Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/367

 I said to myself; ' Fortunate is this man, who is thus at rest, having got rid of his burden of grief.' Such was the reflection that then occurred to me; so I determined to die: and I tried to hang myself by means of a rope fastened to the branch of a tree, I became unconscious, but my breath did not leave my body; and while I was in this state, the rope broke, and I fell to. the earth. And as soon as I recovered consciousness, I saw that some compassionate man was fanning me with his garment. He said to me, ' Friend, say, why do you allow yourself to be thus afflicted, though you are wise? For joy springs from good deeds, and pain from evil deeds, these are their only sources. If your agitation is due to pain, then perform good deeds; how can you be so foolish as to desire to incur the pains of hell by suicide?' With these words that man consoled me, and then departed somewhere or other, but I have come here, having abandoned my design of committing suicide. So, you see that, if Destiny is adverse, it is not even possible to die. Now I intend to go to some holy water, and there consume my body with austerities, in order that I may never again endure the misery of poverty."

When the eldest brother said this, his younger brothers said to him, " Sir, why are you, though wise, afflicted with pain merely because you are poor? Do you not know that riches pass away like an autumn cloud. Who can ever count on retaining Fortune or a fickle woman, though he carry them off and guard them carefully, for both are insincere in their affection and secretly hostile to their possessor ? So a wise man must acquire by vigorous exertion some eminent accomplishment, which will enable him frequently to bind* and lead home by force riches which are like bounding deer." When the eldest brother was addressed in this language by his brothers, he at once recovered his self-control, and said, " What accomplishment of this kind should we acquire?" Then they all considered and said to one another, " We will search through the earth and acquire some magic power." So having adopted this resolution, and fixed upon a trysting-place at which to meet, the four separated, going east, west, north and south.

Aud in course of time they met again at the appointed spot, and asked one another what each had learned. Then one of them said, " I have learned this magic secret; if I find a bit of a bone of any animal, I can immediately produce on it the flesh of that animal." When the second heard this speech of his brother's, he said, " When the flesh of any animal has been superinduced upon a piece of bone, I know how to produce the skin and hair appropriate to that animal." Then the third said, " And when the hair and flesh and skin have been produced, I am able to create the limbs of the animal to which the bone belonged." And the fourth said,