Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/505

 hold of him. The king; exclaimed, " This is the gentleman that comes and eats the heads of the police at night," and laying hold of that Rákshasa by the hair, he prepared to slay him. Then the Rákshasa said " King, do not slay me under a false impression ! There is another creature in this neighbourhood that eats the heads of the police." The king said, " Tell me ! who is it?" and the Rákshasa continued, " There is in this neighhourhood an Asura of the name of Angáraka, whose home is in Pátála. He it is that eats your police-officers at the dead of night, O smiter of your foes. Moreover, prince, he carries off by force the daughters of kings from every quarter, and makes them attend on his daughter Angáravati. If you see him roaming about in the forest, slay him, and attain your object in that way." When the Rákshasa had said this, the king let him go, and returned to his palace. And one day he went out to hunt. And in the place where he was hunting he saw a monstrous boar, with eyes red with fury, looking like a piece of the mountain of Antimony fallen from heaven. The king said to himself, " Such a creature cannot be a real boar, I wonder whether it is the Asura Angáraka that has the power of disguising himself:" so he smote the boar with shafts. But the boar recked not of his shafts, and overturning his chariot, entered a wide opening in the earth. But the heroic king entered after him, and did not see that boar, but saw in front of him a splendid castle. And he sat down on the bank of a lake, and saw there a maiden with a hundred others attending on her, looking like an incarnation of Rati. She came up to him and asked him the reason of his coming there, and having conceived an affection for him, said to him, looking at him with tearful eyes; " Alas ! What a place have you entered ! That boar that you saw, was really a Daitya, Angáraka by name, of adamantine frame and vast strength. At present he has abandoned the form of a boar and is sleeping, as he is tired, but when the time for taking food comes, he will wake up and do you a mischief. And I, fair sir, am his daughter, Angáravatí by name; and fearing that some misfortune may befall you, I feel as if my life were in my throat."

When she said this to the king, he, remembering the boon that the goddess Chandí had given him, felt that he had now a good hope of accomplishing his object, and answered her, " If you have any love for me, do this which I tell you: when your father awakes, go and weep at his side, and when he asks you the reason, say, fair one, ' Father, if any one were to kill you in your reckless daring, what would become of me?' If you do this, you will ensure the happiness of both of us."

When the king said this to her, she went, bewildered with love, and sat down and wept at the side of her father who had woke up; and when he asked her the cause of her weeping, she told him how she was afraid