Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/325

 does that wife belong? Resolve my doubt; the conditions of non-compliance are those which I mentioned before.

When king Trivikramasena was thus addressed by the Vetála on his shoulder, he gave him this answer: " I consider that the princess is the lawful wife of Śaśin, since she was openly given to him by her father in the lawful way. But Manahsvámin married her in an underhand way, like a thief, by the Gándharva rite; and a thief has no lawful title to the possessions of another."

When the Vetála heard this answer of the king's, he quickly left his shoulder, and went back to his own place, and the king hurried after him.

Oesterley tells us that in the Turkish Tútínámah (Rosen, II, p. 178,) a sorceress takes the place of Múladeva. She gives the young man a small seal in place of the pill or globule. He is then married to a son of the king's. Then the young man escapes with the princess, who in the day keeps the seal in her mouth and so appears as a man; then the sorceress goes in the form of a Bráhman to the king, who has to give her 10,000 gold pieces as he cannot give back her daughter. The story is No. 23 in the Persian Tútínámah, Iken, p. 97. Oesterley refers also to the story in the 7th Chapter of the Kathá Sarit Ságara; (Oesterley's Baital Pachisi, pages 203-205). The tale in one way resembles the Greek fable of Cæneus, and also that of Tiresias. The story of Ipbis and lanthe is perhaps still more apposite. According to Sir Thomas Brown, (Vulgar Errors, Book III, ch. 17) hares are supposed by some to be both male and female. He mentions Tiresias and Empedocles as instances of " transexion."

Then king Trivikramasena went back to the aśoka-tree, and again took the Vetála from it, and set out with him on his shoulder; and as he was returning from the tree, the Vetála once more said to him, " Listen, king, I will tell you a noble story." Story of Jímutaváhana.* :—There is in this earth a great mountain named Himavat, where all jewels are found, which is the origin of both Gaurí and Gangá, the two goddesses dear to Śiva. Even heroes cannot reach its top; † it towers