Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/336

 Having told this very noble and interesting tale, the Vetála proceeded to put another question to king Trivikramasena, " So tell me, which of those two was superior in fortitude, Śankhachúda or Jímútaváhana? And the conditions are those which I mentioned before." When king Trivikramasena heard this question of the Vetála's, he broke his silence, through fear of a curse, and said with calm composure, " This behaviour was nowise astonishing in Jímútaváhana, as he had acquired this virtue in many births; but Śankhachúda really deserves praise, for that, after he had escaped death, he ran after his enemy Garuda, who had found another self-offered victim* and had gone a long distance with him, and importunately offered him his body."

When that excellent Vetála had heard this speech of that king's, he left his shoulder and again went to his own place, and the king again pursued him as before.

Oesterley remarks that the substance of this story is told, in the eleventh chapter of the Vikramacharitam, of king Vikramáditya. A Rákshasa carried off so many persons from the city of Pala that the inhabitants agreed to give him one human being every day. The king takes the place of one of these victims, and the Rákshasa is so much affected by it, that he promises not to demand any more victims. A similar contest in generosity is found in the 2nd Tale of the Siddhi-kür, Jülg, p. 60, but the end of the story is quite different. (Oesterley's Baitál Pachísí, pp. 205-207.) The story in the Siddhi-kür is probably the 5th Tale in Sagas from the Far East; " How the Serpent-gods were propitiated."

Then the brave king Trivikramasena went back once more to the aśoka-tree, and taking the Vetála from it, carried him off on his shoulder. And when he had set out, the Vetála said to him from his perch on his shoulder, " Listen, king; to cheer your toil, I will tell you the following tale."

Story of Unmádini.† :— There was a city of the name ‡ of Kanakapura situated on the bank of the Ganges, in which the bounds of virtue were never transgressed,