Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/381

 melted with the heat of the sun. It was so broad that it filled the whole horizon, and it looked like a jewel-mirror made by the Fortune of the three worlds, in order to hehold in it the reflection of herself. That lake resembled the Mahábhárata, for in it the Dhaátaráshtras* were making a disturbance, and many Arjuna trees were reflected; † and it was refreshing and sweet to the taste ; it was like the churned sea of doom, for its precious fluid was drunk by the blue-necked jays that assembled near it,‡ and Vishnu might have resorted to it to find the goddess of Beauty: § it resembled an earthly Pátála, for its profound cool depths were never reached by the rays of the sun, and it was an unfailing receptacle of lotuses. ||

And on the western shore of that lake the prince and his ministers saw a great and wonderful tree. Its numerous far-reaching boughs, agitated by the wind, appeared like arms, and the cloud-stream that clung to its head was like the Ganges, so that it resembled Śiva dancing. With its lofty top, that pierced the sky, it seemed to be standing erect out of curiosity to see the beauty of the garden Nandana. It was adorned with fruit of heavenly flavour, that clung to its branches, and so it looked like the wishing-tree of heaven, with goblets of nectar suspended on it by the gods. It waved its shoots like finger-tips, and seemed with the voices of its birds to say again and again, " Let no one question me in any way !"

While prince Mrigánkadatta was looking at that tree, his ministers, worn out with hunger and thirst, ran towards it, and the moment they saw those fruits on it, they climbed up to eat them, and immediately they lost their human form, and were all six suddenly turned into fruits. Then Mrigánkadatta was bewildered at not seeing those friends of his, and he called on every one of them there by name. But when they gave no answer, and could not be seen anywhere, the prince exclaimed in a voice agonized with despair, " Alas ! I am undone !" and fell on the ground in a swoon. And the Bráhman Śrutadhi, who had not climbed up the tree, was the only one left at his side.

So the Bráhman Śrutadhi at once said to him by way of consolation, " Why, my sovereign, do you lose your firmness, and despair, though you have learned wisdom? For it is the man, who is not distracted in calamity,