Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/587

 youth. And he made her sit on his lap, and shewing her, said to me, ' I offer this girl to your master, receive her." And when I saw that princess, I was astonished at her beauty, and I said joyfully, " I accept this maiden on behalf of my sovereign," and I thought to myself, " Well, the Creator is never tired of producing marvels, since even after creating Tilottamá, he has produced this far superior beauty."

Then, having been honoured by that king, I set forth from that island, with this ambassador of his, Dhavalasena. So we embarked on a ship, and as we were sailing along in it, through the sea, we suddenly saw a great sandbank in the middle of the ocean. And on it we saw two maidens of singular beauty; one had a body as dark as priyangu, the other gleamed white like the moon, and they both looked more splendid from having put on dresses and ornaments suited to their respective hues. They made a sound like the clashing of cymbals with their bracelets adorned with splendid gems, and they were making a young toy-deer, which, though of gold and studded with jewels to represent spots, possessed life, dance in front of them.* When we saw this, we were astonished and we said to one another, " What can this wonder mean ? Is it a dream, magic, or delusion? Who would ever expect to see a sandbank suddenly start up in the middle of the ocean, or such maidens upon it? And who would ever have thought of seeing such a thing as this living golden deer studded with jewels, which they possess? Such things are not usually found together,"

While" we were saying this to one another, king, in the greatest astonishment, a wind suddenly began to blow, tossing up the sea. That wind broke up our ship, which was resting on the surging waves, and the people in it were whelmed in the sea, and the sea-monsters began to devour them. But those two maidens came and supported both of us in their arms, and lifted us up and carried us to the sandbank, so that we escaped the jaws of the sea-monsters. And then that bank began to be covered with waves, at which we were terrified, but those two ladies cheered us, and made us enter what seemed like the interior of a cave. There we began to look at a heavenly wood of various trees, and while we were looking at it, the sea disappeared, and the bank, and the young deer, and the maidens.

We wandered about there for a time, saying to ourselves, " What is this strange thing? It is assuredly some magic," And then we saw there a great lake, transparent, deep, and broad, like the heart of great men, looking like a material representation of Nirvana that allays the fire of desire. †