Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/377

 greatness of great ones consists in this very thing, that they swerve not from what they have engaged to do, even though their lives are in danger." With these words the mendicant, thinking he had gained his end, took the corpse down from the shoulder of that king. And he bathed it, and anointed it, and threw a garland round it, and placed it within that circle. And he smeared his limbs with ashes, and put on a sacrificial thread of hair, and clothed himself in the garments of the dead, and thus equipped he continued for a time in meditation. Then the mendicant summoned that mighty Vetála by the power of spells, and made him enter the corpse; and proceeded to worship him. He offered to him an argha of white human teeth in a skull by way of an argha- vessel; and he presented to him flowers and fragrant unguents; and he gratified him with the savoury reek of human eyes,* and made an offering to him of human flesh. And when he had finished his worship, he said to the king, who was at his side, " King, fall on the ground, and do obeisance with all your eight limbs to this high sovereign of spells who has appeared here, in order that this bestower of boons may grant you the accomplishment of your heart's desire."

When the king heard that, he called to mind the words of the Vetála, and said to the mendicant, " I do not know how to do it, reverend sir; do you shew me first, and then I will do exactly as you." Then the mendicant threw himself on the ground, to shew the king what he was to do, and then the king cut off his head with a stroke of his sword. And he tore and dragged † the lotus of his heart out of his inside, and offered his heart and head as two lotuses to that Vetála. Then the delighted hosts of goblins uttered shouts of applause on every side, and the Vetála said to the king from inside the corpse, " King, the sovereignty of the Vidyádharas, which this mendicant was aiming at, shall fall to your lot after you have finished the enjoyment of your earthly away. Since I have given you much annoyance, choose whatever boon you desire." When the Vetála said this, the king said to him, " Since you are pleased with me, every boon that I could desire is obtained; nevertheless, as your words cannot be uttered in vain, I crave this boon of you: may these first twenty-four questions and answers, charming with their various tales, and this conclusion, the twenty-fifth of the series, be all famous and honoured on the earth !" When the king made this request to the Vetála, the latter replied, " So be it ! and now listen, king; I am going to mention a peculiar excellence which it shall possess. This string of tales, consisting of the twenty-four first, and this final concluding tale, shall become, under the title of the Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire, famous and honoured on the earth, as conducing to prosperity ! Whosoever shall read