs,