Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/99

 repelled by him in this way, she woke up her husband in her wrath, and, pointing to Yaśodhara, said with tears, " This scoundrel, while you were asleep, used violence to me." When her husband heard this, he rose up and drew his sword. Then the first and virtuous wife embraced his feet, and said, " Do not commit a crime on false evidence. Hear what I have to say. This wicked woman, when she saw him, rose up from your side, and eagerly importuned him, and the virtuous man did not consent to her proposal." When he repelled her, saying, * You are to me as a mother,' being unable to endure that, in her anger she woke you up, to make you kill him. And she has already before my eyes had a hundred lovers here on various nights, travellers who were reposing in this tree, and taken their rings from them. But I never told you, not wishing to give rise to unpleasantness. However, to-day I am necessarily compelled to reveal this secret, lest you should be guilty of a crime. Just look at the rings in the corner of her garment, if you do not believe it. And my wifely virtue is of such a kind that I cannot tell my husband what is untrue. In order that you may be convinced of my faithfulness, see this proof of my power." After saying this, she reduced that tree to ashes with an angry look, and restored it more magnificent than it was before with a look of kindness. When her husband saw that, he was at last satisfied and embraced her. And he sent that second wife, the adulteress, about her business, after cutting off her nose, and taking the rings from the corner of her garment.

He restrained his anger, when he beheld that student of the scripture, Yaśodhara, with his brother, and he said to him despondingly; " Out of jealousy I always keep these wives of mine in my heart. But still I have not been able to keep safe this wicked woman. Who can arrest the lightning? Who can guard a disloyal woman? As for a chaste woman, she is guarded by her own modesty alone, and being guarded by it, she guards* her husband in both worlds, as I have to-day been guarded by this woman, whose patience is more admirable even than her power of cursing. By her kindness I have got rid of an unfaithful wife, and avoided the awful crime of killing a virtuous Bráhman." When he had said this, he made Yaśodhara sit down, and said to him, " Tell me whence you come and whither you are going." Then Yaśodhara told him his history, and having gained his confidence, said to him out of curiosity, " Noble sir, if it is not a secret, tell me now, who you are, and why, though you possess such luxury, you dwell in the water." When the man who lived in the water heard this, he said, " Hear ! I will tell you." And he began to tell his history in the following words.