Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/592

 mine, the gamblers, together with the keeper of the gambling-house, and will give them to the Bráhman demons to eat." "When I heard that, I was pleased with the resolute spirit of that gambler, and gave him my shape and my power for a specified period of seven days. And by means of them he drew those men that had injured him into his power, one after another, and flung them into the pit, and fed the Bráhman demons on them during seven days. Then I took back from him my shape and power, and that gambler Dágineya, beside himself with fear, said to me, " I have not given those Bráhman demons any food this day, which is the eighth, so they will now come out and devour me. Tell me what I must do in this case, for you are my friend." When he said this, I, having got to like him from being thrown with him, said to him, " If this is the case, since you have made those two demons devour the gamblers, I for your sake will in turn eat the demons. So shew them to me, my friend." When I made the gambler this offer, he at once jumped at it, and took me to the pit where the demons were.

I, suspecting nothing, bent my head down to look into the pit, and while I was thus engaged, the gambler put his hand on the back of my neck, and pushed me into it. When I fell into it, the demons took me for some one sent for them to eat, and laid hold of me, and I had a wrestling-match with them. When they found that they could not overcome the might of my arms, they desisted from the struggle, and asked me who I was. Then I told them my own story from the point where my fortunes became involved with those of Dágineya,* and they made friends with me, and said to me, " Alas ! What a trick that evil-minded gambler has played you, and us two, and those other gamblers ! But what confidence can be placed in gamblers, who profess exclusively the science of cheating, whose minds are proof against friendship, pity, and gratitude for a benefit received? Recklessness and disregard of all ties are ingrained in the nature of gamblers; hear in illustration of this the story of Thințhakarála."

Story of Thințhakarála the bold gambler.:— Long ago there lived in this very city of Ujjayiní a ruffianly gambler, who was rightly named Thințhakarála. † He lost perpetually, and the others, who won in the game, used to give him every day a hundred cowries. With those he bought wheat-flour from the market, and in the evening made cakes by kneading them somewhere or other in a pot with water, and then he went and cooked them in the flame of a funeral pyre in the